Kryachkov 2!indd

part of every-
day life in Germany for over a decade now rarely (to do)
27
.

---

70
Д. А. Крячков
UNIT II
Ex. 35. Use of English. "It's Lonely at the Top. But it's Comforting to Look Down Upon 
Everyone at the Bottom."
a) 
Choose the best variant.
b) 
Comment on the issue of elitism in education.
Elitism is the attitude or belief that some individuals, by virtue of wealth, intellect, or training are 
superior to others. Elitists believe that society/the society (1) should be led by a select/elected/select-
ed (2) group of people. They favor those with wealth, power, education, and/or intellect over the more 
workaday “regular/common/lay (3) person”. Elitists can be found everywhere but are most commonly 
seen in upper management, Hollywood, media/the media (4), and the halls of government. The prin-
cipal/principle (5) difference between an elitist and an expert is that experts are recognized by others 
for their skill or training whence/whereas/hence (6) elitists see themselves as superior. 
The aura of elitism pervades the high/higher (7) education system as well. Today the emphasis 
is no longer primary/primarily (8) on learning for the sake of learning, or research for the sake of 
knowledge production. Instead there is a growing emphasis being placed on titles and prestige. 
This is where the growing emphasis on ‘elite’ universities and ‘elite’ students stems from. 
The increased pursuit of high/higher (9) education by students from ‘prestigious’ universities 
has prompted academic institutions to invest more time and resources into marketing themselves 
as ‘elite’. By hiring academics/academicians/academia (10) with strong reputations, by maintaining 
memberships in university networks with other ‘elite’ institutions and by focusing on producing 
up-to-date, cutting edge research, universities lure/attract/draw (11) the ‘best and the brightest’ 
students. Top students seek admission of/in/to (12) top universities and likewise top universities 
seek the attendance of top students. Thus students as well as universities perpetuate/preserve/
complete (13) the cycle of ‘elitism’ in academics/academicians/academia (14) by focusing on nor-
mative credentials and qualifications as sources of prestige.
What is wrong about elitism in education? The main problem is that academic elitism and social 
separation feed off each other. Elite universities are becoming institutes/institutions (15) that sys-
tematically discriminate against poor and middle-class students. These schools are serving less as 
vehicles of upward social mobility than as transmitters of privilege from generation to generation. 
Prestigious universities across the globe, especially private ones, pass over exceptionally quali-
fied students in favor of students which/that/whose (16) parents are wealthy alumni/alumnus/
alumna (17) or generous donors. Increasingly, a parent’s substantive/substantial (18) donation to 
a university’s endowment fund/foundation (19) or building campaign — not a student’s academic 
merit — is the determining factor of admission of/in/to (20) the country’s top private universities. 
The true lesson that elite universities are teaching us, therefore, is that money, status, and con-
nections are the new determinants of success. A person’s wallet, not his effort, is the great distin-
guisher of the twenty-first century.
Ex. 36. Fill in the gaps with any suitable word.
Some complain that on __________ (1), working women are paid only 77 cents for every dol-
lar __________ (2) by a man. Asians __________ (3) more than Hispanics; blacks less than whites. 
Mormons __________ (4) more than Muslims; Jews more than Jehovah’s Witnesses. And Polish 
Americans __________ (5) more than Puerto Ricans.
Does that __________ (6) America is a racist and religiously bigoted country?

---