Контрольная работа по "Английскому языку"

Great Britain

 

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern. Ireland is situated on the British Isles. They lie to the north – west of Europe. The total area of Great Britain is over 244.000 square kilometers. It is population is about 55 million. The country is washed by the Atlantic Ocean, the North Sea and the Irish Sea. The British Isles are separated from the continent by the narrow strait of which is called the English Channel.

The United Kingdom consist of four parts. England, the central part, occupies the most of the island of Great Britain. To the west lies Wales and to the north the third part of the country, Scotland, is situated. The fourth part is called the Northern Ireland and is located on the second island. Each part has it s capital. The capital of England is London, Wales has Cardiff, Scotland has Edinburgh and the main city of the Northern Ireland is Belfast.

Great Britain is a country of forest and plains. There are no high the mountains in this country. Scotland is the most mountainous region with the highest peak Ben Nevis. The rivers of Great Britain are not long. The longest rivers are the Thames and the Severn. The capital of the United Kingdom, London, stands on the bank of the Thames. As the country is surrounded by many seas there are some great ports at the seaside: London, Glasgow, Plymouth and others. Wales is a country of lakes. It has the most famous lake in the world – Loch – Ness. Great Britain is a parliamentary monarchy. The power of the Queen is limited by the Parliament, which consists of the two Houses – the House of Commons and the House of Lords. The Prime Minister is usually the head of the party in power. There are the following parties there: the Conservative Party, the Labour Party, the Liberal Party. Great Britain is a highly developed industrial country. It exports machinery, vessels, motors and other goods. There are a lot of factories and mines there. The textile industry is also highly developed and a lot of British textiles are exported. At the same time Great Britain imports some food products and raw materials from many countries of the world. Great Britain is a beautiful country. 

 

The climate and the Nature of Great Britain

 

Great Britain is situated on islands. It is washed by seas from all sides. That s why the climate and the nature of Great Britain is very specific. It is not very cold in winter and very never hot in summer. There is no ice on the lakes and rivers in winter. It rains very often in all seasons. The weather changes very often. Mark Twain said about America: «If you don t like the weather in New England, just wait a few minutes» but it is more likely to have been said about England. Besides, Britain is famous for it s fogs. Sometimes fogs are so thick that it is impossible to see anything within 2 or 3 meters. The most picturesque part of the country is Highlands in the North of Scotland. This is a region of mountains and rivers, small towns and villages. In Wales also many beautiful mountains and valleys. The highest mountain in Wales is Snowdon. Every one who comes to England says that it looks like one great beautiful park. The Englishmen love their country and take care of it.

 

Cities and Towns of Great Britain

 

Great Britain is highly developed industrial country, and most of the people there live in large towns. Naturally, the capital comes first among the country s biggest industrial cities. Lots of things such as clothes, food, planes and cars are made in London. Birmingham is the biggest town in the center of England. Machines, cars and lorries are made here. TV and radio – sets are also produced in Birmingham. Manchester is an industrial capital of the North of England. It is a very old city. It is the center of the cotton industry. Manchester was the first city in Great Britain to build an airport in 1929. Manchester has many libraries, museums, art galleries and theatres. Edinburgh is the capital of Scotland. It is one of the most beautiful cities in Europe. It s main attractions are the Floral clock made of growing flowers, and the Edinburgh Art Festivals, the annual summer performances of operas, dancing, music and drama. Glasgow is another great Scottish city. It is famous for it s shipyards. Glasgow is a great industrial city and also a center of Scottish culture. Cardiff is the capital of Wales. It is a big port and ships come here from all over the world. Cambridge and Oxford are the oldest university towns in Great Britain. Many great men studied in these universities. Cromwell, Newton, Byron, Darwin and other. 

 

 

London

 

 

London is the capital of Great Britain. It s political, economic and cultural center. It is one of the largest cities in the world. It s population is more than 11 million people.

London is situated on the river Thames. The Thames is rather a deep river, so all kinds of ships can come into London port. Here you can see ships of different nations. The city is very old and beautiful. It was founded more than two thousand years ago. Traditionally London is divided into several parts: the city, the West End and the East End. The city is the oldest part of London, it s financial and business center. The West End is the part where rich people live. It is the most beautiful part of London. The best hotels, restaurants, shops, clubs, parks and houses are situated there. The East End is an industrial district of London. There are many factories and the port of London is there. London has many places of interest. One of them is the Houses of Parliament, the seat of the British Government. There one can see a famous clock Tower Big Ben, the symbol of London. Big Ben is really the bell which strikes every quarter of an hour.

Besides Big Ben there are four little bells which strike before Big Ben. There are many other places of interest in London: the Highgate Cemetery where many famous people were buried, Buckingham palace – the residence of the Queen, Trafalgar Square with a tall Nelson Column in it, Saint Paul s Cathedral, and of course, the British Museum. Not far from the Houses of Parliament there is Westminster Abbey. It is a fine old building founded in 1409. Many great Englishmen such as Darwin and Dickens are buried there. 

 

English traditions

 

Every country and every nation has it s own traditions and customs. You cannot speak about England without speaking about it s traditions and customs. Englishmen are proud of their traditions and carefully keep them up. The English are stay at – home people. «There is no place like  home», they say. When they don t work they like to spend their days off at home with their families. Englishmen are very fond of fire – place, that s why many of them prefer the open fire to central heating. They like to live in small houses with a small garden. People all over the world know the saying. The Englishman s home is his castle. They say that English people keep to their traditions even in meals. Porridge is the dish Englishmen are very fond of. Many of them eat porridge with milk and sugar for breakfast. As for the Scotch, for example, they never put sugar in their porridge, they always put salt in it. By the way, breakfast time in England is between 7 and 9. Then, between 12 and 2 there comes lunch time. In some English houses lunch is the biggest meal of the day – they have meat or fish, vegetables, fruit or pudding. In the afternoon, at tea – time the English like to have a cup of tea with milk. Some Englishmen have their dinner late in the evening. For dinner they have soup, fish or meat, vegetables, pudding or fruit. For supper they usually have a glass of milk and a cake or a cup of tea and sandwich. The English are tea – drinkers. They have it many times a day. Some Englishmen have tea for breakfast, tea in lunch time, tea after dinner, tea at tea – time and tea with supper. For high tea they may have cold meat, bread and butter, cakes, and, of courses, a lot of tea. The Englishmen always drink tea out of caps, never out of glasses. 

 

The famous people of Great Britain

 

James Aldridge      

In the history of Great Britain there are a lot of famous names.  The name of James Aldridge is one of them. He is a well-known English writer and public figure. James Aldridge is the son of a journalist.  He was born in 1918 in Australia.  When he was seventeen he became a journalist . He went to Great Britain and worked for a newspaper there.          

During the Second World War he took an active part in the struggle against fascism.  He was a war correspondent in many parts of the world.

In 1944 he came to our country.  James Aldridge was with the Soviet Army in Berlin in May 1945, and he wrote articles about what he saw in the fascist concentration camps.

But James Aldridge is not only a journalist, he is also a writer.  He has written many novels and short stories.  For his novel "The Diplomat" he was awarded the golden medal of the World Peace Council in 1953.

 

Michael Faraday

Michael Faraday was born in London in a poor family.  He did not learn much and spent a lot of time playing in the streets.  When he was 14 he got some work in a bookseller's shop.  There he read as many books as he could.  Later he became an assistant in a laboratory of one of the great scientists.  Soon M. Faraday became interested in electricity and concluded that  electricity could be made by a machine.  This was the beginning of all great machines that make our electricity today.  Without them we can have no telephones, no radio, no television.  Each of these things is invention made for man by the work of Faraday and others with electricity.

 

 

Sports in Great Britain

 

The British are great sports-lovers, so when they are neither playing, not watching games, they like to talk about them. Many of the games we play now have come from Britain.

One of the most British games is cricket. It is often played in schools, colleges, universities. Summer  is not summer without cricket. To many Englishmen cricket is both a game and a standard of behaviour. When they consider anything unfair, they sometimes say "That isn't cricket".

But as almost everywhere else in the world, the game which attracts the greatest attention is Association football, or soccer. Every Saturday from late August till the beginning of May, large crowds of people support their, favourite sides in football grounds. True fans will travel from one end of the country to the other to see their team play. There are plenty of professional and amateur soccer clubs all over Britain. International football matches take place at Wembley. Rugby football is also very popular, but it is played mainly by amateurs.

Next to football, the chief spectator sport in British life is horse-racing. A lot of people are interested in the races and risk money on the horse which they think will win

Britain is also famous for motor-car racing, dog-racing, boat-racing, and even races for donkeys. The famous boat-race between the teams of Oxford and Cambridge attracts large crowds of people. A great number of people play and watch tennis. Tennis tournaments at Wimbledon are known all over the world. The innumerable tennis courts of Britain are occupied by people between the ages of 16 and 60 who show every degree of skill - from practically helpless to the extremely able.

The British also like to play golf, baseball, hockey, grass-hockey. Various forms of athletics, such as running, jumping, swimming, boxing are also popular. You can sometimes hear that there are no winter sports in England. Of course the English weather is not always cold enough to ski, skate, or toboggan, but winter is a good season for hunting and fishing.

Indeed sport in one form or another is an essential part of daily life in Britain.                                    

 

Press in Britain

 

Probably in no other country are there such great differences between the various national daily newspapers. On the one hand. there are the "quality" newspapers: The Times, The Independent, The Guardian, the Financial Times and The Daily Telegraph. These concern themselves, as far as possible, with factual reports of major national and international events, with the world of politics and business and with the arts and sport.

On the other hand, there are the "populars" and "tabloids". The tabloids ~ the most widely read of which are The Daily Mail, The Daily Express, the Daily Mirror, The Sun and The Daily Star - concentrate on more emotive reporting of stories about the Royal Family, film and pop stars, and sport, it is often said that the popular press aims to entertain its readers rather than inform them. The tabloid press is much more popular than the quality press.

In some countries, newspapers are owned by government or by political parties. This is not the case in Britain. Newspapers here are mostly owned by individuals or by publishing companies, and the editors of the papers are usually allowed considerate freedom of expression. This is not to say that newspapers are without political bias. Papers like The Daily Telegraph, The Daily Express and The Sun, for example, usually reflect Conservative opinions while the Daily Mirror and The Guardian have a more left-wing bias.

In addition to the 12 national daily newspapers there are nine national papers which are published on Sundays. Most of the "Sundays" contain more reading matter than daily papers, and several of them also include "colour supplements" — separate colour magazines which contain photographically-illustrated feature articles. Reading a Sunday paper, like having a big Sunday lunch, is an important tradition in many British households.

Besides, nearly every area in Britain has one or more local newspapers.

The British are one of the biggest newspaper-reading nations in the world.                

 

 

 

 

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