The University Town

Date: 2015-10-07; view: 547.

CAMBRIDGE

1. Introduction

1.1 Read the text title and hypothesize what the text is about. Write down your hypothesis.

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1.2 What do you know concerning this issue? List your ideas in the table left column “I know”.

1.3 If you know answers to these questions write them down in the space given after each question.

1.4 Circle in the list the words and expressions you know. Write down their translation in the table and calculate the percentage of your lexical competence.

Today's Cambridge is very much a university town. The University has been an integral part of the city since the early 13th century when scholars fleeing from riots in Oxford settled in Cambridge and began teaching. In 1280 the first college was founded. Over the years the University has grown to include 29 colleges, and an academic community of more than 12,000 students. The city has its own ancient roots as a Roman settlement.

The town was revived with the rebuilding of the bridge over the River Cam during the 8th century. By the 10th century a flourishing market town had grown up in the wake of trade attracted by the bridge. The effects of the Renaissance were keenly felt in Cambridge, with changes being made to the curriculum. More subjects were admitted for study, and Cambridge became a centre for radical religious thought.

While the town continued to grow and flourish during the 17th and 18th centuries, no new colleges were founded, and little effort was made to develop theUniversity. All this changed with the revival of university education in the 19th century. New subjects were added to the curriculum, student numbers rose and the University erected new buildings for teaching and research. Cambridge was finally awarded the status of a city in 1951.