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her children, for example, they see her as a “real person” with the same worries and anxieties as themselves.

Many members of the Royal Family undertake official duties in Britain and abroad. Their various responsibilities reflect tradition, their own personal interests and Britain’s former imperial status. Foe example, among her many titles Princess Anne is Chancellor of the University of London, Colonel-in-Chief of eleven Army regiments, and President of the Save the Children Fund.

The Royal Family’s money comes from two sources: government funds and their own personal wealth, which is considerable. On one hand, the Queen is certainly one of the richest women in the world, while on the other hand, her power is limited by the fact that so many of her expenses are paid for by government money. Parliament has had effective control of the monarch’s finances since the 17th century.

THE SYSTEM OF GOVERNMENT IN BRITAIN

In theory, the constitution has three branches: Parliament, which makes laws, the government, which “executes” laws, i.e. puts them into effect, and the law courts, which interpret laws. Although the Queen is officially head of all three branches, she has little direct power.

Parliament has two parts: the House of Commons and the House of Lords. Members of the House of Commons are elected by the voters of 650 constituencies. They are known as MPs, or Members of Parliament. The Prime Minister, or leader of the Government, is also an MP, usually the leader of the political party with a majority in the House of Commons.

The Prime Minister is advised by a Cabinet of about twenty other ministers. The Cabinet includes the ministers in charge of major government departments or ministries. Departments and ministries are run by civil servants, who are permanent officials. Even if the Government changes after an election, the same civil servants are employed.

There are about 1200 members in the House of Lords. The House of Lords consists of the Lords Temporal and the Lords Spiritual. The Lords Spiritual are the Archbishops of York and Canterbury, together with twenty-four senior bishops of the Church of England. The Lords Temporal consist of hereditary peers of England and Scotland – dukes, marquises, earls and barons - who have inherited their titles; life peers who are appointed by the Queen on the advice of the Government for various services to the nation; and the Lords of Appeal (Law Lords) who become life peers on their judicial appointments. The latter serve the House of Lords as the ultimate court of appeal. This appeal court consists of some nine Law Lords who hold senior judicial office. They are presided over by the Lord Chancellor.

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Traditionally, the members of the House of Lords had not been receiving salaries for their parliamentary work. Not long ago, special money compensation was allotted to them, to get them interested in attending the sessions.

BRITISH PARLIAMENT

British Parliament is housed in the Westminster Palace, which stands on the bank of the river Thames. It consists of two Chambers. The lower chamber, the House of Commons, occupies the north part of the Palace, and the upper chamber, the House of Lords, occupies the south end. Parliament is the highest legislative authority in Great Britain and its legislative power is unlimited. It means that there is no institution in Great Britain similar to the Supreme Court of the United States оf America that can abolish a law if it considers it contradictory to the Constitution.

British Parliament can pass any law, and there is no institution in Britain strong enough to abolish it. The new Bills are introduced and debated by the House of Commons. When the majority of the members are in favour of the bill, it goes to the House of Lords to be debated and, finally, to the monarch to be approved. Then it becomes a law. The Lords cannot prevent the bill from becoming a law but may delay its coming into force for a period of one year. The monarch can refuse to approve a new law but it has not been done for more than 200 years.

THE HOUSE OF COMMONS

The House of Commons occupies the northern part of the Westminster Palace. There are some hundreds of rooms there, among them the library, restaurants, committee rooms and a few small rooms in which the members can read, write letters and so on. The debating chamber is only one of many rooms of the palace, but is usually called “the House”. The members of the House of Commons (the MPs) hold their seats during the period between the General Elections, which are held every five years. The total membership is 650, but the House is too small to contain seats for them all: only 370 people can sit on the benches. Normally it does not create a problem because usually not more than one third of these 370 seats are occupied during the sittings. But on “big days” the chamber is overcrowded. Many members have to stand in the aisles and by the walls. During World War II Westminster Palace was damaged by bombing. There appeared a chance to built bigger chambers, so that to accommodate all the Members. But the House was rebuilt in the same size and shape, only with addition of some modern conveniences, such as air-conditioning, better lighting and microphones.

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The House meets five times a week at 2.30 pm. The Speaker is the presiding officer of the House. He is elected immediately after the House is formed. Before that he may have been a member of any political party. But on his election he suspends his party membership: his function is to provide neutral policy in the House and to stand above party interests.

They have a peculiar tradition to elect the Speaker. After his election, the new Speaker is dragged to the Speaker’s chair by two MPs. On the way they kick and push him. The tradition goes back to the days of the English Revolution, when the Speaker’s position was one of the most dangerous in the state: he had to speak to the King on behalf of Parliament (hence his title), and he often risked his head while doing it.

That is why the people accepted this post unwillingly and often were forced to take it. Nowadays the main function of the Speaker is not to speak but to give the members the opportunity to do it. When a Member of Parliament has something to say, he must first «catch the Speaker’s eye», and it is up to the Speaker whether to allow him to speak or not.

LAWMAKING PROCESS IN GREAT BRITAIN

New legislation in Britain usually starts in the House of Lords. In each house a bill is considered in three stages, called readings. The first reading is purely formal, to introduce the bill. The second reading is usually the occasion for debate. After the second reading the bill is examined in detail by a committee.

The bill is then returned to one of the houses for the report stage, when it can be amended. If passed after its third reading, it goes to the other house. Amendments made to a bill by the House of Lords must be considered by the Commons. If the House of Commons does not agree, the bill is altered and sent back to the Lords. In the event of persistent disagreement between the two houses, Commons prevails.

Finally, the bill goes to the reigning monarch for the royal assent. Nowadays the royal assent is merely a formality. In theory the Queen could still refuse her consent, but the last monarch to use this power was Queen Anne, who vetoed the unpopular Scottish Militia Bill in 1707.

WALES

The conquest of Wales took place during the beginning of Edward I’s reign (1272– 1307). The English kings had always claimed some sort of overlordship of Wales, but had never been able to conquer the people. The Welsh were very poor, and had no great possessions except flocks and herds that could easily be moved. When their country was

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invaded they usually fled to the mountains and harassed the invaders by means of their archers, who were exceptionally clever.

On the Welsh border, great parts of the country had been given to powerful Norman barons by William the Conqueror. When Llewelyn ap Gruffid, prince of Gwynned, claimed to be independent lord of Wales, the English king Edward I attacked Wales from the sea as well as from the land, and at last succeeded in conquest by starvation.

Thus in 1284 Edward united west Wales with England. But he did not interfere with the areas the Normans had conquered earlier on the English–Welsh border, because this could lead to trouble with his nobles. The Welsh needed a new prince, and at a public ceremony at Coronation Edward I made his own baby son (later Edward II) Prince of Wales. From that time the eldest son of the ruling king or queen has usually been made Prince of Wales.

NOTHERN IRELAND

The problem between Protestants and Catholics in Northern Ireland started a long ago. It is more political than religious. For centuries the English had tried to gain control of Ireland. Until the 16-th century, England controlled only a small area of Ireland around Dublin. English rulers, including King Henry VIII (1491–1547), Queen Elizabeth I (1533– 1603) and Oliver Cromwell (1599–1658) gradually conquered the whole of Ireland. The last area to resist the English was the province of Ulster, in the north of Ireland, but in the end the Irish were defeated.

In 1910 the British government offered Ireland a mild form of Home Rule – full selfgovernment in regard to purely Irish affairs. Opposition was at once started in Ireland. It was backed by the generals of the British Army’s troops in Ireland. The Irish patriots formed their own military organizations of the Irish Volunteers, drilling troops for a fight. The Labour Party in Ireland established the Irish Citizen Army. The Volunteers and the Irish Citizen Army jointly started preparation for an insurrection. The set date was Monday of Easter Week, 1916. Although the uprising was a failure, it laid the foundation for another stage of the fight for freedom.

In 1921, an independent Irish state was set up, that is the Republic of Ireland. In the north of Ireland six counties were dominated and controlled by Protestants, who refused to join the new Irish state. These six countries stayed part of the UK and are now called Northern Ireland.

Northern Ireland is a very beautiful place. It is a land of mountains, rivers and lakes. It has a rugged coastline and one is never more than half an hour away from the coast by car.

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The people of Ireland have always been known for the stories and myths. They say that giants used to live on the Antrim coast, north of Belfast. One giant, Finn McCool, the commander of the king of Ireland’s army, fell in love with a woman giant in Scotland. He wanted her to come to Ulster so he started to build a bridge, the Giant’s Causeway, so that she could walk across the sea.

THE FOUNDING OF THE UNITED STATES

About 500 years ago North America was a vast territory inhabited by Indians. In 1492 Christopher Columbus, an Italian, sailing under the Spanish flag, set out for Asia and discovered a “New World”.

For the next 100 years English, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch and French explorers sailed forth looking for the New World for gold and riches, honour and glory. But North America brought them little glory and less gold, so most explorers did not stay there. The people who did settle there arrived later, and they came there in search of different goals – economic opportunity, religious and political freedom.

In 1607 the English settlers built the first village which they called Jamestown in commemoration of King James I of England. Bleak, hard and lonely immigrants soon founded colonies all along the Atlantic Coast. Over time settlers from many other nations joined the English in America. German farmers settled in Pennsylvania, French settled in Canada and Spanish explorers established missions and settlements in Florida and American South West. The settlers cleaned the land for farms, built villages and established local governing bodies. By 1733 European settlers occupied 13 colonies along the Atlantic Coast.

A series of conflicts between the British and the French culminated in French and Indian War (1754-1763) in which Britain with its American colonial allies won the victory. France ceded Canada and the Ohio territories east of Mississippi River to Britain in 1763.

The British started imposing new taxes on sugar, coffee, textiles and other imported goods and required the colonists to house and feed British soldiers. These measures seemed quite fair to the British politicians who had spent large sums of money to defend their American colonies during the French and Indian War.

But the Americans feared that the new taxes would make trading difficult and that the British troops stationed in the colonies might be used to crush civil liberties which they had enjoyed. That’s why they insisted that they could be taxed only by their own colonial assemblies. But the British Parliament heeded their protests and sent customs officers to Boston to collect the tariffs. When the colonists refused to obey, the British sent soldiers to Boston.

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GOING IN FOR SPORTS IN THE USA

Americans pay much attention to physical fitness. Many sports and sporting activities are popular in the USA. People participate in swimming, squash and badminton, tennis, marathons, bowling, skiing, skating etc. But five major American sports are hockey, volleyball, baseball, football and basketball. Basketball and volleyball have been invented in America. Some unusual kinds of sports originated in America. They are windsurfing, skateboarding and triathlon. Triathlon includes swimming, bicycle racing and long-distance running. Now these sports are becoming more and more popular in Europe.

Americans consider themselves the nation of sports fans. A visitor to the USA may be really amazed at seeing how much attention is paid to different kinds of sports. The major sporting events are widely discussed in newspapers and magazines, and the names of famous sportsmen are known to everyone. Special TV channels broadcast championships all over the country. Hundreds of stadiums are built every year.

Physical training is a very important subject at school, high school and college. Preferences is given to team games, such as American football, football (called soccer by Americans), baseball and basketball. In every city one may find a café with a dozen of large TV-sets showing different sports events. People go to those cafes to route for their favourite team and to talk to friends. It is a very popular way to spend an evening.

Great attention is paid on keeping oneself physically fit. Companies spend money on building gyms and arranging sports facilities for their employees. A company staff may have an option of going to a swimming pool, a training centre or a golf course for a symbolic fee. The companies are pragmatic doing this. If a person goes in for sports he or she will be healthier and more energetic, and this will do good for the company he works for. Besides, medical care is very expensive, and it is often easier to prevent a disease by giving a person an opportunity to look after oneself than to pay the insurance afterwards.

WASHINGTON

Washington is the capital of the United States of America. It is situated in the mouth of the Potomac River, in the District of Columbia, not belonging to any state. The city is unique in its own way – it was specially designed as the capital of the USA. The French architect, who drew up the plan of the city, Pierre l’Enfant, wanted it to be very convenient. The place for the capital was chosen by the first president, George Washington, and in 1800 the Government moved there. Washington is a symbol of the country’s unity, history and democratic traditions.

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There are a lot of Governmental offices, but probably the best known, as well as the most important for the country’s life are the White House and the Capitol. The White House is the official residence of the President of the United States and every president except Washington has lived there. It was built in 1799. It is a three-storeyed house where the President and his family live. At the same time it is the place where official receptions are held and the administration gathers for the meetings.

The Capitol is the seat of the Congress. The corner stone of the Congress was laid by George Washington in 1790. The Congress has two chambers: the House of Representatives and the Senate. The Capitol stands on Capitol Hill, the highest point in the city. It’s a very high and beautiful building with white marble columns. Not far from the Capitol is the Library of Congress which holds thirteen million books.

The city of Washington is rather large and very beautiful, being at the same time different from all the other cities in the USA, because there are no skyscrapers. According to the law, no house in Washington must be higher than the Capitol.

Washington has the population of about 900,000 people. Being the administrative centre of the country, it doesn’t have any industry. They say, nothing is produced in Washington except wastepaper. Thousands of documents are drafted, approved or denied in the city every day. People living there either belong to the administration, or are employed in the service industry. Besides, thousands of tourists come to see the capital of the country. There is a lot to be seen: Thomas Jefferson Memorial, the Library of Congress, the Washington Monument and much more. The Washington Monument is the most remarkable of these: it is a column rising 160 metres, and from the top of it the visitors can enjoy the view over the city. Among the attractions of the capital it is necessary to mention the museums: the National Gallery of Art, the National Museum of History and Technology, and others.

NEW YORK

New York is the largest city in the USA and in the whole world. It stands in the mouth of the Hudson River. The people of New York City (NYC) live within five boroughs of Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, the Bronx and Staten Island. Manhattan Island, the oldest part of the city, was bought from the Native Americans for the amount of goods worth $26. Now it is one of the busiest financial and cultural centres in the world, offering the visitors a unique collection of experiences and attractions. There is a wide choice of internationally acclaimed theatres, restaurants and museums, historic parks and churches.

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Manhattan is also a district of business and finance. In Wall Street there are offices of large companies and banks, as well as New York Stock Exchange, which dominates the business life of the whole world. New York is an international city. On the map of Manhattan one can find Little Italy with the Italian restaurants and its own way of life; Brighton Beach, where the immigrants from the former Soviet Union live; and Chinatown, inhabited by the Chinese. New York is also famous for its fine department stores and boutiques. In the evening you can enjoy one of its many nightclubs, the ballet, opera, a show or concert. Broadway is the centre of nightlife. It is the longest street in New York with many sights. The best way to go around New York is on foot. One word applies to driving your own car in Manhattan: don’t! Streets are jammed and the parking is scarce and astronomically expensive. However, New York is a paradise for walkers, who enjoy the finest window-shopping and people-watching. When proper caution is exercised, most areas are safe. It is best to use well-lighted, busy streets at night. You can also travel anywhere you want by subway and buses. Subway, though rather unattractive and not so well organised as in Moscow, runs 24 hours a day. The fare is $1.50 for a single journey, payable with tokens. Free bus and subway system maps are available from hotels, tourist information centres and subway stations.

Thousands of tourists come to New York every day to see the Statue of Liberty, which is situated on Liberty Island and is a symbol of American democracy. It has a torch of Freedom in her right hand. New York is famous for its skyscrapers, among which are the Chrysler Building and the Empire State Building.

LAWMAKING PROCESS IN THE USA

The US Congress, the lawmaking arm of the federal government, consists of two houses: the House of Representatives and the Senate. Any congressman in either house or the president may initiate new legislation.

The proposed legislation, or bill, is first introduced in the House of Representatives, then referred to one of the standing committees, which organises hearings on it and may approve, amend or shelve the draft. If the committee passes the bill, it is considered by the House of Representatives as a whole. If passed there, it goes to the Senate for a similar sequence of committee hearings and general debate.

In cases of disagreement, the House of Representatives and the Senate confer together. Once passed by the Senate as a whole, the bill has to be examined by two more standing committees – the Committee on House Administration and the Senate Committee on Rules and Administration – and is then signed by the speaker of the House and by the president of the Senate.

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Finally, it must be signed by the president, who has the right to veto it. If the president vetoes a bill, it can still become a law – but only if it is passed by a two-thirds majority in both houses of Congress.

THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION

The Russian Federation is the largest country in the world. It covers half of Europe and the third part of Asia and is located in Eastern Europe and Northern and Central Asia. Russia borders on Belarus, Ukraine, Poland, and other countries. Russia is washed by the Pacific Ocean in the east and the Arctic Ocean in the north. The main rivers are the Volga, the Yenisey, the Ob and the Lena. The Baikal Lake, the deepest fresh water lake in the world, is in Siberia. It contains about twenty per cent of the world’s fresh water supply. There are several mountain chains in Russia – the Urals, the Altai. Large part of Russia is covered with forests.

On the vast territory of Russia there are four climatic zones. They are the arctic, the subarctic, the temperate, and the subtropical zones. The subtropical climate is the warmest. The central part of Russia has the moderate climate with four distinct seasons, which differ greatly in the weather. The most part of the territory of the country has continental climate.

Russia is rich in natural resources, including vast areas of fertile lands and forests, deep lakes and wide rivers. It is rich in mineral deposits, such as coal, oil, iron ore, gas, copper, lead, gold, and others. Russia has a developed industry. It has made a great progress in science and engineering.

The population of Russia is about 150 million people. It is a multinational country.

The highest legislative body of the Russian Federation is the Russian Parliament (Duma). The executive power is held by the President and the Cabinet of Ministers. The President is Head of State.

MOSCOW, THE CAPITAL OF RUSSIA

Moscow was founded in 1147 by Prince Yury Dolgoruky. It stands on the Moskva river. Since the time of its foundation the history of Moscow is inseparable from the history

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