Task 1. Answer the questions. 1) What Union is Britain’s most important relationship today with?

1) What Union is Britain’s most important relationship today with?

2) When was set up first the Common Market (the original name for the EU)?

3) Was Britain keen to join the Common Market in1957?

4) Could Britain rely on America after 1956?

5) When did Britain realize it had to join the Common Market?

6) When was Britain allowed to become a member of the Common Market?

7) What do British people think about Europe?

8) What can Britain buy in Europe?

9) Did Britain trade all over the world during the 19th century?

10) Did Britain have a large colonial Empire during the 19th century?

11) What styles of government do Canada, India and Falkland Islands have?

12) What countries recognize the Queen as the head of the Commonwealth?

Task 2. Give Russian equivalents:

European Union, the Common Market, Second World War, keen to join, trading relations, colonial Empire, international links, Head of State, Falkland Islands, rely on, for defense.

Task 3. Complete the sentences with words from task 2.

Task 4. False or true?Correct, if it is necessary.

1) Britain’s most important relationship today is with the European Union.

2) In 1957 Britain was keen to join the Common Market.

3) After the Second World War Britain had no money.

4) In 1973 Britain was not allowed to become a member of the Common Market.

5) Britain needs Europe because it offers British companies a market of over 350 million people to buy its products.

6) Britain needs Europe so that it can buy food, clothes and fuel which it does not produce.

Task 5. Complete the sentences.

1) In 1957, when the ... was first set up, Britain was not keen to join.

2) After the Second World War Britain had no ...

3) In 1973 Britain was allowed to become a ... of the Common Market.

4) Britain has always been forced to have good trading ... with other countries.

5) During the 19th century Britain had a large ... Empire.

6) All of the countries recognize the queen as the head of the...

Task 6. Ask your friend about relation between Britain and Europe. Use Task 1.

British-Russian Relations

Vocabulary

commercial partnership matrimonial

reigning Duke royal

leather timber Navy

crossroad shipbuilding agreement

alliance mutual occasion

Submarine awarded jubilee

The commercial partnership between these two great Powers began many years ago. But looking through documentary-historical literature, long before the trade relations we can see the matrimonial links of the reigning houses.

The daughter of Grand Russian Duke Yaroslav Mudri was Anna. She was married to the French king Henry I, whose genealogy goes back to the English royal dynasty. His son Vladimir was married to the daughter of the Anglo-Saxon king Harold. So, the founder of Moscow, the Duke Yuri Dolgoruki was the king Harold’s grand-son.

In the times of Tsar Ivan the Terrible England was the first country to establish trade and diplomatic relations with Russia. In 1553 Elizabeth I, the queen of England, sent a group of Englishmen to Moscow, where they founded the Moscow Trade Company and built the English Gostiny Dvor. They brought leather and timber to provide English Navy. The positive foreign policy of Tsar Ivan the Terrible spread on our town Astrakhan. At those times Astrakhan was situated on the crossroads of the trading ways. The town was a link chain between Europe and Middle East, Asia and Caucasus. A famous English traveler and diplomat Anthony Janckinson visited Astrakhan in 1558.

The Russian Tsar Peter the Great went to England in 1698 to learn shipbuilding. Later he invited to Russia 60 scientists and specialists. During the times of Ekaterina II British officers took an active part in the Russian Navy Rebirth.

In the 19th century, Alfred, the son of the British Queen Victoria, married the Great Russian Princess Maria. The wife of Russian Tsar Nicolai II was the grand-daughter of the Queen Victoria. Regular visits of two reigning houses were an usual thing at that time. But after the Great October Revolution the British relatives did not let Tsar Nicolai and his family to come to England. Since that time nobody of British Royal Family visited Russia.

In 1921 the British Prime Minister Lloyd George signed a trade agreement with Russia. In 1942 the British Prime Minister Winston Churchill came to Moscow for an alliance against Fascist Germany. But after that the relationship between Russia and Britain were not so good because of the years of “Cold war”.

The relations of mutual understanding established in the 1980th. In 1994 the Queen Elizabeth II visited Moscow and that event went down in history as a beginning of a new period of partnership between the States. In 2000 Vladimir Putin visited Great Britain for future dialogue and was received by the Queen Elizabeth II.

On the occasion of the 55th anniversary of Russia’s Victory over Fascist Germany and 100 years jubilee, Mother Queen was awarded by V. Putin a medal and a title of the honorable citizen of Volgograd in May 2000.

In August 2000 after KURSK submarine tragedy British submarine was one of the first vessels came for saving our people.

These events demonstrate how solid and powerful are the ties between Britain and Russia, the roots of which go far to the depth of the old history of these two Great Powers.

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