GREAT BR1TAIN
In everyday speech, "Great Britain" is used to mean the UK. The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland occupies the territory of the British Isles which are situated to the north-west of Europe. They consist of two main islands: Great Britain and Ireland. England is in the south of the island of Great Britain, Scotland is in the north and Wales is in the west. Northern Ireland is situated in the north-eastern part of Ireland. It is one thirtieth the size of Europe.
Great Britain is surrounded by seas on all sides. Its western coast is washed by the Atlantic Ocean. In the east the island of Great Britain is washed by the North Sea. The Irish Sea, the North Channel and the St. George's Channel separate Ireland from Great Britain. Great Britain is separated from France by the English Channel, which is 32 km wide in its narrowest part. Still there are many lakes in Scotland. The most beautiful is Loch Lomond. There are no big rivers in Great Britain. The biggest are Severn and Thames. There is a lot of mountain in Great Britain, but they are not high. The highest mountain Ben Nevis is in Scotland. The flora of the British Isles is much varied and the fauna is similar to that of the north-west of Europe. The country is not very rich in natural recourses.
London is the capital of the UK. It was founded by the Romans. The population of London is over 8 million people. The largest cities of Great Britain besides London are: Birmingham, Glasgow, Liverpool, Manchester, Sheffield, Bristol, Leeds, and Edinburgh. The most important seaports are: London, Liverpool, Belfast, Glasgow and Cardiff. Oxford and Cambridge are University cities. Great Britain has a very good position as it lies on the crossways of the sea routes from Europe to the other parts of the world. There are many countries which are connected with Great Britain by sea. Thanks to Gulf Stream the climate of Great Britain is mild. It is often foggy and rainy. The summer is not very hot and the winter is not very cold.
Great Britain is a highly developed industrial country. It lives by manufacture and trade. Its agriculture provides only half the food it needs, the other half of its food has to be imported. Britain is one of the most highly industrialised countries in the world: for every person employed in agriculture, eleven are employed in mining, manufacturing and building. The main branches of British economy are engineering, mining, ship-building, motor vehicle manufacturing, textile, chemistry, electronics, fishing and food processing. The industrial centers of Great Britain are London, Manchester, Birmingham, Leeds, Liverpool, Sheffield and others.
As to its political system it is a constitutional monarchy. The power of the Queen (now Elizabeth) is limited by Parliament which includes two Houses the House of Commons and the House of Lords. The Prime Minister is usually the head of the party which is in power. There are the following parties there: the Conservative Party, the Labour Party and the Liberal Party. Great Britain is a country of strong attraction for tourists, especially in spring and summer. The charm of it lies in its variety of scenery: the finest combination of sea and high land, the valleys of South Wales, the smiling orchards of Kent, the sea lakes of Scotland, its fields and woodland parks everything is quiet and green.
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III. Post-reading activities.
1. Sum up the facts and make a plan of the text. Retell the information you've read using your plan.
2. Write adjectives which go together with the following nouns. Arrange your findings in the table.
| Noun | Adjective | Ukrainian Equivalent |
Paragraph I: size Paragraph IV: country, centers
Paragraph II: coast, sea, resources Paragraph V: monarchy, parties, scenery
Paragraph III: cities, seaports, position, routes, climate
3. Answer the questions:
a. What is the United Kingdom? What countries does it unite?
b. What countries is Great Britain made up of?
c. What is Britain's climate characterized with?
d. What people inhabit Britain?
e. What languages do Englishmen speak?
f. Who is the constitutional monarch of Great Britain now?
g. Does the Queen perform government's acts herself?
h. Why are there many ports in Great Britain?
i. What is the relationship between the Queen and the Parliament in Britain?
4. Find false sentences and correct the mistakes.
a. London is the capital of the USA;
b. Great Britain is surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean on all sides;
c. The most beautiful river is Loch Lomond;
d. The Prime Minister is usually the head of the party which is in power;
e. There are the following parties there: the Labour Party and the Liberal Party;
f. The most important seaports are: New York, Liverpool, Glasgow and Kyiv;
g. Oxford and Cambridge are College cities.
5. Complete the following sentences.
a. Great Britain is the largest island of the... Isles.
b. The power of the... is limited by....
c. England is a country in the south of Great Britain. Wales is in the...
d. The English... separates Great Britain from...
e. The capital of England is..., the capital of Scotland is... and the capital of... is Cardiff.
f. The Thames flows... London.
g. The largest cities of Great Britain besides London are...
h. Thanks to... Stream the climate of Great Britain is...
6. Insert the following adjectives in the superlative form.
famous, long, large, beautiful, high
The Severn is.... river in the United Kingdom.... lakes are in Scotland. Great Britain is.... island in Europe. The Thames is river. Ben Nevis is mountain in Great Britain.
7. Translate into English.
) . ) 55 , ) , d) , , , )
Translate into Ukrainian.
The country we are going to visit has the name of Great Britain; it has water on all sides and is an island. It is not a very big country. Ukraine is bigger, but there are more people in Great Britain than in Ukraine. Great Britain has 3 parts; they are England, Scotland and Wales. England is the biggest part; it is in the centre of the island. The other two parts are much smaller. Not very many people live there, they have their languages and cultures but they all speak English because English is the official language. Great Britain has very beautiful rivers, mountains and lakes. There are large cities in Great Britain but many people live in small towns or villages. London is the capital city of the country. It is a very old city, and it has a lot of historical monuments. You can get to Great Britain by plane, by ship, by train or by car. Great Britain is an independent state in Europe. It has its national anthem and flag. The flag has colors of the parts of the country; its name is Union Jack. Great Britain is a monarchy. Now the head of the state in Great Britain is Queen Elizabeth II but she does not really rule the country. The people of Great Britain love their queen but they elect the Parliament, and the real head of the state is the Prime Minister.
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9. Sum up the information you've learned about Great Britain and fill in the table.
| Name | |
| Parts | |
| Type of land | |
| Size | |
| People | |
| Language | |
| Cities | |
| Capital city | |
| Rivers | |
| Lakes | |
| Mountains | |
| How to get |
IV. Speaking.
Work in groups. You are a travel agent. Tell your clients about the most interesting places in Great Britain. Compile a guide The UK Is Worth Visiting for foreign tourists.
V. Supplement
Text 1
1. Read and translate the following text.
A EUROPEAN COUNTRY UKRAINE
Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered with Russia on the east; Belarus on the north; Poland, Slovakia, and Hungary on the west; Romania and Moldova on the southwest; and the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov on the south. The city of Kyiv (Kyiv) is both the capital and the largest city of Ukraine. Ukraine is a unitary state composed of 24 oblasts(provinces), one autonomous republic (Crimea), and two cities with special status: Kyiv, its capital, and Sevastopol, which houses the Russian Black Sea Fleet under a leasing agreement. Ukraine is a republic under a semi-presidential system with separate legislative, executive, and judicial branches.
Since the collapse of the USSR, Ukraine continues to maintain the second largest military in Europe, after that of Russia. The Ukrainian language is the only official language in Ukraine, while Russian is also widely spoken. The dominant religion in the country is Eastern Orthodox Christianity, which has heavily influenced Ukrainian architecture, literature and music. At 603,700 square kilometres (233,100 sq mi) and with a coastline of 2,782 square kilometres (1,074 sq mi), Ukraine is the world's 44th largest country (after the Central African Republic, before Madagascar). It is the second largest country in Europe (after the European part of Russia, before metropolitan France).
The Ukrainian landscape consists mostly of fertile plains (or steppes) and plateaus, crossed by rivers such as the Dnipro, Seversky Dinets, Dniester and the Southern Buh as they flow south into the Black Sea and the smaller Sea of Azov. To the southwest, the delta of the Danube forms the border with Romania.
The country's only mountains are the Carpathian Mountains in the west, of which the highest is the Hora Hoverla at 2,061 metres (6,760 ft), and those on the Crimean peninsula, in the extreme south along the coast. Ukraine has a mostly temperate continental climate, although a more Mediterranean climate is found on the southern Crimean coast. Precipitation is disproportionately distributed; it is highest in the west and north and lowest in the east and southeast. Western Ukraine, receives around 1,200 millimetres (47 in) of precipitation annually, while Crimea receives around 400 millimetres (16 in). Winters vary from cool along the Black Sea to cold farther inland. Average annual temperatures range from 5.57C (4245F) in the north, to 1113C (5255.4F) in the south.
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