University students

Part One: Reading (16pts)

             Read the text carefully, then do the following activities.

    Twenty years ago, many university students believed that once they had graduated, their education was complete. They would get a job and all they had to do was to work hard with the same employer until it was time to retire and rest after long years of work. Today, work isn’t like that. In the modern world, most young people must expect to change employers several times in their working lives. Many of them will possibly become self-employed, running their own businesses.

     This means that throughout people’s lives they will need to acquire new knowledge and skills from the time they leave full-time education until after they retire. This lifelong learning is necessary because the world of work is changing a lot faster than it used to. For example, nowadays employers often employ staff only on short-term contracts to complete a certain job. This keeps their costs down. Once the job is over, the employees have to look for another organization to employ them on other jobs.
    Aisha, who is married, has two teenage children. She has a BSc in Information Technology (IT) and she would like to go back to work when her children leave home. She wants to catch up with the latest developments in IT and wants to get a Master’s degree in the subject. She can’t leave her family and become a student at a university abroad. What can she do? The answer for Aisha is “distance learning”.  
      Aisha heard of an organization that offered distance learning to students all over the world. The teacher and student are in different places. She enrolled on one of its MSc courses and was delighted with the teaching methods. Aisha’s professors communicated regularly. In the next two years Aisha hopes to get her Master’s degree via using e-mail and video conferencing to get her degree.

A/ Comprehension: (7 pts)

1-Are there any comparative sentences in the second paragraph? If so,how many? (0.5)

2-Choose the right answer :  The text is about : (0.5)

a. Full-time education.     b. Information Technology.        c. Lifelong learning.

3- Are these sentences TRUE or FALSE?  Correct the false ones.       (1.5 pt)

a.   People won’t have the same job all their life. (….)          

b.   Employers save money by recruiting workers for a limited period time. (….)

c.   Aisha is single, and doesn’t want to continue her education. (….)

4- Answer the following questions according to the text :      (3pts)

   a.     What is “distance learning”?

b.    How does Aisha interact with her teachers? 

c.   Is « work » now the same as it used to be ? Why ?

5- What do the underlined words in the text refer to?     (1.5 pt)

a. they ( §1) :……………        b. She(§3):…………        c. the subject ( §3) :……………
B/ Text Exploration:(7pts)

1-  Find words in the text which their definitions are as follow :  (1pt)

a.To withdraw from office,business,or active life,usually because of age(§1)=…….  
b. Be a member of a course, college (§4)=…………………………...

2- Rewrite sentence (b) so that it means the same as sentence (a):    (4pts)

1/ a)  The school has organised three conferences.
    b) Three conferences…………………………………….
2/a)  Many educational projects were realized in our area.
   b)  Some people …………………………………………..
3/a)  They are giving him a distinction for all his work.
   b)  He ………………………………………………………
4/a)  Although the test was difficult, the students got very high marks.
   b)  In spite of …………………………………………………

3- Complete the following table:     (1pt)

Verbs	Nouns	Adjectives
To educate To fail	……………… ………………	……………… ……………...

4- Underline the stressed syllable and put a stress mark where appropriate:    (1pt)

Overcome -   Philosophy    -   Geological    -    Expensive

 Part II : Written expression.    (6pts)

Choose one of the following topic
Topic one : Use the notes below and write a paragraph on this topic :
How would you like to see schools in the future ?
-  rules / guide/ not confine
-  punishments/ not corporal/ matter to students.
- teachers/ understand/ be fair mood
- staff administer/ tolerant/ not severe
Topic two :
Write an essay stating the importance of education in our life.