CAMBRIDGE

Date: 2015-10-07; view: 489.

Ex.2 Find the positive and negative statements given by the author about Oxford. Do you find them rather challenging?

Ex.3 Work in groups and discuss the following questions:

1.What facts about Oxford seemed new to you ?

2.What information was the most impressive?

3.Would you like to be taught in the same way?

The story of the university begins in 1209 when several hundred students and scholars arrived in the little town of Cambridge after having walked 60 miles from Oxford.

These students were all churchmen and had been studying in Oxford at that city's well-known schools. It was a hard life at Oxford for there was constant trouble, even fighting, between the townsfolk and the students. Then one day a student accidentally killed a man of the town. The Mayor arrested three other students who were innocent, and by the order of King John (who was quarrelling with the Church and knew that the dearth of three student-clergymen would displease it ) they were put to death by hanging. In protest, many students moved elsewhere, some coming to Cambridge; and so the new University began.

Of course there were no Colleges in those early days and student life was very different from what it is now. Students were of all ages and came from anywhere and everywhere. Those from the same part of the country tended to group themselves together and these groups , called “Nations”, often fought one another.

Gradually the idea of the College developed, and in 1284 Peterhouse, the oldest College in Cambridge, was founded.

Life in College was strict; students were forbidden to play games, to sing (except sacred music ), to hunt or fish or even to dance. Books were very scarce and all the lessons were in Latin which students were supposed to speak even among themselves.

In 1440 King Henry VI founded King's College, and other colleges followed.

Many great men studied at Cambridge, amongst them Bacon, Milton, Cromwell, Newton, Wordsworth, Byron and Tennyson.

Ex.4 Discuss the text answering the following questions:

1.How did the history of Cambridge start?

2.What are “Nations ?” Do our students have something like this?

3.What was the first college founded in Cambridge?

4Why was the college life very hard and strict for the students?

5 Is Cambridge one of the most prestigious universities in Britain?