Vocabulary Notes

Treasury – министерство финансов

Exercise 1. Answer the questions:

1. How often is the President of the USA elected?

2. What is the term of office?

3. How is the President elected?

4. Is the President always a member of the party that won a majority in the midterm elections?

5. What is a major difference between the American system and those in which the nation's leader represents the majority party or parties?

6. What executive department do you know?

7. What do their names indicate?

8. Who is the head of each department appointed by?

9. What institution must these appointments be approved by?

10. Who are the Secretaries directly responsible to?

11. How long do the Secretaries serve?

12. What is the role of "the President's Cabinet"?

Exercise 2. Are these statements true or false? Correct the false statements:

1. The President of the United States is elected every five years.

2. The President can be only from the party which won the elections.

3. The President can always count upon the automatic support of Congress.

4. Executive departments are established by law, and, as their names indicate, each is responsible for a specific area.

5. The head of each department is appointed by the Senate.

Exercise 3. Fill in the gaps with one of the word from the list:

markets, Treasury, manages, department, departments, state, pollution, heads, advisers, Cabinet, foreign

There are now 14 _________, including Treasury, State, Defense, and Health and Human Services. Each ________ has different responsibilities. Foe example, the __________ Department _________ the nation’s money, while the ________ Department helps make _________ policy. The President appoints the department ________, who together make up the President’s ________, or _________ . The agencies regulate specific areas. For example, the Environmental Protection Agency tries to control _________ , while the Securities and Exchange Commission regulates the stock ________ .

Exercise 4.Put the words in the sentences in the right order, and find unnecessary word:

1. Is the the the head President decides the executive and country branch of.

2. The President agencies of executive departments branch consists and.

3. Congressmen senators well etc. the voters as governors elect president as representatives.

4. Leader governor the as the leader government is the just state has as its national each a local president of.

5. Senators the and with the not the state President party choose does political representatives most.

Exercise 5. Retell the text “The President”

Text 6 The Federal Judiciary

The third branch of government, in addition to the legislative (Congress) and executive (Presi­dent) branches, is the federal judiciary. Its main instrument is the Supreme Court, which watches over the other two branches. It determines whether or not their laws and acts are in accord­ance with the Constitution. Congress has the power to fix the number of judges sitting on the Court, but it cannot change the powers given to the Supreme Court by the Constitution itself. The Supreme Court consists of a chief justice and eight associate justices. They are nominated by the President but must be approved by the Senate. Once approved, they hold office as Supreme Court Justices for life. A decision of the Supreme Court cannot be appealed to any other court. Neither the President nor Congress can change their decisions. In addition to the Supreme Court, Congress has established 11 federal courts of appeal and, below them, 91 federal district courts. The Supreme Court has direct jurisdiction in only two kinds of cases: those involving foreign diplomats and those in which a state is a party. All other cases which reach the Court are appeals from lower courts. The Supreme Court chooses which of these it will hear. Most of the cases involve the interpretation of the Constitution. The Supreme Court also has the "power of judi­cial review," that is, it has the right to declare laws and actions of the federal, state, and local govern­ments unconstitutional. While not stated in the Constitution, this power was established over time.