英美文化考点

1. IRELAND’S SOCIAL CHANGES1. Women have more rights like had equal access to jobs in terms of hiring, as well as equal opportunities in subsequent promotions and pay awards.2. Any citizen of an EU country can work and live legally in Ireland.3. High house price give them a lot of pressure. So that most young people would have to live in far-flung suburbs.4. Ireland is now the most car-dependent society in the world.5. Ireland’s living standards have increased dramatically. But the new wealth has not been shared equally. The wealthy have become almost indecently rich, the poor have become more deprived.6. The exposure of corruption has shocked the ordinary Irish public and made them increasingly cynical about politicians in particular.7. The lack adequate public facilities and programs to tackle these emerging problems is striking in Ireland. Some problems even reached almost crisis point in some cities.8. Young people were better educated and more aware of their options in life, and better able to take them up.9. Young people no longer wish to inherit an enterprise which is a hard life at best, and world now yield only a meager income in comparison with other was of living.10. Many people went out and bought expensive cars and second houses.2. THE BRITISH MONARCHY1. The oldest institution of government is the Monarchy.2.The power of the monarchy was largely derived from the ancient doctrine(天赐神授的)of the “divine right of kings”.3. It was held that the sovereign derived his authority from God, not from his subjects.4. For a thousand years Britain has had a hereditary king or queen as the head of state.5. In medieval times the king should not exercise absolute power.6. Instead, the sovereign should be willing to receive advice from prominent men.7. The monarch’s unwillingness to do this led to many battles between the king and other powerful groups like the Church and powerful, land-owning feudal barons.8. Britain is both a parliamentary democracy and a constitutional monarchy.9. Today, the official head of state is the queen and her powers are largely traditional and symbolic.10. It was a gang of feudal barons and the Church which opposed some of King John’s policies.3. CLASS IN THE UK1. I t makes a difference to an individual’s “life-chance” which group or class he or she is born into.2. Though it should be stressed that it is far from impossible for the working-class child to acquire middle-class status: it is simply statistically much more unlikely than for his middle-class school-friend.3. Manual (or “blue-collar”) workers would usually call themselves working-class, and office (or “white collar”) workers would usually call themselves middle-class.4. There is a hazy area around unskilled office-work and skilled well-paid manual work which leads to sub-divisions such as “lower middle-class” being used.5. T he term “upper middle-class” might be used to describe doctors and lawyers w ho have relatively high incomes and high-status professions---especially in families with long traditions of such employment.6. Such class-divisions are not simply economic: a working-class car worker may earn more money than a middle-class university teacher, but there are additional cultural differences.7. An obvious one in the UK iswhich newspaper people read.8. Strangers would probably be able to place each of them in the right class simply by listening to the way they speak: regional accents tend to be stronger amongst the working-class.9. Another factor marking off what might be termed an “upper middle-class” is education. The top levels of many aspects of British society----arts, media, industry and politics contain a very high proportion of “Oxbridge” graduates. When hiring they tend to hire fellow Oxbridge graduates.10. It has also retained a hereditary aristocracy.(保留了世袭贵族) Among the students at the private schools attended by the upper-middle-class above would be a thin scattering of aristocratic children, who will inherit titles. But their significance should not be over-stated. Their position has changed with the century.4. POLITICAL PARTIES IN THE UK1.Three major national parties: The Conservative party(保守党)and the Labour party(劳工党)are the two biggest, and any general election is really about which of those two is going to govern. The third important party is the Liberal Democrats(自由民主党), who usually receive up to about 20% of the votes: not enough to form a government, but enough to have a big impact on which of the other two parties does so.2.The Labour party is the newest of these three, created by the growing trade union movement at the end of the nineteenth century. … …P543.The Conservative party is the party that spent most time in power. Basically the Conservatives are seen as the party of the individual, protecting the individual’s right to acquire wealth and to spend it how they choose, and so favoring economic policies which businessmen prefer, such as low taxes. … ...P544.The Liberal Democrats occupying the ideological ground between the two main parties. At such, at election time they may receive votes both from those who usually vote Labour and from those who usually vote Conservative. Many people see them as comparatively flexible and pragmatic in their balance of the individual and the social.5. There are small parties supporting the independence of each of the three smaller countries in the Union, though at the moment they all receive a small share of the vote at election time.5. Immigration to Australia1. Since the earliest days of European settlement, migration has accounted for up to 50 percent of Australia’s population increase.2. During the middle of the 19th century migrants were predominantly British and those who benefited from assisted migration were almost all from Britain. However, the population also included migrants from Italy, Greece, the Lebanon, Afghanistan and the Pacific Islands. Gold rushes attracted many people from other countries especially from Germany and China.3. By the 1870s, the Chinese constituted the third largest group in Australia, after the British (including the Irish) and Germans.4. The White Australia Policy 1901 was manifested in the Immigration Restriction Act. It remained a guiding principle of Australian immigration until its gradual abolition between 1966 and 1973. The framers of the policy made it clear that Chinese and other’non-whites’had to be stopped from permanently settling here.5. Today, there is a much higher proportion of settlers arriving from Asia although Anglo Australia migrants still predominate.6. Irish economyIreland is a small, open, trade-dependent economy. The Irish economy has been transformed frombeing agrarian and having a traditional manufacturing base to one increasingly based on the hi-tech and internationally traded services.From its founding in 1922 until the 1970s: P191The EU: Economic policies.1. The Celtic Tiger: mimicking the boom in Asia, the media called Ireland’s sudden wealth “the Celtic Tiger” economy. Because Ireland has became wealthy with all the swiftness and ferocity of that beast.2. Benefit of Common Market (EU): improve the infrastructure and for education and training. The most important benefit for Ireland is in granting it access to Europe. With this access, Ireland’s dependence on its traditional trading partner, Great Britain, has been severely modified.3.In the early years, EU subsidies also proved a bonanza for small farmers.4. Many multinational companies find Ireland an attractive foreign base.7. The troubles in northern Ireland1. Groups of Protestants began to organize counter-demonstrations and rioting broke out. Protestant mobs attacked Catholic areas. The police were overwhelmed by the fighting, and the Northern Irish Prime Minister asked London for solders to help restore order.2. The longer British solder stayed, the more they were seen as the symbol of British rule in Northern Ireland. The IRA at this time split. In the early 1970s the IRA carried out a campaign of bombing and shorting, usually targeting the security forces, but often bombing citycentres. The British security forces were strengthened.3. The Protestants formed their own illegal “Paramility” groups and took revenge on Catholic s, often murdering individuals at random. Catholic in mainly Protestant, and Protestants in mainly Catholic areas were threatened. The result is that Northern Irish cities are “ghettoized”(使成为少数民族聚居地)into exclusively Protestant and exclusively Catholic areas.4. Internment: in 1971 the Northern Irish government took the desperate step of imprisoning terrorist suspects from both sides without trial. This suspension of civil rights caused anger on both sides.5. In the following year 1972, 468 people were killed in Northern Ireland , the worst year of the troubles. This was a key event in strengthening Catholic opposition to the British presence. This day has now been mythol ogised as “Bloody Sunday”, an important symbol of British oppression.6. In 1973, an agreement was reached between the main political parties in Northern Ireland, and importantly, the British and Irish governments. The IRA’s bombing campaign extended to the mainland of Great Britain, but even so the troubles settled down to a peculiar level of semi- acceptability. People had got used to it. Both sides continued the conflicts, but the Britain forces kept the scale down to a lower level than in the early 1970s, and though the late 1970sand the 1980s the death rate averaged around 90 per year. It didn’t get worse, but neither could anyone see an end to it.8. Australian Aborigines1. The peoples of the Dreaming belonged to over 500 different groups or nations with different languages and cultures but they were bound together by their belief in the Dreaming.2. The sacred(神的)creation stories provide a memorable map of the landscape. The intricate and specific detail of the stories of the Dreaming transform the desert into a familiar and life sustaining landscape: the Peoples of the Dreamtime know how to find water, even in the desert areas, because the special stories within the Dreaming provide a detailed knowledge of their land.3. The peoples of the Dreaming developed an intricate understanding of the land their intellectual skills became important to the colonists and developers who took over the country after 1788.4. The pastoralists exploited the Peoples’ understanding of the land in the development of the great cattleand sheep stations that created massive wealth for the new white “owners”.The British took over the country in the late 18th century declaring it to be “terra nullius”. These one million or so people who lived on the land were instead grouped together under the one name: “the Aborigines”, the generic term meaning “the original natives of the land.”9. Newspapers in the UKThe United Kingdom has one of the world’s oldest established newspaper industries. In the late 18th and early 19th century as the British economy began to industrialise, as the democratic franchise was extended to larger segments of the population, and as literacy levels rose through the introduction of mass education, more and more newspapers began to appear.The Observer which is still published every Sunday, making it the world’s oldest national newspaper.（观察家报）The Times is the United Kingdom’s oldest daily newspaper.（泰晤士报）The quality press(or the broadsheets)严肃报纸because they are printed on large-size paper. It carry more serious and in-depth articles of particular political and social importance. They also carry reviews and feature articles about high culture and will generally be read by a well-educated, middle class audience.The Guardian（卫报）：the left-wing newspaper.The Telegraph(电讯报): tend to support tough sentences for criminals, be unsympathetic to single mothers and favour free enterprise over social programs.The tabloids（通俗小报）smaller format newspapers with colour photos and catchy headlines. They are often called “the gutter press”(低级趣味报纸)because they deal in scandals and gossip. The stories are shot, easy to read and often rely more on opinion than fact.The News of the World （世界新闻报）Function: 1.increasingly newspapers took on the role of informing the electorate about politics. This watchdog function, keeping an eye on the government, is one of the reasons why a free press is considered so important to the functioning of parliamentary democracy.2. Many analysts feel that the power of the press has usurped the power of parliament. Contemporary politicians prefer to speak directly to the media rather than to parliament and of course they have their favorite, friendly reporters who will give them favorable coverage.3. Business people, even more than politicians, were quick to realize “the power of the press” to inform potential customers about their products and services and so the advertising business was born.4. British newspaper culture is unusual in the extent to which class and educational differences are reflected in the newspapers people read. People often choose to read a newspaper which accords with their own feelings.5. Contempt of court laws restrain newspapers from printing information about people being tried for various crimes because this can prejudice the judicial system.10. FESTIVALS IN UKCHRISTMAS(December 25th): Schools close for the holiday period, as do shops and offices, so peoples can spend time at home with their families. Meaning:it commemorates the birth of Jesus Christ—celebrations of the Winter Solstice have taken place since ancient times. Three Christmas traditions: 1. Christmas Pantomime(圣诞童话剧) a comical musical play. 2. Hear the Queen give her Christmas message to her realm over the television and radio. She usually talks about the year that has passed and expresses her hopes for the future.3. Boxing Day is which falls on the day after Christmas. Traditionally, it was on Boxing Day that people gave Christmas gifts or money to their staff or servants.Today, it is means shopping. But for many people, Boxing Day is a day for visiting, eating and relaxing. EASTER: Easter commemorates the Crucifixion and Resurrection of Jesus Christ. For most people the main symbol of Easter is the Easter egg, originally a Christian symbol of new life. Nowadays people give each other chocolate or candy Easter Eggs which are often very large, elaborate and expensive.“TROOPING THE COLOUR”: It happens on the second Saturday in June when the Queen’s Birthday is officially celebrated.ENGLAND——BONFIRE NIGHT (GUY FAWKES NIGHT) History: P154Nowadays, English people still celebrate this event in the traditional way. In early November, gangs of small children appear on British streets, often with a straw effigy called the “Guy”.NOTHERN IRELAND1. It comes from the 17th century battles between Catholics and Protestants is the Protestant celebration of their victory at the Battle of the Boyne (12 July) in1690. History: P154The Twelfth is the high point of what is known as the Marching Season, when Protestant “Orangemen” take to the streets wearing their traditional uniforms of bowler hats(圆顶高帽), black suits and orange sashes, marching through the streets singing, banging drums and playing in marching bands. The Orangemen often clash——verbally, legally or sometimes violently—with the Catholics as they attempt to parade through Catholic neighborhoods, symbolically asserting their continued dominance over the Irish.2. Northern Ireland Catholics celebrate the birthday of the patron saint of Ireland, St Patrick, on March 17 each year. Patrick was a Catholic bishop who lived in the 5th century and is thought to have brought Christianity to Ireland.According to popular legend, St Patrick drove snakes(the Christian symbol of evil) out of Ireland. In another legend it is said that he used the three leafed clover(三叶草), or shamrock, to explain the Christian trinity to the pagan Irish. The shamrock is a popular symbol to wear on St Patrick’s Day, and it is also considered very lucky to wear something green.SCOTLAND——Hogmanay and HalloweenHogmanay: In Scotland New Y ear’s Eve called Hogmanay——is the major winter celebration, and overshadows Christmas which is a very quiet affair. The widely practiced custom is “first footing”. There is a superstitious belief that the first person to cross the threshold of a household in the New Year can bring luck and prosperity: the appearance of a young, preferably dark haired and handsome man, is considered particularly lucky. First footers often bring a bottle of spirits, alcohol, a lump of coal or a peat as a gift and are given a “dram of whisky” as their reward.Halloween is a Scottish festival that comes from the great feast of the pagan Celts which marked the arrival of the winter half of the year. Halloween is notable for showing the darker, supernatural side of Celtic custom—communion with the dead, mischief, fortune-telling and masquerades are common practices. Children make “turnip lanterns.” Turnips are hollowed out and holes are cut to make eyes, nose and mouth. Then candles are placed inside the turnip and it is set in the windows to scare away witches and other evil spirits.WALES——EisteddfodThe Welsh language began to die, but Welsh speakers fought hard to preserve it. One way they accomplished this was to celebrate their culture and their language each August with a really large Eisteddfod which would remind people throughout the UK of Wales’ special cultural heritage.At the Eisteddfod, tents and pavilions are erected around a big open space: in the different tents competitions are held to find the best choirs, translators, essayists and poets.。