Text B. The British democratic system depends on political parties and there has been a party system of some kind since the 17th century

The Political Parties.

The British democratic system depends on political parties and there has been a party system of some kind since the 17^th century. The Conservative and the Liberal parties are the oldest and until the last years of the 19^th century they were the only parties elected to the House of Commons.

The Conservatives, often called the Tories, have always been the party of the Right, the party of big business, industry, commerce and landowners. It can broadly be described as the party of the middle and upper classes although it does receive some working class support. The party represents those who believe in private enterprise as opposed to state-owned undertakings. The Tories are the most powerful party and are often called a party of business directors. (The word “Tories” is an Irish name for thieves and was applied to the Conservatives by their opponents, but later they adopted the name to describe themselves).

The Tories were opposed by the Whigs, a rude name for cattle drivers. In the middle of the 19^th century the Liberal Party (or the Whigs) represented the trading and manufacturing classes. Its slogan of that time was “Civil and Religious Liberty”. During the second half of the 19^th century many working people looked at the Liberal Party as an alternative to the Conservatives and their policy. At the end of the 19^th century and in the first two decades of the 20^th century, the Liberals lost the support of working – class voters.

Around 1900 the Labour Party was formed as the political arm of the trade unions. It was the party that drew away working people’s support. The Labour Party has always had strong links with the trade unions and receives financial support from them. While many Labour voters are middle-class or intellectuals, the traditional Labour Party support is still strongest in industrial areas.

There are also some other parties: the Social Democratic Party, the Liberal Democrats. The Green Party, The Communist Party, the National Front, the Scottish National Party and the Welsh National Party.

Exercise 1. Turn the following verbs into nouns denoting the doer of the action.

To support; to vote; to manufacture; to own; to oppose; to believe; to elect; to win; to defend; to direct; to represent; to preside.

Exercise 2. Rearrange the sentences putting the words in the correct word order.

1) The party, the rich, traditionally, is, the Conservative Party, and, supported, privileged, by.

2) Today, representation, almost, parliamentary, insignificant, and, the Liberal Party, the membership, is, of.

3) A victory, was, at the beginning, the Labour Party, of, the formation, of, movement, the century, of, the labour.

4) Extremely, the Labour, the difference, policies, between, and, to tell, it’s, the Conservative, difficult.

5) To be, the major, parties, activists, members, tend, party, in, of, political, each, hard-working.

Exercise 3. Answer the following questions.

1) What are the dominant parties in modern Britain?

2) What is the difference between the two main political parties?

3) What do you know about the activities of the Green Party in Britain?

4) What is the role of the Liberal Party?

5) What is the ruling party in Great Britain now?

Exercise 4. Imagine that you are a reporter of the Russian newspaper “Izvestija”. Interview the Conservative party member (the Labour party member) on the aims of their national and local policies.

Exercise 5. Translate into English.

Политическая партия в Великобритании – это организация людей, разделяющих одинаковые взгляды на методы управления страной и пытающихся добиться власти, чтобы воплотить эти взгляды в реальность. Цель любой британской политической партии состоит в том, чтобы добиться избрания как можно большего числа своих кандидатов в парламент, поскольку партия, добившаяся большинства, формирует правительство. Из 650 кандидатов, прошедших в парламент, несколько человек войдет в правительство, а остальные будут заседать в парламентских комитетах. Премьер-министром становится лидер победившей на выборах партии. Таким образом, в Великобритании на выборах большее значение приобретает политика, и меньшее – обаятельность кандидатов – в отличие, скажем, от Америки.

Exercise 6.Role play.

Work in two groups, one - acting MPs supporting the bills to be introduced the other – rejecting it. Discuss all pros and cons of the bills given below, and give your arguments:

- The UK accepting the “Euro” as payment.

- Cancelling the heredity principal of Lords as MPs.

- Restrictions of monarch’s powers in the UK.

- Efficiency of the multi-party system.

UNIT III.

Economic Outline of the UK.

Read and translate.

Text A.

The UK is a highly-developed country. It lives by manufacture and trade. For every person employed in agriculture eleven people are employed in mining, manufacturing and building. The United Kingdom is one of the world’s largest exporters of manufactured goods per head of population.

Apart from coal and iron ore Britain has very few natural resources and mostly depends on imports. Its agriculture provides only half of the food it needs. The other half and most of the raw materials for its industries such as oil and various metals (copper, zinc, uranium ore and others) have to be imported. Britain also has to import timber, cotton, fruit and farm products.

Britain used to be richly forested, but most of the forests were cut down to make more room for cultivation. The greater part of land is used for cattle and sheep breeding, and pig raising. Among the crops grown on the farms are wheat, barley and oats. The fields are mainly in the eastern part of the country.

In the past century Britain secured a leading position in the world as manufacturer, merchant and banker. After World War I the world demand for products of Britain’s traditional industries - textiles, coal and machinery - fell off, and Britain began expanding trade in new engineering products and electrical goods.

The crisis of 1929-1933 brought about mass unemployment and Britain’s share in the world industrial output decreased. World War II brought about a further weakening of Britain’s might. It has lost its colonies which used to supply it with cheap raw materials.

The original basis of British industry was coal-mining, and the early factories grew up not far from the main mining areas. Glasgow and Newcastle became great centers of engineering and shipbuilding. Lancashire produced cotton goods and Yorkshire woolen, with Sheffield concentrating on iron and steel. Birmingham developed light engineering.

The structure of industry changed substantially in the last half of the 20th century. As coal production declined, oil production replaced it as a major industry. Motor vehicle production became a significant part of the industrial base. British industrial production also expanded into communications equipment, including fiber optics, computers, computer-controlled machine tools, and robots.

The so-called Silicon Glen between Glasgow and Edinburgh is the site of many overseas computer firms. Scotland and Northern Ireland are still noted for their production of whiskey and textiles, especially linen from Northern Ireland and tweed from Scotland.

Nowadays Britain remains an important manufacturing country. Britain mostly produces articles requiring skilled labour, such as precision instruments, electronic equipment, chemicals and high quality consumer goods. It produces and exports cotton and woolen goods, leather goods and articles made of various kinds of synthetic (man-made) materials. The leading traditional manufacturing regions of England are Greater London and the cities and regions around Manchester, Birmingham, Leeds, and Newcastle upon Tyne.

Britain has a large and sophisticated service sector. The service industries include finance, retailing, wholesaling, tourism, business services, transport, insurance, investment, advertising, public relations, market research, education, administration, and government and professional services. Telecommunications has become a dynamic growth industry, particularly with telex, facsimile, and e-mail communications.

Exercise 1.Give the Russian equivalents of the following.

Employ, be employed in industry (agriculture), mining, building, trade, manufactured goods, per head of population, apart from, raw materials, provide, timber, used to be, used to do smth., cattle and sheep breeding, demand, bring about, unemployment, share, articles, precision instruments, high quality consumer goods, retailing, wholesaling, insurance, advertising, public relations, government, particularly.

Exercise 2. Find in the text the English equivalents of the following.

Обрабатывающая промышленность, горно-добывающая промышленность, торговля, промышленные товары, строевой лес, крупный рогатый скот, сельскохозяйственная культура, пшеница, ячмень, овес, торговец, изделия текстильной промышленности, квалифицированный труд, сырье, кожа, обслуживающие отрасли промышленности, зарубежные фирмы.

Exercise 3. Complete the following sentences using the right words:

1) Great Britain is rich in ... (oil, gold, copper, silver, iron ore, zinc, coal).

2) Great Britain has to import ... (coal, agricultural products, electrical goods, chemicals, electronic equipment, oil, various metals, food products, cotton, timber, tobacco, wheat, fruit).

3) When the world demand for the products of Britain’s main industries-textiles, coal, machinery-decreased, it began seeking compensation in new engineering products, such as ... (cars, atomic power reactors, electrical goods, electronic equipment).

4) It is characteristic of Britain’s industry to produce ... (semi-finished goods, cheap articles, raw materials, high quality expensive goods, articles requiring skilled labour, precision instrument, electronic equipment).

5) The main products of Britain’s industry are ... (precision instruments, high quality consumer goods, electronic equipment, chemicals, textiles, ready-made clothing, manufactured goods, petrol).

6) A great number of new industries were added to the traditional ones such as ... (the aircraft industry, the textile industry, the electronic industry, the shipbuilding industry, the automobile industry, mining, engineering).

7) The main crops grown in Britain are ... (flax, cotton, wheat, barley, tobacco, vats).

8) In Britain they breed ... (cattle, horses, sheep, pigs, goats, deer, rabbits).

Exercise 4. Answer the questions.

1) What does the UK live by?

2) What does Great Britain export?

3) What raw materials does Great Britain import?

4) What did the crisis of 1929-1933 bring about?

5) When did Great Britain lose its colonies?

6) How did the structure of industry change in the last half of the 20^th century?

7) What are Scotland and Northern Ireland noted for?

8) What are the main industrial articles produced by British industry?

9) Could you enumerate main British industries?

10) What areas does the service sector include?

Exercise 5. Translate into English.

Великобритания имеет высокоразвитую промышленность. Большая часть ее населения занята в промышленности, и только небольшая часть - только 8% населения - занимается сельским хозяйством. В Великобритании не много полезных ископаемых и ей приходится ввозить сырье из других стран.

Характерной чертой Британской промышленности является производство товаров высокого качества, требующих квалифицированного труда. Традиционными отраслями английской промышленности являются машиностроение, текстильная, судостроительная и угольная промышленность. Однако после первой мировой войны спрос на продукцию традиционных отраслей промышленности сократился, и Великобритания начала развивать новые отрасли промышленности, такие как химическая, авиационная, автомобильная и др.

Exercise 6. Suppose you are to give a lecture on the current state of British economy. Here are some phrases to introduce the subject of your lecture:

I will concern myself with...

I will try to outline briefly some recent data on...

This is an attempt to introduce you to the...

I will speak about...

Exercise 7. Role play.

The group of students is divided into two teams. The first one represents businessmen from England, Wales and Scotland. The other one – journalists from Russia. They are interviewing the businessmen about the industries developed in their countries.

Дата добавления: 2014-10-17; просмотров: 379; Нарушение авторских прав

Мы поможем в написании ваших работ!