Тексты из Л.Н. Андриановой «Курс английского языка для вечерних и заочных технических вузов».- М., 2001.
Стр.397-405
THE UNITED KINGDOM OF GREAT BRITAIN AND NORTHERN IRELAND
The english language today
Approximately 350 million people speak English as their first language. About the same number use it as a second language. It is a language of aviation, international sport and pop music. 75% of the world's mail is in English, 60% of the world's radio stations broadcast in English and more than half of the world's periodicals are printed in English. It is an official language in 44 countries. In many others it is the language of business, commerce and technology. There are many varieties of English, but Scottish, Australian, Indian and Jamaican speakers of English, in spite of the differences in pronunciation, structure and vocabulary, would recognize that they are all speaking the same basic language.
Great britain General Outline
Great Britain is formed of the following parts: England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland and is situated on the British Isles which lie to the west of the continent of Europe. Great Britain is washed on the western coast by the Atlantic Ocean and by the Irish Sea which separates England from Ireland.
The English Channel separating England's south coast from France’s north coast stretches 350 miles, from the Atlantic Ocean to the North Sea. At its widest point it measures 120 miles; at its narrowest, only 21 miles. On a clear day, you can see the white cliffs of Dover from the French coast. For centuries, the Channel has been the way to the Continent, a highway crowded with ships.
The English Channel is perhaps the most dangerous sea channel in Europe. Half of the entire world's ship collisions lake place here. Now, after the construction of the Channel Tunnel (a tunnel under the English Channel, linking the coasts of England and France) was completed in 1994 the crossing of the Channel has become much faster, safer and more comfortable.
The country's landscape is rich and varied. You will find here mountains and lowland, hills and valleys, lakes and rivers within short distances. There are many rivers in Britain: the Thames, the Severn, the Mersey and others but none of them are very long. Many of the rivers are joined by canals, so that it is quite possible to travel by water from one end of England to the other.
Climate in England
Great Britain being an island, its climate is rather mild. Thus the weather, which is greatly influenced by the cool wind that blows from the sea, is cooler in summer and warmer in winter than in most other countries of Northern Europe. There is not a single point in Great Britain which is more than 120 kilometers away from the sea. The weather in England changes very often.
In spring the weather is generally mild but sometimes they have really cool days. In summer it is not so hot as on the continent. In winter they have all sorts of weather. Sometimes it rains and sometimes it snows. In England it is never so cold in winter as on the continent, the rivers and lakes are seldom covered with ice.
But the worst thing about the climate in England is the thick fog which they so often have in autumn and in winter. In London the fog is sometimes so thick that cars run into one another. The fog is one of the worst typical features of London and Londoners cannot imagine their capital without it, as we cannot picture winter in St. Petersburg without snow.
The climate influences British architecture very much. British houses have large windows to let through more light during winter. Sunshine is a welcome visitor for the British people, and it is not usually from the heat of the sun that they seek shelter, but from wind and rain and cold.