英语国家概况 英国知识点 小部分

第一部分 英国第一章 英国地理
1. The official name of the United Kingdom is the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.
2. There are three political divisions on the islands of Great Britain: England, Scotland and Wales.
3. About a hundred years ago, Britain ruled an empire that had one fourth of the world’s people and one fourth of the world’s land area.
4. The Britain Empire was replaced by the Britain commonwealth in 1931,which is a free association of independent counties that were once colonies of Britain.
5. Britain is separated from the rest of Europe by the English Channel in the south and the North Sea in the east.
6. Britain has, for centuries, been tilting with the northwest slowly rising, and the southeast slowly sinking. The north and west of Britain are mainly highlands. The southeast and east are mainly lowlands.
7. The pennies, a range of hills running from north midlands to Scottish border, are the principal mountain chain.
8. Ben Nevis in Scotland is the highest mountain in Britain, and the Lough Neagh in Northern Ireland is the largest lake in Britain.
9. There are three natural zones in Scotland: the highlands in the north, the central lowlands, and the southern uplands. The lowlands in the center comprise mostly the forth and Clyde valleys.
10. Edinburgh, Cardiff and Belfast are the capitals of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland
11. Scotland has about 800 islands, including the Orkney, Shetlands and Hebrides. 苏格兰有800座岛屿，包括奥克内群岛，谢特兰群岛和赫不里德群岛。
12. Besides, the Tweed, the Tyne, the Tees and the Thames Rivers on the east coast all face the North Sea ports on the European continent. 除此以外，东海岸的邓恩河，泰河，迪斯河和泰晤士河都面临欧洲大陆上的北海各港口。
13. The longest river in Britain is the Severn River. The most important river is Thames River. River Clyde is the most important river in Scotland. 英国最长的河流是赛文河，最重要的河流是泰晤士河。克莱德河是苏格兰最重要的河流。
14. Though the weather in Britain is so changeable and unpredictable, the climate is in fact a favorable one. Britain has a steady reliable rainfall throughout the whole year. 虽然英国的天气总是如此变化无常，无法预测，但实际上英国的天气相当宜人。英国全年有稳定的降雨量。
15. Britain has a population of 57411000. it is a densely populated country with an average of 237 people per square kilometer, and it is very unevenly distributed. 90% of the population is urban, and only 10% is rural. 英国人口为57411000。它是一个人口稠密，分布不均的国家，每平方公里平均237人，90％的人生活在城镇，只有10％的人居住在农村。
16. the English are Anglo-Saxons, but the welsh, Scots and Irish are Celts. 英格兰人是安各鲁－撒克逊人。而威尔士、苏格兰和爱尔兰人

是凯尔特人。
17. The Celts of Wales defended their freedom for 1000 years and were not conquered by the English until 1536. today about a quarter of the welsh population still speak welsh as their first language and about one percent speak only welsh. 威尔士的凯尔特人为自由战斗了1000年，直到1536年才被英格兰人征服。今天有大约四分之一的威尔士人把威尔士语当作第一语言，大约1％的人只讲威尔士语。
18. though the Gaelic language is still heard in the Highlands and western isles, the English language is spoken all over the Scotland. 尽管在
19. Since then, there has been bitter fighting between the Protestants who are the dominant group, and the Roman Catholics who are seeking more social and economic opportunities. 从那时起，新教徒和罗马天主教徒间展开了艰苦的斗争，新教徒是统治者，而罗马教徒要求更多社会和经济机会。
20. About three million have came to live and find work since world war second. They are mainly from the West Indies, India and Pakistan. 自二战以来，约有三百万人来到英国居住，他们主要来自西印度群岛，印度和巴基斯坦。

第二节 英国的起源（历史部分）
21. The first known setters of Britain were the Iberians. More dramatic monuments were the henges, the most important of which was Stonehenge in Wiltshire. 人们所知的英国最早居民是伊比例亚人。更为引人注目的是那些圆形石结构，其中最重要的是在维尔特郡发现的巨石阵。
22. The Celts may originally have come from eastern and central Europe, they came to Britain in three main waves: the first wave was the Gaels, the second was Britons and the third was Belgae. 凯尔特人最初来自于东欧及中欧，他们入侵英国分三次高潮：第一次是盖尔人；第二次是布立吞人；第三次是比利其人。
23. Julius Caesar, the great roman general, invaded Britain for the first time in 55BC. For nearly 400 years, Britain was under roman occupation. 伟大的罗马将军朱略思，恺撒，于公元前55年第一次入侵英国。将近400年，英国人处于罗马的占领下。
24. The roman built two great walls to keep the Picts. There were the Hadrian’s wall running from Carlisle to Newcastle, and the Antonine wall linking the estuaries of the Forth and the Clyde. 罗马人修建了2座长城以抵御皮特人。一条是哈德良长城，从卡莱尔到纽卡斯尔，另一条是链接福斯河口和克莱德河口的安东尼长城。
25. The Romans made use of Britain’s natural resources, mining lead, iron and tin and manufacturing pottery. 罗马人很好地利用了英国的自然资源，开采铅矿、铁矿和锡矿以及生产陶瓷。
26. In the mid-5th century a new wave of invaders, Jutes, Saxons, and Angles came to Britain, they were three Teutonic tribes. 五世纪中叶，朱特人，撒克逊人和安各鲁人不断入侵英

国。这是三支日尔曼部落。
27. These seven principal kingdoms of Kent, Essex, Sussex, Essex, East Anglia, Mercia and Northumbria have given the name of Heptarch. 这七个主要的王国：肯特、威塞克斯、苏塞克斯、埃赛克斯、东安各鲁，麦西亚和诺森薄利亚合称七王国。
28. At the beginning of ninth century, under their king Egbert the West Saxons of defeated the Mercies. In 829, Egbert became an overlord of all the England. 九世纪初，在国王埃格伯特的带领下，西撒克逊人打败了麦西亚人。829年，埃格伯特成了整个英国的最高君主。
29. In 597, pope Gregory I sent st.Augustine to England to convert the heathen English to Christianity. Augustine was remarkably successfully in converting the king and the nobility. 597年，教皇格里高利派遣圣奥古斯廷去英格兰，使异教徒的英国人皈依基督教。在使国王和贵族皈依基督教方面，圣奥古斯廷特别成功。
30. Alferd, king of Wessex, was strong enough to defeat the Danes. He is known as the “father of Britain navy”. 威塞克斯的国王阿尔佛雷德非常强大，打败了丹麦人，他以“英国海军之父”闻名于史。
31. When Ethebred’s death left no strong Saxon successor, the Witan chose Canute the Danish leader, as king in 1016. 埃塞尔雷德死后没有留下有实力的撒克逊继承人，于是贤人会议选择了丹麦首领克努特为国王。
32. King Edward seemed more concerned with building Westminster Abbey than with affairs of state. He was far more Norman than Saxon. 爱德华国王对国事的关心远不及对威斯敏斯特大教堂的修建，他更像诺曼人而非撒克逊人。
33. Anglo-Saxon England perished with Harold’s death. William was crowned king of England in Westminster Abbey by the Archbishop of York. 随着哈罗德德死亡，安各鲁撒克逊人的英国消失了，在威斯敏斯特大教堂，约克大主教加冕威廉为英格兰国王。
34. The Norman conquest of England is perhaps the best-known event in English history. Under William, the feudal system in England was completely established. 诺曼征服或许是英国历史上最著名的事件，至此，英格兰的封建制度被完全建立起来。

第三节 英国的形成
35. William replaced the witan , the council of the Anglo-Saxon kings, with the Grand Council of his new tenants-in-chief. 威廉用由他的土地承租人组成的大议会取代了安各鲁撒克逊国王的顾问团－贤人会议。
36. The Doomsday Book, completed in 1086, was the result of general survey of England made in 1085, and stated the extent , value, the population, state of cultivation and ownership. 《末日审判书》完成于1086年，它记录了1085年进行的英国总调查结果。此册陈述了土地的范围、价值、人口、耕种情况和所有权。
37. William’s policy towards the church was to keep it completely under his

control, but at the same time to uphold its power. 威廉对教会的政策是完全控制的同时，赞成它拥有权利。
38. Henry Π was the first king of the House of Plantagenet. He took measures to bring the disorders of king Stephen reign to an end. 亨利二世是金雀花王朝的首位国王。他采取措施结束了史蒂芬森国王统治时期的混乱局面。
39. Henry Π greatly strengthened the King’s Court and extended with its judicial work. He insisted that all clerks charged with criminal offences should be tried in the King’s Courts instead of in the Bishop’s Court. 亨利二世大大加强了王室法庭的力量并扩展了司法工作。他坚持被控刑事犯罪的教士都应在国王法庭受审而不是在主教法庭受审。
40. It was these exceptional privileges enjoyed by the clergy that brought King Henry into collision with Tomas Becket, the Archbishop of Canterbury. 正是神职人员享有的特权导致了亨利国王和坎特伯雷大主教托马斯贝克特之间的冲突。
41. Geoffrey Chaucer’s best known work is the Canterbury Tales which describes a group of pilgrims traveling to Canterbury to visitTomas Becket’s tomb. 杰佛利乔叟的名著《坎特伯雷故事集》描述了一群朝圣者到坎特伯雷参观托马斯贝克特坟墓的旅行。
42. The baron’s charter, or Magna Carta, as it came to be known was presented by a delegation of their class to the king and his advisers in the summer of 1215. 1215年夏天，贵族代表团把他们的宪章——后以大宪章闻名——递交给国王和他的顾问团们。 4
3. A committee of 24 barons plus the Mayor of London was chosen to help the king carry out the Charter, with the right of declaring war on him should he break its provisions. 由24名贵族和伦敦市市长组成的委员会帮助国王执行大宪章，若国王违反规定，他们有权对国王宣战。
44. Magna Carta was a statement of feudal and legal relationship between the crown and the barons, a guarantee of the freedom of the church and a limitation of the power of the king. 大宪章陈述的是国王与贵族间的封建和法律关系，保证了教会自由和限制了王权。
45. While the king Henry Ⅲ and Prince Edward were keep in prison, Simon de Montfort summoned in 1265 the great council to meet at Westminster which developed later into the Lords and the Commons known as a parliament. 1265年当亨利三世国王和爱德华王子被关入监狱，西蒙德孟福尔在威斯敏斯特召集大议会，大议会发展到后来演变为议会，分为上议院和下议院。
46. The statute of Wales in 1284 placed the country under English law and Edward Ⅰpresented his new-born-son to the Welsh people as the Prince of Wales, a title held by the heir to the throne ever since. 1284年的威尔士法，使威尔士处于英国法律之下，爱德华一世将他新出生的儿子赠与威尔士人民，封他为威尔

士王子。此后，该称号一直由该王位的继承人沿用至今。
47. When Edward Ⅲ claimed the French Crown by the right of his mother Isabella, the French refused to recognize the claim because the Salic Law debarred females from the succession. In 1337 Edward declared a war that was to last a hundred years. 爱德华三世通过他母亲伊莎贝拉的关系宣布继承法国王位，但法国人民拒绝承认，因为萨利法典规定女子不得继承王位，于是在1337年，爱德华对法宣战，战争持续了一百年。
48. Black Death swept through England in the summer of 1348 without warning. It killed between one half and one third of the population of England. 1348年夏天，黑死病横扫全英国，没有任何征兆，它夺去了三分之一到一半的英国人口。
49. In 1351 the government issued a statute of Laborers which made it a crime for peasant to ask for more wage or for their employers to pay more than the rates laid down by the Justice of the Peace. 1351年政府颁布“劳工法令”。规定农民们涨工资的要求或者雇主支付比地方官制定的工资水平高的工资都是犯罪。
50. Although the Peasant Uprising of 1381, was brutally suppressed, it had far-reaching significance in English history. It dealt a telling blow to villeinage and a new class of yeomen farmers emerged, paving the way for the development of capitalism. 尽管1381年的农民起义被血腥镇压了，但在英国历史上留下了深远的影响。它沉重打击了封建农奴制度，产生了全新的自耕农阶级，为资本主义发展铺设了道路。

第四节 过渡时期的英国
51. The name the Wars of Roses was referring to the battles between the great house of Lancaster, symbolized by the red rose, and that of York, symbolized by the white. 玫瑰战争这个词是指两个家族间的战争，以红玫瑰为标志的蓝凯斯特家族和以白玫瑰为标志的约克家族。
52. In 1455, after Henry Ⅵ hand completely lost his reason, war broke out between the Yorkists and the Lancastrians. In 1461, the Duke of York’s son Edward, emerged the victor and was proclaimed as Edward Ⅳ. 1455年，当亨利六世再也没有理由（将国家交给摄政者管理时），战争在约克家族成员和蓝凯斯特家族成员中爆发了。1461年，约克公爵的儿子爱德华战胜成功成为爱德华四世。
53. On August 22, 1458, the last battle of the Wars of Roses was fought between Richard Ⅲ and Henry Tudor. 1458年8月22日，玫瑰战争的最后一次战役在理查德三世和亨利都铎之间展开。
54. The reform began as a struggle for a divorce and end in freedom from the Papacy. Henry Ⅷ wanted to divorce Catherine of Aragon. But Pope Clement Ⅲ refused to annul his marriage to Catherine. 改革以争取离婚开始，以脱离教皇而告终，亨利八世想与阿拉贡的公主凯瑟琳离婚，但教皇克莱蒙拒绝取消凯瑟琳

和亨利八世之间的婚姻。
55. Henry’s reform was to get rid of the English Church’s connection with the Pope, and make an independent Church of England. 亨利改革的目的是拜托英国教会与教皇的联系，成立独立的英格兰教会。
56. The laws (e.g. the Act of Succession of 1534 and the Act of Supremacy of 1535) made his reform possible stressed the power of the monarch and certainly strengthened Henry’s position. 使改革可行的法律（如1534年的《继承法案》和1535年的《至尊法案》）强调了君主的权利并自然加强了亨利的地位。
57. When Mary Tudor became Queen after Edward, she attempted to forcibly recovert England to Roman Catholicism. People call her “Blood Mary”。玛丽都铎再爱德华后当上女王，她试图强迫人们重新皈依罗马天主教。人们叫她“血腥玛丽”。
58. Elizabeth’s reign was a time of confident English national and of great achievements in literature and other acts, in exploration and in battle. 伊丽莎白统治时期，人民自信，民族主义高涨，在文学和其它艺术方面，在探险和对外作战方面都取得了巨大成功。
59. Elizabeth’s religious reform was a compromise of views. She broke Mary’s ties with Rome and restored her father’s independent Church of England. 伊丽莎白的宗教改革是各种观点的妥协，她中断玛丽与罗马的关系，恢复父王独立的英格兰教会。
60. For nearly 30 years Elizabeth successfully played against each other the two great Catholic powers, France and Spain. 将近30年来，伊丽莎白成功地令两大天主教强国法国和西班牙互相争斗，从而免于英国卷入任何主要的欧洲国的冲突。
61. The destruction of Spanish Armada showed England’s superiority as a naval power. It enabled England to become a great trading and colonizing country in the years to come. 西班牙无敌舰队的灭亡表明英国海上强国的优势，使英国在随后的几年能成为强大的贸易和殖你好。
62. Renaissance was the transitional period between the Middle Ages and modern times, covering the years c1350-c1650. In England, the Renaissance was usually thought of as the beginning with the accession of the House of Tudor to the throne in 1485. 文艺复兴处于中世纪向现代的过渡时期。覆盖1350-1650年。英国的文艺复兴通常被认为开始于1485年都铎家族的继位。
63. English Renaissance achieved its first expression in the so-called Elizabethan drama. Its first exponents were Christopher Marlowe, Ben Jonson, and William Shakespeare. 英国文艺复兴最好的表达方式是所谓的伊丽莎白戏剧。最好的代表任务是克里斯托夫。马洛；本。琼生和威廉。莎士比亚。 64. English Renaissance literature is primarily artistic, rather than philosophical scholarly. 英国文艺复兴时的文学主要是艺术的，而非哲学及学术的。 65. Willia

m Shakespeare wrote 37 plays, including the following tragedies: Romeo and Juliet, Julius Caesar, Macbeth, Harmlet, king Lear, Othello, and Cymbeline. 威廉莎士比亚共写了37个剧本。悲剧包括：罗密欧与朱莉叶；朱略斯恺撒；麦克白；哈姆雷特；李尔王；奥赛罗和辛白林。 66. The most famous of the Catholic compiracies was the Gunpowder plot of 1605. on November 5, 1605, a few fanatical Catholics attempted to blow King James and his ministers up in the House of Parliament where Guy Fawkes had planted barrels of gunpowder in the cellars. 最著名的天主教阴谋是1605年的火药阴谋案。1605年11月5日，几个狂热的天主教徒企图在议会大厦炸死国王和大臣，盖伊福克斯已在地窖放了炸药桶。
67. James Ⅰ , a firm believer in the Divine Right of Kings, would have preferred on Parliament at all and actually did without one for seven years. 詹姆斯一世坚决相信“君权神授”，他根本不想要议会，而且连续7年从未召集过。
68. It was at this Parliament that the king was forced to accept the Petition of Right regarded as the second Magna Carta. 正式这届议会迫使国王接受《民权情愿书》——被视为第二个《大宪章》。
69. On August 22, 1642, the First Civil War began. The king’s men were called Cavaliers, and the supporters of Parliament were called Roundheads. 1642.8.22，第一次内战爆发，支持国王者被成为“骑士派”，支持议会者被成为“圆颅派”。
70. Charles was tried by a High Court of Justice, found guilty of have levied war against his kingdom and the Parliament, condemned to death, and executed on a scaffold outside the Banqueting House at Whitehall on January 30, 1649. 查尔斯在一级高级法院受审，犯有对王国和议会发动战争之罪，被判死刑，并于1649.1.30在宴会宫窗外的绞刑架上绞死。
71. The English Civil War not only overthrew feudal system in England but also shocked the foundation of the feudal rule in Europe. 英国内战不仅推翻叻英国的封建制度，而且动摇叻欧洲封建统治的基础。
72. Meanwhile, Oliver Cromwell and the “Rump” declared England a commonwealth. In December 1653,by an Instrument of Government, he became Lord Protector of the commonwealth of England. 克伦威尔用“小议会”取代“残余国会”，1653.12，根据《施政文件》，他成了英格兰共和国护国会。