Section of Britain
1. Great Britain is separated from the rest of Europe by the English Channel in the south.
2. Britain once ruled an empire, called the British Empire that had one fourth of the world?s people and land area.
3. The north and west of Great Britain are mainly highlands. 4. England is the largest and most populous of the three countries of Great Britain. 5. Wales is in the west of Great Britain. 6. The Capital of Wales is Cardiff
7. The capital of Scotland is Edinburgh 8. Britain has a favorable maritime climate.
9. The prevailing winds in Britain are south-west winds which are also known as Westerlies 10. The average rainfall in Britain is over 1000 mm. 11. Britain has a population of about 57 million.
12. About 90% of the British is urban and only 10% is rural 13. The English are Anglo- Saxons by origin.
14. The Scots, Welsh and Irish people are Celts who came to Britain after 700 BC. 15. It was the Germanic conquerors that gave England its name Angle?s land. 16. Britain was under the Roman occupation for 400 nearly years.
17. Jutes, Angles and Saxons from north Europe started to invade England in the mid-5th century. 18. The foundation of the English state was laid by the Anglo-Saxons who divided the country into shires which are now called counties 19. One of the greatest English kings was Alfred the Great who resisted the invasion of the Danes in the 9th century.
20. The feudal system in England was completely established under the rule of William the Conqueror
21. The English common law was established in Henry II s reign and it replaced the various local customs for making judgments.
22. In Henry II ?s day the jury system replaced the Norman trials by battle. 23. The Great Charter of 1215 is also known as Magna Carta
24. The first English Parliament was held in 1265. In addition to the nobles, it included two knights firm each county and two citizens from each town.
25. One of the results of the Black Death (1348 -49) was that it reduced England?s population from four million to 2 million. 26. In England the person who is in charge of local peace and order is called the __ Justice of the Peace
27. In English history John Wyclif'?s followers who preached the equality of men before God were called the Lollards
28. The wars between the House bf Lancaster and the House of York from 1455 to 1485 were called Wars of the Roses
29 The English Reformation was started by Henry VIII which was to reform the church in England. 30. The head of the Church of England is the king 31. England showed its superiority as a naval power by destroying the Spanish Armada in time.
32. In European history, the transitional period between the Middle Ages and modern times, covering the years C1350~C1650, has been known as the Renaissance 33.The English Renaissance achieved its finest expression in the so-called
Elizabethan drama
34. The English Puritans called for a purer form of worship
35. The most famous of the Catholic conspiracies against James I was the Gunpowder Plot of 1605.
36. The first group of 201 English Puritans who sailed to America in the ship Mayflower were later called Pilgrim Fathers 37. Both James I and his son Charles I believed in the Divine Right of kings which gave the king absolute power.
38. The Fifth Parliament called by Charles I was also known as Long Parliament because it existed for about 20 years during the English Civil Wars.
39. The battles between Charles I and the Parliament from 1642 to 1646 were called the First Civil War in English history. 40. The English Civil War is also called the Puritan Revolution: 41. The English Civil War is regarded as the beginning of modern world history. 42. After Charles I was put to death, the Rump Parliament declared England a Commonwealth with Cromwell as Lord Protector
43. The name Great Britain came into being when the Act of Union united England and Scotland in 1707 44. The Glorious Revolution marked the beginning of English political parties. 45. The first two political parties in Britain were the Whigs and Tories
46. Britain was the first country to industrialize in the 18th and 19th centuries. 47. The enclosure in England in the 18th and 19th centuries was a disaster for the tenants evicted from their lands.
48. As a result of the industrial revolution, Britain became “the workshop of the world” by 1830.
49. In the English workers? movement, those who attempted to destroy the hated machines were called Luddites 50. In 1836,a group of skilled workers and small shopkeepers formed the Working Men?s Association to demand equal rights.
51. Demands of the Chartist Movement were included in a document known as the People?s Charter
52. The Treaty of Nanjing gave Hong Kong to Britain in 1842.
53. In 1911, the English Parliament passed an act which made the Commons the supreme legislative body.
54. During the First World War, Britain joined the Allies 55. The 1920s were called the Roaring Twenties in Britain. 56. Britain entered the Great Depression by 1931.
57. The 1960s were called the Swinging Sixties in Britain 58. The Beatles caused a pop music revolution in Britain.
59. Margaret Thatcher carried out a policy of Privatization in Britain in the 1980s. 60. After the Second World War, the English economic policy was based on the theory of Keynes
61. Mrs. Thatcher tried to cure the British disease by applying policies based on monetarism.
62. The development of coal fields led to the Industrial Revolution in Britain
63. Today British coal mining is called a sick industry because the output is dropping. 64. Most of Britain?s microchip output is produced in Scotland 65. The high-tech industrial area in Scotland is called Silicon Glen 66. In Britain wheat and barley are two very important crops. 67. Britain is the 5th largest trading nation in the world.
68. In terms of invisible receipts, Britain is the second largest exporter. 69 The head of state of the United kingdom is the King ( Queen) 70. The House of Commons is elected by all adults
71. The British government departments are staffed by members of the Civil Service 72. Britain is regarded as a welfare state
73. The birthday of the British Monarch is a National Day in Britain. National
celebrations are held in June.
74. Fee-paying schools in Britain are known as independent schools which include preparatory schools.
75. Most of the members of the British Establishment were educated at a public school.
76. National newspapers in Britain can be divided into three kinds: quality, popular, and mid-market 77. The principal news agencies in Britain are Reuters and Press Association 78. In the early 1960s a new pop-culture was started by four Liverpool boys who called themselves Beatles
II Fill in the following blanks:
1. The official full name of the United Kingdom is the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland 2. The British Isles are mainly made up of Great Britain and Ireland
3. Great Britain is traditionally divided into three countries. They are England, Scotland, Wales 4. There are three natural zones in Scotland: Northern Highlands, Central lowlands, Southern Uplands
5. The highest mountain in Britain (1, 343m) is Ben Nevis 6. London is situated on the Thames River.
7. The Cockneys are from the East End of London and they pronounce the vowel [ei] as [ai]
8. British recorded history begins with Roman, Julius Caesar invasion in 55 BC which was led by the great Roman general Julius Caesar 9. England was once divided into seven kingdoms in the second half of the 6th century. They have been given the name of Heptarchy
10. In 1066, England was conquered by the Norman who were led by William the Conqueror
11. The well-known book the Canterbury Tales was written by Chaucer
12.In English history, the Hundred Years? War was the War between England and France 13. The English Peasant Uprising of 1381 was led by Wat Tyler
14.The Reformation in England led to the establishment of the English state church
known as the Church of England
15. The Renaissance in England began with the accession of the House of Tudor to the throne in 1485.
16. Printing was introduced into England by William Carton in the 15th century. 17. The greatest writer in the English language is Shakespeare
18. In 1766 the English spinner Hargreaves invented a spinning machine and named it Jenny
19. The East India Company was set up in 1600 to invade India.
20. The British Empire was said to be so large that “on which the sun never set”.
21. Churchill served as the English Prime Minister during most time of the Second World War.
22. In Britain only 3 % of the population are farmers but they manage 70% of the land area.
23. The English Parliament consists of the Monarch, the House of Lords and the House of Commons
24. Each English Parliament has a maximum duration of five years.
25. The English House of Lords is made up of two kinds of lords: Lords Spiritual, and the Lords Temporal
26. In Britain the general election must be held every five years to elect Members of Parliament
27. The two major political parties in Britain are the Conservative Party and the Labor Party.
28. By tradition, the leader of the majority party is appointed Prime Minister by the Sovereign.
29. The British Government is also called Her Majesty?s Government
30. The British Prime Minister?s official residence is NO. 10 Dawning street in London.
31. The English local government is made up of two tiers. They are counties and districts
32. The sources of English law includes: (1) statutes, (2) common law, (3) equity law and (4) European community law
33. In criminal trials in Britain, the issue of guilt or innocence is to be decided by the jury, while sentence is to be passed by the judge
34. Less serious cases are tried by Magistrates? courts in Britain.
35. The most serious offences are tried by the Crown Court in England.
36. There are two established churches in Britain. They are the Church of England and the Church of Scotland 37. The important Christian festivals of the year in Britain are Christmas, Easter, Whit Sunday and Whit Sunday
38. The English festival born of the Gunpowder Plot of 1605 has been known as GuyFawkes Day.
39. Education in Britain is compulsory for all between the ages of 5 and 16 40. The two most famous universities in Britain are Cambridge and Oxford 41. The most important periodicals in Britain are the Economist, Spectator New Statesman and Society and Spectator 42. The dominant broadcasting corporation in Britain as BBC (British Broadcasting Company) which is controlled by the state.
43. The meat typically English of sports is Cricket which has been in existence since the 16th century.
III. Explain the following terms in English: 1. Constitutional monarchy 18. Protestant work ethic 2. The British Common Wealth 19. pocket borough . 3. Britons 20.Moral Force Chartists 4.Scots 21.Physical Force Chartists 5. Roman invasion 22. The New Unionism 6. Heptarchy 23. The East India Company 7. The Norman Conquest 24.John M. Keynes
