2. The Constitution
Britain has no written Constitution. The foundations of the British state are laid out in statue law成文法, which are laws passed by Parliament; the common laws普通法，判例法, which are laws established through common practice in the courts; and conventions习惯法. 3. The functions of Parliament
The functions of Parliament are: to pass laws, to vote for taxation, to scrutinize government policy, administration and expenditure and to debate the major issues of the day. 4. The House of Lords上议院
The House of Lords consists of the Lord Spiritual, who are the Archbishops and most prominent bishops of the Church of England; and the Lords Temporal, which refers to those lords who either have inherited the seat from their forefathers or they have been appointed. The lords mainly represent themselves instead of the interests of the public. 5. The House of Commons
The House of Commons is the real center of British political life because it is the place where about 650 elected representatives (Members of Parliament) make and debate policy. These MPs are elected in the General Elections and
should represent the interests of the people who vote for them.
Unit 4 Politics, Class and Race
1. The importance of general elections
General elections are very important in western democracy. According to the author, they provide opportunities for people to influence future government policies and to replace those incompetent没能力的 political leaders. 2. The formation of the government
651 members of parliament are elected in the general election representing 651 constituencies in the UK. The party which holds a majority of those “seats” in parliament forms the government, with its party leader as the Prime Minister. 3. The electoral campaigns
Before a general election, the political parties would start their electoral campaigns in order to make their ideologies and policies known to the public. The campaign involves advertisements in newspapers, door-to-door campaigning postal deliveries of leaflet and “party electoral broadcasts” on the television. The parties also try to attack and criticize the opponents’ policies. Therefore, these campaigns
sometimes can be quite aggressive and critical. 4. Class system in British society
The class system does exist in British society. Most of the British population would claim themselves to be either of middle-class or working-class, though some people would actually belong to the upper middle-class or lower middle-class. Class divisions are not simply economic, they are cultural as well. People of different classes may differ in the kind of newspapers they read, in the way they speak and in the kind of education they receive. One of the distinctive features about the British class system is that aristocratic titles can still be inherited. 5. Ethnic relations in the UK
The coming of immigrant groups from other parts of the world has greatly enriched British culture. But ethnic relations are also sometimes tense: the local people view the newcomers as a threat to their way of living; and despite much official actions to minimize racism, both subtle and overt oppression remains. The immigrant population is not well-off economically. They face problems of unemployment, under-representation in politics and unfair treatment by police and by the justice system.
Unit 5 The UK Economy
1. Relative decline of the UK economy
The UK has experienced an economic decline since 1945. But this is a relative decline rather than an absolute one. Britain is wealthier and more productive than it was in 1945, but since other countries developed more rapidly, it has slid from being the second largest economy to being the sixth. 2. Privatization in the 1980s
The British economy went through a particularly had period in the 1970s, with high rates of inflation and devaluation of the Pound. Therefore, in the 1980s, when the Conservative party under Margaret Thatcher was in power, an extensive programme of privatization was carried out. Many state-owned business (such as steel, telecom, gas, aerospace) were turned into private companies. Privatisation was successful in controlling inflation but at the same time unemployment rate increased rapidly. 3. Main sectors of the UK economy
The UK national economy can be divided into three main areas: primary industries, such as agriculture, fishing and mining; secondary industries which manufacture complex goods from
those primary products; and tertiary (or service) industries such as banking, insurance, tourism and retailing. 4. “The City”
“The City “refers to the historic area at the center of London. It is one of the biggest financial centers in the world with the greatest concentration of banks, insurance companies and business dealing in commodities. At the heart of the city is the London Stock Exchange. 5. The aerospace industry in the UK
The UK’s aerospace industry is the third-largest in the world, producing the full range of aerospace products form civil and military aircrafts to missiles, satellites and jet engines. It produces 2% of the UK nation output, accounting for 8% of manufactured export goods.
Unit 6 British Literature 1. Elizabethan Drama
The general flowering of cultural and intellectual life in Europe during the 15th and 16th centuries is known as the Renaissance. In British culture, one of the most successful and long-lasting expressions of this development lay in drama. That was the period of the reign of Queen Elizabeth