2. In the sentences below substitute the italicized elements with the words and word combinations from column a in the table above.

1. the US President is elected by official voters, who vote on behalf of the entire state, and who are members of the body of electors chosen to elect the President. 2. Those electors practically always vote with the general vote of their state. 3. The US Constitution and its modifications fundamentally describe the way to organize federal elections, while the Constitutions of each state regulate qualification of voters (beyond the fundamental constitutional description), the organization of each state's Electoral College, and the state and local elections. 4. There are some troublesome issues of elections, such as the large quantities of campaign donations, made by private sources, especially in federal elections.

3. Work in pairs. Discuss the following questions. What regular elections in the USA can you think of? How is the US President elected? What law regulates the elections in the USA? Who finances the elections in the USA?

4. For questions 1-10 read through the following text and then choose from the list A-J the best phrase given below to fill each of the spaces.

Elections in the usa

1. for President of the US, for both

Elections are

houses of Congress and for state and local government offices. On

a national level, the head of state, the President, is

2. by the people, through electors of an electoral college. In

modem times, the electors virtually always (3) the

popular vote of their state. All members of the federal legislature,

Congress, are (4). Both federal and state laws

(5) elections. The United States Constitution

Article One and Article Two and various amendments. State law

(7) most aspects of electoral law, (8)

primaries, the eligibility of voters (beyond the basic constitutional definition), the running of each state's Electoral College, and the running of state and local elections. The financing of elections has Decause private sources of finance (10) substantial

(6) (basically) how federal elections are held, in

amounts of campaign contributions, especially in federal elections.

A. regulate B. vote with

3. including D. defines

E. elected indirectly F. been controversial

G. make up H. held regularly

7. directly elected J. regulates

5. Choose the correct form of the verb in the following sentences. There is an example at the beginning (0).

7. Both federal and state laws are regulating/regulate elections.

Both federal and state laws regulate elections.

1. People of the USA elect/will be electing the President indirectly through electors of an Electoral College.

2. Today people of the whole country elect/are electing the members of Congress.

3. Even 50 years ago both federal and state laws regulated/were regulating federal elections.

4. When we saw the Senator, he examined/was examining the list of nominees for the local government offices.

5. The politicians predict that private sources of finance make/will make substantial amounts of campaign contributions to win the subsequent federal elections.

6. The electors virtually always vote/will vote with the popular vote of their state.

7. Our company will be financing/will finance the state elections at this time next year.

8. Right now the Committee is holding/holds a meeting concerning the controversial aspects of federal legislation.

9. Last year the Constitution extended/was extending the eligibility of voters.

10. While the primaries were on, the presidential candidates prepared/were preparing their campaigns.

6. Listen to the text on the Presidential elections in the USA and fill in the gaps in the sentences. You will hear the text twice. Use the Vocabulary Section if you need it.