英语国家概况英国部分Unit2

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1、Do You Know?Focus InDo You Know?From the following video clip,can you tell the elements of Britishness?Do You Know?II Have a general idea of the ethnical composition of the British people Be informed of the statistics about the British population Know something about the languages in Britain Underst

2、and the class structure in Britain Know about BritishnessFocus InAn aging countryWhat are the elements of the British identity?Class consciousnessWhat are the ethnic groups in the UK?An English-speaking country?How is the population distributed in the UK?In historic times,migrants from the European

3、mainland joined the indigenous population of Britain during the Roman Empire and during the invasions of the Angles,Saxons,Jutes,Vikings and Normans from Northern and Western Europe.1.Ethnic origins The Irish have long made homes in Great Britain.Many Jews arrived in Britain toward the end of the 19

4、th century and in the 1930s.After 1945 large numbers of other European refugees settled in the country.The large immigrant communities from the West Indies and South Asia date from the 1950s and 1960s.There are also substantial groups of Americans,Australians,and Chinese,as well as various other Eur

5、opeans,such as Greeks,Russians,Poles,Serbs,Estonians,Latvians,Armenians,Turkish Cypriots,Italians,and Spaniards.Beginning in the early 1970s,Ugandan Asians and immigrants from Latin America,Southeast Asia,and Sri Lanka have sought 2.Immigrants2.Immigrantsrefuge in the UK.People of Indian,Pakistani,a

6、nd Bangladeshi origin account for more than half of the total ethnic minority population,and people of West Indian origin are the next largest group.The foreign-born element of the population is disproportionately concentrated in inner-city areas,and more than half live in Greater London.Ethnicity i

7、n England and WalesRoman Empire The Roman Empire was the post-Republican period of the ancient Roman civilization,characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean.The term is used to describe the Roman state during and after the

8、time of the first emperor,Augustus.Because of the Empires vast extent and long endurance,the institutions and culture of Rome had a profound and lasting influence on the development of language,religion,architecture,philosophy,law,and forms of government in the territory it governed,particularly Eur

9、ope,and by means of European expansionism throughout the modern world.Angles,Saxons,and Jutes The Angles is a modern English word for a Germanic-speaking people.The Angles were one of the main groups that settled in Britain in the post-Roman period,and their name is the root of the name“England”.The

10、 Saxons were a confederation of Old Germanic tribes.Their modern-day descendants are generally considered ethnic Germans,Dutch,or English.Saxons participated in the Germanic settlement of Britain during and after the 5th century.The Jutes were a Germanic people who were one of the three most powerfu

11、l Germanic peoples of their time.The Jutes,along with some Angles,Saxons and Frisians,sailed across the North Sea to raid and eventually invade Great Britain from the late 4th century onwards,either displacing,absorbing,or destroying the native Celtic peoples there.They finally settled in Kent,Hamps

12、hire,and the Isle of Wight.Angles,Saxons,and JutesVikings The term Viking is customarily used to refer to the Norse(Scandinavian)explorers,warriors,merchants,and pirates who raided,traded,explored and settled in wide areas of Europe and the North Atlantic islands from the late 8th to the mid-11th ce

13、ntury.These Norsemen used their famed longships to travel as far east as Constantinople and the Volga River in Russia,and as far west as Iceland,Greenland,and Newfoundland,and as far south as Al Andalus.This period of Viking expansion known as the Viking Age forms a major part of the medieval histor

14、y of Scandinavia,Britain,Ireland and the rest of Europe in general.Normans The Normans were the people who gave their name to Normandy,a region in northern France.They played a major political,military,and cultural role in medieval Europe and even the Near East.They were famed for their martial spir

15、it and Christian piety.They quickly adopted the Romance language of the land they settled off,their dialect becoming known as Norman,an important literary language.The Duchy of Normandy,which they formed by treaty with the French crown,was one of the great large fiefs of medieval France.Norman adven

16、turers established a kingdom in Sicily and southern Italy by conquest,and a Norman expedition on behalf of their duke,William the Conqueror,led to the Norman Conquest of England.West IndiesDo you know where“West Indies”is?West Indies is a group of islands that extends in an arc from near southern Fl

17、orida to the coast of Venezuela.The West Indies archipelago,which includes thousands of tiny islands,forms a breakwater 3,200-km long against the Atlantic Ocean,separating it from the Caribbean Sea.European explorer Christopher Columbus gave the region that name in error when he arrived in 1492.He a

18、ssumed that the islands were near the coast of India.An aging country Compared to the rest of the world,the UK has a smaller percentage of younger people and a higher percentage of older people,with 15.8 percent over the age of 65;those under the age of 14 years make up only 17.7 percent of the popu

19、lation.Life expectancy in 2005 was 75.94 years for men and 80.96 years for women.This pattern is expected to continue.Demographics of UK population by age1.Population statistics The United Kingdom has a population of 60,209,500(2005 estimate),with an average population density of 243 persons per squ

20、are kilometre(629 per square mile),one of the highest in the world.According to 2004 statistics,England is the most populated part of the United Kingdom,with 50,093,800 people,which means about four-fifths of the UK population resides in England.It has a population density of 383 persons per square

21、kilometre.Scotland possesses 5,078,400 people,and a population density of 65 persons per square kilometre.Wales has 2,952,500 people,with a population density of 142 persons per square kilometre.Northern Irelands population is 1,710,300,and it has 125 persons per square kilometre.2.Urban population

22、The UK population is overwhelmingly urban,with 89.4 percent living in urban areas and 10.6 percent living in rural areas.The Industrial Revolution(17501850)built up major urban areas,and most of British people live in and around them to this day.Englands population is densest in the London area,arou

23、nd Birmingham and Coventry in the Midlands,and in northern England near the old industrial centres of Leeds,Sheffield,Manchester,Liverpool,and Newcastle upon Tyne.In the 1980s and 1990s southern England,particularly the southeast,became a centre of population growth,due in large part to the growth o

24、f the2.Urban populationhigh-tech and service sectors of the economy.In Wales two-thirds of the people live in the industrial southern valleys.In Scotland three-quarters of the people live in the central lowlands,around Glasgow to the west and Edinburgh to the east.About half of the people living in

25、Northern Ireland reside in the eastern portion,in Belfast and along the coast.2.Urban populationLargest cities of the United Kingdom1.Celtic languages Of the surviving languages,the earliest Indo-European language to arrive was the Celtic,from which Irish,Welsh and Scottish Gaelic,among others,have

26、developed.Of these,Welsh,closely tied to the cultural nationalism of Wales,is the strongest.Today about one-fifth of the total population of Wales,especially in the north and west,are able to speak it.Many schools in this region offer bilingual education,and there is a Welsh-language television chan

27、nel.In 1993,after long and considerable agitation by Welsh nationalists,the government made Welsh a joint official language with English in Wales foruse in the courts,the civil service,and other aspects of the public sector.Scottish Gaelic is strongest among the inhabitants of the islands of the Out

28、er Hebrides and Skye,although it is still heard in the nearby North West Highlands.Because only less than 2 percent Scots are able to speak Gaelic,it has long ceased to be a national language.Even in northwestern areas,where it remains the language of religion,business,and social activity,Gaelic is

29、losing ground.Similarly,very little Irish is spoken in Ireland.1.Celtic languages1.Celtic languagesWelsh and English Modern English is derived mainly from the Germanic dialects spoken by the Angles,Saxons,and Jutes(who all arrived in Britain in the 5th century AD)and heavily influenced by the langua

30、ge of the Danes(Vikings),who began raiding the British Isles in about AD 790 and subsequently colonised parts of northern and eastern England.From the 11th to 14th century,under the French-speaking Norman kings,a hybrid speech combining Anglo-Saxon and Norman French elements developed and gradually

31、became the official language,known as Middle English today.This hybrid language,along with many other2.Englishother additions,subsequently evolved into modern English.Today English is the official language of the United Kingdom and is the first language of the vast majority of its citizens(being spo

32、ken monolingually by roughly 95 percent of the UK population).Some people in England regard regional accents and slang as substandard.On the other hand,many local people,such as Cockneys in East London and people in northern England,enjoy their particular way of speaking,regarding it as warmer and f

33、riendlier than Standard English.Scottish people appreciate the Scottish accent so much very2.Englishthat they insist the BBC carry programmes with Scottish-accented speakers.English is the predominant language in Northern Ireland,although at least some of the Roman Catholic minority speak Irish,anot

34、her Gaelic dialect,as a second language.Despite the large variety of dialects in every part of the UK,the most common form of English is that used by the British ruling class of southeastern England.This form of the language is associated with Received Pronunciation(RP),which is still regarded by ma

35、ny people outside the UK as“the British accent”.2.EnglishCockneyHave you heard of“Cockney”?The term Cockney has both geographical and linguistic associations.Geographically and culturally,it often refers to working-class Londoners,particularly those in the East End.Linguistically,it refers to the fo

36、rm of English spoken by this group.Class consciousness Britain was once a class-ridden society.Today,multiculturalism and a changing economy are gradually eroding the British class system,but some features of the system still remain.The British society has often been considered to be divided into th

37、ree main classes:the Upper ClassOften people with inherited wealth.Includes some of the oldest families,with many of them being titled aristocrats.the Middle ClassThe majority of the population of Britain.They include industrialists,professionals,business people and shop owners.the Lower or Working

38、ClassPeople who are agricultural,mine and factory workers.Although some people in the UK still refer to themselves as“working-class”,“lower-middle”or“upper-middle”(and of course there are those who think of themselves as the“elite”class),to the majority of the British the meanings dont seem to matte

39、r much these days.Class identity in contemporary BritainClass consciousnessWhat are the elements of the British identity?While the content of“Britishness”is shared across most groups,there are important differences in the ways in which different groups and individuals are related to,and identified w

40、ith,Britishness.UK passport holders all know they are British citizens,but not everyone attaches value or significance to being British.In Scotland and Wales,white and ethnic minority people identify more strongly with each respective country than with Britain.In England,white English perceive thems

41、elves as English first and as British second,while ethnic minority people perceive themselves as British,secondWhat are the elements of the British identity?not English,a label they associate exclusively with white people.Thus,the people who identify most strongly with Britishness are those from eth

42、nic minority backgrounds resident in England.Ethnic minority people also draw on other sources of identification:religion(for Muslims only);ethnicity(region,country or continent of origins,and their associated cultures);and race or colour(for black Caribbean and black African participants only).Thes

43、e various identities become more or less salient in different situations.They are seen as being compatible with Britishness.What are the elements of the British identity?These features suggest that the contemporary British are a very diverse people with varying identities.There has been strong voice

44、 arguing for multiculturalism or separate development of cultural groups and the preservation of their identities.Others,however,advocate cultural veryElements of Britishnessassimilation.The latter implies an acceptance of basic common values,including those represented by civic social and political

45、 structures,which have primacy over cultural identities.True or FalseMultiple ChoiceDiscussion 1.The English,the Scots,and the Welsh are Anglo-Saxons,but the Irish are Celts.2.London and England as a whole have great influence over the rest of the United Kingdom because of their large population.3.P

46、eople of Indian,Pakistani,and Bangladeshi origin are the largest group of immigrants in Britain.4.Compared to the rest of the world,the UK has a smaller percentage of older people and a higher percentage of younger people.F()True or FalseT()T()F()T()F()T()F()F()5.The Welsh language is the official l

47、anguage in Wales.6.Scottish Gaelic is the official language in Scotland.7.The English language is the predominant language in Northern Ireland.8.English people all strive to free themselves of regional or local accents in order to sound like educated English-speaking people.9.Social class in the UK

48、lays more emphasis on money and property.True or False10.Britishness is associated with political,historical,technological,sporting,and cultural achievements in Britain.T()True or False1.The English people and the English language were born from the union of _.A.the Angles and the Saxons B.Romans an

49、d the Norman French C.Danes or Vikings and the Norman FrenchD.Norman conquerors and the defeated Anglo-SaxonsMultiple Choice2.The first known settlers of Britain were _.A.the Iberians B.the Beaker Folk C.the Celts D.the RomansMultiple Choice3.About 80,000 Scots speak Gaelic which is an ancient _.A.S

50、cottish language B.English language C.Irish language D.Celtic languageMultiple Choice4.About three million people have migrated to Britain since World War II.They are mainly from the West Indies,India and _.A.Indonesia B.Singapore C.Hong Kong D.PakistanMultiple Choice5.In Britain _ of the population

51、 is urban and _ is rural.A.90%;10%B.80%;20%C.70%;30%D.60%;40%Multiple Choice6.The ancestors of the Welsh were the ancient _.A.Celts B.Romans C.Normans D.BritonsMultiple Choice7.The average population density in Britain is _ people per square kilometer.A.250 B.370 C.800 D.500Multiple Choice8.During t

52、he 5th century when the Roman Empire fell,the Germanic _ invaded and conquered Britain.A.Angles and Celts B.Angles and Picts C.Angles and Brythons D.Angles and SaxonsMultiple Choice9.The upper class in Britain consists of the following except _.A.peerage B.gentry C.landowners D.professionalsMultiple

53、 Choice10.“Britishness”can be reflected in the following except _.A.Union Jack B.conservativenessC.the Beatles D.Thanksgiving DayMultiple ChoiceDiscuss how the English,Welsh,Irish and Scottish have defined themselves in terms of their individual nationalities.Discussion The complication in defining

54、the English is a common tendency for the words“English”and“British”to be used interchangeably.“Welsh people”may refer to anyone born or living in Wales.People from Northern Ireland are British citizens but may additionally be recognised as Irish people.In modern use“Scottish people”or“Scots”refers t

55、o anyone born in Scotland.H ints:Britains Dirty Secret:Class Still MattersJenni Russell On rare days I feel sorry for members of the government.Running the country must be as frustrating as being a parent:its only in retrospect that you realise where you went wrong.But your new-found wisdom is of no

56、 use because the crucial moments have passed,and you cant have your time again.Thats whats happened with the governments belated engagement with the question of class.For years new Labour avoided the word.It was too divisive.It threatened the partys delicate position in the centre ground.It was too

57、easily linked with the uncomfortable word“struggle”.It was much better to talk instead of aspiration and disadvantage,inclusion and social mobility.In Labours view of the world,anyone could get on as long as they raised their sights and worked hard.The twin problems facing the less privileged were t

58、hose of moneyand ambition.The government would provide more of the first through redistribution,and more of the second through educational reforms and exhortation.Schools would drive up standards,the poor would pass more examinations,educational inequality would be redressed and we would enter a new

59、 age of meritocracy.The strategy hasnt worked.True,people from the lower and middle-income groups have more qualifications,but its done nothing for their relative position.Inequality has widened slightly,social mobility remains among theworst in Europe,and the well-off dominate top universities and

60、the professions just as they always did.It failed because it ignored the truth.Labour acted as if social disadvantage was largely a practical problem.For a long time it avoided addressing the barriers that divide Britons from one another and make attempting to move out of ones group as risky and as

61、psychologically difficult a process as emigration.The apparent emergence of a classless society,in which anyone might wear jeans,watch The X Factor or speak in a variant of estuary English,disguises the fact that Britain is still a highly stratified society,in which different classes are brought up

62、to follow different rules about how to think,talk and behave.These classes prefer to socialise and work with those who share their values.Joining these groups is not a simple matter of gaining the right academic qualifications.They will admit and promote only those who can read all their unwritten a

63、nd unspoken rules of behaviour.It has been only in the past year or so that parts of the government have suddenly woken up to the fact that the strategy to create a fairer society isnt working.Alan Milburns blistering report on social mobility recognised how split Britain was becoming,divided betwee

64、n those who had networks and social skills and those without.It pointed out that the ordinary middle classes were now also losing out to those in the upper middle,who had the connections.It called for national mentoring schemes and internships and for schools to be judged on whether they educated th

65、e whole child.Harriet Harman produced theEquality Bill,aimed among other things at reducing discrimination on the basis of class.And last week John Denham,the communities minister,said class was now as likely a cause of discrimination as race used to be.This is difficult territory because it involve

66、s uncomfortable issues.It is not a simple story about prejudice.On the one hand,there are issues of power and exclusion.On the other,society is now becoming so divided that in some poor areas people are being raised without developing the character and attitudes they need to survive.They are emerging without basic manners andskills.One former Downing Street adviser says that it remains hard to have an honest conversation about this.Labour doesnt want to look too closely at behaviour and characte