Загальні відомості про географічні особливості Об’єднаного Королівства Великобританії. Geographical peculiarities of the United Kingdom in brief.

Загальні відомості про географічні особливості Об’єднаного Королівства Великобританії. Geographical peculiarities of the United Kingdom in brief.

The official title of the UK is the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

The UK is an island nation in Western Europe. The state lies between the North Atlantic Ocean and the North Sea, and comes within 35 km (22 miles) off the coast of France, from which it is separated by the English Channel and the Strait of Dover. The coasline is long and rugged. The seas surrounding the British Isles are shallow, less than 90 m. The distance from the southern coast to the extreme North of Scotland is under 1000 km, and the widest part is under 500 km. Northern Ireland shares a 360 km international land boundary with the Republic of Ireland (Eire). The Channel Tunnel beneath the English Channel, now links the UK with France.

The UK is made up of:

1. Great Britain (the formerly separate realms of England and Scotland, and the principality of Wales.) Great Britain has an area of 229,850 km² and is the largest island of the British Isles.

2. Northern Ireland (also known as Ulster).

3. About 550 smaller islands including the Isle of Wight, the Isle of Man, Anglesey, and the Scilly, Orkney, Shetland, and Hebridean archipelagos.

England occupies an area of 131,8 thousand sq. km. It is bordered by the Cheviot Hills and the Pennine Range, main area consisting of fertile valleys lower than 305 m. The highest part of England is in the west, from where the land gradually slopes down to the east. The white chalk cliffs of the south coast can be seen from many miles out at the sea. The longest rivers flow from the Central Highlands to the sea: the Severn (338 km) and the Thames (332 km).

 

Scotland occupies an area of 78,8 thousand sq. km and has 3 topographical regions: the Northern Highlands, the Central Lowlands and the Southern Uplands. The Highlands are the highest mountains on the British Isles. The coastline is greatly indented with deep fiords penetrating very far inland.

 

Wales is the country of hills and mountains. Its territory is 20,8 thousand sq. km. The Cambrian Mountains occupy almost the entire area, with small lowland areas in the north and coastal plains in the south and in the west. It is an area of high mountains, deep valleys, waterfalls, lakes and heavy rainfall.

 

Northern Ireland consists of low-lying plateaus and hills of volcanic origin from 152 to 183 m high. In the centre the largest lake in the kingdom, Lough Neagh (153 square miles), lies.

 

 

Їжа та напої у Британії (США) Food and Drink in Britain (the USA).

Meals and mealtimes in England are not the same in all families.

Breakfast is the first meal of the day. But it is often a rather hurried and informal meal. Most people do not have a full breakfast, and some have no breakfast at all apart from a hot drink. People who do have a full breakfast say that it is quite good. That is why the writer Somerset Maugham once gave the following advice: «If you want to eat well in England, eat three breakfasts daily.”

At one o’clock comes a meal, which is dinner to some people, lunch for others. More than half the population has a hot dinner (sometimes called lunch) in the middle of the day, and a cool meal in the evening. Others have a light lunch at one, and a hot dinner in the evening. Many men work too far away from their homes to be able to go home for a hot meal in the middle of the day, and many schoolchildren, too, have their lunch in schools. But on Sundays the family sits down together. Sometimes the mother puts the food on the plates in the kitchen, carrying them into the dining-room afterwards; sometimes it is served from large dishes in the dining-room itself.

The next meal is tea, with slices of bread and butter, cakes, and of course, cups of tea. Mother and children may have their tea together at five o’clock in the afternoon, or they may wait a little for father to come in after work.

As it was said above, in the evening some people have a cool meal, which they usually call high tea (or supper). Others have a main meal in the evening, called dinner

10. Стародавні часи. Завоювання Британії кельтами / The Dawn of British History. The Celts.

About 3000 years BC many parts of Europe, including the British Isles, were inhabited by a people called the Iberians who are still found in the North of Spain (later they were mixed with the Picts, Scots and Celts).

During the period from the 6^th-3^rd c. BC a people called the Celts, tall and fair, spread all over Europe from the east to the west. The Celts were ancient people who lived in Central and Western Europe during the New Stone Age, Bronze Age and moved to the British Isles from the continent, from what are now France and Germany during the Iron Age. Whole tribes migrated to the Isles, warriors with their chiefs, their women and their children. The invasion of these tribes known as Celtic tribes went on from the 8^th – 7^th cc. BC to the 1^st c. BC.

The first Celtic comers were the Gaels, but the Brythons arrived some two centuries later and pushed the Gaels to Wales, Scotland, Ireland and Cornwall (West Wales), taking possession of the south and east. The Scots crossed over to Ireland and settled there. Later the Scots returned to the larger island and in time the name of Scotland was given to the country. Powerful Celtic tribes, the Brythons (Britons), held most of the country, and the southern half of the island was named Britain after them.

Then after a considerable lapse of time, somewhat about the 1^st c. BC, the most powerful tribe, the Belgae, claimed possession of the south-east while part of the Brythons was pushed on to Wales though the rest stayed in what is England today, and probably gave their name to the whole country (Britain).

Thus the whole of Britain was occupied by the Celts who merged with the Picts and Scots, as well as with the Alpine part of the population; latter predominated in the west while the rest of the British Isles became distinctly Celtic in language and structure of society.

Монархія. / The Monarchy.

The United Kingdom is a constitutional monarchy. The head of the state is the monarch, who reigns with the support of parliament. It is a tribute to the British monarchy that it still occupies an important place in the political system and social life. The power of the crown to act without consulting parliament is called “ the royal prerogative ”. The Queen appoints the Prime Minister and summons and dissolves Parliament, opens and closes sessions of Parliament, appoints judges and bishops, creates peerage and awards titles and decorations. Declaration of war, treaties with other countries and the granting of self-government are executed by the crown. The Queen is the Commander-in-Chief of the armed forces and the Head of the Commonwealth. In practice, howerever, these powers are ceremonial. Queen Elizabeth II and members of the Royal family take an active part in different charity projects and home and international social events.

The government is made up of the Prime Minister, Secretaries of State, ministers, junior ministers and private parliamentary secretaries (over 100 people in total). The Cabinet is the group of senior ministers. The main functions of the Cabinet are the final determination of policy, supreme control of the executive power and continuous coordination of the state activities. The composition of the cabinet is left to the personal discretion of the Prime Minister. Most cabinet ministers are heads of government departments.

The legislative power is executed by the Parliament. The first parliament was summoned in 1265. Modern British Parliament consists of the House of Commons and the House of Lords. The House of Commons has 650 Members of Parliament, who are elected directly by people every 5 years. The House of Lords has over 1,000 members, who are not elected, but are members of the nobility, bishops, judges, and people chosen by the Prime Minister. They sit in the House by right of inheritance or have been given life peerages which end with the life of their possessors. All proposed bills must pass through both houses before being sent for signature by the Queen, when they become Acts of Parliament and the Law of the Land.

The Houses of Parliament, otherwise known as the Palace of Westminster, stands on the site where Edward the Confessor had the original palace built in the first half of the eleventh century. In 1834 a fire broke out which destroyed much of the old palace. The magnificent Gothic Revival masterpiece we see today was built between 1840 and 1888. The two imposing towers are the clock tower, named after its thirteen ton bell called Big Ben, and Victoria tower, on the flag pole of which the National Flag flies during parliament sittings.

The Chamber of the House of Commons is at the northern end of the Palace of Westminster. The benches, as well as other furniture in the Commons’ side of the Palace, are coloured green. The members of the cabinet sit on the front benches while opposition senior members sit directly opposite. The distance between the benches marked out on the floor in red lines, is exactly two sword lengths and one foot apart. Members are not allowed to cross these lines, thus ensuring that debates are kept orderly. The Speaker of the house presides over sittings, keeping order.

 

The Chamber of the House of Lords is located in the southern part of the Palace of Westminster. The House of Lords decorated in scarlet and gold has all the grandeur one would expect in this chamber. This is where Her Majesty the Queen comes to open Parliament each November. The gold throne which dominates the house is where the Queen sits to deliver the traditional opening speech. The Lord Speaker sits opposite, on the famous Woolsack, this is a large scarlet cushion filled with wool, a tradition dating back to the middle ages when wool was England's largest export.

Upper Class

Aristocracy and the top rich people in Britain (the royal family, the surviving titled families from feudal system and old landowning families with aristocratic background (dukes, earls, barons) and the entrepreneurial rich enjoy special status in Britain, the status of the upper classes who are a very small minority of the country’s population (not more than 1% of it). They are treated with great difference in Britain, though not by all the people.

Most of the people are classified according to their occupation:

Middle Class / “White Collar”

· CLASS 1

Professional occupations, including higher-grade professionals and higher administrators, lawyers, architects, doctors, managers, university teachers

· CLASS 2

Intermediate occupations, including intermediate professionals and administrators, e.g. lower-grade professionals, administrators and managers, supervisors and higher-grade technicians, shopkeepers, farmers, actors, musicians, teachers

· CLASS 3 N (a)

Skilled occupations (Non-manual), including non-manual workers, e.g. clerks, sales and rank-and-file workers, small proprietors and self-employed artisans, draughtsmen, lower-grade technicians and foremen, etc.

Working Class/ “Blue Collar”

· CLASS 3 M (b)

Skilled occupations (Manual), including skilled manual workers in industry, e.g. electricians, coalminers, etc.

· CLASS 4

Partly skilled occupations, including semi-skilled workers, e.g. milk rounds men, telephone operators, fishermen, farm workers, semi-skilled workers in industry, etc.

· CLASS 5

Unskilled occupations, including unskilled workers, e.g. night watchers, collectors, cleaners, labourers

Occupation is related to many differences in people’s access to life chances in such areas as education, health, money spending patterns, leisure style and working conditions. For example, in the area of status differences at work classes 1 and 2 enjoy the best terms and conditions of employment. Their holidays are more than 15 days, they are freer in choosing the better holiday time, and they may enjoy such things as being always paid sick pay and higher pensions. There are no pay reductions for lateness.

 

Загальні відомості про географічні особливості Об’єднаного Королівства Великобританії. Geographical peculiarities of the United Kingdom in brief.

The official title of the UK is the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

The UK is an island nation in Western Europe. The state lies between the North Atlantic Ocean and the North Sea, and comes within 35 km (22 miles) off the coast of France, from which it is separated by the English Channel and the Strait of Dover. The coasline is long and rugged. The seas surrounding the British Isles are shallow, less than 90 m. The distance from the southern coast to the extreme North of Scotland is under 1000 km, and the widest part is under 500 km. Northern Ireland shares a 360 km international land boundary with the Republic of Ireland (Eire). The Channel Tunnel beneath the English Channel, now links the UK with France.

The UK is made up of:

1. Great Britain (the formerly separate realms of England and Scotland, and the principality of Wales.) Great Britain has an area of 229,850 km² and is the largest island of the British Isles.

2. Northern Ireland (also known as Ulster).

3. About 550 smaller islands including the Isle of Wight, the Isle of Man, Anglesey, and the Scilly, Orkney, Shetland, and Hebridean archipelagos.

England occupies an area of 131,8 thousand sq. km. It is bordered by the Cheviot Hills and the Pennine Range, main area consisting of fertile valleys lower than 305 m. The highest part of England is in the west, from where the land gradually slopes down to the east. The white chalk cliffs of the south coast can be seen from many miles out at the sea. The longest rivers flow from the Central Highlands to the sea: the Severn (338 km) and the Thames (332 km).

 

Scotland occupies an area of 78,8 thousand sq. km and has 3 topographical regions: the Northern Highlands, the Central Lowlands and the Southern Uplands. The Highlands are the highest mountains on the British Isles. The coastline is greatly indented with deep fiords penetrating very far inland.

 

Wales is the country of hills and mountains. Its territory is 20,8 thousand sq. km. The Cambrian Mountains occupy almost the entire area, with small lowland areas in the north and coastal plains in the south and in the west. It is an area of high mountains, deep valleys, waterfalls, lakes and heavy rainfall.

 

Northern Ireland consists of low-lying plateaus and hills of volcanic origin from 152 to 183 m high. In the centre the largest lake in the kingdom, Lough Neagh (153 square miles), lies.