N43 : Forty-third lesson S00-TITLE : True or false? Parliamentary facts and trivia S01 : The only time you were wrong is when you thought you were wrong. Right? S02 : OK, clever clogs, put on your thinking cap and answer the following questions: S03 : MPs aren't allowed to die on the job. True or false? S04 : True. Westminster is a royal palace and mere commoners aren't entitled to die there! S05 : MPs are permitted to give up their seats during a Parliament. S06 : False. They can't resign. Instead they have to apply for the stewardship of the Chiltern Hundreds. S07 : MPs are not allowed to address each other directly during a debate. S08 : True, they have to go through the chair and catch the Speaker's eye. S09 : The door of the House of Commons is slammed in the monarch's face on the first day of a Parliament. S10 : True and false. It is true that the king or queen is not allowed to enter the Commons chamber. S11 : But the door is actually slammed on a senior official of the House of Lords called Black Rod. S12 : He then hammers on the door with a staff and invites the MPs to come to "the other place". S13 : The reigning sovereign has the power to refuse to sign a bill into law. S14 : Technically true, but the Royal Assent is actually a formal stage of the lawmaking process. S15 : The leader of the House of Lords sits on a solid silver throne. S16 : False. The Lord Speaker sits on a big wool-stuffed cushion called the Woolsack. S17 : If MPs do not obey their party's instructions, they are whipped. S18 : False. A whip is a member of parliament whose job is to maintain party discipline. But they generally use less brutal methods. S19 : The British Parliament is the oldest representative assembly in the world. S20 : False. That honour goes to the Isle of Man, but Westminster is known as the Mother of Parliaments. T00-TRANSLATE : Exercise: Translate T01 : You're an MP, right? Right. T02 : The first couple of weeks on the job are always a nightmare. T03 : The new logo is really eye-catching, and it cost a mere two thousand. T04 : When a bill is signed into law, it becomes an Act of Parliament. T05 : All I said was "hello" and she slammed the door in my face. You are divorced, remember!