National And Local Newspapers In Britain example essay topic

United Kingdom is a parliamentary democracy with the Constitutional monarch, Queen Elizabeth 2, as head of State and an important symbol of national unity. The country is governed in the Queen's name by the Government. In law the Queen is head of the executive, an integral part of the legislature, head of the judiciary, commander-in-chief of all the armed forces of the Crown, and the supreme governor of the established church of England. The Queen formally summons and dissolves Parliament, and opens each new session with a speech setting out the Government's broad programme. She also gives formal assent to laws passed by Parliament. Due to a long process of evolution the monarchy's absolute power has been progressively reduced and now the Queen has little real power.

She performs certain important acts of government on the advice of her ministers. Parliament, which is known now as Westminster Parliament, consists of the House of Commons and the House of Lords, together with the Queen in her Constitutional role. The House of Commons plays the major part in law-making. It consists of 659 members of Parliament (MPs), directly elected by voters in each of Britain's 659 parliamentary constituencies.

MPs are elected either at a general election held at least every five years, or at a by-election which is held when a seat falls vacant because of the death or resignation of the member. The minimum voting age is 18 but voting is not compulsory. Elections are by secret ballot. The House of Commons is directly responsible to the electorate.

The House of Commons is presided over by the Speaker, an impartial member acceptable to the whole House. The House of Lords, the upper house of the United Kingdom Parliament, was traditionally made of hereditary, life peers and peeresses, including the law lords appointed to undertake the judicial duties of the house, and the Lords Spiritual. Since 1997 some reforms hav been introduced by the Labour Government. In 1999 the House of lords was partially reformed and further reform lies ahead.

Accordingly to the first stage in a process of reform the House of Lords is becoming more democratic and representative. The right of hereditary peers to sit and vote in the House of Lords was limited by statute. The size of the House was cut by almost half. Only 92 hereditaries remained.

The reduction in size to 699 peers took place in March 2000. The Government is formed by the political party which can command majority support in the House of Commons. Its leader is the Prime Minister. He chooses a number of ministers, of whom 20 or so compose the Cabinet, which is collectively responsible for all Government decisions and for the conduct of national affaires. The Cabinet is presided over by the Prime Minister. The second largest party becomes the official opposition with its leader and the "Shadow Cabinet".

Britain enjoys a long established democratic system of government which helps to provide political stability. The United Kingdom is a member of the European Community (EC), the United Nations Organization (UNO), the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and the Commonwealth. Mass media In the epoch of quickly changing international and home situations it is quite necessary for every human being to get up-to-date information. Press, radio, television are mass media branches. They are very important as they influence on public opinion and can be a strong force in public life.

There are national and local newspapers in Britain. National newspapers, known as dailies, are designed for most people of the country. Local daily papers are for people in a particular city or region. Local papers are delivered to people's homes free of charge. British national papers are of two kinds: the quality papers and the tabloids. The qualities contain national and international news, the political events (very often written in the editor's view), financial and sports news, television and radio programmes, theatre and cinema show lists, and others.

The tabloids are not so serious in tone as the qualities. They print stories of human interest: about common people, about personal lives of famous people such as politicians, sportsmen, cinema stars and others. The most popular newspapers are "The Sun", "The Mirror", "The Express" and "The Daily Mail". The newspaper which sells more copies than any others is the "News of the World". Radio is also very popular among the British. Many people rely on the radio to learn the latest news.

Radio is convenient to listen to while driving a car to and from work in the morning and the early evening. Later in the evening the British prefer to watch TV programmes. The main television and radio broadcasting organization in Britain is the British Broadcasting Corporation (the BBC) which runs five radio stations (Radio 1, Radio 2, Radio 3, Radio 4, Radio 5), provides television information service in Britain, operating two national television channels. The BBC World Service broadcasts in English and about forty other languages of the world. There are some independent radio and television stations which compete with the BBC. A lot of people listen to local radio and watch local TV that concentrate on local news, traffic reports and pop music.

Some smaller stations are run by students or by hospitals for their patients. The first public demonstration of television in Britain was given by John Logie Baird, a Scottish inventor, in 1926. The BBC began the world's first high-definition TV service in 1936. The centre of the British newspaper industry is considered Fleet Street in London. Agriculture and fisheries in Britain Although Britain is a highly industrialized country, agriculture is still one of her most important industries. Just over 700,000 farmworkers provide over half the food needed by some 55.5 million people.

This is achieved by widespread use of machinery and by making the best use of the results of research and scientific experiments. For a small country, Britain has a great variety of soil, climate and types of farming; ranging from beef breeding in Scotland and sheep farming in the mountains of Wales to growing crops, mainly wheat, barley, oats and potatoes, in the large, flat, fertile areas of the eastern countries. Over 200 years ago British livestock breeders developed the principles which have produced some of the world's finest pedigree cattle, sheep, pigs and horses. Famous breeds of cattle - Hereford, Shorthorn, Aberdeen, Angus, Ayrshire and others - have laid the foundation of the pedigree herds in North and South America, Australia and many other countries. Agricultural research is carried out at over 50 research stations in pest control, fertilizers, plant and animal diseases and the improvement of crops and livestock.

Their work gives valuable aid to farmers in the developing countries, which send many students to Britain. Sea fishing, round the coasts of Britain and in distant waters, is of great importance in Scotland and in the north-east of England. About two-fifth of Britain's 22,000 fishermen are employed in the Scottish ports, such as Aberdeen, Fraser burgh and Granton. Distant-water vessels fish the seas around Labrador, Newfoundland, Greenland and Iceland. Research into improved methods of fishing, processing and storage plays a big part in modernising an ancient industry 2, ... - -, ., , ., ...

, . 200 -50, , . -. 22 000, , . -, , ., . Vocabulary agricultural [gri " klturl] animal ['n iml] also [': lou], although [: l'ou], ballot ['blt] begin [bi " gin] best [best] big [big] breed [bri: d], charge [ta: d], choose [tu: z], contain [kn " tein], copy ['kpi], country ['knt ri], democratic [demo " kritik] design [di " zain], development [di " velpmnt] directly [di " rektli], duty ['du: ti], east [i: st] each [i: t] election [i'lekn] electorate [i'lekrit] event [i'vent] evolution [i'volun] famous ['fei ms] force [f: s], formal ['f: ml], free [fri: ] from [frm], , , further ['f: ] government ['gvnmnt] governor ['gun] green [gri: n] grow [grou], head [hed], help [help] house [haus], human ['hj umn] important [im'p: tnt], in [in], , , influence ['influ ns], information [inf " mein] international [int:' nnl] judiciary [ddi siri] kind [kind], kingdom [kids] large [la: d], law [l: ] live [liv] long [l], make [me ik], mass [ms] member ['memb] minister ['minis t] modern ['mdn] mountain ['muntin] music ['mju: zip] national [nnl] newspaper ['nj: spe ip] north [n: ] now [nau], observe [b'z: v] only ['onli], open ['oup n], other ['] part [pa: t] place [ple is], plant [pla: nt], political [p'litikl] program ['prougrm] provide [prv aid], public ['public], queen [wi: n] quickly [kwiki] quite [kwa it] radio ['reid iou] rely [ri " lai] report [ri'p: t], research [ri's: t] result [ri " zit] round [round], run [rn], sea [si: ] stage [stein], state [ste it], , street [stri: t] supreme [sju:' pri: m] symbol ['simbel] system ['sist im] television ['te livin] together [t'ge] type [trip] unite [ju: nit], upper ['p] vote [vout] voting ['vout i] wheat [wi: t] with [wi], work [w: k],.