复习大纲
Volume One
An Outline Introduction to Britain
?Lecture I
?Land Area, Names and position of Britain ?1。 Land Area
?Total area of the whole country is 240,000skms with 230,000skms of Great Britain, the air-distance of Britain from south to north being 1,000kms and 500kms from west to east。 The whole population is about 56,000,000 General view
2.Questions on the Names ?Where are the British Isles? ?Where is Britain? ?Where is England? ?Where is Scotland? ?Where is Wales? ?Where is “Ireland”
?Where is Northern Ireland?
?What is the Northern Ireland Problem? ?What is IRA?
?Where is the UK----The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland? ?What is the difference between UK, Britain and England?
?Map of Great Britain and Northern Ireland England
?The largest (takes up 60% of the whole island) ?Most populous (makes up 85% of the country?s whole population) ?The richest section
?Economic & cultural center(p.2)
“We English people take this too much for granted, and tend to use the words ?England? and ?English? when we mean ?Britain? and ?British?。 This sometimes annoys the Scots and Welsh”
(data from other sources) Northern-Ireland problem ?What is IRA?
?What is the serious headache of UK over the Northern-Ireland problem? (ref. to p.6-7)
Northern Ireland, also known as Ulster, has a population of one and a half million. About 1/3 of them are Roman Catholics who are not glad to see the unification with Great Britain dominated by Protestantism. The Catholic extremists organized the Irish Republican Army to continue their struggle. The goal of IRA is to oust the English and unify Northern Ireland with the Republic of Ireland. The guerrillas resort to terrorist campaigns of bombing, murdering and arson. They even launched mortar
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attacks on London?s Heathrow Airport; their political wing is known as Sinn Fein. The bloody political and sectarian fighting in N.I. has promoted Brit. and N.I. to reach an agreement known as Downing Street Declaration which offers Sinn Fein a role in talks on the future of N.I.
3.Position of Britain/UK/England ?Where is UK situated?
?How many land neighbors does UK have?
?How many countries/nations does UK face across the sea(s)?
?Do English/British People think their country favorably situated in the world? (ref. to p.7) ?Did----------?
Questions for Next Lecture
1. How is the weatherlike of Britain?
2. What is the general feature of British climate? (p.11)
3. What is the most frequent safe topic in English daily small talk? Why?
4. What does the poem sentence “Shall I compare thee to a summer?s day” (Chinese translation: 我可否把你比作炎炎夏 日？）really mean by Shakespeare? 5. How much is the rainfall of Britain? Lecture II. English weather
?How is the weather of Britain?
?Can you come up with a general impression on British weather after we have a little talk on the English weather report?
?Describe or relate it to me if you have any idea? Weather Report on Aug.20th,2006
Data from other sources
?“Other countries have a climate; in England we have weather.”
?In no country other than England, it has been said, can one experience four seasons in the course of a single day! Day may break as a balmy spring morning, an hour or so later black clouds have appeared from nowhere and the rain may be pouring down. At midday conditions may be really wintry with the temperature down by about 8 or more centigrade. And then, in the afternoon the sky will clear, the sun will begin to shine, and for an hour or two before darkness falls, it will be summer.
?This uncertainty about the weather has had a definite effect upon the Englishman?s character; it tends to make him cautious. For example, the foreigner may laugh when he sees the English setting off on a brilliantly sunny morning wearing a raincoat or carrying an umbrella, but he may well regret his laughter later in the day.
?The English weather has also help to make the Englishman adaptable. It has been said that one of the reasons why the English colonized so much of the world was that, whatever the weather conditions they met abroad, they had already experienced something like them at home.
Question for Lecture III
?What type of nation is Britain? (only for consideration) ?Does Britain have a long history?
?Does Britain have a broadened cultural background ?Or Does Britain have a long historical culture? Lecture III
?A Landscape of Britain
?The Countries-scape from a Tourist?s view ?A Brief View over the British Island
Buckingham Palace has served as the official London residence of Britain's sovereigns since 1837. George III bought Buckingham House in 1761 for his wife Queen Charlotte to use as a comfortable
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family home close to St. James's Palace. Queen Victoria was the first sovereign to take up residence in July 1837, just three weeks after her succession.
Besides being the official London residence of the Queen, Buckingham Palace is also the busy administrative headquarters of the Monarchy and Has probably the most famous and easily
Recognizable facade of any building in the world. The Changing of the Guard takes place inside the railings of the forecourt.
The Foot Guards provide a colorful display in Their Red tunics(紧身短上衣) and bearskins(熊皮 高帽) and are accompanied by a band through out. During the 45 minute ceremony the New Guard replaces The Old Guard and a detachment is left at Buckingham Palace with the remaining New Guard marching on to St James Palace. Trafalgar Square
Trafalgar Square is a square in central London that commemorates the Battle of Trafalgar (1805), a British naval victory of the Napoleonic Wars. The original name was to have been \Fourth's Square\The area had been the site of the King's Mews since the time of Edward I.
The Square has become an enormously important symbolic social and political location for visitors and Londoners alike.
Its symbolic importance was demonstrated in 1940 when the Nazi developed secret plans to transfer the Nelson Column to Berlin following an expected German invasion. National Gallery
?On the north side of the square is the National Gallery and to its east the St Martin's-in-the-Fields church. The square adjoins The Mall via Admiralty Arch to the southwest. To the south is Whitehall, to the east The Strand and South Africa House, to the north Charring Cross Road and on the west side is Canada House.
Wales Britannia Bridge不列颠桥
Now, think about the questions I proposed before this lecture ?What type of nation is Britain? ?Does Britain have a long history?
?Does Britain have a broadened cultural background ?Or Does Britain have a long historical culture?
?Yes, Britain has a long history.
?Does Britain have a broadened cultural background?
?Yes. Not only has Britain a broadened cultural background but also it has been trying to keep an excellent preservation over the historical background. (which will be further proved later) ?Does Britain have a long historical culture?
Question for Next Lecture
?Who were the natives of the English? ?Who named the Island “Britain”?
?How many peoples or tribes invaded Britain? ?Who set the feudal system in Britain?
?Who united the whole country as one nation?
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?Who invented the language “English” or “old English”? ?What kind of language system does English belong to? ?What type of nation is Britain? (again)
Lecture IV. English People and Shaping of the Nation
Are the British people Europeans? This may seem a strange question to Africans and Asians, who tend to think of all white men as Europeans. but the British, when they are in Britain, do not regard themselves as Europeans. The Europeans, to them, are those rather excitable foreigners from the other side of the English Channel, who have never learnt how to speak English. Europe is ?the Continent?: a place full of interest for British tourists, but also the source of almost all the wars in which Britain has ever been involved.
Thus, although geographically speaking Britain is a part of Europe, yet the fact that it is a separate island has made its people feel very, very insular. They feel, and in many ways are, different from the rest of Europe, and they sometimes annoy continental nations by failing to support them, or even to understand them, in time of need.
Where did the British people come from? This is an extraordinarily interesting question, since they are a mixture of many different races, and all these races invaded Britain at various times from Europe.
Where did the British people come from?
?This is an extraordinarily interesting question, since they are a mixture of many different races, and all these races invaded Britain at various times from Europe. Nobody knows very much about Britain before the Romans came. During the first century B. C., but there had been at least three invasions before that. The first of these was by a dark-haired Mediterranean race called the Iberians. The other two were by Celtic tribes: first the Gaels, whose descendants are the modern Scots and Irish, some of whom still speak the Gaelic(Celtic) language; and secondly the Britons, who gave their name to the whole island of Britain.
?These were the people--whom, the Romans conquered (about 55 B.C. ref. to p. 81). The Romans gave the Britons a good deal of their civilization(eg. baths, temples, amphitheaters, etc.), but they never settled in Britain in very large numbers, so the British race survived until the overthrow of the Roman Empire by the ?barbarians', i.e., the numerous Germanic tribes which overran the whole of Western Europe. There were three great Germanic tribes which invaded Britain: the Angles, the Saxons and the Jutes (please see the map in p. 83); and together they form the basis of the modern English race.
?The Britons, as a race, disappeared except in Wales and Cornwall. Many Welsh people still speak their ?British?, i.e. Celtic tongue, which is called Welsh. In Cornwall the language has died out, though it can still be recognized in some proper names, the Angles were so numerous that the country was called Angle-land, i.e., England, and the Anglo-Saxon language was Old English: in other words, modern English has descended directly from it.
So far then, we have noted the Iberians, two kinds of Celts, the Romans, and the Germanic peoples, which we shall call collectively the Saxons: but the story is by no means ended. A few hundred years later a further invasion took place from the North-East, that of the Danes, and the whole North-Eastern half of England became for a long time Danish territory. Finally, and even more important, there came the great Norman invasion. The Normans were 'North-men', and like the Danes had come originally from Scandinavia in the North-East; but they had settled in part of Northern France, still known as Normandy, and adopted the French language. In the year 1066, Duke William of Normandy claimed the English throne, and after defeating and killing the Saxon king Harold at the Battle of Hastings, he went on to conquer the whole country, and to merit the name of William the Conqueror. He was
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crowned William I of England, and the present Queen is one of his descendants.
The Saxons became a subject people, and all the most important noblemen were-Normans. English was the language of the common people and Norman French was the language of the aristocracy, including the King and his court. Even today, many French expressions recur in traditional ceremonial language, and a few English people feel proud if they can prove that their ancestors were Normans. Eventually, however, the speech of the common people prevailed, and the use of French died out: but the common people had already absorbed some of it, and many everyday expressions in English have a French origin.
?There has never been another invasion of Britain in the 900 years since William the Conqueror, so that all the various elements have had time to settle down and form one people. As a whole, the British are proud of their diversity，and like to think that it has given them a diversity of qualities which has turned out to their advantage.
The Romans
The history of the growth of Rome and the impact that the Romans had upon the lands they conquered, Britain included, is fascinating. Through a combination of superior military strength, tactical and strategic awareness way beyond the means of their opponents and a lot of political luck and later clout (power and influence), the Romans transformed a small town into first a sizeable kingdom and later an Empire without rival until the modern era. The Roman Empire
The Roman Empire lasted for over a thousand years and can be considered the greatest empire of all times. Spreading from the Middle East to Britain, from the North of Germany to the depths of Africa the Roman Empire was a truly magnificent achievement A brief biography of William of Normandy
William was born in Normandy in 1028. His father was Robert, Duke of Normandy and his mother was Herleva, the daughter of a wealthy merchant from Falaise. As Robert and Herleva never married, William was therefore an illegitimate son: although he was Robert's only child.
Despite his illegitimacy William was accepted by most of the Norman barons as the heir to the duchy of Normandy. In 1035, William succeeded his father, who had passed away whilst returning from the Crusades.
His early life was fraught with danger. There were many Normans, including many within his own family, who would have preferred to have a different ruler. His survival during this period was largely due to the support given to him by his mother's family.
William began to take control of his Duchy in earnest during his teens. Normandy had been through a period of anarchy following his father?s death and William was quick to learn that trust could not be taken for granted. This led to a series of conflicts within Normandy and against his closest neighbors that, in turn, led to William becoming a gifted knight and warrior.
William was in the 1050's threatened by both the King of France and the Count of Anjou, both significant players in contemporary French politics. Williams political guile at the time was second to none however and, despite the Pope refusing to accept it, William married Matilda of Flanders, a close relation of his. This marriage secured the support of Flanders and enabled Normandy to stave off the threats from the French king, Henry and of Geoffrey of Anjou. Not until 1060, and the timely deaths of both of these hostile leaders, was William able to feel secure in his tenure and begin to create a Norman empire.
?William seized advantage of his neighbors lack of leadership, France now had a young boy as king, and attacked and conquered the region of Maine (1063). Now William could turn his thoughts towards England, where greater prizes lay in store for him.
?In 1051, Edward, the aging and childless King of England, had fallen out with his father in law: the Earl of Wessex. Most probably as a result of this fall out, William was suggested as Edwards heir to
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