Great Britain (0)

Great Britain

Pärnu 2012

Content
Pärnu 2012 1
Great Britain 3
Used 18
Great Britain 3
The History of the Great Britain 4
Britain in the reign of Elizabeth 5
Art Galleries 8
The British Theatre 10
The British Schools 11
Universities and Colleges in Great Britain 12
The Modern British Industry 13
The Modern British Army 14
American English 15
Used 18

Great Britain

Great Britain or Britain is an island situated to the northwest of Continental Europe . It is the ninth largest island in the world, the largest European island, and the largest of the British Isles. With a population of about 60.0 million people in mid-2009, it is the third most populous island in the world, after Java and Honshū. Great Britain is surrounded by over 1,000 smaller islands and islets. The island of Ireland lies to its west . Politically, Great Britain may also refer to the island itself together with a number of surrounding islands which comprise the territory of England , Scotland and Wales .
All of the island is territory of the sovereign state of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and most of the United Kingdom's territory is in Great Britain. Most of England, Scotland, and Wales are on the island of Great Britain, as are their respective capital cities: London, Edinburgh , and Cardiff .
The Kingdom of Great Britain resulted from the political union of the kingdoms of England and Scotland with the Acts of Union 1707 on 1 May 1707 under Queen Anne. In 1801, under a new Act of Union, this kingdom merged with the Kingdom of Ireland to create the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. After the Irish War of Independence most of Ireland seceded from the Union, which then became the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.
The relatively limited variety of fauna and flora on the island is due to its size and the fact that wildlife has had little time to develop since the last glacial period . The high level of urbanisation on the island has contributed to a species extinction rate that is about 100 times greater than the background species extinction rate.
The History of the Great Britain
The island was first inhabited by people who crossed over the land bridge from the European mainland. Traces of early humans have been found (at Boxgrove Quarry, Sussex) from some 500,000 years ago and modern humans from about 30,000 years ago. Until about 10,000 years ago, Great Britain was joined to Ireland, and as recently as 8,000 years ago it was joined to the continent by a strip of low marsh to what is now Denmark and the Netherlands .


Britain in the reign of Elizabeth
Elizabeth II (Elizabeth Alexandra Mary ; born 21 April 1926) is the constitutional monarch of 16 sovereign states known as the Commonwealth realms, and head of the 54- member Commonwealth of Nations. In her specific role as the monarch of the United Kingdom, one of her 16 realms, she is also Supreme Governor of the Church of England.
Elizabeth was born in London, and educated privately at home. Her father acceded to the throne as George VI in 1936 on the abdication of his brother Edward VIII. She began to undertake public duties during the Second World War, in which she served in the Auxiliary Territorial Service . On the death of her father in 1952, she became Head of the Commonwealth and queen regnant of seven independent Commonwealth countries: the United Kingdom, Canada , Australia, New Zealand , South Africa , Pakistan, and Ceylon. Her coronation service in 1953 was the first to be televised. Between 1956 and 1992, the number of her realms varied as territories gained independence and some realms became republics. Today , in addition to the first four aforementioned countries, Elizabeth is Queen of Jamaica , Barbados, the Bahamas , Grenada, Papua New Guinea , the Solomon Islands, Tuvalu , Saint Lucia , Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Belize, Antigua and Barbuda, and Saint Kitts and Nevis .
In 1947 she married Prince Philip , Duke of Edinburgh, with whom she has four children : Charles, Anne, Andrew , and Edward. In 1992, which Elizabeth termed her annus horribilis ("horrible year "), Charles and Andrew separated from their wives, Anne divorced, and a severe fire damaged part of Windsor Castle . Revelations continued on the state of Charles's marriage to Diana , Princess of Wales, and they divorced in 1996. The following year, Diana died in a Paris car crash, and the media criticised the royal family for remaining in seclusion in the days before her funeral. Elizabeth's personal popularity rebounded after she appeared in public and has subsequently remained high.
Her reign of 60 years is the second- longest for a British monarch; only Queen Victoria has reigned longer. Her Silver and Golden Jubilees were celebrated in 1977 and 2002; her Diamond Jubilee is being celebrated during 2012.
Cultural Life in Great Britain
Artistic and cultural life in Britain is rather rich , like in most of the European countries. It has passed several main stages in its evelopment.
The Saxon King Alfred encouraged the arts and culture. The chief debt owed to him by English literature is for his translations of and commentaries on Latin works . Art, culture and literature flourished during the Elizabethan age, during the reign of Elizabeth I; it was the period of English domination of the oceans and colonies , and, due to the strong political and economic position of the country , there were few obstacles in the way of the cultural development . This time is also famous for the fact that William Shakespeare lived and worked then.
The empire , which was very powerful under Queen Victoria, saw another cultural and artistic hey-day as a result of industrialisation and the expansion of international trade during the so-called industrial age.
However , German air raids caused much damage during the First World War and then during the Second World War. The madness of the wars briefly inhibited the development of British culture.
Immigrants who have arrived from all parts of the Commonwealth since 1945 have not only created a mixture of nations, but have also brought their cultures and habits with them . Monuments and traces of past greatness are everywhere . There are buildings of all styles and periods. A great number of museums and galleries display precious and interesting finds from all parts of the world and from all stage in the development of nature , man and art. London is one of the leading world centres for music, drama, opera and dance . Festivals held in towns and cities throughout the country attract much interest . Many British playwrights, composers, sculptors, painters, writers , actors , singers and dancers are known all over the world.
Musical culture of Great Britain
The music of the United Kingdom, which is part of British music, refers to all forms of music associated with the United Kingdom since its creation .
Throughout its history, the United Kingdom has been a major exporter and source of musical innovation in the modern and contemporary eras, drawing its cultural basis from the history of the United Kingdom, from church music, from Western culture and from the ancient and traditional folk music and instrumentation of England, Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales. In the 20th century , influences from the music of the United States became most dominant in popular music. This led to the explosion of the British Invasion, while subsequent notable movements in British music include the New Wave of British Heavy Metal and Britpop . The United Kingdom has one of the world's largest music industries today, with many British musicians having had an impact on modern music.

Art Galleries
Britain is probably one of the most rich European countries when cultural inheritance is considered . Along with Italy and Germany , it’s a home for many famous art galleries and museums. If you stand in Trafalgar Square in London with your back to Nelson 's Column , you will see a wide horizontal front in a classical style. It is the National Gallery . It has been in this building since 1838 which was built as the National Gallery to house the collection of Old Masters Paintings (38 paintings) offered to the nation by an English Private collector, Sir George Beamount. Today the picture galleries of the National Gallery of Art exhibit works of all the Euro-pean schools of painting, which existed between the 13th and 19th centuries . The most famous works among them are ‘ Venus and Cupid ’ by Diego Velazquez , ‘Adoration of the Shepherds’ by Nicolas Poussin , ‘A Woman Bathing’ by Harmensz van Rijn Rembrandt, ‘ Lord Heathfield’ by Joshua Reynolds, ‘Mrs Siddons’ by Thomas Gainsborough and many others .
In 1897 the Tate Gallery was opened to house the more modern British paintings. Most of the National Gallery collections of British paintings were transferred to the Tate, and only a small collection of a few masterpieces is now exhib-ited at Trafalgar Square. Thus, the Tate Gallery exhibits a number of interesting collections of British and foreign modern painting and also modern sculpture.
The collection of Turner’s paintings at the Tate includes about 300 oils and 19,000 watercolours and drawings. He was the most traditional artist of his time as well as the
most original : traditional in his devotion to the Old Masters and original in his creation of new styles. It is some-times said that he prepared the way for the Impressionists.
The modern collection includes the paintings of Henri Matisse and Pablo Picasso, Marc Chagall and Salvador Dali, Francis Bacon and Graham Sutherland, Peter Blake and Richard Hamilton , the chief pioneers of pop art in Great Britain. Henry Moore is a famous British sculptor whose works are exhibited at the Tate too. One of the sculptor's masterpieces - the Reclining Figure ’ - is at fees Headquarters of UNESCO in Paris.
The British Theatre
Britain is now one of the world's major theatres centres. Many British actors and actresses are known all over the world: Dame Peggy Ashcroft, Glenda Jackson, Laurence Olivier, John Gielgud and others.
Drama is so popular with the British people of all ages that there are several thousand amateur dramatic societies. Now Britain has about 300 professional theatres. Some of them are privately owned. The tickets are not hard to get, but they are very expensive. Regular seasons of opera and ballet are given at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden in London. The National Theatre stages modern and classi-cal plays , the Royal Shakespeare Company produces plays mainly by Shakespeare and his contemporaries when it performs in Stratford-on- Avon , and modern plays in its two auditoria in the City's Barbican Centre . Shakespeare's Globe Playhouse, about which you have probably read, was reconstructed on its original site. Many other cities and large towns have at least one theatre.
There are many theatres and theatre companies for young people: the National Youth Theatre and the Young Vic Company in London, the Scottish Youth Theatre in Edinburgh. The National Youth Theatre, which stages classical plays mainly by Shakespeare and modern plays about youth, was on tour in Russian in 1989. The theatre-goers warmly received the production of Thomas Stearns Eliot’s play ‘Murder in the Cathedral ’. Many famous English actors started their careers in the National Youth Theatre. Among them Timothy Dalton , the actor who did the part of Rochester in ‘ Jane Eyre’ shown on TV in our country.
The British Schools
Schooling in Great Britain is voluntary under the age of 5 but there is some free nursery school education before that age. Primary education takes place in infant schools for pupils ages from 5 to 7 years old and junior schools (from 8 to 11 years). Some areas have different systems in which middle schools replace junior schools and take pupils ages from 9 to 11 years. Secondary education has been available in Britain since 1944. It is compulsory up to the age of 16, and pupils can stay at school voluntarily up to three years longer.
In 1965 non-selective comprehensive schools were introduced. Most local education authorities were have now completely changed over to comprehensive schooling.
At the age of 16 pupils take school-leaving examinations in several subjects at the Ordinary level. The exam used to be conducted by eight independent examining boards, most of them connected with the university . This examination could also be taken by candidates at a further education establishment . This exam was called the General Certificate of Education (GCE). Pupils of comprehensive school had taken the examination called the Certificate of Secondary Education either with or instead of the GCE.
A GCE of Advanced (“A”) level was taken two years after the Ordinary level exam. It was the standard for entrance to university and to many forms of professional training. In 1988 both examinations were replaced by the more or less uniform General Certificate of Secondary Education.
The private sector is running parallel to the state system of education. There are over 2500 fee-charging independent schools in GB. Most private schools are single -sex until the age of 16. More and more parents seem prepared to take on the formidable extra cost of the education. The reason is the believe that social advantages are gained from attending a certain school. The most expansive day or boarding schools in Britain are exclusive public schools like Eton college for boys and St. James’ school for girls .
Universities and Colleges in Great Britain
There are over 90 universities in Great Britain. They are divided into three types: the old universities (Oxford, Cambridge and Edinburgh Universities), the 19th century universities, such as London and Manchester universities, and the new universities. Some years ago there were also polytechnics. After graduating from polytechnic a student got a degree , but it was not a university degree. 31 formers polytechnics were given university status in 1992. Full courses of study offer the degree of Bachelor of Art or Science . Most degree courses at universities last three years, language courses 4 years ( including year spent aboard). Medicine and dentistry courses are longer (5-7 years). Students may receive grants from the Local Education Authority to help pay for books , accommodation, transport, and food. This grant depends on the income of their parents. Most students live away from home, in flats of halls of residence. Students don’t usually have a job during term time because the lessons called lectures, seminars, classes of tutorials (small groups), are full time. However, many students now have to work in the evenings. University life is considered «an experience ». The exams are competitive but the social life and living away from home are also important . The social life is excellent with a lot of clubs , parties, concerts, bars.
There are not only universities in Britain but also colleges. Colleges offer courses in teacher training, courses in technology and some professions connected with medicine.
The Modern British Industry
Private enterprises in the Great Britain generate over three-quarters of total do-mestic income. Since 1979 the Government has privatized 46 major businesses and reduced the state-owned sector of industry by about two-thirds. The Government is taking measures to cut unnecessary regulations imposed on business, and runs a number of schemes which provide direct assistance or advice to small and medium -sized businesses.
In some sectors a small number of large companies and their subsidiaries are responsible for a substantial proportion of total production, notably in the vehicle , aerospace and transport equipment industries. Private enterprises account for the greater part of activity in the agricultural, manufacturing , construction , distributive, financial and miscellaneous service sectors. The pri-vate sector contributed 75% of total domestic final expenditure in 1992, general government 24 % and public corporations 1%.
About 250 British industrial companies in the latest reporting period each had an annual turnover of more than £500 million. The annual turnover of the biggest company, British Petroleum’, makes it the llth largest industrial grouping in the world and the second largest in Europe. Five British firms are among the top 25 European Community companies.
The Modern British Army
 The strength of the regular armed forces, all volunteers, was nearly 271,000 in mid-1993 133,000 in the Army, 79,300 in the Royal Air Force (RAF) and 58,500 in the Royal Navy and Royal Marines. There were 18,800 women personnel 7,500 in the Army, 6,800 in the RAF, and 4,400 in the Royal Navy. British forces’ main military roles are to:
ensure the protection and security of Britain and its de-pendent territories;
ensure against any major external threat to Britain and its allies ; and contribute towards promoting Britain’s wider security in-terests through the maintenance of international peace and security. Most of Britain’s nuclear and conventional forces are commit-ted to NATO and about 95% of defence expenditure to meeting its NATO responsibilities.
“Customs and Traditions of Great Britain”
The studies of the customs and traditions of Great Britain here are supposed to be carried out in calendar order , which means that introduction of customs and traditions should begin with winter events and go on throughout the whole year, from December until November.
A student reports a result of his work done on the material of the previous topic that was studied in class . He/she is supposed to talk fluently by memory and speak about one-two civic customs that he’she founds to be remarkable. The report is followed by a brief discussion
“Some historical and colorful customs belong essentially to a particular town or community because they sprang, originally, from some part of the local history, or from some deep -seated local tradition . No doubt , such customs, along with various religious customs and traditions, attached to certain calendar dated , constitute the soul of British social culture and are of great interest for a researcher.
At Lichfield, a festival commonly called the Greenhill Bower and Court of Array takes place annually in late May or June . This is really two customs, of which the first – the Bower – is said to run back to the time of King Oswy of Northumbria, who founded Lichfield in A.D. 656. In the Middle Ages, the city guilds used to meet at Greenhill, carrying flower garlands and emblems of their trades. Now the Bower ceremonies have become a sort of carnival, wherein lorries carrying tableaux, trade floats, decorated carts, and bands pass cheerfully through streets profusely adorned with flowers and greenery.
American English
In the early part of the seventeenth century English settlers began to bring their language to America, and another series of changes began to take place. The settlers borrowed words from Indian languages for such strange trees as the hickory and persimmon, such unfamiliar animals as raccoons and woodchucks. Later they borrowed other words from settlers from other countries – for instance , chowder and prairie from the French , scow and sleigh from the Dutch . They made new combinations of English words, such as backwoods and bullfrog, or gave old English words entirely new meanings, such as   lumber ( which in British English means approximately junk ) and corn ( which in British means any grain, especially wheat ). Some   of the new terms were needed, because there were new and un-English things to talk about. Others can be explained only on the general theory that languages are always changing, and American English is no exception.
Aside from the new vocabulary , differences in pronunciation , in grammatical construction, and especially in intonation developed . If the colonization had taken place a few centuries earlier, American might have become as different from English as French is from Italian. But the settlement occurred after the invention of printing, and continued through a period when the idea of educating everybody was making rapid progress. For a long time most of the books read in America came from England, and a surprising number of Americans read those books, in or out of school. Moreover, most of the colonists seem to have felt strong ties with England. In this they were unlike their Anglo-Saxon ancestors, who apparently made a clean break with their continental homes.
A good many Englishmen and some Americans used to condemn every difference that did develop, and as recently as a generation ago it was not unusual to hear all “Americanisms” condemned, even in America. It is now generally recognized in this country that we are not bound to the Queen’s English, but have a full right to work out our own habits. Even a good many of the English now concede this, though some of them object strongly to the fact that Americanisms are now having an influence on British usage.
There are thousands of differences in detail between British and American English, and occasionally they crowd together enough to make some difficulty. If you read that a man, having trouble with his lorry, got out his spanner and lifted the bonnet to see what was the matter , you might not realize that the driver of the truck had taken out his wrench and lifted the hood. It is amusing to play with such differences, but the theory that the American language is now essentially different from English does not hold up. It is often very difficult to decide whether a book was written by an American or an English man. Even in speech it would be hard to prove that national differences are greater than some local differences in either country. On the whole, it now seems probable that the language habits of the two countries will grow more, rather than less, alike, although some differences will undoubtedly remain and others may develop.
It also seems probable that there will be narrow- minded and snobbish people in both countries for some time to come . But generally speaking, anybody who learnsto speak and write the standard English of his own country, and to regard that of the other country as a legitimate variety with certain interesting differences, will have little trouble wherever he goes”.
This section will be very useful if built upon listening comprehension and discussion exercises mainly. Thus students will be given both listening and oral experience of distinguishing between dialects and using their knowledge in practice .
The approximate volume of information for the first (but not the only one!) lesson on this topic is given below , for both lexical and grammatical differences.

Used

http://www.google.ee/imgres
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Britain
http://www.historyworld.net/wrldhis/PlainTextHistories.asp?historyid=ab07
http://www.study-abroad-uk.com/study-in-great-britain.html
http://www.english-theatre.org/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_British_School_%E2%80%93_Al_Khubairat
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modern_equipment_of_the_British_Army
http://www.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk/customs/calendars/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_and_British_English_differences