英国常识
General Knowledge of the UK
Chapter1 A sense of Place概况
British Isles & Great Britain vs United Kingdom 不列颠群岛、大不列颠和英国
First of all, where is Britain? Britain lies off the northwest coast of mainland 首先，英国在哪里？美国与欧洲大陆Europe. Its full name is the United 的西北海岸隔海相望。它的全称是大Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern 不列颠与北爱尔兰联合国。这个单一Ireland (the UK). The unitary state is 制国家由英格兰、威尔士、苏格兰和made up of England, Wales, Scotland 北爱尔兰组成---四个独特的地区，分and Northern Ireland---four unique 别具有迥异的风俗、文化和传统。 countries, each with their own customs, cultures and traditions.
资料链接
―Are you English?‘ The Scots get very annoyed when asked this question. “你是英格兰人吗？” 苏格兰人听People from England are English, 到这个问题会很恼怒。来自英格兰的people from Scotland are Scots (Scotch 人叫“English”， 来自苏格兰的人是is a whisky) and people from Wales are “Scots” （Scotch 是一种威士忌酒），Welsh. The Scots and Welsh are not 而来自威尔士的人叫“Welsh”。 “Scot”English and vice versa. All of the above 和“Welsh” 不是“English”，反之亦are technically British; all live on the 然。上述三种人都是“British”，生活island of Britain. The Republic of 在不列颠岛。爱尔兰共和国是一个独Ireland is an independent nation and 立的国家，它所有的国民都不是none of its citizens are British. These “British”。 这些区别至关重要，英国distinctions are very important, and 人对此非常敏感。people in the UK can be very sensitive to them.
Do you know the difference between the United Kingdom and Great Britain? And what exactly are the British Isles?
British Isles= all of the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland 大不列颠群岛=英国+爱尔兰共和国
Great Britain (sometimes called Britain) = England, Wales and Scotland 大不列颠（有时候也叫不列颠）=英格兰+威尔士+苏格兰
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the United Kingdom (the UK) = England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland 英国=英格兰+威尔士+苏格兰+北爱尔兰
地理Geography
Occupying an area of 244,820 square kilometers, Britain is just under 1,000 km long from the south coast to the 英国国土面积244，820平方公里，南extreme north of Scotland and just under 海岸到苏格兰的最北部只有不到1，500 km across in its widest part. It‘s 000公里窄，东西宽不到500公里。所therefore possible to travel to any part of 以，人们可以在一天之内到达英国的the country within one day. 任何地方。 Britain varies in scenery. In particular, 英国自然风光丰富多彩，高低与低地there is a dramatic contrast between 的对比尤其鲜明。英格兰基本上是一―highland‖ and ―lowland‖ Britain. 个低地国家，威尔士境内则多山多丘England is predominantly a lowland 陵，苏格兰有大面积荒凉的，未开垦country, while Wales is a country of hills 的高地。 and mountains, and Scotland contains large areas of wild, unspoilt highlands.
人口 Population
Britain is home to more than 59 million 英国人口超过5千9百万，大部分居people. The largest number of people 住在英格兰。 lives in England. 伦敦有超过七百万居民，是欧盟人数 London is the most populous city in the 最多的城市。它也是欧盟人口最密集European Union, with over 7 million 的地区之一：只有哥本哈根、布鲁塞residents. It is also one of the European 尔和巴黎的人口密度比它大。在伦敦，Union‘s most densely settled areas: only 学生和商人增加了当地的少数民族居Copenhagen, Brussels and Paris are 民数量。伦敦是世界上最多民族的城more densely populated. In London , 市之一。据估计，伦敦学校的孩子所students and business people add to the 使用的语言和方言大概有160种。 city is among the most multiracial in the world. It has been estimated that about 160 languages and dialects are spoken by children in London schools.
现在是天气预报And Now, Here’s the Weather… The weatherman might be one of the them, however, because the weather is professions complained about most so changeable that it is difficult to frequently because they often give the predict. It changes a great deal from one wrong weather report. We cannot blame day to the next. One day we can be
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wearing shorts and T-shirts and the next sweaters and coats!
Fortunately, as Britain does not experience extreme weather conditions, it is never too cold or too hot. The temperature rarely rises above 32*C (which is 90*F) in summer, or falls below-10*C (14*F) in winter. Average temperatures in England and Wales vary from 4*C in January to 16*C in July and August, whereas in Scotland averages are one or two degrees cooler.
天气预报员也许是英国人抱怨最多的职业，因为他们总是报错天气。然而我们不能怪他，因为英国的天气太善变，很难预测。天气天天不同。可能某天我们穿短裤和圆领汗衫，但第二天要穿毛衣和大衣！
观点 Viewpoint
Cao Wen is a Chinese student studying in Manchester. This excerpt in from one of her letters to her sister.
We have terrible weather today. It started raining with gale. Now it has turned into snow and the wind is as strong.
After staying in Manchester for four months , I have come to understand better why the British like talking about the weather---it is changing every minute so that people never find it a boring topic to talk about! It‘s like a computer game that constantly offers you new and unexpected data to keep you going on and on without getting tired. We‘ve had some lovely sunny days right after we came to Manchester in October which made us forget about the warnings we got from our friends about how awful the weather could be. Now we know that was only a friendly
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幸运的是，英国的天气从不走极端，从不会太冷，也不会太热。夏天温度极少高于32*C（华氏90度）， 冬天不低于零下10*C（华氏14度）。英格兰和威尔士的平均温度一月是4*C，七、八月16*C，但苏格兰的平均温度会低一到两度。
夏天通常是凉快的，但是由于全球变暖的缘故，夏天也开始变得越来越干燥炎热了。高温和强烈的太阳光经常带来问题。许多人因为没有保护措施直接暴露在阳光中而被晒伤或者中暑。长期干燥使英国部分地方缺水。一些地方为了节水而禁止人们使用橡胶软管。
冬天的气候通常很温和。偶尔会下雪，但持续时间不会很长，只有在苏格兰山区会积雪，在那里可以滑雪。
welcome and we‘d better get prepared for something tough. It can be overcast in the early morning, then a drizzle, then a sunny spell, then clouds, then blue sky for a short while, clouds again followed by rain and finally end up with a windy night! I used to keep a weather record on my calendar with all these details. In the end, I found that the weather was so changeable that I simply put down ―varied‖ in the early morning to save the whole day‘s work.
I have got used to waking up with a rainy scene outside the window. Tutors will greet us by saying ―Good wet morning.‖ If it happens to be sunny, the conversation opening will be ― We have non-Manchester weather today.‖ We can never look outside to decide whether we should take an umbrella or not. There is a saying here that it only rains when you forget to take an umbrella! From our
experience, we‘ve learnt this is quite 以是一大早阴天，接着下小雨，然后true. 放晴一段时间，再多云，再晴天一会 We sometimes leave this decision to 儿，又是多云，接着下雨，最后呼呼the weather forecast. ―Sunshine‖ is 的吹一夜的风。我以前把这些天气情perhaps the most powerful word to light 况都详细的写在日历上。后来发现天up our faces. If we can‘t get it in the sky, 天都变换无穷，干脆在早上写下“多hearing it from the weatherman will be a 变”，则省了一天的工夫。 compensation .I think people here feel 我对一早起来窗外小雨淅沥的情景the same, because the weatherman on 早已习以为常。老师们会用“湿漉漉Channel 3 was once elected by British 的早上好”同我们打招呼。如果恰逢females as the best companion for a 晴天，开场白就会变成“今天是非曼holiday. 城天气。”我们从不能依外面天气情况今天的下学糟透了。先是风雨交加，而决定是否带伞。这儿有个说法：老现在则是白雪纷飞，狂风依旧。 天总在你忘记带伞时下雨。根据我们 在曼彻斯特呆了四个月后，我更加理的经验，此话不假。 解为什么英国人喜欢讨论天气了，因 有时我们会根据天气预测做决定。为它时时刻刻在变化，人们谈起来永“阳光”一词最有威力让我们眉开眼远不会觉得枯燥无味！就像电脑游戏笑；如果从老天那里得不到阳光，那一样不断出现新奇难料的内容，让人么从天气预报员那儿听到这个词也算不知疲倦地玩下去。我们刚到曼城的是个补偿。我想这里的人一定也有同时候（10月份）有过一段阳光和煦的感，因为电视三频道的天气预报员曾日子，以致我们把朋友们有关天气可被英国女性选为最佳度假伙伴。 能变糟的警告忘掉了。现在我们知道了；那只是友好的欢迎，我们最好对恶劣的气候做好准备。这里的天气可
开心一刻
关于天气的笑话 Weather Jokes
Q: What did the thermometer say to the other thermometer? A: You make my temperature rise.
Q: What‘s the difference between a horse and the weather? A: One is reined up and the other rains down.
Q: What happens when it rains cats and dogs? A: You have to be careful not to step in a poodle.
Q：一个温度计会对另一个温度计说什么？ A：你使我体温上升。
Q：马与天气有什么不同？
A：一个被驾驭而另一个下雨。 Q：倾盆大雨的时候会怎么样？
A：你千万要小心，别踩到狮子狗。
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Chapter2 Politics 政治
政府体系System of Government
Britain is a parliamentary democracy with a constitutional monarch---Queen Elizabeth II—as head of state. In theory, the constitution of the country has three branches: Parliament, which makes the laws; the Government. Which execute laws; and the law courts, which interpret laws. Although the Queen is officially
Parliament has two parts: the House of Commons and the House of Lords. Members of the House of Commons are n\\known as MPs.
The government is led by the Prime Minister, who is usually the leader of the majority party in the House of Commons. The Prime Minister is advised by a Cabinet of about twenty other ministers. The current Prime Minister of the U.K is Tony Blair.
内阁 The Cabinet
The leader of the party which wins the most seats in the General Election becomes the Prime Minister. The Prime Minister chooses a committee of ministers called the Cabinet, which is made up of a selection of senior MPs from the House of Commons and some members of the House of Lords.
The Cabinet runs the country. Each of the ministers is responsible for a government department, for instance, the Secretary of State for Education and Science is responsible for all schools, universities and teachers in Britain.
The Cabinet meets at the Prime Minister‘s house. The Cabinet works as a team and all ministers must accept the
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head of all those branches, she has little direct power.
英国实施议会民主制，国家元首是立宪君主伊丽莎白二世。理论上来说，英国政府体系由三个分支组成：议会制订法律；政府执行法律；法庭解释法律。尽管女王是三个分支的官方领袖，她的直接权利却很少。
议会由两部分组成：下议院和上议院。下议院的成员被称为下院议员。
政府由首相领导，他通常是下议院的多党领袖。一个由大约二十位部长组成的内阁协助首相进行管理。英国现任首相是托尼.布莱尔。
decision of the ―group.‖ The team of ministers must always agree in public because they are collectively responsible for any decision they make. If a minister cannot agree with all the others, he usually resigns from the Cabinet. Cabinet meetings are held in private and the details must remain secret for at least 30 years. It has been argued that Margaret Thatcher tried to change the style of her cabinet and she was forced to resign when the other ministers could not agree with her.
Cabinet ministers cannot, however, do as they please. They are responsible to Parliament and must answer questions from backbenchers in the House of