精听建议：

先完整地把一条新闻听一到三遍，争取掌握大意。然后，一句一句精听，力争每句话都听明白。遇到实在不懂的地方，再听写。

下面的文本材料中空缺部分里面要填的词都很简单，不过是一些值得注意的连读或者典型的美式发音哦，有些语速比较快。试试看，你能不能全部写对？

（参考文本，欢迎指出错误^^）

Lesson12 The Government of the United Kingdom
The British method of government has developed very slowly 1 . This is perhaps why it can be rather difficult to understand. For example, the Queen is the head of State, but she has no real power.
Parliament is the real government of Britain. It has two 'Houses', the House of Lords, and the House of Commons. The 'Lords' are members of the old aristocracy, bishops, lawyers, and retired politicians. They have little power now, but they can suggest new laws and change or delay laws that the House of Commons wants to pass. The House of Commons makes laws, 2 , and decides what taxes the people must pay.
The British people choose the 3 of the House of Commons 4 . In each area there are usually two or three main political parties to choose from. The party who gets most members into parliament makes the new government.
The Prime Minister is 5 the winning party. Only party members (not the whole British people) choose their leader. The Prime Minister chooses the members of the Cabinet, who are called ministers. Each minister has a special job to do, for example, education, or health, or transport.