英语国家概况复习京江吉宇辉Word文档下载推荐.docx

1、3. The capital of the United Kingdom is London. There are two other cities in Britain containing over a million people each, that is, Birmingham and Glasgow.4. The British Commonwealth of Nations, or the Commonwealth, is an association of countries and other political units that were once part of th

2、e British Empire （with two exceptions）. Now it is comprised of 54 independent members working together in the common interests of their citizens for development, democracy and peace.5. Where did the British people come from?Invaders （in chronological order）ContributionsIberians?CeltsGaelsScottish an

3、d Irish race and cultureBritonsWelsh race and cultureRomansLatin alphabet and civilizationAnglo-Saxons （and Jutes）English race and languageDanesSome peculiarities of dialect in North and East EnglandNormans （French-speaking） Final unification of England. Great administrative progress. English civili

4、sation permanently linked to France rather than to Scandinavia. Foundation of aristocracy.6. In the year 1066, Duke of Normandy claimed the English throne, and after defeating and killing the Saxon king Harold at the Battle of Hastings, he went on to conquer the whole country, and to merit the name

5、of William the Conqueror.7. The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland has an area of about 94,060 square miles. The population of the United Kingdom is about 61,414,062 in 2008. The three largest cities are London, Birmingham and Glasgow.8. The British weather is characterized by unce

6、rtainty, and it tends to make the Englishman cautious.9. The Pop Revolution of the 1960s changed the pattern of English life. It has broken down social barriers among the young. It has also helped to sweep away many of the inhibitions which gave the British their reputation for being cold and reserv

7、ed. 10. The permissive society saw the popularity of pop groups, among which the most famous are the Beatles （made up of four Liverpool boys） and the Rolling Stones.11. The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is a constitutional monarchy. Queen Elizabeth is now the head of state of

8、the UK. She is also head of state of 15 other Commonwealth realms, including Australia, Canada, New Zealand, etc.12. The government of Britain has for many centuries been shared by three supreme authorities: the Monarch （i. e. the King or Queen）, the Lords （i. e. the hereditary nobility）, and the Co

9、mmons （i. e. the ordinary people.）13. What are the main functions of the British Parliament?1） Examine proposals for new laws;2） Provide, by voting for taxation, the means of carrying out the work of government;3） Scrutinize government policy and administration, including proposals for expenditure;4

10、） Debate the major issues of the day.14. The British Parliament has a maximum duration of five years. At any time up to the end of this period, a general election can be held for a new House of Commons.15. Members of the House of Lords （known as peers） consist of Lords Spiritual （senior bishops） and

11、 Lords Temporal （lay peers）. There are 670 peers in total in March 2000. The five ranks are Duke, Marquess, Earl, Viscount and Baron.16. The House of Lords is also the final court of appeal for civil cases in the UK and for the criminal cases in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.17. The House of C

12、ommons consists at present of 650 freely elected members, each one representing one of the 650 electoral districts of the United Kingdom called constituencies.18. Because the House of Commons is elected, a party that wins the majority of Commons seats in a general election is called on to form the n

13、ext government.19. The House is divided according to political parties, the stronger party of parties forming the Government, and the weaker the Opposition.20. The leader of the Government is the Prime Minister. About 16 or 18 of the most important Ministers （the number is not fixed） are members of

14、the Cabinet, which is a kind of supreme government committee, meeting regularly in private under the chairmanship of the Prime Minister at his famous address, No. 10 Downing Street, just off Whitehall.21. The present Prime Minister of the UK is David Cameron from the Conservative Party, who forms a

15、coalition government with the Liberal Democrats.22. The Cabinet is always answerable to Parliament, and the work of each Minister is always kept under observation by an unofficial Shadow Cabinet organized by the Opposition.23. There is no written constitution in Britain.24. Development of the Britis

16、h constitution 1） Before the Norman Conquest in 1066, the Anglo-Saxon kings consulted the Great Council（大议事会） before taking major decisions.2） In 1215 King John signed the Magna Carta （the Great Charter）, which gave some of his powers to the nobles. 3） Summoned by Simon de Montfort in 1264, the firs

17、t parliament of nobles met together.4） After the Bloodless Revolution in 1688, Parliament invited William and Mary to become Britains first constitutional monarchs. 5） The Bill of Rights （1689） （权利法案）was the first step towards constitutional monarchy.6） The Great Reform Bill of 1832 and the Second R

18、eform Bill of 1867 enabled a very large section of the population to vote for its government.25. In Britain, the party of the Right is the Conservative Party. Their opponents often call them the Tories, which was their old name. The party of the Left is the Labor Party, whom their opponents prefer t

19、o call the Socialists. The Liberal Party descended from the 18th-century Whigs.26. There is no censorship of the British press. There are nine national daily newspapers in Britain, as follows: The Times, Daily Express, The Guardian, Daily Mirror, Daily Telegraph, Morning Star, Financial Times, The S

20、un, and Daily Mail. The national Sunday newspapers are as follows: The Observer, Sunday Express, Sunday Times, Sunday Telegraph, News of the World, Sunday Mirror, and The People.27. Without a warrant issued by the local magistrate, the police can not enter the house of any person only if they are in

21、vited to. The police can not use threats or force to make a suspect talk, and they can not arrest him unless they had fairly strong evidence that he has committed a crime.28. The police cannot hold anyone for more than 24 hours without bringing him before a court. The Habeas Corpus Act（人身保护法） of 167

22、9 is one of the cornerstones of British justice.29. Every town and borough has a magistrates court. Magistrates, or Justices of the Peace, as they are called （J. P. for short）, have had very little training in law and they receive no salary. And magistrates can only try people for minor offences.30.

23、 In London, prisoners accused of serious offences are tried at the Old Bailey, the Central Criminal Court（中央刑事法庭）.31. British jury is composed of twelve members （15 in Scotland）. It is the jury that will reach the verdict of either “guilty” or “not guilty”.32. In a British court of law there goes th

24、e rule that the accused is always innocent until he is proved guilty.33. The legal profession in Britain is divided into two branches: barristers （called “advocates” in Scotland） and solicitors. 34. Ireland became part of the United Kingdom by the Act of Union of 1801. In 1922 the rest of the Irelan

25、d country except Northern Ireland broke away to form an Irish Free State in 1921, a dominion within the British Empire, later called Eire and now the Republic of Ireland. The Capital of Ireland is Dublin.35. The Irish potato crisis in the 1840s killed nearly 1 million people and forced many others t

26、o leave their homeland.36. In Northern Ireland the Stormont Agreement completed in 1998 provides for a National Assembly in which Catholics and Protestants are to govern jointly.37. The Archbishop of Canterbury is the Primate of all England, that is to say, he is the spiritual leader of the Church o

27、f England. After him, the Archbishop of York is called the Primate of England and under these two archbishops come a number of bishops.38. Henry VIII broke from the Roman Catholic Church by denying papal claims to ecclesiastical or any other jurisdiction, and by declaring himself rather than the Pop

28、e as Supreme Head of the Church in England.39. Every week, every employed man and woman in Britain has to pay the State a certain sum of money as a compulsory for National Insurance and National Health, in return for which the State provide certain allowances and services, e. g. in times of sickness

29、 or unemployment.40. As well as these deductions for national insurance, many people suffer a further deduction from their salary for income tax.41. The tax levied by local authorities is called the rates （税费）.42. The money payments of the state welfare system which everyone is entitled to in certai

30、n circumstances include: family allowances, unemployment, sickness benefit, widows benefit, retirement pension, maternity pension, etc.43. In addition to the sickness benefit, there is a National Health Service providing free medical and hospital services to everybody who needs them.44. The British Welfare State was planned during the Second World War by the economist, William Beveridge. The Labor Government of 1945-1950 passed laws giving the country almost everything for which Beverage asked. 45. In 1972, the school-leaving age （in England and Wales） wa