I. Give the text the proper title.

II. Match the phrases from the text with their Russian variant.

to serve the humanity to consider as career to appreciate to be devoted to work to admit openly the most vital job rewarding job a real challenge to a character, abilities and talent a constant stream of decisions a unique individual to be genuinely interested to catalyze the burning desire to know

a. служить человечеству b. признавать открыто c. усиливать горячее стремление d. рассматривать как карьеру e. ценить f. быть неподдельно заинтересованным g. быть преданным работе h. жизненно важная работа i. почётная работа j. постоянный поток решений k. неповторимая индивидуальность l. настоящий вызов характеру, способностям и таланту

III.Answer the following questions:

1. Why do sometimes people think that there isn’t anything they don’t know about teaching?

2. Why is teaching considered the most vital job at all?

3. What does it mean “to be a good teacher”?

4. Explain the phrase “An ignorant teacher teaches ignorance, a fearful teacher teaches fear, a bored teacher teaches boredom”.

IV.Enlarge upon the following topics:

1. After your parents your teacher may be the most important person in your life.

2. Teaching is not easy and a real challenge to your character, abilities and talent.

3. To be a good teacher you must be genuinely interested in what you are doing.

4. Teaching is a constant stream of decisions.

5. Every time you learn something new you become something new.

Text 4. Teaching as a Profession

The people whose mission is to shape the image of young generation, to educate the young people properly, in accordance with common moral norms of society are teachers. It is undoubtedly a great responsibility to bring up children. That’s perhaps the reason why teachers are so deeply respected.

Even if you want to be a teacher you can’t become a good one. You must be born one. Love for children, an ability to communicate with them, understand and teach them – these are the most important qualities of a genuine teacher. An ability to be a genuine teacher is God’s gift; it’s a talent like the talent of a writer, an artist or a musician. It’s even more – it’s fate.

“A good teacher is a great artist, and you know how few great artists there are in the world. Teaching might even be the greatest of all arts,” – as John Steinbeck once said.

A good teacher develops a burning desire for knowledge in his pupils. He also helps the children become independent, fulfill their potential and organize their own learning. He is interested in his students, tries to help where possible and works hard to remain up-to-date in his subject. The last thing is the most difficult, especially when you teach the same material for years (such as a teacher of Maths, for example). Teaching English is different, because the language is developing all the time and it always remains up-to-date.

One must admit that it is extremely difficult to become a good teacher. You should know perfectly the subject you teach, you must be well-educated and well-informed. A good teacher knows the answers to any question.

As any other profession, teaching has its advantages: short working hours, long holidays, personal freedom, room for personal initiatives.

However, this profession has some disadvantages, such as low pay, lots of home assignments to check and low status. A teacher usually has to deal with discipline problems having many students in class. As a teacher, your day doesn't necessarily end when the school bell rings. If you're conscientious, you will be involved in after school meetings, committees, assisting students, grading homework, assignments, projects, and calling parents. All these demand some sacrifice of your personal time.

But in general it is not so bad to be a teacher, to share your knowledge and give your experience to children and teenagers, who will be independent adults in future. The profession of a teacher is socially important.

Nevertheless unlike in the old days when many young people made their choice in favor of teaching profession, today they prefer to be engaged in medical, engineering, computer, hotel, banking spheres, etc. The society attaches more status to those jobs which bring more money and power and doesn’t give the status due to the teachers who deal with knowledge and shape the lives of future generations.

However there are still quite a good number of students who dream of becoming teachers on realizing the nobility of this profession and the impact it can leave on the young minds.

It is up to every person to make his profession interesting and exciting, no matter what it is. One’s facilities combined with the knowledge would be quiet enough to succeed in any work.