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The governmental systems, in the United States of federal state, county and local - are quite easy to understand, that is if you grew up with them and studied them at school. One foreign expert complained, for example, that the complexity of just the cities political and governmental structure is "almost unbelievable". The "real Chicago", he explained, "spreads over 2 states, 6 counties, 10 towns, 30 cities, 49 townships and 110 villages. Overlaid upon this complex pattern are 235 tax districts and more than 400 school districts..." There are, however, several basic principles which are found at all levels of American government. One of these is the "one person, one vote" principle which says that legislators are elected from geographical districts directly by the voters. Under this principle, all election district must have about the same number of residents.
Another fundamental principle of American government is that because of the system of checks and balances, compromise in politics is a matter of necessity not choice. For example, the House of Representatives controls spending and finance, so the President must have its agreement for his proposals and programmes cannot declare war either without the approval of Congress. In foreign affairs he is also strongly limited. Any treaty must first be approved by the Senate. If there is no approval, there's no treaty. The rule is "the President proposes, but Congress disposes". What a President wants to do, therefore, is often a different thing from what a President is able to do.
Answer the following questions:
1) What are the main principles of American government?
2) What does the expression "if there is no approval, there is no treaty" mean?
Текст №1
(для студентов экономического факультета)
Markets .
The terms "market" and "marketing" can have several meanings depending upon how they are used. The term "stock market" refers to the buying and selling of shares in corporations as well as to other activities related to stock trading and pricing. Another type of market is a grocery market, which is a place where people purchase food. When economists use the word "market" they mean a set of forces or conditions that determine the price of a product, such as the supply available for sale and the demand for it by consumers. The term "marketing" in business includes all of these meanings, and more.
In the past, the concept of marketing emphasized sales. Marketing was the task of figuring out how to sell the product. Basically, selling the product would be accomplished by sales promotion which included advertising and personal selling. In addition to sales promotion, marketing also involved the physical distribution of the product to the places where it was actually purchased.
Distribution consisted of transportation, storage, and related services such as financing, standardization and grading, and the related risk.
The modern marketing concept encompasses all of the activities mentioned, but it is based on a different set of principles.
Modern marketing basically involves four things: (1) selling the correct product at the proper place, (2) selling it at a price determined by demand, (3) satisfying a customer's need and wants, and (4) producing a profit for the company.
Answer the following questions:
1) What does the term "stock market" mean?
2) What is a grocery market?
3) When do the economists use the word "market"?
4) What did the concept of marketing emphasize in the past?
5) What does modern marketing involve?
Текст №2
(для студентов экономического факультета)
Promotion .
Promotion is the aspect of marketing concerned with increasing sales. Promotion attempts to persuade and influence the customer's attitude in various ways. Promotion attempts to increase demand for a product and thereby increase sales.
Three main promotional activities are advertising, personal selling, and sales promotion. Advertising is a nonpersonal presentation of goods, services or ideas aimed at a mass audience. There are several methods of advertising and several media.
Advertising works best when the demand for a product is increasing. The purpose of advertising is to communicate information that convinces a customer to buy a specific product.
Personal selling involves a salesperson trying to convince customers directly to buy product. Personal selling is very effective when there is a concentrated market for a product - in other words, the product is not for general consumption by the public.
Sales promotion involves several activities. It is becoming increasingly important in the self-service environment where is often no sales staff. Sales promotion activities are of two types: information and stimulation.
Basically there are two ways to increase sales of products: find new markets and increase market share. A company seeking new markets can expand its geographical sales area or try to sell its product to a different segment of the population. In this case promotion may involve increased advertising to spread information about the product. To increase market (to lure customers from the competition), the marketing department of a company must design в total program of promotion for a particular product. Such a program may involve increased advertising to remind the customer of the name of the product.
Answer the following questions:
1) What is the promotion?
2) What are the main promotional activities?
3) What is the purpose of advertising?
4) What does personal selling involve?
5) What must the marketing department of a company do to increase market share?
Текст № 1
(для студентов механического факультета)
Mechanics.
Mechanics is the science concerning forces and the resulting motion of material bodies that are subjected to various kinds of forces. There are certain basic laws, or principles, in mechanics that enable the skilled user to determine, for example, the manner in which a body would move or deform, given the nature and distribution of forces acting on it and a knowledge of its physical characteristics, Conversely, if one had an accurate knowledge of the actual state of motion or deformation in a body, one would be able to predict exactly the forces acting on the body at any time.
It is a common experience for everyone that forces applied to structural members, such as beams, produce deformations in these members. We know that when a heavy load is placed on the floor of a structure supported by beam, the floor and the beam deflect slightly in the direction on the load. A structural engineer who knows the principles of mechanics that govern this phenomenon would be able to predict what would happen to the structural member when a known force of set of forces acts on it; he would be able to predict how much deflection the structural member would experience at any point. Occasionally the reverse problem is of interest to the engineer. By means of accurate measurements the deflections that occur in a structural member may be known for a number of points. This information, plus the knowledge of certain basic principles, enables the engineer to determine the forces that act on the members and cause the measured deformation.
Answer the following questions:
1) What is mechanics?
2) What do the basic laws enable the skilled user to do?
3) What would a structural engineer predict having the knowledge of certain basic principles?
Текст № 2
(для студентов механического факультета)
Mechanical Systems.
Some kinematic concepts that apply to all mechanical systems are discussed in this paper. A mechanical system is defined as anything that is composed of matter. The first step in an analysis of a mechanical system should be a precise and definitive description of the system under consideration. Since the modern theories of the constitution of matter will not be considered, the particles that compose a mechanical system are regarded as mathematical abstractions; they are more properly called "material points". The simultaneous position of all the material points of a mechanical system are called the "configuration" of the system. For example, the displacement vector field of a deformable body defines a configuration of the body. To define the configuration of a mechanical system, we require a coordinate system that is attached to some rigid system, known as a "reference frame". In the theory of kinematics the reference frame is arbitrary.
A general problem of statics is to determine the equilibrium configurations of mechanical systems under prescribed types of loadings and to ascertain which among them are stable. An important general problem of dynamics is to express the configuration of a given mechanical as a function of time.
A mechanical system is said to experience a displacement if any of its material points are displaced. In other words, any change of the configuration of a mechanical system is a displacement.
Answer the following questions:
1) How is a mechanical system defined?
2) How is the configuration of the system defined?
3) In what way does the general problem of statics and that of dynamics differ?
Текст №1
(для студентов факультета АВТ)
Computers.
There are three basic parts of a computer: the input unit, the central processing unit (CPU), and the output unit.
Let's imagine, you want to send or store some information using a computer. It may be something you want to keep, like a friend's address, or something you want to print out, like your English homework. First of all you send the information to the CPU from the keyboard, which is typewriter. Alternatively the information may already be on a disk and can be sent straight to the CPU.
When the information reaches the CPU it is transported into a special device - the CPU's "brain", the ROM (Read Only Memory). With this, the CPU reads the information and then it is stored in a memory called the RAM (Random Access Memory).
Finally, the information is sent to the output unit. It can be displayed on VDU, which is like a television, or can he printed out using a printer.
The information can also he sent to the other computers using a "modem". This is a special way of sending electronic signals along telephone lines to other computers anywhere in the world.
We have seen that computers have essentially revolutionized data information processing. Computers have also changed some industries and actually created others. You probably know that automobile and other product manufacturers use computer-based robots to do much of the work. People are involved not only in operating the robots, but designing them and the system they are a part.
In recent years computers are widely used in education. They teach students about computers, they help them in a variety of subjects such as math, language skills, reading, grammar, etc. And at last they are used as classroom management tools. Today many schools at all levels offer their students some access to computers. Many colleges and universities now have their own microcomputer training labs.
Computers are also being used in business to collect and analyze data, to produce concise information for management, for making decisions, and to help managers avoid being overloaded with unnecessary information.
Computers help the criminal justice system to manage large amounts of information. Lawyers can save documentation in a computer system for easy updating in future. If computers weren't of great help we wouldn't widely use them.
Answer the following questions:
1) What are the basic parts of a computer?
2) Why is the computer of great help for us?
Текст №2
(для студентов факультета АВТ)
The Internet.
The Internet, a global computer network which embraces millions of users all over the world, began in the United States in 1969 as a military experiment. It was designed to survive a nuclear war. Information sent over the Internet takes the shortest path available from one computers to another. Because of this, any two computers on the Internet will be able to stay in touch with each other as long as there is a single route between them. This technology is called packet switching. Owing to this technology, if some computers on the network are knocked out (by a nuclear explosion, for example), information will just route around them. One such packet-switching network already survived a war. It was the Iraqi computer network which was not knocked out during the Gulf War.
Most of the Internet host computers (more than 50 %) are in the United States, while the rest are located in more than 100 other countries. Although the number of host computers can be counted fairly accurately, nobody knows exactly how many people use the Internet, there are millions, and their numbers is growing by thousands each month worldwide.
The most popular Internet service is e-mail. Most of the people, who have access to the Internet, use the network only for sending and receiving e-mail messages. However, other popular services are available on the Internet: reading USENET News, using the World-Wide-Web, Telnet, FTP, and Gopher.
But some problems remain. The most important is security. When you send an e-mail message to somebody, this message can travel through many different networks and computers. The data are constantly being directed towards its destination by special computers called routers. Because of this, it is possible to get into any of computers along the route intercept and even change the data being send over the Internet. In spite of the fact that there are many strong encoding programs available, nearly all the information being sent over the Internet is transmitted without any form of encoding, i.e. "in the clear". But when it becomes necessary to send important information over the network, these encoding programs may be useful. Some American banks and companies even conduct transaction over the Internet. However there still remain both commercial and technical problems which will take time to be resolved.
Answer the following questions:
1) What is the Internet?
2) What is the most popular Internet service?
3) What problems will take time to be solved?
Текст №1
(для студентов факультета биологии и природопользования)
Man and biosphere.
The biosphere is defined as the part of the earth in which life exists, but this definition immediately raises some problems and demands some qualifications. At considerable altitudes above the earth's surface the spores of bacteria and fungi can be obtained by passing air through filters. In general, however, such "aeroplankton" do not appear to be engaged in active metabolism. Even on the surface of the earth there are areas too dry, too cold or too hot to support metabolizing organisms (except technically equipped human explorers), but in such places also spores are commonly found. Thus as a terrestrial envelope the biosphere obviously has a somewhat irregular shape, in as much as it is surrounded by an indefinite "parabiospheric" region in which some dormant forms of life are present. Today, of course, life can exist in a space capsule or a space suit far outside the natural biosphere. Such artificial environment may best be regarded as small volumes of the biosphere nipped off and projected temporarily into space.
What is it that is so special about the biosphere as a terrestrial envelope? The answer seems to have three parts. First, it is a region in which liquid water can exist in substantial quantities. Second, it receives an ample supply of energy from an external source, ultimately from the sun. And third, within it there are interfaces between the liquid, the solid and the gaseous states of matter.
The energy source on which all terrestrial life depends is the sun. At present the energy of solar radiation can enter the biological cycle only through the photosynthetic production of organic matter by chlorophyl-bearing organisms, namely green and purple bacteria, blue-green algae, phytoplankton and the vast population of higher plants. Such organisms are of course confined to the part of the biosphere that receives solar radiation by day. That includes the atmosphere, the surface of the land, the top few millimeters of soil and the upper waters of ocean, lakes and rivers. The euphotic, or illuminated, zone may be only a few centimeters deep in a very turbid river, or well over 100 meters deep the clearest parts of the ocean. The biosphere does not end where the light gives out; gravity continues the energy flow downward, since fecal pellets, cast skins and organisms dead or alive are always falling from the illuminated region into the depths.
Answer the following questions:
- How is the biosphere defined?
- What is so special about the biosphere as a terrestrial envelope?
- What is the energy source on which all terrestrial life depends?
Текст №2
(для студентов биоэкологического факультета)
Man and biosphere.
The plant life of the open ocean, on which most of the animals of the sea depend for food, is planktonic, or drifting. Most of the cells composing a planktonic association are slightly denser than seawater, and under absolutely quiet conditions they would slowly sink to the bottom. That the upper layers are not depleted of plant cells and so of the capacity to generate food and oxygen is attributable entirely to turbulence. The plant cells sink at a speed determined by their size, shape and excess density; as they sink they divide and the population in the upper waters is continually replenished from below by turbulent upwelling water.
In addition to the extension of the biosphere downward, there is a more limited extension upward. On very high mountains the limit above which chlorophyll-bearing plants cannot live appears to be 6.200 meters (in the Himalayas); it is partly set by lack of liquid water, but a low carbon dioxide pressure, less than half the pressure at sea level, may also be involved. At still higher altitudes a few animals such as spiders may be found. These probably feed on springtails and perhaps mites that in turn subsist on pollen grains and other organic particles blown up into the aeolian zone.
The present energetics of the biosphere depend on the photosynthetic reduction of carbon dioxide to form organic compounds and molecular oxygen.
The organic matter is all phytoplanktonic, with a water content of 90 percent, there are about 25 cubic millimeters of photosynthetic organisms per 100 square millimeters of lake surface. If this were all brought to the surface, it would form a green film a quarter of a millimeter thick.
Estimates of the efficiency of the photosynthetic process are quite variable and depend greatly on the circumstances. If the biosphere is to continue in running order, the biologically important materials must undergo cyclical changes so that after utilization they are put back, at the expense of some solar energy, into a form in which they can be reused.
Answer the following questions:
What does the plant life of the open ocean depend on?
How is the extension of the biosphere characterized?
How must the biologically important materials undergo cyclical changes?
РАЗГОВОРНЫЕ ТЕМЫ
№l Our university.
Astrakhan State Technical University is situated in the most picturesque place of our town, not far from the great Russian river Volga.
It was founded in 1930 and several generations of students studied at the University. The graduates of the University have been working for a long time already, while the undergraduates are preparing for their finals.
A lovely academic town of the University is situated on a beautiful parkland. It occupies 6 teaching buildings with up-to-date lecture halls, well-equipped laboratories, a computing centre and libraries rich in books. Various conferences and meetings are held in the Assembly Hall situated in the main building. Here you can also find Director's, Deans' and other offices.
The University possesses 9 halls for residence (dormitories), on the territory of it you can see cafes, shops, a medical aid centre and a clubhouse. There is also a roofed swimming-pool, playing grounds, halls for tennis, basketball and many other sports there.
There are eight main faculties at our University: the Faculty of Economics, the Faculty of Law, the Marine Power Engineering Faculty, the Automatics and Computer Science Faculty, the Mechanical Faculty, the Faculty of Fisheries, the Faculty of Biology and Nature Management, and the Chemical Engineering Faculty. There is a Preparatory Faculty and a Department of Correspondence as well. A lot of students, including foreign ones, are trained in different specialities at our University.
Director (or Rector, as it is called in Russia) is at the head of the University, while the work of the faculties is headed by Deans. The teaching staff of special and academic departments (which is usually termed "faculty") consists of very experienced lecturers and assistants, capable of giving their knowledge and experience to students. Most of them are Masters and Doctors of Science.
The full-time students of the University have a four or five year course of studies, while the part-time students study for six years.
Each academic year is divided into two terms. During the term students have to attend lectures, seminars and practicals according to the time-table. They also make reports, do laboratories and graphical works according to the basic programme. The first year students study such traditional disciplines as mathematics, chemistry, physics, history. In the third year students begin to study in depth the subjects connected with their future speciality.
Besides obligatory subjects students have some optional courses. At the end of the term students have tests and take midterm examinations; credits (or pass marks) as well as examination marks beings entered in their record books. Those who fail in an exam, are allowed to make a second attempt.
The third-and-fourth-year students submit course papers on some special subjects. Graduates have to take final exams and defend their diploma projects worked out with the help of their scientific supervisors. On graduating from the University students are awarded special certificates—diplomas; some of those who carry on research work can become postgraduates of our University.
Young people mainly choose our University because it provides everything to train qualified specialist: lectures which contain the latest theoretical and practical data, psychological seminars and trainings; practical experience on board the largest ships. Those graduates who receive a Bachelor's degree are welcome to take a Master's one.
List of specialities.
| 1. Finance and Credit | Финансы и кредит |
| 2. Accountancy and Audit | Бухучет и аудит |
| 3. Economics and Management of Agricultural Business | Экономика управления на предприятиях АПК |
| 4. Jurisprudence | Юриспруденция |
| 5. Low Temperature Engineering and Cryogenics | Техника и физика низких температур |
| 6. Shipbuilding | Кораблестроение |
| 7. Marine Power plants | Судовые энергетические установки |
| 8. Loading/Unloading Mechanization | Механизация перегрузочных работ |
| 9. Food Processing Machines and Equipment | Машины и аппараты пищевых производств |
| 10. Electrical Equipment and Automatic System of Ship | Электрооборудование и автоматика судов |
| 11. Automation of Production Process and Industries | Автоматизация технологических процессов |
| 12. Automated Data Processing and Control System | Автоматизированные системы обработки информации и управления |
| 13. Operation and Maintenance of Marine Power Plants | Эксплуатация судовых энергетических установок |
| 14. Chemical Refining of Natural Fuels and Carbonic Materials | Химическая технология топлива и углеродных материалов |
| 15. Fish Processing and Fish Product Technology | Технология рыбы и рыбных продуктов |
| 16. Water Bioresources and Aquaculture | Водные биоресурсы и аквакультура |
| 17. Commercial Fisheries | Промышленное рыболовство |
| 18. Complex Utilization and Protection of Water Resources | Комплексное использование и охрана водных ресурсов |
Words and phrases:
to be found - быть основанным
to occupy - занимать
to hold - проводить
to be situated - располагаться
Rector’s office - ректорат
Dean’s office - деканат
faculty - 1. факультет; 2. штат преподавателей
department - кафедра
to train - обучать
to be at the head - возглавлять
experienced - опытный
full-time students - студенты дневного обучения
part-time students - студенты вечернего обучения
term - семестр
to divide into - делить, разделять
first-year student - студент-первокурсник
future speciality - будущая специальность
obligatory subject - обязательный предмет
optional course - факультативное занятие
to take examination - сдавать экзамены
mark - оценка
a record book - зачетная книжка
to enter the University - поступить в университет
to graduate from the University - закончить университет
to fail in an exam - провалиться на экзамене
finals - гос. экзамены
to defend diploma project - защищать дипломный проект
to work out - вырабатывать, зарабатывать
a supervisor - руководитель
to award - награждать, вручать
to carry on - выполнять
research work - научно-исследовательская работа
postgraduate - аспирант
to provide - обеспечивать
a bachelor’s degree - степень бакалавра
№2 The USA
The USA is the third largest country in the world in population and it is the fourth largest country in area.
The USA, commonly called the US or simply America, lies in the central part of the North American continent with the Atlantic Ocean to the East, the Pacific to the West, Canada to the North, and Mexico and the Gulf of Mexico to the South. It also includes Alaska in the north and Hawaii in the Pacific Ocean. The USA covers an area of 3,618,780 square miles (i.e. 9,372,511 sq. km.) and has a population of more than 349.6 mln. Some parts of the country are crowded with people, while other areas are deserted.
The USA is so big that parts of it are in different time zones. The clocks go back one hour for each zone you cross going west. So when it is 9 a.m. in New York, it is only 6 a.m. in Los Angeles.
The USA has several different climatic regions. The coldest regions are in the north and north-east. The south has a subtropical climate. The Climate of Alaska is arctic; the climate of the central part is continental. Hot winds blowing from the Gulf of Mexico often brings typhoons. The climate along the Pacific coast is much warmer than that of the Atlantic coast. Humidity is higher in the East than in the West. West coast winters are mild and rainy except in southern California, where they are mild but drier. In central and eastern regions the weather is very changeable in winter. It may rain in the morning and snow in the evening when the north winds begin blowing. Summer temperatures also vary from region to region. In many places in southern Arizona and California the average daily temperature is above 40°C. Summers are very hot and humid on the eastern coast; they are dry and hot in most continental areas and cool along the western coast.
There are many valleys, hills and mountains in the country. The highest and the most important mountains are the Rockies in the west and the Appalachian Mountains in the east, the Cordillera and the Sierra Nevada. The highest peak is Mount McKinley which is located in Alaska.
The United States is a land of rivers and lakes. The northern state of Minnesota is the land of 10000 lakes. The longest rivers in the USA are the Mississippi with its tributaries the Missouri and the Ohio, the Rio Grande and the Columbia. The Great Lakes on the border with Canada are the largest and the deepest in the USA. They are the Ontario, the Superior, the Erie, the Huron and the Michigan.
Grassland and scrub dominate in the western part of the country, forest covers the eastern part.
The United States is rich in natural and mineral resources: coal, oil, iron ore, ferrous and non-ferrous metals, salt, gas, etc. It is a highly-developed industrial and agricultural country. Farmers grow wheat, oats, cotton, tobacco, all kinds of vegetables and fruit. The USA holds the leading position in the production of aircraft, ships, automobiles, machine-tools, farms and household machinery, electronic devices, textiles, furniture, paper industries and other goods.
The largest cities of the USA are: New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Philadelphia, Detroit, San Francisco and others. The national capital is Washington, D.C.
The USA is divided into 50 states and the District of Columbia (the territory under the capital Washington), the seat of the national government.
It is important to recognise that political power in the United States can be viewed as consisting of three levels, each of them having executive, legislative and judicial branches.
First of all there is the Federal government which is located in Washington D.C. and consists of the President and the Congress and the Federal Court. These bodies create Federal legislation. Federal government is structured by the U.S.A. constitution adopted in 1787. According to this Constitution the legislative power belongs to the Congress which consist of the Senate and the House of Representatives. The Senate is composed of 100 members, two from each state who are elected for a term of six years. One third of the Senate is elected every two years.
The House of Representatives comprises 435 members elected for a two year term. The number of Representatives from each state is determined by population, but every state must have at least one Representative in the House. Both the Senators and Representatives must be residents of the state from which they are chosen. The presiding officer of the Senate is the Vice President. The House of Representatives is headed by the Speaker.
The work of preparing and considering legislation is Committees of both House of the Congress. There are 15 standing Committees in the Senate and 19 in the House of Representatives. The Congress assembles at least once a year.
The President may, on extraordinary occasions, convene both House, or either of them. The executive power belongs to the President of the USA. He holds his office during the term of four years, together with the Vice President nominated with President. The President is also the head of the Cabinet— the executive body of the Government. The Cabinet is composed of the heads of ten executive departments - the Secretary of State, the Secretary of Treasury, the Secretary of Defence and others.
The judicial branch of the government is headed by the Supreme court which settles disputes between states. The Supreme Court may veto any law passed by the Congress if it contradicts the Constitution of the USA.
The second level of government in the USA lies within the 50 states. Each state differs in terms of their legislature and the executive power which is held by the Governor of the state. Each state also has its own judicial system and has its own constitution. In addition each state has its own enforcement agency such as the police.
The third level consists of the government of cities and towns and also the government of counties.
As the example of this tripartite division there are federal taxes, state taxes and local taxes in the USA. Also reflecting the three divisions there are elections in the US at the Federal level (for President and members of Congress), at the state level (for state officers) and at the local level there are elections for local officials (town, city and county) and sometimes voting for or against issues that affect the community.
Elections in the US are based primarily on a two-party system: Democrats and Republicans. From time to time other parties have appeared but rarely have they had permanent influence in the political system.
The US national flag - Stars and Stripes - is red, white and blue. Thirteen stripes represent the original 13 States of the USA, the 50 stars represent the current number of states.
Words and phrases :
humidity - влажность
valley - долина
tributary - приток (реки)
grassland - пастбище, сенокосное угодье
scrub - кустарник
oats - овес
the legislative power - законодательная власть
the executive power - исполнительная власть
the judicial power - судебная власть
the Senate - сенат
the House of Representatives - Палата Представителей
the presiding officer - председатель
to convene - постоянные комитеты
nominate -созывать, собирать
to vote for (against) - выставлять кандидата (на должность)
to assemble - голосовать за (против)
to vest - собираться
to veto a law - наделять правом
to impeach the President - наложить вето на закон
to settle a dispute between the state - подвергнуть президента импичменту
to contradict - решать спор между штатами
bill - законопроект, билль
a justice - судья
tripartite division - тройственное деление
Secretary of State - Государственный секретарь
Secretary of Treasure - министр финансов
Secretary of Defence - министр обороны
№3 The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the political name of the country which is made of England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. It is often abbreviated to "UK". The capital of the whole United Kingdom is London. You should know that "the United Kingdom" is also called Britain.
Britain is one of the world's smaller countries with an area of some 244,000 square kilometers; with some 56 million people, it ranks about 14-th in terms of population. The United Kingdom is situated on the British Isles. The British Isles lie off the western shores of Europe. They are separated from the Continent by the Strait of Dover, the English Channel (La Manche) and by the North Sea. A warm ocean current, the Gulf Stream, washes Britain's western shores. In the north-west the country is washed by the Atlantic Ocean. The Irish Sea separates Great Britain from Ireland, in the west.
The island of Great Britain can be roughly divided into two main regions - Lowland Britain and Highland Britain. The Pennine Chain extends southward, from the Cheviot Hills into the Midland. England is separated from Scotland by the Cheviot Hill. Scotland has three natural topographic divisions: the Southern Uplands, the Central Lowlands, and the Northern Highlands which contain Ben Nevis, the highest point in the British Isles.
Wales is mountainous; Northern Ireland contains many plateaus and hills. Snowdon is the highest mountain in England and Wales.
The rivers flow east into the North Sea (the Tweed, the Tyne, the Thames) and west into the Irish Sea or the British Channel (the Mersey, the Avon and the longest river in England - the Severn).
England has no large lakes. But the Lake District in the northwestern part of the country is known for its beauty. There are sixteen lakes there.
The climate is mild and temperate. This is due to the Gulf Stream which warms its shores. Rainfall is plentiful during the whole year. The heavy fogs of England are famous. January and February are usually the coldest months, July and August - the warmest.
The most important natural resources of England are iron and coal. Copper, zinc, lead and building stone are the principal materials taken out of the ground. Great Britain is a highly developed industrial country. It is known as one of the largest producers and exporters of machinery, electronics, textile, aircraft and navigation equipment.
Being an island Britain had to develop its fleet as a major means of transportation and communication with the rest of the world. Today Britain is one of the great maritime nations of the world. The harbours of the island serve as convenient ports among which are London, Liverpool, Glasgow, Portsmouth and others.
Great Britain is famous for its shipbuilding industry. The largest shipbuilding yards are in Glasgow.
Britain is the world's third largest trading nation, accounting for about 11 percent of international trade in manufactured goods.
Agriculture takes an important sector in economy of the country. Britain has different types of farming; ranging from beef breeding in Scotland and sheep farming in the mountains of Wales to growing wheat, barley, oats and potatoes in the eastern counties.
Sea fishing is of great importance in Scotland and in the north-east of England.
Britain is a parliamentary democracy with a Constitutional monarch, queen Elizabeth II, as a head of State. The country is governed in the Queen's name by the Government. The Queen is a temporal head of the Church of England.
The British Parliament consists of two Houses - the House of Lords and the House of Commons. The Queen opens each new session with the speech setting out the government's broad programme.
The house of Commons, which plays the major part in lawmaking, consists of 655 elected members of Parliament (MPs), each representing an area in England, Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland. MPs are elected at a general election held every five years. The minimum voting age is 18. The Government is formed by the political party, which can command majority support in the House of Commons. Its leader is the Prime Minister, who chooses ministers, of whom 20 are in the Cabinet. The executive power is exercised by the Cabinet. The House of Commons is presided over by the Speaker.
The House of Lords is made up hereditary. The House is presided over by the Lord Chancellor who is a head of the judiciary in England and Wales. Legislative measures are introduced into Parliament as Bills by ministers or by other MPs.
The work of Government is carried out through the various government departments. Since 1945 Government has alternated between two political parties, the Conservatives (the Tory) and Labour Party. The third long-established party, the Liberals, enjoyed moments of success, but no member of mis Party has held government office since 1945.
Flag . Known as the Union Jack, the flag has the red cross of St. George of England, the white cross of St. Andrew of Scotland, and the red cross of St. Patrick of Ireland, all on the blue background.
Anthem: "God Saves the Queen/King".
Words and phrases :
in terms of - с точки зрения
mountainous - горный
temperate - умеренный
aircraft - самолет
Maritime - морской
harbour - гавань
yard - верфь
goods - товары
farming - сельское хозяйство, ферма
Oats - овес
barley - ячмень
temporal - временный, мирской
church - церковь
to vote - голосовать
Дата: 2019-02-02, просмотров: 483.