Things to do

Task 1. Speaking.

1. Speak about the political system of the UK.

2. Explain the characteristics of the political system of the UK.

3. What are the differences and similarities in the political systems of the UK and the USA?

Task 2. Translate and comment on the following.

• India's first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru said: "Democracy is good. I say this because other systems are worse." Is it similar to the opinion expressed by Winston Churchill?

Task 3. Discussing.

1. What is democracy?

2. Speak about the role of the media in democratic states.

3. Ground your opinion about the meaning of the expression given at the top of this unit: "The measure of a civilized society is how we educate our young and care for our old."

UNIT 6

TRAVELLING

All roads lead to Rome.

So many countries so many customs.

It’s better to travel hopefully than to arrive.

Everybody needs a vacation. Travel and tourism is an entire service industry based on this idea. Travel and tourism, in basic terms, is all of the transportation and accommodations necessary for travel.

Travel and tourism includes travel agencies, airlines, rental car companies, hotels and restaurants; everything you need to feel relaxed and comfortable while you are away from home. Travel and tourism is entirely based on the quality of service provided. This is why it is critical for people working the travel industry to have the skills they need to be efficient and effective.

Because travel and tourism is a very broad industry and the duties performed by different individuals are complex, training is required for many of the occupations in the field. Travel agents in particular, must have specialized training. Travel agents must be familiar with all of the codes and computer systems used by airlines, trains and car rental companies.

Pre-reading tasks

a. Phonetic drills.

[ɔ] [ɔ:] [ǝu]

lost abroad boat

offer porter road

long fortune hotel

stop sort code

dollar for mostly

[e ] [ei] [ɛǝ]

jet weigh fare

check make air

ever train there

help stay declare

ferry daily area

b. Put the words into the gaps.

Trip, route, voyage, flight, journey, travel, tour

1. It’s a good idea to take break during a _____especially if your driving for a long way.

2. My son is going on a school _____next month.

3. The _____from London to New-York takes 8 hours.

4. I felt seasick during the______.

5. Do you prefer to _____ by car or by train?

6. My friends have just come from a_____ of Scotland.

7. I had to take different_____ to work this morning due to the roadworks.

c. Put these holidays in order of preference. Discuss why you’ve chosen that order.

An activity holiday; a beach holiday; a self-catering holiday; a camping holiday; a package holiday; a holiday near your home.

Read and translate the text

Package Holidays

Travelling in foreign countries is truly a great experience. Learning about other cultures, religions, cuisines, traditions, meeting new people, discovering landscapes, architecture and places –what can be more exciting?

Throughout the history, people travel all over the world for the variety of purposes. However, it is only in the last fifty years people have been travelling in such huge numbers for pleasure. Until this century only the very rich and leisured people in society had the free time and the money to travel outside their own local area. For instance, it is known that wealthy Romans went to seaside resorts in Greece and Egypt. In the 19^th century the education of the aristocracy was not complete without Grand Tour of Europe’s cultural sites. With the railways and the industrial revolution in Britain working-class people began to travel. A typical family holiday was a day’s trip to the seaside.

Things started to change for ordinary people when in 1860 Thomas Cook of Leicester England organized the first package tour. He offered customers a return trip between Leicester and Loughborough. The first package tour of Europe was organized by Cook in 1855 and some years later he was undertaken world-wide tours, although with small groups. By 1939 an estimated one million people were travelling abroad for holidays each year. By the 1960s cheap package holidays which combined flights, mostly charters, transfers and accommodation provided for most people in the UK to have affordable travel abroad. In the last decades of the 20th century tourism has really taken off. Growing affluence, faster planes and improved facilities mean that more and more people travel abroad every year.

Nowadays everybody can be a traveler and choose a tour according to his taste and purse. There is a big choice of perfect package tours for families, parish, business, school and university groups as well as sport teams, senior, disabled people and others. Travel agencies take care of booking rooms, site visits and routes, specialist tour and guide reservations in castles and museums and other important details to make trips enjoyable and stress-free.