The United Kingdom of Great Britain

The United Kingdom of Great Britain. The United Kingdom of Great Britain andNorthern Ireland is situated on two large islands called the British Isles. Thelarger island is Great Britain, which consists of three parts England,Scotland and Wales. The smaller island is Ireland and there are about fivethousand small islands. The country s shores are washed by theAtlantic Ocean, the North Sea and the Irish Sea. The English channel separateGreat Britain from the continent.The total area of the U.K. is 244.00 squarekilometers with a population of 56 million.

It is one of the most populatedcountries in the world. The average density of population is very high about220 people per square kilometer. The greater part of the population is urban.About 80 percent of people live in numerous towns and cities. More then sevenmillion people live in London area. Very often the inhabitants of The UnitedKingdom and Northern Ireland are called English.The surface of the British Isles varies verymach.

There are many mountains in Scotland, Wales and northwest of England butthey are not very high. Ben Nevis in Scotland is the highest mountain. Thenorthern part of Scotland is mountainous and is called the Highlands. Scotlandis also famous for its beautiful lakes, which are called Lochs. The mountains in G.B. are not very high.There are many rivers in G.B but they are not very long. The Themes is thedeepest, the longest and the most important river in England.The climate of G.B. is mild. It is not verycold in winter and hot in summer.

The average temperature in January is about5C above zero. February is the coldest month in the year. The summers are cooland rainy. July is the warmest month.There is much rain and flog in autumn andwinter. October is the rainiest month in the year. The BritishParliament.The British Parliament is the oldest in the world.It originatedin the 12th century as Witenagemot, the body of wise cancellerswhom the King needed to consult pursuing his policy.The BritishParliament consists of the House of Lords and the House ofCommons and the Queen as its head. The House ofCommons plays themajor role in law-making. It consists of Members of Parliament called MPs for short . Each of them represents an area inEngland, Scotland, Wales and Ireland.

MPs are electedeither at ageneral election or at a by-election following the death orretirement.Parliamentary elections are held every 5years and itis the Prime Minister who decides on the exact day of theelection. The minimum voting age is 18. And thevoting is takenby secret ballot.

The election campaign lasts about 3weeks, TheBritish parliamentary system depends on political parties. Theparty which wins the majority of seats forms the government andits leader usually becomes Prime Minister. The Prime Ministerchooses about 20 MPs from his party to become the cabinet ofministers. Each minister is responsible for aparticular area inthe government.The second largest party becomes the officialopposition with its own leader and shadowcabinet . The leaderof the opposition is a recognized post in theHouse of Commons.The parliament and the monarch have different roles in thegovernment and they only meet together on symbolicoccasions, suchas coronation of a new monarch or the opening ofthe parliament.

In reality, the House of Commons is the one of three which hastrue power.The House of Commons is made up of six hundred andfifty elected members, it is presided over by the speaker, amember acceptable to the whole house.

MPs sit on twosides of thehall, one side for the governing party and the other for theopposition.The first 2 rows of seats are occupied bythe leadingmembers of both parties called frontbenches The back benchesbelong to the rank-and-life MPs. Each session of the House ofCommons lasts for 160-175 days. Parliament has intervals duringhis work. MPs are paid for their parliamentary workand have toattend the sittings.

As mention above, the House ofCommons playsthe major role in law making. The procedure isthe following aproposed law a bill has to go throughthree stages in orderto become an act of parliament, these are called readings . Thefirst reading is a formality and is simply thepublication of theproposal. The second reading involves debate on theprinciples ofthe bill, it is examination by parliamentary committee.And thethird reading is a report stage, when the work of thecommittee isreported on to the house.

This is usually the most importantstage in the process. When the bill passes throughthe House ofCommons, it is sent to the House of Lords for discussion, whenthe Lords agree it, the bill is taken to the Queen for royalassent, when the Queen sings the bill, it becomes act of theParliament and the Law of the Land. The House ofLords has morethan 1000 members, although only about 250 take an activepart inthe work in the house.Members of this Upper House are notelected, they sit there because of their rank, the chairman ofthe House of Lords is the Lord Chancellor.

And he sits on aspecial seat, called WoolSack The membersof the House of Lordsdebate the bill after it has been passed by the Houseof Commons.Some changes may be recommended and the agreementbetween the twohouses is reached by negotiations.МОСКОВСКИЙИНСТИТУТПРАВА Курсовая работа по АНГЛИЙСКОМУ ЯЗЫКУ На тему GREAT BRITAIN Студентка дн.отд. группы АЮ-132СА Цыганкова Е.С. Преподаватель Чечулина Н.Н. МОСКВА 2003 CONTENTS 1.TheUnited Kingdom of Great Britain 12.The British Parliament 23.Thebooks 5 The books 1. HEADWAY Pre-intermediate, Jon amp Liz Soars, Oxford University Press,2. Деловой английский для начинающих,С.Н. Любимцева, Москва, ГИС , 3.Базовый курсанглийского языка, К.Э. Эккерсли, Харьков,СП Карвелла , 1996.