Table: Modern history of Great Britain

	World War I begins.
	World War I ends.
	First regular London-Paris air service instituted.
	John Logie Baird demonstrates television system.
	British Broadcasting Corporation chartered.
	Alexander Fleming discovers penicillin.
	First regular television broadcasts from Alexandra Palace.
	Independence for India and Pakistan. Nationalization of coal mines and railways.
	Foundation of North Atlantic Treaty Organization.
	Britain explodes atomic bomb in Australia.
	Irish Republican Army begins terrorist campaign.
	Independence for Cyprus and Nigeria. «The Beatles» form.
	Oil discovered off Scottish coast.
	North Sea oil makes Britain self-sufficient in certain petroleum products.
	Trident ballistic missile system ordered from US.

Exercise 6.4. What events had impact on World history or the modern history of Russia (USSR)?

 

Exercise 6.5. Group discussion. Split in groups of 2— 4. Think of the most important factors presented in the table below and their influence on the «British* character. What makes it «special»?

4. Зак. 427

LAND Area

241,752 sq km Highest Point

Ben Nevis

1,343 m above sea level Lowest Point

Holme Fen 3 m below sea level

CLIMATE

Average Temperatures

London

January 4 °C July 18 °C Edinburgh

January 3 °C
July 15 °C
Average Annual Precipitation
London 590 mm

Edinburgh 680 mm

POPULATION

Population

58,395,000 (1994 estimate)

Population Density

242 persons/sq km (1994 estimate)

Urban/Rural population 92% Urban 8% Rural

Largest Cities

London (Greater) 6,933,000
Birmingham 1,017,000
Leeds 724,500

Glasgow 681,000

Ethnic Groups

94,5% English, Scottish, Welsh, or Irish 5,5% Other Languages

Official Language

English Other Languages

Welsh, Scots-Gaelic, other minority languages Religions

54% Anglicanism

13% Roman Catholicism

33% Other

including other Protestant denominations, Islam, Judaism, Hinduism, and Sikhism

 

ECONOMY

Gross Domestic Product

US$1,023,900,000,000 (1994) Chief Economic Products

Agriculture

Wheat, barley, potatoes, sugar beets, oilseed

rape, livestock, animal products. Fishing

Mackerel, herring, cod, plaice Mining

Coal, limestone, petroleum and natural gas. Manufacturing Machinery and transport equipment, food products, chemical products, minerals and metal products.

Employment Statistics

58% Trade and Services

23% Manufacturing and Industry

16% Business and Finance

2% Agriculture, Forestry, and Fishing

1 % Military and Defence

Major Exports

Industrial and electrical machinery, automatic data processing equipment, road vehicles, petroleum.

Major Imports

Road vehicles, industrial and electrical machinery, automatic data processing equipment, petroleum, paper and paperboard, textiles, food. Major Trading Partners

Germany, the United States, France, the Netherlands, Italy, Japan

 

Exercise 6.6. Defining «Britishness». Split in three groups. Fill out the table below. Then compare the results and try to explain them. Think of the source of such a stereotype. Do you agree or disagree with the rational and irrational columns? Think of your own table describing the stereotypes about the British (any other) people.

Text 2: DR. SIGMUND FREUD'S MUSEUM IN LONDON

The text below is taken from the Freud's museum in London. It is a guide for school students (pupils).

 

Sigmund Freud was a doctor who lived in Vienna, the capital of Austria, from 1859 until 1938. While he was still at university Freud decided to specialize in neurology, the study and treatment of the brain and the nervous system. In 1885, just before he got married, he obtained a grant to go to Paris to see the famous neurologist Jean Martin Charcot.

Charcot worked with men and women who suffered from hysteria. At first sight they appeared to be blind, or are paralysed in a part of their body, or cannot stop coughing, or have some other physical symptom. But Charcot used hypnosis to show that the real problem was a mental one — under hypnosis he could get them to walk or see. Freud realised from this demonstration the power that the mind could have over the body, and he came back from Paris determined to make a name for himself in this new field of study.

Gradually more and more patients came to see Freud, and with each patient he tried to learn something new about his work. He also tried to analyse himself. He realized that some of the ideas that affect people are unconscious — we do not know about them even though they are in our own minds. Freud said that this means that people may do things without knowing the real reason why they are doing it.

He also showed that the unconscious is full of memories and ideas from early childhood, but they are «ге-pressed» and made unconscious because they are things we don't want to think about, or they are forbidden.

Freud believed in an idea which is still often heard today, that «the child is father to the adult», and because of his views many adults today think about children in a different way to before.

Freud also showed that sometimes the repressed ideas from childhood could show themselves in dreams or nightmares, and one of his most famous books was called The Interpretation Of Dreams. The first dream Freud interpreted was when he was on holiday at a place called «Bellvue».

Freud says that dreams are about all the things we wish for. But rather than just wishing for something, the dream shows us a picture as if the wish has come true. So instead of thinking «I wish I had an ice-cream», a dream shows you actually eating the ice-cream!

But sometimes you are not allowed to have an icecream. Freud said that the wish is often forbidden, so it becomes unconscious and repressed. So part of you wants to make the wish come true and part of you wants to stop the wish. Because of this the wish is disguised, which means that the dream has to be interpreted before it makes sense. That's why Freud called his book The Interpretation of Dreams.

One of the most important things Freud discovered was what he called «The Oedipus complex*. The Oedipus story was a Greek myth about a man who killed his father, the king, and married his mother. In the story Oedipus also had to solve the «riddle of the Sphinx*, by answering the three questions the Sphinx asked him.

Freud thought that all little boys of 4 or 5 years old were like Oedipus in the story. When they say «I wish I could have mummy all to myself and that daddy was gone away* they are wanting to be just like Oedipus. But this wish cannot be granted — no one can have their mummy all to themselves— so the child has to learn to grow up and accept his disappointment. It was when his own father died that Freud began the study of dreams which led him to discover the Oedipus complex.

Gradually Freud developed the theory of Psychoanaly-sis,and the method of helping people he called free association. With free association Freud simply asked his patients to lie on the couch and say anything that came into their heads. He tried to interpret what they said by relating it to the repressed ideas and wishes in the unconscious. In this way he hoped that things which were unconscious would gradually become conscious, so that the patient would have more control over them and they would not be able to affect him or her so much.

 

Vocabulary:

study — исследование treatment — зд. лечение brain — мозг to obtain — получать to suffer ['$л!У] — страдать hysteria [hi'stiono] — истерия to cough [kof] — кашлять hypnosis [hip'nausis] — гипноз determined — решив gradually — постепенно unconscious — бессознательныйforbidden •— запрещенный nightmares — ночные кошмары to come true — сбываться to disguise [dis'gaiz] — скрывать to make sense — иметь смысл riddle — ['ndlj загадка, тайна disappointment — разочарование

couch — кушетка, оттоманка by relating — зд. соотнося to affect — влиять

 

The following questions are asked by the guide in the London Museum of Freud. Try to answer them:

What is the most famous appliance used in modern times named after Charcot?

Have you ever done anything without knowing the real reason until afterwards? What was it?

What does it mean that «the child is father to the adult»? Do you think it is true?

4) Why do you think people like solving riddles?

Do you think everyone has an Oedipus complex, or do you think it was something Freud made up?

What other situations do you know when the mind affects the body?

GRAMMAR