Angličtina - Great Britain and London (2006)

Autor: Zuzana Vávrová

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
Great Britain consists of England, Scotland and Wales. The capital of England is London, of Scotland Edinburgh, of Wales Cardiff and of Northern Ireland Belfast.

The United Kingdom covers an area of 244.820 sq km. Zero meridian in Greenwich and the longest river Thames pass through London. The geography is varied with the highest mountains in Wales and Scotland. The highest mountain is in Scotland - Ben Nevis 1344 meters high. The weather is unpredictable. It is raining very often. The climate is affected by the Gulf Stream. The winter in Great Britain is warmer than ours but the summer is less warm.
Queen Elizabeth II is the head of the monarchy and she is also the Head of the Protestant Church of England. Tony Blair is currently the Prime Minister. The System of government has three branches: executive branch, legislative branch and judiciary.

The population is more than sixty million. About seven million people live in London. The official language is English. The UK is a member of the European Union. The British people don’t want to change their currency to the Euro.
The main industries are gas and oil [the North Sea], coal, chemical industries, steel, engineering, productions of cars, aeroplanes and ships. The light industry is the production of: electronic goods, food, textiles and products of wool. The industries areas are Birmingham, Newcastle, Glasgow and Cardiff. In the UK is mechanized agriculture. There work less two percents population in agriculture. The products are wheat, barley, potatoes, sugar beet, oilseed rape, fruits in the south, sheep in Scotland and cattle and fishing in all ports.

London
London is the capital of UK. We can find a lot of old and beautiful places there. I would like to start with Buckingham palace. It’s a place where the Queen and her family live. Near the Buckingham palace is the St. James’ Park. It’s the oldest park in London. The Hyde Park is another famous park in London. The Hyde Park is known for Speaker Corner. That’s place where everybody can speak about whatever he wants. Nobody is allowed to say unplesant things about the Queen. Greenwich Observatory is important for geography where the Zero meridian passes. The parliament resides in the Houses of Parliament. One part of the Houses of Parliament is Big Ben. Big Ben is clock. I like the Tower Bridge but it’s a pity that we can’t see the Tower Bridge without cars and busses. The Tower of London is known as prizon. There was imprisoned Mary Queen of Scots. She was executed there too. In London there are a lot of shops. The Queen’s department store is Harrods . The London is very nice city and I would like to visit it again.

Scotland
Scotland is famous for four things: bagpipes, haggis, kilt and whisky. Scotsmen are famous because they wear nothing under theirs kilts.
The capital of Scotland is Edinburgh. In Edinburgh we should visit the Edinburgh Castle to see a wonderful views of the city. There lived Mary, Queen of Scots. She was executed by Elizabeth of England. It is a parody that the son of Mary, James, became the king of England after Elizabeth I as James I.
Other Scottish cities are Aberdeen and Glasgow. Aberdeen is famous for oil and a very old university. Glasgow is a cultural city with great night life. We may know Glasgow School of Art.
The population of Scotland is over five million. Scotland is 440 kilometers long. The official language is English.
The typical animal for Scotland is Loch Ness Monster, Nessie. Nessie lives in Loch Ness. Someone believes that this animal is real and someone thinks that it is a nonsense. I hope to see it when I go to Scotland.

System of government
1. executive: the cabinet – the head of the cabinet is the Prime Minister
2. legislative: House of Lords, House of Commons
3. judiciary: Supreme Court