英美概况总复习题目汇总

英美概况总复习题目汇总1. What are the functions of the Bank of England?Answer: Britain's central bank, working in close contact with the government for the control of monetary policy and for giving directives to commercial banks. It is the only note issuing bank in England and Wales. It is also responsible for keeping the exchange rate of British Pound against other currencies within certain limits by operating an Exchange Equalization Account.2. Which are the major political parties now in Britain?Answer: Although there are so many different parties in the United Kingdom, British politics is after all a battle between Conservative and Labor.The Conservative Party believes firmly in private enterprises and free competition. But it did not undo the social legislations passed by the Labor Government. The Labor Party, which is in power now, has traditionally drawn support from the trade unions. It has embraced socialist ideas, supported governmental control of important industries and advocated more equal distribution of the wealth.Among some the key issues around which are the two parties fight are foreign policy and economic policy. Pro-Americanism is thus at the center of British foreign policy for both Conservative and Labor governments, though the opposition always accuses the party in power of being too pro-American.The battle between the two parties over economic policy centers on nationalization and privatization. The Conservatives have been very firm in their belief in free-trade and market economy, while the Labor Party, owing to its socialist origin, has always emphasized the importance of governmentinvolvement in the national economy and the role of the state as provider of welfare benefits to citizens.3. What is a welfare state?Answer: The welfare state includes Stoical Security, the National Health Service, the Housing Program, education, and personal services.4. As the Head of State, does the monarch exercise political powers?Answer: The monarch played an active role in making political decisions, but now the monarch functions only as the symbol of the country's unity and formal Head of State.5. Which branch of the Parliament plays a more important role in the law-marking process? Why?Answer: The most important function of the House of Commons is to make laws, known as Act of Parliament. Although both houses are involved in the law making process, the House of Commons has primacy axation Andover the House of Lords, especially in the processing of "money bills" that concern t public expenditure.6. What’s the relationship between the Parliament and the Cabinet in UK?Answer: Parliament is the law-making body of the United Kingdom. The Prime Minister is usually the leader of the majority party in Parliament. After each general election, the monarch would ask the leader of the winning party to be the Prime Minister and form a new Cabinet. The Cabinet is at the center of the British political system. It is the supreme decision-making body in British government. Cabinet members are chosen by the Prime Minister from members of his own political party in Parliament.7. How many stages is education in the U.K divided into and what are they?Answer: primary, secondary, further education, higher education.8. What are the basic characteristics of British foreign policy after World Wall П?Answer: After World Wall П, Britain adopted an isolationist policy toward Europe but cooperated very closely with the United States in the Cold War.9. Which river is the longest in Canada?Answer: Mackenzie is the longest river in Canada.10. What religion is the most dominant in Canada?Answer: Roman Catholicism.11. What are the indigenous people of Canada?Answer: They are the Indians and the Intuits12. What are the most important sectors in the Canadian economy?Answer：The most important sectors in the Canadian economy are manufacturing industry，IT industry, chemical industry, services, minerals industry , foreign trade, forestry and forest industry, paper industry, agriculture, fishery, energy industry.13. Who were the WASPs?Answer: The WASPs were the White Anglo-Saxon Protestants from England who began to immigrate to America in 1607 and played an important role in winning America's independence from Britain.14. What are the main principles of government in the United States?Answer: The principles of federalism, the separation ofpowers and the rule of law are the main principles of government in the United States.15. What is the Bill of Rights?Answer：The Bill of Rights belong to the amendment. Amendments can be added to the Constitution when proposed by two thirds of the total members of Congress and ratified by threefourths of all the states.The first ten amendments are known as the Bill of Rights which was ratified in 1791. It listed the rights of the people which the government can not deprive, including the right to freedom of speech and religion, the right to bear arms, the right to jury trial, and the right to security of person and property. The Bill of Rights has since been regarded as the fundamental protection of individual rights against arbitrary power of the government.16. How is the president of the United States elected?Answer: The president of the United States is elected for a term of four years by Electoral College. The presidential candidate who gets the majority of electoral votes becomes the president. The presidential election is a fight between the Republican Party and the Democratic Party. The presidential election is done in four stages: first, each of the major party conducts state primary elections to elect delegates to the party convention. The second stage is the party conventions. The third stage is the general election. And the fourth stage is the general vote which is usually held in early November.17. How do the three branches of government check against each other?Answer: No one of the legislative, executive, judicial branches may dominate the others.18. What are the different types of institutions that providehigher education?Answer: There are universities and colleges, vocational and technical institutes.19. What are the most popular forms of American music and how did they develop?Answer: The most popular forms of American music are Jazz, rock and roll and western and country music. Music is an important part of every American’ life Americans use music, especially popular music to convey cultural and social information and to express their emotions. American popular music is often regarded as a symbol of rebellion of the youth against tradition. A famous popular music event in 1969, the Woodstock Art and Fair drew a crowd of 300000 young people .so the Young people is important factors of development.20. Why do Americans love sports?Answer:①Because Ame ricans are very conscious about health and regard outdoor activities as a way to keep healthy and fit;②Because sports are used to express their interests in keeping fit;③Because sports also allow them to engage in mass culture and occupy their leisure time.21. Why did Americans adopt a policy of neutrality at the beginning of both world wars?Answer: Because American's isolationist policy toward European, and American did not want to be involved in European entanglement and stay out of any European conflicts, since the wars too far to affect American.22. How did Australia start as a nation?Answer: Modern Australia has its origin in the 18th century when the Europeans went there. It became a national state on the first day of the 20th century. However, the Aborigine people had lived there for about 60,000 years before the Europeans got there. They were nomadic hunters and food-gatherers, living in extended family groups formed into tribes. Before the Europeans went there, their population was somewherebetween 600,000 and one million. But about to half of the population died after the Europeans got there and exposed them to diseases such as small pox and measles, againstwhich they had no immunity. This rendered the localpopulation powerless against the Europeans when the latter began to arrive in arrive in large numbers in the late 18th century.23. Who are the New Zealanders?Answer: The Maori people are natives of the New Zealander. They are Polynesian in origin and probably came to settle in New Zealand in canoes about the 9th to 13th century AD.24. When and why did the British assume authority over New Zealand?Answer: In the 1830s, the British saw it as a way to solve the English economic problem by transferring English capital and surplus labor to New Zealand and create a new English society there.25. Why has sheep been so important to New Zealand?Answer: Because wool export became the founding stone of New Zealand’s economy.26. What is the Conservative Party’s solution to the economic problems in the 1970s? Was it successful? (Answer in Page14) Answer: In 1970s the Conservative Party denationalizedmost of the industries controlled by the government for the purpose of stimulating private competition.It has achieved some success but unemployment is still high.27. What are the elements that form the national government of the United Kingdom?Answer: The British government comprises the monarch, the parliament and the executive branch led by the prime minister.28. What is the fundamental government policy for education in the United Kingdom?Answer: Compulsory for all children between the ages of 5 and 16 is the fundamental government policy for education in the United Kingdom.29. What is Tony Blair’s “the Third Way”?Answer: Tony Blair’s the “Third Way” which was different from both the old Labor Party’s commitment to the nationalization of the economy and its close relationship with the trade unions and the Conservative Party’s emphasis of extreme individualism and its rejection of community. He is committed to long term economic stability and fiscal transparency. In order to separate politics and economic policy, he made the Bank of England independent. In social policy, the Blair government changed the old Labor Pa rty’s practice of using ta x system, public expenditure and price control to reduce inequality and has put emphasis on minimum wage, and supplementing low wages. It also emphasizes individual responsibility.30. What are the differences between the Conservative Party and the Labor Party in their principles? （Chapter13: Britain in the 20th Century）Answer: The Labor Party adopted the principle of Welfare State, full employment and government control of economicdevelopment. But the Conservative Party adopted the privatization of state-owned industries and free labor market.。