BRITISH LEALTHCARE SYSTEM

Most of the time we feel well. We can play sports, ho to work and enjoy our lives. But sometimes we just don't feel well. 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. The NHS has sent everybody in Britain's a Self-Helf Guide. This will help you diagnose what is wrong and find the best treatment. There are lots of medicines you can buy in the chemist but for more powerful ones like antibiotics you need to have a prescription. You can get a prescription from a doctor. Doctors work in surgeries or health centres. The doctor examines you first to find out what's wrong. Then they can write you a prescription for medicine to cure you. If ykou 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 go to a hospital which has got a specific Accident and Emergencies department. Doctors and medical staff can cure lots of illnesses now using surgery and treatment with drugs. But many people prefer alternative medicine. This can include many kinds of treatment using both very old and very modern techniques. Hopefully these treatments won't be necessary. The best way to avoid getting ill is to have a healthy diet, get lots of exercise and take good care of yourself. You shouldn't then need to use the healthcare system at all!

COMPUTERS IN OUR LIVES

Computers are a very important part of our lives. They tell us about delays to transport.
For many young people, playing computer games is their favorite way of spending spare time.
Computers are a very important part of most areas of life in Britain in "smart homes" or computer-controlled houses.

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 computer will also close the blinds when it gets dark or to stop too much sun from entering a room. And if you want to eat when you get home, the computer will turn the oven on for you!

Are computers talking over our lives? Twenty per cent said they were happier at their computer than spending time with family or friends. Another survey found that people in Britain spend so much time on the phone, texting and reading e-mails that they no longer have time for conversation. What do you think about that?

TRANSPORT

Exploring Mars are going to be very exciting, but for now, it's easier to explore our own planet! In particular, London.
We're going to follow Freddie as he explores all the different kins of transport in London. He's a television researcher and he's going ti find out about all the different ways of traveling London. 1.8 million people travel into the center of London by train every day.
The next part of Freddie's journey is on another kind of train called Docklands Light Railway. These are computer-controlled trains with no drivers.
London Underground, usually called Tube, was the first in the world when it opened on 1863.
Freddie catches a bus for the last part of his journey.
People use lots of other forms of transport in London. But the car isn't very good transport in London.
The buses and taxis travel more quickly because they have got special lines on the road. Freddie's in a hurry now so he's talking a London taxi to meeting.

SHIPPING IN BRITAIN

In England no town is more than 170 kilometers from the sea. So it's no surprise that Britain has a very important history of ships and the sea. 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 goods and for taking people on business or holiday. In Liverpool there is a great museum of maritime history. It's got several ships in the docks outside. In side it shows what it was like to be on some of the ships. 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 probably the Titanic. It sank in 1912 and over 1,500 people drowned. It was the worst disaster in maritime history. You probably know about if from one of the most expensive films ever made -Titanic! 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. The majority of people do travel around the world by plane but ships are still very important for moving goods. These metal boxes, or containers, are packed with clothes, television sets, computers, furniture and toys. The Southampton Container Terminal the unload more than one and a half million containers each year. So the sea still plays a very important part in life in Britain.

BRITISH HORROR STORIES

People like to be scared. They love reading horror stories and watching horror movies. Some of the most famous horror stories were written by British writers. The first was published by Mary Shelly in 1818 - Frankenstein. Many films have featured Frankenstein over the years.

One of them put two great horror characters together when Frankenstein met Count Dracula. Dracula contra Frankenstein was made by the Spanish director Jesús Franco in 1970. Count Dracula was a vampire created in 1897 by the Irish writer Bram Stoker.
Since then Dracula has always been in print.

Bram Stoker got the idea for Dracula while he was sitting in Highgate Cemetery in North London. Sunlight fell on a crack in the lid of a tomb. Stoker wondered what would happen if the light woke up the dead body in the tomb. Count Dracula the vampire was created.

The bedroom window was wide open and moonlight was shining into the room. Mina was on the balcony and a dark shape was leaning over her. It was Count Dracula!

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.
We visited a new police station in Lewisham, an area in south-east London. This is the custody room of the police station. A suspected criminal is being charged with a crime. He must hand over everything he's carrying or has got in his pockets.
Next they take fingerprints to check the person's identity. This machine scans fingerprints electronically and compares them with the national police database. They also take mouth swabas for analysis of DNA.
Next day he went to court. Here three magistrates listen to evidence from the police and witnesses. They then decide if the person is guilty or not guilty.
The evidence that the police collect form a crime scene is analysed in laboratories like this. The people who work here are called forensic scientists. They can examine and analyse material form the crime scene to find out exactly what happened. Fingerprints are a good way of identifying people but DNA is more reliable. The police are the most obvious part of the law in Britain. Their job is to make sure that people don't break the law and to catch them when they do.

SUPERMARKETS

Supermarkets are ans important part of daily life in Britain.

The five biggest supermarkets sell 80% of all groceries - that's food and drink. Tesco is the biggest.It's got nearly 2,000 shops in Britain and is the third biggest supermarket in the world.
Two of them, Asda and Tesco, are also the biggest sellers of clothes in Britain.
In the larger supermarkets you can buy just about anything.
The very big supermarkets you can buy just about anything.
The very big supermarkets are usually on the edge of towns and most people drive to them.
This of course means that they can buy more and take it home in the car.
There are many more supermarkets now than 20 years ago. People find it very convenient to do all their shopping in one place.
Small shops in towns and villages are closing because supermarkets can sell the same things cheaper.
As a result, the big supermarkets have started to open small shops in town and city centers.
Many supermarkets are open 24 hours a day and seven days a week, so people can shop 24/7. But not so Sundays when shops can only open for five hours. That's enough for most people! But you can still shop online.