ACADEMIC LISTENING TEST PRACTICE
OXFORD UNIVERSITY - A BRIEF INTRODUCTION
OXFORD UNIVERSITY - A BRIEF INTRODUCTION
For Students Preparing for Academic Tests / IELTS and TOEFL
Listen as you read the script.
Playing Time: 2 minutes 17 seconds
Oxford University is a famous university that I’m sure most of you have at least heard of. And if you have heard of Oxford, then you probably know that it’s located in England. However, there are probably a few things that you don’t know about it.
It’s called ‘Oxford University’ because it is located in the town of Oxford, England (about ninety kilometers outside of London). Classes first began there in 1096, almost a thousand years ago, and more than a hundred years before the founding of Cambridge University. It is consistently ranked among the very best universities, not only in the UK, but in the world. Unlike most colleges and universities that are located on just one main campus, this special university is located in many different places around the town of Oxford. Near South Parks Road, for example, you can find the Science Area, while just behind Broad Street you can listen to music at the Sheldonian Theater. Do you like to read? If ‘yes’, there are millions of books at the university’s Bodleian Libraries. Or are you looking for a quiet place to contemplate the wonders of the natural world? Not to worry, the university has a large number of parks to immerse yourself in – there is the Botanic Garden, for instance, on High Street. It has more than 8,000 different plant species.
The physical structures comprise just one of the more visible aspects of the university. It could easily be argued that the students are the most important part of Oxford University, all 21,000 of them, arriving from towns and cities from around the UK, and from countries around the globe. Over the past several hundred years, many famous people have studied there, people such as William Penn (the founder of the American state of Pennsylvania), the astronomer Edmund Halley and J.R.R. Tolkien (author of ‘The Hobbit’ and ‘The Lord of the Rings’). If you ever get a chance to visit or study at Oxford, then I highly recommend the small gift shop at 106 High Street where you can buy souvenirs to remember your time at this world-class university.
It’s called ‘Oxford University’ because it is located in the town of Oxford, England (about ninety kilometers outside of London). Classes first began there in 1096, almost a thousand years ago, and more than a hundred years before the founding of Cambridge University. It is consistently ranked among the very best universities, not only in the UK, but in the world. Unlike most colleges and universities that are located on just one main campus, this special university is located in many different places around the town of Oxford. Near South Parks Road, for example, you can find the Science Area, while just behind Broad Street you can listen to music at the Sheldonian Theater. Do you like to read? If ‘yes’, there are millions of books at the university’s Bodleian Libraries. Or are you looking for a quiet place to contemplate the wonders of the natural world? Not to worry, the university has a large number of parks to immerse yourself in – there is the Botanic Garden, for instance, on High Street. It has more than 8,000 different plant species.
The physical structures comprise just one of the more visible aspects of the university. It could easily be argued that the students are the most important part of Oxford University, all 21,000 of them, arriving from towns and cities from around the UK, and from countries around the globe. Over the past several hundred years, many famous people have studied there, people such as William Penn (the founder of the American state of Pennsylvania), the astronomer Edmund Halley and J.R.R. Tolkien (author of ‘The Hobbit’ and ‘The Lord of the Rings’). If you ever get a chance to visit or study at Oxford, then I highly recommend the small gift shop at 106 High Street where you can buy souvenirs to remember your time at this world-class university.
Note: For more cool ESL resources about colleges and universities, visit my All Things Topics site.
