Viewed from the outside (1) ________, the Houses of Parliament look impressive. The architecture gives the place a traditional look, and the buildings are sandwiched between a busy square and the river, making them a (2) ________between the country house of an eccentric duke and a Victorian railway station. You have only to learn that the members (3) ______ to each other as ‘The Honorable Member to (4) ______ the picture of a dignified gentlemen’s club, with of course a few ladies to (5) _______ ...

Viewed from the outside (1) ________, the Houses of Parliament look impressive. The architecture gives the place a traditional look, and the buildings are sandwiched between a busy square and the river, making them a (2) ________between the country house of an eccentric duke and a Victorian railway station. You have only to learn that the members (3) ______ to each other as ‘The Honorable Member to (4) ______ the picture of a dignified gentlemen’s club, with of course a few ladies to (5) _______ the numbers. Sadly, over the past few years first radio, and now television, have shown the general public, who are (6) ______ the electorate, what in fact goes on when bills are discussed and questions are asked. The first obvious fact is that the chamber is very rarely full, and there may be only a handful of members present, some of whom are quite clearly asleep, telling jokes to their neighbor, or shouting like badly-behaved schoolchildren. There is not enough room for them all in the chamber in any (7) _______, which is a second worrying point. Of course, television does not follow the work of committees, which are the small discussions groups that do most of the real work of the House. But the (8) ______ impression that voters receive of the workings of government is not a good one. To put it (9) _______, parliament looks disorganized, is clearly behind the time and seems to be filled with bores and comedians. This is presumably why members (10) _______ for so long the efforts of the BBC to broadcast parliamentary matters on television.