European Parliament

The European Parliament has 626 directly elected members; Britain has 87 seats. The last election to the Parliament was held inJune 1994. The Parliament is consulted on a wide range of issues before the Council takes final decisions. The Commission can be removed from office as a whole by a two-thirds majority of all members of the Parliament. The Parliament adopts the Community's annual budget in agreement with the Council. The European Parliament's legislative involvement was increased by the Single European Act and the Maastricht Treaty.

Court of Justice

The Court of Justice consists of 15 judges. It interprets and adjudicates on the meaning of the Treaties and on measures taken by the Council of the European Union and the Commission. It also hears complaints and appeals brought by or against Union institutions, member states or individuals and gives preliminary rulings on cases referred by courts in the member states. It represents the final authority on all aspects of Community law.

The Single European Act provided for a Court of First Instance to relieve the Court of Justice of a substantial part of its workload. The new court began working in 1989.

Court of Auditors

The Court of Auditors oversees the implementation of the Community's budget. It helps to counter waste and fraud. The Court consists of one member from each state.

Visit the European Union Studies Association web site to see what the UK's leading Research Institute on European Affairs is doing to widen and deepen the European Union. Their site includes publications, programs, conference information, press releases and hot links.

 

 

GRAMMAR REFERENCE AND EXERCISES

 

Pronouns

 

Personal	Possessive adjectives	Possessive pronouns	Reflexive-Emphatic pronouns
Before verbs as subjects	After verbs as objects	Followed by nouns	Not followed by nouns
I	Me	My	Mine	Myself
You	You	Your	Yours	Yourself
He	Him	His	His	Himself
She	Her	Her	Hers	Herself
It	It	Its	—	Itself
We	Us	Our	Ours	Ourselves
You	You	Your	Yours	Yourselves
They	Them	Their	Theirs	Themselves

 

NOTE: Possessive Adjectives and Possessive Pronouns express possession. Possessive Adjectives go before nouns, whereas Possessive Pronouns do not go before nouns: e.g. This is her jacket. It’s hers.

 

1.1 Write the correct possessive adjectives for these sentences:

 

1. These are my parents. (I)

2. I've got ______ watch. (he)

3. Is this ______ car? (you)

4. Do they like ______ new house? (she)

5. Have you met ______ teacher? (they)

6. Who's got ______ money? (I)

7. I don't like ______ teacher. (we)

8. Have you got ______ passport? (you)

9. He forgot ______ keys. (he)

10. They changed ______ hotel. (they)

11. She gave the letter to ______ secretary. (she)

12. There's something wrong with ______ car. (I)

13. They're having a party in ______ garden. (they)

14. Where's ______ pen? (I)

15. I like ______ jacket. (You)

 

1.2 Write the correct possessive adjective or pronoun for these sentences:

 

1. Whose camera is this? Is it yours? (you)

2. Excuse me, those are our seats. (we)

3. Is it _____ suitcase or ______? (you, he)

4. Has the dog had ______ food? (it)

5. They're not ______ keys – they're ______. (I/she)

6. I don't think its ______ room: I think it's ______. (you/they)

7. The police asked me for ______ address. (I)

8. Have you got ______ pen, or would you like to borrow ______? (you/I)

9. ______ garden is bigger than ______. (they/we)

10. I think this is ______ book. Oh no, it's ______. (I/you)

11. The decision is ______. (they)

12. The cat wants ______ dinner. (it)

13. You know it's not ______ money. It's ______. (you/I)

14. It isn't ______ car, it's ______. (he/she)

15. It wasn't ______ mistake, it was ______. (I/they)

16. Have you met ______ mother? (they)

17. ______ parents say the decision is ______. (she/they)

18. ______ brother hasn't got a phone, so he uses ______. (I/we)

19. ______ car wasn't working, so I used ______. (I/he)

20. ______ house is smaller than ______. (we/they)

 

Nouns

 

A noun can be countable or uncountable: e.g. I eat a banana every day. I like bananas. (A countable noun can be singular or plural.) I eat rice every day. I like rice. (An uncountable noun has only one form). Here are some uncountable nouns:

 

accommodation, advice, baggage, behavior, bread, chaos, damage, furniture, information, luck, luggage, news, permission, progress, scenery, traffic, weather, work, etc.

 

2.1 Write “C” for countable and “U” for uncountable nouns:

apple; water; boy; milk; table; pen;

bread; cup; computer; money; cheese; tooth;

car; grass; person; road; chair; bicycle; hand; flour; information; butter; sugar; tree;

garden; book; news; bus; wine; house.

 

2.2 Write the plurals of the words given in brackets to complete these sentences:

 

1. Would you bring the bottle and some glasses, please? (glass)

2. We cut the cake into _____. (half)

3. We bought some _____ to eat with our _____. (tomato/sandwich)

4. They caught several _____ that afternoon. (fish)

5. It was a shop selling _____ and _____. (stereo/video)

6. Would you like some of these _____? (potato)

7. We saw a cartoon about _____ and _____. (cat/mouse)

8. All the _____ had different coloured _____. (house/roof)

9. It was autumn, and the _____ were falling. (leaf)

10. Did you make these _____? (handkerchief)

11. We use several _____ for painting the _____. (process/car)

12. They have some _____ and a few _____. (chicken/sheep)

13. They visited several _____ that night. (disco)

14. I've read her _____, but I haven't seen any of her _____. (book/play)

15. I bought some _____ for the _____. (shelf/glass)

16. There were _____ of _____ in the factory. (thousand/box)

17. The _____ went in one door and the _____ went in the other. (man/woman)

18. They have a lot of _____ at the moment. (worry)

19. Would you bring the _____ and _____? (knife/fork)

20. The _____ chased the _____ for several miles. (wolf/deer)