2. Middle Class / “White Collar”

Most of the people are classified according to their occupation:

CLASS 1: embraces professional occupations, including higher-grade professionals and higher administrators, lawyers, architects, doctors, managers, university teachers.

CLASS 2: covers intermediate occupations, including intermediate professionals and administrators, e.g.: lower-grade professionals, administrators and managers, supervisors and higher-grade technicians, shopkeepers, farmers, actors, musicians, teachers.

CLASS 3 N (a): embraces skilled occupations (non-manual), including non-manual workers, e.g.: clerks, sales and rank-and-file workers, small proprietors and self-employed artisans, draughtsmen, lower-grade technicians and foremen, etc.

Working Class/ “Blue Collar” covers:

CLASS 3 M (b): embraces skilled occupations (Manual), including skilled manual workers in industry, e.g. electricians, coalminers, etc.

CLASS 4: covers partly skilled occupations, including semi-skilled workers, e.g. milk rounds men, telephone operators, fishermen, farm workers, semi-skilled workers in industry, etc.

CLASS 5: embraces unskilled occupations, including unskilled workers, e.g. night watchers, collectors, cleaners, labourers and so on.

Occupation as a class distinction is related to differences in incomes, social prestige, in education, life style, and speech.

24. National and public holidays in the usa

Each of the fifty states in the USA establishes their own legal holidays. Most states have the federal legal holidays which are: the New Year’s Day, Martin Luther King’s Day, President’s Day (the third Monday in February), Memorial Day (last Monday in May), Independence Day (July, 4^th), Labour Day (the first Monday in September), Columbus Day, Veterans Day (November, 11^th), Thanksgiving Day (the fourth Thursday in November), Christmas (December, 25^th) and Easter.

Many religious holidays such as Good Friday, Hanukkah or Ramadan are observed by the religion. They have no national or officially legal status.

There are many other traditional holidays, observed by a large number of Americans, which are neither legal nor official. Among them are Valentine’s Day, St. Patrick’s Day (March, 17^th), Mother’s Day and Halloween.

The two “most American” of the holidays are Independence Day, and Thanksgiving Day. The first one is like a big nationwide birthday party. Some towns and cities have parades with bands and flags, the most politicians give a patriotic speech.

Like Christmas, Thanksgiving is a day for families to come together. Traditional foods are prepared for the feast – turkey or ham, cranberry sauce, bread rolls and a pumpkin pie. At the same time Thanksgiving is a solemn occasion, a day to remember the many who are less well off, in America and throughout the world.

25. Court system of Great Britain

The process of criminal justice begins when the police arrest a suspect. Then they decide whether they have enough evidence to send the suspect for the trial. In serious cases this decision is made by the Director of Public Prosecutions, who is a senior law official.

If a person is prosecuted for a crime in Britain, he/she may meet the following people during the process through the courts:

• Magistrates

Magistrates are unpaid judges. They are not legally qualified. They are guided on the points of law by an official, the clerk. There are magistrates’ courts in most of towns.

• Solicitors

After the accused person has been arrested, the first person he or she needs to see is a solicitor. Solicitors are qualified lawyers. They advise the accused and help to prepare the defence case. Barristers

The barrister is trained in law and in the skills required to argue a case in court. The barrister for the defence is confronted by the prosecuting barrister, who represents the state. Legal Aid is available to pay for defence barristers.

• Jurors

A jury consists of twelve men and women from the local community. They sit in the Crown court, with a judge, and listen to witnesses for the defence and prosecution before deciding whether the accused is guilty or innocent.

• Judges

Judges are trained lawyers who sit in the Crown court (and Appeal court). The judge makes sure that the trial is conducted properly. If the jury finds the accused guilty, then the judge will pass sentence.

Appealing

People who have been convicted can appeal if their lawyer can either show that the trial was wrongly conducted or produce new evidence. Appeals from a Magistrates’ court are to the Crown Court and then up through the courts system to the Judicial Chamber of the House of Lords, the highest court in the country. From there, appeal is to the European Court of Justice.