英语国家社会与文化入门（上）Unit 1 A Brief Introduction to the United Kingdom IThe full n ame of the country of UK is the Un tied King dom of Great Brita in and Northern Irela nd.UK in cludes 4 parts: the isla nd of Great Brita in is made up of En gla nd, Scotia nd and Wales, and Norther n Irela nd.Differe nt people who bel ong to differe nt class will tend to read differe nt n ewspaper,watch different television programmes, speak with a different accent, do different things in their free-time, and have differe nt expectati ons for their childre n.Before the 1st cen tury AD Brita in was made up of many tribal kin gdoms of Celtic people.In 43 AD Britai n was inv aded by the Roma n Empire and En gla nd and Wales became a part of the Roma n Empire for n early 400 years.After Roman time, Britain was under threat from outside, this time from Germanic peoples: the An gles, and the Sax on.In the 5th century AD it is said that a great leader appeared,united the British, and with his magical sword, Excalibur, drove the Saxons back. This is the story of King Arthur.Accord ing to lege nd Arthur gathered a compa ny of kni ghts to him and con flict betwee n his knights led to Arthur creating the famous -round table II at which all would have equal precede nee.Anglo-Saxon invaders were the forefathers of the English, the founders of Yngle-land llor -England lias it has become know.From the late 8th cen tury on raiders from Scandin avia, the ferocious Viki ngs, threate ned Britain shores.The n ext in vaders were the Norma ns, from n orther n Fran ce, who were desce ndants of Viki ngs.Under William of Normandy they crossed the English Channel in 1066.William took the English throne, and became William the First of England.Robin Hood was a Saxon n oblema n oppressed by the Norma ns,who became an outlaw, and with his band of -merry men llhid in the forest of Sherwood in the north midlands of England and they went out to rob from the rich to give to the poor.Charles the First attempt to overrule parliament in the 1640s led to a civil war in which parliame ntary forces were victorious, and the ki ng was executed. And the n En gla nd was ruled by parliame ntleader, Oliver Cromwell.The largest city of Scotland is Glasgow and the capital city is Edinburgh.Scotla nd was not conq uered either by the Roma ns or the An glo-Sax ons.Like En gla nd Scotla nd bega n to experie nee Viking raid in the 9th cen tury.Under the leadership of Robert the Bruce, the Scots were victorious at the Battle of Banno ckbur n, lead ing to 300 years of full in depe nden ce.In 1603, Quee n Elizabeth the First of En gla nd died childless, and the n ext in line to the throne was James the Sixth of Scotland, so he also became Jamesthe First of England, uniting the two thron es.In 1707 by agreement of English and Scottish parliaments, Scotland joined the Union.The Scotland Act 1998 provided for the establishment of the Scottish Parliament and Executive.Scottish writes have given the world such well-known work as Walter Scotts romances of highla nd Scotia nd an d-Auld Lang Syne 11 (by Robert Bur ns)The capital city of Wales is Cardiff.Unit 2 A Brief Introduction to the United Kingdom IIThe capital city of Northern Ireland is Belfast.The most famous Iandmark of Northern Ireland is the -Giant s causeway, a rocky promontory made up of black hexagonal columns.From the time of Queen Elizabeth I the new settlers, loyal to the British crown and Protestant in religious persuasion, were granted land, position, and privileges which had been systematically take away from the indigenous, Roman Catholic population.-Great hatred, little room II was the way the moder n poet W. B. Yeats described the situati on. Un til 1921 the full n ame of the UK was Fhe Un ited Kin gdom of Great Britai n and Irela nd , not only -Northern Ireland , becausethe whole island of Ireland was politically integrated with Great Britain.The Easter Rising of 1916 was the most spectacular event, in which the rebels took over DublinsPost Office, forcing the British to retake it by military means.In 1919 a group calling itself the IRA (Irish Republican Army) expanded the fighting.In the end the conflict became too great to ignore, and as the Sinn Fein party, who were supporters of the Irish terrorists, gained most of the Irish seats in the British parliament, Irish independence became inevitable.In 1921 the southern 26 counties formed an independent -free state| while the 6 north-eastern counties remained a part the UK.In 1969, the first British soldiers were seen on Northern Irish streets.The official IRA thought enough progress had been made that they could concentrate on a political process, and run candidates for elections, but a strong faction felt that armed force was the only way to get the British out, and separated from the officials, calling themselves the -Provisio nal IRA .In 1971 the Northern Irish government took the desperat