Present Days of Our University

Nowadays the education is conducted in three forms: full-time, part-time (evening) and distant learning. The University has six full-time faculties today, which are:

Transport Construction Faculty²

Industrial and Civil Engineering Faculty³

Economics and Management Faculty

Railway Operation and Logistics Faculty⁴

Transportation and Energy Systems Faculty⁵

Automation and Intelligent Technologies Faculty⁶.

Our University trains specialists for Russian railways and other companies in such fields as automatics and telecommunication, power supply, construction, railway operation, rolling stock, bridge and tunnel construction, electrical engineering, information technologies, economics, etc. More than 14,000 students are trained to get Bachelor's degrees, Master's degrees, to become specialists and PhDs.

Several hundreds of international students from 30 countries come to study at the University. Annually, the University sends its students for studies and internships in European universities and receives students from the UK, the USA, China, Germany, Finland and other countries. The University has Double Degree programmes with the leading European universities and China. Our University graduates work successfully all over the world.

The University is famous for its traditions such as the matriculation ceremony⁷, the Memorial Day on the 9^th of May, the graduation ceremony and the birthday of the University on the 2^nd of December.

Notes:

¹ a graduate (n) [’græduit] – окончивший высшее учебное заведение

to graduate from (v) [’grædjueit] – окончить высшее учебное заведение

² Transport Construction faculty – факультет «Транспортное строительство»

³Industrial and Civil Engineering faculty– факультет «Промышленное и гражданское строительство»

⁴ Railway Operation and Logistics faculty – факультет «Управление перевозками и логистика»

⁵ Transportation and Energy Systems faculty – факультет «Транспортные и энергетические системы»

⁶ Automation and Intelligent Technologies faculty – факультет «Автоматизация и интеллектуальные технологии»

⁷ matriculation ceremony – посвящение в студенты.

Answer the questions. 1) How many faculties does our University have? What is your faculty called? 2) What specialties does the University train students for? 3) What degree are you going to get after graduating from the University? 4) What countries does our University have contacts with? 5) What traditions does our University have?

Ex. 4 Complete the sentences, using the words and word combinations from the text.

1. Many outstanding scientists …, among them … .

2. They designed and constructed … .

3. The founder of our University was …, who was … .

4. Among the students there were … .

5. The University engineers and scientists have taken part in designing … .

6. At the University, there are six full-time faculties. They are … .

7. Our University is famous for its traditions, such as … .

Ex. 5 Give the passive form of the following verbs and make your own sentences.

Model: Found – was founded. Saint-Petersburg was founded in 1703.

Deliver; allow; locate; call; design; conduct; collect; train; build; construct; make.

Ex. 6 Translate the sentences into English.

1. Наш университет был основан в 1809 году. 2. Первые лекции читались на французском языке. 3. Только сыновьям аристократов разрешалось учиться здесь. 4. Наш университет находится в центре Санкт-Петербурга. 5. В 1809 году наш университет назывался Институт корпуса инженеров путей сообщения. 6. Сейчас он называется Петербургский государственный университет путей сообщения. 7. Одно из зданий университета было спроектировано итальянским архитектором Кваренги. 8. Колонный зал был сделан по проекту французского архитектора Тома де Томона. 9. Многие железные дороги, здания и мосты построены нашими выпускниками. 10. В настоящее время в университете обучается около 20 000 студентов. 11. Обучение проводится в трех формах: дневное, вечернее и заочное. 12. В научной библиотеке университета собрано более 2 миллионов книг и манускриптов.

Ex. 7 Transform the verbs into nouns and make you own sentences.

Model: lecture – lecturer. French lecturers Clapeiron and Lammet worked at our University in the 19^th century.

Design; found; organise; construct; build; supply; operate; program; graduate; manage.

Ex. 8 Translate the sentences into English.

1. Основателем нашего университета был император Александр I. 2. Августин Бетанкур был организатором и первым ректором университета. 3. Многие выпускники нашего университета являются знаменитыми конструкторами и инженерами. 4. Будущие строители, программисты, менеджеры и т.д. учатся здесь. 5. В мире есть несколько крупных операторов железных дорог. 6. Несколько компаний являются поставщиками энергии для железных дорог.

Ex. 9 Read the text about Augustine Betancourt and tell the new facts you have learnt about his life.

Augustine Betancourt was born in 1758 in Puerto de Kruse, in the Canary Islands, to an aristocratic family. Private teachers gave him lessons in Mathematics, Drawing, English and French. He became interested in experiments, exact sciences and fine arts. At twenty, he studied in the Royal School of St. Isidor in Madrid, where mathematical analysis, analytical mechanics and physics were the main subjects. After that he was sent to France to study mineralogy and mining. He also became interested in hydraulics and mechanics.

Betancourt travelled a lot at that time and lived in France and England. In 1807 Betancourt came to St Petersburg and was introduced to Alexander I. He was offered a position in the Ministry of Means of Communication. In 1809 the Corps ([kο:] – корпус) of Engineers of Means of Communication was founded and Betancourt was its director and organiser. He was busy with many other things. He was reconstructing the Tula Armory factory, designing and constructing a steam excavator for cleaning the port of Kronshtadt. In 1811, he designed the first permanent arch bridge in Russia across the Malaya Nevka. He was engaged in opening two engineering schools in St Petersburg and in constructing a network of roads. The Manege building in Moscow and the Fair building in Nizhny Novgorod were designed and built by him. He travelled a lot around Russia. In 1823 he returned to St Petersburg and retired. He died in 1824 and was buried in Alexander Nevsky Cemetery.

Ex. 10 Read the text about studies at our University and answer the questions.