University Life

Pre-listening Activities

a) Read through the sentences, trying to imagine which words would fit in the blanks. Then listen to a dictation of the full sentences, and write the missing words in the blanks.

1. The student body on a U.S. campus is diverse; one meets students of greatly different ages, from different racial and ______________, and from different __________________ levels.

2. Let's begin by talking about an ______________ student entering his or her year.

3. Foreign students often find U.S. students less well-prepared for college than they expected. The U.S. students are often not very __________________ in international matters or very _________________ about foreign countries.

4. To _______________ how the average U.S. university class might be different, it will be helpful to begin by discussing the _____________________.

5. ____________ dates of assignments, dates of exams, and the teacher's hours are usually all found on the course syllabus.

6. A major difference in graduate school is that some classes are conducted as _________________, without exams and quizzes. This is possible only with highly _____________ and _________________ students, of course.

b) How much do you know about the university life in the U.S? Write the answers to the questions, then after listening to the text compare your answers with information from the lecture.

1. How many classes do American university students have in one week?

2. Do grades depend on attendance?

3. Do students have exams in all the courses on the syllabus?

Notetaking Preparation

1. Deciphering Notes

Sometimes you may for one reason or another miss a lecture and have to ask a classmate to share his or her notes. If your classmate has taken good notes, you may be able to reconstruct much of the message of a lecture.

Imagine that you missed a lecture in which your professor discussed some basic differences between U.S. colleges and universities and those in foreign countries. You can use these notes to answer your teacher's questions. Work with a partner.

Educ. System in Coll. or Univ.

1. Kinds of courses

a. required (sometimes choice among some req. courses = alternatives)

b. elec.-- students choose

c. prerequisites -- req. before another course can be taken

2. Schedule

-- very flexible

--late afternoon/ even. courses (working stud.)

3. Classes

-- diff. people class to class

-- great variety of kinds of peop. (difficult for some young freshmen from small homogeneous h. schools, big change)

2. Answer in complete sentences.

a. What are prerequisites?

b. What is the difference between an alternative class and an elective class?

c. Why are the same classes sometimes offered both during the day and in the late afternoon or evening?

d. Why do incoming freshmen from small high schools sometimes suffer from a kind of culture shock?

X Listening

A. The lecture begins with an introduction about the diversity of the student body at a typical American university or college. Listen for the signals that help you recognise when the lecturer is about to change to another major subtopic. You'll listen to the lecture again.

B. Write down the main subtopics and as many of the relevant supporting details as possible.

C. Now it is a good time to check to see if you answered your Predictions questions about the lecture correctly.

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