English for students of law. US Government

People
The US Government

The US Constitution was written more than 220 years ago and it is still working!
- There are 26 amendments to the Constitution.
- The first 10 amendments are called the Bill of Rights.

The Congress
The Senate
The House of Representatives
Meets in the US Capitol in Washington, D.C.

The Supreme Court is made up of nine judges.
The Supreme Court

Starting up
Make up 3 sentences using
the following words and word-combinations:
Power-sharing, separation, to make war, an enforcement, a tax, to overlap, to exercise, to make laws, to overlap, checks and balances, the budget, military force, to protect, an invasion, a rebellion, a jury trial.

Read and translate the text:
Text: US Government
The operation of the US government is based on the US Constitution which was adopted by Congress in 1789. A key feature of the U.S. Constitution is federalism, an original idea for power-sharing between states, on the one hand, and the national government on the other. Another major feature of the Constitution is the principal of separation of powers within the national government, with separate legislative, executive, and judicial branches.
The government of the United States is truly national in character. It can deal with the people of the country directly, not just indirectly through the states. This is, certain powers-such as the powers to make war and deal with other nations-are granted exclusively to the national government and are denied to the states. Still others-such as law enforcement and taxing powers overlap and can be exercised by both the national and the state governments.

The national government features a separation of powers. Its executive branch, its legislative branch, and its judicial branch exercise powers that are largely separate and distinct. Congress is the legislative branch. It makes laws. The President is supposed to execute, or carry out, the laws. And the courts interpret the laws-determining exactly what laws mean-if there is a dispute.
There is not a strict and complete separation of powers, but a partial one; the powers of the three branches overlap. The separation and the overlapping of powers are called checks and balances. The presidential veto is a good example. It is a presidential check on the power of Congress.

If in disagreement with a bill passed by Congress, the President can veto it. In that case, the bill cannot become law unless it is again passed by both houses of Congress, but this time it must be passed by a two-thirds vote of both The House of Representatives and Senate to become law. Congress can check the power of the President and the judiciary in that, for example, it is Congress which has control over the budgets and expenditures of the other branches. Within Congress, itself, each house checks the power of the other because it takes the agreement of both houses to make a law. The judiciary checks the powers of the executive and legislative branches through its authority to interpret the law and the Constitution and to issue orders binding on the other branches.

The national government's power is not limited by states' power. The only powers the states have are those the Federal government has not reserved for itself. But in a dispute the Federal government can and will use military force if necessary.
The Constitution specifically gives the national authorities the responsibility for protecting the states from foreign invasion and internal rebellion. To protect the rights of the people from both levels of government, clauses such the right to a jury trial were included in the main document and many more rights were secured through the Bill of Rights.

Task 1: Choose one of the new words to make the sentence complete.

1. Every country want to be independent and every country want to .........................
itself.
2. ................................... power in our country belongs to Duma.
3. ................................... was always the main source of business for island nations.
Easy access to the sea allowed them to trade easily with their neighbors.
4. In the United States the decisions of the ...................................... agency can be overruled by the courts as not conforming to the law or the Constitution.
5. The situation is different in Great Britain which does not recognize ...................... Control. The final authority in British law is Parliament.
6. When the interests of different countries .............................. the result can be a war.
7. There are 26 ............................... to the American Constitution.
8. All over the world there are constant ................................. between countries over the
borders.

Task 2:
Answer the following questions:
1. What document is the operation of the US government based on?
2. How are the powers of government distributed between the federal
government and the state governments?
3. What are the three branches of the national government?
4. How is the system of "checks and balances" exercised?
5. In what way does the legislature exercise a check on the executive
branch?
6. What limits the powers of the national and state governments?
7. What is known as the Bill of Rights?

FOCUS ON GRAMMAR
Sequence of Tenses /Согласование времен

FOCUS ON GRAMMAR
Sequence of Tenses /Согласование времен
Task 1. Translate the sentences into Russian using the right tenses.
1. I knew that you were ill.
2. I knew that you had been ill.
3. We found that she left home at eight o’clock every morning.
4. We found that she had left home at eight o’clock that morning.
5. When we learnt that his son always received excellent marks in all the subjects at school, he was very pleased.
6. When we learnt that his son had received excellent mark at school, he was very pleased.

Task 2. Explain the given transformation
(use the material of Practical Class #1).
1. He said, “I work hard”. He said (that) he worked hard.
2. He said, “I am working hard”. He said (that) he was working hard.
3. He said, “I have worked hard”. He said (that) he had worked hard.
4. He said, “I worked hard”. He said (that) he had worked hard.
5. He said, “I am going to work hard”. He said (that) he was going to work hard.
6. He said, “I will work hard”. He said (that) he would work hard.
7. He said, “I can work hard”. He said (that) he could work hard.
8. He said, “I have to work hard”. He said (that) he had to work hard.
9. He said, “I must work hard”. He said (that) he must work hard.
10. He said, “I should work hard”. He said (that) he should work hard.

Task 3.
1. My uncle says he has just come back from the Caucasus.
2. He says he has spent a fortnight in the Caucasus.
3. He says it did him a lot of good.
4. He says he feels better now.
5. He says his wife and he spent most of their time on the beach.
6. He says he has a good camera.
7. He says he will come to see us next Sunday.
8. He says he will bring and show us photographs.