Write the word next to its definition. The sentences in the previous exercise will help you decide on the meaning of each word.
……………. To decorate; beautify by adding details
…………… Dangerous, risky; dangerously uncertain
…………… Causing grief and pain, very serious or severe
………….. To hypnotize or fascinate; hold spellbound
……………. To scold gently but seriously
……………. Able to be interpreted in more than one way, not clear
…………. To make unsympathetic or unfriendly; to alienate
………….. To make fun of; ridicule
………….. A crude, exaggerated, or ridiculous representation; mockery
………….. To state again or repeatedly
………….. Very troubled; distressed
…………… To make easier to do or to get
Using the answer line provided, complete each item below with the correct word from the box. Use each word once.
| Reiterate, grievous, mesmerize, precarious, estrange, facilitate, distraught, admonish, embellish, ambiguity, travesty, deride |
While many colleges and universities have moved to ………… their programs and offer a more specialized curricula to accommodate students’ needs for new job markets, other institutes of higher education have held to their generalist approach to education, though they are ………….. ed for it. In an effort to provide a broad education that prepares students to deal with a variety of problems they offer a core curriculum for liberal arts degree seekers.
The core curriculum offered at Harvard University has long been a model for successful program of general education. Yet, today many professors and students are ………. with Harvard’s core.
Harvard first instituted a general-education program in 1949-1950 aimed at ……………ing a broad interdisciplinary overview of fundamental topics so that, when the students studies their major, they had a context in which to fit it.
Trying to extricate themselves from extremely …………… situation of creating ………… of education by introducing very specific courses such as “The Scandinavian Cinema” the Harvard administration created a core curriculum that would emphasize “critical faculties”, or thinking skills, rather than specific knowledge.
Harvard’s core curriculum still exists today. The philosophy behind the core is clear and devoid of any …………. “Every Harvard graduate should be broadly educated, as well as trained in a particular academic specialty”.
This core, though many are still ………….ed by it, has not been without criticism.
Some professors are ………….ed by the lack of introductory foreign-language and mathematics courses, the subjects generally agreed upon as ideal for teaching thinking skills.
They also ………… the fact that ironically students can meet their core requirements without taking a single course that focuses on Western culture; this intentional omission has been explained by some as the university’s fear of appearing ethnocentric or even racist by focusing on Western values.
Yet, most students are required to study a foreign culture. It is …………..ed to them that when they are exposed to a new culture they might reexamine the values of their own culture.
Though Harvard graduates’ arguments refute the validity of the latter statement. “A …………. fact is insufficient knowledge of our own culture and whilst our inability to reexamine its values.”
B. A Short Cut to Success
➢ What do you think is the short cut to success?
➢ Do you agree with the concept of a core curriculum in higher education? If so, what should be included?
Read the article.
The Safest Cut to Success: Education[22]
We live in a society increasingly obsessed with material success. We are exhorted to "Get on!" "Get ahead!" "Get a step on the ladder!" "Make it to the top!" If you don't prosper, it's easy to feel like a flop, that you've wasted your life and failed your family.
But is such success open to all? Can success be taught?
The most certain route to riches is to start out wealthy. Twenty-five per cent of those who head large corporations were born into affluent families.
If you're not wealthy, you may be able to capitalize on another advantage: good looks. Being tall is also an advantage. Other qualities being equal, employers are more likely to select taller and more attractive people. Knowing from the very early age that ugliness estranges we do our utmost to embellish ourselves with make-up and smart clothes disguising imperfection of our bodies.
However, if you can’t pride yourself either on well-off backgrounds or looks that mesmerize all those present you can try affirmative training courses which can unleash the power within, transform your thinking, and help you forge your way to the top.
Banish negative thoughts and put yourself in a more productive frame of mind. Remember that motivation is the key. Look in the mirror every morning and say to yourself: "You are rare, unique and different. You were designed for accomplishment, engineered for success. Sounds embarrassing? Don't forget that self-belief is crucial for success.
All those banalities reiterated leave us with the idea that becoming a millionaire is a surprisingly haphazard affair. There is however a recourse. It’s hardly the easiest or the shortest but undoubtedly the safest. You’ve got it right. It’s a university degree. Your first degree will save you from many precarious situations, enabling you to compete favorably in the job market, whereas the second one will pave your march to success.
Though there is no division on this question and good education is unanimously considered a must, the question of the essence of proper education has always instigated more ambiguous comments. Woeful ignorance and grievous illiteracy of modern teenagers have been repeatedly derided. Parents in firm belief that conventional school has become a travesty of education find refuge in alternative schooling. Charter schools that are approved by the state but are outside the public school system are expanding at breakneck pace. Religious schools are overflowing with new students. Home schooling is attracting unprecedented numbers of parents who only a couple decades ago would never have dreamed of teaching their own children.
Those migrating from public school system say the roots of disenchantment vary. Some parents are frustrated with bureaucracy, others fear student violence. Some want their children to spend more time learning values. Others call the one-fits-all model of most large public schools an ineffective and impersonal way to learn.
The problems however do not finish at this level of education. University graduates say that they are not prepared to deal with open-ended problems, the ones with any number of possible answers as they have been only trained to deal with closed problems, with just one correct answer. Moreover individual success is fostered in the essence of education system. Striving for personal accomplishment is hardly of any help in the modern world where team spirit is crucial.
Furthermore university education is often admonished for the irrelevance of traditional theoretical studies and inability to offer more specialized curricula to accommodate students’ needs for new job markets, which would allow them to excel without undue effort.
Though all these arguments sound reasonable, it rates a mention that universities are not supposed to tailor their courses to immediate professional needs, as liberal arts degree provides universal thinking skills, prepares one to focus on a variety of specific problems and creates well-informed citizens. Those interested in vocational skills can gain them at special professional and technological colleges.
In conclusion we can’t but admit that juxtaposing successful entrepreneurs and so-called intrapreneurs, those who rise through the ranks to the top of large corporations, Professor Gary Cooper of the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology, found that intrapreneurs tended to be the kids everyone thought would do well but genuine entrepreneurs often had early reputations as troublemakers. "They probably left school early, had several business disasters and are awkward personalities. They are also intuitive and very determined. Coping with disaster early in life appears to give people vital resilience later on," suggests Cooper. It facilitates their ability not to lament about their failures and stay distraught but to start something anew. Successful people, in fact, are the ones who, when something doesn't work, try something else. Unsuccessful people keep on doing the same thing, only harder.