1. Try and draw a map of the British Isles from memory.

THE UNITED KINGDOM

1. Try and draw a map of the British Isles from memory.

2. Compare your map with a map of the British Isles.

3. Think of four things that you think are typically British.

The United Kingdom is very small compared with many other countries in the world. However, there are only 9 other countries with more people, and London is the world's seventh biggest city.

By the way, “The United Kingdom “is the political name of the country which is made up of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

Why British not English? Many foreigners say 'England' and 'English' when they mean 'Britain', or the 'UK', and 'British'. This is very annoying for the 5 million people who live in Scotland, almost 3 million in Wales and 1.5 million in Northern Ireland who are certainly not English However, the people from Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and England are all British.

The political system. The monarch in the UK can only reign with the support of Parliament, which consists of two chambers known as the House of Commons and the House of Lords. In reality, the House of Commons has true power. It is here that new bills are introduced and debated.Then a bill goes to the House of Lords to be debated and finally to the monarch to be signed (the monarch has not refused to sign one since 1707.)

Economy and Industry. Heavy industries, including steel manufacture and shipbuilding, have been replaced by high-technology manufacturing industries. Now there are only a few successful large companies, but many successful small companies. The large companies often invest a lot of money in research and development, to find new and better, usually high-technology, products.

Successful small manufacturing companies in Britain often make expensive products. They are successful because they use first-class materials, have excellent quality control and the workers are proud of what they make. They include the Morgan Motor Company, which makes elite cars; Quad Electroacoustics, which makes top-quality hi-fi equipment, Glaxo is Britain's leading pharmaceutical company and is one of the largest in the world. Traditional British. Britain has some excellent traditional food: lamb from Wales. shellfish and fresh salmon from Northen Ireland, fresh or smoked fish from Scotland, cheeses from England and Wales.

Write down three facts that you know of London

The saying "When a man is tired of London, he is tired of life!" is a cliche, but you can't be bored in London. There are hundreds of historic buildings, galleries and museums. There are parks and street markets, over 80 theatres and even more cinemas.

If you want to discover London, it is best to start with a tour on a double decker bus.

Some visitors say that London is an expensive city, but there are a few things to do which do not cost a lot of money. Most museums are free. There are traditional museums, but many are now making their exhibitions interactive to encourage people to touch and understand what is on display.

- At the Science Museum, visitors can carry out experiments.

- At the Natural History Museum, visitors can find out how to look for fossils on the beach.

- At the National Gallery visitors can call up paintings on computer screens, find out about them and then print out a plan.

- The collection of The British Museum includes many hundreds of things to see. Worth a special mention are: two of the four copies of Magna Carta, Nelson’s plan of the battle of Trafalgar, the Elgin Marbles and the Rosetta Stone.

- At MOMI, the Museum of the Moving Image, almost all the things on display move. You can see how the first film was made, listen to the latest stereo systems and watch the news from the 1960s. You can design your own cartoons, read the news on TV and fly like Superman over London.

One thing for sure about London - it is a city with a difference.

Дата добавления: 2015-11-05