1. Read the numbers.

1,246,749

6,493,935

8,839,764

25,736,073

47,815,274

12,648,042

139,354,654

932,453,680

361,852,053

2. Read the years.

1532

1639

1953

1249

1990

1993

1999

2000

2007

Exercise 3. Say, what each percentage means.

1. 50% of the territory

2. 83 % of the population

3. 9 % of the territory

4. 4.8 % of the population

5. 32 % of the territory

6. 9 % of the population

7. 5.2 % of the territory

Exercise 4. Write down the questions for these answers.

1. The United Kingdom is situated on two large islands.

2. Great Britain includes over five hundred small islands.

3. The total area of Great Britain is 240,046 sq. kms.

4. The biggest cities of Great Britain are London, Bir­mingham, Glasgow, Liverpool, Manchester, Edinburgh, and Cardiff.

5. The largest part of Great Britain is England.

6. The capital of the country is London.

7. The official language is English.

8. The population of the U.K. is nearly 60 million people.

9. The population lives mostly in towns and cities and their suburbs.

10. Over 7 million people live in London.

11. The climate of Great Britain is mild.

12. There are many rivers in Great Britain.

13. The longest river in Great Britain is 350 kilometers long.

Exercise 5. Say whether these sentences are true or false and explain why.

1. Great Britain is a federal republic.

2. Officially the head of state is the President.

3. The head of the state is the Queen, whose power is absolute.

4. The Queen never acts on the advice of the min­isters and Parliament.

5. The British Constitution was written in 1265.

6. The main principles of British legislation are expressed in "Magna Charta", "Habeas Corpus Act", "Bill of Rights", the Parliamentary Act.

7. British legislation provides written guarantees of individual political rights.

8. Parliament in Great Britain has existed since 1265.

9. Parliament in Great Britain is the youngest Parliament in the world.

10. Parliament consists of three Houses — the House of Kings, the House of Lords and the House of Commons.

11. The House of Lords consists of 10 peers.

12. Peers are elected by the people at a general election within 5 years of the last election.

13. The representatives of the House of Commons are appointed by The House of Lords.

14. The head of the government is the Prime Minister.

15. The Prime Minister is appointed by the Queen before the general election.

16. The Prime Minister doesn’t belong to any party.

17. The Prime Minister appoints the ministers to make up the government.

18. There is main political party in Great Britain - the Conservative Party.

19. The Conservative party came into being in the 19th century as a result of the evolution of the Tory party.

20. The Conservative party was founded in 1900.

21. The Labour Party won the election for the first time in 1945.

Exercise 6. Form comparative and superlative degrees of the adjectives.

1. large

2. small

3. big

4. hot

5. cold

6. long

Exercise 7. Match the words with their definitions.

1. ocean A. piece of land completely surrounded by water

2. island B. the most important city or town of a country or region, usually its seat of government and administrative centre

3. area C. the great mass of salt water that covers most of the Earth's surface

4. city D. a very small settlement in the countryside

5. town E. a particular part of a country, town

6. territory F. a large form of urban planning designed with grouping homes, hospitals, industry and cultural, recreational, and shopping centres, which forms relatively autonomous community

7. peninsula G. a natural and continuous flow of water in a long line across a country into the sea

8. village H. a large area where people live and work, that is smaller than a city and larger than a village

9. capital I. an outlying part of a city or town

10. country J. an area of land that is controlled by its own government, president, king etc

11. suburbs K. a piece of land almost completely surrounded by water but joined to a large area of land

12. river L. an administrative subdivision of a country