Text 1 the united kingdom of great britain

sAND NORTHERN IRELAND

Many foreigners say «England» and «English» when they mean «Britain», or the «UK», and «British». This is very annoying for the 5 million people who live in Scotland, the 2.8 million in Wales and 1.5 million in Northern Ireland who are certainly not English. (46 million people live in England.) However, the people from Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and England are all British.

The United Kingdom is an abbreviation of «the United King­dom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland». It is often further abbreviated to «UK», and is the political name of the country which is made of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland (sometimes known as Ulster). Several islands off the British coast are also part of the United Kingdom (for example, the Isle of Wight, the Orkneys, Hebrides and Shetlands, and the Isles of Scilly), although the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man are not. However, all these islands do recognize the Queen.

Great Britain is the name of the island which is made up of England, Scotland and Wales and so, strictly speaking, it does not include Northern Ireland. The origin of the word «Great» is a reference to size, because in many European languages the words for Britain and Brittany in France are the same. In fact, it was the French who first talked about «Grande Bretagne». In everyday speech «Britain» is used to mean the United Kingdom.

The British Isles is the geographical name that refers to all the islands off the north-west coast of the European continent: Great Britain, the whole of Ireland (Northern and Southern), the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man. But it is important to remember that Southern Ireland —that is the Republic of Ireland (also called «Eire») — is completely independebt.

So you should know that «the Uni­ted Kingdom» or «Britain» is the correct name to use if you are refer­ring to the country in a political, rather than in a geographical way. «British» refers to people from the UK, Great Britain or the British Isles in general.

Before the United Kingdom was formed it took centuries and a lot of armed struggle was involved. In the 15th century, a Welsh prince, Henry Tudor, became King Henry VII of England. Then his son, King Hen­ry VIII, united England and Wales under one Parliament in 1536. In Scot­land a similar thing happened. The King of Scotland inherited the crown of England and Wales in 1603, so he became King James VI of Scotland. The Parliaments of England, Wales and Scotland were united a century later in 1707. But the British and Irish parliaments were not united until 1801. In 1922 the southern part of Ireland, predominantly Roman Catholic in re­ligion, became a separate state. Nor­thern Ireland, with its Protestant maj­ority, has remained part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

Britain is one of the world’s smaller countries with an area of some 244,100 square kilometres (94,250 sq. miles); with some 56 million people, it ranks about 14th in terms of population. About half the people live in a large belt stretching north-westwards from London across England. Other large concentrations of population are in the central lowlands of Scotland, south­east Wales and the Bristol area, parts of north-east England and along much of the English Channel coast.

The climate is generally mild and temperate. The average range of tem­perature between winter and summer is greatest inland, in the eastern part of the country. During a normal sum­mer the temperature occasionally rises above 30 °C (86 °F) in the south; winter temperatures below —10 °C (14 °F) are rare. January and February are usually the coldest months, July and August — the warmest.

The landscape is rich and varied, sometimes showing marked contrasts within short distances, particularly on the coasts. Most of the land is agri­cultural, of which over one third is arable, growing various crops, and the rest pasture and grazing. Wood­lands cover about 8 per cent of the country.

The Scottish and Welsh are proud and independent people. In recent years there have been attempts at de­volution in the two countries, parti­cularly in Scotland where the Scottish Nationalist Party was very strong for a while. However, in a referendum in 1978 the Welsh rejected devolution and in 1979 the Scots did the same. So it seems that most Welsh and Scot­tish people are happy to form part of the UK even though they sometimes complain that they are dominated by England, and particularly by Lon­don.

Wales is officially bilingual, and Welsh is spoken by about a fifth of its population. The Scottish and Irish forms of Gaelic survive in some parts of Scotland and Northern Ireland. Some immigrant groups continue to use their own languages, usually in addition to English.

inherit — наследовать, унаследовать

predominantly — главным образом

arable — пахотный

pasture and grazing — земли, ис­пользуемые как пастбище (для со­держания скота на подножном корму)

devolution — передача (власти, обя­занностей и т. п.)

reject — отвергать

bilingual — двуязычный, говоря­щий на двух языках

Gaelic — гэльский язык (особ. рас­пространен в Северной Шотландии)

Survive — остаться в живыx

SECTION RECAP

1. Who are the British? Can people living inWales be called British? Why?

2.What is the United Kingdom? What countries does it unite?

3. What is Great Britain? Why is it called so? What countries is Great Britain made up of? .

4. When and how was the United Kingdom formed? :

5. What do you know about the southern part of Ireland?

6. What is Britain’s climate characterized with?

7. What people inhabit Britain? What lan­guages do they speak?

TALKING POINT

• What do you think of the geographical position of Great Britain? Why is the climate of the country generally mild and temperate? Why is most of the land agri­cultural? Can you indicate any other country which has the geographical po­sition like Britain.