Australian Government Facts

The Australian government is made of three branches: the executive, the

Legislative and the judicial.

The executive branch is headed by a Monarchy (Queen Elizabeth II) and an elected Prime Minister (John Howard).

The legislative branch is made up of two parts: the Senate and the House of Representatives.

The judicial branch is headed by the High Court in Australia.

Australia has many political parties, but the main parties are the Liberal Party, National Party, Australian Party and the Labor Party.

Australia is an independent member of the Commonwealth of Nations and is

Considered to be a Federal Parliamentary Democracy.

H.T.

Imagine you have three days in Australia. Fill out the time table with how you would like to spend your time in Australia, you can’t repeat activities.

Day 1: Morning: Afternoon: Evening:

Day 2: Morning: Afternoon: Evening:

Day 3: Morning: Afternoon: Evening:

Lesson 87

New Zealand

Plan

1. warm-up

2. reading and speaking: facts about the country

3. making up questions to the answers

4. reading for getting new info

5. vocabulary work: looking up the unknown words in the dictionary

6. dictation: New Zealand

7. speaking: seasons

8. H.T.

Warm Up: New Zealand, like the United States, Canada and Australia, was colonized by the English in the 17^th and 18^th centuries. Why would England want an island like New Zealand when it is so far away and so difficult to manage?

Task 1 Below is a list of facts about New Zealand. Which five facts would

you choose to tell your friends about if they were interested in

visiting New Zealand? Explain why you’ve chosen them.

- In 1642, a Dutch explorer reached the island on a boat and several of his men

were killed and eaten by the local Maori population.

- The Lord of the Rings movies were filmed in New Zealand.

- The weather in New Zealand consists of all four seasons, but can change very

quickly due to ocean winds.

- New Zealand is filled with glacial mountains, fast rivers, clear lakes, geysers and

boiling mud. There are also many native forests and long beautiful beaches.

- New Zealand is in the Pacific Ocean, South East of Australia, and consists of two

islands.

- Government leaders are Prime Minister Helen Clark and Queen Elizabeth II.

- Adventure sports like rafting, hiking, snow skiing and bungee jumping are very

popular in New Zealand.

- Official language of New Zealand is English and Maori is also often spoken.

- Gold mining and sheep farming are the main industries.

- You can swim with dolphins, whale watch or fish for fat trout in rivers and lakes.

Task 2 Read the word expressions related to the facts about New Zealand

and ask questions to which these facts could be answers.

1. Maori and English 2. Helen Clark

3. Pacific Ocean, South East of Australia

4. rafting, hiking, snow skiing and bungee jumping

5. Lord of the Rings 6. four seasons

Task 3 People from New Zealand are called “Kiwis”. You might wonder

why, so here is a short history of why. Fill in the blanks of the text

with the correct articles- a, an, the, or no article.