Great Britain: geography, politics, culture. Л. А. Ласица
изучаемом языке, основываясь на концептуальных и культурологических типах информации о странах изучаемого языка, их истории, социально-культурных особенностях, традициях и быте, а также о языке как отражении и фиксации культуры и о культуре сквозь призму языка. Учебное пособие содержит страноведческий материал об истории, географии, политической жизни, культуре Великобритании, а также контрольные вопросы, тесты и задания для практических занятий по дисциплине «География и культура страны основного иностранного языка».
Изучение дисциплины необходимо для реализации требований, установленных в федеральном государственном образовательном стандарте высшего профессионального образования по направлению подготовки 032700.62 Филология (профиль Зарубежная филология).
Курс рассчитан на 72 часа аудиторной и самостоятельной работы, из которых 34 часа отводится на проработку и повторение лекционного материала учебников и учебных пособий, подготовку к практическим занятиям, коллоквиумам, рубежному контролю и зачету.
Данное учебное пособие разработано в соответствии с рабочей программой дисциплины и предназначено для изучения разделов 1 – 5: «Введение в курс «География и культура страны изучаемого языка», «Государственное устройство, национальные символы Соединенного королевства Великобритании и Северной Ирландии», «Особенности географического положения Соединенного королевства Великобритании и Северной Ирландии», «СМИ, образование, здравоохранение и религия» и «Государственное устройство».
1 The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland: country and people
1.1 Geographical position
On the map you can see that the UK lies to the north-west of Europe. There are 2 large islands and several smaller ones. Collectively they are known as the British Isles. The largest island is called Great Britain. The other large one is called Ireland. Ireland is divided into Northern Ireland (Ulster) and the Irish Republic. The UK also includes more than 5000 smaller islands.
Politically speaking there are 2 states in the British Isles. The first is the Irish Republic or Eire, which governs the most part of Ireland and the other state controls the rest of the British Isles. Its official name is The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.
Its geographical position is advantageous as it is washed by the Atlantic Ocean in the west, the North Sea in the east. Great Britain is separated from the continent by the English Channel and the Strait of Dover.
On the one hand the kind of isolation of the country makes its geographical position different from European countries; on the other hand it has influenced the formation of the main characteristic feature of British people. That is their love for privacy.
1.2 Names
The official name of the country is The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.
It has several shorter names:
– The United Kingdom – used at European vision of Song Contest, at the United Nations and in the European Parliament;
– the UK – used in every day speech;
– Great Britain – heard in the Olympic Games;
– GB is written on stickers on cars;
– Britain – used in writing and speaking;
– Albion – a word used in some poems. It was the original Roman name for Britain. It may come from the Latin word albus, meaning white. The white chalk cliffs around Dover on the south coast are the first thing to be seen when you cross the sea from the European land.
– Britannia – the name that Romans gave to their southern British province (which covered the area of present-day England).
1.3 Statistics
The UK occupies the territory of 244 830 sq. km. Its population (statistical data of 2007) is 61 million people (table 1).
Table 1
Compare with the following data: population of Russia – 142 mln; population of Germany – 81,8 mln; population of France – 65,4 mln.
Languages which are spoken in the UK are English, Scottish, Welsh, Scottish Gaelic and Irish.
The capital of the UK is London. The largest cities are London (7,64 mln.), Birmingham (2,27 mln.), Manchester (2,250 mln.).
The UK is a constitutional monarchy. The head of state is the Queen – Elizabeth II.
The currency unit is Great Britain pound (GBP), which consists of 100 pence. The statistics shows that the country is not large, but the majority of people lives in England (the part of island conquered by Anglo-Saxons) and speaks English. The other parts of the UK (Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland) are much smaller than the dominant one.
1.4 General knowledge about four countries and their people
There are 4 countries that the UK consists of. They are England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. England is the largest and most populated part of the UK. The capital of England and the UK is London.
Scotland is the most northern of four countries in the UK. It occupies the territory of about 80 thousand sq. km. and is not so densely populated as England. The capital of Scotland is Edinburgh.
Another constituent part of the UK is Wales, situated along the western side of the island. The capital of Wales is Cardiff.
Northern Ireland is the smallest part of the UK and occupies the north-east of the island of Ireland, only one-sixth of its territory. The capital of Northern Ireland is Belfast.
There are four nations on the British Isles: English, Welsh, Scottish and Irish. They are different.
If you remember from history of Britain, the four nations were different racially. The people in Ireland, Wales and highland Scotland belonged to Celtic Race; those in England and lowland Scotland were mainly of Germanic origin. This difference was reflected in the languages they spoke. People in the Celtic areas spoke Celtic languages: Irish, Gaelic, Scottish Gaelic, Welsh. People in the Germanic areas spoke Germanic dialects (including the one which has developed into modern English). The nations tended to have different economic, social and legal systems.
In 1800 the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland became a single state when the Irish Parliament was joined with the Parliament for England, Scotland, and Wales in Westminster. However, in 1922, most of Ireland became a separate state.
Today these differences have not completely disappeared. People of 4 nations feel their identity very strongly. It is safest to use Britain when you talk about where they live and British as the adjective to describe their nationality.
The signs of national identity of people who live in four countries of the UK are the following (see table 2).
Characteristic names (both surnames and first names). The prefix ‘Mac’ or ‘Mc’ in surnames (such as McCall, MacCarthy, MacDonald) is always either Scottish or Irish. The prefix ‘O’ (as in O’Brien, O’Hara) is distinctly Irish. The prefix ‘P’ can be found in many