Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League University located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation (officially The President and Fellows of Harvard College) chartered in the country.
It was named after John Harvard, a young English clergyman from Southwark, Surrey, an alumnus of the University of Cambridge (after which Cambridge, Massachusetts is named), who bequeathed the College his library of four hundred books and £779 pounds sterling, which was half of his estate. The charter creating the corporation of Harvard College came in 1650. In the early years, the College trained many Puritan ministers. The college offered a classic academic course based on the English university model—many leaders in the colony had attended Cambridge University—but one consistent with the prevailing Puritan philosophy. The College was never affiliated with any particular denomination, but many of its earliest graduates went on to become clergymen in Congregational and Unitarian churches throughout New England.
Harvard has a friendly rivalry with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, which dates back to 1900 when a merger of the two schools was frequently discussed and at one point officially agreed upon (ultimately canceled by Massachusetts courts). Today, the two schools cooperate as much as they compete, with many joint conferences and programs, including the Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology, the Broad Institute, the Harvard-MIT Data Center and the Dibner Institute for the History of Science and Technology.
Harvard is governed by two boards, one of which is the President and Fellows of Harvard College, also known as the Harvard Corporation, founded in 1650, and the other is the Harvard Board of Overseers. The President of Harvard University is the day-to-day administrator of Harvard and is appointed by and responsible to the Harvard Corporation. There are 16,000 staff and faculty
The Harvard University Library System is centered in Widener Library in Harvard Yard and comprises over 80 individual libraries and over 15 million volumes. According to the American Library Association, this makes it the largest academic library in the United States and the second largest library in the country (after the Library of Congress). Harvard describes its library as the "largest academic library in the world".
Among the best-known graduates of Harvard University are American political leaders John Hancock, John Adams, John Quincy Adams, Theodore Roosevelt, Franklin Roosevelt, John F. Kennedy, George W. Bush, Al Gore, and Barack Obama, Canadian Prime Ministers Mackenzie King and Pierre Trudeau and etc.
Questions:
1. What was the initial name of the Harvard University?
2. What is the connection of Harvard University with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology?
3. How many libraries are there in the Harvard University?
4. What famous people graduated from the Harvard University?
Lesson 7.
Revision and development
Preliminary exercises
Do exercises from Macmillan English grammar in use.
Exercise 1. Translate into Russian. Explain the use (использование) of definite (определенных) and indefinite (неопределенных) articles:
1. Last week I met my friend. He was with a young girl. The girl was a student of our Academy. 2. This is a pencil. The pencil is red. 3. She is a teacher. She is our teacher of English. 4. It is a lake. The lake is deep. It's one of the deepest lakes in the world. 5. There are many flowers in your garden. The flowers are beautiful. 6. Did you write a plan? Give me your plan, please. Is this plan effective? 7. The Black Sea is in the South of Russia. 8. This is Mike. He works as an engineer. Mike is a highly qualified engineer. 9. There are some schools in our street. The schools are new. 10. Gagarin was the first cosmonaut of the world. 11. In summer the sky is blue and the sun shines brightly. 12. The Petrovs are very friendly. 13. This is Ann's book. I don't like such books. 14. Winter begins in December.
Exercise 2. Give missing degrees of comparison:
(the) biggest, longer, faster, (the) hardest, (the) heaviest, thinner, narrower, lower, (the) greatest, newer, colder, (the) hottest, (the) shortest, less, (the) worst, more.
Lesson 8
University course structure (I)
Grammar: Antonyms and synonyms
Антонимдер және синонимдер (Antonyms and synonyms)
There are many universities and institutes in our country. Our University is one of the most popular educational establishments in South Kazakhstan. Every year hundreds of applicants enter our University.
Our university operates on a “credit” system. There are two types of degree programmes. Under Bologna Process these programmes have now also been introduced in our country.
What is Bologna Process? To raise the international competitiveness of European Universities, the governments of 29 European countries met in the Italian city of Bologna in 1999 where they agreed to create a single European Higher Education Area by 2010.
This involves introducing comparable programmes and degrees at institutions in participating countries so that the range of studies offered throughout Europe is both transparent and compatible. The objectives are to increase student’s mobility, to facilitate the recognition of academic degrees abroad, and to encourage higher education institutions to compete for the "very best minds". A total of 46 countries have meanwhile signed up to the Bologna Process. Its core element is based on two cycles of academic study: Bachelor's programme (first degree) Master’s programme (second).