BritainExplored = Изучение Великобритании. Часть 2
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Тематика:
Английский язык
Издательство:
ФЛИНТА
Составитель:
Оларь Юлия Вячеславовна
Год издания: 2024
Кол-во страниц: 77
Дополнительно
Вид издания:
Учебное пособие
Уровень образования:
ВО - Бакалавриат
ISBN: 978-5-9765-5581-5
Артикул: 846358.01.99
Целью пособия является формирование и совершенствование коммуникативной компетенции будущих учителей иностранных языков на материале курса «Лингвострановедение и страноведение».
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BRITAIN EXPLORED ИЗУЧЕНИЕ ВЕЛИКОБРИТАНИИ Часть 2 Учебное пособие 2-е издание, стереотипное Шадринск ШГПУ 2024 Москва Издательство «ФЛИНТА» 2024
УДК 811.111(075.8) ББК 81.432.1я73 Б87 Рецензенты: Елизова Е.И. - канд. пед. наук, доцент кафедры филологии и социогуманитарных дисциплин ФГБОУ ВО «Шадринский государственный педагогический университет»; Дубаков А.В. - канд. пед. наук, доцент кафедры теории и практики германских языков ФГБОУ ВО «Шадринский государственный педагогический университет» Б87 Britain Explored = Изучение Великобритании. В 2 ч. Ч. 2 : учеб. пособие. / Ю.В. Оларь. — 2-е изд., стер. — Москва : ФЛИНТА, 2024. — 77 с. — ISBN 978-5-9765-5581-5 (ФЛИНТА) ; ISBN 978-5-87818-648-3 (ШГПУ). — Текст : электронный. Целью пособия является формирование и совершенствование коммуникативной компетенции будущих учителей иностранных языков на материале курса «Лингвострановедение и страноведение». Для студентов, изучающих английский язык как второй. УДК 811.111(075.8) ББК 81.432.1я73 ISBN 978-5-9765-5581-5 (ФЛИНТА) ISBN 978-5-87818-648-3 (ШГПУ) © Оларь Ю.В., составление, 2024 © ШГПУ, 20224 2
CONTENTS TOPIC VI. BRITISH STATE SYSTEM ............................................................. 4 TOPIC VII. BRITISH EDUCATION ............................................................. 13 TOPIC VIII. BRITISH ECONOMY ............................................................... 23 TOPIC IX. BRITISH CULTURE AND ARTS .............................................. 39 TOPIC X. OUTSTANDING BRITS .............................................................. 64 BIBLIOGRAPHY .............................................................................................. 75 3
TOPIC VI. BRITISH STATE SYSTEM LEAD-IN I. Comment on the pictures: II. Answer the questions: 1. What kind of state is the UK? 2. Who is the head of the state in the UK? 3. What are the Houses of the British Parliament? FACTFILE Britain has the oldest parliamentary democracy in the world. It is also a constitutional monarchy. However, the country has no written constitution. Instead, there is a set of laws. The Queen is formally the Head of State and Parliament while the leader of the Government is the Prime Minister. But the monarch is expected to be politically neutral and should not make political decisions. Thus, the monarch reigns with the support of Parliament. 4
BRITISH GOVERNMENT The Government is made from the party that has the largest number of seats in the House of Commons. There are few political parties in Britain thanks to the British electoral system. The main ones are: the Conservative Party, the Labour Party and the Liberal Democratic Party. There are elections every five years. Each political party puts up one candidate for each constituency. The UK is currently divided into 650 constituencies; each is represented by one person in Parliament. These elected politicians are called Members of Parliament (MPs). The head of government is Prime Minister (PM). He has a residence at 10 Downing Street in Whitehall, London. He is responsible for all government policy and the appointment of members of the government. The heads of government departments (around 20 people) form the Cabinet. They meet once a week privately. BRITISH PARLIAMENT Parliament consists of two chambers known as the House of Commons and the House of Lords. They are situated in the building famous for its clock called Big Ben. It is Westminster Palace or the Houses of Parliament in London. People in the House of Commons are called Members of Parliament (MPs). They debate and vote on bills. Besides, they scrutinize the work of government. Question Time is held at the beginning of every parliamentary day in the House of Commons to let the MPs check the work of Government. The House of Commons is presided over by the Speaker who is appointed by the Government. There are also other politicians who are in the House of Lords, they are called peers or lords. There are around 800 of them. The House of Lords is not elected. The Lords are either appointed by the Government (life peers) or inherit the position from their parents (hereditary peers). There is a reform going on in this house, the number of hereditary peers is being decreased. The 5
House of Lords also debates and votes on bills. It is presided by the Lord Speaker who sits on the Woolsack, a symbol of the British wealth. The House of Lords has no real power. It acts rather as an advisory council. A bill must go through the Houses, get the royal accent and then become a law. The royal accent is automatic, no bill has been rejected by a monarch since 1708. THE ROYAL FAMILY The present sovereign is Queen Elizabeth II. She was crowned in Westminster Abbey in 1953. Queen Elizabeth II is one of the richest women in the world. As well as being the Head of State and the Church of England, she is also Commander in Chief of the armed forces (Army, Navy, Air Force) and leader of the Commonwealth. The Commonwealth includes the third world countries that were in the British Empire, as well as Australia, New Zealand and Canada. In reality the Queen doesn't play an active role in the government of the country, although the Prime Minister has to meet her every week to discuss what the Government is doing. Every year she officially opens Parliament in one of the colourful state occasions that she performs. These state occasions are big tourist attractions. The British State pays the Queen and the Royal Family for the job that they do. People pay the taxes to keep the royal yacht, train and aircraft as well as for the upkeep of several palaces. The people in the Royal Family who are paid by the state are called the "Civil List". The Queen now pays taxes but this is very recent. Love them or hate them, the Royal Family is an important feature in British culture. SOME OUTSTANDING BRITISH PRIME MINISTERS Robert Walpole (1721-42 Whig). Became Britain’s first de facto Prime Minister, despite a brief spell in prison for corruption. 6
Benjamin Disraeli (1868 and 1874-80 Conservative). Britain’s only Jewish PM was a close friend of Queen Victoria. Also wrote romantic novels. William Ewart Gladstone (1868-74, 1880-85, 1886 and 1892-94 Liberal). Queen Victoria called Disraeli’s bitter rival a “half-mad firebrand”. He campaigned for social reform, Irish Home Rule and an ethical foreign policy. David Lloyd George (1916-22 Liberal). The only Welsh PM thus far won his spurs as Chancellor, proposing a large tax hike for the landed classes to fund higher social spending. Winston Churchill (1940-45 and 1951-5 Conservative). Voted ‘Greatest Ever Briton’ in a recent BBC poll, Churchill masterminded victory against Nazi Germany in the Second World War. Margaret Thatcher (1979-90 Conservative). The ‘Iron Lady’, the first woman to lead Government, was the longest serving PM for 150 years. The grocer’s daughter from Grantham privatized state industry, lowered taxes and reduced social spending. POLITICAL PARTIES THE BIG THREE Labour. Established to represent the newly enfranchised working class in 1900, Labour remained the third party until 1945 when it won its first overall majority. After winning power in 1997, led by Tony Blair, New Labour dragged the party increasingly from the left to the centre. Conservatives. Right-of-centre party that evolved from the Tories in 1834 when Robert Peel became leader. Thatcherism gave the party a clear, modern ideology based on free enterprise and private ownership, but they were blighted by scandal in the 1990s. David Cameron finally brought some semblance of unity to the party in the early 21st century. Liberal Democrats. Born by merger of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) and the Liberals (the old Whig party) in 1988. As the name suggests, a liberal party 7
concerned with social justice and personal freedom. The only one of the big three to oppose war in Iraq, they’re also the most pro-European. Consistently third in the political race. POLITICAL PARTIES OTHER OPTIONS Scottish National Party (SNP). Founded in 1934 to press for an independent Scotland, and usually defined as moderately left of centre. They hold the biggest share of seats in the Scottish Parliament. Plaid Cymru. Founded in 1925 to champion Welsh cultural and linguistic identity, not least by demanding independence. A historical link with the Green Party places the environment high on the Plaid Cymru agenda. Green Party. First identifiable in 1973 and first known as the Green Party in 1985. Committed to environmental issues and the decentralisation of power but struggling to win seats in Parliament. UK Independence Party (UKIP). Founded in 1993 on a campaign to withdraw Britain from the EU. Did well in the 2016 European elections but has since faltered, not least after a leadership debacle starring TV talk show host Robert Kilroy-Silk. British National Party. Far right, whites-only party. They took less than one per cent of the vote in the 2015 election, but usually fair better in local elections. Reviled by mainstream politicians, most of the press and a good proportion of the public. https://english-studycafe.ru/index.php/students/englishspeakingworld/118-anglogovoryashchij-miruchashchimsya-kratko-o/813-politics 8