Art
galereys of London
Speaking about art galereys of London we should first of
all mention
The national galery, The national portret galerey and The
tate galery. I would like to tell you
about National portret
galery and about Tate galery.
The
national galery houses one of the richest and most
extensive collections of painting in the
world. It stands to the north
of the Trafalgar Square. the galerey was desighned by
William Wilkins and build in 1834-37.
The collection covers allschools and periods of painting, but is a
specially famous for it's
examples of Rembrant and Rubents. The british schools is
only moderately represented as the
national collections are
shared with the Tate galerey. The National
galerey was founded in 1824
when the government bought the collection of John Angerstein
which included 38 paintings.
The
Tate gtalery houses the national collection of british
painting from the 16-th century to the
present day. It is also the
national galerey for modern art, including painting and
sculpture made in Britain, Europe,
America and other countries.
It was opened in 1897 as the national
galerey of british art. It
owes it's establishment to Suie
Henritate who built the galerey
and gave his own collection of 65
painting.
London
London
is the capital of the United Kingdom, its economic, political
and cultural centre. It is one of the
world's most important ports and
one of the largest cities in the world.
London with its suburbs has a
population
of about 11 million people.
London has been a capital for nearly a
thousand years. Many of its
ancient
buildings 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 want
to see the Houses of Parliament,
Buckingham
Palace (the Queen's home with its Changing of the Guards)
and the many magnificent museums.
Once London was a small Roman town on the
north bank of the Thames.
Slowly it grew into one of the world's major cities.
Exchange and the Bank of England are
here, too. The East End is the
district where mostly working people
live. The old port area is now called
«Docklands». There
are now new office buildings in Docklands,
and
Different
areas of London seem like different cities. The West End is
a
rich man* world of shops, offices and theatres. The City of London is
the
district where most offices and banks are concentrated; the Royal
thousands
of new flats and houses. By
the day the whole of London is busy. At night, offices are quiet
and
empty, but the West End stays alive, because this is where Londoners
come to enjoy themselves. There are two
opera houses here, several
concert halls and many theatres, as well
as cinemas. In nearby Soho the
pubs,
restaurants and night clubs are busy half the night.
Like
a*l big cities, London has streets and concrete buildings, but
It also has many big parks, full of
trees, flowers and grass. In the middle
ofHyde Park or Kensmgtoa Gardens you
will&inkthat you are in the
country,
miles away. Many
people live outside (be centre of London in the subulbs, and
they travel to work in shops and offices
by train, bus or undergrouad
The
British Parliament
The
British Parliament is the oldest in the world. It originated
in the
12th century as Witenagemot, the body of wise councellers
whom the King needed to consult pursuing
his policy. The British
Parliament consists of the House of
Lords and the House of
Commons and the Queen as its head. The
House of Commons plays the
major role in law-making. It consists of
Members of Parliament
(called MPs for short). Each of them
represents an area in
England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland. MPs
are elected either at a
general election or at a by-election
following the death or
retirement. Parliamentary elections are
held every 5 years and it is
the Prime Minister who decides on the exact day of the
election. The minimum voting age is 18.
And the voting is taken by
secret ballot. The election campaign lasts about 3 weeks, The
British parliamentary system depends on
politicals parties. The
party which wins the majority of seats
forms the goverment and its
leader usually becomes Prime Minister. The Prime Minister
chooses about 20 MPs from his party to
become the cabinet of
ministers. Each minister is responsible
for
goverment. The second largest party becomes the official
opposition with its own leader and "shadow
cabinet". The leader of
the opposition is a recognized post in the House of Commons.
The parliament and the monarch have
different roles in the
goverment and they only meet together on
symbolic occasions, such as
coronation of a new monarch or the opening of the parliament.
In reality, the House of Commons is the
one of three which has true
power. The House of Commons is made up of six hundred and
fifty elected members, it is presided
over by the speaker, a
member acceptable to the whole house. MPs
sit on two sides of the hall,
one side for the governing party and the other for the
opposition. The first 2 rows of seats are
occupied by the leading
members of both parties (called "front
benches") The back benches
belong to the rank-and-life MPs. Each
session of the House of
Commons
lasts for 160-175 days. Parliament has intervals during
his work. MPs are paid for their
parliamentary work and have to
attend the sittings. As mention above, the
House of Commons plays the
major role in law making. The procedure is the following: a
proposed law ("a bill") has to
go through three stages in order
to become an act of parliament, these are
called "readings". The
first reading is a formality and is simply
the publication of the
proposal. The second reading involves
debate on the principles of
the bill, it is examination by
parliamentary committy. And the
third reading is a report stage, when the
work of the committy is
reported
on to the house. This is usually the most important
stage in the process. When the bill passes
through the House of
Commons, it is sent to the House of Lords
for discussion, when the
Lords agree it, the bill is taken to the Queen for royal
assent, when the Queen sings the bill, it
becomes act of the
Parliament and the Law of the Land. The
House of Lords has more than
1000 members, although only about 250 take an active part in
the work in the house. Members of this
Upper House are not
elected, they sit there because of their
rank, the chairman of the
House of Lords is the Lord Chancellor. And he sits on a
special seat, called "WoolSack"
The members of the House of Lords
debate the bill after it has been passed
by the House of Commons. Some
changes may be recommended and the agreement between the two
houses is reached by negotiations.
The United Kingdom
The
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is
situated on the British Isles. The
British Isles consist of two large islands,
Great Britain and Ireland, and about five
thousands small islands. Their
total area is over 244 000 square
kilometres. The
United Kingdom is one of the world's smaller countries. Its
population is over 57 million. About 80
percent of the population is urban.
The United Kingdom is made up of four
countries: England, Wales,
Scotland and Northern Ireland. Their
capitals are London, Cardiff,
Edinburgh and Belfast respectively. Great
Britain consists of England ,
Scotland and Wales and does not include
Northern Ireland. But in everyday
speech Great Britain is used in the
meaning of the United Kingdom of
Great Britain and Northern Ireland. The
capital of the UK. is London.
The British Isles are separated from the
Continent by the North Sea
and the British Channel. The *western
coast of Great Britain is washed
by the Atlantic Ocean and the Irish Sea.
The
surface of the British Isles varies very much. The north of
Scotland is mountainous and is called the
Highlands. The South, which
has beautiful valleys and plains, is
called the Lowlands. The north and
west of England are mountainous, but the
eastern, central and south-
eastern parts of England are a vast plain.
Mountains are not very high.
Ben Nevis in Scotland is the highest
mountain (1343 m). There are a lot
of rivers iri Great Britain, but they are
not very long. The Severn is the
longest rive?, while the Thames is the
deepest and the most important
oae. The mountains, the Atlantic Ocean
and the warm waters of the Gulf
Stream influence the climate of the
British Isles. It is mild the whole
year round.
The UK. is a highly developed industrial
country. It produces and
exports machinery, electronics, textile.
One of the chief industries of
the country is shipbuilding. *
The UK is a constitutional monarchy with
a parliament and the Queen
as Head of State.