英国文化

名词解释

1.London---london is the largest city located in the south of the country.it is dominant in britain in all sorts of ways.it is culture and business center and the headquarters of the vast majority of britain’s big companies.it is not only the finanicial center of the nation,but also one of the three major international finanical centers in the world.

2.The good Friday agreement---as a result of multi-party negotiations,the good Friday agreement was approved on april 1998.this agreement assures the loyalist community that northern ireland remains part of the united kingdom and it won’t change its political status unless the majority of the people of northern ireland agree.under the terms of the agreement,northern ireland should be governed by three separate jurisdictions:that of the republic of ireland,that of great britain and that of its own elected executive government of ten ministers.

3.The house of lords---the house of lords consists of the lords spiritual,who are the archbishops and most prominent bishops of the church of england;and the lords temporal,which refers to those lords who either have inherited the seat from their forefathers or they have been appointed.the lords mainly represent themselves instead of te interests of the public.

4.the electoral campaigns---before a general election,the political parties would start their electoral campaigns in order to make their ideologies and policies known to the public.the campaigns involves advertisements in newspapers,door-to-door campaigning,postal deliveries of leaflets and “party electoral broadcasts”on the television.the parties also try to attack and critisize the opponents’policies.therefore ,these campaigns sometimes can be quite aggressive and critical.

5.main sectors of the UK economy---the UK national economy can be divided into three main areas:primart industries,such as agriculture,fishing and mining;secondary industries which manufacture complex goods from those primary products;and tertiary(or service)industries such as banking,insurance,tourism and the retailing.

6.”the city”---“the city”refers to the historic area at the center of london.it is one of the biggest financial centers in the world with the geatest concentration of banks,insurance companies and businesses dealing in commodities.at the heart of the city is the london stock exchange.

7.romanticism---roughly the first third of the 19th century makes up english literature’s romantic period.writers of romantic literature are more concerned with imagination and feeling than with the power of reason.a volume of poems called lyrical ballads written by william wordsworth and samuel taylor coleridge is regarded as the romantic poetry’s “declaration of independence.”keats,byron and shelley,the three great poets,brought the romantic movement to its height.the sporit of romanticism also occurred in the novel.

8.the open university---the open university was founded in britain in the 1960’sfor people who might not get the opportunity for higher education for economic and social reasons.it’s open to everybody and does not demand the same formal educational qualifications as the other universities.university courses are followed through TV,radio,correspondence.videos and a net work of study centers.at the end of their studies at the open university,successful students areawarded a university degee.

9.quality papers---they belong to one of the categories of the national dailies.the quality papers carry more serious and in-depth articles of particular political and social importance.they also carry reviews,such as book reviews,and feature articles about high culture.these papers are also referred to as”the broadsheets”because they are printed on largesize paper.the readers of such newspapers are generally a well-educated middle class audience.

10.wimbledon---wimbledon is the name of a london suburb.in wimbledon the world’ best players gather to complete on grass courts.it is one of the major events of the british sporting calendar and probably the most famous tennis event in the world.besides actually watching the tennis matches,other activities closely associated with the “wimbledon fortnight”are eating strawberries and cream,drinking champagne and hoping that it doesn’t rain.

问答题

1.are there any differences between england,scotland and wales in terms of cultural tradition?-----yes,there are.england

is physically the largest of the four nations,have the weakest sense of themselves as a separate”english”culture within britain.scotland is the second largest of the four nations,both in populaton and in geographical area.it is also the most confident of its own identity.the dream of an independent scotland has not vanished.scotlan has a great tradition of innovation in the arts,philosophy and science.the capital of wales is cardiff.this southern area was an important element in britain’s industrial revolution.wales is the smallest among the three nations on the british mainland.welsh,this is a celtic tongue completely different from english,spoken by 19%of the population,a much