Английский язык. Александрова Г.А. - 90 стр.

duced for 16 year - olds. This examination assesses pupils on the work
they do in the 4 th and 5 th year at secondary school.
       Pupils who stay on into the sixth form or who go to a Sixth form
College (17 year -olds in the Lower Sixth and 18 year - olds in the Upper
Sixth) usually fall into two categories. Some pupils will be retaking GCS-
Es in order to get better grades. Others will study two or three subjects for
an «A» Level (Advanced Level) GCE (General Certificate of Education).
This is a highly specialised exam and is necessary for University entrance.
Since 1988 there has been a new level of exam: the «AS» (Advanced
Supplementary), which is worth half an «A» Level. This means that if
pupils wish to study more than two or three subjects in the sixth form they
can take a combination of «A» and «AS» Levels. In Scotland the exam
system is slightly different.

                                        Text 5
                                 The Universities
       Oxford and Cambridge Universities were founded in the 12 th and
13 th centuries, four Scottish universities were established in the 14 th and
15 th centuries and the rest of Britain’s 47 universities were set up in the
last 200 years. These bodies are diverse in their origin and traditions, sta-
tus and methods, but three groups can be distinguished at once. In order of
their origin they consist of, first, Oxford and Cambridge; secondly the
Scottish universities; and thirdly the English civic universities.
       The oldest and most famous universities in Great Britain are Ox-
ford and Cambridge. Oxford and Cambridge are almost identical, more
like two branches of the same university than like separate unconnected
institutions - which they in fact are. In the first place they both trace their
long history back to the same period. By the end of the 13 th century both
universities had already colleges in being - for example Balliol at Oxford
and Peterhouse at Cambridge. Their history from that time has been very
similar. Both retained the system of residential colleges when other medi-
eval universities abandoned it. Each college was, and still is, run by a
Master and a body of Fellows. They maintain its buildings repair, and add
to or demolish them; they arrange about the food and the college servants.
       They have always been universities for gentlemen; progressively

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