East European Studies – Bachelor’s Study

Entrance Examination (Bachelor’s Study) – East European Studies

 

Each applicant will receive a total of three questions from the area of 1) general linguistics, 2) history of Eastern Europe and current socio-political situation in the region, and 3) East European literatures, testing the applicant’s basic knowledge of the topics. All questions will be based on a reading list which the applicant must present at the oral entrance examination and which should include not only items from our recommended reading list, but also other publications of the applicant’s choice (non-fiction and fiction) related to the region of Eastern Europe.

 

During the entrance examination, each applicant will state their choice of the profile language (language A) selected from the offer of the Department of East European Studies at Charles University’s Faculty of Arts (Lithuanian, Latvian, Russian, and Ukrainian).

Sample questions for the oral examination:

General linguistics:

  1. Phonetics and phonology.
  2. Word stress and wovel quantity in Czech and the language of choice.
  3. Tenseness of consonants, assimilation of sounds. Diphthongs.
  4. Basic principles of spelling in Czech and the language of choice.
  5. Parts of speech.
  6. Lexeme – morpheme –
  7. Inflected and uninflected parts of speech.
  8. Definition of grammar.
  9. Grammatical categories of nouns, pronouns, adjectives, and numerals.
  10. Types of adjectives.
  11. Short forms of adjectives, compound adjectives and their use.
  12. Gradability of adjectives and adverbs.
  13. Types of pronouns.
  14. Types of numerals.
  15. Grammatical categories of verbs.
  16. Grammatical category of mood.
  17. Voice of verbs and verbal aspect.
  18. Participles and transgressions.
  19. Methods of word formation.
  20. Types of vocabulary.
  21. Methods of vocabulary development.
  22. Standard, common, and colloquial Czech. Dialects.
  23. Constituents.
  24. Subject and predicate; relationship between them.
  25. Types of sentences.
  26. Sentence –
  27. Functional styles.
  28. Language classification. Classification of the language of choice.
  29. Subdisciplines of linguistics.

History of Eastern Europe and current socio-political situation in the area:

  1. Main stages of the historical development of Eastern Europe in the Middle Ages.
  2. Rule of the Romanov dynasty.
  3. Territorial expansion of the Russian Empire.
  4. Life in the empire and transformations of Russia in the 19th
  5. Czech-Russian relations in the 19th
  6. Circumstances of the Soviet Union’s establishment and its territorial development in the 20th
  7. Lenin’s Russia in the history of Eastern Europe.
  8. Stalinism in the history of Eastern Europe.
  9. Great Patriotic War (1941–1945).
  10. The Soviet Union’s post-1945 foreign policy.
  11. Soviet-American rivalry in the 20th
  12. Development of Czechoslovak-Soviet relations in the 20th
  13. Basic characteristics of the Soviet Union’s administrative and political system.
  14. Transformations of the Ukrainian society in the 20th
  15. Crucial moments in the historical development of the Baltics in the 20th
  16. The position of non-Russian nations within the Soviet Union.
  17. Soviet influence on the history of Central Europe after World War II.
  18. Causes and international circumstances of the Soviet Union’s collapse.
  19. Basic characteristics of the political and social development of Ukraine after 1991.
  20. Basic characteristics of the political and social development of the Baltics after 1991.
  21. Russian minorities and the position of the Russian language in the post-Soviet republics.
  22. National minorities and their position in the post-Soviet countries.
  23. Ethnic conflicts in Eastern Europe after 1991.
  24. Main political figures and parties in contemporary Russia.
  25. Structure of governing bodies of contemporary Russia (in comparison with the Czech political system).
  26. Foreign policy and foreign policy priorities of contemporary Russia.
  27. Basic characteristics of the political system of Ukraine (in comparison with the Czech political system).
  28. Characteristics of the social and economic situation in contemporary Ukraine.
  29. Basic characteristics of the political system of Lithuania and Latvia (in comparison with the Czech political system).
  30. Characteristics of the social and economic situation in contemporary Lithuania and Latvia.

 

Literatures of Eastern Europe:

  1. Russian romanticism.
  2. The works of A. S. Pushkin.
  3. Russian novel in the 19th
  4. The works of N. V. Gogol.
  5. Russian drama in the 19th
  6. The works of F. M. Dostoevsky.
  7. The works of L. N. Tolstoy.
  8. Russian poetry in the 19th
  9. The works of A. P. Chekhov.
  10. Russian modernism.
  11. Russian avant-garde.
  12. Reflection of the 1917 revolution in Russian literature.
  13. Russian interwar emigration.
  14. Bunin.
  15. Russian and Soviet literature between the two world wars.
  16. Prominent figures of Russian literature after World War II.
  17. Reflection of the Thaw in Russian literature.
  18. The works of A. I. Solzhenitsyn.
  19. Russian Nobel Prize winners.
  20. Russian literature after 1991.
  21. Ukrainian themes in the works of Russian-language writers.
  22. Shevchenko and his poetic work.
  23. Czech-Ukrainian literary contacts.
  24. Prague as the centre of Ukrainian emigration in the interwar period.
  25. Prague School of Ukrainian poets.
  26. Transcarpathia and its reflection in Czech literature.
  27. Ukrainian feminist literature.
  28. Czech translations of 19th century Ukrainian literature.
  29. Czech translations of 20th century Ukrainian literature.
  30. Contemporary Ukrainian literature and its reception among the Czech audience.

 

The list of recommended reading for the entrance examination available here.

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