absolutely是什么意思英语国家概况(上)讲义

2021年1月19日发(作者：大一新生)
英语国家社会与文化入门（上）

Unit 1

A Brief Introduction to the United Kingdom I
The
full
name
of
the
country
of
UK
is
the
Untied
Kingdom
of
Great
Britain
and
Northern
Ireland.
UK includes 4 parts: the island of Great Britain is made up of England, Scotland and Wales,
and Northern Ireland.
Different
people
who belong to
different
class will
tend to
read
different
newspaper, watch
different
television
programmes,
speak
with
a
different
accent,
do
different
things
in
their
free-time, and have different expectations for their children.
Before the 1st century AD Britain was made up of many tribal kingdoms of Celtic people.
In 43 AD Britain was invaded by the Roman Empire and England and Wales became a part of
the Roman Empire for nearly 400 years.
After Roman time, Britain was under threat from outside, this time from Germanic peoples:
the Angles, and the Saxon.
In the 5th century AD it is said that a great leader appeared, united the British, and with his
magical sword, Excalibur, drove the Saxons back. This is the story of King Arthur.
According to legend Arthur gathered a company of knights to him and conflict between his
knights
led
to
Arthur
creating
the
famous
―
round
table
‖

at
which
all
would
have
equal
precedence.
Anglo-Saxon invaders were the
forefathers of the English, the founders
of
―
Angle-land
‖
or
―
England
‖
as it has become know.
From
the
late
8th
century
on
raiders
from
Scandinavia,
the
ferocious
Vikings,
threatened
Britain
‘
s shores.
The
next
invaders
were
the
Normans,
from
northern
France,
who
were
descendants
of
Vikings.
Under William of Normandy they crossed the English Channel in 1066.
William took the English throne, and became William the First of England.
Robin Hood was a Saxon nobleman oppressed by the Normans, who became an outlaw, and
with his band of
―
merry men
‖
hid in the forest of Sherwood in the north midlands of England
and they went out to rob from the rich to give to the poor.
Charles
the
First
‘

attempt
to
overrule
parliament
in
the
1640s
led
to
a
civil
war
in
which
parliamentary forces were victorious, and the king was executed. And then England was ruled
by parliament
‘
s leader, Oliver Cromwell.
The largest city of Scotland is Glasgow and the capital city is Edinburgh.
Scotland was not conquered either by the Romans or the Anglo-Saxons.
Like England Scotland began to experience Viking raid in the 9th century.
Under
the
leadership
of
Robert
the
Bruce,
the
Scots
were
victorious
at
the
Battle
of
Bannockburn, leading to 300 years of full independence.
In 1603, Queen Elizabeth the First of England died childless, and the next in line to the throne
was James the Sixth of Scotland, so he also became James the First of England, uniting the
two thrones.
In 1707 by agreement of English and Scottish parliaments, Scotland joined the Union.
The
Scotland
Act
1998
provided
for
the
establishment
of
the
Scottish
Parliament
and
Executive.
Scottish
writes
have
given
the
world
such
well-known
work
as
Walter
Scott
‘
s
romances
of
highland Scotland and
―
Auld Lang Syne
‖
(by Robert Burns)

The capital city of Wales is Cardiff.

Unit 2

A Brief Introduction to the United Kingdom II
The capital city of Northern Ireland is Belfast.
The
most
famous
landmark
of
Northern
Ireland
is
the
―
Giant
‘
s
causeway
‖
,
a
rocky
promontory made up of black hexagonal columns.
From the time of Queen Elizabeth I the new settlers, loyal to the British crown and Protestant
in
religious
persuasion,
were
granted
land,
position,
and
privileges
which
had
been
systematically take away from the indigenous, Roman Catholic population.
―
Great hatred, little room
‖
was the way the modern poet W. B. Yeats described the situation.
Until 1921 the full name of the UK was
―
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland
‖
,
not
only
―
Northern
Ireland
‖
,
because
the
whole
island
of
Ireland
was
politically
integrated
with Great Britain.
The
Easter
Rising
of
1916
was
the
most
spectacular
event,
in
which
the
rebels
took
over
Dublin
‘
s Post Office, forcing the British to retake it by military means.
In 1919 a group calling itself the IRA (Irish Republican Army) expanded the fighting.
In
the
end
the
conflict
became
too
great
to
ignore,
and
as
the
Sinn
Fein
party,
who
were
supporters of the Irish terrorists, gained most of the Irish seats in the British parliament, Irish
independence became inevitable.
In
1921
the
southern
26
counties
formed
an
independent
―
free
state
‖
,
while
the
6
north-eastern counties remained a part the UK.
In 1969, the first British soldiers were seen on Northern Irish streets.
The
official
IRA
thought
enough
progress
had
been
made
that
they
could
concentrate
on
a
political process, and run candidates for elections, but a strong faction felt that armed force
was the only way to get the British out, and separated from the officials, calling themselves
the
―
Provisional IRA
‖
.
In
1971
the
Northern
Irish
government
took
the
desperate
step
of
imprisoning
terrorist
suspects
from
both
sides
without
trial,
a
policy
known
as
―
internment
‖
,
which
targeted
primarily Catholic men in the North.
In 1972 468 people were killed in Northern Ireland and that day has now been mythologiesed
as
―
Bloody Sunday
‖
, an important symbol of British oppression.
In 1973, an agreement was reached between the main political parties in Northern Ireland, and
importantly, the British and Irish governments, which led to a new form for the Northern Irish
Parliament, with a Power- Sharing mechanism.
The
Sinn
Fein
party
spoke
of
a
twin
campaign
for
union
with
Ireland,
both
political
and
military, which they called the policy of
―
The Bullet and the Ballot Box
‖
.
As a result of multi-party negotiations, aided this time by the intervention of the United States
Senator
George
Mitchell,
the
Good
Friday
Agreement
known
also
the
Belfast
Agreement,
emerged on 10 April 1998.

Unit 3

The Government of the United Kingdom
Britain is arguably the oldest representative democracy in the world, with roots that can be
traced over a thousand years.
The oldest institution of government is the Monarchy.
The power of the monarchy was largely derived from the ancient doctrine of the
―
divine right
of kings
‖

The
opposition
was
so
powerful
the
king
finally
granted
a
gang
of
feudal
barons
and
the
Church
a
charter
of
liberty
and
political
rights,
still
know
by
its
medieval
Latin
name
of
Magna
Carta,
which
is
still
regarded
as
Britain
‘
s
key
expression
of
the
rights
of
citizens
against the Crown.
The civil
war which brought
the Roundheads
to
power in
the 17th
century was rooted in
a
dispute over the power of the king vis-à
-vis Parliament.
In 1689 Parliament passed the Bill of Rights which ensured that the King would never be able
to ignore Parliament.
In 1832, when a system for choosing the House of Commons by popular election replaced the
monarch
‘
s job of appointing representatives, the modern political system was born.
The party with the most supporters in the Commons forms the government, and by tradition,
the leader of that party becomes Prime Minister.
Britain is both a parliamentary democracy and a constitutional monarchy.
British governance today is based upon the terms and conditions of the constitution.
Israel and Britain are the only two countries without written constitutions of the sort which
most countries have.
The
foundations
of
the
British
state
are
laid
out
in
statute
law,
that
is,
laws
passed
by
Parliament; the common laws, which are laws which have been established through common
practice in the courts, not because Parliament has written them; and conventions, which are
rules
and
practices
which
do
not
exist
legally,
but
are
nevertheless
regarded
as
vital
to
the
workings of government.

Parliament is supreme in the British state because it alone has the power to change the terms
of the Constitution.
Strictly
speaking,
the
Parliament
today
consists
of
the
Queen,
the
House
of
Lords
and
the
House of Commons.
The role of the monarchy today is primarily to symbolize the tradition and unity of the British
state.
There are 724 Lords and 646 Members of Parliament in the House of Commons.

Unit 4

Politics, Class and Race
In 1928 it reached the current level of about 99% can vote (those excluded are Lords, certain
categories
of
convicted
criminals,
the
legally
insane,
and
resident
foreign
citizens
–

except
UK resident citizens of the Irish Republic)
After
a
government
has
been
in
power
for
5
years
it
has
to
resign
and
hold
a
―
general
election
‖
, in which all British adults are given the chance to vote again for their constituency
‘
s
MP.
Anyone who is eligible to vote can stand as an MP. It is necessary only to make a deposit of
500 pounds which is lost if the candidate does not receive at least 5% of the vote.
There are three major national parties: The Conservative party and the Labour party are the
two biggest, and any general election is really about which of those two is going to govern.
But there is a third important party, the Liberal Democrats.
The Labour party is the newest of these three, created by the growing trade union movement
at the end of the nineteenth century.
The Conservative party is the party that spend most time in power.
The Liberal Democrats are the third biggest party, and to some extent may be seen as a party
of the
―
middle
‖
, occupying the ideological ground between the two main parties.
Margaret Thatcher is the UK
‘
s first woman Prime Minister.
The car-worker probably reads a paper like The Sun: a newspaper with little heard news and
more about TV soap operas, the Royal
family, and sport. The university teacher might read
The
Guardian:
a
larger
newspaper
with
longer
stories,
covering
national
and
international
news,
―
high
‖
culture such as theatre and literature, and so on.

Unit 5

The UK Economy
The UK is now the world
‘
s sixth largest economy.
The UK is not only a member of the G7, G8, G20 major economies, but also a member of the
World Trade Organization.
Firstly, the country had gone heavily into debt in order to finance the war, selling many of its
accumulated
overseas
assets,
and
borrowing
large
amounts
from
the
United
States
and
Canada.
Secondly, the ear of empire was over. India, popularly known as
―
The Jewel in the Crown
‖
of
the British Empire, gained its independence in 1947.
Thirdly,
despite
the
relatively
rapid
and
trouble-free
process
of
decolonization,
Britain
has
still
forced
to
maintain
a
substantial
and
expensive
military
presence
in
many
overseas
locations until the process was completed.

Fourthly, although Britain was quite badly damaged by German bombing during the war, its
industry survived comparatively unaffected. This failure to invest sufficiently in industry also
reflects a long-standing and continuing problem in the UK economy.
National economies can be broken down into three main areas:
―
primary
‖
industries, such as
agriculture, fishing, and mining;
―
secondary
‖
industries, which manufacture complex goods
from
those
primary
products;
and
tertiary
industries,
often
described
as
services,
such
as
banking, insurance, tourism, and the selling of goods.
Britain
‘
s agricultural sector is small but efficient, producing 58% of the UK
‘
s food needs with
only 2% of its workforce.
Scottish ports land the majority of the fish caught.
Three
of
the
biggest
ten
companies
in
Britain
are
to
be
found
in
the
energy
sector:
Shell,
British Petroleum (BP), and British Gas.
The World
‘
s largest mining company, RTZ, is a UK company which operates mines all over
the world.
The British company Glaxo-Wellcome is the biggest drug company in the world.
70% of the UK
‘
s workforce are employed in the service sector.
London is one of the top three financial centres in the world. It has the greatest concentration
of
foreign
banks
in
the
world,
accounts
for
20%
of
all
international
bank-loans,
and
is
the
world
‘
s
largest
foreign
exchange
market.
As
well
as
banking,
dealing
in
commodities
and
insurance are important processes in
―
The City
‖—
the name given to the historic area at the
centre
of
London
where
all
this
business
is
concentrated,
at
the
heart
of
which
is
London
Stock Exchange, one of the business share-dealing centres in the world.
Aerospace is one of the UK
‘
s highest value adding manufacturing sectors.