Unit 1 City and village

Activity 5a, 5b

Objective: to practise listening for detail

Ask PP to read the questions. Ask them to find the words they don't know in the Wordlist: Head of State, Queen, rule, power.

PP listen to the letter from the English PP and then answer the questions.
Tapescript

Dear friends in Uzbekistan, thank you for your letter. We really liked the photos and we can't wait to come and visit you.

You asked us to tell you something about how our country is organised - so here you are.

In Britain the Queen is the Head of State but in fact she doesn't rule the country as she has no power. She's a symbol of the country's history and it's traditions. The Queen travels about the UK, meets the people, entertains important foreign visitors and makes official visits. Her family also do these things. An important date in our history is 1949. That's when Britain and the former colonies founded the Commonwealth. The Commonwealth includes many countries such as Canada, Australia, New Zealand, India and South Africa. The Queen of Great Britain is also the Head of the Commonwealth. The real power in our country doesn't belong to the Queen though, it belongs to the British Parliament. That's all for now. We want to know: Would you like to visit Parliament? Would you like to take a train round Britain? Looking forward to hearing from you. Your exchange friends.