1.

The Geographical Position of Great Britain

2. Britain, formally the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern
Ireland (the UK) is situated on the British Isles beautifully modeled by
nature. It consists of England, Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland and
over 5,500 small islands. Their total area is 242,000 sq. km. (93,000 sq.
miles). The British Isles lie between 50 and 60 degrees north and are
separated from the European continent by the North Sea and the
English Channel. The nearest point is across the Strait of Dover, where
the chalk cliffs of Dover are only 22 miles from those of France.
3. Western coast of Great Britain is washed by the Atlantic Ocean and the
Irish Sea.
4. Britain is comparatively small, but there is hardly a country in the
world where such a variety of scenery can be found. The charm of it
lies in the finest combination of sea and highland, the valleys of South
Wales, the smiling orchards of Kent, the desolate mountains of
Scotland, glorious heather covered moors, smooth fields, mysterious
woods and numerous parks. There are flat tulip fields round the Fens
that would make you think you were in Holland. Britain looks like one
well-ordered park under the charge of a skilful landscape gardener.
5. The seas round the British Isles are shallow and flow over submerged
plains which long ago joined Britain to the rest of Europe. This
submergence produced an indented coast line with deep inlets
providing good natural harbours. In some ways shallowness is an
advantage. Shallow water is warmer than deep water and keeps shores
from extreme cold. It is the home of millions of fish.
6. Owing to the shape of the country there is no point in it that is more
than 70 miles from the sea. It greatly facilitates the export of
manufactures and has made the British race a sea-loving one.
7. The rivers of Britain are of no great value as waterways and few of
them are navigable. Although many rivers have been joined by canals
so it is quite possible to travel by water from one end of Britain to the
other. The estuaries of the Thames, Mersey, Tyne, Clyde, Tay, Forth,
and Severn shelter the largest ports of Britain such as London,
Glasgow, Newcastle, Plymouth, Liverpool and others. The chief rivers
are the Severn (354 km) and Thames (346 km). The Severn flows
south-west into the Irish Sea. The river Thames is more important. It
flows through London and makes it a large seaport, though London is
 84 km away from the sea. It runs through rich agricultural districts in
an easterly direction into the North Sea. Scotland’s longest river is the
Clyde and Ireland’s – the Shannon.
8. The lakes of the British Isles are not of much importance. They are
mostly too small and too remote but very beautiful. Lough Neagh in
Northern Ireland (396 sq km) is the largest lake in the British Isles.
Loch Lomond in Scotland is the largest lake on the island of Great
Britain. It is about 35 km long and 7.2 km wide at its widest point. The
longest lake is Loch Ness which also has the greatest volume of water.
9. Great Britain is a hilly country. The highest mountains are Ben Nevis
(1343 m) in Scotland and Snowdon (1085 m) in Wales. In general, the
mountains are much the same height as those of the Crimea. Other
mountains are the Pennines, Cumbrians and Cambrians. Nowadays
there are practically no forests in Britain; the once abundant forests
remain now only as parks of oak, chestnut and elm.
countries.

2 CLIMATE

The climate in Great Britain is generally mild and temperate due to the influence of the
Gulf Stream. The south-western winds carry the warmth and moisture into Britain. The
climate in Britain is usually described as cool, temperate and humid.

British people say: "Other countries have a climate, in England we have weather."

The weather in Britain changes very quickly. One day may be fine and the next day may
be wet. The morning may be warm and the evening may be cool. Therefore it is natural
for the people to use the comparison "as changeable as the weather" of a person who
often changes his mood or opinion about something. The weather is the favourite topic
of conversation in Britain. When two Englishmen are introduced to each other, if they
can't think of any thing else to talk about, they talk about weather. When two people
meet in the street they will often say something about weather as they pass, just to
show their friendliness.

Every daily paper publishes a weather forecast. Both the radio and television give the
weather forecast several times each day.

The English also say that they have three variants of weather: when it rains in the
morning, when it rains in the afternoon or when in rains all day long. Sometimes it rains
so heavily that they say "It's raining cats and dogs".
Rainfall is more or less even throughout the year. In the mountains there is heavier
rainfall then in the plains of the south and east. The driest period is from March to June
and the wettest months are from October to January. The average range of temperature
(from winter to summer) is from 15 to 23 degrees above zero. During a normal summer
the temperature sometimes rises above 30 degrees in the south. Winter temperatures
below 10 degrees are rare. It seldom snows heavily in winter, the frost is rare. January
and February are usually the coldest months, July and August the warmest. Still the
wind may bring winter cold in spring or summer days. Sometimes it brings the
whirlwinds or hurricanes. Droughts are rare.

So, we may say that the British climate has three main features: it is mild, humid and
changeable. That means that it is never too hot or too cold. Winters are extremely mild.
Snow may come but it melts quickly. In winter the cold is humid cold, not the dry one.

3 Britain is a constitutional monarchy. That means it is a country governed by a king or a queen

who accepts the advice of a parliament. It is also a parliamentary democracy.
The British Parliament is divided into two houses. The first one, which is less important, is the House
of Lords. It can be described as politically conservative. It consists of different groups. There are the
Lord Spiritual. Those are archbishops and bishops. Furthermore the Lords Temporal. These are
heriditary peers, which got their titles from their fathers or grandfathers, and life peers, which got
their titles for their whole life, and finally there are the Lords of Appeal, which are the High Court
Judges. The Lords` main functions are to examine and to discuss the Bills introduced in the House of
Commons. They can also delay the legislation for a year, but they can´t stop those Bills completely
The second House is the House of Commons. The 651 Members of Parliament (MPs) who sit in the
Commons are elected representatives of the British people. Each MP represents one of the 651
constituencies into which the UK is divided. The House of Commons has a maximum term of five
years, at the end of which a general election must be held. However, a general election can be called
in the government at any time. MPs sit on parallel rows of seats known as benches with those who
support the government on the one side and the opposition on the other. The important persons are the
front-benchers, the less important ones are the back- benchers. The Commons` main functions are to
define and to pass the laws and regulations governing the UK
The most powerful person is the Prime Minister. He is the leader of his party, he is the head of the
government and has a seat in the House of Commons. He chooses the Cabinet-Ministers, who are the
Foreign-, Home- and Defense-Secretary and the Chancellor of the Exchequer.

4 England occupies the largest part of the island of Great Britain. It has
an area of more than 50 thousand square miles and a population of about 17
million. England is bounded in the north by Scotland, in the east by the North
Sea, in the south by the Strait of Dover and the English Channel, and in the
west by the Atlantic Ocean, Wales and the Irish Sea. England is
predominantly a lowland country with gentle hills and a coast which is
regular in outline, although there are upland regions in the north (the Pennine
Chain, the Cumbrian Mountains and the Yorkshire moorlands) and in the
south-west, in Cornwall, Devon and Somerset. Central southern England has
the Downs – low chalk hill ranges.
One of the loveliest parts of England is the Lake District in the Cumbrian
Mountains. It consists of a mass of mountains, many valleys and 16 main
lakes. Up in the hills the little lakes are deep and dark as the mountains rise
steeply from their shores and the water is always extremely cold. Rushing
streams which run down from the hills form beautiful waterfalls.
Wales (Cymru, Cambria – a word which has the same root as
“camrador” – friend or comrade) is a small country in the west of Great
Britain. It has an area of more than 8,000 square miles (20,000 sq. km.) and a
population of about 3,000,000 people. It is bounded in the north by the Irish
Sea, in the south by the Bristol Channel and in the west by St. George’s
Channel. Surrounded on three sides by an attractive coastline Wales is called
a peninsula and a country of high hills and snow-capped mountains. The
Cambrian Mountains stretch from the north to the south with the towering
Mount Snowdon, the tallest peak (1,085 m). Snowdonia is a national park
well-known for its picturesque mountain scenery. It is worth seeing the
Brecon Beacons – the two sloping hills on which signal fires were lit in
medieval times. Now it is a part of a national park famous for the Welsh
mountain ponies and for vast flocks of sheep. The longest rivers are the Sye
and the Dee.

5. Scotland – Caledonia, “Land of Cakes” – is a country in the north of

Great Britain, separated from England by the Cheviot Hills. Besides the
mainland, Scotland includes several islands: the Hebrides, Orkneys and
Shetlands. It contains three natural divisions: the Southern Uplands, the
Central Lowlands and the Northern Highlands. It occupies an area of 78,8
000 sq. km.
Scotland is washed by the Atlantic Ocean in the north and west and by
the North Sea in the east. Its coastline is greatly indented. In many places
deep inlets penetrate very far inland.
The highest mountains are the Grampians which include Ben Nevis
(1,343 m) and are used for grouse shooting, mountain climbing and hill
walking.
 The most impressive and beautiful part of Scotland is the north and west,
or the region commonly called “the highlands and islands”.
Northern Ireland is at its nearest point only 21 km (13 miles) from
Scotland. Its area is 14, 138 sq km. It has a 488 km (303 miles) border in the
south and west with the Irish Republic (Eire). Northern Ireland occupies the
north-eastern part of Ireland, which is separated from the island of Great
Britain by the North Channel.
At its center lies Lough Neagh, Britain’s largest freshwater lake. Many
of the principal towns lie in valleys leading from Lough, including the
capital, Belfast, which stands at the mouth of the river Lagan. The Mourne
Mountains, rising sharply in the south-east, include Slieve Donard, Northern
Ireland’s highest peak (852 m). 
The greatly indented coastline of Northern Ireland is abundant in rocks
and cliffs. Forests are rather scarce, moors and meadows prevail.
Northern Ireland is mostly an agrarian district. On small farms they
grow crops, especially oats, vegetables and potatoes

6 The Party System

The British democratic system depends on political parties, and there
has been a party system of some kind since the 17 century. The political
th

parties choose candidates in elections (there are sometimes independent

candidates, but they are rarely elected). The party which wins the majority of
seats forms the Government and its leader usually becomes the Prime
Minister. The largest minority becomes the Opposition. In doing so it accepts
the right of the minority party to run the country, while the majority party
accepts the right of the minority party to critisize it. Without this agreement
between the political parties, the British parliamentary system would break
down.
The Prime Minister chooses about twenty MPs from his or her party to
become Cabinet Ministers. Each minister is responsible for a particular area
of government, and for a Civil Service department. For example, the Minister
of Defence is responsible for defence policy and the armed forces, the
Chancellor of the Exchequer for financial policy, and the Home Secretary for
law, order and immigration. Their Civil departments are called the Ministry
of Defence, the Treasury and the Home Office respectively. They are staffed
by civil servants who are politically neutral and who therefore do not change
if the Government changes. The leader of the Opposition also chooses MPs to
take responsibility for opposing the Government in these areas. They are
known as the ‘Shadow Cabinet’. 

7. London is a very old city. It began life two thousand years ago as a
Roman fortification at a place where it was possible to cross the River
Thames. Around the town the Romans built a wall for defence. The City of
London is one of the biggest banking centres of the world, and you can find
the banks of many nations in famous Threadneedle Street and the
surrounding area. Here, too, you will find the Bank of England. Nearby is the
Stock Exchange, which is like a busy market, except that here not food but
shares in commercial companies are bought and sold. A little further along, in
Leadenhall Street, is Lloyds, the most famous insurance company in the
world. The East End is the industrial part of London. It grew with the spread
of industry to the east of the City and the growth of the port of London. It
covers a wide area, and there are many wharfs and warehouses along the
river banks. The West End is the name given to the area of central London
between the Mall and Oxford Street. It includes Trafalgar Square, the main
shopping areas of Oxford Street, Regent Street and Bond Street, and the
entertainment centres of Soho, Piccadilly Circus, Leicester Square and
Shaftsbury Avenue. The name West End is associated with glamour and
bright lights.
Trafalgar Square. Trafalgar Square was built at the beginning of the 19  
th

century to commemorate the Battle of Trafalgar. Admiral Lord Nelson’s

statue stands on top of a column in the middle of old Trafalgar Square. The
large square is a traditional place for people to meet: all sorts of protest
meetings are held in Trafalgar Square. At Christmas time carol singers gather
round a huge Christmas tree which is sent to Britain from Norway every year.
Behind Nelson’s Column is the building of the National Gallery, a rich art
gallery in which you can find many old masters. Westminster Abbey.
Opposite the Houses of Parliament stands Westminster Abbey. A church has
stood here since Saxon times, when it was known as West Monastery
Westminster, because of its position to the west of London’s centre. Since
William the Conqueror’s times British monarchs have been crowned there,
and since the 13th century they have been buried there. Many other famous
people are also buried in Westminster Abbey.
 Whitehall. The street called Whitehall stretches from Parliament Square
to Trafalgar Square. Whitehall is often associated with the government of
Britain.
Downing Street, which is a small side street off Whitehall, is the home of
the Prime Minister who lives at number ten.

8.

9. Geographical Position of the USA

The United States is the fourth largest country in the world in land area.
Forty-eight of the fifty states are in the middle of the North American
continent between the Atlantic Ocean in the east and the Pacific Ocean in the
west. It is about 3000 miles (4800 kilometres) from the east coast to the west
coast and about 1500 miles (2400 kilometres) from the Canadian border in
the north to the Mexican border in the south.

The island state of Hawaii is in the Pacific Ocean, and the state of Alaska
is northwest of Canada. The country naturally presents a tremendous variety
in physical features (and climate), ranging from moist rain forests to arid
deserts and bald mountain peaks. Mount McKinley in Alaska at 20,320 feet
(6,194 metres) is the highest point in the United States, while part of Death
Valley in California is 282 feet (89 metres) below sea level.

The eastern coast of the United States is a long, gently rolling lowland
area known as the Coastal plains. These Coastal plains, which stretch from
Maine to Texas, are very flat (nowhere in Florida is more than 350 feet above
sea level, for example) and often swampy. In general the soil is very poor,
except in the fertile southern part, where the plain reaches many miles inland
(the Cotton Belt of the Old South and the citrus country of central Florida).

At the western edge of the Atlantic coastal plain, there is a chain of low,
almost unbroken mountains, stretching from the northern part of Maine
southwest into Alabama, called the Appalachian Mountains. These mountains
contain enormous quantities of easily accessible coal and iron (which helps
explain the huge concentration of heavy industry along the lower region of
the Great Lakes). The Piedmont hills, to the east of the main peaks, are the
most highly productive agricultural land in the country after the Midwest.

The heart of the United States is a vast plain, broken by the Superior
Upland and the Black Hills in the north and the Ozark Plateau in the south,
which extends from central Canada southwards to Mexico and from the
Appalachian Mountains westwards to the Cordillera. These interior plains,
which rise gradually like a saucer to higher land on all sides, are divided into
two major parts: the wetter, eastern portion is called the Central Plains and
the western portion the Great Plains, both of which have good soil.

11. A Nation of Immigrants

The United States has often been called "a nation of immigrants." There
are two good reasons for this. First, the country was settled, built, and
developed by generations of immigrants and their children. Secondly, even
today America continues to take in more immigrants than any other country
in the world. It is not surprising, therefore, that the United States is counted
among the most heterogeneous societies in the world. Many different cultural
traditions, ethnic sympathies, national origins, racial groups, and religious
affiliations make up "we the people."

Nonetheless, it would be very misleading to view America simply as a

collection of different immigrant groups and ethnic or religious loyalties. It is
not true (as is often stated) that there are more Irish, more Germans, and more
Puerto Ricans living in New York City than there are in Dublin, Frankfurt, or
San Juan.

Nor do most New Yorkers think of themselves primarily as Jews,

Negroes, Puerto Ricans, Italians, Germans, or Irishmen. Rather, among the
Americans in New York, there are many who (or whose ancestors) originally
came from Africa, Ireland, Germany, or Puerto Rico, and so on.

In fact, 94 percent of all Americans today were born in the United States
(as compared, for example, with only 85 percent in 1910). As a result, those
tens of millions of Americans who proudly acknowledge their ethnic roots
are still "more American" than they are Irish, Italian, German, or Puerto
Rican. What they have in common is more significant than what makes them,
as Americans, differen from one another.
12. The United States is a democratic republic (a representative
democracy). The national government is a government of all the people and
their representatives (elected officials). It is called the federal government
because the nation is a federation, or association, of states.
The U.S. Constitution gave the federal government only limited powers,
the powers stated in the Constitution. All other powers belong to the
individual states.
The Founding Fathers established three branches of government: the
legislative, the executive, and the judicial. Each branch has different
functions and powers under the principle of separation of powers. There is
also a system of checks and balances so that each branch has some control
over the other two branches. This way, no one group can have too much
power.
The legislative branch is called Congress. It consists of the Senate and
the House of Representatives. It is the responsibility of Congress to propose
and pass laws. In the system of checks and balances, Congress can refuse to
approve Presidential appointments and can override a Presidential veto.
The executive branch consists of the President, the Vice President, the
Cabinet and the thirteen Departments, and the independent agencies. It's the
responsibility of the executive to enforce laws. The President has the power
to veto (reject) any bill (law) of Congress. He appoints all Supreme Court
Justices.
The judicial branch consists of the Supreme (highest) Court, eleven
Circuit Courts of Appeals, and ninety-four District Courts. This branch
explains and interprets laws and makes decisions in lawsuits. It has power
over the other two branches because it can declare their laws and actions
unconstitutional (against the principles of the Constitution).

13. Political Parties

The U.S. Constitution does not talk about political parties, but they
began during George Washington's term of office. On one side were the
Federalists. They wanted a strong federal government. On the other side, the
Democratic-Republicans wanted to limit the power of the national
government. Their leader was Thomas Jefferson, and their group later
became the Democratic Party.
Some of the early political parties, such as the Federalists and the Whigs,
no longer exist. Since 1864, the two major parties have been the Democrats
and the Republicans. Smaller parties have lasted for only a short time. "Third
parties" have won in local elections, but their candidates have never won a
Presidential election.
Many people say that there is not much difference between the
Republican and Democratic Parties. "Liberal" politicians usually favor
reform (change) and progress. "Conservative" politicians usually oppose
change. But both liberal and conservative members belong to the two major
political parties, and their ideas often change with the times and the issues. 

14. American Presidents

 When he was 22, his business failed. When he was 23, he lost a bid for
US Congress. When he was 24, he failed in business again. The
following year, he was elected to the state legislature. When he was 26,
his sweetheart died. At age 27, he had a nervous breakdown. When he
was 29, he was defeated for the post of Speaker of the House in the state
legislature. When he was 31, he was defeated as Elector. When he was
31, he ran for Congress again and lost. At the age of 37, he ran for
Congress yet again and finally won, but two years later he lost his re-
election campaign. At the age of 46, he ran for a US Senate seat and lost.
The following year he ran for vice President and lost. Finally, at the age
of 51, he was elected President of the United States. Who was this
perpetual loser, you ask? Abraham Lincoln, of course.
 Thomas Jefferson and John Adams spent years writing letters back
and forth to each other debating the role of government. Jefferson
favoured a small Federal government with relatively limited powers;
Adams demanded a stronger, more centralized federal government. They
had an enormous respect for each other and died coincidentally on the
same day: July 4, 1826. Jefferson's last words were: "Is it the fourth?"
 Some folks believe that the curse of Indian chief Tecumseh has killed
every US President before the end of their term in office, if they were
 elected in a year that ended with 0. The first victim of the curse was
William Henry Harrison, whose troops killed the Indian chief in 1813:
1. Harrison, elected in 1840, died of pneumonia after serving 31 days in
office.
2. Lincoln, elected in 1860, assassinated.
3. Garfield, elected in 1880, assassinated.

15. The "Average American"

The variety of ethnic identities, immigration experiences, and cultural

choices that have gone into making Americans is so complex, however,
that describing the "average American" is very difficult. Our "average
American" might be white, but Americans are not "normally" white. Most
Americans are Christians, but America cannot be called "a Christian
country." And a majority of Americans might claim European ancestry, but
this description also does not define Americans in general. Neither, in fact,
does language.

The United States is one of the few countries that has no "official"
national language, or languages. English is the common language by use, but
it is not the national language by law. About 30 million Americans speak a
language other than English at home. This means, for example, that if you
meet an American in New Mexico who speaks Spanish as his first language,
he could be a recent immigrant, having arrived in the U.S. only a few years
ago, or his grandparents could have arrived in the United States a hundred
years ago. It could also be that his ancestors had been living in the area years
before the thirteen British colonies were established on the East Coast. A so-
called foreign accent does not necessarily mean that an individual is (or even
was) a foreigner.

16. I spent a day in Washington, D.C., the capital city of the United States. We
began our sightseeing tour at the U.S. Capitol. Congress-the Senate and the House
of Representatives-meets in this building and makes the laws of the land.
 
We walked east from the Capitol to the Library of Congress. This huge library has
copies of all books with a U.S. Copyright. Then we crossed East Capitol Street to
the Supreme Court. The highest court of the land meets here.
 
Next we walked west on Constitution Avenue. In the National Archives we saw
two important original documents-the Declaration of Independence and the U.S.
Constitution.
 
We continued west to the Washington Monument. This high building was built
between 1848 and 1885 in honor of George Washington, the first President of the
United States.
 
After that we visited the Jefferson Memorial. This monument was built between
1938 and 1943 in memory of Thomas Jefferson, the third President of the United
States. Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence.
 
After the Jefferson Memorial, we saw the Lincoln Memorial. This monument was
built in honor of Abraham Lincoln, President during the Civil War. Inside the
building are a statue of Lincoln and two murals (wall paintings) with symbols of
freedom and justice. On two huge stone tablets we read some of Lincoln's
important speeches.

17.
18. There are a lot of apples on the tree,’ they said, ‘but when you take New
York City, you take The Big Apple!’ Yes, everybody wanted some of The
Big Apple – and they want some today, too! More than twenty million people
visit New York every year. Lots of them say it is the most exciting city in the
world.
 When visitors think about New York, they usually think about
Manhattan – an island 21.5 kilometers long and 3.7 kilometers wide.
Manhattan is the center of American finance, advertising, art, theater,
publishing, fashion – and much more. New York's other boroughs are
Brooklyn, Queens, the Bronx, and Staten Island. Brooklyn alone has so many
people that if it were a separate city, it would be the fourth largest in the
United States!

Manhattan is divided into the East Side and the West Side. The dividing
line is Fifth Avenue. So, for example, East 47th Street begins at Fifth
Avenue, as does West 47th Street. (Avenues with lower numbers are on the
East Side, avenues with higher numbers on the West Side.)
 Manhattan is also divided, with less exactness, into Lower (Downtown),
Midtown, and Upper (Uptown) Manhattan. As you go north, or uptown, the
street numbers get higher. Lower Manhattan generally refers to streets below
14th Street, Midtown to the area between 14th Street and Central Park, and
Upper Manhattan to the remaining, northern, part of the island.
19. A new state, Ukraine, appeared on the world political map in 1991.
Ukraine occupies an area of 603, 700 square kilometres. The territory of
Ukraine extends 900 kilometres from north to south and 1,316 kilometres
from east to west. In the north Ukraine borders on Belarus, in the east and
north-east – on Russia, in the south-west – on Hungary, Romania and
Moldova, in the west – on Poland and Slovakia. In the south Ukraine is
washed by the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov. The total length of the
frontiers is 6,500 kilometres, including 1,050 kilometres of the sea frontiers.
In the north of Ukraine there are forests, in the west – the Carpathian
mountains, in the eastern and central Ukraine – black-soil steppelands.
The climate of Ukraine is determined by its geographical location.
Ukraine’s territory lies in the temperate belt. In general the country’s climate
is temperately continental, being subtropical only on the southern coast of the
Crimea.
The differences in climate are caused by many factors: the latitude,
relief, altitude and proximity to seas and oceans. The climate varies not only
from north to south, but also from the north-west to the south-east as the
warm damp air masses moving from the north-western Atlantic weaken and
become drier. A characteristic feature of the climate is an increase in its
continental nature from west to east.
A feature of Ukraine’s climate is the considerable fluctuation in weather
conditions from year to year. Alongside very wet years there can be droughts,
whose effect increases to the south and sea. There are frequent oscillations in
weather in the regions of the Crimean and Carpathian Mountains.
The average yearly temperature in Ukraine varies between +5.5° C, +7°
C in the north and +11° C, +13° C in the south. The coldest month is January,
with a record low of -42° C. The warmest month is July with a record high of
40° C.
20-The Political System of Ukraine
On the 24th of August, 1991 Ukraine became an independent state. On
the 1st of December, 1991 the everlasting dream of the Ukrainian people
came true. 90% of the people voted for the independence of Ukraine and
since that time the Ukrainian people had become the masters of their own
destiny.
Nowadays Ukraine is a democratic state, ruled by the law and created as
an implementation of the people’s sovereign right to self-determination.
The Ukrainian political system has a popularly elected President, a 450 –
person single-chamber national Parliament – the Verkhovna Rada, the
members of which are reelected every 5 years.
The President is the head of the state. The President is elected for 5-year
period by the people of the country at a general election. According to the
Ukrainian laws, the President of the country must be a citizen of Ukraine, live
in the country no less than 10 years, master the Ukrainian language, and be
no younger than 35 years old.
The supreme executive body is the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine,
responsible for the realization of laws made by the Parliament.
The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine is the sole legislative authority. The
chairman of the Verkhovna Rada is elected by the members of the Verkhovna
Rada.
The Judicial power in Ukraine is vested in the courts of law: the
Constitutional Court of Ukraine and courts of general jurisdiction. The courts
are independent and all their activities abide only by the rules of law.
The system of courts of general jurisdiction includes: 
 local courts; 
 courts of appeal, the Appellate Court of Ukraine; 
 the Cassation Court of Ukraine; 
 highest specialized courts; 
 the Supreme Court of Ukraine.
The Supreme Court of Ukraine is the highest judicial body of general
jurisdiction. It administers justice and ensures equal application of law by all
general courts of Ukraine.
The Constitutional Court of Ukraine is the sole body of constitutional
jurisdiction in Ukraine; it guarantees the priority of the Constitution of
Ukraine as the Main Law of the state on its entire territory.
21. The combination of the blue and yellow colours – “Ukrainian colours” –
reaches far back into pre-Christian times. These colours predominated on the
flags of the medieval Kyivan State and were prominent during the Cossack
age.
 First accepted as the National flag by the Supreme Ukrainian Council
in Lviv in 1848, the blue-and-yellow flag met with popular approval in all
parts of Ukraine at the beginning of the 20 century.
th

On 22 March 1918 the blue-and-yellow flag was ratified as the national

flag of the independent Ukrainian National Republic, and with the unification
of all Ukrainian lands in 1919, it became the only Ukrainian flag. With the
trident, the blue-and-yellow flag for many years symbolized the aspiration of
the Ukrainian people for independence.
Following the Declaration of Independence, the blue-and-yellow flag
was adopted as the national flag of Ukraine by an Act of Parliament on 28
January, 1992.
The trident is an ancient symbol of the Ukrainian people, dating back
more than 3000 years. In the 10 century it became the dynastic coat of arms
th

of the Kyivan princes, including Volodymyr the Great and Yaroslav the
Wise.
With the restoration of Ukrainian independence, the trident was
adopted as the official emblem of the Ukrainian National Republic in 1918.
The trident together with the blue-and-yellow flag have served for
many generations as the symbol of the Ukrainian struggle for independence.
By an Act of Parliament on February 19, 1992, the trident once again
became the national emblem of Ukraine, symbolizing the united historical
development of the Ukrainian people. 
The Ukrainian anthem Shche ne vmerla Ukrayiny i slava, i volya is of
quite recent origin. In 1863 the Lviv journal Meta (The Goal) published the
poem of Pavlo Chubynskyi (1839-1884) Shche ne vmerla Ukrayina, which
was mistakenly ascribed to Taras Shevchenko. In the same year it was set to
music by Galician composer Mykhailo Verbytskyi (1815-1870), first for solo
and later for choral performance.
This song, as a result of its catchy melody and patriotic text, rapidly
became popular and gained broad acceptance among the Galician population
as well as among the Ukrainians within the Russian empire. In 1917 it was
officially adopted as the anthem of the Ukrainian state.
22. Adopted at the Fifth Session of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine on
28 June 1996.
The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, on behalf of the Ukrainian people –
citizens of Ukraine of all nationalities, expressing the sovereign will of the
people, based on the centuries-old history of Ukrainian state-building and on
the right to self-determination realized by the Ukrainian nation, all the
Ukrainian people, providing for the guarantee of human rights and freedoms
and of the worthy conditions of human life, caring for the strengthening of
civil harmony on Ukrainian soil, striving to develop and strengthen a
democratic, social, law-based state, aware of our responsibility before God,
our own conscience, past, present and future generation, guided by the Act of
Declaration of the Independence of Ukraine of 24 August 1991, approved by
the national vote of 1 December1991, adopts this Constitution – the
Fundamental Law of Ukraine.

23-Once there were three brothers, Kyi, Shchek and Khoryv, and they had a
young sister who was called Lybid. They settled on the heights above the
Dnieper, and founded a city on one of the hills and called it Kyiv after the
eldest brother. And in honour of the younger brother one hill was named
Shchekavytsya, and another –  Khorevytsya, while the river was called Lybid
after their sister.
Excavations have proved that there is some truth in this legend. The
little town of Kyi had actually existed on the site of present Kyiv and was
built long before anything about the town appeared in writing. It is believed
that Kyi did exist – that he was a Prince of the Polyany tribe, who lived at the
end of the 6 and the beginning of the 7 century A.D. That is probably the
th th

time when the foundations of a stronghold, later known as Kyiv, were laid on
Mount Staro-Kyivska (Old Kyiv Mountain).
The three Kyiv hills, which the legend connects with the names of the
three brothers, still exist. The first is Mount Staro-Kyivska, the second –
Mount Shchekavytsya, which has retained its ancient name, and the third,
Khorevytsya, is Mount Kyselivka, which received its present name in the 17 th

century.

The Mother of All Rus Towns

Ancient Kyiv was a large commercial centre of the East Slavs where
craftsmen plied their trades. Its position on the important waterway known as
“route from the Varangians to the Greeks”, which included the whole length
of the Dnieper, helped promote its trade. This was a principal trade route of
the 9 -11 centuries which served as a link between northern and southern
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Europe. Byzantine, Varangian and Arab merchants brought their wares to

Kyiv. The Slav merchants made their way through the Dnieper and the Black
Sea to Byzantium, and by waterways and land routes to the Baltic Sea and the
Caspian Sea regions. Lively trade and various crafts favoured the economic
growth of Kyiv which by the end of the 9 century developed into political,
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administrative and cultural centre of Kyiv Rus, an ancient Rus state which
came into being following the unification of the East Slavs.
According to an ancient chronicle, in 882 Prince Oleh of Novhorod and
his men-at-arms sailed down the Dnieper to Kyiv. He left his men hidden in
the boats and entered the town as a merchant. Tricking Askold and Dir, the
Princes of Kyiv, out of the stronghold, he ordered their death.
Having seized Kyiv, Oleh was known to have said: “This will be the
mother of all Rus towns!” The Novhorod principality united with that of
Kyiv, and the town was made the capital of a unified Rus state.
The lands of Kyiv Rus, soon covered a territory which stretched from
the Black Sea to Lake Ladoga and from the Volga to the Western Buh. As the
state of Kyiv Rus gained strength, its capital grew and developed too. Kyiv
became one of the largest towns of medieval Europe and was known as the
rival of Constantinople.
Kyiv was at the height of its glory towards the end of the 10 and the
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beginning of the 11 centuries, during the rule of Prince Volodymyr

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Svyatoslavych. The conversion to Christianity in 988 helped to establish

closer links between Kyiv Rus and the European states, particularly with
Byzantium.
Upper, or Old Kyiv, was the centre of the ancient town. Today this is
the part that lies between the funicular railway, Great Zhytomyr Street
(Velyka Zhytomyrska vulytsya) and Lviv Square (Lvivska Ploshcha), and in
the north stretches up to the steep hills that border on the Dnieper. This was
the site of the Grand Duke’s palace which was surrounded by the mansions of
the aristocratic boyars and the houses of the metropolitans, the big merchants
and the money-lenders. The greatest edifice of those times was the stone
Church of the Tithes (Desyatynna Tserkva) built by Prince Volodymyr at the
end of the 10 century.
th

Lower Kyiv stood on the territory of present Podil and was inhabited by
merchants and artisans: blacksmiths, potters, tanners, carpenters, joiners and
jewelers whose goods were in demand far beyond the borders of Rus. Lower
Kyiv became the town’s commercial and economic centre. This was the usual
stopping place for foreign merchants who moored their vessels in the mouth
of the Pochaina River which entered the Dnieper near the present Post Square
(Poshtova Ploscha).