British trade-unions
The first British trade-unions were formed more than a century and a half ago for improving life conditions of workers. The history of the trade-union movement dates back to 1825 when trade-unions became legal.
Every member of a trade-union pays a small sum of money each week. This covers the cost of organizing the union, and provides the fund to help its members when they are unable to work because of illness, or accidents at work, and when they become too old to continue working. From this fund members also receive help if they go on strike.
Every member of a union is free to join any political party he wishes or no party at all.
At present trade-unions deal not only with problems of wages, working conditions, housing, pensions, etc., that is they regulate not only economic demands. Political questions are on the agenda as well.
Newspapers in great britain
The population of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is now over 56.000.000. About 30.000.000 newspapers are sold every day. The British people, therefore, are great readers of newspapers.
Daily papers are those that are published daily from Monday to Saturday. The morning papers are on sale1 early in the morning. The evening papers, such as the Evening News, the Star, the Evening Standard and others begin to appear during the morning, and new editions appear every two or three hours until the final edition comes out in the evening. They sell well2 because they print, throughout the day, the latest sports results.
The London newspaper that is best known outside Great Britain is probably The Times, the leading conservative newspaper. It began in 1785, and has a high reputation for reliable news and serious comment on the news.
The popular newspapers naturally have much larger circulation than the serious ones. The news that appears in the pages of the Daily Mirror and the Daily Sketch, for example, is not always the most important news. Their pages are filled with news of sport — football, boxing and racing, with stories of film stars, photographs of actors and actresses, etc.
In addition to London newspapers, there are other papers, published in the provinces as, for example, the Manchester Guardian, the Yorkshire Post (published in Leeds), and the Scotsman (Edinburgh). They sell throughout the whole country, in competition to3 the London papers. Provincial newspapers give very full attention to local as well as to national affairs.
A modern newspaper could not be sold at a profit without advertisements. A single copy costs more to produce than the price paid by the reader. A newspaper with a large circulation may cost about £100.000 a week to produce. About a quarter of this sum is received from the business firms who advertise in its pages.
Newspapers in Great Britain vary greatly in then ways of presenting news. There are serious newspapers and popular newspapers.
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to be on sale - продаваться
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to sell well – хорошо распродаваться
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in competition to – конкурируя с
HIGHER AND FURTHER EDUCATION1 IN BRITAIN
There are now 44 universities in the United Kingdom and over 700 technical colleges.
All British universities are private, that is not state-controlled institutions. Each has its own governing council, including some local businessmen and politicians as well as a few academics².
Students have to pay fees and living costs, but every student may receive a personal grant from the local authority of the place where he lives.
British universities can be divided roughly into three main groups: the old universities; the redbrick universities³, which include all the provincial universities of the period 1850-1930, as well as London University; the new universities, founded after the Second World War.
In the group of old universities Oxford (1167) and Cambridge (1209) are the oldest ones. Although they have together less than a tenth of the whole student population (each having about 12,000 students), they have special pre-eminence. A number of well-known scientists and writers, among them Newton, Darwin and Byron, were educated in Cambridge. Until the 19th century, Oxford and Cambridge were the only universities in England, and there was no place for girls. At present there are five women's colleges.
These two universities differ greatly from all the others in general organization, methods of instructions, syllabuses, traditions, history, etc .They are based on colleges (law, music, natural science, economics, agriculture, engineering, commerce, education, etc), each college having about 300 students.
The course of study at a university lasts three or four years. In general Bachelor's degree, the first academic degree, is given to the students who pass their examination at the end of the course: Bachelor of Arts, for history, philosophy, language and literature, etc., Bachelor of Science or Commerce or Music.
In 1971 the Open University was set up for the people who do not have lime or the qualifications to study at a conventional university . The students of the Open University need to study about ten hours a week, to write essays, and to prepare for exams. There are weekly Open University lectures broadcast on BBC television and radio. The final mark is based on the exam and the written assignments done during the year. It takes six (or eight) years to get a degree. One who gets a degree may have a better job, higher pay or post-graduate studies. Some universities have extra-mural departments.
Besides universities there are 30 polytechnics, numerous colleges for more specialized needs, such as agriculture, economy, art and design, and law, a few hundred technical colleges providing part-time and full-time (4) education. It is common for students to leave home to study, and only 15% of all university students live at home while they study.
1. higher education – обычно имеется в виду высшее образование, полученное в университете или другом высшем учебном заведении, дающее право на получение ученой степени; further education – означает образование более низкого уровня, часто профессиональное, полученное, например, в техническом колледже.
2. academic – ученый, преподаватель в высшем учебном заведении
3. redbrick university – термин «краснокирпичный» устарел, но все еще употребляется для определения группы университетов, многие из которых были построены из красного кирпича
4. part-time education – вечерняя форма обучения; full-time education – дневная форма обучения.
Тексты из Л.Н. Андриановой «Курс английского языка для вечерних и заочных технических вузов».- М., 2001.