英语国家概况模拟试卷

英语专业《英语国家文化（I）》模拟练习卷

1. European culture is made up of many elements, which have gone through changes over the centuries. Two of these elements are considered to be more enduring and they are: the Greco-Roman element, and the Judeo-Christian element.

2. Around the 6th century AD, British Celts displaced from Glasgow and occupied the area around what is now Edinburgh.

3. The island of Great Britain includes 3 constituent countries: England, Scotland and Wales.

4. The Good Friday Agreement assures that the Dublin government was able to make representations to the British government on matters affecting the northern Catholic minority.

5. “Ulster”, referring to Northern Ireland, was once an ancient Irish Kingdom.

6. As the king in theory had God on his side, it was thought that he should exercise absolute power.

7. The term “parliament” was first officially used in 1066 to describe the gathering of feudal barons and representatives from counties and town.

8. There are three major national parties in the UK: Labor, Conservatives, and Liberal Democrats.

9. The purpose of British education is not only to provide children with literacy and the other basic skills but also to socialize children.

10. The southeast of England is the best agricultural land in Briatin.

1. In the history of the UK, who is the hero against invaders by English people?

A. King Arthur against Anglo-Saxons, the forefather of today’s English people.

B. Alfred the Great against V ikings from Scandinavia in the Central Europe.

C. William Wallace against King Edward the first.

D. Llywelyn against King Edward the first.

2. Which of the following statements is NOT true?

A. Wales was invaded by the Romans.

B. Wales was occupied by the Anglo-Saxons.

C. Wales was threatened by the English.

D. Wales was threatened by the Anglo-Saxons. 3. How many counties are there in Northern Ireland?

A. 26

B. 6

C. 32

D. 8

4. In 1969, the first British soldiers were seen on Northern Ireland Street. They came first ___.

A. to protect Catholics

B. to maintain traffic order in Northern Ireland

C. to protect Protestants

D. to place the Royal Ulster since they were unable to keep social order

5. Under whose reign was the Bill of Rights passed?

A. James II

B. William of Orange

C. Oliver Cromwell

D. George I

6. Which of the following is NOT related to the Constitution?

A. UK constitution is unwritten.

B. It is made up of Act of Parliament, Common laws, Equity laws and European Community legislation.

C. Prime Minister summons and dissolves Parliament.

D. Queen must assent to Bills passed by Parliament

7. Which government lost a vote of no confidence and was forced to resign in 1979?

A. the Conservative government

B. the Liberal government

C. the Labor government

D. the radical government

8. Which of the following party adopts a “fatherly” sense of obligation to poorer people in the society?

A. the Conservative Party

B. the Liberal Party

C. t he Party of Wales

D. the Labor Party

9. Which of the following about British economy is true?

A. UK is still the world factory although it declined absolutely.

B. British government did not elect to transit to Euro and instead retained the pound as its currency.

C. Except for coal, natural gas, and oil, the UK has few natural resources.

D. The best agricultural land in Britain is in the southwest of England.

10. Which of the following is true about present UK’s schools?

A. The minority of the students attend schools wholly or partly supported with public funds.

B. Private school means good quality of education, better universities and better jobs for the wealthier

middle class.

C. “Public schools” in the UK are part of the national educational system and most of students attend

the public schools.

D. In the UK those who pass the GNVQs exams will go to university.

得分评卷人复核人I. Decide whether the following statements is true

(T) or false (F). (1 point each, 10 points)

得分评卷人复核人II. Choose the answer that best completes the statement

or answers the question. (1 point each, 20 points)

得分评卷人复核人III. Read the following statements and fill in the

blanks. (1 point each, 20 points)

1. In 1066, William Normandy crossed the English Channel and defeated an English army under _____. This marks the last time that an army from outside Britain succeeded in invading.

2. In 1314, the Scots defeated English army under the leadership of Robert Bruce at the Battle of _____ and won the independence of Scotland for 300 years.

3. To pursue Irish independence, the most spectacular event in the Irish history was of 1916, in which the rebels took over Dublin’s Post Office, forcing the British to retake it by military means.

4. The Home Rule Bill was finally passed in _____, but the process was overtaken by the WWI and was suspended for the duration of the war.

5. The most important function of the Parliament is to ______.

6._____, the ancestor of the present Queen, Elizabeth II, united England under his rule in 829.

7. The Bill of Rights was passed in 1689 to ensure that the King would never be able to ignore _____.

8. _____ was established by the Labor government in 1948, providing health care for all the people.

9. The immigrants have problems of unemployment, under-representation in politics and unfair treatment by police and by the _____ system.

10. Periodic national elections are very important in the western model of _____.

1. The Provisional IRA

2. The House of Lords

3. V ote of No Confidence

4. The Open University

Directions: Write a short essay after reading the following article. In the first part of your writing, you should summarize the characteristics of UK population. In the second part, you should explain some related concepts about it with the knowledge you learned in the Course.

Britain’s predominant historical stock is called Anglo-Saxon. Germanic peoples from Europe—the Angles, the Saxons, and the Jutes—arrived in Britain in massive numbers between the 5th and 7th centuries AD. These people tended to be tall, blond, and blue-eyed. Their language became the foundation of the basic, short, everyday words in modern English. These groups invaded and overwhelmed Roman Britain, choosing to settle on the plains of England because of the mild climate and good soils. Native Britons fought the great flood of Germanic peoples, and many Britons who survived fled west to the hill country. These refugees and native Britons were Celts who had absorbed the earliest peoples on the island, the prehistoric people known as Iberians. Celts tended to be shorter than Anglo-Saxons and have rounder heads. Most had darker hair, but a strikingly high percentage of Celts had red hair.

After the Anglo-Saxon conquest, the Celts remained in Wales, Scotland, Ireland, and the West Country (the southwestern peninsula of Britain), where Celtic languages are still used to some extent and Celtic culture is still celebrated. This geographic separation between the Germanic Anglo-Saxons and the Celts has broken down over the centuries as people have migrated and intermarried.

A substantial number of Scandinavians raided and settled in Great Britain and Ireland during the 9th century. By then the Anglo-Saxons had established agricultural and Christian communities, and eventually they succeeded in subduing and integrating the Scandinavians into their kingdoms. In 1066 the Normans, French-speaking invaders of Norse origin, conquered England, adding yet another ethnic component. Although the Normans were the last major group to add their stock to the British population, waves of other foreigners and refugees have immigrated to Britain for religious, political, and economic reasons. Protestant French sought refuge in the 17th century, sailors of African ancestry came in the 18th century, and Jews from central and Eastern Europe immigrated in the late 19th century and during the 1930s and late 1940s.

Most British people attribute their origins to the early invaders, calling themselves English, Scottish, Irish, Welsh, or Ulsterites. The Ulsterites are an ethnically controversial group—some claim they are Scottish and others identify themselves as Protestant Irish. The remaining share of the population are minorities who arrived, for the most part, in the decades following the end of World War II in 1945.

These minorities—Chinese, Asian Indians, Pakistanis, Africans, and Caribbean people of African ancestry—came to Britain in substantial numbers after 1945. Immigration from the South Asian subcontinent (India and Pakistan) stabilized in the 1990s, but immigration from African countries continued to rise. By the late 1990s more than half of the people in these categories had been born in the United Kingdom. These newer ethnic groups tend to live in the more urban and industrial areas of England, especially in London, Birmingham, and Leeds. It is estimated that 60 percent of black Britons live in the London area, along with 41 percent of the Asian Indian population.

得分评卷人复核人IV. Tell what you know about the following in your

own words. (5points each, 20 points)

得分评卷人复核人V. Essay writing. (30 points)

Although population censuses have been taken in the United Kingdom every decade since 1801, the 1991 census was the first to include a question on ethnic origin. More than 94 percent of the population is described as white. According to the most recent estimates, based on 1994 statistics, Asian Indians make up 1.5 percent of the British population; Pakistanis, 0.9 percent; Bangladeshis, 0.3 percent; Chinese, 0.3 percent; Caribbeans, 0.08 percent; and Africans, 0.03 percent.

Irish immigration to Britain is unique. The Irish have migrated to Great Britain for centuries and continue to do so. If their descendants are included along with the 2.4 percent counted as ethnic Irish living in Great Britain today, they form a large component of the British population. Originally the Irish migrated to Britain to perform hard labor, such as building the railroads, but in recent years college graduates with high-tech skills are making up a higher percentage of Irish immigrants. Some live in largely Irish communities and others are quickly and completely absorbed into mainstream society. All children born to Irish parents in Britain are called British. Any citizen of Ireland who settles in Britain automatically has British citizenship.

The United Kingdom is generally a prosperous, well-educated, and tolerant society, and ethnic differences have sparked relatively little violence and hostility. Even so, black and Asian populations tend to cluster in certain urban neighborhoods, where economic and social disadvantages have become pronounced. There was significant rioting in the 1980s, which was attributed to several causes. One factor was tension between the predominantly white police force and the poorest ethnic communities. Another was competition between unskilled whites and unskilled workers from ethnic minorities. Still another factor was the resentment by white middle-class businesspeople, particularly smaller shopkeepers, of the keen competition presented by Asians, who tend to work long hours and have support from family members and members of their own ethnic community in running their businesses.

Many individuals from ethnic minorities hold managerial and professional positions, and several sit in Parliament. Local and national government programs exist to seek fairness and justice for ethnic minorities. Educational programs and the law bolster equal opportunity. The Race Relations Act of 1976 makes it illegal to discriminate against any person because of race, color, nationality, or origin, and it is a criminal offense to incite racial hatred.

From the 18th century until well into the 19th century, Britain’s population soared as the death rate dropped and the birth rate remained high. During this period the total population increased from approximately 6 million in the 1760s to 26 million in the 1870s. Toward the end of the 19th century and into the 20th century the birth rate stabilized and the death rate remained low. The population took on the characteristics of a modern, developed, and prosperous state. Family size decreased and the median age of the population rose. Compared to the rest of the world, the UK has a smaller percentage of younger people and a higher percentage of older people, with 20.5 percent over the age of 60; those under the age of 15 years make up only 19.5 percent of the population. Life expectancy in 2005 was 76 years for men and 81 years for women. The British government has more strictly controlled immigration in recent decades, and emigration has continued steadily. Nevertheless, the population of the UK is expected to continue growing slowly.

The United Kingdom has a population of 60,441,457 (2005 estimate), with an average population density of 250 persons per sq km (648 per sq mi). The population density of the United Kingdom is one of the highest in the world, exceeding most Asian and European nations. England is the most populated part of the United Kingdom, with 49,855,700 people (2003), which means more than four-fifths of the United Kingdom’s population resides in England. It is also the most densely populated portion of the United Kingdom, with a population density of 382 persons per sq km (990 per sq mi). Scotland possesses 5,057,400 people, and a population density of 64 persons per sq km (166 per sq mi). Wales has 2,938,000 people, with a population density of 142 persons per sq km (367 per sq mi). Northern Ireland’s population is 1,702,600, and it has 120 persons per sq k m (311 per sq mi).Britain’s population is overwhelmingly urban, with 88.9 percent living in urban areas and 11.1 percent living in rural areas. The Industrial Revolution built up major urban areas, and most of Britain’s people live in and around them to th is day. England’s population is densest in the London area, around Birmingham and Coventry in the Midlands, and in northern England near the old industrial centers of Leeds, Sheffield, Manchester, Liverpool, and Newcastle upon Tyne. In the 1980s and 1990s southern England, particularly the southeast, became a center of population growth, due in large part to the growth of the high-tech and service sectors of the economy.

The population of Greater London is about 7 million (1995 estimate), making it by far the most populous city in the United Kingdom. It is the seat of government, center of business, and the heart of arts and culture. Birmingham is the second largest city, with 976,400 people. Other large cities in the United Kingdom include Leeds with 715,500, Glasgow with 578,700, and Sheffield with 513,100. Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland, has a population of about 449,000; Cardiff, the capital of Wales, has 305,200 people; and Belfast, the capital of Northern Ireland, has a population of 277,200.

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