Supplementary Reading

heir ― наследник • спадкоємець

abdication ― отречение • зречення

enthusiasm ― увлечение • захоплення

to make one’s broadcast ― выступать в радиопередаче • виступати у радіопередачі

duke ― герцог • герцог

to crown― короновать • коронувати

signify ― выражать • виражати

monarchy ― монархия • монархія

annual ― годовой • річний

widespread ― распространенный • розповсюджений

keen promoter ― ярый защитник • завзятий захисник

mass media ― средства массовой информации • засоби масової інформації

commitment ― приверженность • прихільність

Read the texts, give a summary and discuss them.

The Royal Family

At preset the British royal family is headed by Queen Elizabeth. When the Queen was born on the 21^st of April 1926, he grandfather, King George V, was on the throne and her uncle was his heir. The death of her grandfather and the abdication of her uncle brought her father to the throne as King George VI.

As a child she studied constitutional history and law as well as art and music. In addition she learned to ride and acquired her enthusiasm for horses. As she grew older she began to take part in public life, making her first broadcast at the age of 14.

The marriage of the young Princess Elizabeth to Phillip, Duke of Edinburgh took place in November 1947. She came to the throne after her father’s death in 1952 and was crowned in Westminster Abbey in June 1953.

Among Queen Elizabeth’s many duties are Commonwealth, whose interests and welfare are very important to her. The Queen has done much to signify the formalities of the monarchy, including allowing the BBC to take a documentary film about the day of the royal family. She also started the tradition of the “walkabout”, an informal feature of an otherwise formal royal visit, when she walks among the public crowds and stops to talk to some people.

The annual Christmas broadcast made by the Queen on radio and television has become a traditional and popular feature of the season, and there were widespread celebrations and special programmes of events in 1977to mark her Silver Jubilee.

The Queen’s husband, the Duke of Edinburgh, was born in 1926 and served in the Royal Navy. He takes a great deal of interest in industry, in the achievements of young people (he founded Duke Edinburgh’s Award Scheme in 1956) and in saving wild animals from extinction.

The Royal Family

From the reign of King George VI up to September 1990

King George VI

1895 –1952.m. Lady

Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon

(Queen Elizabeth the Queen mother)