Vocabulary
a) advice, balance, , bill, constituency, either, election, except, main, policy, proposal, the same, service, signature, single, supreme, taxation, upper;
b) to agree, to appoint, to debate, to delay, to elect, to be held, to introduce, to pass a bill, to preside, to propose, to provide, to refuse, to represent, to resign, to revise, to spend, to stand for election, to pass a bill, to vote;
Notes on the text
1. a peer - звание представителей высшей аристократии в Англии, дает право быть членом палаты лордов
a hereditary peer - наследственный пэр
a life peer - пожизненный пэр (титул, который не передается по наследству)
2. " Royal Assent" - королевская санкция, одобрение монархом
законопроекта
Exercises
1.Practice the pronunciation of the following words: balance [`bxlqns], supreme [sju`prJm], supremacy [sju`premqsI], constituency [kqns`tItjuqnsI], peer [`pIq], chancellor [`CRnsqlq], signature [`sIgnqCq], assent [q`sFnt], policy [`pOlIsI], represent [reprI`zFnt], resign [rI`zaIn], preside [prI`zaId].
2.Match the following terms with their definitions:
1.a constituency; 2.a winner in the election; 3.a voter; 4.a bill.
a)a proposal for a new law;
b) electoral district;
c) the candidate who gets more votes than any other candidate;
d) every British citizen except prisoners, lords and mentally ill.
3.Complete the diagram:
The
Sovereign
House of Commons: House of Lords
elected members ______ hereditary peers ______%
presided over by_______ peers _____%;
presided over by________
4.Use the information given in the text to answer the following questions.
1.Which of the people are not elected: a peer, an MP, the Prime Minister?
2.What is the difference between a life peer and a hereditary peer?
3.What are back - benchers?
4.What is the difference between a bill and an act of Parliament?
5.Which of the two Houses of Parliament has more power?
6.What happens in case an MP dies, resigns or is made a peer?
5.Make one sentence from each set of the following words.
a)supreme, the separate elements, power; b)consists, House of Commons, elected members;
c)each constituency, one member, is represented; d)the Speaker, is presided, the House of Commons; e)majority, House of Lords, hereditary; f)a bill, Royal Assent, Act of Parliament; g)each year, become acts, bills.
6.Give a brief description of:
1. the House of Commons;
2. the House of Lords;
3. the way a bill becomes an Act of Parliament.
7.Read the following text about the royal tradition and answer the following questions:
When does the Queen have an official birthday?
What traditional ceremony takes place on the Queen’s official birthday?
How is the Queen’s regiment called?
The Queen is the only person in Britain with two birthdays. Her real birthday is on April 21st, but she has an “official” birthday too. That’s on the second Saturday in June. And on the Queen’s official birthday there is a traditional ceremony called the Trooping of the Colour. It’s a big parade with brass bands and hundreds of soldiers at Horse Guards’ Parade in London. A regiment of the Queen’s soldiers, the Guards, march in front of her. At the front of the parade is the regiment’s flag or ‘colour’.
The Guards are trooping the colour. Thousands of Londoners and visitors watch in Horse Guards’ Parade. And millions of people at home watch it on television.