Artgalereys of London
Speaking about art galereys of London we should first ofall mentionThe national galery, The national portret galerey and Thetate galery. I would like to tell you about National portretgalery and about Tate galery.
Thenational galery houses one of the richest and mostextensive collections of painting in theworld. It stands to the northof the Trafalgar Square. the galerey was desighned byWilliam Wilkins and build in 1834-37. The collection covers allschools and periods of painting, but is aspecially famous for it'sexamples of Rembrant and Rubents. The british schools isonly moderately represented as the national collections areshared with the Tate galerey. The Nationalgalerey was founded in 1824when the government bought the collection of John Angersteinwhich included 38 paintings.
TheTate gtalery houses the national collection of britishpainting from the 16-th century to thepresent day. It is also thenational galerey for modern art, including painting andsculpture made in Britain, Europe, America and other countries.It was opened in 1897 as the nationalgalerey of british art. Itowes it's establishment to SuieHenritate who built the galereyand gave his own collection of 65painting.
London
Londonis the capital of the United Kingdom, its economic, politicaland cultural centre. It is one of theworld's most important ports and one of the largest cities in the world.London with its suburbs has a
populationof about 11 million people. London has been a capital for nearly athousand years. Many of its
ancientbuildings still stand. The most famous of them are the Tower of London, where the crown jewels are kept,Westminster Abbey and St. Paul's Cathedral. Most visitors also wantto see the Houses of Parliament,
BuckinghamPalace (the Queen's home with its Changing of the Guards) and the many magnificent museums. Once London was a small Roman town on thenorth bank of the Thames.Slowly it grew into one of the world's major cities. Exchange and the Bank of England arehere, too. The East End is the district where mostly working peoplelive. The old port area is now called «Docklands». Thereare now new office buildings in Docklands,and
Differentareas of London seem like different cities. The West End is
arich man* world of shops, offices and theatres. The City of London is
thedistrict where most offices and banks are concentrated; the Royal
thousandsof new flats and houses. Bythe day the whole of London is busy. At night, offices are quiet
andempty, but the West End stays alive, because this is where Londoners come to enjoy themselves. There are twoopera houses here, several concert halls and many theatres, as wellas cinemas. In nearby Soho the
pubs,restaurants and night clubs are busy half the night.
Likea*l big cities, London has streets and concrete buildings, but It also has many big parks, full oftrees, flowers and grass. In the middle ofHyde Park or Kensmgtoa Gardens youwill&inkthat you are in the
country,miles away. Manypeople live outside (be centre of London in the subulbs, and they travel to work in shops and officesby train, bus or undergrouad
TheBritish Parliament
TheBritish Parliament is the oldest in the world. It originatedin the12th century as Witenagemot, the body of wise councellerswhom the King needed to consult pursuinghis policy. The BritishParliament consists of the House of Lords and the House ofCommons and the Queen as its head. TheHouse of Commons plays themajor role in law-making. It consists of Members of Parliament(called MPs for short). Each of them represents an area inEngland, Scotland, Wales and Ireland. MPsare elected either at ageneral election or at a by-election following the death orretirement. Parliamentary elections areheld every 5 years and it isthe Prime Minister who decides on the exact day of theelection. The minimum voting age is 18.And the voting is taken bysecret ballot. The election campaign lasts about 3 weeks, TheBritish parliamentary system depends onpoliticals parties. Theparty which wins the majority of seatsforms the goverment and itsleader usually becomes Prime Minister. The Prime Ministerchooses about 20 MPs from his party to become the cabinet ofministers. Each minister is responsiblefor a particular area in thegoverment. The second largest party becomes the officialopposition with its own leader and "shadowcabinet". The leader ofthe opposition is a recognized post in the House of Commons.The parliament and the monarch have different roles in thegoverment and they only meet together onsymbolic occasions, such ascoronation of a new monarch or the opening of the parliament.In reality, the House of Commons is theone of three which has truepower. The House of Commons is made up of six hundred andfifty elected members, it is presided over by the speaker, amember acceptable to the whole house. MPssit on two sides of the hall,one side for the governing party and the other for theopposition. The first 2 rows of seats areoccupied by the leadingmembers of both parties (called "frontbenches") The back benchesbelong to the rank-and-life MPs. Eachsession of the House of
Commonslasts for 160-175 days. Parliament has intervals duringhis work. MPs are paid for theirparliamentary work and have toattend the sittings. As mention above, theHouse of Commons plays themajor role in law making. The procedure is the following: aproposed law ("a bill") has togo through three stages in orderto become an act of parliament, these arecalled "readings". Thefirst reading is a formality and is simplythe publication of theproposal. The second reading involvesdebate on the principles ofthe bill, it is examination byparliamentary committy. And thethird reading is a report stage, when thework of the committy is
reportedon to the house. This is usually the most importantstage in the process. When the bill passesthrough the House ofCommons, it is sent to the House of Lords for discussion, when theLords agree it, the bill is taken to the Queen for royalassent, when the Queen sings the bill, it becomes act of theParliament and the Law of the Land. TheHouse of Lords has more than1000 members, although only about 250 take an active part inthe work in the house. Members of this Upper House are notelected, they sit there because of theirrank, the chairman of theHouse of Lords is the Lord Chancellor. And he sits on aspecial seat, called "WoolSack"The members of the House of Lordsdebate the bill after it has been passedby the House of Commons. Somechanges may be recommended and the agreement between the twohouses is reached by negotiations.
The United Kingdom
TheUnited Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is situated on the British Isles. TheBritish Isles consist of two large islands, Great Britain and Ireland, and about fivethousands small islands. Theirtotal area is over 244 000 squarekilometres. TheUnited Kingdom is one of the world's smaller countries. Its population is over 57 million. About 80percent of the population is urban. The United Kingdom is made up of fourcountries: England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. Theircapitals are London, Cardiff, Edinburgh and Belfast respectively. GreatBritain consists of England , Scotland and Wales and does not includeNorthern Ireland. But in everyday speech Great Britain is used in themeaning of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Thecapital of the UK. is London. The British Isles are separated from theContinent by the North Sea and the British Channel. The *westerncoast of Great Britain is washed by the Atlantic Ocean and the Irish Sea.
Thesurface of the British Isles varies very much. The north ofScotland is mountainous and is called theHighlands. The South, which has beautiful valleys and plains, iscalled the Lowlands. The north and west of England are mountainous, but theeastern, central and south- eastern parts of England are a vast plain.Mountains are not very high. Ben Nevis in Scotland is the highestmountain (1343 m). There are a lot of rivers iri Great Britain, but they arenot very long. The Severn is the longest rive?, while the Thames is thedeepest and the most important oae. The mountains, the Atlantic Oceanand the warm waters of the Gulf Stream influence the climate of theBritish Isles. It is mild the whole year round. The UK. is a highly developed industrialcountry. It produces and exports machinery, electronics, textile.One of the chief industries of the country is shipbuilding. * The UK is a constitutional monarchy witha parliament and the Queenas Head of State.