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Unit 1
- What is the United Kingdom geographically and politically composed of?
- 课本P2，第一段始至第五行
- Geographically, its territory is primarily situated on the island of Great Britain and in Northern Ireland on the island of Ireland, with additional settlements on numerous smaller islands in the surrounding seas. Politically, it is a union made up of four constituent nations: England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland, plus several overseas territories.
- Briefly discuss the international influence the UK exercises on today’s world.
- 课本P3，第一段第三行始至段末
- In modern times, UK retains links with parts of its former empire through the British Commonwealth. Its parliamentary and legal systems have also been emulated throughout the world. But more important today in Britain’s international relations is the European Union. As one of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council and a founding member of NATO, the UK today pursues an active global approach to foreign policy. A leading member of the Group of Eight, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, and the World Trade Organisation, the UK is a highly developed country with a US$1.833 trillion economy and the fifth largest gross domestic product in the world. Socially, it is a highly prosperous and peaceful country and culturally, it is preeminent in the arts, sciences, and technology.
- Why can’t the term “English” be used to address all the people of the UK?
- 课本P4（Part in England），倒数第五行左右
- Because this is not only incorrect but may annoy people from other parts of the UK. The English themselves feel most British and least attached to a separate English identity. However, this also means that England longer represents the whole nation when the other three nations of the UK enjoy separate political status in one way or another.
- How does English dominance come into being?
- 课本P4（Part in England），前几行均是
- England is the largest, most populous, and wealthiest division of the United Kingdom. With the bulk of the most fertile lowlands and six of the country’s seven conurbations, England has a higher proportion of wealth and natural resources than the rest of the UK. London, which is the seat of government, centre of business, and the heart of arts and culture, dominates England, just as England dominates Great Britain. This has led to the formation of English dominance.
- What is the historical relationship between “Northern Ireland” and “Ireland”?
- 课本P5（Part in Northern Ireland），第二段倒数第五行
- For over a century from 1801, Ireland had been part of the United Kingdom. But in 1922, the Irish Free State ceased to be part of the Union, leaving only six northeastern counties inside the Union to be called Northern Ireland.
- What influences the climate in the UK?
- 课本P8，第一段第三行至段末
- The main influences on the climate come from the moist and mild westerly wind from the Atlantic Ocean and the warm drift of the Gulf Stream around the land, particularly on the western shores. Additionally, the relative smallness of the British Isles and its inlet-filled coastal configuration both help the oceanic influences penetrate inland more effectively.
- What are its features with respect to temperature, rainfall and sunshine?
- 课本P8，第一段始至第三行
- The UK has a temperate maritime climate, that is, one with a moderate temperature and abundant rainfall, but it is extremely changeable throughout the year.
- How does the weather in the UK affect British life?
- 课本P8最后一段第二行，至P9首段末
- The weather is a constant topic of daily conversation for the Britons, and it is believed that the changeability of weather is a conditioning factor of the national character that has helped the British become more adaptable. On the other hand, the frequent drizzles and gloomy skies in winter are so depressing that people tend to suffer seasonal affective disorder.
- Discuss the differences between the terms “British Isles”, “United Kingdom”, “Great Britain”, and “England”.
- 课本P9（Notes部分）第一、二条，还可结合The United Kingdom的建立来谈
- The British Isles is a geographical term which includes Great Britain, the whole of lreland, and all the offshore islands. Great Britain-Shortened as Britain, it can be a geographical term, referring to the island on which England, Wales and Scotland are situated, together with numerous smaller islands. It can also be a political term that describes the combination of these three nations which together include all the land on the island. However, “Great Britain” is very often, but in the strict sense, inappropriately used as a synonym for the sovereign state properly known as the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern lreland.
- The United Kingdom (UK) was formed on January 1,1801 and constituted and still constitutes the greater part of the British Isles. In history it was the union of what were once four separate nations: England, Scotland, Wales, and Ireland. When the lrish Free State ceased to be part of the Union in 1922, the title changed to include “Northern Ireland”.
- Located in north-west Europe and in the southern part of Great Britain, England is the largest part in Great Britain and the UK.
Unit 2
- What patterns of settlement and immigration has the UK demonstrated in history?
- 太杂了，穿插在P13、14 Ethnic Composition 的整个部分
- Between the 5th and 7th centuries, Germanic peoples from Europe — the Angles, the Saxons, and the Jutes — arrived in massive numbers, who have come to constitute Britain’s present predominant stock.
- In 1066, French Normans conquered England, adding yet another ethnic component. They were the last major group to add their stock to the British population.
- The first settlement and invasion movements until Norman Conquest substantially affected the developing fabric of British life and formed the first foundations of the modem state.
- Since the Norman Conquest, there have been many fits and waves of immigration to Britain from overseas, owing to factors such as religious and political persecution, trade, business and employment.
- There was no more large immigration into Britain because North America and the expanding colonies worldwide became more competitive host countries and attracted immigrants including from Britain.
- During the 19th century, with industrialization going on in Britain, large migratory movements took place at home where people flocked from countryside to urban centres, from Wales, Scotland and Ireland to England.
- In the 20th century, immigration increasingly caused public and political concern in Britain. As a result of the Great Depression and World War II, refugees from Nazi-occupied Europe such as Jews and white immigrants from old Commonwealth countries flooded to Britain.
- What are the changing patterns of population distribution in the UK?
- 课本P16第三段，第二行至第五行
- The Industrial Revolution built up major urban areas, and most British people live in and around them to this day. In the 1980s and 1990s southern England, particularly the southeast, became a centre of population growth, due in large part to the growth of the high-tech and service sectors of the economy.
- How has English language evolved in history? Why is it said that it is important to the UK’s class structure?
- 课本P16页第二段始至P17页该段完，P17页第二段始至第四段
- Modem English is derived mainly from the Germanic dialects spoken by the Angles, Saxons, and Jutes. It is also heavily influenced by the language of the Danes (Vikings). From the 11th to 14th century, under the French-speaking Norman kings, a hybrid speech combining Anglo-Saxon and Norman French elements developed and gradually became the official language known as Middle English today. This hybrid language, along with many additions from many other languages in the world, subsequently evolved into modern English.
- The use of language in the UK has a strong association with class and social status. Some educated English people, regardless of their class origin, strive to free themselves of regional or local accents in order to sound like educated English-speaking people with the Received Pronunciation (RP).
- Discuss the ways the English, Welsh, Irish and Scottish have defined themselves in terms of their individual nationalities.
- 课本相关部分在P19、20页，这里我们参考本书学习手册提供的相关解答
- The English are a nation and ethnic group native to England who speak English. Today the largest single English population resides in England, forming the largest part of the racially based classification used in the 2001 UK census known as White British. The English are often believed to be a mixture of several closely related groups that have settled in what became England, such as the Angles, Saxons, Norse Vikings and Normans.
- The Welsh people are an ethnic group and nation associated with Wales and the Welsh language. The origin of the “Welsh nation” can be traced to the late 4th and early 5thcenturies, although Celtic languages seem to have been spoken in Wales far longer.
- The lrish people are an ethnic group who originated in lreland. The main groups that interacted with the lrish in the Middle Ages include the Scottish people and the Vikings. The Anglo-Norman invasion of the High Middle Ages, the English plantations and the subsequent English rule of the country introduced the Normans Welsh, Flemish, Anglo-Saxons, and Bretons into lreland.
- The Scots people are a nation and an ethnic group indigenous to Scotland. Historically, as an ethnic group, they emerged from an amalgamation of Celts, Picts, Gaels and Brythons. The Latin word Scoti originally applied to a particular，5th-century, Gaelic tribe that inhabited areas in the north of lreland and western Scotland. Today the term Scots is now used to describe all Scottish people.
- Critically examine Britishness in the contemporary UK population.
- 课本P20第二段第一二行，第六行至十三行
- Contemporary UK still seems to be well united. Regardless of nationality, ethnic background, religion, language, area, sex or age, citizens in the United Kingdom still share identification with Britain, or “Britishness”, ranging over eight dimensions: geography, national symbols, people, values and attitudes, cultural habits and behaviors, citizenship, language, and various notable achievements. However, the research also indicates that the relative importance of each dimension, the attitudes towards each element, and the identification with Britishness as a whole, all vary between different national groups.
Unit 3
- How did Christianity emerge and develop in English society? What role has it played throughout English history?
- 课本P24页倒数第六行，P25页第二段末四行，P28页第二段始两行，九至十行
- Christianity quietly spread in England. For centuries, Christianity had been gaining hold in Britain with monks such as St. Augustine of Canterbury spreading the faith and establishing monasteries. By the end of the 7th century all of the kings of the British Isles were Christianized. In the Middle Ages, the Church had gained not only material importance, but also extensive power in politics and law. Henry VIII initiated a revolution in 1533, separating the English church from Rome and establishing himself head of the church. All in all, Christianity has exerted great impact on British social and political development.
- How did the UK Parliament come into being?
- 课本P26页第二段
- King John antagonized the feudal nobility and the leading Church figures to such an extent that in 1215, they led an armed rebellion and forced him to sign the Magna Carta to impose legal limits on the King’s personal powers in raising money from his subjects. For this purpose, a royal council of twenty-five barons was formed and then joined by some lesser men or the “commons”, which slowly developed into a parliament with two separate houses.
- How did feudalism decline in British society?
- 课本P26、27页，贯穿在 Decline of feudalism 整个部分
- In 1215, the feudal nobility and leading Church figures led an armed rebellion and forced King John to sign the Magna Carta to impose legal limits on the King’s personal powers.
- The Hundred Years ‘War destroyed the feudal nobility and therefore brought about a new social order.
- The Black Death killed perhaps up to one-third of the British population. As a result, labourers were in short supply, and the peasants could become free wage earners. Such a fatal attack on the system of serfdom signaled a significant decline of the feudal system.
- After the Wars of the Roses, with Henry Tudor’s accession as Henry VII, the central authority of the Crown was soon to be resumed, bringing England’s turbulent medieval period to an end and, most importantly, ushering in a new age.
- How did the English Civil War break out? What were the consequences of the war?
- 课本P29页第四段全至P30页该段结束
- Charles I inherited from his father a complete and unshakable belief in Divine Right kingship and demanded outright loyalty in return for “just rule”. But Parliament sought to limit the powers of the prerogative and to guarantee civil liberties through the Petition of Right (1628). This led to a serious break between the two, and eventually to a war known as the English Civil War.
- In 1649, it culminated in the trial and beheading of Charles I, the exile of his son Charles II. Essentially, the Civil War was a constitutional issue between a king who claimed to rule by divine right and represented the feudal nobility, and a Parliament representing country gentry, merchants and artisans, who claimed real sovereignty. As far as religion is concerned, it was a conflict between the Protestants and the Catholics, but indeed it had much to do with the divisions within the one Protestant religion between the Anglican belief and the anti-royal Puritan ideology.
- Discuss how the British Empire expanded, reached its apex and then declined.
- 课本P30-32 贯穿于整个 The Age of Empire 部分中，P33页第三段开头，P36页第一段四至五行
- The Act of Union in 1707, which abolished England and Scotland as separate kingdoms and created the United Kingdom of Great Britain with a single Parliament.
- The so-called Georgian period was a time of immense social change, most notably with the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, a shift in social structure, chronic warfare, and imperial expansion and loss.
- The Industrial Revolution resulted in the growth of large urban areas in north and central England, where huge numbers of migrant workers stood out as a single and unitary working class, which contrasted with an emerging middle(commercial) class and the age-old aristocracy class.
- The War of Spanish Succession (1702-1713) deepened British claims to control large parts of America. From the 1740s to 1763, the British East India Company and French traders were engaged in a military and commercial rivalry in India, in which the British were ultimately victorious. Britain now gained recognition as the largest imperial power in Europe, commanding superior sea forces and controlling vast trading relationships.
- The Victorian era also marked the apex of the British Empire attained through constant wars and colonial consolidation worldwide.
- As the 1950s progressed, the UK had lost its place as a superpower and could no longer maintain its large Empire. This led to decolonization, and a withdrawal from almost all of its colonies by 1970. Events such as the Suez Canal Crisis of 1956 showed that the UK’s status had fallen in the world.
Unit 4
- What does British Constitution consist of? The characteristics of British Constitution?
- 课本P43页 The Constitution 部分，结构非常清晰，这里从略
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