Программа факультативного курса по страноведению (Великобритания)
Краевое государственное бюджетное
профессиональное образовательное учреждение
«Хабаровский краевой колледж искусств»
Программа факультативного курса по страноведению (Великобритания)
Составитель: Гаголкина Т.С.,
преподаватель английского языка
КГБ ПОУ «ХККИ»
г. Хабаровск
2021 г.
Пояснительная записка
Как сохранить интерес студентов к иностранному языку на всём протяжении обучения? Этот вопрос интересует всех преподавателей иностранных языков. Сейчас студенты сталкиваются с обилием всевозможной дополнительной информации на английском языке, начиная с зарубежных учебников и заканчивая образовательными видеофильмами, видеокурсами и подкастами. Всю эту информацию о стране изучаемого языка нужно систематизировать, чтобы у учащихся сложилось ясное представление о ней. Большую роль в поддержании мотивов к изучению иностранного языка играет введение на уроках элементов страноведения. Практика показывает, что обучающиеся с интересом относятся к культуре, традициям и обычаям стран изучаемого языка. Уроки с элементами страноведения вызывают у студентов потребность в дальнейшем самостоятельном ознакомлении со страноведческим материалом.
В этой ситуации передо мной стояла задача пополнения имеющихся у учащихся знаний о стране новой информацией, дающей им более полное предоставление о ней. Особый акцент здесь делается на интенсивном развитии учебно-познавательных способностей студентов, необходимых для углубленного изучения языка и для самообразования. На факультативных занятиях учащиеся совершенствуют знания, умения и навыки, приобретенные ими за предыдущий период. Иностранный язык выступает здесь как эффективное средство, способствующее развитию интереса учащихся к выбранной ими области знания. Курс по страноведению предполагает более высокое качество межпредметных связей, расширение фоновых знаний по иностранному языку, модернизацию лексической базы и усиление мотивационного аспекта обучения иностранному языку. При моделировании программы по страноведению учитывается принцип системности, обеспечивающий уплотнение концентрации материала, позволяющий исключить прямое дублирование учебной информации.
Реализация программы по страноведению формирует единое культурное и информационное пространство, позволяет эффективно систематизировать знания из различных наук и учебных предметов, обеспечить организацию учебного материала как единой дидактической системы, направленной на реализацию комплексных учебно-воспитательных задач.
Тексты являются главным источником информации по каждой теме, а так же основой для накопления лексического запаса студентов. Раздел «Comprehension" представляет собой набор упражнений, развивающих навыки чтения и устной речи. Цель этих заданий – проникновение в содержание текста, углубленное понимание отдельных его частей. Задания нацелены как на просмотровое и изучающее чтение, так и на умение выделить главное и второстепенное. Будучи познавательными, тексты служат целям развития мотивационных стимулов, реализующихся в упражнениях дискуссионного характера и коллективного обсуждения. Задания дискуссионного характера рассчитаны на значительную долю мыслительной самостоятельности учащихся при использовании полного объема страноведческой и лексической информации по данной теме.
Курс по страноведению «Великобритания» (1 час в неделю) запланирован на один год. Программа курса рассчитана на углублённое исследование страны изучаемого языка. При разработке программы и пособия были учтены требования программы к обучению английскому языку в колледже.
Цели и задачи курса:
1. Цели курса.
Студенты должны получить знания:
а) по основным темам национальной культуры Британии (по истории, географии, политико-общественным отношениям, образования и др.);
б) о социокультурных особенностях народа – носителя языка, что служит основой общения с людьми разных культур и разных профессий в различных ситуациях;
- научится понимать устные и письменные сообщения по темам определенным данной программой;
- уметь критически оценивать предлагаемый материал и активно работать с ним;
- уметь правильно и самостоятельно выражать свое мнение в учебной форме.
2. Задачи.
К концу курса студенты должны:
- знать и понимать особенности культуры и общественно-экономических отношений в Великобритании;
- понимать и вести обсуждение по содержанию изучаемых тем, выражая свое мнение и обоснования его;
- читать объемные текстовые материалы, связанные с изучаемой тематикой, исходя из собственного интереса при выборе текста.
Содержание курса.
Исходя из собственных целей и задач, ориентируясь на конечный результат обучения, в содержание обучения страноведению включаются следующие компоненты:
1) лингвострановедческий компонент:
- знание, понимание реалий (слов, обозначающих предметы национальной культуры) и умение употреблять их;
- знание страноведческих тем, связанных с общими знаниями об англоговорящей стране; ее историей и географией; политической системой; культурой и образованием;
- текстовый материал, содержащийся в материалах по страноведению;
2) общеучебный компонент:
- учебно-организационные умения, связанные с формированием у учащихся способности работать в различных режимах; объективно и правильно оценивать свою деятельность.
- учебно-интеллектуальные умения, связанные с формированием способности сравнивать, анализировать, систематизировать и обобщать изучаемый материал;
- учебно-коммутативные умения, проявляющиеся в культуре общения, т.е. в умениях слушать и слышать партнёров по общению, обосновывать свою точку зрения.
Contents of the programme "Great Britain":
1. The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. General Information (1ч.)
2. Climate. Vegetation and Wildlife (1ч.)
3. Dawn of the British History (5ч.):
- general information; (1 ч.)
- Roman Britain; (1ч.)
- Anglo-Saxon conquest of Britain; (1 ч.)
- Unification of Britain. Danish conquest of Britain; (1 ч.)
- The Norman conquest of Britain. (1 ч.)
4. History of London: (3 ч.)
- general information; (1 ч.)
-the Plague; (1 ч.)
-The great Fire of London. (1 ч.)
5. Britain's Kings and Queens: (2ч.)
- Alfred the Great. William the conqueror; (1 ч.)
- Royal dynasties. (1 ч.)
6. England. General information. (2ч)
7. Sights of London (a film). (2ч.)
8. Scotland. Geography. History. Traditions. (2ч.)
9. Wales. (1 ч.)
10. Northern Ireland. (1 ч.)
11. Britain's Government. (1 ч.)
12. Industry and agriculture in Great Britain. (1 ч.)
13. Educational system in Great Britain (3 ч.)
14. Museums in Great Britain (a film). (1ч.)
15. Music in Great Britain. (1 ч.)
16. English Painting. General information. (1 ч.)
17. Alexander Fleming. (1 ч.)
18. Customs and traditions (2ч.)
Содержание программы факультативного курса по страноведению «Великобритания» для 2 курса:
Объединенное Королевство Великобритании и Северной Ирландии. (1 ч.)
Климат. Растительный мир. Дикий мир (1 ч.)
Рассвет Британской истории (5ч.):
- общие сведения; (1 ч.)
- римское завоевание; (1 ч.)
- Англо-Саксонское завоевание; (1 ч.)
- образование и объединение англосаксонских королевств, завоевание викингов; (1 ч.)
- нормандское завоевание Британии. (1 ч.)
История Лондона (3 ч.):
- общие сведения; (1 ч.)
- Чума; (1 ч.)
- Лондонский пожар. (1 ч.)
5. Британские короли и королевы (2 ч.):
- Альфред Великий, Вильям Завоеватель; (1 ч.)
- Королевские династии. (1 ч.)
6. Англия. Общая информация. (2 ч.)
7. Достопримечательности Лондона (фильм) (2 ч.)
8. Шотландия. Географическое положение. История. Традиции. (2 ч.)
9. Уэльс. (1 ч.)
10. Северная Ирландия. (1 ч.)
11. Британское правительство. (1ч.)
12. Промышленность и сельское хозяйство Великобритании. (1 ч.)
13. Система образования Великобритании. (3 ч.)
14. Музеи Великобритании. (1 ч.)
15. Музыка Великобритании. (1 ч.)
- Рок и поп музыка. (1 ч.)
16. Английская живопись. (1 ч.)
- Томас Гейнсборо (1 ч.)
17.Александр Флеминг. (1 ч.)
18. Традиции и обычаи Великобритании. (2 ч.)
Acknowledgments:
A.L. Morton. «A People History of England», International publishers, New York, 1979
S.D. Zaitseva. «Early Britain», 2014
David McDowall. «An Illustrated History of Britain». 2015
J.J. Bell. «The History of England», Санкт-Петербург, 2009
I.S. Stepnova. «Time, Events, People», Moscow, 2009
V.V. Oschepkova. «Britain in Brief», Moscow, 2014
G.D. Tomakhin. «ИЯШ», 1990-1993, Moscow
«The World Book of Encyclopedia», New York
Pitkin Outstanding Souvenir Guides. «Britain’s Kings and Queens», London, 1993
THE UNITED KINGDOM OF GREAT BRITAIN AND NORTHERN IRELAND
General information
The UK is situated of the north-west coast of Europe between the Atlantic Ocean on the north and north-west ant the North Sea on the east. It is separated from the continent by the English Channel and the Straits of Dover. The UK includes Great Britain and Northern Ireland, the Isle of Man and Channel Island. Great Britain, the largest island in Europe, includes England, Scotland and Wales. The 0º meridian of longitude passes through the old Royal Greenwich Observatory in London.
The UK has area of 94,249 miles2.
The population of the UK is 56.6 mln. People (1987). The capital of the country is London. English is the official language.
The climate of Great Britain is temperate and mild. It’s never too hot in summer or too cold in winter. It often rains in England. Rain falls in summer, rain falls in winter. It falls in spring and in autumn. It is foggy and cold in autumn and winter. But it is often cold in summer, too. Snow falls only in the North and West of the country. It does not snow in the South. When it does, it is only once or twice a year, and the snow melts almost immediately.
The surface of England and Ireland is flat, but Scotland and Wales are mountainous. Most of the mountains are in the western part. The highest mountain top in the UK is Ben Nevis in Scotland (4.406 ft. (ft. = 40.48 cm)). Many parts of the country have beautiful green meadows. If you travel through Great Britain, you can see many villages with their lovely ivy-clad cottage.
The chief rivers in Great Britain are the Thames, the Severn, the Clyde, the Trent ant the Mersey. The longest river is the Severn. It is in the south-west of England.
The UK has few mineral resources, of which the most important are coal and oil. The largest coal fields are in Yorkshire, Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire. The oil fields are situated in the North Sea along the north-eastern coast of Scotland and England.
Other minerals are clays, shale, chalk, iron ore, lead, zinc…
The UK is one of the most industrialized countries in the world. Metallurgy, chiefly iron and steel, is vital to other key industries, such as shipbuilding, mechanical engineering, the automotive industry, electrical engineering and electronics. The country is the fourth largest exporter of manufactured goods.
The main industrial centers are Sheffield and Birmingham where iron structures are made, also Manchester, the cotton center of Great Britain. The district round Birmingham is known in England as the Black Country for its smog. The district round Manchester dotted will cotton mills. Leeds is the country’s wool producing center.
The largest cities in the country are London, Birmingham, Manchester, Cardiff, and Glasgow. The important ports are London, Cardiff, and Glasgow.
Through the UK is an industrial country, agriculture remains a major sector of economy. Britain grows wheat, barley, oat, fruits, and vegetables.
Great Britain is a high-technology country, with the world famous Royal Society, founded in 1660. Research and development have progressed impressively since WWⅡ.
There are many universities, colleges, libraries, museums and theatres in the country. The most famous universities are Cambridge, Oxford, Glasgow universities; the British Museum, the National Gallery; The Royal Shakespeare Theatre, the National Theatre and others.
LOCATION
Особенности географического положения Великобритании
Great Britain is an island country in north-western Europe. It ranks 73° in size among the countries of the world, and has less than 2% of the world's people. It covers most of an island group called the British Isles. The British Isles lie off the north-west coast of Europe. The 2 largest islands are Great Britain and Ireland. Great Britain, which forms the greater part of the British Isles, comprises England, Wales and Scotland. Ireland comprises Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic. There are thousands of small islands round these two large islands. The Isle
of Wight lies off the southern coast of England. The Isles of Scilly are off the south-west coast of England. The Orkneys and the Shetlands lie to the far north of Scotland.
Great Britain is the 7th largest island in the world. It covers 229,915 km2. The North Sea on the east and the English Channel on the south separate the island from the main land of Europe. Great Britain is separated from main land Europe by only 32 kms of water at the closest point and is called the Strait of Dover, which is a part of the English Channel. The North Sea and the English Channel are often called the "Narrow Sea". They are not deep but are frequently rough and difficult to navigate during storms, which makes crossing from England to France sometimes far from pleasant. Most of the British coastline is so broken by deep bays and inlets that no point on the island is more than 121 kms from the sea.
There are several mountainous regions in Great Britain. The Scottish Highlands cover the northern half of Scotland. They are a region of mountain ranges, plateaus and deep valleys. The highest point in the British isles is Ben Nevis (1,343 km). The Cheviot Hills form the border between Scotland and England. The Apennines are a region of rounded mountains that extend from the Scottish border about half way down the length of England. West of Apennines
lies the Lake District, a scenic area of clear, quiet lakes and low mountains. The Lake District is one of England's most famous recreation areas. The Cambrian Mountains cover most of Wales. These mountains are especially beautiful in the North and are more rounded in central Wales.
Most of the land north of the Thames and up to the bay called The Wash is low and flat. This area has some of the country's richest farmland. A great plain, called the Feus borders the Wash. In the Feus is the lowest point in Great Britain. It ranges from the sea level to 4.6 metres below sea level, depending on the tide of the North Sea.
Britain's largest rivers are the Thames, which is 346 kms long and the Severn, which is 338 kms long. Many British rivers have drowned or sunken mouths, called estuaries, up which the ocean tides flow. Their estuaries make excellent harbours. Bristol, Hull, Liverpool, London and other cities on or near estuaries are important ports.
Lough Neagh in Northern Ireland is the largest lake in the British Isles. It's about 23, 3 kms long and 15, 7 kms wide. Loch Lomond in Scotland is the largest lake on the Island of Great Britain. It's about 35 kms long and 7, 2 kms wide. England's biggest lakes are in the Lake District.
Comprehension:
Do you remember?
1. Where is the UK situated?
2. What is the area of the UK?
3. What influences the climate of the UK?
4. What can you say about the surface of the UK?
CLIMATE
The climate in Great Britain is generally mild and temperate due to the influence of the Gulf Stream. The southwestern winds carry the warmth and moisture into Britain. The climate in Britain is always described as cool, temperate and humid. In summer, the ocean waters are cooler than the land. Winds blowing across the waters come to Britain as refreshing breezes.
The weather is so changeable that the English often say that they have no climate but only weather. Therefore, it's natural for them to use the comparison "as changeable as the weather" of a person who often changes his mood or opinion about something. The weather is the favorite topic of conversation in the UK. As the weather changes with the mind, and Britain is visited by winds from different parts of the world, the most characteristic feature of Br. 's weather is its variability.
The English also say that they have 3 variants of weather: when it rains in the morning, when it rains in the afternoon or when it rains all day long. Sometimes it rains so heavily that they say "It's raining cats and dogs".
Rainfall is more or less throughout the year. The heaviest rain falls in the highland areas of western Britain. Some of these areas get 380 to 510 sm of rain fall yearly in some parts of southeastern England. The driest period is from March to June and the wettest months are from October to January. The average range of temperatures in winter rarely drops as low as -12°C, and summer temperatures seldom reach 32°C. It seldom snows heavily in winter; the frost is rare. January and February are usually the coldest months, July and August the warmest. Still the
wind nay bring winter cold in spring or summer days. Sometimes it brings the whirlwinds or hurricanes. Droughts are rare.
Mild fogs hang over parts of Britain from time to time. But the famous "pea soup" fogs of London and other big cities seldom occur any more. These fogs were caused chiefly by pollution (impurities released into the air by home chimneys, factories and cars). Anti-pollution laws have helped make such fogs much less severe than they once were.
So, we may say that the British climate has 3 main features: it is mild, humid and changeable. That means that it is never too hot or too cold. Winters are extremely mild. Snow may come but it melts quickly. In winter, the cold is humid cold, not the dry one.
This humid and mild climate is good for plants. The trees and flowers begin to blossom early in spring.
In the British homes there has been no central heating up till recently. The fireplaces are often used, but the coal is not used as it's very expensive. Britain has no good coal now and imports it itself. Many schools and Universities have no central heating either, and the floors there are made of stone. The British bedroom is especially cold, sometimes electric blankets or hot-water bottles are used.
VEGETATION AND WILDLIFE
The humid and mild climate of Great Britain is good for plants and flowers. Some of them have become symbols in the UK. Probably you know that poppy is the symbol of peace, the red rose is national emblem of England, the thistle is the national emblem of Scotland and the Edinburgh International Festival. The daffodils and the leek are the emblems of Wales, the shamrock (a kind of clover) is the emblems of Ireland.
The UK was originally a land of vest forests, mainly oak and beech in the Lowlands and pine and birch in the Highlands, with great stretches of marshland and smaller areas of moors. In the course of time, much forest land was cleared and almost all the Lowlands outside the industrial areas were put under cultivation. Today only about 6% the total land area remains
wooded.
Extensive forests remain in eastern and northern Scotland and in southeastern and western England. Oak, elm, ash and beech are the commonest trees in England, while Scotland has much pine and birch. The Highlands with thin soil are largely moorland with heather and grasses. In the cultivated areas that make up most of Br. There are many wild flowers, flowering plants and grasses.
The fauna or animal life of the UK is much like that of northwestern Europe, to which it was once joined. Many large mammals such as bear, wolf have been hunted to extinction, others are now protected by law. About 50 land mammals are still found in the UK. There are many foxes. Offers are common along rivers and streams, and seals live along much of the coast. Hedgehogs, hares, rabbits, rats and mice are numerous. Deer live in some of the forests in the Highlands of Scotland and England. There are several small lizards, 2 or 3 kinds of snakes and several kinds of frogs and toads.
Some 230 kinds of birds live in UK, and another 200 are regular visitors, many are songbirds. The most numerous are blackbird, sparrow and starling. Robin Redbreast is the national bird of the UK. The numbers of ducks, geese and other water fowl has diminished during recent years. Partridges, pheasants and other large and rare birds are protected by law. Gulls, geese and other sea birds nest near the coast
There are many threats to wildlife and ecological balance around the coast. The biggest threat to the coastline is pollution. Even much-loved Blackpool is not officially safe. More than 3, 5 million tons of industrial waste is pumped into the North Sea every year. Many other ecological problems may be caused by privatization of the coast. Many rivers are biologically dead, i.e. unable to support fish and wildlife.
Comprehension
Answer the questions:
1. What is the climate of Great Britain?
2. Why is the weather so changeable in Great Britain?
3. What do the English say about their weather?
4. When is the driest period in Great Britain?
5. What were fogs caused by?
6. How do the British heat their houses?
7. What flowers are national symbols of England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland?
8. What are the commonest trees in Great Britain?
9. What mammals are protected by law?
10. How many kinds of birds live in the United Kingdom?
11. What is the main threat to wildlife and ecological balance?
DAWN OF THE BRITISH HISTORY
In some parts of Britain, one can see a number of huge stones standing in a circle. These are the monuments (or construction) left by the earliest inhabitants of the country. The best-known stone circle named Stonehenge was built some 4000 years ago, is still a mystery to modern science. It is made of many upright stones, standing in groups of twos, 8.5 metres high. They are joined on the top by other flat stones, each weighing about 7 tones. No one can tell how these large stones were moved or from what places they were brought. The Bronze Age stone monument, Stonehenge, is situated in the middle of Salisbury Plain in the south-west England. Even now this place is visited by many people, especially on June 21, when the sun appears just over the Heel Stone of the circle and its shadow falls on the Altar Stone in the middle. But what does it all mean and who were the people that had built it?
About 3000 years B.C. many parts of Europe, including the British Isles, were inhabited by a people who came to be known as the Iberians because some of their descendants are still found in the North of Spain. The Iberians used stone weapons and tools. The art of grinding and polishing stone was known to them and they could make smooth objects of stone with sharp edges and points.
But some scientists believe that Stonehenge was built by the people, called the Beaker Folk (народ чаш), who about 2000 B.C. came from Europe. Their main activity was producing and trading in different metals. They carried trade as far as Central Europe and Scandinavia, Crete and Greece.
There is still no exact answer to the questions what the Stonehenge was used for. Some think that it was a temple to the Sun, some think it was built to find days important for agriculture. One of the latest and most interesting ideas is the theory of Professor G. Hawkins, astronomer. In 1961 he made a film and using a computer found that Stonehenge must have been an observatory. He also discovered that, by using the 56 pits (углублений, ям) outside the
stone circle, Stonehenge could be used as a computer to foretell an eclipse.
During the period from the 6th to the 3th century B.C. a people called the Celts spread across Europe from the east to the west. More than one Celtic tribe invaded Britain. From time to time these tribes were attacked and overcome by other Celtic tribes from the Continent. Celtic tribes called the Picts penetrated into the mountains on the North; some Picts as well as Scots first crossed over the Ireland and later returned to the large island and settled there in the North together with Picts, whose descendants are the Scots and the Irish. Powerful Celtic tribes, the
Britons, held most of the country, and the southern half of the island was named Britain after them.
The Iberians were unable to fight back the attacked of the Celts who were armed with metal spears, swords, daggers and axes. Most of the Iberians were killed in the conflict; some of them moved westwards into the mountains of what is now Wales and the others mixed with the Celts.
The Celts were tall and blue-eyed. They wore long flowing moustaches but no beards. They were ruled by chiefs whom all the tribesmen obeyed. The chiefs were military leaders and some of them were very powerful. The military leaders of the largest tribes were sometimes called kings and stood at the head of detachments of warriors. The Celts had no towns, they lived in villages. They were acquainted with the use of copper, tin and iron and they kept large herds of cattle and sheep which formed their chief wealth. They also cultivated crops, especially corn.
The Celts worshiped Nature. They imagined the sky, the sun, the moon, the earth and the sea, to be ruled by being like themselves, but much more powerful. They also believed in many nameless spirits who lived in the rivers, lakes, mountains and thick forests. The Celts believed in another life after death. They were taught by priests called druids that their souls passed after death from one body to another. The druids were very important and powerful, sometimes, more powerful than the chiefs. The Celts believed in their magic power. The tribesmen often ask them
to settle disputes.
Comprehension
Do you remember?
1. What is Stonehenge? Where is it situated?
2. What people inhabited the British Isles about 3000 years B.C.?
3. Where did they come from?
4. What was the Stonehenge used for?
5. What people invaded Britain from the 6th to the 3th century B.C.?
6. Why was the southern part of the island called Britain?
7. How were the military leaders of the largest tribes called?
8. What did the Celts believe in?
Talking points:
Say what you know about the Stonehenge.
Say what you know about the first inhabitants on the British Isles.
Say why the Celts could invade the country.
Say what you know about the Celtic culture.
ROMAN BRITAIN
Two thousand years ago while the Celts were still living in tribes the Romans were the most powerful people in the world. Roman society differed greatly from that of the Celts. It was a slave society divided into classes. The main classes were the slave and the slave-owners. The Romans conquered all the countries around the Mediterranean Sea. One of the last countries to be conquered was France or Gaul as it was then called. The war against the Gauls, who were the Celtic tribes, lasted for 8 years. Julius Caesar was appointed Head of the Roman army which was
sent to conquer Gaul. In the course of his campaigns Caesar reached the Channel. In 55 B.C. a Roman army of 10000 men crossed the Channel and invaded Britain. Next year, in 54 B.C. Caesar again came to Britain, this time with large forces (25000). The Celts fought bravely for their independence, but they were not strong enough, in spite of their courage, to drive the Roman off as it was last year. The Romans who had better arms and armour and were much better trained defeated the Celts in several battles. Some of the chiefs submitted and promised to
pay tribute to Rome. Caesar then went back to Gaul to complete his conquest on the Continent. But Caesar was not able, really, to conquer Britain. The promised tribute was not paid and the real conquest of Britain by the Romans was completed in 43 A.D. the Celts fought fiercely against the Romans who never managed to become masters of the whole island. They were unable to conquer the Scottish Highlands and the province of Britain cruised only of the southern part of the island. From time to time the Picts from the North managed to raid the Roman part of the island, burn their villages and drive off their cattle and sheep.
To defend their province the Romans stations the legions in Britain. Straight road was built to connect different part of the country. These roads were made so well that they lasted a long time and still exist today. Bridges of stone were built wherever a road crossed a river; some of these bridges can still be found in Britain today. Besides, to guard the province against the Picts and Scots a high wall was built in the North. It was called "Hadrian’s Wall" because it was built by command of the Emperor Hadrian. When the Northern Britons were not at war with the Romans they often came to the wall and traded with the warriors and the Romans would go hunting in the region north of the wall.
As a result of the conquest signs of Roman civilization spread over Britain. There had been no towns in Britain before the Romans conquered it. As soon as they conquered Britain, they began to build town, splendid villas, public baths as in Rome itself. York, Gloucester, Lincoln and London became the chief Roman towns; there were also about 50 other smaller
towns. London which had been a small trading settlement before the conquest now became a centre for trade both by road and river. The towns grew up as markets and centres of administration. The houses were built of stone, plastered and painted, with roofs made of large red tiles. The Roman towns were military stations surrounded by walls for defence.
Among the Celts themselves inequality began to grow - the tribal chiefs and nobility became richer than other members of the tribe. Many of them became officials acting for Rome. Tribal chiefs acted in the name of the Roman Emperor. The noble Celts adopted the mode of life of their conquerors. They lived in rich houses and they dressed as Romans. They spoke Latin. But the common people went on living in their tiny huts, they spoke their native Celtic language and they did not understand the language of their rulers.
The Romans remained in Britain for about 4 centuries. In the 3th and 4th centuries, the power of the Roman Empire gradually weakened. Early in the 5th century (407) the Roman legions were recalled from Britain to defend the central provinces of the Empire from the attacks of barbarian tribes. They did not return to Britain and the Celts were left alone in the land.
Comprehension
Answer the questions:
1.What people were the most powerful in the world?
2. What was Roman society?
3. Who was sent to conquer Gaul and Britain?
4. Why couldn't Caesar conquer Britain?
5. When was Britain conquered by the Romans? .
6. When was the real conquest of Britain completed?
7. What did the Romans do to defend their province in Britain?
8. What was Hadrian Wall built for?
9. What were the chief Roman town in Britain?
10. How long did the Romans remain in Britain?
Talking points:
Say in what way the life in the Roman Empire differed from the: life of the Celts in the 1th century A.D.
Say what the Romans do to secure their position in Britain.
Say what the Celts learned from the Romans.
Say how the Roman way of life influenced the life of the Celts.
Say what traces of Roman rule in Britain can be found in the country.
ANGLO-SAXON CONQUEST OF BRITAIN
After the Romans left Britain the Celts remained independent but not for a long time. From the middle of the 5th century they had to defend the country against the attacks or Germanic tribes - the Saxons, the Jutes and the Angles which began to migrate to Britain. At first, they only came to plunder. But after some time, when they found that the island was a pleasant country to live in, they returned again and again in large numbers and began to conquer the country. In 449 the Jutes landed in Kent and this was the beginning of the conquest. The British natives fought fiercely against the invaders and it took more than a hundred and fifty years for the Angles, the Saxons and the Jutes to conquer the country. They were stronger than
the natives. They took houses, fields and cattle from the Britons. The Angles got most of the land and became the stronger tribe. The Britons went to the mountains in the west of the Isles and settled there. This part of Britain is called Wales now. As time went on the two peoples the Angles and the Saxons - grew into one and were called Anglo-Saxon. They called their speech English and their country England after the strongest of them. The Anglo-Saxon formed many kingdoms - Kent, Essex, Wessex, which now are countries of Great Britain. These kingdoms
were at war with one another and they fought constantly for supreme power in the country. The stronger kings took the land from the smaller kingdoms.
The new conquerors brought changes different from those that had followed the conquest of the country by the Romans. The new settlers dislike towns preferring to live in small villages. In the course of conquest they destroyed the Roman towns and villas. All the beautiful buildings and baths and roads were so neglected that they soon fell in ruins.
The Jutes, the Saxons and the Angles were closely akin in speech and in customs and they gradually merged into one people. The name "Jute" soon died out and the conquerors are generally referred to as the Anglo-Saxons.
As the result of the conquest the Anglo-Saxons made up the majority of the population in Britain and their customs, religion and languages became predominant. They called the Celts «welsh» which means «foreigners» as they could not understand the Celtic language. And gradually the Celts who were in minority merged with the conquerors, adopted their customs and
learned to speak their language. Only the Celts who remained independent in the West, Scotland and Ireland spoke their native tongue. English has been the principal language of the country since then, although it has undergone great change.
Comprehension
Do you remember?
1. What tribes were the next to conquer Britain after the Romans?
2. When was the beginning of the Anglo-Saxon conquest?
3. Why were the British defeated?
4. What part of the country were the British forced to move?
5. What kingdoms were formed at that time?
6. What changes did the new invaders bring to the country?
7. What was the result of this conquest?
8. What was the principal language of the country?
9. Who was the first king of England?
Talking points:
Say what the main occupations of the Anglo-Saxons were.
Say what changes the new conquerors brought to the country.
Prove why the English language became the principal language of the country.
UNIFICATION OF THE ANGLO-SAXON KINGDOMS
The Anglo-Saxon kingdoms continued a constant struggle against one another for predominance over the country. At last at the beginning of the 9th century Wessex became the strongest state. In 829 Edberg King of Wessex was acknowledged by Kent, Mercia and Northumbria. This was really the beginning of the United Kingdom of England and King Edberg became the first king of England. Under his fuel all the small Anglo-Saxon kingdoms were united to form one kingdom which was called England from that time on. The clergy, royal warriors and officials supported the king's power.
The political unification of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms was sped up by the urgent task of defending the country against the dangerous raids of the new enemies. From the end of the 8th cent, and during the 9th and the 10th centuries Western Europe was troubled by a new wave of invaders. They came from the North - from Norway, Sweden and Denmark and were called Northmen. In different countries the Northmen were known by many other names, as the Vikings, the Normans, the Danes. But more often the British Isles were raided from Denmark and the invaders came to be known in the English history as the Danes.
DANISH CONQUEST OF ENGLAND
The Danes were of the same Germanic tribes (race) as the Anglo-Saxons themselves and they came from the same part of the Continent. The Danes still lived in tribes; they were pagans. At the end of the 8th century, they began to attack Britain just as the Anglo-Saxons had done themselves 4 centuries earlier. The Danes were well-armed. Their ships were sailing-boats but they were also provided with oars. The Danes were bold and skillful seamen. Their first raids were for plunder only. In later years large Danish fleets (more than 300 ships) brought large
armies to conquer and settle in the new lands. They made large camps, well-guarded. From these camps they could make many raids upon the villages in the area. Thus began the fourth conquest of Britain. The Danish raids were successful because the Kingdom of England had neither a regular army nor a fleet in the North Sea to meet them. There were no coastguards to watch the coast of the island and this made it possible for the raiders to appear quite unexpectedly. Besides, there were few roads. It took several weeks before anyone could reach a
settlement from where a messenger could be sent to the king to ask for help. Help was long way in coming.
At last all England north of the Thames was in the hands of Danes. In the reign of Egbert's son, the Danes sailed up the Thames and captured London. Thus the Danes came into conflict with the strongest of all Anglo-Saxon kingdoms, Wessex. But it was not so easy to devastate Wessex as other parts of England. At that time Wessex was under the reign of Egbert's grandson, King Alfred, who became known in English history as Alfred the Great, Wessex became the centre of resistance against the invaders. He managed to raise the army and to stop the Danes. During the reign of Alfred the Great the first British fleet was built to protect the island. As a result all these measures, the Anglo-Saxons non several victories over Danes. The Danes settled in the North-Eastern part of England. The great Roman road, Watling Street was the boundary between Wessex and Dane law. Thus the Danes were prevented from conquering the whole island.
After the victory over the Danes, King Alfred did much for his people. He opened
schools, asked scholars to translate into English the best works of world literature and worked out the English code. He offered that the learned men should begin to write a history of England. Thus was written a history of England called "The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle" which was continued for 250 years after the death of Alfred.
The Danes returned again and again to attack England. The E. people had to pay tribute. But the Danes wanted to rule over the country and after many battles took the crown from the English. They held it for 24 years. Three Danish kings, one after another, ruled over England. One of them - Canute was at the same time king of England, Denmark, Norway and Sweden. The rule of Danish kings over England came to an end soon after Canute's death in 1035.
Comprehension
Answer the questions:
1. What people began to attack the country?
2. Why could the Danes defeat the Anglo-Saxons?
3. What is Alfred the Great famous for?
4. When was "The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle" completed?
5. How long did the Danish conquest last in Britain?
Talking points:
Speak about the raids on Britain by the Danes.
Compare the raids made by the Anglo-Saxons in the 5th century and the Danes ones.
Say what measures were taken by Alfred's government to strengthen the defence of the country and to raise the level of culture in the country.
Say what is the important of "The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle".
THE NORMAN CONQUEST OF ENGLAND
As we already know 4 different peoples invaded England. First came from the Celts in the 6th century B.C.; then the Romans in the 1st century A.D.; they were followed by the Anglo-Saxons in the 5th century; after them came the Danes at the end of the 8th century. In the 11th century England was invaded by the Normans. This was the 5th and the last invasion of England.
Who were this Normans who conquered England? They were Vikings or «Northmen», men from the north. Some 150 years before the conquest of England they came to a part of France, opposite England, a part which now is called Normandy. They adopted the Christian faith and the French language of their new home in France. They became French.
In 1066, William, the duke of Normandy began to gather an army to invade Britain. He was related to the E. king who died in 1066 and did not have any children and the Duke William cherished the hope that he would succeed the English throne. With an army of 60000 men he came over and defeated the Saxons under the king Harold in the Battle of Hastings and was crowned king of England and called William the Conqueror. The invaders burned houses and killed people. The land was taken from the English and given to the Normans. In return they
swore a solemn oath to help the king. Many poor Anglo-Saxons became the serfs of the Normans. The royal sheriffs became of great importance. Through the sheriffs the king exercised control over all his vassals. The sheriffs also collected taxes paid to the royal treasury and he was responsible for the gathering of an army for the king. It was his duty to see that vassals were ready to perform military service for the king when they were called up.
To make himself stronger than any of his nobles, William the Conqueror ordered that many castles should be built in different parts of the country. No other persons were allowed to build a castle without the king permission. William formed a Great Council, made of bishops and barons. They met together to talk over governmental problems and to give their advice to the king. One of the functions of the Great Council was to act as the King's Supreme Court. His great supporters were the Norman barons because they enjoyed many privileges in the conquered country. All the members of the Great Council were Normans. All the sheriffs and other royal officials were Normans too. The English Church was ruled by Normans. The Conqueror won the support of the Anglo-Saxon lords, too. And townspeople supported the royal power because the king took severe measures to establish peace in the country and people could travel without fear of being robbed or murdered. Trade was no longer limited in England. Towns began to grow. The new masters were strangers in the country. They had different manners, customs and laws. They spoke a foreign language and the Anglo-Saxon peasants could not understand their speech. The conquerors were few a number but they were cruel and harsh rulers. They punished those who disobeyed. The Anglo-Saxon felt great hatred towards their new masters. The Normans did not feel safe in the conquered country. They began to build castles. The first of these stone castles was the Tower of London. The Conqueror ordered to build it on the north bank of the Thames to protect London.
What did the Norman conquest do to England? It gave it French king and nobles. The Normans also brought with them the French language. After the Norman conquest there were 3 languages in England. There was Latin, the language of church and the language in which all learned men wrote and spoke; the kings wrote their laws in Latin for some time after the Conquest. Then there was French, the language which the kings and the nobles spoke and which many people wrote. Finally, there was the English language which remained the language of the
masses of the people. Some people knew all these languages; many knew 2; but most of the people knew only one. There were people who could understand the French language though they could not speak it. Rich people who owned land often knew French and Latin. But poor people did not understand French or Latin. They knew only English.
In time, however, came the general use of the Englişh language. About 1350 English became the language of law. Between 1350 and 1400 lived Wycliffe who made the first complete translation of the Bible into English and Chaucer, the Father of English poetry.
But the English language when it came into general use was not quite the same as it was before the Conquest. The grammar remained, but many words came into it from the French language.
Comprehension
Do you remember?
1. When was England invaded by the Normans?
2. What were the Normans?
3. Who and when began to gather army to invade England?
4. What did the Normans begin to do after they had conquered the country?
5. What were the sheriffs responsible for?
6. What did the Normans begin to build throughout the country? Why?
7. What were the functions of the Great Council?
B. Why did William the Conqueror win the support of the Anglo-Saxon lords?
9. Why did the Conqueror order to build the Tower of London?
10. What was the state language of the country'?
11. When was the first complete translation of the Bible made?
Talking points:
Say what were the reasons for the Norman invasion.
Prove that the Norman army was greatly superior to the Anglo-Saxon army.
Say what was the influence of the Norman conquest in Britain.
Prove that William the Conqueror became one of the greatest men in history of Britain.
Prove that the Conquest resulted in greater feudal exploitation in England
THE HISTORY OF LONDON
London is one of the greatest city in the world. It began on two small patches of dry land in the middle of a marsh on the north bank of the Thames as a small settlement named Llyn-din (which means a lonely port in some sources and the town on the lake in others). The name is of Celtic origin. To this place in the year 55 B.C. (before our era) Caesar came from Rome. At first the Romans were driven out by the Britons, but they came back again and Britain was conquered and for 400 years remained a Roman province. Llin-din became Londinium and was already a thriving centre of trade. The town grew quickly under the Roman occupation.
The Romans built long straight roads along which the Roman soldiers marched: Watling Street from London to Chester, Empire Street from London to York and others. Many of them met at a place where London Bridge now stands. The reason was that there was a good crossing place over the Thames. It was the lowest point of the river where bridge could be built without too much difficulty. Moreover, The Thames estuary provided a natural entry to the country for ships coming from the North Sea.
The Romans made Londinium a large and rich city with good streets, beautiful palaces, shops and villas. Trade was growing. A lot of goods – skins, copper and iron ore, silver and gold – were sent to Rome. And many strong blue-eyed boys were sent to Rome, too, to be sold as slaves.
In the 5th century the Romans left Britain and other invaders came to the British shores. The Saxon hordes and the Danes rushed to Londinium, conquered the land and ruined the city. How much was left of its great past? Some Roman coins, mosaics, children's shoes and women's rings that can be seen in London museums now. Parts of an ancient wall built by the Romans in the second century remain in the City and the London Stone, placed by the Romans in the centre of Londinium, from which all distance were measured, is in one of the walls of a church in Cannon Street (in the City).
During nearly 400 years Londinium lay in ruins, grass grew where the beautiful buildings had been before, wild beasts walked on the good Roman roads.
In the 9 century and later the Saxon kings began to rebuilt the ruined city of Londinium. Soon, 2 miles west from it, another centre, Westminster Abbey was founded. In 1066 came William the Duke of Normandy, or William the Conqueror. He settled in Londinium which now became London – the capital of Norman Britain. William the Conqueror assured the citizens of London that he would respect their privileges and property which proves that they were strong
and exerted a great influence within the country. At that time the Tower was built to control London and the strongholds were erected in the west part of the town. For 500 years the Normans were masters of Britain. They brought with them Latin and French civilization, the learning, the laws and the organization of the land. Many Latin and French words penetrated into the old English.
The Norman masters went everywhere about the country building new palaces and churches and cathedrals. Simple wooden halls were good enough for the poor Britons, stone and marble were used by the Normans who wanted to shine in the conquered land. The ideas were Normans, the labour was British. Westminster Abbey was finished and William was the first king to be crowed there. Since then, for nearly 1000 years, all English monarchs have been crowned in the Abbey. Many of them are buried there, too.
In the 12th century commerce and trade grew. The population grew even faster. More and more wooden houses were built along the narrow streets. London Bridge was the only bridge across the river Thames. And it was narrow too, with shops and houses on each side of it. Yet it was the wonder of the world. (Very few stone bridges existed in those days.) The London people were very proud of it, but the visitors from the country and from abroad looked with great fear at the cut-off heads of criminals, exhibited on the pikes at one of the bridges for everyone to see.
For more than 600 years London Bridge alone served the Londoners, then in 1750, another one – Westminster Bridge – was built.
In the 15th century old London reached the peak of its glory. The development of
overseas trade led to a considerable commercial growth. In the 16th century the migration from the City to the suburbs began. The reasons were the constantly increasing cost of building sites and the soaring rents. This movement from the centre continued for 300 years. London was thus growing rapidly, mainly in the 17th century and the 18th and developed into what we call Greater London or the County. London and the City are not the same. Up to the 16th century London
was, roughly speaking, what we call the City, but today only the central part of London, the business and shopping centre, is referred to as the City. It is only one square mile in area.
We must remember that in the 17th century London suffered two great catastrophes – the Great Plague in 1665 and the Great Fire in 1666.
Comprehension
Answer the questions:
1. What is the origin of the word «London»?
2. When did the town begin to grow quickly?
3. Where did many of Roman roads meet?
4. Why was that place chosen for London?
5. Where can the remains of Roman's Wall be seen today?
6. When did the Saxon kings begin to rebuilt London?
7. When was Westminster Abbey founded?
8. What else did they begin to build at that time?
9 Who was the first king to be crowned at Westminster Abbey?
10. How did London Bridge look like in the 12th century?
11. How long did it serve to people?
12. When did old London reach its pick of glory?
13. What was London up to the 16th century?
14. What two great catastrophes did London suffer?
Talking points:
Say what you know about early London.
Explain why the Saxon kings began to rebuilt London.
Prove that London reached its pick of glory in the 16th century.
THE PLAGUE (1665)
London at that time was a busy, rich and crowded city. More than 400000 people lived within the London walls. The old city looked very picturesque with its tall houses of wood and plaster, its narrow streets - so narrow that the people, out of their bedroom windows on one side of the road, could shake hands with those living on the opposite side; the river was crowded with ships, and above all, on the highest point of the city, there stood the great church of Saint Paul. Lots of ships came to London daily. On one of them, together with some goods, the Great Plague arrived in London. It was in June 1665. Few people recovered from it. To show that someone in a house had the plague and that no one may go near it, a red cross was painted on the door. Historians estimate that nearly 100000 people lost their lives. The streets of London were empty, sops were closed and no boats were seen on the Thames. Most of the population left the city. The country people did not allow them to come near their houses. Many died on the roads. Nothing could stop the plague from spreading. The Lord Mayor ordered the fires to be burnt in
the streets to purify the air. By the end of November the plague began to die down. The cold weather in December stopped it at last. Many who had gone away from London returned, houses and theatres, shops and inns opened again. London was itself again.
THE GREAT FIRE OF LONDON
The summer of 1666 was very hot and dry in London. On a Sunday in September a great fire broke out in the city in a baker's shop. It began late at night in a street not far from London Bridge. The Monument now stands on the spot to remind people of the terrible flames.
A hot east wind was blowing and the fire spread quickly. Most of the houses in London were made of wood. The better houses had brick or stone foundations only. The fire raged for more than 3 days (5) and nothing could stop it. There were no fire brigades at that time. The flames made night as light as day for 10 miles around London. The people left their burning houses and went to the fields across the Thames. They put up tents and lived there. Some people took all their things to the churches hoping that they would be safe there. But nearly all the churches were destroyed in the flames. The houses on London bridge were burnt, too. The fire on the bridge destroyed the water-wheel, so there was no water to put out the fire. Then the flames gradually died down, but over 13000 (3000) and 97 churches, including St. were destroyed, and 200000 inhabitants were homeless. But the fire did great good, it burned dirty narrow streets where the plague ruled a year ago, wide streets and brick houses appeared in London after the Great Fire. Sir Christopher Wren, the famous architect, took part in rebuilding the city. St. Paul's Cathedral, where the architect is buried, was built by him. He also built the Monument and drew up a great plan for the reconstruction of London. But the
merchants and the rich landowners did not care about any plans for the whole city. They wanted to start business again or reopen their shops or go and live in their new houses as quickly as possible. Each of them had his own plan. But now the houses were built of stone and bricks instead of wood and plaster. The streets were made much wider and open land was left for squares.
Further increase of trade in the 18th-19th cent. led to the extension of the docks. There was a great need for labour, a back that drew many people from the country to London. From 1801 to 1840 the population of the city increased by one million. The Industrial Revolution brought about great economic and social changes in Britain. A new class, the working-class, came into existence.
Comprehension
Answer the questions:
1. What did London look like in the 17th century?
2. How could the Great Plague arrive in London?
3. How people know about sick neighbours?
4. How many people died during the Great Plague?
5. What did people do to purify the air?
6. When did the Great London Fire happen?
7. How long did it rage?
8. Why were so many buildings and houses destroyed during the Great Fire?
9. How many people were homeless?
10. Who took part in the rebuilding the city?
11. What were buildings built of after the Fire?
Talking points:
Say what historical and geographical circumstances have made London to one of the world’s most important commercial and cultural centres.
Say what calamities London suffer in 1665 and in 1666?
Say what you know about Christopher Wren.
BRITAIN'S KINGSS AND QUEENS
From Alfred the Great in the 9th century to Elizabeth II today 56 very different men and women of England. The royal line merged (слилась) with that of England only in the 17th century. Some of these sovereigns occupied the throne for more than a few months; others, such as Elizabeth I and Victoria, reigned so long that they set of their names on the whole periods of history. Some were recognized as saintly, some were conspicuously sinful, some were feared and strong, others were despised and weak.
The wide differences in personality of these kings and queens are marched (граничат) by the variety of circumstances in which they reigned. In fact, to go back to the beginnings of the British monarchy is to explore the whole history of the country. We know now that the country now that the country was conquered 5 times by different peoples, when more powerful tribes conquered weaker ones and then in turn went down before still greater neighbours.
It was the varied achievements of the rules of Wessex that gave rise to the Kingdom of England itself with a royal house descended from the line of Alfred the Great (871-899). He is the only English rules to have been popularly accepted as «Great» and his position in the British history and in the development of the monarchy is unique. We know more about Alfred than about any other king of England before William the Conqueror and the first features of his character emerge (появляться) as those of the warrior and the commander. He began to fulfil the program of fortification to provide support for the local militia, whose organization he strengthened. He created the naval force to patrol the coasts and meet the invaders before they could enter the country. He is called a father of the Royal Navy. In peacetime he made his court a center of culture and religion. Alfred was a collector of other men’s talent. He made translations from Latin and Greek.
William the Conqueror (1066-1087) was descended from Vikings and he claimed (требовал) the English throne and the invasion of 1066 was a gigantic gamble where William has won. He was a hard man in every sense – a ferocious (жестокий) warrior, a harsh ruler, a driving administrator and a man of vigorous (крепких) principles. His willpower was massive and his temper was fearsome. William set his grip on England and changed it so suit his needs (see the Norman Conquest).
There were several royal dynasties in the history of England.
The first was the dynasty of the House of Lancaster. The representatives of this dynasty reined the country since 1399, beginning with Henry Ⅳ till 1485 when the representatives of the Tudor dynasty Henry Ⅶ claimed to the throne.
The brightest in this dynasty is considered to be Elizabeth Ⅰ (1558-1603). She was the last monarch to rule as well as reign in England and she headed a nation that suddenly came into strength. Dazzling (ослепительный) talent of Shakespeare found employment and support at a court and, of course, the more physical triumphs of Francis Drake owed everything to her polities at home and abroad. She was never without favourites, but she never let them take control of her will. Only ones her nerve falter (поколебалось) when she had to face the necessity of executing a fellow sovereign, Mary, Queen of Scots.
The summit of her glory was reached in 1588 when the huge fleets of Spain were defeated and blown away by winds. The destruction of the Spanish Armada occasioned a positive ecstasy of patriotic fervor (пыл) in England in all of which the figure of the Queen, Gloriana, occupied the central place. Later generations call the time of her reign «the golden days of Good Queen Bess». Elizabeth I was the last of sovereigns from the Tudor dynasty.
As Elizabeth I refused to marry and didn’t have any children to inherit the throne, James Ⅵ of Scotland could claim the throne. He was the first Stuart king of England, who by his accession (вступление) to the throne United Kingdoms of England, and Scotland and Ireland.
Since reigning William Ⅲ and Mary Ⅱ (1689-1701) the monarchy became a Parliamentary institution and kings and queens of Great Britain have reigned ever since in accordance with rules agreed with Parliament.
In 1714 George I from the House of Hanover became the king of Great Britain. He was not a popular king as he spoke little English and preferred to live in his native Hanover.
By the late 1830’s the monarchy was beginning to look disreputable (пользующийся дурной славой) and even unnecessary institution. Kings were not expected to rule, only to reign.
From this low point the monarchy was rescued by Queen Victoria (1837-1901) one of the most notable figures in British royal history. Her achievement was to restore respect and usefulness to the Crown, and then to go further by becoming the incarnate (воплощенный) spirit of the nation, the symbol of its identify and its will.
This achievement was not a sudden occurrence. The young Victoria was the unlikely product of the belated mirage of Duke of Kent. A lively, pleasure-loving princess, she showed plenty of signs of her Hanoverian heredity. Her early widowhood devastated her and sent her into a retirement from which she only gradually emerged. In the last 20 year of her reign, she became as completely loved and idolized as Elizabeth Ⅰ had been, and over an inconceivably vast empire.
Part of the secret of Victoria’s success was her ability to mingle shrewd commonsense with awesomely high principles. She revered the ideal of family life. Her other great asset as a monarch was her relative ordinaries. She embodied the qualities that the middle classes most admired-devotion to family and friends, frugality, conscientious discharge of duties, integrity and reliability. It was a concept that meant more in 19th century England, than it does now.
In 1910 Victoria’s grandson George V became a king. He was the first sovereign of the House of Windsor. George V was a benign and dutiful king His reign was dominated by the horrors of the WW I. He was an admirable "institutional monarch".
King George V’s eldest son Edward VIII abdicated and his second son George VI became a king in 1936. He reigned till 1952.
In a society that was still rebuilding itself after the devastation of a World War, the accession of a young beautiful Queen with a famous name fuelled high hopes of a new golden age. In the event, the second Elizabethian era can already be seen as a time of renewal. It has not been easy for Britain to accept the loss of her empire, even though this process was carried out for the most part in an atmosphere of goodwill. It has been even harder for Britain to adjust to the harsh realities of late 20th century economics. Throughout the changes of these years, the continuity represented by the monarchy has acted as invaluable stabilizing factor, reassuring the country and binding together the Commonwealth. And the Queen herself has not ceased to grow in the respect and affection of her people.
The image of royalty in Britain since the WW Ⅱ has been much enhanced by its family setting. The marriage of the young Princess Elizabeth to Philip. Duke of Edinburgh, on 20 November, 1947 was a romantic event in its time and her husband occupied a distinctive and significant place in popular esteems
The first child of the royal marriage and the current heir to the throne, is Prince Charles, the prince of Wales.
Comprehension
Answer the questions:
How many men and women have reigned England?
Who of sovereigns gave their names to the whole periods of history?
Who of all British rulers was accepted as "Great"?
What kind of a person was William the Conqueror?
How many royal dynasties were there in the history of England?
Who is considered to be the brightest in the Tudor dynasty?
When was the summit of Elizabeth’s I glory reached?
Why could James VI of Scotland claim the throne?
Who rescued the monarchy from disreputation?
What was the secret of Victoria's success?
Who was the first sovereign of the House of Windsor?
Why did Edward VIII abdicate?
When did Elizabeth II access?
What helped to enhance the image of royalty in Britain?
Talking points:
Prove that royalty was necessary for England.
Say which of the royal dynasties were stronger and why.
Speak about the most important events in the British.
Compare three periods in reigning Britain by great women.
ENGLAND
Of the four parts which make up Great Britain England is the largest, the most industrial and most densely populated part of the UK. Over 46 million people out of the population of the UK live in England. The greatest concentrations of population are in London, Birmingham and northwest cities.
England is a highly industrialized country, about 80% of the population living in urban areas. It is a major trading nation through the main ports of London, Liverpool and Southampton. There is an increasing contrast between the prosperous South and the depressed North and West. The geology and topography of England produce contrast in landscape. matched by climatic variability. The country is becoming increasingly popular as a tourist arca, although urban and agricultural pressures on the rural countryside cause concern in such a densely populated country.
England has an excellent road and rail network improved the construction of motorways and railway electrification between London and Glasgow (Scotland). Its cultural heritage is rich and varied with many historic buildings.
In the east of England round about the Wash is a low-lying district called the Fens: some parts of it are so low that they are below the level of the sea. Much of land here is as flat as a table Once upon a time it was covered with swamps and marshes. Nowadays, however very little march left It has been drained and dried and as the land is fertile, the Fens are now the home of farmers whose fields are rich with wheat, potatoes, beet and flowers.
In old times, when people were separated by the swamps, they did not often visit each other. Every village had, therefore, once a year, a feast or a fair. Nowadays the feasts, lasting perhaps a week, are still kept up and people gather at them from all the country round.
In times of severe frost when the drains and rivers are frozen, the people take to skate, and may go for 70 miles in and out in a day. This can be done nowhere else in England. The Fens are the home of England's fastest skaters.
In the south-east of E in the country of Kent, are meadows, woods, fields of strawberries, orchards of fruit and wide stretches of hop-garden. More hops are grown in Kent than in any other part of British Isles.
In the south-west of E. there is Cornwall the most south-westerly country of E. its cliff bound northern coast is washed by the long, blue rollers of the Atlantic. Everywhere in Cornwall even in the very centre of the land-mass, the presents of the ocean make itself felt. The centre of the peninsula is occupied by an area of barren, almost uninhabited moorland known as Bodmin Moor. Around this area, and between it and the coast, lies well-watered by many treams domestic landscape. Here farming predominates, the most important grain crops being oats and the most spread livestock being dairy cows and pigs.
The people of Cornwall are from Celtic stock, for the most part descendants of the ancient Britons, who were forced by the Saxons and other invaders into the westerly and most inaccessible parts of the island, Wales and Cornwall. Comishmen are highly aware of their difference from the English. They have a history, traditions and customs very much their own. The Cornishmen had their own language is now dead.
Cornwall has the longest history of industry and mining in Br. One reason for the Roman invasion of Br. Was to gain possession of the rich Cornish tin-mines. In those early days Cornwall was one of the most densely populated parts of the British Isles. But today one can find only two or three shafts being worked. But one industry’ in Cornwall continues to flourish and grow - the mining of china-clay.
In the centre of England is a district where much coal is mined and many things are made of iron. It is called the Black Country (Birmingham). It's really no blacker than any other place where there are furnaces, factories and mills, but it's black enough to deserve the name that is given to it. Here and there are heaps of rubbish that have been tipped out from the iron works and coal mines. Smoke, black or dirty yellow, darkens the sky by day, the glow of furnaces reddens it at night.
A couple of hours bus-ride from almost any of the large industrial centres brings one to many historical places of interest Stratford-upon-Avon is a few miles from Birmingham.
Yorkshire is the largest country in E. extending from the mouth of the Trent in the industrial South to the Tees and the wild moorland in the North. To the West it borders on Lancashire along the Apennines, to the East it drops down to the North Sea. The woollen towns of Yorkshire are just as ugly as other industrial cities. The Yorkshire people are great eaters. Their chief meals are breakfast, dinner and high tea. High tea is taken about half past six in the evening and may include ham and eggs, fried fish, piles of bread and butter, tea cakes, jam, fancy cakes and huge quantities of tea. Yorkshire men are very proud of Yorkshire pudding and the Yorkshire dialect. Yorkshire pudding is eaten with roast beef and vegetables. But many of Yorkshire men prefer to eat it before a meal. Each person has a pudding for himself. The dialect is still spoken in Yorkshire is rich in a number of idioms and terms of speech which can only be understood by people familiar with it.
In Yorkshire one can visit a house, built of local stone, which once was the home of the Bronte family. The house is now a museum and one can wander in the small low rooms, see the diaries of Charlotte and the story books she wrote as a child to amuse the other children and the white silk dress which might have belonged to Jane Eyre instead of to her creator.
Yorkshire people are reputed to be warm and hospitable. The very first thing that you will happen to as soon as you step across the threshold is that someone will put the kettle on for a nice cup of tea.
Lancashire is known throughout the world as the centre of the British cotton industry. To the west of the Apennine Chain which forms the border between Lancashire and Yorkshire the land slopes down to the flat; sandy plains of the western coast. In the 18th cent, coal and iron were found on the outer slopes of the Apennines and as Liverpool was the nearest large port to the US, the cotton industry grew up.
The people of Lancashire are hard workers. The married women, after a long day in the mills, find time to keep their houses spotlessly clean. They wash the outside walls with a mop and pail and scour the stone window-sills and doorsteps. The women of the cotton town fight a battle with soot and dirt that never ends.
The chief event of the year comes sometime between June and September. For a whole year people «save up» for the wake (a week's holiday). Thousands of people then go off to the seaside, where the strong sea air, the rest and many kinds of fun help to make them fit to spend another year in their ugly, dirty, noisy, smelly towns.
Lancashire people are fond of sports. Their cricket and football teams are among the best in England. Every town has parks where tennis, bowls may be enjoyed. They also are fond of dog racing and music and the cotton towns are famous for their brass bands.
Comprehension
Answer the questions:
Why is England the most populated part of the UK?
What can you say about the industrial centres of the South-East?
What is the Fens famous for?
Why is the Country Kent known as the Garden of Britain?
What can you say about England's grassland in the South-West?
Why is the West Country regarded as an attractive place for holiday-makers?
Why is the centre of England called «The Black Country»?
What is the largest country in England?
What are the Yorkshire people famous for?
What are the Yorkshire people reputed to be?
Why do people all over the world know Lancashire?
What are Lancashire people fond it?
Talking points:
English people prefer to spend their holidays in the West Country because of its beautiful camping sites and coast-line. It's worth waiting in a traffic jam several miles long before getting there. Why do people agree to sit in a car for many hours instead of relaxing at home? Do you like to have a rest in the same way? What do you prefer and why?
How could it happen that W. Shakespeare having only six-year school education could become the greatest writer famous the world over?
Do you believe in magical properties?
SIGHTS OF LONDON
London is situated upon both banks of the river Thames, it's the largest city in Britain and one of the largest in the world. Its population is about 7 million people. London dominates the life of Br. It's the chief port of the country and the most imported commercial, manufacturing and cultural centre. There is little heavy industry in London but there is a wide range of light industry in Greater London.
Actually there are several Londons. First there is the City of London. It's about one square mile in area and only a few thousand people live there. But it contains the Bank of England, the Stock Exchange and the headquarters of many of the wealthiest companies and corporations in the world. It's a financial and business centre of Great Britain.
There is the West End, a fashionable shopping and entertainment centre to the west of the City. There is Mayfair - stretching from the West End to Hyde Park. There are the Houses of Parliament built on the bank of the Thames at Westminster. This institution is descended from the first parliaments in the 13th cent.
Working-class London is centred in the East End. This is a vast area running coastwards from the City. It includes all the main dock areas and is heavily industrialized. East End and West End in different ways of course, can be contrasted with the aristocratic, pompously official area of Westminster. Westminster is in fact the capital of London, of E, of the UK. From the tower of the Houses of Parliament the BBC wavebands carry the chimes of Big Ben to all the islands. From Whitehall the circulars, orders and instructions of the different Ministries like the Home Office, the Foreign Office go out by land, sea, air.
This is where Downing Street is situated so called after the owner of the property in it, the political adventurer George Downing. A former British Ambassador to Holland, Downing received money from Cromwell for spying on the exiled king's son, but also from the king's son for informing him of the activities of Cromwell. After the restoration of Monarchy, the grateful Charles the II rewarded that double agent with a Knighthood and presented him with a portion of land on which he built Downing Street. For more than 200 years the official residence of the Prime Minister of Great Britain has been No. 10 Downing Street.
Westminster Abbey is regarded as the centre of the Westminster area. This is the ancient church of Saint Peter, monastery of the Benedictines, which has been built and rebuilt many times. The most beautiful and oldest part of the abbey is the Chapel of Henry VII built at the turn of the 14th cent there are also many old, individual buildings in the Westminster area, including the Houses of Parliament which were also re-built in the 19th cent because the original House was destroyed by fire and the facade of Buckingham Palace, which was finished at the beginning of the 20th.
Along Whitehall one can see two horses standing outside the barracks of the Horsehold Cavalry. They seem to be dead because they do not move, they remain as still as statues. If you come here in the morning you can see two rows of horsemen forming up. At the sound of a bugle they more off in the direction of Buckingham Palace, where every morning the changing of the Royal Guard take place. You can see a theatrical performance which has been polished for years.
The Tower of London does not belong to the Westminster area but to The City. However it is much more in keeping with the Westminster part of London. The City stands for gold, the Tower for power - the power of the sword. It is a fortress and castle, a palace and safe for Crown Jewels and a prison now converted into museum. The entrance to the Tower is guarded by a sentry in scarlet uniform and a tall bearskin hat. From time to time the sentry takes several paces forward, turned around and goes back. He marches in a very peculiar manner, raising his knees rather like a clockwork puppet. At the gate leading to the fortress stands a yeoman. He is also a guardman but he is a mixture of host and master of ceremonies. He is pleasant and jolly, replies to any questions and is used to being photographed.
The greatest political leaders of the country, including monarchs have lain inside the walls of the Tower, died of hunger and thirst, the noose or the axe. It was in the Tower that king Richard II who abdicated in favour on Henry of Lancaster, was imprisoned. Charles Stuart was crowned in the Abbey but days of his life in the Tower. He was beheaded in 1649 by order of Oliver Cromwell. Oliver Cromwell spent the last few years of his life as ruler of England and was burried in Westminster Abbey. The remains of Cromwell are buried now in the Tower Chapel Royal Queen Elizabeth I, when a princess, was a prisoner in the Tower.
Buckingham Palace is the officials London residence of the Queen. It was built in the 18th cent and rebuilt later by the architect John Nash. The Palace was completed in 1837. The first Queen to live there was the young Queen Victoria.
Above the State Entrance is the central balcony where the Royal Family appear on occasions of national importance. The Royal Standard flying over Buckingham Palace is the sign that the Queen is in the residence. The absence of the Royal Standard over the cast front of Buckingham Palace means that the Queen is absent in London. Royal horse guard’s ceremony arouses the interest of visitors. They specially come to the Palace to watch it.
On the north side of Trafalgar Square are the National Gallery and the National Portrait Gallery. The National Gallery was built in 1824. It contains one of the finest collections of pictures in the world These are more than 850 masterpieces of all the European schools of painting.
There is another picture gallery in London - the Tate Gallery. It was founded in 1897. It's named after its founder Henry Tate, a sugar manufacturer. The Gallery has rich collections of pictures by the 16th century English artists as well as paintings by foreign painters of the 19th cent. and 20th cent. - by impressionists and postimpressionists. It also has a large sculpture collection.
Albert Hall is one of the biggest concert halls in London. It is a circular brick building under a glass and metal root. The Hall was built in 1867-1871. There are 8000 seats in the Hall Albert Hall is used for concerts, athletic events, for public gatherings and other functions.
London's West End is the richest part of the city and its heart is Picadilly Circus This is London's theatreland, and at night it is bright with electric sign. Under the Circus lies one of the busiest stations of London's underground railway network. In the centre of the Circus stands the bronze statue of Eros on a high pedestal above the fountain. It was erected in 1892.
The British Museum was founded in 1753. It has many departments covering a vast variety of subjects. One of the most interesting sections is the National Library. It was more than 6 million books. The library receives nearly two thousand books and papers daily. The National Library has a copy of every book printed in the English language. The Library of the British Museum has a very big collection of books and manuscripts both old and new. There are some of the first English books printed by Coxton. Coxton was a printer. He lived in the 15th cent. He made the first printing press in England.
The West End is famous for its parks - "the lungs of London". There are 10 parks in the centre of London. Hyde Park, St. James Park, Regent's Park, Green Park, Kensington Park and others. Hyde Park is very large and it is beautiful in all seasons. In the Speaker's Corner people can see some "speakers", each standing on a box or a platform that he has bought with himself. Groups of people gather around such speaker, ask him questions and then go to another speaker.
James Park is near Buckingham Palace. It's smaller than Hyde Park, but very beautiful with its fine trees and flower-beds. In one corner of Regent's Park there is an open-air theatre where Shakespeare's comedies are performed every summer. In another corner there is London Zoo which is one of the famous zoos in the world.
Picadilly Circus is the centre of night life in the West End. This is one of the most popular meeting points of London, probably second after Trafalgar Square. It is actually quite small. It is a dynamic and picturesque place with a happy and lively cosmopolitan atmosphere. Groups of people like to gather around the foot of the statue of Eros, the god of love, work of Sir Alfred Gilbert. They form a brightly colourful picture Picadilly Circus is a West End shopping centre. There are many shops with big advertisements, belonging to different foreign firms there, To the North of Piccadilly Circus is Soho, which has been the foreign quarter of London since the 17th cent. now it has restaurants offering food from a variety of different countries, especially Chinese and Italian ones, as well as «adult» entertainments.
Comprehension
Answer the questions:
What area do the metropolis of London cover?
What parts is London divided in?
What museums are the most famous and important in London?
Which museums present the finest English paintings and those of world?
What main London libraries have you read about?
What is the City? What is its area?
When and with what aim was the tower of London
What can people see when sailing down the Thames?
What do you know about the Palace of Westminster?
When does the flag fly on top of Victoria Tower?
What part of London is called West End? How can you characterize it?
What is Buckingham Palace? Whose palace is it?
What can you say about the ceremony of Changing of the Guard?
What people live in the East End? Where did most of them come from?
Talking points:
What historical and geographical circumstances have made London one of the world's most important commercial and cultural centres?
The Tower of London was built in 1087. And nowadays it is still a magnificent building. Say how they could preserve it for more than a thousand years. What can you say about the attitude of the British to their historic past?
Many visitors to the Abbey are attracted to the Poet's Corner, say what memorials to great people are there in the Abbey? It is necessary to keep the memory of the past for the sake of future?
SCOTLAND
Geography, Scotland is a country in the North of Great Britain. Geographically it may be divided into three major regions: the Highlands, the Southern Uplands and the Central Lowlands.
The High lands lie to the west of a line from Aberdeen to the mouth of the river Clyde. The mountains are separated into two parts by the long straight depression known as Glen Mate, running from north-east to south-west. To the south are the Grampian mountains, which are generally higher from the Northwest Highlands including Ben Nevis (1347 m), the highest peak in the British Isles. Glen More contains several lakes, including Loch Ness, which is said to be the home of a "monster". In the early 19th century the locks (lakes) were joined to form the Caledonian Canal which connected two coasts. The Highlands comprise 47% of the land area of Scotland and the region has the most severe weather experienced in Britain. The population is sparse.
The economy of the region has traditionally been that 'of crofting of life supporting farming, in which the farmer (crofter) and his family consume all the produce. The crofter grows crops on a patch of land near his cottage, the main crops being potatoes, oats and hay. His sheep graze on the nearby hill slopes and he may have one or two cows, to keep the family supplied with milk and some poultry. The Southern Uplands extend from the Central Lowlands of Scotland in the north to the Cheviot Hills and the Lake District in the south. The Uplands form a broad belt of pastoral country. The hills rise to 800-900 m, but for the most part they lie between 450-600 metres. The present day economy of the region is dominated by agriculture. The region is clearly divided between the sheep pastures of the uplands and the more diversified farming areas of the lowlands.
The Central Lowlands of Scotland form the only extensive plain in Scotland. The name is given especially to the plains along the Clyde, the Forth and the Tay. The region lies between the Highlands and the Southern Uplands. The Central Lowlands have the most fertile soil, the most temperate climate, the best harbours and the only supply of coal. They occupy about 15% of Scotland's area but contain about 80% of its people. This is the leading industrial area of Scotland.
History. The earliest people living in Scotland were probably Iberians; the Celts invaded in the 7th century B.C. the Romans called these people Picts. The Romans conquered the south of Scotland, but retreated behind Hadrian's Wall (northern England) in the 2th century A.D. Scotland at that time was nest of warring tribes, each with its king who exercised brief authority over a small area before being slain by his successor. After Roman times there were Picts in the north Scots (from Ireland) in the west, Britons in the south-west, and the Angles or Anglo-Saxons in the south-east. In the 9th century the Scots and the Picts were united into a kingdom and fought the Viking raiders.
The name Scotland originated in the 11th century when the name Scotia was given to a south-western tract settled by the tribe of Scots. The feudal system was established in the 12th century. Scotland was invaded by Edward I of England in 1296, but the Scots, under Wallace and Bruce (Wallace (1272-1305) - Scottish national leader, Bruce (1274-1329) - king of Scotland (Robert 1) from 1306-1329) resisted strongly, and England recognized Scottish independence in 1328. Bruce's daughter launched the tragic Stuart dynasty of monarchs with whose misfortunes much of Scotland’s later history is associated. We can see their palaces and battlegrounds all over the country and will often cross the trails of Mary, Queen of Scots (Mary Stuart (1542-1587) - Queen of Scotland. She was put into prison by Elisabeth I of England, In 1587 she was executed for treason), and Bonnie Prince Charlie (one of the nicknames of the Scottish prince Charlie Edward Stuart (1720-1788), who was defeated at the Battle of Culloden in 1746 and escaped to France) who were most heavily romanticized of all British national characters. With the execution of Mary, Queen of Scots (1587), Scotland lost its independence. In 1603 the crowns of two nations, England and Scotland, were united, though the legislative union of the two kingdoms was officially proclaimed only in 1707. After the 1745 rising the Clan system was destroyed. During the 18th and 19th centuries many Highland farmers were turned out of their farms in the «clearances», sheep-farms were turned into deer-forests.
Traditions. The thistle is the national emblem of Scotland. This is how, according to a curious legend, that plant came to be chosen as a badge in preference to any otherю
In a very ancient times the Vikings once landed somewhere on the east coast of Scotland, with the intention of plundering and settling in the country. The Scots assembled with their arms and took their stations behind the river Tay. As they arrived late in the day, weary and tired after a long march, they pitched their camp and rested, not expecting the enemy before the next day. The Norsemen however were near; noticing that no guards or sentinels were protecting the camp, they crossed the Tay, intending to take the Scots by surprise. To this end, they took off their shoes so as to make the least noise possible. But one of the Norsemen stepped on a thistle. The sudden and sharp pain he felt caused him to shriek. The alarm was given in the Scots camp. The Norsemen were put to flight and as an acknowledgement for the timely and unexpected help from the thistle, the Scots took it as their national emblem.
The Scottish national costume (Highland dress) includes a kilt-a knee-length pleated tartan (a woolen cloth with a pattern of lines of different widths and different colours which cross each other at right angles) skirt worn by men. For day wear, the kilt is worn with a tweed jacket, plain long socks, a beret and a leather sporran, that is, a pouch hanging from a narrow belt round the hips. For evening, the kilt is worn with a fur sporran, tartan socks, a claborate jacket and a frilly shirt. The Scottish beret is a woolen cap without a brim but with a pompon or a feather on top, traditionally worn pulled down at one side.
For Scotsmen Robert Burn is an institution as well as a poet, He united his countrymen in a sentimental bond. Every year on the 25 of January (on his birthday) a celebration called Burn's Night is held not only in Scotland and in many places in England, but also amongst British people living in other countries. The celebration usually takes the form of a supper at which traditional Scottish dishes are eaten and during which a Scottish piper plays, wearing the national costume. Some of Burn's most popular poems are recited and there may be Scottish dancing after the meal is finished.
In spring and in summer many towns of Scotland hold cultural festivals. The best-known one is the Edinburgh International Festival of Music and Drama, held annually from August till mid-September.
Comprehension
Answer the questions:
Why and when were England and Scotland united?
What parts can Scotland be divided into in terms of physical geography?
What do you know about the mystery of the Loch Ness monster?
Why was Mary Queen of Scots executed?
What role did Prince Charles Edward Stewart play in the history of Scotland?
How do the Scotsmen celebrate Burn's birthday?
What are a Scotsman's traditional clothes?
Talking points:
You have read about Prince Edward Stewart. Can we call him a national hero of Scotland? Did he fight for the interests of common people? Prove that people remember him nowadays.
Robert Burn has got an intimate knowledge of Scottish folk songs in his childhood. Did his knowledge help him to become a great national poet?
What do you think of Scottish character and humour? What can you say about the Scottish as a nation?
WALES
Wales is a small country, bounded on the north and west by the Irish Sea. And on the south by the Bristol Channel. It lies west of the English lowlands and a mountainous country composed almost entirely of rocky out crops dissected by deep valleys.
The vegetation of Wales reflects the mountainous nature of the country and its moist climate. Moisture-loving species such as ferns are found almost throughout all Wales in greater abundance than in England. The remote parts of Wales shelter some mammals and birds which are either extinct or rare elsewhere in Britain.
The whole area of Wales may be subdivided into three regions - the Welsh Mountainous area, Industrial South Wales and the Welsh Borderland. Wales is divided into 13 counties, but 70% of the population resides in the 4 industrial counties of the south - West, Mid and South Glamorgan and Givent. Its main industries are coal-mining, iron and steel and engineering. The biggest towns are located in the south. They are Cardiff, Swansea and Newport.
Although it is now approximately seven hundred years since Wales became subject to the English Crown, the Welsh people have retained, to this day, their own individuality and their own language, an ancient Celtic tongue whose literature goes back 1400 years.
Cardiff (280000), the modern national capital of Wales, is the largest city in industrial South Wales. It rose to importance with the coal mining and iron industries. Today the cargoes it handles are mainly import, to be distributed throughout South Wales. Cardiff has a modern shopping centre. However, when industries began to decline, Cardiff suffered. Today the docks are much smaller but the city is expanding as a commercial and administrative centre. It is an attractive and interesting place to live in, with good communications, plenty of parks and a varied population which includes nearly 10000 university and college students. Tourists usually visit the castle and Llandaff cathedral or the National Museum of Wales. Those who like music visit the famous national concert hall, St. David's hall or the new theatre which is the home of the Welsh National Opera Company.
There is no other part of the British Isles where national spirit is stronger, national pride more intense or national traditions more cherished than in Wales. The Welsh still proudly wear their national dress on festive occasions; the Welsh language is still very much a living force and is taught side by side with English in schools; and Welshmen, who have a highly developed artistic sense, have a distinguished record in the realm of poetry, song and drama. The Welsh call their country "Cymru", and themselves they call "Cymru", a word which has the same root as "camrador" (friend).
The Welsh Eisteddfodau. No country in the world has a greater love of music and poetry than the people of Wales. Today Eisteddfod are held every year in the first week in August, one year in the north of Wales, the next year in the south and participants come from all part of Wales. The habit of holding similar events dates back to Carly history, and there are records of competitions for Welsh poets and musicians in the 20th century. It was held occasionally up to 1819, but since then has become an annual event for the encouragement Welsh literature and music and the preservation of the Welsh language and ancient national customs. The programme includes male and mixed choirs, brass band concerts, many children's events, drama, arts and crafts and the ceremony the Crowning of the Bard. In addition to the Eisteddfod, about 30 major Welsh Singing Festivals are held throughout Wales from May until early November.
The Welsh National Game. Rugby is a form of football. It is named after Rugby School in Warwickshire where it was developed, those the exact date (1823) is in dispute.
Rugby is the national game of Wales and during the 1970ths the Welsh team was thought to be the best of the world. The rules of the game are rather complicated but mainly involve the carrying of an egg-shaped ball over the opponents' line and pressing it firmly on the ground to score a try. There are is players in team, 8 of whom are usually much bigger and heavier than the rest. Their task is to win the fall so that the three-quarters can run forward over the line, trying to avoid the tackles of the opposite team.
When the Welsh side are playing at home their supporters are often try to encourage them to play better by singing the Welsh National anthem, "Land of My Fathers". The sound of thousands of Welsh voices singing this famous song usually helps the Welsh side to score another try to win the game. Naturally they are especially pleased when this is against the English!
St. David's Day (the first of March). Dewi ("David" in English), was the son of a Welsh chieftain. He was brought up as a Christian and went abroad to learn more about the life of a monk. Then he returned to Wales and founded many monasteries which became centres of religion and learning in the Welsh countryside. The monks lived a simple life of prayer, growing their own herbs and vegetables and offering help to anyone in need. Because of David's holiness and his inspiring teaching, he was made a bishop.
David it thought to have died on the first of March, AD. 589, and his shrine at St. David's was a place of pilgrimage in the Middle Ages. Later, when people of North and South Wales became one nation, he was chosen as the patron saint of Wales.
A legend tells how David suggested that his people should wear a leck in their bonnets during battles so that they could be easily recognized; Welsh Guards are still distinguished by a green and white plume in their black bearskins. However, as St. David's Day is celebrated at the beginning of spring when daffodils are blooming, this flower has become a second, more graceful emblems of Wales. David's own emblem is a dove.
Comprehension
Answer the questions:
Where is Wales situated?
What is the whole area of Wales subdivide into?
What can you say about vegetation of Wales?
Why did Cardiff become a capital of Wales?
What do you think of the Welsh people's great love to music and poetry?
Do you understand the rules of Rugby? How does it differ from football?
What can you say about Eistedford?
Talking points:
What do we mean when we say "Wales"?
Explain how did it happen that the Welsh preserved their national independence.
The Welsh are known in Britain for their singing. Does it help them to be proud national language and culture?
NORTHERN IRELAND
Location, climate.
Northern Ireland is the westernmost and the smallest component of the United Kingdom, occupying one-sixth of the territory of the island of Ireland. Northern Ireland includes 6 of the 9 counties of the historical province of Ulster. The capital of Northern Ireland is Belfast. Northern Ireland occupies the north-east corner of Ireland, it is bounded on the north by the Atlantic Ocean, on the east by the North Channel and the Irish sea and on the south and west by the Irish Republic. There are mountains in the north and in the south, separated by the fertile basin of Lough Neagh, the largest lake not only in Northern Ireland but in the whole of the British Isles The climate of Northern Ireland is mild and wet.
History.
Before the early 20th cent. Northern Ireland was part of Ireland as a whole, having developed the Middle Ages as the Kingdom of Ulster, later the province of Ulster.
Ireland was England's first colony, and this must never be forgotten when speaking about Irish history. Ever since the first English soldiers set foot on Irish soil eight centuries ago, there has been much mystery and bloodshed.
The troubles of modern Ireland go back to the 16th and the 17th cent. when under the Tudor monarchs and later under Cromwell, English and Scottish Protestants were sent to Ulster and were settled on confiscated Irish lands the fight for power split along religious lines. Protestants passed to their descendants the suspicion of besieged settlers; Catholics, the ire of the dispossessed
In 1921, after a long struggle for independence, the 26 southern counties of Ireland formed the Irish free State, while the 6 Protestant-dominated northern counties remained in the UK. The Catholics of Northern Ireland became a minority, since about a third of Ulster is Catholic. They were excluded from political office because ever since the Parliament of Northern Ireland, was founded in 1922, it was controlled by one party, who were all Protestants.
The Catholics of Ulster came increasingly to resent the continuing Protestant domination and, as a result, a vigorous Civil Rights movement emerged in the late 1960s. The movement met with opposition by Protestant extremists and the confrontation precipitated rioting in Belfast and Londonderry. In 1969, British troops were out to Ulster to keep the peace.
Belfast.
Belfast, the capital of Northern Ireland is the largest city, the main airport and seaport and the commercial and industrial centre of the province. Belfast boasts of the biggest shipyards in Europe.
Most of the buildings of the city are comparatively modern. The City Hall is Belfast's pride - a great palace built in 1898-1906. In front of it are the Statues of Queen Victoria and eminent citizens, and on the west side are the War Memorial and Garden of Remembrance. Queen's University which began life as Queen's College in 1845, became a separate University in 1909. In the Botanic Gardens beyond it stands the Municipal Museum and Art Gallery.
Belfast is an important industrial centre, but at the same time it has relatively high unemployment.
Comprehension
Answer the questions:
What two parts is the island of Ireland politically divided into?
What is the climate in Ireland?
What do you know about the history of Anglo-Irish relations? What are the two lasting problems of these relations?
When did 26 counties form the Irish Free State?
When were the British troops sent to Ulster to keep the peace?
What do you know about Belfast?
BRITAIN'S GOVERNMENT
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is a parliamentary monarchy. Legislative power belongs to the Queen (formally) and the Parliament, which consists of the House of Commons and the House of Lords Officially the head of the state is the Queen (from 1952 - Elizabeth II). But actual power is a parliamentary monarchy. Legislative power belongs to the ruling party The Queen is also head of the Commonwealth and is head of State in 14 of it 41 member countries.
Parliament consists of the House of Lords and the House of Commons, together with the Queen in her constitutional role. The Queen formally summons and dissolves Parliament and opens each new session with a speech setting out the Government's broad programme. She also gives formal assent to laws passed by Parliament.
The House of Commons, which plays the major part in law making, consists of 635 elected members of Parliament (MP's), each representing an area in England, Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland. MP's are elected either at a general election or at a by-election held when a seat falls vacant because of the death or resignation of the member. The minimum voting age is 18, and the voting is by secret ball of. The Government is formed by the political party which can command majority support in the House of Commons. Its leader is the Prime Minister, who chooses member of ministers, of whom 20 or so are in the Cabinet, which is collectively responsible for all Government decisions. The second largest party becomes the official opposition with its lender and «shadow cabinet» The House of Commons is presided over by the Speakers, an impartial member acceptable to the whole House.
The House of Lords is made up of hereditary and life peers and peeresses, including the law lords appointed to undertake the judicial duties of the House, and the Lords Spiritual. The House is presided over by the Lord Chancellor who is head of the judiciary in England and Wales.
Legislative measures are introduced into Parliament as Bills, usually by ministers but also by other MP's. Bill are considered both by the House of Commons and by the House of Lords. The debating procedures of the two Houses are broadly similar, and Bills approved at all stages receive the Royal Assent and become Acts of Parliament. The House of Lords may delay certain Bills but cannot finally Veto them.
The work of Government is carried out through the various government department, each directly or indirectly responsible to a minister and staffed by members of a politically neutral Civil Service - a change of Government does not involve a change in the civil servants staffing a department.
Local government is carried out by democratically elected councils (local authorities) which deal with planning and housing, education, personal social services, police, fire brigades and many other services in their areas. Local authorities are given their powers by Parliament and are largely free to govern local affairs in their own way. They levy rates a form of local property tax and in this way finance about a third of their current expenditure.
Throughout most of the country there are two kinds of local authorities. As a rule one tier provides large-scale strategic services, while the other is responsible for more local ones. The division is broadly between counties and districts, except in London where it is between the Greater London Council and the London boroughs (including the City of London).
Comprehension
Answer the questions:
Who is the constitutional monarch of Great Britain?
Does the Queen perform government's acts herself?
What is the relationship between the Queen and the Parliament of Britain?
Who may be a member of the House of Commons? Is Prime Minister elected?
How is the cabinet of Prime Minister formed? What is it t responsible for?
What do you know about the House of Lords?
Talking points:
Say whether you like the way how Great Britain is governed.
Say what you think about the British Parliament.
INDUSTRY IN GREAT BRITAIN
Formally E. was chiefly an agricultural country where thousands of farmers grew corn and produced foodstuffs for the population. Industry was very poorly developed. There were only small factories scattered over the country, near the places where the raw materials were found in plenty and along the rivers, that provided power. In the 17th cent. the discovery of coal lying side by side with iron-ore, caused the industrial revolution that made England "the workshop of the world".
At present Great Britain is highly industrialized country where 28 people work in manufacturing, mining and building for everyone engaged in agriculture.
Britain's major industries include iron and steel, engineering, producing vehicles and aircraft, textiles and chemicals. As a result of Britain's main exports are manufactured goods such as machinery, vehicles, aircraft, metal manufactures, electrical apparatus.
LONDON, the capital, is one of many important industrial centers. Lots of things such as consumer goods, food, planes, cars and chemicals are produced in and around London.
BIRMINGHAM, is the second largest city of England and one of the principle industrial centers of the British Isles. It has acquired the reputation of a metal working center, although it had no fuel or one resources of its own.
Today the brass, jewelry and gun trades still cling to the inner part of the city, but automobile, motorcycle, tire, electric parts, aircraft, machinery and dif. metal-ware plants are concentrated in the middle and outer rings.
GLASGOW is the largest city of Scotland. Manufacturing is dominated by heavy industries, primary shipbuilding, locomotives and heavy machinery.
LEEDS is noted for its wool industry as well as for its engineering plants. Woolen
manufacture was introduced in the 14th cent. The city has many varied industries, the most important of which are wholesale clothing woolens and worsted engineering and coalmining, leather, furniture, building, transport and distributive trades.
MANCHESTER is a great commercial center, with the headquarters of banking firms and a wide range of industry, especially in textiles and engineering. It is one of the most important producers of computers and electronic equipment.
It is worth to mention the fact that the leading mineral resource of Britain is coal and coal-mining is one of the most Important British Industries. It's particularly important in South Wales.
The North Sea oil and gas can also be considered now a major mineral resource having a great effect at the economy of Great Britain.
Comprehension
Answer the questions:
What was Great Britain in the 17th century?
What caused the «Industrial Revolution»?
What are the major industries in Great Britain?
What industries are developed in London?
What are the main industrial cities in Great Britain?
AGRICULTURE IN GREAT BRITAIN
The existing social system of agriculture has been shaped by its historical development. By the end the 15th century serfdom in England had practically been abolished. As a result there emerged a peasantry paying rent to their landowners. But many lords and landowners were dissatisfied with the results and they tried to get rid of tenants who couldn't pay more. It led to enclosures the separation of land from common ground by putting walls or fences or hedges around it. Arable land was turned into pastures for sheep as wool produced high profits. Wool became Britain's most important export for several centuries, (it is not wonder that the Lord Chancellor sits in the Houses of Lords on the woolsack).
The direct result of the enclosure movement was the loss of land and jobs for many thousands of peasants and eventually led to disappearance of peasantry in Britain in the late years of the 18th cent. A high percentage of landed property is owned by the Crown and by big landowners.
The rural population in Britain can be divided into 4 groups:
1) Landlords, owing large estates and deriving income from rents;
2) Owner-farmers, owing farms and land making their living by the sale of agricultural produce;
3) Tenant-farmers, renting farms from landowners;
4) Laborers, neither owing nor renting any land by working for wages for the farmer.
England is a flat country. About 70% of Britain's surface is used for production of food, both live-stock and poultry. But only about a quarter of it consists of arable land, ploughed for crops of grain, roots, potatoes and so on.
Wheat is grown in the East of England, vegetables are grown in all parts of the country, especially in the South. Potatoes are grown everywhere on the British Isles. Some kinds of fruit especially apples, can grow in the South, where the temperature is higher and there are more hours of Sunshine than in the northern regions. Scotland is known for the largest concentration
of raspberry plantations in the world. Strawberries are the most widely grown soft fruit in Britain. Black currants are also widely grown in Britain.
The country has a long tradition of sheep production and pig production is to be found in most parts of Britain.
The British poultry industry is growing rapidly and is gradually becoming of greater importance. A comparatively high level of agricultural productivity enables Britain to provide about half of food it needs from its own soil. The other part is imported. Britain usually imports meat, butter, wheat, tea, fruit, tobacco and wool.
Nowadays British farming is highly mechanized.
In the 1980's home production of the principal foods amounted to 2/3 (two thirds). Britain today is self-sufficient in milk, eggs, potatoes, barley and oats. Also a large proportion of meat and vegetables is home-produced. The increasing use of intensive methods of production in agriculture has led to greater specialization. 3/5 of the farms in Britain are devoted mainly to daring or beet-cattle and sheep; 1 in 6 is a cropping farm and the remainder specialize in pigs, poultry or horticulture or are mixed farms. It follows then that Britain's farming is predominantly based on livestock production.
Daring occurs widely but there are concentrations in the western parts of the country where the weather climate encourages the growth of good grass. Grass is treated as a crop for grazing hay or silage.
The basic problem of British agriculture is that the farms, even the largest are very small compared with the monopolies who buy their products – the millers, dairies, meat farms and those from whom they obtain their requirements and as petrol, oil, fertilizers and machinery.
Comprehension
Answer the questions:
Why has the existing social system of agriculture been shaped by its historical development?
Why did arable land begin to disappear in Britain?
What did become the most important export for many centuries?
What groups was the rural population divided in?
What is Scotland famous for?
What are most of the farms devoted to?
What is the basic problem of British agriculture?
Talking points:
Say what you know about agriculture in Great Britain in the Middle Ages.
Give the reason for division of the rural population into 4 groups.
Explain why the Lord Chancellor sits in the Houses of Lords on the woolsack.
Say what production is Great Britain specialized in.
Say why the British farmers have problems with selling their products.
THE EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM IN GREAT BRITAIN
Part I
The educational system of Great Britain is extremely complex and bewildering. It is very difficult to generalize about particular types of schools as schools differ from one another. That means that each school is responsible for its own organization and curriculum.
Administration of state schools is decentralized. The Department of Education and Science is responsible for national educational policy, but it does not run any schools and it does not employ teachers, or prescribe curricula or textbooks. These matters are left to the local education authorities who pass the responsibility on the school governing bodies, schools and head teachers. Each school has its own «board of governors», consisting of teachers, parents, local politicians, members of local community, businessmen arid sometimes pupils. All schools
are given a considerable amount of freedom. According to the law, the only one subject is compulsory, that is of Religious Instruction.
Schooling for children is compulsory from 5 to 16.
Education within the state school system usually comprises two stages - primary and secondary education. The majority of primary schools are, mixed. These schools are subdivided into infant schools (ages 5-7) and junior schools (ages 8-11, 12).
Infant, schools are largely informal, children are encouraged to read, write and make use of numbers (the three R's - reading, writing and arithmetic) and to develop their creative abilities. Subject teaching is rare. The work is based on the pupil's interests as far as possible. Primary children do their work with the same class teacher, except for physical education and music, which are often taught by specialist teachers.
The junior stage extends over 4 years. Teaching is often more formal than it is in infant school. In junior school children have set periods of arithmetic, reading, composition, history, geography, nature study and other subjects.
At this stage of schooling pupils were often placed in A, B, C, D streams according to their ability and attainment. The most able children were put in A-stream, the least able in the C or D-stream. The lower streams either followed a simplified curriculum or covered less material. Opposition to streaming has increased in recent years, and nowadays some schools have modified forms of streaming and in others it is abolished. The usual age of transfer from primary to secondary school is 11. So here the children have to sit for the 11-plus examination for it concludes the primary stage of education and decides what kind of secondary school the child would attend, so the results of this exam affect the child's future. It usually consists of an arithmetic and English paper and an Intelligence test which is supposed to determine the child's inborn abilities and his intellectual potential.
Though under the pressure of progressive teachers and parents the 11-plus examination has now been abolished in most counties, the selective procedure at the age of 11 is still preserved in some areas, as children are admitted to different secondary schools such as: grammar schools, technical schools or secondary modern schools.
Part II
Grammar schools provide a mainly academic course for selected pupils from the age of 11 to 18-19. Many grammar schools were founded in the Middle Ages and are mostly single-sex schools. Only those children who have the best results are admitted to these schools. In comparison with other state schools grammar schools have better buildings, smaller classes, more highly qualified teachers and often better playing fields mod sport facilities. They give pupils a much higher level of academic instruction, which can lead to the university. The curriculum includes English language, English literature, modern languages, Latin, mathematics, chemistry, physics, biology, history, geography and other subjects.
Technical schools appeared in England at the beginning of this century. They offer a general education with a technical bias and serve those pupils who are more mechanically inclined. Their curricula feature more science and mathematics. These schools were planned as academic equals to grammar schools but specialized in technical subjects. In fact the standard of the technical schools is often lower than that of the grammar school, children with slightly lower marks are often admitted. There are very few schools of this type in England.
Secondary modern schools were formed in England in 1944 to provide a non-academic education up to the minimum school-leaving age of 16 for children of lesser attainment. The curriculum includes reading, writing, arithmetic, some elementary history and geography, and more practical subjects than are included in the grammar school curriculum (cooking, needlework, shorthand, typing, woodwork, metalwork, gardening). In fact this kind of education is secondary only in name. A great majority of secondary modern school pupils leave school half-educated.
After World War II appeared comprehensive schools. They are mainly mixed schools and can provide all the courses given in grammar, technical and secondary modern schools. The main educational advantages of comprehensive schools are:
1) they are open to all children of all types of abilities from a particular area;
2) they are mixed schools;
3) the future of a child is not decided by the results of a selection procedure at the age of 11 and the final choice of a course can be made at a later age;
4) a much wider range of subjects is possible;
5) no streaming.
The variety of types of comprehensive schools can be confusing. They can be organized in a number of ways, including schools which take the full secondary agerange from 11 to 18; schools combining junior and senior comprehensive schools whose pupils are transferred to senior comprehensive schools at 13 or 14 and schools combined with a sixth form college for pupils over 16. According to official documents the modem educational system is supposed to provide equal opportunities for all, but in fact it sustains inequality. It is stilt class-divided and selective. Further fundamental reorganization of secondary schooling is necessary to ensure true comprehensive educational system in England.
Comprehension
Answer the questions:
Why isn't it easy to understand the educational system of Great Britain?
Who is responsible for national educational policy?
How many stages does the educational system comprise?
How long does the junior stage extend?
Why are pupils streamed at this stage?
At what age are pupils transformed from the primary school to the secondary school?
What is a selective procedure at school?
What types of schools exist in Great Britain?
What schools appeared after WW Ⅱ?
What are advantages of comprehensive schools?
Talking points:
Say what do you think of different types of schools in Great Britain.
Say whether it is good or not that schools are provided with freedom in choosing compulsory subjects.
Say if you would like to study in Great Britain's school. Why?
Say what school would you like to study?
MUSEUMS OF GREAT BRITAIN
Great Britain is an old country of Europe, famous for its cultural traditions galleries monuments and memorials.
The British Museum comes 1st among all the monuments of the country. It's the pride of Britain located in Great Russell Street in London. It's an immense light gray building like a Greek temple and was founded in 1753.
The British Museum was and probably is one of the most famous and important libraries in the world. It contains about 6 mln. volumes and in the center of the museum there is also a large circular Reading room with the reference section of 30000 volumes on open shelves and also the catalogues for the whole library.
The museum has a priceless collection, of rare books and manuscripts, including illuminated Bibles, books printed by Carton in the 15th cent and the earliest editions of Shakespeare, the collection of foreign books is also outstanding. During the WWII the famous Reading Room was badly damaged over 150000 volumes perished in flames caused by Nazi bombs.
The British Museum has a wonderful art gallery too. It has unique collections of sculpture, ceramics, drawings, paintings of the Egyptians, Assyrians, Babylonians, Persians, Greek, Romans, Normans, Africans, Chinese, Japanese, Indians and many other peoples It has unique collections of Italian drawings and paintings, English and French prints.
The British Museum is the most important place of archeological study in the world with unique prehistoric collections. There is a manuscript room, the room of the oldest and rarest English documents, of the most ancient books and music and maps of the world. It's difficult to answer the question "what is the British Museum?" So big and rich it is.
Speaking about the British museums we cannot but mention another famous gallery in London - The Tate Gallery. Here one can see the wonderful collection of English and French masters, mostly of the XIX cent.
If you stand in Trafalgar Square with your back to the Nelson Column you will see a wide horizontal front in a classical style The National Gallery. It has been in this building since 1838. This National Gallery is comparatively young, younger than the great galleries in Rome, Paris, Amsterdam. Here we can admire the paintings of famous E masters Gainsborough, Remolds, Romany, Constable, Hogarth and Turner. All the great schools of paintings are well represented here Italian, Dutch, Spanish. The visitors stand for a long time in admiration looking at the world's master's works by Michelangelo, Raphael and Goya and others. During the WWII the gallery was badly damaged, but all the pictures were saved, they were taken to one of the Wales's caves.
Just behind the National Gallery stands the National Portrait Gallery in which a visitor can see the portraits of British monarchs since the reign of Richard II (1377 - 1399) and historical celebrities such as Shakespeare and Cromwell. Many of the portraits are of well-known artists.
The very name of Sherlock Holmes recollects pictures of a Victorian London in our mind Near London's center, a couple of 100 yards from Trafalgar Square is a tavern known as the "Sherlock Holmes", which is dedicated to preserving a legend of the great detective. Here are displayed such things as the head of the Hound of Baskervilles and the coiled cobra described in the mystery of the Speckled Band". Everything is placed as if the detective has just steeped out. The remarkable collection includes revolvers, handcuffs, a police Lenten a model of a Hanson cab and many other things which give the feeling that Holmes just might have existed after all.
The world's famous museum of waxworks Madame Tussaud’s is situated only a few steps from Sherlock Holmes's Baker street. When Madame Tussaud’s was 17 she made a wax portrait of Voltaire and followed this with death masks of Marie Antoinette, Robespierre and other victims
of the French Revolution. She came to England in 1802 travelling with exhibition for some 30 years before settling down permanently in Baker Street. Realism of her figures and accuracy of her costumes made the museum quite famous. On can see here life-size wax portraits of kings, queens, statesman and even notorious criminals.
One of the London's newest museums is the museum of London opened in 1976. The aim of the museum is to Justice to London's long history. As London constantly grows and changes, its history can really never end. So the museum holds Frequent special exhibitions of subjects of interest - the lattes archaeological discoveries for example. It has become popular not only with London visitors but with millions of Londoners themselves.
Comprehension
Answer the questions:
Where is the British Museum located?
When was it founded?
Why is the British Museum famous all over the world?
Why is the British Museum the most important place of archeological study?
What is the National Gallery famous for?
What painting schools are represented in the National Gallery?
What collection is displayed in the National Portrait Gallery?
What museum can be found in Baker Street?
What museum is located next to Baker Street?
What is one of the newest museums in London?
Talking points:
Prove that London is the centre of cultural life of Britain.
Tell about collections of the British Museum.
Tell about works of art displayed in the National Gallery.
Say what you know about the Madam Tussaud's Museum.
MUSIC IN GREAT BRITAIN
Music in the Middle Ages in England reflected the classes of feudal society. There were a folk music of the peasantry, a music of the court, an official music of the church, and a music of the city middle class, the bourgeoisie. Each made an individual and important contribution to musical development. The folk art combined music and poetry end was a means of struggle against the oppressive forces of feudal life. So ancient sagas of Robin Hood became "outlaw" ballads, expressing the people's hatred of the court and nobility.
There developed a variety of songs of love, courtship, lullaby, labour in the fields and villages. One of the great contributions of this folk music to the development of the art was that it laid the basis for a national music
During the 16th and early 17th cent. Leading composers appeared, such as John Dowland (1562-1626), Thomas Morley (1557-1603) in England, who devoted much of their talents to secular music (светская). The music they wrote were madrigals, instrumental dances and chamber (камерная) music.
The traditions of the E. choral culture were reflected in the operas of George Frederick Handel (1685-1759) who came to England in the year 1710 at the age of 25 and died there aged 75. He lies in Westminster Abbey among the great people of England. He deliberated E. musical culture from the influence of the Italian opera. Handel's oratorios are still recognized as the great musical compositions of all times, his operas are played today. Handel in his heroic and monumental work expressed E national folk traditions.
In the end of the 18th cent. Joseph Haydn arrived in London. It was in England that he wrote the celebrated Salomon symphonies - "The 12 London Grands" as they are called. He highly valued folk music and made about one hundred variations of Scottish songs.
At the end of the 19th century in England there were very popular light operas, or operettas composed by Arthur Sullivan. A. Sullivan was a composer, his most important contribution to the music of England was "The Golden Legend". Sullivan and Gilbert, the librettist or writer of the text, created 14 operettas of which many are regularly perform today.
The main development of the 20th cent. music might be summed up as an extension of romanticism and opera which became even more popular than it had been in the 19th cent. Allied to the movement for establishing a closer link between the public and contemporary music was the acceptance of jazz and material for artistic development.
Benjamin Britten, the British composer, pianist and conductor was born in England (1913-1976). He started to compose at a very early age, he wrote songs before he could read or write. His music study began with piano, when he was 7. At 9 he completed an oratorio and string quartet (струнный квартет). At 14 he produced a symphony, 6 string quarters, 10 piano sonatas and many smaller works.
Even while attending the Royal College he had some compositions either published or performed. His first work was "Phantasy Quartet". From 1935 to 1939 he wrote music for 16 documentary films. In 1939 Britten went to New York to attend his "Variations" in America While in America he wrote his first opera "Paul Bunyan". During WWII Britten continued to write music.
But the main project that occupied Britten during the war years was his opera. It was "Peter Grimes". It was introduced in 1945 in London and was a great success. The central theme of the opera was one close to Britten's heart, that of man's cruelty to man.
One of the most successful and significant compositions produced by Britten is "A War Requiem" (1962) in which he expressed his song and protest against war. Britten lived in Aldeburgh, in East Anglia, there was founded the annual Aldeburgh Festival in 1948.
Britten won world-wide reputation as a leading composer particularly in the field of opera and choral music.
Comprehension
Answer the questions:
What kinds of music were there in Great Britain in the Middle Ages?
What did folk music of that period reflect?
When did music begin to flourish in Great Britain?
Who was one of the most famous composers of the 170-18 centuries?
What music became popular at the end of the 19th century?
Who is the most famous composer of the 20th century?
Talking points:
Say what you know about music in Great Britain in the Middle Ages?
What music influenced the development of classical music in Great Britain?
Say what is the most successful compositions produced by Benjamin Britten.
ROCK AND POP MUSIC IN GREAT BRITAIN
The most classless music – rock and pop music - is listened to by a large number of people all over the world. It also crosses national barriers as easily as class barriers. Every year about 40% of the bestselling singers in Europe are British and about ten British singles get to number on in the US.
The people who put Britain at the front of the pop revolution of the 1960's were the Beatles. Before the Beatles, British pop music was based on rock'n'roll exported from the USA by singers like Elvis Presley.
Then in the early 1960s, the new British sound was heard, very different from anything which had so far come from the American side of the Atlantic. This was the Liverpool, "beat music" (the expression meant pop music with a strong rhythm). Situated in the north-west side corner of the industrial Black Country, Liverpool was not a place which anyone visited for fun. Until the 1960s it was known only as one of Britain's largest ports. Then, almost overnight, it became world famous as the birthplace of the new pop culture which, in a few years, swept across Britain and America, and across most of the countries of the world.
The Beatles were only one of many groups playing in Liverpool at the time they began to make their reputation, but soon they became the most popular. The group included Paul McCartney (b. 1942), John Lennon (1940-1980). George Harrison (b. 1943) and Ringo Starr (b.1940) - the real name Richard Starkey. At first the performed music influenced by American rock'n'roll and rhythm-and-blues. Lennon's and McCartney's songs, however, became increasingly sophisticated and experimental, and their imaginative lyrics and memorable melodies soon contributed to the distinctive "Mersey sound". Among their most popular songs were "I want to hold your hand", "Hey, Jude" and "Yesterday".
The group was phenomenally popular in the middle and late 1960s. The intensive devotion of the group's fans, especially the hysterical screaming that the Beatles provoked in large crowds of teenagers, was called Beatlemania.
The Beatles also made several successful films ("A hard day's night", "Help"). In the late 1960s the group studied Indian mysticism and used hallucinatory drugs and both activities influenced their music. The Beatles broke up in 1971. Paul McCartney then formed successful group Wings, while John Lennon wrote and recorded music in America with his second wife Yoko Ono. He was murdered in New York in 1980.
Together with the Beatles, the Rolling Stones were one of the most important British pop groups of the 1960s. The group included Mick Jagger, Keith Richard, Brian Jones, Bill Wyman and Charlie Watts. The Rolling Stones were deliberately brash and provocative. Their public behaviour was severely criticized by some sections of the media for their alleged decadence. This "shock effect" was precisely what they wished to achieve, and their powerful and uninhabited music was a major factor in the development of Britain's "alternative society".
British pop music still has a world-wide audience today. Groups from Britain like the Rolling Stones, the Police and ex-Beatles Paul McCartney with his new group Wings, are some of the most popular singers in the English-speaking countries, as well as in many other countries.
Comprehension
Answer the questions:
What group put Britain at the front of the pop revolution of the 1960's?
What does the name "Beatles" mean?
Why did Liverpool become famous in the world of music?
What music influenced "Beatles" music first?
What was called Beatlemania?
Why was the group broken up? When did it happen?
What another British group was popular at that time?
Why was public behaviour of "Rolling Stones" severely criticized?
Talking points:
Say why rock and pop music are the most classless music.
Say what you know about members of the group "Beatles".
Prove that they have become the most popular group famous in the world.
Say what you know about other pop groups famous in Britain and in the world.
ENGLISH PAINTING
Painting in England in the period of the 15-17th century was represented mainly by foreign artists. In the 16th century Haus Hofbein the Younger, a well-known Dutch painter was invited to London by king Henry VIII. Though he didn't create any painting school in England he never the less played an important role in the development of English portrait art. Later Charles I made the Flemish painter Van Dyck (a pupil of Rubens) his court painter. Van Dyck founded a school of aristocratic portrait picturing Another painter Peter Lely came from Holland in 1641. He became celebrated for his portraits of the idle and frivolous higher classes.
The 18th century was the century during which truly national painting school was created in England. Portrait art at that time was the main kind of painting. It depended upon the conditions under which English painting school developed. The first man to develop English pictural art to a level of importance was William Hogarth.
For rather more than a century in a period between the 1730's and the 1830's is rightly considered to the "Golden Age" of English painting and England was to see a brilliant succession of geniuses Reynolds, Gainsborough, Lawrence, Constable and Turner. No country has had so exclusive and strongly marked a love of the portrait. Never of any other time did so many first-class English masters work side by side. Never in any other age did England contribute so much to the history of world art. This flowering of English painting was not a chance one. It was at that time that England took the path of rapid capitalist development marked by growth in its economic might and by the general, advance of its national culture and art.
It was at that time that quite definite genres such as the portrait, the landscape and genre painting (that is the portrayal of scenes from ordinary life) evolved here. For a long time portrait painting was the principal, or it can be said the national genre of the English school. The rich English nobility, proud of its power, and its might, considered their portraits as a way of showing their superiority.
Throughout the 18th century portrait painting continued to take a leading role in English art. The landscape that began to attract the attention of the most outstanding English painters in the middle of the 18th century did not win the sympathy of the general public for a long time. It began to flourish in the first half of the 19th century. Genre painting began to predominate at the end of the 18th century.
It is crusidered that the formation of the English national school had almost been completed by the 1750's. The decades that followed were the age of its flowering when a galaxy of brilliant masters made English painting one of the foremost among the European art schools of the time.
Among the English masters of the first half of the 18th century the most outstanding and original one was William Hogarth. At the time he appeared English art was still greatly influenced by foreign painters. Breaking all the unwritten laws of art of that time Hogarth showed the terrible evils of the society of those times with unprecedented courage. The two other leading masters of that age worth telling arc Joshua Reynolds (a talented theoretician and brilliant painter whose work determined the nature of the English portrait school at the turn of the 19th century) and Thomas Gainsborough (perhaps the most fascinating English painter of the 18th century in whose art of landscape and portrait were of equal importance).
It worth to mention John Crustable who through his realistic depiction of the English country-side rightly deserved to be called the originator of realistic landscape in the 19th century, and of John Turner, Crustable's true antipode whose landscapes are full of romantic effects and symbolism.
Comprehension
Answer the questions:
Who represented painting in England in the 154-179 centuries?
Who became the court painter and later founded a school of painting in England?
When was a truly national painting school created?
Who were the representatives of the "Golden Age"?
Who was the most fascinating painter of the 18th century?
Who was called the originator of realistic landscape in the 19th century?
Talking points:
Speak about the early period of British painting.
Speak about the "Golden Age of English painting.
Name the most famous painters of the 18 and 19 centuries.
Speak about your favourite English painter.
GAINSBOROUGH THOMAS (1727-1788)
Painting in England in the period of the 15-17th century was represented mainly by foreign artists. In the 16th century Haus Hofbein the Younger, a well-known painter was invited to London by king Henry VIII. Though he didn't create any painting school in England he never the less played an important part in the development of English portrait art. Later Charles I made the Flemish painter Van Dyck (a pupil of Rubens) his court painter. Van Dyck founded a school of aristocratic portrait picturing. Another painter Peter Lely came from Holland in 1641. He became celebrated for his portraits of the idle and frivolous higher classes.
The 18th century was the century during which truly national painting school was created in England. Portrait art at that time was the main kind of painting. It depended upon the conditions under which English painting school developed. The first man to develop British pictural art to a level of importance was William Hogarth.
For rather more than a century England was to see a brilliant succession of geniuses Reynolds, Gainsborough. Lawrence, Constable and Turner responding to her highest aspirations. No country has had so exclusive and strongly marked a love of the portrait England practiced genre painting only from the beginning of the 19th century.
If portrait painting is one of the glorious of English art, landscape is another; it rose to supreme heights.
Thomas Gainsborough was one of the greatest English painters. He was primarily a portrait painter. His own competitor in England in this field was Sir Joshua Reynolds, who was an intense rival. Gainsborough's most famous work is The Blue Bay, a portrait. It shows Gainsborough's preference for cool blue and green colors, in contrasts to the reds, yellows and browns of Reynolds and George Romany.
Gainsborough's portraits are intentionally flattering to the person who was posing, which was the custom in his day. But Gainsborough had temperament and he painted with unusual sensitivity, grace and churn. In this, he surpasses Reynolds and resembles Anton Van Dyck, who had painted at the English court more than 100 years earlier. Most critics and scholars believe Gainsborough was best as a painter of human.
Gainsborough was born in Sudbury, Suffolk, a son of a cloth merchant. He showed a brilliant talent for drawing and painting and a 14 he went to London to study painting. He returned to Sudbury and married at 19. He began selling portraits and in 1759 he and his wife moved to Bath, the famous bathing resort.
In Bath Gainsborough won immediate success among the fashionable people who visited the town. He never became a courtier, though. He preferred a country ride on horseback or the company of close friends and his wife to the fashionable town life.
In 1768 he was involved to become a founding member of the Royal Academy and 7 years later he moved to London. He painted the portraits of King George III and the royal family and leading aristocrats, politicians, writers and actors. Among them were Edmund Burk, William P.H, Benjamin Franklin, Richard Brinsley Sheridan and Sarah Kemble Shaddows.
Gainsborough painted about 500 such portraits at high fees. His early portraits are detailed in style. His later ones are less detailed and more impressionistic. Gainsborough often set his figures in the landscape. It is sad that he preferred to paint landscapes, but couldn't sell them.
D. Longman. The World Book Encyclopedia.
"A Lady in Blue" is generally recognized as one of the best pictures of Gainsborough. Painted in clear and transparent trues in a colour scheme where light blue, silvery, light grey 7 light pink predominate, the portrait shows a young aristocratic woman with an elaborate hat on her gracefully inched head. Every lock is carefully painted. The result is hypnotic - people come back to the picture many times, which is one of the best pictures of the Hermitage collection.
Comprehension
Answer the questions:
Who played an important role in the development of English portrait art?
What was the main kind of painting in the 18th century?
When and where Thomas Gainsborough born?
Who was Gainsborough's an intense rival?
What colours did Gainsborough use in his paintings?
What did Gainsborough use to paint?
How many portraits did he paint?
What did he dream to draw all his life but couldn't?
Talking points:
Tell about famous painters of the period when Gainsborough lived.
Say what Gainsborough preferred to paint all his life.
Tell which of his masterpieces impressed you most.
ALEXANDER FLEMING
On a cold and foggy February day in 1940 a patient, was lying on a cot in the hospital at Oxford University. He was a big man, still in his prime - only 43. But on this particular day he was very sick, indeed his condition was regarded as very grave. The doctors who examined him pronounced him practically hopeless. The man was dying of blood poisoning - a hostile microbe had invaded his blood stream through a tiny cut made during a hurried morning shave.
As a last resort, the doctor decided to treat him with an entirely new drug. The drug had never yet been tested on a human being. True penicillin, as it was called, had saved experimental animals it had protected mice and rats against infection caused by the same microbe.
The 2 doctors who took charge of the treatment were Dr. Florey and Dr. Chain. They had a very limited amount of penicillin, prepared by themselves. With both doubt and hope in their hearts, they set out to treat their first case with the new drug.
After a few days of treatment, their hopeless patient was much better. Unfortunately, their supply of the drug gave out at this point, and the illness began to gain ground again. Before they were able to prepare more penicillin, the patient died. The doctors had lost the first round of the fight. But they had lost it only because they did not have enough penicillin. The drug had clearly proved very effective.
The next time the two doctors tried the drug they were completely successful: they cured a young boy who was also considered a hopeless case of blood poisoning.
Penicillin had been discovered 12 years earlier by Dr. Alexander Fleming, the bacteriologist at St. Mary's Hospital in London. One day Dr. Fleming set aside several slides with microbe cultures in his laboratory and left them there. The summer of that year was very cool and damp, conditions favoring the growth of moulds.
When Fleming examined the slides a few days later he found many of them contaminated with moulds. There was nothing very unusual about this for mould spores are carried everywhere by air currents and grow wherever they can find food. What was unusual was that the mould had destroyed some of the colonies of bacteria. All around the mould the area was clear the microbes would not grow in the vicinity of the mould.
When Fleming published his observations in September 1928, his work received very little attention. Scientists, although astonished and intrigued by this discovery, had little confidence in its practical potentialities. The idea of using moulds as therapeutic agents was too revolutionary to appeal to the conservative minds of most medical men. Two exceptions were Dr. Florey and Dr. Chain. They continued the work on penicillin, subjecting it to all sorts of tests and later, as we know, proving it to be an extremely powerful drug.
Unfortunately, neither the British Government nor private firms were prepared to undertake the production of penicillin. Its laboratory production was too expensive; Florey and Chain then went to the USA. The Americans were quick to realize the advantages of the new wonder-drug and in 1942 started its factory production.
Afterworlds Americans often asked Fleming why he had not patented penicillin, indeed, had he done so, he would have been millionaire. But the scientist always replied to such questions that penicillin should be available to all people. It should not be a means of enrichment to anyone.
The first Soviet penicillin was prepared in 1942, when the Americans were only starting work on the production of the drug. It was prepared in our country by a group of scientists headed by Dr. Yermolyeva.
Scores of other antibiotics have since been prepared in our country, many of them even more powerful than their parent drug…
Comprehension
Answer the questions:
What is A. Fleming famous for?
Did anybody try to do the same before Fleming?
How did it happen to discover penicillin?
Did anybody pay much attention on his publication in 1928?
Where did they start to produce penicillin? Why?
When was Soviet penicillin prepared?
Who was an inventor of penicillin in the USSR?
Talking points:
Tell about history of invention of penicillin.
Say what countries was invention of penicillin made.
Say what you know about work of Soviet scientists.
