The south-west

This is litterally «Land’s End», the most westerly point of Great Britain. The peninsula used to be well-known for its pirates. This part of the area is known for its extensive grassland which is three times as extensive as the area under cultivation. The growth of grass is promoted by frequent rains and the mild warm climate.

The principal activity here is farming. Although there are some big farms, most are small family farms with a mixture of cows, sheep and cereal crops. There is a long-established dairy-farming industry throughout the region. Butter, cheese and cream are the chief products. In the eastern part of the region there are many pigs and the production of bacon and other pro­ducts, including pork sausages, is prominent. The small town of Calne is especially well-known for the latter product.

Industry is centred on three large ports: Bristol in the north, and Portsmouth and Southampton in the south-east. In Bristol, aircraft are designed and built. In Portsmouth and Southampton, the main industries are shipbuilding and oil-refining.

The Cheddar Caves are a popular place with tourists. These underground caves contain amazing stalagmites and stalac­tites.

Dartmoor is a National Park. It is 365 square miles (945 sq. km) in area and is mainly moorland and hills, surrounded by farmland. The New Forest is an area of heath and forest, and is best known for its wild ponies.

The romantic past of Cornwall makes it a popular place for artists and writers.

cereal crops—культуры хлебных злаков

dairy-fanning industry — промышленность по производству молочных продуктов

cream—сливки

pork — свинина; сделанный из свинины

heath — степь, поросшая вереском

Text 18 EAST ANGLIA

This region contains low plateau country which is mostly an improved farmland. Rural population predominates and more than half of the total area is under cultivation. The most impor­tant towns are: Norwich, Ipswich, Colchester, Yarmouth, Cam­bridge, Ely, Peterborough.

Barley and wheat are the most extensive crops. Oats, potatoes and sugar-beet are also common. In the part nearer to London vegetables, small fruit and flowers are grown for sale. The number of cattle and sheep is low, but poultry is numerous and Norfolk turkeys have a high reputation in the Christmas market.

East Anglia remains a region of villages, isolated farmsteads and small market towns. Some time ago the villages were more numerous than they are today, for parts of East Anglia suffered from depopulation. Most of the towns of East Anglia have little tendency to grow. It has ancient market towns such as the cathed­ral city of Norwich, minor ports such as Harwich, fishing centres in Lowestoft and Yarmouth and a score of quiet villages where only the names such as Worstead indicate that East Anglia was once the major wool textile area. But now sheep have almost disappeared from East Anglia.

Norwich is the largest town in the region. It stands on the Wensum and was once the greatest weaving town in Britain. As early as the 14th century it was famous throughout the country for its trade fair. But today the manufacture of wool is lost.

Yarmouth is located on the sandy east coast of the region. It is a well-known resort and receives about half a million visitors a year. As a fishing port Yarmouth has a long history which is chiefly connected with the fishing of the North Sea. Each year catches’ have continued to decrease and the shortage has depres­sed the fishing of Yarmouth. Great Yarmouth and Lowestoft have fish processing plants. In recent times they have also become bases for natural gas exploitation in the North Sea.

East Anglia is rather isolated from the rest of Britain because of its position away from the main national routes and because of its shape. It is more than half surrounded by sea. To the North and South of Norwich are the Broads: nearly 150 miles of waterways, popular with week-end sailors, fishermen and nature-lovers.

Sandringham is one of the residences of the Royal family, who usually spend Christmas there.

barley — ячмень

oats — овес

poultry — домашняя птица

turkey — индюк

farmatead — ферма со службами, усадьба

Norwich [n rid3] — г. Норидж (в Англии)

minor — незначительный

weave (wove, woven) — ткать

catch — улов, добыча

Broads — озера

Text 19 CENTRAL ENGLAND OR THE MIDLANDS

The Midlands (or the Midland industrial region) represent the largest concentration of manufacturing industry. Metal-working on the basis of local coals was the source of the «Black Country» development.

The characteristic industries of the West Midlands are metallurgy (steel tubes and non-ferrous metals), machine-tool building, electrical engineering, and the car, carpets and pottery industries (with over 80 per cent of Britain’s ceramic industry located in Stafford­shire, around Stoke-on-Trent).

Birmingham is the regional capital, a «city of a thousand trades», inclu­ding not only motor cars and bicycles but engines for aircraft production. Coventry is the centre of the car and aircraft industries.

In the East Midlands, Leicester is noted for hosiery and knitwear, boots and shoes and machinery for making these products, Nottingham — for lace and bicycles, tobacco and pharma­ceutical goods, Corby — a new town — for steel industry (it was nearly condemned to death by the closure of steelworks by the British Steel Corpo­ration).

In argiculture, horticulture is important in the Midlands as a supplier of food for the local urban population.

Hosiery — чулочные изделия

knitwear — вязаные вещи, трико­тажные изделия

lace — тесьма, кружево

horticulture — садоводство, огород­ничество

Text 20 THE NORTH OF ENGLAND

This northernmost region of England contains some of the wildest and loneliest parts in the country, but also some of the busiest industrial centres.

The North of England consists of two different areas: the North-West (including Cumbria, otherwise well-known as the Lake District — a popular tourist centre due to the picturesque scenary), and the industrial North-East.