Instructions

Remember that Speaking English runs in your browser OFF-LINE

Go to a subject by clicking on the Index at the left of the page.

  Click either bee to hear everything between the bees non-stop  

---

Speaking English Course B
Lesson B8

Social Institutions and Structures

Click and listen to each sentence as many times as you like

Say each sentence as many times as you like

Practise saying each sentence until it sounds right

PRACTICE MAKES PERFECT

---

	Vocabulary.
	Listen to this list of words connected with politics. Practise saying them until they sound right.
	Use your dictionary to find out the meanings of words you don't know.
		President
		Prime minister
		Government
		Political party
		Opposition party
		Coalition
		Left-wing
		Centre
		Right-wing
		Socialist
		Democratic
		Republican
		Conservative Vote
		Election
		Poll
		Term of office
		Defence budget
		Foreign affairs minister
		Veto.

	Now answer these questions yourself, in English:
		What different political parties are there in your country?
		Which party is in power at the moment?
		When is the next election?

	Bima and Syeed are giving a joint presentation to their class on the main differences between the UK and USA systems of government.
Bima:	Good morning everyone. I'm going to start by talking about the political systems in the UK and then Syeed will talk about the USA. As we only have ten minutes, we'll just very briefly outline the main structures in each country and then we can have five minutes for asking questions. The UK is what's called a Democratic Monarchy. This means that the King or Queen is the Head of State, but that we also have a democratically elected government with a Prime Minister and a Deputy Prime minister. The Prime Minister and government are always from the political party which has the most Members of Parliament (MPs). The top ministers in the government form the Cabinet and this meets at 10 Downing Street. These ministers are responsible for things like education, transport and foreign affairs. The Home Secretary is in charge of the Home Office and the Chancellor of the Exchequer is in charge of the finance. The Parliament is made up of a lower house, the House of Commons and an upper House, called the House of Lords. The House of Commons has Members of Parliament (MPs) who are elected by the people in their area, or borough. Anyone who is over 18, except the insane and some criminals can vote, and a general election is held every four or five years. The MP's who are not in the government's party are called 'the opposition'. That's all I've got to say for now - I'll hand you over to Syeed.
Syeed:	Thanks Bima. Well, the main difference between the UK and the USA is that the USA has a federal system. This means that each state has it's own government and can make it's own laws. Some states have the death penalty for example and some don't. The American system is called a Democratic Republic and the head of state is the President. He has his job for 4 years and can be re-elected only once. The way he is elected is by a group of people from each state, called an electoral college. The government in the USA has 2 main parts, an upper house, called the Senate and the lower house, or House of Representatives. The Senate has two elected Senators from each state and the House of Representatives is made up of 435 elected members. Both these groups meet together to form Congress, which meets in Washington D.C. The Vice-President is president of the Senate, but the President cannot sit in Congress, although he can veto passed legislation. Well, its all pretty complicated, and I'm sure you've got lots of questions that we'll try to answer if we can. Thank you.

	Listen to this conversation between 2 first-year university students, who have just moved into a student house together.
Robin:	Hi, my name's Robin.
Oguri:	Hi, Oguri.
Robin:	What are you studying?
Oguri:	International Relations and Politics - what about you?
Robin:	Oh I'm doing Physics. What exactly is International Relations? It sounds interesting but I'm not sure I know what it means!
Oguri:	Well, it's the study of how countries operate with other countries - things like world trade, power blocks, international organisations, peace-keeping forces, international justice and human rights, . . . .
Robin:	Wow, it sounds like it just about covers everything!
Oguri:	Yes, it's a very wide area and very interesting. Basically, it's all connected with social and political issues around the world.
Robin:	Does it include things like economics?
Oguri:	Yes, well, everything is pretty much connected. You can look at things like consumerism and capitalism, industrialisation, state sovereignty, even things like official languages or civil wars! But anyway, what's studying physics like?
Robin:	Very different from International Relations, but in a way it looks at a very wide range of things too - the laws of the whole universe in fact!
Oguri:	Hey yeh, you're right! We could do an essay that links the two together!
Robin:	I think I'd rather be down the bar having a drink - you coming?
Oguri:	Absolutely. Just give me ten minutes to change.

	Useful Phrases:
	It sounds interesting.
	I'm not sure what it means.
	Does it include things like . . . . ?
	What's studying physics like?
	I think I'd rather . . . .
	Absolutely!

	Look at the list of acronyms (word abbreviations) of International organisations on the left, and match them with the full names on the right. When you have matched them all up, practise saying both the acronyms and the full forms. Some of the abbreviations are pronounced as one word, for example NATO and some are pronounced as letters, for example WWF.
		IMF	World Health Organisation
		WTO	United Nations Organisation
		NATO	International Monetary Fund
		APEC	Association of South-East Asian Nations
		SEATO	North American Free Trade Area
		ASEAN	European Union
		WWF	Organisation for Petroleum Exporting Countries
		WHO	World Trade Organisation
		OPEC	Asia Pacific Economic Council
		NAFTA	Worldwide Fund for Nature
		UNESCO	North Atlantic Treaty Organisation
		EU	South-East Asia Treaty Organisation
		UN	United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation
	Click 'Answers' to see if you were right!

	Many words in English end with the sound //, even when they are spelt with the letters -an, -or, -ure, -a, -our, or -er. (// is the phonetic symbol called a 'schwa'). For example, all the words below are pronounced with a // ending. Listen to them and practise saying them.
		Doctor Furniture Opera Flavour Screwdriver

	Many words have different forms with different endings, for example:-
		social / socialist / socialism.
	Other common word endings for longer words are -cy, -ism, -tion, -al, - ics, -ive, -ist.
	Practise saying these endings. Notice how '-cy' uses an 's' sound and '-tion' uses a 'sh' sound.
	Listen to the words below, most of which are from the short talk and conversation.
	Practise saying them, paying attention to the ends of the words.
		opposition / education / immigration
		democracy / sovereignty / industry
		consumerism / socialism / capitalism
		international / political / traditional
		politics / economics /
		conservative / expensive
		socialist / nationalist / internationalist

	Market research companies conduct surveys for companies. They ask people about their habits and lifestyles.
	Listen to Candice, a market researcher, giving an informal report to her company on the results of her team's latest survey from an area in the South-East of England.
Candice:	Hello everyone. Well, we're here to look at the results from the survey we did last month. Our client wanted us to investigate how jobs are related to leisure activities. We conducted 1,000 door-to-door interviews and 1,500 telephone interviews. You all have in front of you the statistical report I sent to you last week, with the detailed data for the responses to each of these questions. What I would like to do in this meeting, is to briefly highlight some of the more surprising results. Firstly, there were only small differences in some of the leisure activities between many blue-collar jobs, such as factory workers and manual labour, and more professional, white-collar jobs, such as teaching and managing. For example, watching videos, eating out and going to the gym, were equally popular in all groups. Another surprise was that quite a high percentage of employees in the middle sector - nurses, middle managers, top secretaries and so on, share many more leisure pursuits with the top group than ten years ago. For example, things like horse-riding, country walks, travel, voluntary and charity work and dinner parties, featured heavily in both groups. A couple of interesting trends that were significant in this group were the use of holistic treatments like massage and aromatherapy, and an increase in the number of people cycling as a hobby. Top professionals, such as doctors, lawyers and directors were still the only group that listed things like regular opera and theatre going to any large degree, and here there were some interesting upward trends in things like extreme sports. A couple of overall trends across all respondents, were a decline in religious practice and an increase in buying second or holiday homes. Now, let's move on to looking in more detail at some of our results . . . .

	Listen again to Candice's report. Practise saying the words in bold until they sound right.
	Candice was talking about the data of the survey. Listen to these phrases which we use to talk about statistical information. Practise them until they sound right.
		To highlight some of the more suprising results.
		We conducted a survey . . .
		There were only small differences between . . . .
		A high percentage of . . . .
		(dinner parties) featured heavily in both groups.
		A couple of interesting trends that were significant in this group were . . . . .
		There were some interesting upward trends.
		A couple of overall trends across all respondents, were . . . . .

	When we are reporting what someone has said, done or written, we use 'reporting verbs' such as:
	say
	tell
	outline
	discuss
	explain
	present
	suggest
	show
	state
	argue
	ask

	Bima outlined the political system in the UK.
	Robin and Oguri discussed what 'International Relations' means.
	Candice described some of the results from the survey.

	Below are some sentences from this lesson.
	Look back at the sentence in the talk or conversation, and then choose the best verb from the list below to report the sentence.
	The first sentence has been done for you as an example.
	1. Oguri:	We could do an essay that links the two together!
		Reported sentence using 'suggest': Oguri suggested that they do an essay together on International Relations and Physics.
	2. Robin:	What exactly is International Relations?
	3. Oguri:	Absolutely. Just give me ten minutes to change.
	4. Bima:	Good morning everyone.
	5. Candice:	We conducted 1,000 door-to-door interviews.
	Verbs:- ask / suggest / state / greet / agree
Click 'Answers' to see if you were right!

Tailpiece

You can't make an omlette without breaking eggs.

---

Course  B End of Lesson B8

(Play the Song)

---

Link to Introduction

Links to other Lessons in Course B : 1   2   3   4   5   6   7  *  9   10

---

Remember - you can go back to any lesson as many times as you like.

---

© Copyright of Speaking English.com Limited, 2001.
Speaking English Theme Song B Godfrey/Copyright Control.

---

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

---

Answers

	Answers to matching up the list of acronyms (word abbreviations) of International organisations with their full names.
		IMF	International Monetary Fund
		WTO	World Trade Organisation
		NATO	North Atlantic Treaty Organisation
		APEC	Asia Pacific Economic Council
		SEATO	South-East Asia Treaty Organisation
		ASEAN	Association of South-East Asian Nations
		WWF	Worldwide Fund for Nature
		WHO	World Health Organisation
		OPEC	Organisation for Petroleum Exporting Countries
		NAFTA	North American Free Trade Area
		UNESCO	United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation
		EU	European Union
		UN	United Nations Organisation
	Click BACK to get back to where you were in the lesson.

---

  Answers to using reporting verbs:-

2. ask	Robin asked what 'International Relations' is exactly.
3. agree	Oguri agreed and asked to be given ten minutes to change.
4. greet	Bima began by greeting everyone "Good morning".
5. state	Candice stated that they had conducted 1,000 door-to-door interviews.

Click BACK to get back to where you were in the lesson.

---