Building-up your vocabulary. The happiness of men consists in life

And life is labour.

The happiness of men consists in life.

Leo Tolstoy

Recommended grammar:

Grammar for writing business letters.

6.1. a) Look at the two pictures on this page and think of the social evolution that could turn the restless teenagers below into the respected businessmen above. b) Read the text about the ways of making a career that young people in Britain can choose after leaving school. Compare the situation with that in Russia.

At Sixteen and After

In Britain sixteen is a crucial age. This is when young people have to decide whether to stay at school, to go on to a college, to look for a job or to start some Youth Train­ing Programme.

Most pupils take their GCSE (= General Certificate of Secondary Education) exams when they are sixteen. Those who get good gradescan stay for further two years and sit for their A-level exams. Good A-level results make it possible for the pupils to go on to a university or polytechnic school.

If one got good grades in GCSE but doesn't want to do A-levels, he can study for a vocational diploma at colleges of further education, which offer a number of vocation­ally oriented courses for 16-18-year-olds and prepare young people for work in various occupations such as business, engineering, ad­ministration, catering, or tourism.

Because the unemploymentrate is now high, far fewer 16-year-olds go straight out and look for a job. However, about a third of them still take this option. Most do not find employment immediately and many take part in training schemes which involve on-the-job training combined with part-time college courses. An increasing number of school-leavers enter Youth Training Schemes (YTS [,waiti:'es]) and do vocational training for particular jobs and careers.YTS give two years’ experience to 16-year-old school leavers who do not have a job. People on the scheme get a small pay for the work they do. If a young person takes a place on YTS, he can’t claim unemployment benefit.

Whatever the alternative, all of them have to think about gaining employment in a job market which demands increasingly skilledworkers.

6.2. a) Study the vocabulary used to describe career-making. Consult a dictionary if necessary.

a) Cramming for success: study and academic work:

to carry out/ to do research, to get a book through inter-library loan, to drop out, to be good at, to do a subject/ a course, to take an exam in a subject/ to sit for an exam, to pass an exam/ to do well in an exam, to fail/ to do badly in an exam, to re-sit an exam, to do vocational training, to study for a diploma, to cram / review for an exam, to coach up smb. in a subject, to get honours, to qualify for a job/ to do smth. to be qualified;

academic journals (not magazines), papers/articles on specialised subjects, finals (= the last exams before receiving a degree), entrance exam, multiple-choice test, grade, a diploma (certificate) with honours, on-the-job training, handicraft, skilled (unskilled), part-time (full-time) student (worker);

GCSE (General Certificate of Secondary Education) (= the exams taken by most 15-16-year-olds in Britain. Marks are given for all the subjects separately, however, there is a uniform system of marks, all being graded from A to G. Grades A, B and C are good grades).

A-levels (Advanced Levels) (= higher level academic exams set by the same examining boards that set the GCSEs. They are taken mostly by people around the age of 18 who wish to go on to higher education).

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