Task 1. Read the text and say:
· What are the most prestigious universities in Great Britain?
· What is the most popular custom at Oxbridge?
· Who studied at Oxford and Cambridge?
The oldest and most prestigious universities in Great Britain are Oxford and Cambridge. They were founded towards the end of the twelfth century and are often called collectively Oxbridge to denote an elitarian education. Both universities are independent. Only very rich and aristocratic families can afford to send their sons and daughters to these universities because the fee for study is very high.
The academic year is divided into 3 eight-week terms. The tutorial system is one of the ways in which Oxford and Cambridge differ from all other English universities. Each student meets a tutor with whom he discusses his written work and whose advice he follows. Besides, the tutor acts as a parent to the student away from home. He helps in time of need and is an understanding friend to his pupils.
Oxford and Cambridge universities consist of a number of colleges. Each college has its name, its coat of arms. Each college is headed by a Master. Within the college one will normally find a chapel, a dining hall, a library, rooms for students, fellows and the Master, and also rooms for teaching purposes. Each college offers teaching in a wide range of subjects according to the chosen faculty: divinity, medicine, philosophy, law, music, natural sciences, economics, engineering, agriculture, commerce and education. The head of each faculty is the dean. After three years of study a student may proceed to a Bachelor’s Degree and later to the Degree of Master and Doctor.
Keeping to the customs of the past the students at Oxford and Cambridge wear long black gowns and students’ caps. Undergraduates try to get old gowns so that people would think that they have been at Oxford for years. Without his or her gown no student is allowed to call on a tutor, to have dinner in the college dining room or attend a lecture – where the gowns are rolled up and used as cushions.
Many great men studied at Oxford and Cambridge, among them Cromwell and Chamberlain, the statesmen, Bacon, the philosopher, Byron and Milton, the poets, Newton and Darwin, the scientists, John Galswothy, the writer, and Kapitsa, the famous Russian physicist.