ARTICLE (2).pdf -

Please enable JavaScript to view the full PDF

B2 Name: Class: 2ND EDITION First for Schools UNIT 9: SKILLS TEST A Decisions, decisions! Life is full of decisions, and we have to start making students who have experience of the college we are some of the big, scary ones when we are not yet adults. proposing to go to, and go to open days. They’re the In many countries, including the UK, sixteen-year- best way of evaluating a course. And they give us the olds have to decide which subjects to specialise in for chance to speak to students currently on the course their last two years of secondary school. (11) So, we’re interested in, and to ask questions. if, let’s say, at sixteen you chose to study three modern It’s probably a good idea to consider the career languages, art and maths for your last two years of prospects and the amount we could earn after taking secondary education, you wouldn’t find it easy to get a particular course. After all, however much we love a place at medical, dentistry or veterinary schools. The our subject, only a minority of us study purely for reason is that all of them require you to have studied the sake of study. It’s true that some of us want to be maths and two or three science subjects. artists, actors, musicians, sportsmen and sportswomen Having said that, if you were really determined to be a – careers that don’t guarantee decent incomes, doctor, dentist or vet, you would, of course, be able to unfortunately. But we should think hard about the risks spend an additional year or two after leaving school involved and try to be practical. So if you’re planning to catching up with the science you had missed out on. be a rock star, you need a plan B too! (15) (12) Let’s say you have done all your homework. You’ve Choosing the right college or university takes a lot of researched the university, the campus, the course, its evaluation, too. Young people can be torn between career prospects, the fees, the student facilities and free- the quality of a course offered at a particular university time activities and you still can’t make up your mind. nowhere near where they live, and the attraction of a What do you do? Make a list of the pros and cons of the university conveniently close to their home, but where university or course, and come to a sensible decision the course might not be as interesting. (13) For based on that. (16) Use it when you can’t make up many students, renting a flat rather than staying in free your mind about which club to join, which project to accommodation at home is not an option. do, even which trainers to buy! Selecting a course, whatever the college’s location, The tough truth is that making decisions is difficult. is not always easy either. How do we know we are And we can’t know if we’ve made a correct one until we going to enjoy a course in media studies, for example, experience the consequences of our choice. (17) when we’ve never even tried the subject? We don’t, And in any case, as a twelfth-century philosopher said, unfortunately! (14) For example, we can read about ‘The risk of a wrong decision is preferable to the terror the courses that we’re interested in, consult other of indecision’. Photocopiable © Pearson Education Limited 2018