Ex. 1. Read the text and give the main idea of it

Is the British Parliament the Best Club in the World?

Englishmen themselves give a positive answer to this question, because the British Houses of Parlia­ment, or the Palace of Westminster, which dur­ing its nine-hundred-year career has been a monastery, a royal residence, a storehouse and finally a legislative body, has al­ways been described as a " terrible place full of drunken old men", " the Mother of Parliaments" and " the best club in the world".

Does everyone know how Parliament came to be? The name " Westmin­ster" means minister or monastery to the West of London. For the first hun­dred years of its existence, Westminster was an al­most ignored place until, during the late eleventh century, King William II built an extension to the monastery and decided to make it his home. Gradu­ally the court and govern­ment moved into the neighbourhood, and the central seat of power was established; much the same as that created by the French King Louis XIV in Versailles some six hundred years later.

For nearly five hundred years, Westminster served as a royal residence, seat of power and a monastery, until King Henry VIII arrived on the scene. By 1532 Henry had bought two new palaces within half a mile of Westmin­ster, and fifteen years later, when he left the Catholic Church and dis­solved the monasteries, Westminster lost its re­maining non-parliamentary residents; and the monks' quarters were used to store Henry's goods.

It was during the next century that Parliament established itself as the supreme legislative body. After the English Civil War between the Parlia­ment and the King (which the Parliament had won) the way was clear for Par­liament to adopt the style it still uses today.

Two " houses" or " chambers" were created. The first house, the House of Commons, consisted of ordinary people elected to represent areas known as " constituencies". This house debated and created laws which were then sent to the House of Lords. As the name implies, the House of Lords drew its membership from people with titles - such as " Lord" or " Duke" - who took their places by he­reditary right. They had the power to veto any suggestions made in the House of Commons.

It is still the same to­day, except that the Gov­ernment appoints some Lords now; they can no longer veto the laws passed by the Commons, and women can now take positions in both Houses.

Until the early nine­teenth century, Parliament worked in the buildings originally designed as a royal residence. This was changed when, in 1834, a fire destroyed almost all of the buildings. This gave Parliament the opportunity to build an assembly place which catered for its own particular needs. A new building was created. It was modeled on the old build­ings, but improvements were made; the chambers were bigger, and for the first time working condi­tions were suitable for the running of Parliament.

For the next one hun­dred years, few changes were made, until in 1941, the Commons was again destroyed by fire. The re­pairs were made to the same dimensions as were used in 1834. Although this looks very nice, it is not without drawbacks. There are today six hundred and thirty five Parliamentary representa­tives in the House of Com­mons, but seating arrange­ments allow only four hundred people to be seated at one time. And, while the old House was arranged for the Government and its op­position to sit opposite each other in Parliament, there are now more than one op­position groups, many of whom have no defined seat­ing areas.

Ex. 2. Read and discuss the newspaper article. Make a list of key words to be remembered and compare your list with the partner’s.

Ex. 3. Find the English equivalents to the following words:

законодательный орган власти; определить место заседаний; созвать палаты парламента; обсуждать и создавать законы; получить место в парламенте по наследству; право наложить вето; принимать закон; занимать должность; усовершенствовать; представители Парламента.