Knowledge

英國大使館文化教育處

Oxford and Cambridge are Britains oldest universities. They began over nine hundred years ago. They are two of the top centres for education in the world.

Many British politicians and writers went to Oxford. Cambridge produced some of the best scientists， like Charles Darwin and Isaac Newton. Both universities do very important research.

These institutions are different from other universities—they have separate colleges， where students live， sleep and work. Undergraduates go to lectures， but also discuss topics in small groups—tutorials. Recently， 90 percent of Oxford students said they were happy with their course.

Cambridge has some other famous students， for example， Francis Crick and James Watson， who discovered DNA. Oxford University educated Thomas Hobbes， the philosopher， and Tim Berners-Lee， creator of the worldwide web.

Oxford has 3，800 teachers in 70 departments doing all sorts of research. One institute is studying poverty in 12，000 children over 15 years. Geographers at Cambridge are coordinating climate data—they want to see how vegetation and diseases may change.

UK universities are becoming more international. Nearly twothirds of postgraduate students come from abroad—the USA， China， for example. Will you be a student at one of the UKs universities in the future？

Activity 1 What do you think these numbers mean？

a. the number of departments at Oxford University

b. the number of teachers at Oxford

c. the proportion of foreign postgraduate students in the UK

d. the proportion of students who are happy studying at Oxford

e. when Oxford University and Cambridge University began

Activity 2 Put the words and phrases in the correct order to make sentences.

1. and Newton at both studied Cambridge UniversityDarwin（.）

____________________________________________________________________________

2. colleges in live and Oxford students work（.）

____________________________________________________________________________

3. by Cambridge men discovered DNA was（.）

____________________________________________________________________________

4. research Some Oxford takes to complete years（.）

____________________________________________________________________________

5. and the USA China in Britain many students from There are（.）

____________________________________________________________________________

Activity 3 Fill in the gap with a suitable word from the text.

1. The teacher gave us a（n）_________ and we had to speak about it for five minutes.

2. I didnt go to the_________? yesterday. What was it about？

3. When I finish my degree， I want to continue and do a（n）_________? qualification.

4. How are you going to collect your _________?？

5. There are some interesting results here， but I think you need to do more_________? .

6. It was my first year at university， so I was only a（n）_________? .