Doctor Maria Valerievna Verbitskaya is Deputy Dean and Chair of Lexicography and Translation Studies of Foreign Languages and Area Studies Department of Lomonosov Moscow State University. Prof. Verbitskaya is the Vice President of National Association of Teachers of English, Vice-President of the Union of Translators of Russia. In 2005 Professor Verbitskaya got involved in the National Examination in Foreign Languages experiment (EGE), now she is the Chair of the Federal Commission on the National Examination in Foreign Languages and devotes much of her time and energy to promoting up-to-date testing techniques and best practices.Prof. Verbitskaya is the author of numerous textbooks and articles on the theory and practice of translation/interpretation, testing and assessment