Social profile

Vocabulary

Composition

Birth rate

To fluctuate, fluctuation

To decrease

Overall decline

Replenishment level

The pattern of consumption

Household gadgets

Skimmed, semi-skimmed

Classic family

Household structure, nuclear family household

Second marriage

To cohabit

Divorce rate

Single-parent family

Men/women employment

Segregation of employment by gender

Welfare

Crèche

Assumption

QUESTIONS:

1. What are recent changes in age and composition of Britain’s population?

2. What are the patterns of work, consumption and spending habits of Britons?

3. What are the patterns of family life in modern Britain?

4. What is meant by vertical and horizontal segregation in women’s employment in Britain?

5. Can Britain be described as class-conscious society? If so, why?

6. Does the perception of class conflict remain in the British society?

The state (monarchy)

Vocabulary

Statute law (Acts of Parliament)

Magna Carta

Customs and conventions

The legislature

The executive

The judiciary

To descend, descendant

To succeed, succession

To precede precedence

Queen Regnant

Sovereign

The House and the Family of Windsor

Royal Assent

The Order of Garter; the Order of Thistle; the Order of Merit; the Royal Victorian Order

Privy Council

Ambassador, ambassadorial

State Opening of Parliament

Trooping the Colour on Horse Guard Parade

Royal Garden Parties

The Remembrance Day

The Royal Maundy

100^th Birthday Telegrams

The royal Film Performance

The Queen’s Christmas Speech

The Queen’s Civil List

QUESTIONS:

1. What is meant by separations of powers?

2. What is the position of the monarch in the British Constitution?

3. What are the rules of succession to the throne?

4. Why Prince Philip isn’t called ‘the King’?

5. Which of the Queen’s functions are formal?

6. What ceremony takes place at the Queen’s official birthday?

7. What are the most ancient of the Royal ceremonials?

8. What are the modern ceremonies and customs?

9. What charity work is performed by the Royal Family?

10. How rich is the Queen?

11. What are the advantages of the monarchy?

12. What are the criticisms of the British monarchy?

The state (parliament)

Vocabulary

The supreme legislative authority

To gain supremacy over

To elect, elected, elections, electorate

Great Council

To grant aid

To set seal

Runnymede, 1215, June 10

Simon de Monfort

Lewes, 1264

Commons’ petition

Bourgeois Revolution

Lord Protector Oliver Cromwell

Whigs, Tories

William of Orange

The Bill of Rights

Euro-MPs (MEPs)

To prorogue, prorogation

The Lord Spiritual, the Lord Temporal

Hereditary and life peers and peeresses

Lord of Appeal (Law Lords); Britain’s Supreme Court of Appeal

Lora Chancellor

Universal adult suffrage

Office cost allowance

Subsistence allowance

Electoral constituencies

Secret ballot

A polling station, ballot paper, the slot in the ballot box, absent vote (by post, by proxy)

Proposer and seconder

Proportional representation

QUESTIONS:

1. What are the main stages in the development of the Parliament?

2. What are the functions of the Parliament?

3. Who are the Lords Spiritual?

4. Who become peers? What do they do in Parliament?

5. What are the functions of the Speaker?

6. Who can vote? What is the procedure of voting? Who can stand and be elected in Britain?