GREAT BRITAN

1. LOCATION, POPULATION, CLIMATE

1) The official name of Great Britain is the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (UK).

2) It occupies the territory of the British Isles.

3) It is composed of about 5,500 large and small islands.

4) The two biggest islands are Great Britain and Ireland.

5) Great Britain (UK) consists of four countries: England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

6) Their capitals are London, Edinburgh, Cardiff and Belfast.

7) The total area of the UK is about 244,100 square kilometers.

8) The country is washed by the Atlantic Ocean, the North Sea and the Irish Sea.

9) The population of Great Britain is over 57 million people.

10) As the United Kingdom is an island state the climate there is very specific.

11) It is not very cold in winter and never very hot in summer.

12) There is no ice on the lakes and rivers in winter.

13) It often rains in all seasons.

14) Besides, Britain is famous for its fogs.

15) The weather changes so often that Englishmen say that they have no climate in Great Britain, but only weather.

16) The nature of Great Britain is picturesque.

17) There are many rivers and beautiful lakes there.

18) One of the most wonderful parts of the country is called Lake District.

19) The main rivers of Great Britain are the Severn and the Thames.

20) There are no great forests in the British Isles.

21) As for the mountains they are not very high, but very beautiful.

22) The most picturesque region of the country is Highlands in the North of Scotland.

23) This is the region of mountains, rivers and cosy towns and villages.

2. TOWNS, INDUSTRY AND AGRICULTURE.

1) Great Britain is mainly an industrial country.

2) That’s why most of the people there live in large towns.

3) The largest cities of Great Britain are London, Birmingham, Glasgow, Liverpool, Manchester, Bristol, Leeds, Edinburgh and others.

4) London is the capital of England and the capital of the United Kingdom, too.

5) It is a very big city.

6) Its population is more than 11 million people.

7) London stands on the river Thames.

8) The Thames is rather a deep river, so all kinds of ships can come into London port.

9) That makes London one of the biggest sea ports of world.

10) London is also one of the main ship-building centres.

11) Besides, lots of things such as clothes, food, airplanes and cars are made in London.

12) Birmingham is the biggest town in an important industrial region in the centre of England.

13) Machines, cars and lorries as well as TV- and radiosets are produced there.

14) Manchester in the north-west of England is the centre of the cotton textile industry.

15) Here computers, electronic equipment, various machines, foods and other things are made.

16) Glasgow is the biggest city of Scotland.

17) Shipbuilding is one of its most important industries.

18) Other industries are iron and steel manufacture, heavy and light engineering and coal mining.

19) It’s an industrial city and an important port.

20) The largest city of Wales is Cardiff, its capital.

21) It is an important industrial city and a port.

22) It is also an administrative and educational centre.

23) Belfast, the capital of Northern Ireland is the leading industrial centre and a large port.

24) Its chief industries are the production of linen and other textiles, clothing, shipbuilding, engineering.

25) Great Britain is also a highly developed agricultural country.

26) Wheat is grown in the east of England.

27) Vegetables are grown in all parts of the country, especially in the south.

28) Potatoes are grown everywhere in the British Isles.

29) Some kinds of fruit can grow in the south where the temperature is higher and there is more sunshine.

30) There are a lot of cattle farms and farms which produce milk, butter and cheese.

31) Great Britain is also famous for its wool.

3. THE POLITICAL SYSTEM OF GREAT BRITAIN

1) The United Kingdom is a constitutional monarchy.

2) This means that it has a monarch (a king or a queen) as its head of state.

3) Everything today is done in the Queen’s name (Her Majesty the Queen Elisabeth II).

4) She approves all the Ministers, including the Prime Minister.

5) But the monarchy today has practically no power.

6) The monarch reigns with the support of the parliament.

7) A parliament is the group of people who make the laws of their country.

8) British parliament consists of two Houses: the House of Lords and the House of Commons and the Queen as its head.

9) The House of Commons plays the main role in lawmaking.

10) It consists of 650 members of Parliament who are elected for a period of five years.

11) The House of Lords has more than 1,000 members, although only about 250 take an active part in the work of the House.

12) The members of the House of Lords are not elected, they inherit their seats in Parliament.

13) The chairman of the House of Lords is the Lord Chancellor and he sits on a special seat called the Woolsack.

14) It shows that wool made England rich.

15) Members of the House of Commons belong to different political parties, and the party which gets the majority of seats in the House is called the ruling party, and the others – the oppositions.

16) The main British political groups are the Conservative and Labour Parties and the Party of Liberal Democrats.

17) The Conservative Party is the ruling party, the Labour Party – the opposition to the Conservatives.

18) The Conservative Party is often called the Tory Party.

19) It is the party of big business, industry, commerce and landowners.

20) The Conservative Party and the Liberal are more than three hundred years old.

21) The Liberals were called “Whigs”.

22) It was the party of the trading and manufacturing classes.

23) The Labour Party was formed in 1900.

24) It was founded by the Trade Unions, but had not done much to change the conditions of working class.

25) Among the other political parties of Great Britain there are Social Democratic Party, the Scottish National and Welsh Nationalist Parties, the Communist Party of Great Britain.

4. THE FLAG AND THE NATIONAL EMBLEMS OF GREAT BRITAIN

1) The flag of the United Kingdom is often called the Union Flag, or the Union Jack.

2) It consists of several flags.

3) In 1603 Scotland was joined to England and Wales.

4) The Scottish Flag, St.Andrew’s Cross (the patron saint of Scotland0, blue with a white cross from corner to corner, was joined to the English flag, St.George’s Cross (the patron saint of England), white with a red upright cross.

5) Later, in 1801, the Irish Flag of St.Patrick’s Cross (the patron of Ireland) was added, white with a red cross from corner to corner.