Volume Two The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
Chapter 1 Brief introduction to the country (names, position, climate and weather, brief history)
Chapter I. Brief Introduction to Britain (names, geographical features, 4 parts, brief history, climate and weather)
※1. Geographical names: the British Isles, Great Britain, Britain and England.
2.Official name: the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (UK).
3.The British Isles are made up of two large islands—Great Britain (the larger one) and Ireland, a small island in Irish Sea called the Isle of Man and hundreds of small ones.
※Geographical Features:
Geographical position of Britain: Britain is an island country surrounded by the sea. It lies in the North Atlantic
Ocean off the north coast of Europe. It is separated from the rest of Europe by the English Channel in the south and the North Sea in the east. (The country is to the west and off the European Continent on the British Isles.) The total area is some 244,820 square kilometers with a population of about 59.6 million (July 2001est). It is made up of 4 parts within the one nation-state—England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. Each part has its characteristics, and can not be mixed up. For example, we can not call a person from Scotland “English gentleman” because it will offend him or her. Even within each of the four parts (countries) there are different regions: the difference between the “highland” and “lowland” Scots has a long historical significance; north and south England are also culturally
distinct, the south is on average more wealthy than the north, etc. So here the difference that marks British society is that of region.
The north and west of Britain are mainly highlands；and the east and southeast are mostly lowlands.
The UK is now a multiracial society, and the quite recent groups of immigrants have brought their own cultures which sit side by side with more traditionally British ways of life. Britain is also divided economically: it is a society with a relatively obvious class-structure. (Zhu, 3)
Britain was once an imperial country, its huge overseas empire gave it an important international role which only came to an end in the years following the Second World War. More than 50 countries used to be a part of
that empire, and maintain links through a loose and voluntary organization called the Commonwealth of Nations (Zhu,4)
[The Commonwealth of
Nations is a free association of independent countries that were once colonies of Britain. It was founded in 1931, and has 50 member countries until 1991.]But more important today in Britain’s international relations is the European Union,(Zhu,4)of which the UK has been a member since 1973.
※England is the largest and most developed of all the three. Its area, about 130 423 square kilometers, takes up nearly 60% of the whole island. Its