British healtzcare system

some people have medical insurance but most people can't afford it and rely on the National Health Service, the NHS. This is provided by the government in Britain.
You may need to go to the chemist to buy cough mixture or pills for a headache. There are lots of medicines you can buy in the chemist but for more powerful ones like antibiotics you need to have a prescription.
If you can't get to a doctor, there are two other NHS services you could try. The first is NHS Direct. This is a phone service where a trained nurse will suggest the best way to treat you.
For accidents or emergencies you should ho to a hospital which has got a specific Accident and Emergencies department.

Computers in our lives

Computers are a very important part of our lives. They tell us about delays to transport. They drive trains, analse evidence and control buildings
For many young people, playing computer games is their favourite way of spending spare time.
Computers are a very important part of most areas of life in Britain - libraries, the police and in school.
The smart home is now a real possibility. It will become very common. A central computer will adjust the temperature, act as a burglar alarm and switch on lights ready for you to come back home.
Many homes have got lots of televisions and several computers. The smart home will provide TV and Internet sockets in every romm so you'll be able to do what you want wherever you want

Transport

Trains travl into London from all over the country. they are very important for people who live in the suburbs or outside Lkondon and travel into London for work. 1,8 million people travel into the centre of London by train every day.
For many people the journey by train takes them to a convenient Underground station. London Underground, usually called the Tube, was the first in the world when it opened in 1863.
People use lots of other forms of transport in London. Some people use boats on the River Thames to go to work.
There is one kind of transport that isn't very good in London. The cars move very slowly because there is too much traffic.
The buses and taxis travel more quickly because they have got special lanes on the road.

Shipping in Britain

The British Navy was the biggest navy in the world at one time. Now it's smaller, but many other ships are still used for importing and exporting hoods and for taking people on business or holikay.
In Liverpool there is a great museum of maritime history. Between 1830 and 1930 more than nine million people from all over Europe left from the port of Liverpool to start a new life in America or Australia.
In the early twentieth century there were large numbers of very elegant passenger ships. They crossed the Atlantic from Liverpool or Southampton to New York in five or six days. The most famous ship was the Titanic. It sank in 1912 and over 1500 people drowned. It was the worst disaster in maritime history.
One of the most famous shipping companies is Cunard. It's got the world's biggest cruise ship, the Queen Mary 2, which crosses the Atlantic from Southampton to New York. It still takes five or six days but some people prefer that to five or six hours in an aeroplane.

British horror stories

People like to be scared. They love reading horror stories and watching horror movies. Some of the most faomus horror stories were written by British writers. The first was published by Mary Shelley in 1818 - Frankestein. Many films have featured Frankenstein met Count Dracula. Dracula contra Frankenstein was made by the Spanish director Jesús Franco in 1970.
Bram Stoker got the idea for Dracula while he was sitting in Hightate Cemetery in North London. Count Dracula the vampire was created

Law

The most famous police station in Britain is New Scotland Yard in London, but there are police stations all over the country.
For most people the police are the face of the law. They can arrest people in the street, but they also give information.
A suspect criminal is being charged with a crime. He must hand over everything ge's carrying or has got in his pockets. Next they take fingerprints to check the person's identity.
Suspects can be kept in the cells at the police station for several hours.

Next day he went to court. Here three magistrates listen to evidence from the police and witnesses. They then dcide if the person is guilty or not guilty.

The evidence that the police collect from a crime scene is anarysed in laboratories like this. The people who work here are called forensic scientists. They can examine and analyse material from the crime scene to find out exactly what happened.
Fingerprints are a good way of identifying people but DNA is more reliable. A person's identity can be found from a single hair! Each person has got a unique DNA profile. DNA profiles can be matched on these computers.
The police are the most obvious part of the law in Britain. Froensic scientists provide the evidence that helps the courts decide whather a suspect is huilty of a crime or not. The courts then decide on the sentence.

Supermarkets

Supermarkets are an important part of daily life in Britain. Two of them, Asda and Tesco, are also the biggest sellers of clothes inBritain.

In the larger supermarkets you can buy just about anything. On the shelves you can find all the food and drink you need. You can buy sports equipment, bicycles, books, toys and games, CDs and DVDs.
It's even more convenient to shop from home. A lot of people now use online shopping. Tesco Online delivers over 100000 orders each week in Britain and Sainsbury's delivers 30000. It's becoming a very popular way to shop.

But not everyone likes supermarkets. Small shops in towns and villages are closing because supermarkets can sell lthe same things cheaper. So people without cars have less choice.

Soap opera

The most popular British soapoperas are Eastenders and Coronation Street. These ar popular dramas about the lives of ordinary people. Many people are addictet to soap operas.
There ara also web sites for all the main soap operas. These have got information about the actors and stories from future episodes.

Eastenders is set in the east of London and has been broadcast since 1985. Coronation Street is based in Manchester and it is the oldest soap. It was first broadcast in 1960. Then there's also Emmerdale which takes place in a village in the Yorkshire countryside. It started in 1972 and is on TV every evening from Monday to Friday.

Scotland

There are four main regions in Britain: England, Northern Ireland, Wales and Scotland.

Scotland is in the north of Britain. It's famous for its lakes which are called lochs in Scotland.
Scotland occupies one third of the land area of Britain. It has got only nine per cent of the population.
The majority of Scottish people live in Edinburgh and Glasgow.

There are some very modern parts. Glasgow's entertainment centre is a fantastic piece of modern architecture.

There are lots of famous Scottish people. One of them is Charles Rennie Mackintosh. He was an architect and designer. His designs are still very popular today.
Lots of famous things come from Scotland too. One of them is a drink - Scotch whisky, a strong spirit made from barley, yeast and water. There are thousands of different whiskies.
Most of Scotland's income is from tourism. Milions of visitors come each year. They enjoy climbing mountains, fishing and visiting its famous castles. Lots of tourists also like going to Loch Ness. People say there's a monster there, and Scotland's a wild place, so... who knows?