Read and translate the text. Towers and spires are part of Oxford University, the oldest university in Britain

Towers and spires are part of Oxford University, the oldest university in Britain. Students have been coming here for eight hundred years. It began in the twelfth century with small groups of teachers giving lessons in churches. Today the university is a federation of thirty-five colleges with hundreds of buildings and a total of 12,000 students.

It's a place of young people and old traditions: here teachers are called dons and still wear black gowns. Students are taught one-to-one in the Socratic tradition. At the university library you can still see notices written in Latin - the ancient language of scholars. Students at Oxford are surrounded by beautiful stone buildings and by reminders of the university's long history and old traditions.

Hertford College is one of the smallest colleges in the university. About two hundred students live and work here. But life at Oxford is not all work: There are clubs and societies for every interest and every kind of sport. Croquet is now very popular in Britain but it began as a French game.

The Sheldonian Theatre, is used for concerts and university ceremonies in Oxford.

Opposite the Sheldonian is the most famous shop in Oxford, where students and dons buy books. There are books on every subject and one of the largest book rooms in the world, with seven kilometres of shelves.

Oxford has a large number of pubs and cafes, where you can buy cheap food or have a drink with friends. In termtime they are full of students; in summer the tourists take over.

Two rivers flow slowly through the city and past the colleges. A boat is called a punt. If you visit Oxford or Cambridge, you should try punting on the river – it's a fun, but it's not as easy as it looks.

You should also visit some of the beautiful gardens in and around Oxford. Some of the gardens have a maze. First you must find the centre of the maze. It can take quite a long time. And it's just as difficult to find the way out!

STRATFORD-UPON-AVON

North of Oxford the River Avon runs through the town of Stratford-upon-Avon, the birthplace of England's greatest poet and dramatist.

To be, or not to be: that is the question: Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,

Or to take arms against a sea of troubles, And by opposing end them?

William Shakespeare spent most of his working life in London, but he grew up in Stratford, and he returned to Stratford in his old age.

Little is known about his early life. The centre of the town still has many buildings from Shakespeare's time.

He was still a teenager when he married Anne Hathaway. They lived in the thatched cottage and had three children. Then, at the age of twenty-four, Shakespeare left for London, where he became one of the greatest dramatists of all time.

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