第1部分 英国文化

第1章 谁是英国人

I. Explain each of the following in English

1. The Scottish Highlanders

Key: The Scottish Highlander consider himself the 'true' Scot and he wears his national dress, the kilt, with pride. They are a proud, independent and hardy people who mainly live by farming sheep in the mountain areas.

2. The British Isles

Key: The British Isles are a group of islands off the northwest coast of continental Europe that include the islands of Great Britain, Ireland and over six thousand smaller isles. There are two sovereign states located on the islands: the Republic of Ireland and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

3. The National Eisteddfod

Key: The National Eisteddfod takes place each August and lasts for about a week. The highlight of the Eisteddfod is a competition for the best epic poem about Wales written and read in Welsh; the winner is crowned Bard, considered the supreme honor in Wales.

4. Bard

Key: In medieval Gaelic and British culture, a bard was a professional poet, employed by a patron, such as a monarch or nobleman, to commemorate the patron's ancestors and to praise the patron's own activities.

5. Northern Ireland (Ulster)

Key: In 1922, Ireland was partitioned. The 26 countries of southern Ireland became the Irish Free State, later re-named the Republic of Eire. The six countries of Ulster, in the north, remained part of the United Kingdom with their own parliament, Stormont, responsible for internal affairs.

6. Oliver Cromwell

Key: He was an English military and political leader and later Lord Protector of the Commonwealth of England, Scotland and Ireland.

7. William III

Key: William III was a sovereign Prince of Orange of the House of Orange-Nassau by birth. From 1672 he governed as Stadtholder William III of Orange over Holland, Zeeland, Utrecht, Gelderland, and Overijssel of the Dutch Republic. From 1689 he reigned as William III over England and Ireland; it is a coincidence that his regna number (III) was the same for both Orange and England. As King of Scotland, he is known as William II. He is informally known by sections of the population in Northern Ireland and Scotland as “King Billy”. In what became known as the“Glorious Revolution”, on 5 November 1688 William invaded England in an action that ultimately deposed King James II & VII and won him the crowns of England, Scotland and Ireland. In the British Isles, William ruled jointly with his wife, Mary II, until her death on 28 December 1694. The period of their joint reign is often referred to as“William and Mary”.

8. The Orange Day celebrations

Key: (1) Celebrations held by Protestants on 12 August each year in Northern Ireland to commemorate the battle of the Royne in 1690 when the Protestant King William III (William of Orange) crushed a Catholic rebellion in Londonderry.

(2) The celebrations were always aggressively provocative and fightings often broke out between Protestant marchers and Catholic bystanders.

9. The Provisional IRA

Key: (1) IRA, the Irish Republican Army, is a nationalist organization dedicated to the unification of Ireland.

(2) It was organized in 1919.

(3) In 1969 it split into an “official ”majority, which disclaimed violence, and a terrorist” provisional” wing, whose attacks on British troops in Northern Ireland, random bombings, and others acts of terror in England kept tensions high.

10. The Peace People

Key: (1)In the summer of 1976 Betty Williams, a Protestant house-wife, was so horrified at the killing of two children by a running IRA car that she decided to organize the women of Ulster, both Protestant and Catholic, into a pressure group.

(2)It is a pressure group working for peace and reconciliation in Ireland. Williams and her catholic partner, Corrigan, soon gathered thousands of followers despite threats and intimidation from both sides.

(3)They continued to pursue their aims and at the end of 1976 the two leaders were awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace.

11. William the Conqueror

Key: In AD 1066 William of Normandy (William the conqueror) landed with a large armed force on the south coast and won a great victory over the Saxons. He and his French-speaking followers set up a strong central government which brought a new unified discipline and control to the country.

II. Fill in the blanks.

1. The full name of the United Kingdom is _____.

Key: the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

2. The Romans first landed in Britain in the year of _____.

Key: 55 BC

3. The Scots are well-known for being _____, _____, and _____.

Key: inventive, hardworking, serious-minded and cautious with money.

4. Two of the Welsh characteristics are _____ and _____.

Key: love of music ; poetry.

5. People began to settle in Britain about _____ years ago.

Key: 10,000

6. Name two famous Scottish writers: _____ and _____; two Welsh writers: _____ and _____; two Irish writers: _____and _____.

Key: Robert Burns, Sir Walter Scott; Roald Dahl, Dylan Thomas; Fercert Ó hUiginn, Tomás Ó Cobhthaigh.

7. _____, _____ and _____ were the three Germanic tribes that came to be the basis of modern English race.

Key: Jutes, Saxons, Angles

III. Tick the correct answer in each of the following.

1. It would be difficult to find anyone in modern Britain who could, say with certainty that his ancestors had not come to the British Isles from somewhere else. This sentence means that _____.

A. everyone in Britain had come from the British Isles

B. almost everyone had come to the British Isles from somewhere else

C. almost everyone had his or her family origin from the British Isles

D. almost everyone had his or her family origin from somewhere else

【答案】D

2. The Highlanders in Scotland are known for being _____.

A. proud

B. tough

C. independent

D. generous

Which of the above is not true?

【答案】D

3. Which of the following is not true in the Irish character? The Irish people are _____.

A. argumentative

B. reserved

C. introspective dreamers and poets

D. aggressive

【答案】B

4. Which of the following is not a characteristic of the Englishman?

A. The Englishman is outspoken.

B. He is class-conscious.

C. He is suspicious of change.

D. He is racist.

【答案】A

5. Who introduced Christianity into Britain?

A. The Celts.

B. The Romans.

C. The Viking Danes.

D. The French.

【答案】B

IV. Answer the following questions

1. Who are the earliest inhabitants of Britain of whom the English people have written records, and where did these records come from?

Key: The earliest written records of Britain's inhabitants come from the Romans who eventually conquered the various Celtic kingdoms then flourishing in England, Wales and the Scottish Lowlands.

2. What are the national characteristics of the Scots supposed to be?

Key: The Scots have a reputation for being inventive, hard-working, serious-minded and cautious with money.

3. What are considered to be the national characteristics of the Welsh, and how can you recognize Welsh people?

Key: The Welsh are very conscious of their separate Celtic heritage. The cultural pride in Wales is very strong. The Welsh are also famous for their love of music and poetry. They also have a great feeling for the music of words.

The Scots can be recognized by their distinctive national dress and their particular style of speech and accent.

4. What is a traditionally typical Englishman thought to be like? Why is it not easy to talk about a typical Englishman?

Key: A traditionally typical Englishman is thought to be reserved, unemotional, courteous; shy of strangers; suspicious of change and slow to accept new ideas; solid and dependable with a high sense of honesty, duty and justice;physically and morally courageous; conscious of his place in the social order; disliking any show of emotion and lack of control; and fervently believing that the British are superior to any other race on earth. It is not easy to talk about a typical Englishman because the English are as individual as the inhabitants of any other nation. More important, they are descended from so many different Peoples who came and settled in England at some time or other

5. Give three or four examples to show that the Romans had great influence on the English culture.

Key: (1)The Romans invaded England in 55 BC, and brought with them their laws, taxes, engineering skills, architecture and social system as well as their language, Latin, and their system of writing and numbering.

(2) They introduced Christianity.

(3) They also left behind the first written description of the land and its peoples as well as records of their administration.

6. What, according to the author, are the causes of the present situation in Northern Ireland (Ulster)? Do you agree with the author?

Key: On the Catholic side, the violence was caused by the Irish Republican Army (IRA) with its terrorist wing, the Provisional IRA.

On the Protestant side, the violence was caused by the Ulster Unionists, or Loyalists.

7. Give the main points of view held by the important groups in Ulster.

Key: Between 1840 and 1900, some Irish nationalists, such as Charles Stewart Parnell, demanded some kind of autonomy and Irish members of the Westminster Parliament. They called persistently, for the control of internal affairs by an assembly in Dublin. This is what they called “home rule”. The home rule question led to even more disturbance and riots as the Ulster Protestants feared that an autonomous Ireland would be dominated by Catholics.