ТЕМА: Велика Британія. Географічне розташування та політична система країни.

GREAT BRITAIN

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is situated on the British Isles. The British Isles consist of two large islands. Great Britain and Ireland, and about five thousand small islands. Their total area is over 244.000 square kilometers. The United Kingdom is made up of four countries: England. Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. Their capitals are London, Cardiff, Edinburgh and Belfast respectively. Great Britain consists of England. Scotland and Wales and does not include Northern Ireland. But in everyday speech «Great Britain» is used to mean the United Kingdom. The capital of the UK is London.

The British Isles are separated from the European continent by the North Sea and the English Channel. The western coast of Great Britain is washed by the Atlantic Ocean and the Irish Sea.

The surface of the British Isles varies very much. The north of Scotland is mountainous and is called the Highlands, while the south, which has beautiful valleys and plains, is called the Lowlands. The north and west of England are mountainous, but all the rest — east, centre and south-east — is a vast plain. Mountains are not very high: Ben Nevis in Scotland is the highest mountain (1343 m). There are a lot of rivers in Great Britain, but they are not very long. The Severn is the longest river, while the Thames is the deepest and the most important one.

The mountains, the Atlantic Ocean and the warm waters of Gulf Stream influence the climate of the British Isles. It is mild the whole year round.

The UK is one of the wood's smaller countries. Its population is over 57 million. About 80% of the population is urban. The UK is a highly developed industrial country. It is known as one of the world's largest producers and exporters of machinery, electronics, textile, aircraft and navigation equipment. One of the chief industries of the country is ship­building.

THE SYSTEM OF GOVERNMENT

The United Kingdom is a constitutional monarchy. The head of the state is Queen Elizabeth II. The queen reigns, but does not rule. A Cabinet of government officials, called ministers, actually rules the country. These ministers normally belong to the political party that has a majority in the House of Commons, which dominates in Parliament, the country's lawmaking body. They are responsible to Parliament, which, in turn, is responsible to the people.

The Constitution of the United Kingdom is not one document, as are the constitutions of many other countries. Much of it is not ever in writing, and so the country is often said to have an unwritten constitution.

Some of the written parts of the Constitution come from laws passed by Parliament. Some written parts come from such old documents as Magna Charta, which limited the king's power. Other written parts come from common law. a body of laws based on people's customs and beliefs, and supported in the courts.

The monarchy is over 1,000 years old. The throne passes from a king or a queen to his or her oldest son or daughter. The crown symbolizes the British monarch's supreme power. For hundreds of years, the monarch held most authority. But as Parliament's power grew, the monarch's power declined.

Parliament makes the laws of the United Kingdom. Parliament consists of the Queen, the House of Commons and the House of Lords. The Queen must approve all bills passed by Parliament before they can become laws. Although the Queen may reject a bill, no monarch has done it since the early 1700s.

The country is ruled by the elected government with the Prime Minister at the head. The British Parliament consists of two chambers: the House of Lords and the House of Commons. Four groups of people sit in the House of Lords: archbishops, bishops of the Church of England, the law lords, hereditary peers and life peers. The House of Lords is the final court of appeal in civil lawsuit and, in special circumstances, in criminal cases. When it sits as a law court, only law lords attend.

The House of Commons is made up of 651 elected members known as Members If Parliament (abbreviated to MPs), each of whom represents an area (constituency) If the United Kingdom. They are elected either at a general election, or at a by-election following the death or retirement of an MP. The Queen, Lords and Commons all have to agree to any new law which is billed. In reality, the House of Commons is the only one of the three which has true power.

ТЕМА: Дослідження американського континенту. Географічне розташування та політична система країни.

The Discovery of America.

America was founded by Columbus in 1492. Columbus fled to this country because of persecution by Ferdinand and Isabella, who refused to believe the world was round. Before Columbus reached America he cried "Ceylon! Ceylon!" because he wanted to see India. When he arrived, he cried again. This time he cried "I have found it!"

Columbus was mistaken in thinking he had reached India. There is still a great deal of confusion about the East and the West. As Columbus discovered, if you go west long enough you find yourself in the east and vice versa. In the New World most of the eastern half of the country is called the Middle West although it is known as the East by those who live in the Far West. Columbus, who was as confused as anybody who has been at sea for a long time, called the first people he saw "Indians". Accompanied by his followers, Columbus made several other voyages in search of India. Try as he might, however, he kept discovering America and finally returned to Spain to die.

European Migration. The Pilgrims.

Among those who came seeking freedom was a small group of English people called Pilgrims. The Pilgrims were searching for religious freedom. They founded the Plymouth colony in Massachusetts in 1620. The Pilgrims had been forced to leave England because of their religious beliefs.

When they decided to leave for America, they sailed on “The Mayflower” and arrived in the new world in the winter of 1620. The Pilgrims worked hard all through the spring and summer of 1621. They hunted, fished and planted crops.

As the harvest that summer and autumn was good, the Pilgrims wanted to give thanks to God for their good fortune.

They had learned from the Indians, who were their friends, to held a ceremony each year at harvest time. At this ceremony the Indians thanked nature for the food they had received. The Pilgrims decided to hold their own feast of thanksgiving that fall. The first thanksgiving lasted three days. Today, more than 350 years later, Americans still celebrate Thanksgiving. It is their national holiday in November. Another religious group, known as Quakers, founded a colony called Pennsylvania, while some English Catholics, who had left England to escape persecution settled in the colony which they called Maryland.

The usa

The United States of America is the fourth largest country in the world (after Russia, Canada and China), It occupies the southern part of North America and stretches from the Pacific to the Atlantic Ocean. It also includes Alaska in the north and Hawaii in the Pacific Ocean. The total area of the country is about nine and a half million square kilometers. The USA borders on Canada in the north and on Mexico in the south. It also has a sea boarder with Russia.

The USA is made up of 50 states and the District of Columbia, a special federal area where the capital of the country, Washington, is situated. The population of the country is about 250 million.

If we look at the map of the USA, we can see lowlands and mountains. The highest mountains are the Rocky Mountains, the Cordillera and the Sierra Nevada. The highest peak is Mount McKinley, which is located in Alaska.

America's largest rivers are the Mississippi, the Missouri, the Rio Grande and the Columbia. The Great Lakes on the border with Canada are the largest and deepest in the USA.

The climate of the country varies greatly. The coldest regions are in the north. The climate of Alaska is arctic. The climate of the central part is continental. The south has subtropical climate. Hot winds blowing from the Gulf of Mexico often bring typhoons. The climate along the Pacific coast is much warmer than that of the Atlantic coast.