The United Kingdom

1. This is an abbreviation of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and is the political name of the country which is made up of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. In everyday speech “Britain” is often used to mean the United Kingdom. The country is situated on the British Isles which lie between the North Sea and the Atlantic Ocean to the west of the European continent. The total area is about 120000 square miles.

2. It has been claimed that the British love of compromise is the result of the country’s physical geography. This may or may not be true, but it is certainly true that the land and the climate in Britain have a notable lack of extremes. Britain has mountains, but none of them are very high; it also has flat lands, but you cannot travel without encountering hills; it has no really big rivers; it doesn’t usually get very cold in the winter or very hot in the summer.

3. The population of the country is over 57 million people. About 20 per cent of the British people live in rural areas, the others live in urban districts. There are only five cities with populations over 500000, although Manchester, Liverpool and Newcastle also exceed this figure if neighbouring towns are included.

4. Though once Britain used to be one of the most powerful capitalist countries, its importance has shown a marked decline. Nevertheless, it has a number of highly developed industries: textile, iron and steel, shipbuilding, engineering, chemical, agricultural ones.

5. The United Kingdom is a constitutional (or parliamentary) monarchy, without a written constitution. The British constitution is based on Acts of Parliament (also called “laws” or “statutes”) and conventions, which are commonly accepted assumptions about the way things should be done. The country has a monarch (a king or a queen) as its Head of State. The monarch has very little power and can only reign with the support of parliament. Parliament consists of two chambers known as the House of Lords and the House of Commons. Parliament and the monarch have different roles in the government of the country. In reality, the House of Commons is the only one of the three which has true power. It is here that new bills are introduced and debated. If the majority of the members are in favour of a bill it goes to the House of Lords to be debated and finally to the monarch to be signed. Only then does it become law. Although a bill must be supported by all three bodies, the house of Lords has only limited powers, and the monarch has not refused to sign one since the modern political system began over 200 years ago.

5. Выполните лексико-грамматические задания на базе текста №1:

5.1. Выпишите из текста эквиваленты следующих слов и выражений: площадь; составлять; высоко развитые отрасли промышленности, сельские (городские) районы; власть; писаная конституция; управление (страной); палата (парламента); законопроект; закон (3 варианта); ограниченные полномочия; обычай (соглашение).

Выпишите из текста 2 предложения, содержащие сказуемое в активном залоге. Подчеркните сказуемое и определите его видовременную форму. Измените предложения таким образом, чтобы сказуемое имело все возможные грамматические формы.

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