New system will ‘block’ gambling. Summary

The US Congress enacted a bill in order to reduce and restrict gambling on the Internet.

Because of the bill gambling companies shares have fallen down. The new law should prevent banks and credit cards firms from processing online gaming payments and help to introduce a “coding-and-blocking system”. The bill against the gambling is needed in order to control a “shadow industry”. The bill has clear points about legality of gambling in the US. Some people feel panic because of legal uncertainties in the US. There are two different opinions about the bill.

US politicians support the idea to outlaw gambling because gambling is a serious problem.

SELF ASSESSMENT OF ESP LEARNING

WRITING SKILLS: Once I write a new summary I improve my writing skills. In my opinion my writing skills are not bad, but still there is a room for improvement. I could not say the same about ESP tests. I am not learning words as hard as I should; I just drill them for the test. Sometimes I even don’t know how to use one or another word in the text, because tests don’t give me this opportunity. Dictations help me to improve both my writing and listening skills. It is a good way of learning. Weblogs contributions are an interesting way of learning, but it takes some time to write then to type and put everything to the blog.

SPEAKING SKILLS: I find class discussions useful, because I can hear different opinions from different people and express my own view. I am trying to participate in discussions every time when I have what to say or I have good arguments and understand the topic quite well. Speaking in pairs isn’t as useful as discussions, because my partner isn’t very talkative and sometimes our opinions are the same and we don’t have what to discuss. Presentations are hard for me, because they need a lot of preparation and I don’t like to speak in front of the audience.

LISTENING SKILLS: Listening in class is quite easy for me, even if it is authentic language, because often I am not given the exact task, so I try to catch the main idea, in my opinion I am doing it not bad. It is harder when I have questions or have to do other tasks, it requires more attention. I don’t understand the usefulness of listening to podcasts. It’s hard to find them and it gives no use when I just listen and not doing other tasks.

READING SKILLS: I like home reading a lot and I find it useful. It is better when the text is not long and is interesting for me. Most of the texts I read without dictionaries and try to understand them, if something is unclear I check it in the dictionary. Some texts are too easy for me and give no use, but some are perfect and help to improve my knowledge. Reading comprehension exercises I find the most useful for my studies, but they also have to be high level that I could improve my skills. I find computer tasks not a good idea, because computer distracts my attention and is not good for my eyes. After these tasks I feel not very well.

INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY. SUMMARY

Intellectual property is a work created by people and is saved from copying. The main types of intellectual property are patents and copyrights.

Copyrights protect the work when the work cannot be patented. The creator of the work owns a copyright.

Nowadays laws make people to pay for copying, but do not prevent from copying. The Universal Copyright Convention, the Bern Convention and the Patent Corporation Treaty are international conventions organized in order to enforce intellectual property law internationally. Intellectual property laws require asking permission from the owner of the patent or copyright when people want to copy works. A play, a television program, a tape recording can be recorded only for private purposes.

A trademark is a symbol, used by companies in order to sell products. Law helps companies to keep trade secrets confidential, but puts some limits upon the measure.

To infringe a copyright is an offence and the offender can be forced to pay fine or can be sentenced to imprisonment.

Lawyers at work.Summary

In different countries groups of lawyers are different: in Japan people can take an exam and become attorneys, public prosecutors or judges, while in England people can choose to become barristers, i.e. to work directly in a court, or solicitors – to prepare documents and cases for the court.

The type of work in different professions is different: from working conditions to the payment. Special groups of lawyers can work without or with a little payment.

In order to enter the profession people have to prepare: get a university degree in law, pass the Bar Final examination or the Law Society Final examination and, after graduation, people have to gain some experience: work as an articled clerk or a pupil and be supervised by an experienced lawyer.

After a lawyer gets a certificate, a person is still under control; lawyer is supervised by the Law Society or Solicitor’s Disciplinary Tribunal. During the work lawyers follow ethics and keep all conversations in secret.

Lawyers use a specific language which is known as legalese. Legalese can be only understood by the lawyers. Lawyers are trying to make the language more modern and understandable to the society. Pace of modernizing legal language is very slow.

OTHER RECENT SHOOTINGS AT SCHOOLS.SUMMARY

Starting from 1997 to 2001 there were a lot of violent shootings in the America's schools.

The shooters are mostly 11-18 years old boys from different states of America. Youngsters have committed the crimes because of mental illness, aggression or lack of attention. Some of victims were killed, the others were seriously injured. Shooters were sentenced from 2 to 210 years imprisonment or probation.

The government should take serious actions in order to stop shootings at schools.

COURT SYSTEM IN UK AND LITHUANIA

The UK does not have a single unified judicial system. Her Majesty’s Courts Service administrates the Court of Appeal, the High Court, the Crown Court, the Magistrates Courts and the County Courts.

The Court of Appeal deals only with appeals from other courts. The Court of Appeal consists of two divisions: the Civil Division and Criminal Division. Its decisions are binding on all courts apart from the House of Lords.

The High Court consists of three divisions: the Queen's Bench, the Chancery and the Family divisions. The High Court of Justice functions civil and criminal cases.

The Crown Courts deal with criminal matters. The Crown Court hears appeals from Magistrates' Courts.

County Courts deal with civil matters. County Courts are local courts in the sense that each one has an area over which certain kinds of jurisdiction.

The Magistrates Court is the first level of the Queensland Courts system. Most criminal and civil cases are first heard in this court. The Magistrates Court can deal with offences such as traffic infringements, shoplifting or disorderly behaviour, burglary, assault, fraud and drugs.

The House of Lords is the final court of appeal on points of law in civil cases and criminal cases.

In Lithuania court system consists of courts of general jurisdiction and special administrative courts. Courts of general jurisdiction are the Supreme Court of Lithuania, the Court of Appeals of Lithuania, district courts and regional courts. Special administrative courts are the Supreme Administrative Court of Lithuania and regional administrative courts. The Lithuanian courts deal with civil and criminal matters and investigate administrative litigations.

There are some courts which are not a part of the court system: the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Lithuania and autonomy courts: the General Meeting of Judges, the Council of Courts and the Judicial Court of Honour.

A district court is first instance for criminal, civil cases and cases of administrative offences.

A regional court is first instance for criminal and civil cases assigned to its jurisdiction by law, and appeal instance for judgments, decisions, rulings and orders of district courts.

The Court of Appeals is appeal instance for the cases heard by regional courts and performs other functions assigned by law.

The Supreme Court of Lithuania reviews effective judgments, decisions, rulings and orders of the courts of general jurisdiction.

Regional administrative courts are courts of special jurisdiction. They hear complaints in respect of administrative acts and acts of commission or omission by entities of public and internal administration.

The Supreme Administrative Court is first and final instance for administrative cases assigned to its jurisdiction by law. It is appeal instance for cases from decisions, rulings and orders of district administrative courts, as well as for cases involving administrative offences from decisions of regional courts.

PRISONS IN LITHUANIA AND UK

In this advertisement I am going to compare prisons in Lithuania and UK. These prisons have many things in common, but something is different.

In both countries prisoners enter the jail and after that they are checked at the reception. The working stuff checks prisoner’s identities and other documents. After that they are seen by a nurse, but in Lithuania they can meet a psychologist.

In UK prisoners live in single cells or in dormitories. In Lithuania prisoners live in single cells, but sometimes in one cell can live two people, but not more.

In UK prisons some of accommodation are modern and some Victorian style, while in Lithuania all the accommodation are old and not fashionable, but prisoners are able to improve their cells by adding some pictures, posters, flowers or shelves. In both countries cells have toilets and prisoners are allowed TVs. In Lithuania they are able to have computers, but cannot get the access to the Internet.

In both countries prisoners have access to education, but the programs are different. In UK prisoners can take IT classes, cookery lessons, can join a barber’s salon or learn English. In Lithuania they can join one of the programs offered by the University.

In both countries prisoners can pray for their gods and there is no matter what kind of religion they confess.

Prisoners eat healthy and various food. They often eat in their cells.

UK prisoners can join a gym, in oder to keep fit and healthy. This gym is also open for a stuff. Our prisoners do not have this facility, but they can buy things which they need in a local shop. Prisoners are not allowed to have money.

In UK prisoners get clothes which they have to wear, in our country they can wear their own clothes. Sometimes prisoners cannot afford to buy clothes, so goverment have to give them.

In both countries visitors are checked by a stuff. In UK they are also checked by a sniffer dog. Meetings take place in meeting room. UK prisoners can have family meetings in a designed rooms with toys and play area for children. We do not have the same facilities in Lithuania.

UK prisons are more modern then prisons in Lithuania, but prisoners are able to satisfy the basic needs. There are still running some programs which should help to modernize the prisons in our country.