Political Parties.

The two main political parties of Great Britain are the Conservative Party and the Labour Party.

The Conservative Party is right-wing, tending to be opposed to great and sudden changes in the established order of society. It is against state control of industry.

The Labour Party, sometimes called the Socialists, has a close association with the Trade Unions, although it is now not as left-wing as it used to be. It has many supporters, especially among working-class and middle-class people.

V. Education.

In most schools boys and girls learn together. In the first stage, which is called primary education, all children are educated according to the same pro­gramme. As they grow older, differences in ability and attainment become very marked, so it is consid­ered necessary to offer different programmes.

There are three stages of education: primary, or elementary, education, secondary education and higher education.

Primary education is given to children between 5 and 11 years of age. A primary school is subdivided into an infant school for children aged 5 to 7 and a junior school for children aged 7 to 11. In small country places both the infant department and the junior department may be combined under the roof of one school.

Secondary education embraces the children from 11 years of age to 16 years of age. Until recently there were three main types of secondary schools: grammar schools, technical schools and modern schools. Children were sent to one of these three types of school according to their abilities. These three types of school still exist, but their number is decreasing. They are being replaced by the so-called comprehensive schools. The comprehensive schools are the most modern development in secondary schools. The main advantages of the comprehensive schools are that these schools are open to children of all types of ability from the age of 11; they are large schools which give a much wider range of subjects than smaller schools, so that teenagers can choose a course of studies ac­cording to their individual inclinations and abilities.

Oxford.

The first written record of the town of Oxford dates back to the year 912. Oxford University, the oldest and most famous university in Britain, was founded in the middle of the 12^th century, and by 1300 there were already 1,500 students. At that time Oxford was a wealthy town, but by the middle of the 14^th century it was poorer, because of a decline in trade and because of the terrible plague, which killed many people in England. The relations between the students and the townspeople were very unfriendly, and there was often fighting in the streets.

Nowadays there are about 12,000 students in Ox­ford and over 1000 teachers. Outstanding scientists work in the numerous colleges of the University, teaching and doing research work in physics, chem­istry, mathematics, cybernetics, literature, modern and ancient languages, art and music, philosophy, psychology.

Oxford University has a reputation of a privileged school. Many prominent political figures of the past and present times got their education at Oxford.

The Oxford English Dictionary is well-known to students of English everywhere. It contains approxi­mately 5,000,000 entries, and there are thirteen vol­umes, including a supplement.

Oxford University Press, the publishing house which produces the Oxford English Dictionary has a special department called the Oxford Word and Language Service (OWLS for short). If you have a question about the meaning of a word or its origin, you can write or telephone, and the people there will help you.