I. Answer the following questions:
1. What is the geographical position of Britain? 2. What is the official name of Britain? 3. What parts does the UK include? 4. What is the highest mountain in Britain? 5. What are the most important rivers in Britain? 6. Which lake in Britain is world famous and why? 7. How can you define the climate of Great Britain? 8. How will you describe in brief each part of the UK from the points of a) geographical position, relief; b) population; c) industries; d) urban centres; e) sightseeing. 9. What is the City of London? 10. What do Oxford and Cambridge have in common? 11. What is Manchester known for? 12. What is the national emblem of each part of the UK? 13. What is the nickname of the British flag? 14. Where is the United States of America situated? 15. How many states does the USA consist of? 16. What countries does the USA border on? 17. What lowlands and mountains in the USA can you name? 18. What are the largest rivers in the USA? 19. What climate has the USA got? 20. In what way is Washington, D.C. different from other large cities in the USA? 21. Why is New York called “modern Babylon”? 22. What is Los Angeles famous for? 23. What do you know about Philadelphia? 24. What historic events took place in Boston? 25. What are the national symbols of America?
II. Explain in English what is meant by:
Albion, the Saint George’s Cross, Lowland Britain, Highland Britain, the Lake District, Eisteddfod, Ulster, borough, the East End, the Docklands, Holyrood Palace, the Stars and Stripes, the Great Lakes, New England, the Rust Belt, the Dust Bowl, bronco, rodeo, the gold rush, Silicon Valley, the Sunshine State, Tex-Mex, the District of Columbia, the Big Apple, the Windy City.
III. Choose a topic for project work or a report from those given below:
Patron saints of England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland.
Floral symbols of England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland.
Snowdon – the highest mountain of Wales.
The Lake District.
Loch Ness.
National parks of Great Britain.
London – the capital of Great Britain.
Edinburgh: the Athens of the North.
Oxford and Cambridge.
Manchester, Glasgow and Liverpool.
Washington, D.C. – the capital of the USA.
New York – “modern Babylon”.
Philadelphia and Boston – historical cities of America.
Chicago, Illinois.
Los Angeles and San Francisco – the most well-known cities of California.
Theme 2. Glimpses of history of Great Britain and the USA.
1. Early history of Britain.
Nobody knows when the first men appeared on the territory of Britain. Its oldest known human remains go back to 200,000 years ago. At that time Britain was not an island but the part of the continent now called Europe.
Little is known about the ancient population of the British Isles. They lived in caves and hunted animals for food. Gradually they learned to grow corn and breed domestic animals. They made primitive tools and weapons of stone. Later they learned to smelt metal. Archaeologists find their tools and weapons, as well as remains of primitive houses. These people were religious. They left behind them the barrows (large mound graves made of earth or stone) that can still be seen in the south of Britain. The greatest of the temples which they built is Stonehenge.
T
his
ancient monument of huge stones solitarily standing on the Salisbury
Plain, a region south-east of Bristol, has captured imaginations for
centuries. Theories about who built it have included the Druids,
Greeks, Phoenicians, and Atlanteans. Speculation on the reason it
was built range from human sacrifice to astronomy. Investigations
over the last 100 years have revealed that Stonehenge was built in
several stages from 2800 - 1800 BC. It seems to have been designed
to allow for observation of astronomical phenomena - summer and
winter solstices, eclipses, and more. Mostly Stonehenge is
associated with sun worship: at dawn in midsummer, the sun rises
exactly over a certain stone on the outside of the circle and shines
onto the altar in the centre.
Between the sixth and the third century ВС, the British Isles were invaded by Celtic tribes who settled in southern England. They originally came from central Europe. Their culture goes back to about 1200 ВС. Between 500 and 250 ВС, they were the most powerful people north of the Alps. Originally they were pagan, with priests known as Druids.
The druids’ influence was as much social as religious. They not only performed roles similar to modern priests, but were also the philosophers, scientists, lore-masters, teachers, judges and counsellors to the kings. The druids linked the Celtic peoples with their numerous gods, the secular and ritual calendar, and the natural order. Some plants such as the mistletoe and the oak-tree were considered sacred.
The four main Gaelic holidays observed by Gaelic druids and their people include Imbolg (February 1), which marked the earliest signs of the coming spring, Beltane (May 1), a time of community gatherings and moving of the herds to summer pastures, Lughnasadh to celebrate the ripening of first fruits and the many-skilled deity Lugh, and Samhain to recognize the end of harvest, the time of sacrifice, and the lowering of the barrier between the world of the living and that of the dead. The timing for these four festivals was determined by seasonal changes in the natural world, or possibly by combined lunar and solar calendar.
The Britons lived in huts of arched timber with walls of wicker and roofs of thatch. The huts were generally gathered in loose hamlets. The Celts were mainly farmers. They organized themselves into tribes with a king or queen as leader and intertribal wars were very common.
The Celts were great warriors. The Romans considered the Celts as ”high spirited and quick for battle.” They were also famous artists, known for their sophisticated designs, which are found in their elaborate jewellery, decorated crosses and illuminated manuscripts.
They later converted to Christianity. It was Celtic missionaries who spread the Christian religion through Scotland and northern England.
Hardly anything is left of the Celtic language or culture in England, except for the names of some rivers (Thames, Severn, Avon) and cities (Leeds).