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I. Decide whether the following statements are true (T) or false (F):
1. In the UK, a government cannot stand for longer than five years except in exceptional circumstances.
2. The parliament can call an election sooner than five years.
3. Anyone who is eligible to vote with 500 pounds as deposit can stand as an MP.
4. Each main party is given some time on national TV to "sell" their policies. The time is not given free and has to be paid by the party.
5. The amount spent in national campaign is not limited other than that on TV.
6. Secrecy is not an important part of the voting process.
7. There are two major national parties in the U. K. according to the text.
8. Liberal Democratic party is the newest of the major national parties.
9. Children from the upper-middle-class usually have a better education than those from the working or middle class.
10. The majority of middle-class people today have working class parents or grandparents.
11. One of the distinctive features about the British class-system is that it has also retained a hereditary aristocracy.
12. The majority of Britain's recent immigrants have mainly come from North Asia and Caribbean countries.
13. Most immigrants earn a living by opening restaurants or becoming writers or musicians.
14. The immigrants have problems of unemployment, under-representation in politics and unfair treatment by police and by the justice system.
II. Choose the answer that best completes the statement or answers the question:
1. Which group of people cannot vote in the general election?
A. Members in the House of Commons.
B. Lords in the House of Lords.
C. The UK citizens above the age of 18.
D. The UK resident citizens of the Irish Republic.
2. By whom is a "vote of no confidence" decided?
A. The House of Commons.
B. The House of Lords.
C. The two major parties.
D. The Prime Minister.
3. Which of the following is NOT true about the electoral campaigns?
A. Big parties can buy time to broadcast their policies on the television.
B. There is a limit on the amount of money candidates can spend in their constituency campaign.
C. Candidates and their supporters go door-to-door persuading voters to vote for them.
D. Candidates criticize each other's policies to show how good their own policies are.
4. How many seats in the House of Commons should a party hold at least in order to win the election?
A. 651.
B. 326.
C. 626.
D. 351.
5. Which of the following description about the Conservative party is NOT true?
A. It has been in power for an unusually long period of time.
B. It prefers policies that protect individual's rights.
C. It receives a lot of the funding from big companies.
D. It is known as a party of high taxation levels.
6. Which period of time in British history was described as "private affluence and public squalor" ?
A. The 1940s.
B. The 1970s.
C. The 1980s.
D. The 1990s.
7. Who is the leader of the Labour party at present?
A. John Major.
B. Tony Blair.
C. Harold Wilson.
D. Margaret Thatcher.
8. Which of the following is NOT true about life peers?
A. They are not from the aristocratic families.
B. They cannot sit in the House of Lords.
C. They earned their titles through their outstanding achievement.
D. The titles cannot be inherited by their children.
9. Which of the following statements is NOT true about class system in the UK?
A. People of different classes tend to read different kinds of newspapers.
B. Class division is only decided by people's income.
C. Though social advancement is possible, class affects a person's life chances.
D. The way people speak may identify them as belonging to a particular class.
10. Which of the following is NOT characteristic of the hereditary aristocracy in the UK ?
A. The noble titles can be inherited by the children.
B. They usually own historic houses in the country.
C. They are the richest people in the UK.
D. The senior members can be lords in the House of Lords.
11. Which of the following is NOT an effect of immigration on British society ?
A. There is now a varied cuisine for people to choose from.
B. Class tension has increased.
C. New forms of popular music have emerged.
D. Different religious beliefs have been practiced actively.
12. Which of the following is NOT a true description of the situation of ethnic minorities in the UK ?
A. They are well represented in the British Parliament.
B. They are economically poorer than the white population.
C. They are treated unfairly by the justice system.
D. They are threatened by some racist groups.
III. Fill in the blanks:
1. The UK is divided into constituencies with each of them reresented b a member in________ .
【答案】 651, the parliament
2. The party which wins the majority seats in parliament forms _____ and its party leader becomes _____.
【答案】 the government, the Prime Minister
3. Normally, a government can be in power for _____ years, and then it has to resign and hold a general election.
【答案】 5
4. If a government loses a _____ in the House of Commons, it has to resign.
【答案】 vote of no confidence
5. The amount of time given to each party in the "party electoral broadcasts" is proportional to the _____ which the party received at the previous election.
【答案】 percentage of the vote
6. The media conducts _____ to try to predict the result of the election.
【答案】 constituency campaign
7. There are three major parties in the UK: _____, the Labour party and _____.
【答案】 the Conservative party, the Liberal Democratic party
8. _____ was established by the Labour government in 1948, providing health care for all the people.
【答案】 National Health Service
9. From 1979 to 1997, _____ won 4 consecutive elections and was in power for quite a long time.
【答案】 the Conservative party
10. _____ is the leader of the Conservative party while _____,is the leader of the Labour party.
【答案】 John Major, Tony Blair
11. People who do unskilled office work and skilled well-paid manual work are likely to be described as _____ class.
【答案】 lower middle
12. A university teacher would probably read a newspaper like _____ while a manual worker would probably _____ read
【答案】 The Guardian, The Sun
13. One distinctive feature about the class system in Britain is that it still retains a _____.
【答案】 hereditary aristocracy
14. Most of the recent immigrants come from South Asian countries such as _____ Pakistan and Sri Lanka; and _____ countries such as Jamaica and Trinidad.
【答案】 India, Caribbean
IV. Tell what you know about the following in your own words:
1. The importance of general elections
Key: General elections are very important in western democracy. According to the author, they provide opportunities for people to influence future government policies and to replace those incompetent political leaders.
2. The formation of the government
Key: 651 members of parliament are elected in the general election representing 651 constituencies in the UK. The party which holds a majority of those “seats” in parliament forms the government, with its party leader as the Prime Minister.
3. The electoral campaign
Key: Before a general election, the political parties would start their electoral campaigns in order to make their ideologies and policies known to the public. The campaign involves advertisements in newspapers, door-to-door campaigning, postal deliveries of leaflets and “party electoral broadcasts” on the television. The parties also try to attack and criticize the opponents' policies. Therefore, these campaigns sometimes can be quite aggressive and critical.
4. Class system in British society
Key: The class system does exist in British society. Most of the British population would claim themselves to be either of middle-class or working-class, though some people would actually belong to the upper middle-class or lower middle-class. Class divisions are not simply economic, they are cultural as well. People of different classes may differ in the kind of newspapers they read, in the way they speak and in the kind of education they receive. One of the distinctive features about the British class system is that aristocratic titles can still be inherited.
5. Ethnic relations in the UK
Key: The coming of immigrants groups from other parts of the world has greatly enriched British culture. But ethnic relations are also sometimes tense: the local people view the newcomers as a threat to their way of living; and despite much official actions to minimize racism, both subtle and overt oppression remains. The immigrant population is not well-off economically. They face problems of unemployment, under-representation in politics and unfair treatment by police and by the justice system.