Reading Exercise
Text 1: The England National Football Team
The England national football team represents England (not the whole United Kingdom) in international football competitions such as the World Cup and the European Championships. It is controlled by The Football Association, the governing body for football
in
England.
Partly thanks to historical accident, and continuing national sentiment among them, each of the four Home Nations of the United Kingdom possesses its own separate football association, domestic league and national team. Because the IOC does not accept regional representative teams, England, like the other three, do not compete in Olympic
football.
England are by far the most successful of the Home Nations, having won the 1966 World Cup and the British Home Championship outright thirty-four times, as many as the
other
three
nations
have
won
outright
altogether.
For the first 80 years of its existence, the England team played its home matches at different venues all around the country; for the first few years it used cricket grounds, before later moving on to football clubs' stadiums. England played their first match at Wembley Stadium in 1924, the year after it was completed, against Scotland, but for the next 27 years would only use Wembley as a venue for Scotland matches; other opposition
were
still
entertained
at
club
grounds
around
the
country.
In May 1951, Argentina became the first team other than Scotland to be entertained at Wembley, and by 1960 nearly all of England's home matches were being played there. Between 1966 and 1995, England did not play a single home match anywhere else.
England's last match at Wembley before its demolition and reconstruction was against Germany on October 7, 2000, a game which England lost 1-0. Since then the team has played at 14 different venues around the country, with Old Trafford having been the most often used. The FA have ruled that when the new Wembley is completed in mid2006, England's travels will end, and the team will play all of their home matches there until at least 2036. The main reason for this is financial. The FA did not own the old Wembley stadium, but it does own the new one, and has taken on debts of hundreds of millions of pounds to pay for it. Thus it needs to maximise the revenue from England matches, and does not wish to share it with the owners of other grounds.
Text 2: The House of the Lord
The House of Lords is a component of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, which also includes the Sovereign and the House of Commons. The House of Lords is an unelected body, consisting of 26 senior clerics of the Church of England (the "Lords Spiritual"), as well as 669 members of the Peerage (the "Lords Temporal"). Lords Spiritual serve as long as they continue to occupy their ecclesiastical positions, but Lords Temporal serve for life. Members of the
House
of
Lords
are
known
as
"Lords
of
Parliament".
The House of Lords originated in the 14th century and has been in almost continuous existence since. It was abolished in 1649 by the revolutionary government that came to power during the English Civil War, but was restored in
1660.
The House of Lords (the "Upper House") was once more powerful than the elected House of Commons (the "Lower House"). Since the 19th century, however, the powers of the House of Lords have been steadily declining; now, the Upper House is far weaker than its parliamentary counterpart. Under the Parliament Act 1911, most legislation passed by the House of Commons can be delayed, but cannot be rejected, by the House of Lords. Reforms were enacted under the House of Lords Act 1999, which removed the automatic hereditary right of many peers to sit in the Upper House. Additional
reforms are contemplated by the current Labour Government, but have not been
passed
into
law.
In addition to performing legislative functions, the House of Lords also holds judicial powers: it constitutes the highest court of appeal for most cases in the United Kingdom. The judicial functions of the House of Lords are not performed by the whole Chamber, but rather by a group of members with legal experience, who are known as "Law Lords". The House of Lords is not the only court of last resort in the United Kingdom; in some cases, that role is fulfilled
by
the
Privy
Council.
The full, formal style of the House of Lords is: The Right Honourable The Lords Spiritual and Temporal of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland in Parliament Assembled. The House of Lords, like the House of Commons, meets in the Palace of Westminster.
Text 3: University of Cambridge The University of Cambridge is the second-oldest university in the English-speaking
world
(after
Oxford).
It is situated in the town of Cambridge, England. According to legend, the university was founded in 1209 by scholars escaping from
Oxford
after
a
fight
with
locals
there.
Cambridge has produced more Nobel prize winners than any other university in the world, having 80 associated with it, about 70 of whom were students there.
It regularly heads league tables ranking British universities, and a recent league table by the Times Higher Education Supplement rated it sixth in the world overall and first for science.
The universities of Oxford and Cambridge, often referred to together as Oxbridge, compete to be seen as the strongest overall university in the UK. Historically, they have produced a significant proportion of Britain's prominent scientists, writers and politicians.
Text 4: Manchester Manchester is a city in North West England. Manchester has recently come to be regarded by some as
England's
Immediately
second
after
city
(after
Manchester
London).
hosted
the
Commonwealth Games in 2002, a nationwide opinion poll commissioned by Marketing Manchester and conducted by pollsters MORI found that out of just over 1000 people 34% of respondents thought that England's second city was Manchester; 29% thought it was
Birmingham.
In 2002 the central district had a population of 422,302. This district is the heart of a large conurbation called the metropolitan county of Greater Manchester, which has a population of 2,513,468. People
from
Manchester are called Mancunians.
In the same way as "London" is used to refer to the entire metropolitan area of Greater London, the term "Manchester" is often used to refer to the Greater Manchester conurbation, rather than the City of Manchester which is a metropolitan borough. The constituent parts of Greater Manchester vary in how separately they identify themselves from Manchester. Salford, for instance, is a city in its own right with a distinct identity despite directly adjoining the urban centre of Manchester.
TEXT 5. ROBINSON CRUSOE
I was born in the year 1632, in the city of York, of a good family, though not of that country, my father being a foreigner of Bremen, who settled first at Hull. He got a good estate by merchandise, and leaving off his trade, lived afterwards at York, from whence he had married my mother, whose relations were named Robinson, a very good family in that country, and from whom I was called Robinson Kreutznaer; but, by the usual corruption of words in England, we are now called - nay we call ourselves and write our name
-
Crusoe;
and
so
my
companions
always
called
me.
I had two elder brothers, one of whom was lieutenant-colonel to an English regiment of foot in Flanders, formerly commanded by the famous Colonel Lockhart, and was killed at the battle near Dunkirk against the Spaniards. What became of my second brother I never knew, any more than my father or mother knew what became of me.
Being the third son of the family and not bred to any trade, my head began to be filled very early with rambling thoughts. My father, who was very ancient, had given me a competent share of learning, as far as house-education and a country free school generally go, and designed me for the law; but I would be satisfied with nothing but going to sea; and my inclination to this led me so strongly against the will, nay, the commands of my father, and against all the entreaties and persuasions of my mother and other friends, that there seemed to be something fatal in that propensity of nature, tending
directly
to
the
life
of
misery
which
was
to
befall
me.
My father, a wise and grave man, gave me serious and excellent counsel against what he foresaw was my design. He called me one morning into his chamber, where he was confined by the gout, and expostulated very warmly with me upon this subject. He asked me what reasons, more than a mere wandering inclination, I had for leaving father's house and my native country, where I might be well introduced, and had a prospect of raising my fortune by application and industry, with a life of ease and pleasure. He told me it was men of desperate fortunes on one hand, or of aspiring, superior fortunes on the other, who went abroad upon adventures, to rise by enterprise, and make themselves famous in undertakings of a nature out of the common road; that these things were all either too far above me or too far below me; that mine was the middle state, or what might be called the upper station of low life, which he had found, by long experience, was the best state in the world, the most suited to human happiness, not exposed to the miseries and hardships, the labour and sufferings of the mechanic part of mankind, and not embarrassed with the pride, luxury, ambition, and envy of the upper part of mankind. He told me I might judge of the happiness of this state by this one thing - viz. that this was the state of life which all other people envied; that kings have frequently lamented the miserable consequence of being born to great things, and wished they had been placed in the middle of the two extremes, between the mean and the great; that the wise man gave his testimony to this, as the standard of felicity, when he prayed to have neither poverty nor riches.