The Political System of the USA

1. Under the Constitution, the federal government is divided into three branches, each chosen in a different manner, each able to check and balance the other.

2. The Executive Branch is headed by the President, who together with the Vice President, is chosen in nationwide elections every four years. The President proposes bills to Congress, enforces federal laws, serves as Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces and with the approval of the Senate makes treaties and appoints federal judges, ambassadors and other members of the executive departments (the Department of State, Defense, Commerce, Justice, etc.)

3. The Vice President, elected from the same political party as the President, acts as chairman of the Senate, and in the event of the death or disability of the President, assumes the Presidency for the balance of his term.

 4. The Legislative Branch is made up of two houses: the Senate and the House of Representatives. The 435 seats in the House of Representatives are allocated on the basis of population, although every state has at least two members of the 100-member Senate; a Senator's term of office is six years. Both houses must approve a bill for becoming a law, but the President may veto or refuse to sign it. If so, Congress reconsiders the bill. If two-thirds of the members of both houses then approve it, the bill becomes law even without the President's signature.

5. The Judicial Branch is made up of the Federal Courts (at least one in every state), 11 Federal Courts of Appeals and, at the top, the Supreme Court. Federal judges are appointed by the President with the approval of the Senate; to minimize political influences, their appointments are for life. Federal courts decide cases involving federal law, conflicts between citizens of different states. An American who feels he has been convicted under an unjust law may appeal his case all the way to the Supreme Court, which may rule that the law is unconstitutional. The law then becomes void.

6. In order to amend the Constitution, Congress must pass the proposed amendment by two-thirds majority vote in each house, and three-fourth of the states must concur. In more than 195 years, the Constitution has been amended 26 times. The first 10 Amendments – the Bill of Rights – guarantee individual liberties: freedom of speech, religion and assembly, the right to the fair trail, the security of one's home. Later amendments chronicle America's struggling for equality and justice for all its people.

7. Выполните лексико-грамматические задания на базе текста №2:

7.1. Выпишите из текста английские эквиваленты следующих слов и выражений: федеральное правительство, выбирать, национальные выборы, выносить законопроекты, главнокомандующий, назначать, посол, состоять из, срок полномочий, одобрять законопроект, наложить вето, осужденный, подавать апелляцию, Верховный суд, свобода слова.

Найдите и выпишите из текста 2 предложения, содержащие инфинитив. Определите формы и функции инфинитива. Переведите предложения на русский язык.

Найдите и выпишите из текста 2 предложения, содержащие причастие. Определите формы и функции причастия. Переведите предложения на русский язык.

Найдите и выпишите из текста 2 предложения, содержащие герундий. Определите формы и функции герундия. Переведите предложения на русский язык.

Письменно переведите 2-5 абзацы.

Контрольная работа

Вариант 3

1. Измените число следующих существительных, произведя все необходимые изменения:

а) единственное число на множественное: an assembly, a term, a position, a class, a statesman, a toe, majority, a person, a bath, a chief;

б) множественное число на единственное: principles, members, parties, nations, bosses, sizes, leaves, women, valleys, tomatoes.

Поставьте все личные местоимения в объектном падеже и напишите соответствующие им формы притяжательных местоимений.

3. Образуйте степени сравнения следующих прилагательных: powerful, high, far, little, notable, flat, wealthy, narrow.

Прочитайте и переведите текст №1. Абзац 5 переведите письменно.

Текст №1

The United Kingdom

1. This is an abbreviation of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and is the political name of the country which is made up of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. In everyday speech “Britain” is often used to mean the United Kingdom. The country is situated on the British Isles which lie between the North Sea and the Atlantic Ocean to the west of the European continent. The total area is about 120000 square miles.

2. It has been claimed that the British love of compromise is the result of the country’s physical geography. This may or may not be true, but it is certainly true that the land and the climate in Britain have a notable lack of extremes. Britain has mountains, but none of them are very high; it also has flat lands, but you cannot travel without encountering hills; it has no really big rivers; it doesn’t usually get very cold in the winter or very hot in the summer.

3. The population of the country is over 57 million people. About 20 per cent of the British people live in rural areas, the others live in urban districts. There are only five cities with populations over 500000, although Manchester, Liverpool and Newcastle also exceed this figure if neighbouring towns are included.

4. Though once Britain used to be one of the most powerful capitalist countries, its importance has shown a marked decline. Nevertheless, it has a number of highly developed industries: textile, iron and steel, shipbuilding, engineering, chemical, agricultural ones.

5. The United Kingdom is a constitutional (or parliamentary) monarchy, without a written constitution. The British constitution is based on Acts of Parliament (also called “laws” or “statutes”) and conventions, which are commonly accepted assumptions about the way things should be done. The country has a monarch (a king or a queen) as its Head of State. The monarch has very little power and can only reign with the support of parliament. Parliament consists of two chambers known as the House of Lords and the House of Commons. Parliament and the monarch have different roles in the government of the country. In reality, the House of Commons is the only one of the three which has true power. It is here that new bills are introduced and debated. If the majority of the members are in  favour of a bill it goes to the House of Lords to be debated and finally to the monarch to be signed. Only then does it become law. Although a bill must be supported by all three bodies, the house of Lords has only limited powers, and the monarch has not refused to sign one since the modern political system began over 200 years ago.

5. Выполните лексико-грамматические задания на базе текста №1:

5.1.  Выпишите из текста эквиваленты следующих слов и выражений: площадь; составлять; высоко развитые отрасли промышленности, сельские (городские) районы; власть; писаная конституция; управление (страной); палата (парламента); законопроект; закон (3 варианта); ограниченные полномочия; обычай (соглашение).