英语国家概况A BRIEF INTRODUCTION TO ENGLISH-SPEAKING COUNTRIESPart One The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland第一部分 大不列颠及北爱尔兰联合王国第一章 国土与人民 Chapter 1 Land and People.英国的不同名称及其区域 1. Different Names for Britain and its Parts人们说到英国时常常使用不同的名称:不列颠、大不列颠、英格兰、不列颠群岛、联合王国等。这些名称一样吗?还是有所区别? When people refer to Britain, they often use different names such as Britain, GreatBritain, England, the British Isles, the United Kingdom or the U.K. Do they mean the same thing? Or are theydifferent?严格地讲，不列颠诸岛、大不列颠和英格兰都是地理名称。它们并不是这个国家的正式名称。不列颠诸岛是由两个大岛和几百个小岛组成的。两个大岛是不列颠岛和爱尔兰岛，其中不列颠岛较大，它与爱尔兰岛的北部一北爱尔兰构成联合王国。因此，联合王国的正式国名是大不列颠及北爱尔兰联合王国。但一口气说出这么长的国名太费事，因此，人们就说不列颠，联合王国或简单地说 UK。这是不列颠岛上的一个国家，首都是伦敦。另外还有一个国家，叫爱尔兰共和国或称爱尔兰，也位于不列颠岛上。它占据了爱尔兰岛的其余部分，在岛的南部。1949 年始爱尔兰独立，首都是都柏林。Strictly speaking, the British Isles,Great Britain and England are all geographical names. They are not the official name of the country. The BritishIsles are made up of two large islands and hundreds of small ones. The two large islands are Great Britain andIreland. Great Britain is the larger of these two islands. It forms the United Kingdom with Northern Irelandthenorthern part of Ireland. So the official name of the United Kingdom is the United Kingdom of Great Britain andNorthern Ireland. But it is too much of a mouthful to say such a long name for a country, so people just say Britain,the United Kingdom or simply U.K. This is one country on the British Isles and its capital is London. There isanother country called the Republic of Ireland or Eire on the British Isles. It takes up the remainder ofIrelandthe southern part of Ireland. It has been an independent republic since 1949 and its capital is Dublin.大不列颠岛上有三个政治区:英格兰、苏格兰和威尔士。英格兰面积最大、人口最多，一般说来也最富裕。因此人们常用英格兰指代英国，用英格兰人指代英国人。这有时令苏格兰人和威尔士人不快，他们不认为自己是英格兰人，他们有自己的文化，甚至有自己的语言。There are three political divisions on theisland of Great Britain: England, Scotland and Wales. England is the largest, most populous and generallyspeaking the richest section. So people tend to use England and English when they mean Britain and British.This sometimes annoys the Scots or the Welsh who do not regard themselves as English and who have a cultureand even a language of their own.英国一直是世界上最重要的国家之一。约一百年前，由于推行帝国主义扩张政策，英国成为一个帝国，这个帝国占有世界上四分之一的人口，四分之一的面积。它不仅在北美，而且在亚洲、非洲和澳洲都有殖民地。但是两次世界大 战大大削弱了英国，英国殖民地接二连三独立，大英帝国逐渐消失，1931 年由英联邦所取代。Britain has been one of the most important countries in the world. About a hundred years ago, as aresult of its imperialist expansion, Britain ruled an empire that had one fourth of the worlds people and one fourthof the worlds land area. It had colonies not only in North America, but also in Asia, Africa and Australia.However, the two world wars greatly weakened Britain. The British Empire gradually disappeared and it wasreplaced by the British Commonwealth or the Commonwealth of Nations in 1931.英联邦是一个自由联合体，由曾经是英国殖民地变为现已独立的国家构成。成员国之间实行经济合作，有一定的贸易协议。英联邦没有特别的权力，是否参加英联邦由各成员国自己决定。目前( 1991 年) ，英联邦有 50 个成员国。The commonwealth (of Nations) is a free association of independent countries that wereonce colonies of Britain. Member nations are joined together economically and have certain trading arrangements.The commonwealth has no special powers. The decision to become a member of the commonwealth is left to eachnation. At present there are 50 member countries within the Commonwealth (1991).1.英国的地理特征 II. Geographical Features英国是个岛国，四周是海。它位于欧洲北海岸附近的北大西洋中。南面的英吉利海峡和东面的北海把英国与欧洲的其他部分隔开。英法之间的英吉利海峡很狭窄，最狭窄的地方叫多佛尔海峡，只有 33 公里宽。1985 年，英法两国政府决定在多佛尔海峡底修建一个隧道，把两个国家连接起来。经过八年的奋斗，这条名为查诺尔的海底隧道于 1994 年 5 月通车。英国的面积为 244，100 平方公里。南北长 1000 公里，东西最宽阔的地方约为 500 公里。因此英国的任何地方离海边都不远，海岸资源丰富。英国海岸线很长且拥有优良的深水港。 海上通道延伸到内陆，提供了低廉的运输。Britain is an island country. It is surroundedby the sea. It lies in the north Atlantic Ocean off the north coast of Europe. It is separated from the rest of Europeby the English Channel in the south and the North Sea in the east. The English Channel between England andFrance is quite narrow and the narrowest part is called the Straits of Dover, which is only 33 km across. In 1985the British government and the French government decided to build a channel tunnel under the Straits of Dover sothat England and France could be joined together by road. After eight years of hard work this channel tunnelwhich is called Chunnel was open to traffic in May 1994. Britain covers an area of 244, 100 square krn. It runs1, 000 km from north to south and extends, at the widest part, about 500 kilometers. So no part of Britain is veryfar from the coast and it provides a valuable resource. The British coast is long and has good, provides a valuableresource. The British coast is long and has good, providing cheap transportation.几个世纪以来，英国一直在缓慢地倾斜。西北部缓慢上升，东南部缓慢下沉。英国的北部与西部主要是山地。这种上升在苏格兰西部形成了突起的海滩山的平地。这种海滩提供了主要的农田、定居点、工业区及通道。东部及东南部主要是低地，是欧洲大平原的一部分，有着平坦的土地及肥沃的土壤。尤其是南部及英格兰东海岸有许多良田。Britain has, for centuries