[英语考试]《英语国家概况》串讲讲义.doc

Part One: The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandChapter 1 Land and People-I. Different Names for Britain and its PartsStrictly speaking, the British Isles, Great Britain and England are all geographical names. They are not the official name of the country. The British Isles are made up of two large islands and hundreds of small ones. The two large islands are Great Britain and Ireland. Great Britain is the larger of these two islands. It forms the United Kingdom with Northern Ireland - the northern part of Ireland. So the official name of the United Kingdom is the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.There is another country called the Republic of Ireland or Eire on the British Isles. It takes up the remainder of Ireland - the southern part of Ireland. It has been an independent republic since 1949 and its capital is Dublin.There are three political divisions on the island of Great Britain: England, Scotland and Wales. England is the largest, most populous and generally speaking the richest section.Britain has been one of the most important countries in the world. About a hundred years ago, as a result of its imperialist expansion, Britain ruled an empire that had one fourth of the world's people and one fourth of the world's land area. It had colonies not only in North America, but also in Asia, Africa and Australia. -【例题】Strictly speaking, “the British Isles” refers to_. (0904)A. Great Britain B. IrelandC. the United Kingdom D. Great Britain and Ireland【答案】D （P3.para2）【解析】The British Isles are made up of two large islands and hundreds of small ones. The two large islands are Great Britain and Ireland. Great Britain is the larger of these two islands. It forms the United Kingdom with Northern Ireland - the northern part of Ireland. So the official name of the United Kingdom is the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.本 章 小 结本章重点：1. different names of Great Britain2. the historical influence of Great Britain3. Commonwealth of the nations本章提示：1. 本章考点适合考选择题和一句话问答的较多。2. Commonwealth of the nations 既可以以选择题考查，也要特别注意名词解释。Chapter 2: The Origins of a NationIEarly Settlers-3The CeltsThe Celts, a taller and fairer race than the people who had come before, began to arrive about 700 BC and kept coming until the arrival of the Romans They may originally have come from eastern and central Europe, now France, Belgium and southern Germany.They came to Britain in three main waves. The first wave was the Gaels, who started to come about BC. The second wave was the Brythons, who started to come about 400 BC. The Belgae came about 150 BC.The Celtic tribes are ancestors of the Highland Scots, the Irish and the Welsh, and their languages are the basis of both Welsh and Gaelic.The Celts' religion was Druidism.IIRoman BritainBritish recorded history begins with the Roman invasion.Julius Caesar, the great Roman general, invaded Britain for the first time in 55 BC, partly to gather information about the island of which so little was then known and partly to punish the Belgae who had helped their fellow tribesmen in their fight against the conquering Romans in Gaul, the land that is now France.The successful invasion did not take place until nearly a century later, headed by the Emperor Claudius.For nearly 400 years Britain was under the Roman occupation.But it was never a total occupation for two reasons. First, some parts of the country resisted. Secondly, Ro- man troops were often withdrawn from Britain to fight in other parts of the Roman Empire.Agricola, the Roman general and governor to Britain (77-84), couldn't make a full conquest of all the area corresponding to modem Britain.The Romans also brought the new religion, Christianity, to Britain. This came at first by indirect means, probably brought by traders and soldiers, and was quite well-established before the first Christian Emperor, Constantine, was proclaimed in AD 306.Although Britain became part of a vast sophisticated Roman Empire all around the Mediterranean, the Roman impact upon the Britons was surprisingly limited. The Romans always treated the Britons as a subject people of slave class. Never during the 4 centuries did the Romans and Britons intermarry. The Romans had no impact on the language or culture of ordinary Britons. However, other invasions of far less sophisticated peoples had far greater cultural impact upon Britain.IIIThe Anglo-Saxons-In the mid-5th century a new wave of invaders, Jutes, Saxons, and Angles came to Britain. They were three Teutonic tribes. The Jutes, who fished and farmed in Jutland (now southern Denmark) came to Britain first. Hengist became the King of Kent in 449. Then the Saxons, users of the short-sword from northern Germany, established their kingdoms in Essex, Sussex and Wessex (which covered most of the West Country) from the end of the 5th century to the beginning of the 6th century. In the second half of the 6th century, the Angles, who also came from northern Germany and were to give their name to the English people, settled in East Anglia, Mercia (which covered the Midlands and the Welsh borders) and Northumbria, which reached to the Scottish border. These seven principal kingdoms of Kent, Essex, Sussex, Wessex, East A,nglia, Mercia and Northumbria have been given the name of Heptarchy.The Anglo-Saxons brought their own Teutonic religion to Britain.In 597, Pope Gregory I sent St. Augustine, the Prior of St Andrew's Monastery in Rome, to England to convert the heathen English to Christianity.He provided St. Augustine with a house for his followers in Canterbury and in 597 St. Augustine became the first Archbishop of Canterbury. They (Anglo-Saxons) laid the foundations of the English state.And they(Anglo-Saxons) created the Witan (council or meeting of the wise men), to advise the king, the basis of the Privy Council which still exists today.-The Viking and Danish InvasionsThe Norwegian Vikings and the Danes from Denmark attacked various parts of England from the end of the 8th century.Alfred, King of Wessex(AD 871-899), was strong enough to defeat the Danes and came to a relatively friendly agreement with them in 879.Alfred is known as “the father of British navy”, established schools and formulated a legal system.-VThe Norman ConquestKing Edward (1042-1066), known because of his piety as the Confessor He (King Edward) is also said to have promised the English throne to William, Duke of Normandy.When Edward was on his death-bed, four men laid claim to the English throne, the King of Norway, the Duke of Normandy, and two brothers of Edward's QueenWhen Edward died, the Witan chose Harold as king.-On October 14, 1066 the two armies clashed in a hard-fought battle on Senlac Field, near Hastings. Harold's men had no experience of fighting against William's cavalry; Harold was killed, shot through the right eye by an arrow. William entered London shortly before Christmas, and on Christmas Day he was crowned King of England in Westminster Abbey by the Arch- bishop of York. This is known as the Norman Conquest of 1066The Norman Conquest of 1066 is perhaps the best-known event in English history.William confiscated almost all the land and gave it to his Norman followers. He replaced the weak Saxon rule with a strong Norman government. So the feudal system was completely established in England. Relations with the Continent were opened, and civilization and commerce were extended.Norman-French culture, language, manner, and architecture were introduced. The church was brought into closer connection with Rome and the church courts were separated from the civil courts.【例题】Which of the following kings was responsible for the complete establishment of the feudal system in England? (0904) A. Edward I B. Henry II C. Alfred the Great D. William the Conqueror【答案】D (P26.para2&P27.para1)【解析】Under William, the feudal system in England was completely established.本 章 小 结本章重点：1. the Anglo-Saxons2. Norman Conquest of 1066本章提示：1. Heptarchy, Alfred, the Great 和Norman Conquest of 1066 容易以名词解释的形式考查。2. 其它考点可以以一句话问答和选择题的形式考查。Chapter 3: The Shaping of the NationNorman RuleWilliams RuleUnder William, the feudal system in England was completely establishedOne peculiar feature of the feudal system of England, and one which restrained the growth of the power of the barons, was that all landowners, whether the tenants-in-chief or subtenants, took the oath of allegiance for the land they held, not only to their im-mediate lord, but also to the king.William replaced the Witan, the council of the Anglo-Saxon Kings, with the Grand Council of his new tenants-in-chief , on which they were required to serve when summoned.William sent his clerks to compile a property record known as Domesday Book because it seemed to the English not unlike the Book of Doom to be used by the greatest feudal lord of all on Judgment Day. This book, completed in 1086, was the result of a general survey of England made in 1085, and stated the extent, value, the population, state of cultivation, and ownership of the land. Today,Domesday Book is kept in the Public Records Office in LondonWilliam took a deep interest in the development of the church in England. His policy towards the church was to keep it completely under his control, but at the same time to uphold its power.No Pope should be recognized in England unless by his authority. No Papal Bull should have any force which had not first met with his approval.No bishop might visit Rome or even write to the Pope without his permission.No excommunications might be imposed in his large realm without his express consent.When William died in Normandy in 1087 he left Normandy to his eldest son, Robert, and England to his second son, William, known as William Rufus because of his red complexion, and a large sum of money to his third son, Henry(William Rufus) (His younger brother, Henry I) Henry II (the grandson of Henry I), founder of the Anjou dynasty, usually known as the Plantagenet dynasty, became king (Henry II) and went on to rule for 35 years.The Great Charter and the Beginning of ParliamentThe Great CharterTwo aspects of the Norman legacy were to contribute to great domestic unrest in the 12th and 13th centuries. One was England's possession of territory in France. The other was Norman adherence to Roman Catholicism. English kings, like all Christian kings of Europe, were expected to become involved in the wars against the Islamic Empire of the Turks in order to gain possession from them of the Christian holy city of Jerusalem. Indeed there were three great crusades. This together with wars against France was an enormous drain upon financial resources of England.This was the cause of confrontation between King John and his barons in 1215.The barons' 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 at a conference at Runnymede, an island in the Thames four miles downstream from Windsor. With the utmost reluctance, the king was forced to put his seal to the Charter on June 19, 1215.Magna Carta had altogether 63 clauses, of which the most important matters were these: no tax should be made without the approval of the Grand Councilno freeman should be arrested, imprisoned, or deprived of his property except by the law of the land;the Church should possess all its rights, together with freedom of elections; London and other towns should retain their ancient rights and privileges, and there should be the same weights and measures throughout the country.Although Magna Carta has long been popularly regarded as the foundation of English liberties, it was a statement of the feudal and legal relationship between the Crown and the barons, a guarantee the freedom of the Church and a limitation of the powers of the king. The spirit of Magna Carta was the limitation of the powers of the king, keeping them within the bounds of the feudal law of the land.【例题】The spirit of the Great Charter was _. (0904)A. a limitation of the powers of the kingB. a guarantee of the freedom of the serfsC. a limitation of the powers of the ChurchD. a declaration of equality among all people【答案】 A（P33.para.3）【解析】大宪章是英国封建贵族为限制王权于1215年而出台的一个纲领性的指导原则，其实质在于反对国王专权，是封建统治者内部矛盾激化的产物。The Hundred Years War with France The name is given to the intermittent war between France and England that lasted from 1337 to 1453. The causes were partly territorial and partly economic. The territorial causes were especially bound up with the possession by the English kings of the large duchy of Aquitaine; as the French kings grew stronger, they increasingly coveted this large slice out of their territory. The economic causer, were connected with Flanders; the Flemish cloth manufacturing towns were the importers of English wool but they owed political allegiance to the French king.In 1337 Edward declared a war that was to last for a hundred years.There were three outstanding stages of the war.At first the English were brilliantly successfulHenry V (1413-1422) renewed the war in 1415 and won a crushing victory at Argencourt, where the English lost, no more than a hundred men to the enemy's seven to ten -thousand dead. He was recognized to the French throne in 1420.After his death in 1422, the French, encouraged by Joan of Arc, their national heroine, drove the English out of France. By 1453 Calais was the only part of France that was still in the hands of the English.The Black Death and the Peasant UprisingBlack Death was the modem name given to the deadly bubonic plague, an epidemic disease spread by rat fleas. It spread through Europe in the 14th century, particularly in 1347-1350. It swept through England in the summer of 1348 without warning