The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland

 

National symbols

 

The flag of the United Kingdom is the Union Flag commonly known as the "Union Jack". Created from the superimposition of the flags of England (St George's Cross) and Scotland (Saint Andrew's Cross), with the Saint Patrick's cross, representing Ireland, being added to this in 1801.

Flag Coat of Arms

 

Country	Patron saint	Flower (symbol)
England	St. George	Red rose
Scotland	St. Andrew	Cotton thistle
Wales	St. David	Leek/Daffodil
Northern Ireland	St. Patrick	Shamrock/Flax

 

The national anthem of the United Kingdom is God Save the King, with "King" replaced with "Queen" whenever the Monarch is female. The anthem's name, however, remains God Save the King.

Britannia is a personification of the UK, originating from the Roman occupation of southern and central Great Britain. Britannia is symbolized as a young woman with brown or golden hair, wearing a Corinthian helmet and white robes. She holds Poseidon's three-pronged trident and a shield, bearing the Union Flag. Sometimes she is depicted as riding the back of a lion. At and since the height of the British Empire, Britannia has often associated with maritime dominance, as in the patriotic song Rule Britannia.

The lion has also been used as a symbol of the UK; one is depicted behind Britannia on the 50 pence piece and one is shown crowned on the back of the 10 pence piece. It is also used as a symbol on the non-ceremonial flag of the British Army. Lions have been used as heraldic devices many times, including in the royal arms of both the kingdoms of England, Scotland and Wales. The lion is featured on the emblem of the England national football team, giving rise to the popular football anthem Three Lions, and the England national cricket team.

The bulldog is sometimes used as a symbol of Great Britain, and is often associated with Winston Churchill's defiance of Nazi Germany.

The ancient British landscape, and especially some of its distinctive fauna such as the oak tree and the rose, have long been a widely used for the visual representation of British identity. The red rose is the emblem of the England national rugby union team.

Vocabulary notes

anthem– гимн

arms – герб

Corinthian helmet – коринфский шлем

daffodil - желтый нарцисс (национальная эмблема валлийцев)

defiance - вызов (на поединок, спор); пренебрежение; сопротивление, открытое неповиновение;

flax - лен (растение)

identity - индивидуальность; своеобразие; отличительная черта, особенность (national identity — национальные особенности)

leek - лук-порей (тж. и как национальная эмблема Уэльсa)

maritime - морской; приморский

patron saint - святой покровитель

personification - персонификация, олицетворение; воплощение

shamrock - трилистник (тж. эмблема Ирландии в виде трилистника)

shield - щит

superimposition– наложение, совмещение

thistle - чертополох (тж. как эмблема Шотландии)

prong - зубец (вилки, вил и т. п.); зуб

trident – трезубец

Abbreviations

GB and GBR - Great Britain

UK - the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland

History

The early pre-Roman inhabitants of Britain were Celtic-speaking peoples, including the Brythonic people of Wales, the Picts of Scotland, and the Britons of Britain. Celts also settled in Ireland c. 500 BC.

Julius Caesar invaded and took control of the area 55-54 BC. The Roman province of Britannia endured until the 5th century and included present-day England and Wales.

In the 5th century Nordic tribes of Angles, Saxons, and Jutes invaded Britain.

Christianity began to flourish in the 6th century.

During the 8th-9th century, Vikings, particularly Danes, raided the coasts of Britain.

In the late 9th century Alfred the Great repelled a Danish invasion, which helped bring about the unification of England under Athelstan. The Scots attained dominance in Scotland, which was finally unified under Malcolm II (1005-34). William of Normandy (see William I the Conqueror) took England in 1066. The Norman kings established a strong central government and feudal state. The French language of the Norman rulers eventually merged with the Anglo-Saxon of the common people to form the English language.

From the 11th century, Scotland came under the influence of the English throne.

Henry II conquered Ireland in the late 12th century. His sons Richard I and John had conflicts with the clergy and nobles, and eventually John was forced to grant the nobles concessions in the Magna Carta (1215).

The concept of community of the realm developed during the 13th century, providing the foundation for parliamentary government. During the reign of Edward I, statute law developed to supplement English common law, and the first Parliament began to function.

In 1314 Robert Bruce (see Robert I) won independence for Scotland.

The Tudors became the ruling family of England following the Wars of the Roses (1455-85).

Henry VIII established the Church of England and incorporated Wales as part of England.

The reign of Elizabeth I began a period of colonial expansion; 1588 brought the defeat of the Spanish Armada.

In 1603 James VI of Scotland ascended to the English throne, becoming James I, and established a personal union of the two kingdoms. The English Civil Wars started in 1642 between Royalists and Parliamentarians, ending in the execution of Charles I (1649). After eleven years of Puritan rule under Oliver Cromwell and his son (1649-60), the monarchy was restored with Charles II.

The Great Plague (1664-66) broke out and up to 100,000 people died in London. This was the worst and the last of the epidemics. The disease spread throughout the country, but from 1667 only sporadic cases appeared until 1679. The plague's decline was attributed to various causes, including the Great Fire of London (September 2-5, 1666). Worst fire in London's history. It destroyed a large part of the city, including most of the civic buildings, St. Paul's Cathedral, 87 parish churches, and about 13,000 houses.

In 1707 England and Scotland assented to the Act of Union, forming the kingdom of Great Britain.

The Hanoverians ascended to the English throne in 1714, when George Louis, elector of Hanover, became George I of Great Britain. During the reign of George III, Great Britain's American colonies won independence (1783). This was followed by a period of war with revolutionary France and later with the empire of Napoleon (1789-1815).

In 1801 legislation united Great Britain with Ireland to create the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.

Britain was the birthplace of the Industrial Revolution in the late 18th century, and it remained the world's foremost economic power until the late 19th century.

During the reign of Queen Victoria, Britain's colonial expansion reached its zenith, though the older dominions, including Canada and Australia, were granted independence (1867 and 1901, respectively).

The United Kingdom entered World War I allied with France and Russia in 1914. Following the war, revolutionary disorder began in Ireland, and in 1921 the Irish Free State (see Ireland) was granted dominion status. The six counties of Ulster, however, remained in the United Kingdom as Northern Ireland.

The United Kingdom entered World War II in 1939. Following the war the Irish Free State became the Irish Republic and left the Commonwealth. India also gained independence from the United Kingdom.

Throughout the postwar period and into the 1970s, the United Kingdom continued to grant independence to its overseas colonies and dependencies.

With U.N. forces, it participated in the Korean War (1950-53). In 1956 it intervened militarily in Egypt during the Suez Crisis. In 1982 it defeated Argentina in the Falkland Islands War.

As a result of continuing social strife in Northern Ireland, it joined with Ireland in several peace initiatives, which eventually resulted in an agreement to establish an assembly in Northern Ireland. In 1997 referenda approved in Scotland and Wales devolved power to both countries, though both remained part of the United Kingdom.

Vocabulary notes

attain - добиваться, достигать

clergy – духовенство

conquer - завоевывать, покорять; порабощать; подчинять; подавлять (силой оружия)

(to) devolve - передавать (права, полномочия, обязанности и т. п.; кому-л. - on/upon); переходить к другому лицу (о должности, обязанностях, имуществе и т. п.)

dominion – доминион; владение;

expansion - увеличение, расширение; распространение, экспансия; рост, развитие

flourish - процветать, преуспевать, быть в расцвете (сил), быть на вершине (о людях, начинаниях)

(to) intervene - вмешиваться; вклиниваться, вступаться

(to) invade - вторгаться; захватывать, оккупировать

legislation - законодательство; законодательная деятельность; закон; законопроект

(the) Magna Carta - Великая хартия вольностей (1215)

(to) merge - поглощать; сливать(ся), соединять(ся) (with)

reign - правление, царствование

referendum - референдум, всенародный опрос (referenda- мн.ч.)

ruler - властелин, правитель

statute law - право, выраженное в законах; законы, статутное право, "писаный закон"; (common law - общее право; неписаный закон)

strife - борьба; раздор, спор, соперничество

tribe - племя

Abbrevations

A.-S. – Anglo-Saxons;

U.N. – United Nations;

Political system

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (usually shortened to the United Kingdom, the UK or Britain) is a constitutional monarchy composed of four constituent countries: England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

The United Kingdom is a Constitutional Monarchy, with executive power exercised on behalf of the monarch by the Prime Minister and other cabinet ministers. The monarch technically holds all executive power and must nominate a head of government (Prime Minister) that the Parliament agrees upon. The Prime Minister is a member of the House of Commons.

The cabinet, including the Prime Minister, and other senior ministers collectively make up Her Majesty's Government. These ministers are drawn from, and are responsible to, Parliament.

The Prime Minister appoints ministers to government posts, usually from senior members of their own party. Most ministers are members of the House of Commons. The remaining ministers are usually from the House of Lords, Ministers do not legally have to come from Parliament.

The Palace of Westminster, on the banks of the River Thames, London, houses the Parliament of the United Kingdom.

Parliament is composed of the elected House of Commons and the unelected House of Lords. The House of Commons is the more powerful of the two houses. The members of the House of Commons are directly elected from single-member constituencies based on population. The House of Lords is constituted of life peers, hereditary peers, and bishops of the Church of England. (The House of Lords Act 1999 removed the automatic inheritance of seats in the Lords and permitted 92 hereditary peers to remain.) The Church of England is the established church of the state in England only.

The Scottish Parliament, National Assembly of Wales and Northern Ireland Assembly each have their own executives and separate law making and constitutional powers. In the United Kingdom, the monarch has extensive theoretical powers, but his/her role is mainly, though not exclusively, ceremonial. The monarch is an integral part of Parliament and theoretically gives Parliament the power to meet and create legislation. An Act of Parliament does not become law until it has been signed by the monarch (known as Royal Assent), although not one has refused assent to a bill that has been approved by Parliament since Queen Anne in 1708. The present monarch is Queen Elizabeth II who acceded to the throne in 1952 and was crowned in 1953.

The monarch is also Head of State of fifteen other Commonwealth Realms, including Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Jamaica. The Crown Dependencies

of the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man, formally possessions of the Crown, form a federacy with the United Kingdom collectively known as the British Islands. The UK also has fourteen overseas territories, all remnants of the British Empire (a quarter of the world's surface and population).

The Commonwealth of Nations (CN), usually known as the Commonwealth and formerly as the British Commonwealth, is a voluntary association of 53 independent sovereign states all of which are former possessions of the British Empire, except for Mozambique and the United Kingdom itself.

Queen Elizabeth II is the Head of the Commonwealth, In practice, the Queen heads the Commonwealth in a symbolic capacity, and it is the Commonwealth Secretary-General who is the chief executive of the organisation.

Elizabeth II is also the Head of State, separately, of sixteen members of the Commonwealth, called Commonwealth Realms. And each Realm is an independent kingdom. Beyond the Realms, the majority of the members of the Commonwealth have their own, separate Heads of State: thirty-one members are Commonwealth republics and five members have their own monarchs (Brunei, Lesotho, Malaysia, Swaziland, and Tonga).

The Commonwealth is primarily an organization in which countries with diverse economic backgrounds have an opportunity for close and equal interaction. The primary activities of the Commonwealth are designed to create an atmosphere of economic co-operation between member nations, as well as the promotion of democracy, human rights, and good governance in those nations.

The Commonwealth is not a political union, and does not allow the United Kingdom to exercise any power over the affairs of the organisation's other members.

Every four years the Commonwealth's members celebrate the

 

The flag of the CN The Commonwealth of Nations as of 2006

 

Commonwealth Games, the world's second-largest multi-sport event after the Olympic Games.

The United Kingdom is one of the three countries in the world today that does not have a codified constitution (the other two being New Zealand and Israel), relying instead on traditional customs and separate pieces of constitutional law.

At present there are two main political parties in England. The Conservative (or Tory) Party started as Royalists in the 17th century. Now it represents the interests of the big landowners, the bankers and the industrialists. The Labour Party was established at the beginning of this century. It was set up by the trade-unions and various small socialist groups. But now there isn’t much difference between the two parties.

Tony Blair was elected in 1997. The current Prime Minister is Gordon Brown.

Vocabulary notes

Assent – согласие; одобрение, утверждение, разрешение, санкция

Bishop - епископ (Anglican bishop — епископ протестантской церкви)

Chief executive - глава исполнительной власти; губернатор штата; зд. глава правительства

Codify - составлять кодекс, кодифицировать

Commonwealth of Nations - Содружество Наций

Dependency - зависимая страна, зависимая территория

Executive power – исполнительная власть

Hereditary peer - наследственный пэр

London

London is the capital city of England and the United Kingdom.

London is today one of the world's leading business, financial and cultural centres, and its influence in politics, education, entertainment, media, fashion and the arts all contribute to its status as one of the major global cities.

London is the most populous city within city limits in the European Union with an official population of 7.6 million and has a metropolitan area population of around 13 million people. Its population is very cosmopolitan (a wide range of peoples, cultures and religions, speaking over 300 different languages). London is an international transport hub (centre), with five international airports and a large port. It serves as the largest aviation hub in the world, and its main airport, the multi terminal Heathrow, carries more international passengers than any other airport in the world.

Inner London includes the original City of London and 13 of London's 33 boroughs; Greater London includes all 33 boroughs.

One area of London which does have a strict definition is the City of London (usually just called The City), the largest financial district and central business district (CBD) in Europe. The City has its own governance and boundaries, giving it a status as the only completely autonomous local authority in London.

The West End is London's main entertainment and shopping district, with locations such as Oxford Street, Leicester Square, Covent Garden and Piccadilly Circus acting as tourist magnets. The West London area is known for fashionable and expensive residential areas such as Notting Hill, Knightsbridge and Chelsea — where properties can sell for tens of millions of pounds.

The eastern side of London contains the East End and East London. The East End is the area closest to the original Port of London, known for its high immigrant population, as well as for being one of the poorest areas in London. North London and South London are informal divisions of the capital made by the River Thames.

London is a major tourist destination, with four world heritage sites and numerous iconic landmarks such as Houses of Parliament, Tower Bridge, the Tower of London, Westminster Abbey, Buckingham Palace and the London Eye amongst its many attractions, along with famous institutions such as the British Museum and the National Gallery, Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum and so on.

Exhibitions of wax figures are still popular, the most famous being those of Marie Tussaud in London. Her museum contains a variety of historical figures, including the original models she made of her great contemporaries, including Voltaire and Benjamin Franklin.

British Museum is a Britain's national museum of archaeology and antiquities, established in London in 1753 when the government purchased three large private collections consisting of books, manuscripts, prints, drawings, paintings, medals, coins, seals, cameos, and natural curiosities.

The British Library is now one of the world's largest and most comprehensive collections of books, drawings, Chinese ceramics and the natural-history collections.

Tate Gallery is an art museum housing the national collection of British painting and sculpture and of modern British and European art since 1870. It is named after Sir Henry Tate (1819-1899), a sugar refiner and inventor of the sugar cube, who donated his collection of Victorian art to the nation in 1890.

There are many famous historic landmarks in London. The Palace of Westminster, known also as the Houses of Parliament, is where the two Houses of the Parliament of the United Kingdom (the House of Lords and the House of Commons) conduct their sittings. The Palace lies on the north bank of the River Thames in the London borough of the City of Westminster.

Big Ben is one of the most famous landmarks in the world. The clock tower is situated on the banks of the River Thames and is part of the Palace of Westminster. Officially Big Ben is only the name of the biggest of the five bells in the clock tower also known as St Stephen's Tower.

Buckingham Palace is one of the most popular landmarks in London. It is the London home of the British Royal family. The 600 room palace is surrounded by a 40 acre garden.

Tower of London on the north banks of the River Thames, was built by William the Conqueror, following his successful invasion in 1066. It has been added to over the years by the various monarchs. The Tower, or Bloody Tower as it is known, has been host to many famous executions and imprisonments, including those of Anne Boleyn, Catherine Howard, Lady Jane Grey and Sir Walter Raleigh. The Jewel House, which houses the Crown Jewels, lies within the confines of the Tower of London.

The London Eye, next to County Hall, is another of London’s most modern landmarks. It is the world’s biggest ferries wheel, and will carry 800 passengers at a time on a thirty-minute ride. From its highest point of 450 feet, it promises views of up to 25 miles.

St Paul’s Cathedral is one of the most popular landmarks in London The dome of St Paul's Cathedral is the second biggest dome in the world, after St Peter's in Rome.

The Millennium Dome in London is the largest dome in the world, covering

over 180 acres; it is 320m in diameter and 50m high with support towers

reaching 100m. It was built on the Greenwich Meridian (0 degrees longitude) to commemorate the ringing in of the new millennium.

There are many monuments in London: The Monument in the City of London commemorating the Great Fire of London; Marble Arch and Wellington Arch, the Albert Memorial and Royal Albert Hall in Kensington; Nelson's Column is a nationally-recognized monument in Trafalgar Square.

Often called "The Green City" London has a number of parks. The largest of these are the Royal Parks of Hyde Park and its neighbours Kensington Gardens and Holland Park Gardens in the centre of London, Regent's Park on the northern edge, Royal Parks of Greenwich Park to the south east, and Bushy Park and Richmond Park to the south west of the city centre.

Vocabulary notes

antiquity - древность; старина; классическая древность, античность

borough - городок, небольшой город

(to) confine - заключать в тюрьму; заточать, держать взаперти

dome – купол

(to) donate - дарить, жаловать, жертвовать

execution - казнь; уничтожение, разрушение

ferris wheel - чертово колесо (аттракцион)

hub - центр (событий, внимания, деятельности)

landmark – достопримечательность

imprisonment - заключение

metropolitan area - столичная зона; большой Лондон (включающий все муниципальные районы)

Abbreviation

archit. - architecture

B.L. – British Library

bldg(s) – building(s)

boro. – borough

CBD - central business district

Lond. – London

Largest cities

The list of United Kingdom top cities by population:

1) London, with the population of 7,509,000 people;

2) Birmingham - 1,001,000 people;

3) Glasgow, - 629,501 people.

Other major cities with urban area populations in excess of 250,000 inhabitants are - alphabetically - Belfast, Bradford, Bristol, Cardiff, Coventry, Edinburgh, Kingston Upon Hull, Leeds, Leicester, Liverpool, Manchester, Nottingham, Sheffield, Stoke on Trent and Wolverhampton. The most prominent of them are the following ones:

Birmingham is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands, England. Birmingham is the largest of England's core cities, and is considered to be the United Kingdom's second city. It includes several neighbouring towns and cities, such as Solihull, Wolverhampton and the towns of the Black Country. Birmingham is situated just to the west of the geographical centre of England on the Birmingham Plateau between the basins of the Rivers Severn and Trent. The city's reputation was forged as a powerhouse of the Industrial Revolution in Britain. It is a center of various industries such as the iron and steel industry.

Glasgow is the largest city in Scotland and third most populous in the United Kingdom. It is situated on the River Clyde in the country's west central lowlands. From the 18th century the city had become a hub of transatlantic trade with the Americas. The city and surrounding region is one of the world's centres of heavy engineering and shipbuilding, constructing many famous vessels. Today it is one of Europe's top twenty financial centres and is home to many of Scotland's leading businesses.

Manchester is one of the largest industrial cities in the UK. The city centre is on the east bank of the River Irwell, near the confluence of the River Medlock and the River Irk and is relatively low-lying. The River Mersey flows through the south of Manchester. Manchester is often described as the “Capital of the North”. Manchester today is a centre of the arts, the media, higher education and commerce. It is the third most visited city in the United Kingdom by foreign visitors, after London and Edinburgh. Manchester is also well known for its sporting connections, with two major Premier League football teams, Manchester United and Manchester City. Manchester is credited as the world's first industrialised city. It is a centre of the textile region and a chief cotton manufacturing city.Manchester City Centre is now on of UNESCO World Heritage Sites, mainly due to its network of canals and mills.

Sheffield is the centre of heavy industry. It is often called the city of steel. It is situated in South Yorkshire, England. It is so named because of its origins in a field on the River Sheaf that runs through the city.

Edinburgh is the capital of Scotland and its second-largest city. It is in the south-east of Scotland, on the east coast of Scotland's "Central Belt", on the south shore of the Firth of Forth, on the North Sea and, because of its rugged setting and vast collection of Medieval and Georgian Architecture including numerous stone tenements, it is one of the most dramatic cities in Europe. The city was one of the major centres of the enlightenment, led by the University of Edinburgh. The Old Town and New Town districts of Edinburgh were listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1995. Edinburgh is well-known for the annual Edinburgh Festival, a collection of official and independent festivals held annually over about four weeks from early August.

Liverpool is a city in North West England situated along the eastern side of the Mersey Estuary. Liverpool is one of England's core cities and it’s fifth most populous — 447,500. It is an industrial city (textile industry) and a principal port of Western England. Liverpool is internationally known as a cultural centre, with a particularly rich history in popular music (most notably The Beatles), performing and visual arts.

Cardiff is the capital, largest and core city of Wales. It was a major port for the transport of coal following the arrival of industry in the region. It serves as a major centre of culture, sport and history in the United Kingdom. Cardiff have the largest concentration of Castles of any city in Europe. It is situated to the south by the Bristol Channel. The River Taff winds through the centre of the city and together with the River Ely flows into the freshwater lake of Cardiff Bay. A third river, the Rhymney flows through the east of the city entering directly into the Bristol Channel. A fourth river, the Lleucu has been culverted.

Belfast is the capital of Northern Ireland. It is situated on Northern Ireland`s eastern coast. Belfast is also located at the eastern end of Belfast Lough and at the mouth of the River Lagan making it an ideal location for the shipbuilding industry that once made it famous (the Titanic was built in Belfast in 1912).

Bristol is one of the centres of culture, employment and education in the region. It served as the commercial port but now its economy is based on the aerospace industry, and the city centre docks have been regenerated as a centre of heritage and culture. Bristol is 15 miles (185 km) west of London and has a short coastline on the estuary of the River Severn which flows into the Bristol Channel.

Vocabulary notes

confluence - слияние (рек); пересечение (дорог)

dramatic - волнующий, яркий

Enlightment – образование, обучение, просвещение; просвещенность (the age of Enlightenment — эпоха Просвещения)

estuary - дельта; устье реки

metropolitan borough - столичное городское поселение, столичный муниципальный район

populous - густонаселенный; (много)людный

rugged - пересеченный, заваленный, труднопроходимый (о местности) surrounding - ближайший, ближний, близлежащий, соседний, окружающий

tenement – владение; обитель

Abbreviations

UNESCO - United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (Организация ООН по вопросам образования, науки и культуры, ЮНЕСКО)

Culture

Great Britain has the rich and ancient culture. Its capital London is a cultural centre of the country.

Literature and film

London has been the setting for many works of literature. Two writers closely associated with the city are the diarist Samuel Pepys, famous for his eyewitness account of the Great Fire, and Charles Dickens, whose representation of a foggy, snowy, grimy London of street sweepers and pickpockets has been a major influence on people's vision of early Victorian London. James Boswell's biographical Life of Johnson mostly takes place in London. The earlier (1722) A Journal of the Plague Year by Daniel Defoe is a fictionalization of the events of the 1665 Great Plague. William Shakespeare spent a large part of his life living and working in London; his contemporary Ben Jonson was also based in London, and some of his work - most notably his play The Alchemist - was set in the city. Later important depictions of London from the 19th and early 20th centuries are the before-mentioned Dickens novels, and Arthur Conan Doyle's famous Sherlock Holmes stories. A modern writer pervasively influenced by the city is Peter Ackroyd, in works such as London: The Biography, The Lambs of London and Hawksmoor. Along with Bloomsbury, the hilly area of Hampstead has traditionally been the liberal, literary heartland of London.

London has played a significant role in the film industry, and has major studios at Pinewood, Shepperton, Elstree and Leavesden, as well as an important special effects and post-production community. Many films have also used London as a location and have done much to shape international perceptions of the city.

The city also hosts a number of performing arts schools, including the Central School of Speech and Drama, whose past students include Judi Dench and Laurence Olivier, the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art (educators of Jim Broadbent and Donald Sutherland among others) and the prestigious Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (past students including Joan Collins and Roger Moore).

The London Film Festival is held in the city each October.

Music

London is one of the major classical and popular music capitals of the world and is home to one of the five major global music corporations, countless bands, musicians and industry professionals.

Classical music

London is home to many orchestras and concert halls, including:

Barbican Arts Centre (London Symphony Orchestra), Cadogan Hall (Royal Philharmonic Orchestra), Royal Albert Hall (BBC Promenade Concerts), Royal Festival Hall (Philharmonia Orchestra, London Philharmonic Orchestra, London Sinfonietta), Wigmore Hall.

Opera

London has two main opera houses - the Royal Opera House and the Coliseum Theatre.

Ballet

The Royal Ballet and English National Ballet are based in London and perform at the Royal Opera House, Sadler's Wells and the Royal Albert Hall.

Rock/Pop music

London has numerous venues for rock and pop concerts, most notably Earls Court and Wembley Arena, as well as the smaller ones such as Brixton Academy and Hammersmith Apollo. The area around the northern part of Charing Cross Road in Westminster is famous for its shops that sell modern musical instruments and audio equipment.

London and its surrounding Home Counties have spawned iconic and popular artists. London is home to the first and original Hard Rock Cafe and the famous Abbey Road Studios.

As Britain's largest urban area, London has played a key role in the development of most British-born strains of "urban" and electronic music, such as drum and bass, UK garage, grime and dubstep, and is home to many UK hiphop artists.

In 2006, according to DJ Magazine in a poll of over 600 international DJs, London is home to the three best nightclubs in the world, Fabric, The End and Turnmills.

Composers William Byrd, Thomas Tallis, John Taverner, John Blow, Henry Purcell, Edward Elgar, Arthur Sullivan, William Walton, Ralph Vaughan Williams, Benjamin Britten and Michael Tippett have made major contributions to British music, and are known internationally. Living composers include John Tavener, Harrison Birtwistle, Andrew Lloyd Webber, and Oliver Knussen.

Britain also supports a number of major orchestras including the BBC Symphony Orchestra, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, the Philharmonia, the London Symphony Orchestra and the London Philharmonic Orchestra. Because of its location and other economic factors, London is one of the most important cities for music in the world: it has several important concert halls and is also home to the Royal Opera House, one of the world's leading opera houses. British traditional music has also been very influential abroad.

The UK was, with the US, one of the two main countries in the development of rock and roll, and has provided bands including The Beatles, the Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, The Who, Pink Floyd, Queen, Elton John, David Bowie, Judas Priest, Iron Maiden, Status Quo, The Smiths, the Sex Pistols, The Clash, the Manic Street Preachers, Duran Duran, The Cure, Oasis, Blur, Radiohead and Coldplay. It has provided inspiration for many modern bands today, including Kaiser Chiefs, Bloc Party, Babyshambles, The Libertines, Arctic Monkeys and Franz Ferdinand. Since then it has also pioneered in various forms of electronic dance music including acid house, drum and bass and trip hop, all of which were in whole or part developed in the United Kingdom. Acclaimed British dance acts include Underworld, Orbital, Massive Attack, The KLF, The Prodigy, The Chemical Brothers and Portishead.

Literature

The earliest native literature of the territory of the modern United Kingdom was written in the Celtic languages of the isles. Anglo-Saxon literature includes Beowulf, a national epic, but literature in Latin predominated among educated elites. After the Norman Conquest Anglo-Norman literature brought continental influences to the isles.

Geoffrey Chaucer is the first great identifiable individual in English literature: his Canterbury Tales remains a popular 14th-century work which readers still enjoy today.

Following the introduction of the printing press into England by William Caxton in 1476, the Elizabethan era saw a great flourishing of literature, especially in the fields of poetry and drama. From this period, poet and playwright William Shakespeare stands out as the most famous writer in the world.

The English novel became a popular form in the 18th century, with Daniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe (1719), Samuel Richardson's Pamela (1740) and Henry Fielding's Tom Jones (1745).

After a period of decline, the poetry of Robert Burns revived interest in vernacular literature, the rhyming weavers of Ulster being especially influenced by literature in Scots from Scotland.

The following two centuries continued a huge outpouring of literary production. In the early 19th century, the Romantic period showed a flowering of poetry with such poets as William Blake, William Wordsworth, John Keats, and Lord Byron. The Victorian period was the golden age of the realistic English novel, represented by Jane Austen, the Brontë sisters (Charlotte, Emily and Anne), Charles Dickens, William Thackeray, George Eliot, and Thomas Hardy.

World War I gave rise to British war poets and writers such as Wilfred Owen, Siegfried Sassoon, Robert Graves and Rupert Brooke who wrote of their expectations of war, and/or their experiences in the trench.

The English novel developed in the 20th century into much greater variety and was greatly enriched by immigrant writers. It remains today the dominant English literary form.

Other well-known novelists include Arthur Conan Doyle, D. H. Lawrence, George Orwell, Salman Rushdie, Mary Shelley, J. R. R. Tolkien, Virginia Woolf and J.K. Rowling.

Important poets include Elizabeth Barrett Browning, T. S. Eliot, Ted Hughes, John Milton, Alfred Tennyson, Rudyard Kipling, Alexander Pope, and Dylan Thomas.

Theatre

The United Kingdom also has a vibrant tradition of theatre. Theatre was introduced to the UK from Europe by the Romans and auditoriums were constructed across the country for this purpose.

By the medieval period theatre had developed with the mummers' plays, a form of early street theatre associated with the Morris dance, concentrating on themes such as Saint George and the Dragon and Robin Hood. The medieval mystery plays and morality plays, which dealt with Christian themes, were performed at religious festivals. The reign of Elizabeth I in the late 16th and early 17th century saw a flowering of the drama and all the arts. Perhaps the most famous playwright in the world, William Shakespeare, wrote around 40 plays that are still performed in theatres across the world to this day. They include tragedies, such as Hamlet (1603), Othello (1604), and King Lear (1605); comedies, such as A Midsummer Night's Dream (1594—96) and Twelfth Night (1602); and history plays, such as Henry IV, part 1—2. The Elizabethan age is sometimes nicknamed "the age of Shakespeare" for the amount of influence he held over the era. Other important Elizabethan and 17th-century playwrights include Ben Jonson, Christopher Marlowe, and John Webster.

During 1642—1660 English theatres were kept closed by the Puritans for religious and ideological reasons. The London theatres opened again with the Restoration of the monarchy in 1660. It was the time of the introduction of the first professional actresses (in Shakespeare's time, all female roles had been played by boys). New genres of the Restoration were heroic drama, pathetic drama, and Restoration comedy. The Restoration plays that have best retained the interest of producers and audiences today are the comedies, such as William Wycherley's The Country Wife (1676), The Rover (1677) by the first professional woman playwright, Aphra Behn, John Vanbrugh's The Relapse (1696), and William Congreve's The Way of the World (1700).

In the 18th century, the Restoration comedy was replaced by sentimental comedy, domestic tragedy such as George Lillo's The London Merchant (1731), and by an overwhelming interest in Italian opera.

In the late 19th century appear the plays of the Irishmen George Bernard Shaw and Oscar Wilde and the Norwegian Henrik Ibsen, all of whom influenced domestic English drama and vitalised it again.

Today the West End of London has a large number of theatres, particularly centred around Shaftesbury Avenue. A prolific composer of the 20th century Andrew Lloyd Webber, has dominated the West End for a number of years and his musicals have travelled to Broadway in New York and around the world, as well as being turned into films (Jesus Christ Superstar, Chicago, Cats).

The Royal Shakespeare Company operates out of Shakespeare's birthplace Stratford-upon-Avon in England, producing mainly but not exclusively Shakespeare's plays.

Important modern playwrights include Alan Ayckbourn, John Osborne, Harold Pinter, Tom Stoppard, and Arnold Wesker.

Broadcasting

Britain has been at the forefront of developments in film, radio, and television.

Many important films have been produced in Britain over the last century, and a large number of significant actors and film-makers have emerged. Currently the main film production centres are at Shepperton and Pinewood Studios.

Broadcasting in Britain has historically been dominated by the BBC, although independent radio and television (ITV, Channel 4, Five) and satellite broadcasters have become more important in recent years. BBC television, and the other three main television channels are public service broadcasters who, as part of their license allowing them to operate, broadcast a variety of minority interest programming. The BBC and Channel 4 are state-owned, though they operate independently.

Britain has a large number of national and local radio stations which cover a great variety of programming. The most listened to stations are the five main national BBC radio stations. BBC Radio 1, a new music station aimed at the 16-24 age groups. BBC Radio 2, a varied popular music and chat station aimed at adults is consistently highest in the ratings. BBC Radio 4, a varied talk station, is noted for its news, current affairs, drama and comedy output as well as The Archers, its long running soap opera, and other unique programmes. The BBC, as a public service broadcaster, also runs minority stations such as BBC Asian Network, BBC 1xtra and BBC 6 Music, and local stations throughout the country.

Newspapers

Traditionally, British newspapers could be split into "quality", serious-minded newspaper (usually referred to as "broadsheets" due to their large size) and the more populist, tabloid varieties. The Sun has the highest circulation of any daily newspaper in the UK, with approximately a quarter of the market; its sister paper, The News of The World similarly leads the Sunday newspaper market and traditionally focuses on celebrity-led stories. The Daily Telegraph, a right-of-centre paper, has overtaken The Times as the highest-selling of the "quality" newspapers (former broadsheets). The Guardian is a more liberal (centre to left-wing) "quality". The Financial Times is the main business paper, printed on distinctive salmon-pink broadsheet paper. Scotland has a distinct tradition of newspaper readership. The Belfast News Letter is the oldest known English-speaking daily newspaper still in publication today. It’s fellow Northern Irish competitor, The Belfast Telegraph and holds the title as the "best regional newspaper in the United Kingdom".

Visual art

Notable visual artists from the United Kingdom include John Constable, Sir Joshua Reynolds, Thomas Gainsborough, William Blake and J.M.W. Turner. In the 20th century, Francis Bacon, David Hockney, Bridget Riley, and the pop artists Richard Hamilton and Peter Blake were of note.

More recently, the so-called Young British Artists have gained some notoriety, particularly Damien Hirst and Tracey Emin.

Notable illustrators include Aubrey Beardsley, Roger Hargreaves, and Beatrix Potter.

Notable arts institutions include the Allied Artists' Association, Royal College of Art, Artists' Rifles, Royal Society of Arts, New English Art Club, Slade School of Art, Royal Academy, and the Tate Gallery.

Vocabulary notes

broadcaster - диктор; (радио- или теле-)вещательная компания

broadsheet - большой лист бумаги с печатным текстом на одной стороне; листовка; плакат (зд. серьёзная пресса)

contemporary – современник; современный

fictionalization - рассказ о событиях, с изменениями и добавлением некоторых деталей; использование реальных событий в качестве сюжетной основы для литературного или драматического произведения

grime - грязь (тж. перен.)

grimy - запачканный, покрытый сажей, углем; чумазый; грязный

identifiable - опознаваемый

medieval - средневековый

morality plays - миракль

Morris dance - моррис (народный театрализованный танец; исполняется во время майских празднеств [May games]; мужчины в средневековых костюмах с колокольчиками, трещотками изображают легендарных героев, Робин Гуда [Robin Hood I]) от Moorish - мавританский, по предполагаемому происхождению танца

mummers' play – шутовское представление

mystery play - мистерия

notoriety - дурная слава, известность; знаменитость; человек, пользующийся дурной славой

outpouring - излияние (чувств)

performing arts - исполнительный вид искусства (танец, драма и т.д.)

pervasively - проникающий

pickpockets - вор-карманник

playwright - драматург

relapse - повторение; рецидив

Restoration – Реставрация, реставрация монархии (1660; после Английской буржуазной революции)

rhyming - рифмующий (ся)

The Rover - морской разбойник, пират; вор, грабитель, похититель, разбойник

(to) spawn - порождать, вызывать

tabloid - малоформатная газета со сжатым текстом, иллюстрациями и броскими заголовками; бульварная (низкопробная) газета

vernacular - народный; национальный

venue - место сбора, встречи

vibrant - живой, энергичный; трепещущий

visual arts - изобразительные искусства (включая кино и телевидение)

weaver - ткач; ткачиха; вязальщик; паук

Abbreviations

BBC – British Broadcasting Corporation

rep. – report

rev. – review

Educational System

Public education in Great Britain consists of primary, secondary and further education. Primary and secondary education is compulsory for all children. Further education is voluntary. The primary school includes nursery school (age 2-5), infant school (age 5-7) and junior school (age 7-11).

English children must go to school when they are 5. First they go to infant school, where they learn to read, write and count.

At the age of 7 they go to junior schools until they are 11 years old. Their school subjects are English, arithmetic, history, geography, music, art, religious instruction and so on. They study 5 years there. Then they have to take exams and after that go to a secondary school.

The full secondary school age ranges from 11 to 18. There are different types of secondary schools. Among them are the secondary technical schools. It is not specialized one. It teaches many general subjects.

The grammar school offers a full theoretical secondary education including foreign languages. Students can choose the subjects they wish to study. Children can get the General Certificate of Education at the ordinary level after 5 years of study. They also can obtain it at the advanced level if they study 2 or 3 years more, which allows to enter the university.

The comprehensive schools combine in one school the courses of all types of secondary schools.

There are many non-state schools in Britain and you must pay (high fees) to study there.

Among them are private schools in the UK, separate for boys and girls. The biggest and the most important of them are public schools. They train young people for political, diplomatic, military or religious service.

Less than ten percent of the UK school age population attends independent fee-paying schools. Many prominent independent schools, often founded hundreds of years ago, are known as public schools of which Eton, Harrow and Rugby are three of the better known.

After finishing secondary school it is possible to enter institute or university to get the higher education. You can get the bachelor degree or the master’s degree there.

Vocabulary notes

bachelor - бакалавр

comprehensive school - общеобразовательная школа; единая, комплексная школа

compulsory education — обязательное обучение

fee - плата за обучение (в школе, университете и т.д.)

grammar school - средняя школа; классы с 5 по 8 средней школы

infant school - дошкольное учреждение; детский сад; ясли

junior school - младшие классы (средней школы)

master – магистр

nursery school - детский сад

primary school - начальная школа

public school - привилегированное частное учебное заведение для мальчиков (в Англии); (бесплатная) средняя школа (в США и Шотландии)

secondary school - средняя школа

voluntary - добровольный

Universities

British universities can be divided into three main groups: the old universities, the redbrick universities (made of red brick), which include all the provincial universities of the period 1850-1930, as well as London University; the new universities, founded after the Second World War.

The United Kingdom contains some of the world's leading seats of higher education. These include the so-called Oxbridge universities (Oxford University (1167) and Cambridge University (1209) which are amongst the world's oldest universities and are generally ranked at or near the top of all British universities. A number of well known scientists and writers, among them Newton, Darwin and Byron, were educated in Cambridge. Until the 19th century, Oxford and Cambridge were the only universities in England, and there was no place for girls. At present there are five women’s colleges. These two universities differ greatly from all the others in general organization, methods of instructions, syllabuses, traditions, history, etc. They are based on colleges (law, music, natural, science, economics, agriculture, engineering, commerce, education, etc.), each college having about 300 students.

Some institutions are world-renowned in specialised and often narrow areas of study, such as Imperial College London (science and engineering) and London School of Economics (economics and social sciences) and University College (UCL) of the University of London.

Other universities include the University of St Andrews, the oldest university in Scotland. There are 112 universities/university colleges in the UK. This amount to 138 university-level institutions of the distinct constituent colleges of the University of London and University of Wales are defined as separate universities. Most of the UK's major cities are home to two or more universities.

All British universities are private non-state controlled institutions. Students have to pay fees and living costs, but every student may receive a personal grant from the local authority of the place where he lives.

Vocabulary notes

(to) amount to - достигать, составлять; равняться, быть эквивалентным

authority – власть, руководство

сonstituent - компонент, компонента, составная часть

fee-paying - платный

redbrick university - новые университеты Англии, "краснокирпичные" университеты (так названы потому, что построены из красного кирпича)

syllabus - расписание; учебный план; программа (курса, лекций и т.д.)

world-renowned - мировой (известный во всем мире)

Abbreviations

Oxf. - Oxford

Oxbridge - Oxford University and Cambridge University

UCL - University College

Famous people

Politics

Sir Winston Churchill, (1874-1965),

was a politician, a soldier, an artist, and the 20th century's most famous and celebrated Prime Minister.

Margaret Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher
Margaret Thatcher was the United Kingdom's first woman prime minister, and she held the office of PM for longer than anyone in the 20th century.

Horatio Nelson, 1st Viscount Nelson
Nelson is the greatest hero in British naval history, an honour he earned by defeating Napoleon's fleet in the 1805 Battle of Trafalgar.

Oliver Cromwell (1599–1658)
Oliver Cromwell was a military, political, and religious figure who led the Parliamentarian victory in the English Civil War (1642–1649) and called for the execution of Charles I. He was Lord Protector of England for much of the 1650s, ruling in place of the country's traditional monarchy.

Sir Thomas More
English politician, humanist scholar, and writer who refused to comply with the Act of Supremacy, by which English subjects were enjoined to recognize Henry VIII's authority over the pope, and was imprisoned in the Tower of London and beheaded for treason.

William Wilberforce (1780–1825)

British politician. As a member of Parliament he campaigned for the British abolition of slavery.

Guy Fawkes (1570-1606)

English conspirator who was executed for his role in a plot to blow up King James I and the Houses of Parliament

Sir William Wallace
Scottish patriot who led resistance against the English and briefly gained control of Scotland in 1298.

King Arthur

A legendary British hero, said to have been king of the Britons in the sixth century A.D. and to have held court at Camelot.

Diana, Princess of Wales

From the time of her marriage to the Prince of Wales in 1981 until her death in a car accident in Paris in 1997, Diana, Princess of Wales was one of the world's most high-profile, most photographed, and most iconic celebrities.

Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington
British general and politician. Commander of British troops during the Peninsular War (1808–1814), he defeated Napoleon at Waterloo (1815), thus ending the Napoleonic Wars. As prime minister (1828–1830) he passed the Catholic Emancipation Act (1829).

Queen Elizabeth I
The daughter of King Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn, Queen Elizabeth 1 reigned England from 1558–1603. Her reign was marked by several plots to overthrow her, the execution of Mary Queen of Scots (1587), the defeat of the Spanish Armada (1588), and domestic prosperity and literary achievement.

King Alfred the Great
King of the West Saxons (871–899), scholar, and lawmaker who repelled the Danes and helped consolidate England into a unified kingdom.

Queen Victoria
Victoria's nearly 64-year reign was the longest in British history.

King Henry VIII
Henry VIII is one of the most famous and controversial kings of England. His divorce from Catherine of Aragon, his first wife, compelled him to break from the Catholic Church by the Act of Supremacy (1534).

Queen Elizabeth II
Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II (Elizabeth Alexandra Mary), is the Queen regnant and Head of State of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and fifteen other Commonwealth countries.

List of the monarchs of the Kingdom of England:

Alfred the Great, (849?-899), King of the Anglo-Saxons.

Queen Anne, (1665-1714), also Queen of Scotland, then Queen of Great Britain after 1707

Charles II, (1660-1685), also King of Scotland

Edward I, (1272-1307), English monarch

Edward II, (1307-1327), English monarch

Edward III, (1327-1377), English monarch

Edward IV, (1461-1470 and 1471-1483), English monarch

Edward V, (1470-1483?), English monarch

Edward VI, (1547-1553), first English Protestant monarch

Edward VII, (1841-1910)

Edward VIII, (1894-1972), (formerly Edward VIII)

Elizabeth I, (1558-1603), Protestant queen and first Supreme Governor of the Church of England

Elizabeth II, (1926-2007) reigning British monarch

George III, (1801-1820), British monarch

George IV, (1762-1830)

George V, (1910-1936), British monarch

George VI, (1895-1952), British monarch

Henry III, (1207-1272), English monarch

Henry IV, (1367-1413), English monarch

Henry VI, (1421-1471), English monarch

Henry VIII, (1491-1547), separated English Catholicism from link with the Roman Catholic Church

Mary I, (1553-1558), Roman Catholic queen

Mary II, (1662-1694)

Richard III, (1483-1485). Last Plantagenet King, and last British monarch to die in Battle.

Queen Victoria, (1819-1901)

William the Conqueror, (1066-1087)

William IV, (1765-1837)

Science

Sir Isaac Newton, (1642-1727) English physicist and mathematician, founder of modern physics, invented differential calculus and formulated the theory of universal gravitation, a theory about the nature of light, and three laws of motion.

Kelvin (of Largs) Baron (1824-1907) British physicist who helped develop the second law of thermodynamics, and invented the absolute temperature scale named after him (see absolute zero).

Francis Bacon (1561-1626) British statesman and philosopher, father of modern scientific method.

James Prescott Joule, (1818 – 1889) who worked extensively in thermodynamics and is often credited with the discovery of the principle of conservation of energy;

James Watt (1736–1819) was a Scottish inventor and engineer whose improvements to the steam engine were fundamental to the changes wrought by the Industrial Revolution.

Maxwell James Clerk (1831-1879) Scottish physicist

He originated the concept of electromagnetic radiation. He established the nature of Saturn's rings, did important work on color perception, and produced the kinetic theory of gases. His ideas formed the basis for quantum mechanics and ultimately for the modern theory of the structure of atoms and molecules.

Earnest Rutherford (1871-1937) New Zealand-British physicist

He discovered and named two types of radioactivity; formulated the transformation theory of radioactivity and so on. In 1908 he was awarded the Nobel Prize.

Charles Darwin (1809-1882) British naturalist, founder of The Theory of Evolution. This theory forms the basis for the modern life sciences. Darwin's most famous books are The Origin of Species and The Descent of Man.

Michael Faraday, (1791-1867),

British physicist and chemist who discovered electromagnetic induction (1831) and proposed the field theory later developed by Maxwell and Einstein.

Robert Hooke (1635–1703)

An English polymath who played an important role in the scientific revolution, through both experimental and theoretical work., in 1660, he discovered Hooke's Law of elasticity, Robert Hooke was also an important architect.

Sir Alexander Fleming
British bacteriologist who discovered penicillin in 1928, for which he shared a Nobel Prize in 1945.

Sir Alexander Graham Bell
Scottish-born American inventor of the telephone.

Architecture

Christopher Wren (1632-1723) British architect, as