Exam Card 3

 Reading 

 1. Read the newspaper opinion column and say in 2—3 sentences what it is about.

My Ideal School     

           My ideal secondary school is a safe haven. It shouldn’t be a place you hate going to, but a place you enjoy attending. I believe it should be social, as well as educational experience. A school should always have a soul… there should always be laughter ringing through the corridors. (Angela, 15, Moscow)

          My ideal school is a school quite unlike any school we’ve heard of. This school consists of a large library and basic recreational facilities. There are no classrooms. The school is built on the idea of active learning. No student is forced to learn. (Tanya, 14, Rome)

            School is the mould, which shapes our future. It’s where we spend most of our valuable time – childhood. Yet I know from firsthand experience that many aspects should be changed: the impersonal attitude of some teachers who do everything only for results, instead of creating happy moments and valuable life experience for young people. These young people are far from being an ‘empty pot’ who are ready to be filled with knowledge. They are simply locked boxes full of potential which should be discovered by caring and encouraging teachers. (Anna, 15, Riga)

               Schools may be getting good results but they are not helping the students as individuals. It seems to me that it’s the learner who should ask questions. Give us the freedom to ask questions and do help us to find answers. Don’t you see we learn more from our experience and when people trust and respect us? We learn from our mistakes as well. (Hero Joy, 14, Kent)

           I think differences make the world go around. Good teachers know it more than Maths rules. I think school must teach differences. And at the moment some schools are doing the opposite, trying to make everyone normal. (Kate, 13, London)

            Schools should develop creativity and dreams. When schools teach people not to seek knowledge on their own, people become passive. Everybody has the right to be free and choose what to be and what not to be, schools do not give that option, they have a ‘well organised’ systematic life for you, in which you have to fit. (Luis, 15, Boston)

a safe haven [ˈheɪvn] надёжное и безопасное место

a mould [məʊld] матрица, шаблон

2. One of the children says that school should have a soul. Find this extract and read it aloud.
3. What do the children want to change at school?
4. Why do the children want more freedom?

Listening

II. Listen to the conversation and answer the questions below.

1. What is wrong with the accommodation?
2. Why did the boy oversleep?
3. What agreement did he reach with the person on Reception?

Speaking

III. Let’s talk about the environment.