Great Britain

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern

Ireland is situated on the British Isles. They lie to
the north-west of Europe. The British Isles are
separated from the continent by the narrow strait
of water which is called the English Channel.
Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. England, the central
part, occupies the most of the island of Great Britain. To the
north lies Scotland and to the west the third part of the
country, Wales, is situated. The fourth part is called
Northern Ireland and is located on the second island. Each
part has its capital. The capital of England is London, Wales
has Cardiff, Scotland has Edinburgh and the main city of
Northern Ireland is Belfast.
 Great Britain is a country of forests and plains. There are no high
mountains in this country. Scotland is the most mountainous region
with the highest peak, Ben Nevis. The rivers of Great Britain are not
long. The longest rivers are the Thames and the Severn. The capital of
the United Kingdom, London, stands on the banks of the Thames. As
the country is surrounded by many seas there are some great ports at
the seaside: London, Glasgow, Plymouth and others.
 Wales is a country of lakes.
Seas and oceans influence the British climate which is not too cold in winter but never hot in
summer. Great Britain is a beautiful country with old traditions and good people.
 The physical environment and natural resources of England are more
favorable to agricultural development than those of other parts of the
United Kingdom. A greater proportion of the land consists of lowlands
with good soils where the climate is conducive to crop growing. The
majority of English farms are small, most holdings being less than 250
acres (100 hectares); nonetheless, they are highly mechanized.
 Wheat, the chief grain crop, is grown in the drier, sunnier counties of eastern and
southern England, where new, stronger varieties have become increasingly widespread
and average yields have risen significantly.
   Barley is grown mainly for livestock feed. The acreage under oats is gradually
declining. Corn (maize) and rye are also grown. Principal potato-growing areas are the
fenlands of Norfolk, Cambridge shire, and Lincolnshire; the clay soils of Humberside;
and the peats of North Yorkshire.
 Sugar-beet production depends heavily on government subsidy
because of competition from imported cane sugar. In recent years,
acreage and yield for rape have increased. Grass and its variants are
grown for feeding livestock.
   The growing of vegetables, fruit, and flowers, known in England as
market gardening, is often done in greenhouses and is found within
easy trucking distance of large towns, the proximity of a market
being of more consequence than climatic considerations.
 The fertile (clay and limestone) soil of Kent has always been
conducive to fruit growing. Cultivation was first established there on
a commercial scale in the 16th century. The county of Kent is a major
supplier of fruits and vegetables (apples, pears, black currants,
cauliflowers, and cabbages).
   Hereford and Worcester is noted for its plums, while Somerset and
Devon specialize in cider apples.
 The agriculture of England is primarily concerned with
livestock husbandry and, in particular, with milk production.
   Dairying is important in every county, though the main
concentrations are in western England. The quality of dairy
cattle was improved considerably after World War II. The
higher-yielding dairy breeds, including the Frisian and Ayrshire,
have become more numerous than the once-dominant
Shorthorn.
There are many museums in London. One of them is the Tate Gallery in Millmank,
which presents modern masters of England and France. There are some fine
examples of modern sculpture. Its collection of French Impressionists is marvelous.
There is the Victoria and Albert Museum in Brampton Road. It has an outstanding
collection of the applied arts of all countries and periods.
 The National Gallery in Trafalgar Square has
one of the best picture collection in the world.
It has the most valuable display of French
paintings from the early of the Impressionists,
and, of course, the finest English painting, with
Gainsborough, Turner, Constable and others. It
shows the progress of Italian painting from the
medieval to the Renaissance, some outstanding
pictures of the old Roman masters. It also has a
great variety of Dutch and Flemish masters and
an excellent choice of Spanish painters. There
are great treasures dispersed in private
collections all over the world. The Queen's
collection is the most valuable among them.
   Some people criticize English food. They say it's unimaginable, boring,
tasteless, it's chips with everything and totally overcooked vegetables. The
basic ingredients, when fresh, are so full of flavor that British haven't had to
invent sauces to disguise their natural taste. What can compare with fresh
pees or new potatoes just boiled and served with butter? Why drown spring
lamb in wine or cream and spices, when with just one or two herbs it is
absolutely delicious?
If you ask foreigners to name some typically
English dishes, they will probably say "Fish
and chips" then stop. It is disappointing, but
true that, there is no tradition in England of
eating in restaurants, because the food doesn't
lend itself to such preparation. English cooking
is found at home. So it is difficult to a good
English restaurant with a reasonable prices.
   In most cities in Britain you'll find Indian,
Chinese, French and Italian restaurants. In
London you'll also find Indonesian, Mexican,
Greek... Cynics will say that this is because
English have no "cuisine" themselves, but this
is not quite the true.
 Cambridge is one of the best known towns in
the world and it can be found on most tourists'
lists of places to visit. Cambridge is famous for
its university, which started during the 13th
century and grew steadily, until today there are
more than twenty colleges.
   The oldest one is Porterhouse, which was
founded in 1284. And the most recent is
Robinson College, which was opened in 1977.
But the most famous is King's College, because
of its magnificent chapel. Its choir of boys and
undergraduates is well known all over the
world.
 The Universities were only for men until 19th century when the first women's
college was opened. Later the doors of colleges were opened to both men and
women. Nowadays almost all the colleges are mixed.
   To the north of Cambridge is the Cambridge Science Park, the modern face of
the University. This park has developed in response to the need for universities
to increase their contact with high technology industry. It is now home to more
than sixty companies and research institutes.
 The whole area is in fact very attractively designed, with a lot of space
between each building. The planners thought that it was important for
people to have a pleasant, park like environment in which to work.
   Every year thousands of students come to Cambridge from overseas
to study English.
 A "typical" British family used to consist of mother, father and two
children. But in recent years there have been many changes in family life.
For example, since the law made it easier to get a divorce, the number of
divorces has increased. That's why 24% of British children live with only
one parent, usually their mother.
   The contemporary British child doesn't have a lot of companionship from
brothers and sisters, because the average family has only one or two
children. Most British children live with their parents at least until they
finish school at the age of 17 or 18. Then many go away to college, leaving
some parents sad and lonely in their empty nest and others enjoying their
release from parental responsibilities.
There was little pictorial art in England until the great miniaturists of the Tudor epoch.
There were portraits on a large scale, but they were in the main, of foreign origin,
notably Dutch like Holbein. Then came Hogarth, the first great native painter born at the
end of the 17th century, famous for both engravings and oil paintings, he was followed
by Joshua Reynolds (1723-1792) famous for his portraits.
   If Hogarth was the artist of the towns, Gainsborough, contemporary of Reynolds, was
the painter of the countryside, frequently the background to his portraits. In a similar
tradition was Stubbs, as famous for his portraits of horses as of people.
 Among the other portraitists of the 18th century were Romney, and Rae-burn.
Constable (1776-1837) finally gave landscape painting its importance. Among his
near-contemporaries, though a little younger, were William Blake, poet, visionary
and painter, and Turner, renowned above all for his naval scenes.
   The modern period in British art may be said to date from the year 1910, when the
first Post-Impressionist Exhibition was held in London.
The first decade of the century had been dominated by two romanticists, Frank
Bronwyn and Augustus John and by the sculptor Jacob Epstein who became a
protagonist of modernity. The two painters may, to some extent, have been
influenced by Gauguin, Epstein was essentially an expressionist.
   Such modern painters as Peter Blake, Allan Jones and some others seek an image
of immediate popular appeal (hence the term "pop-art" sometimes applied to this
school).
 Great Britain gave the world a lot of talented people. Many famous writers and poets were
born and lived in Great Britain.
   One of the best known English playwrights was William Shakespeare. He draw ideas for his
tragedies and comedies from the history of England and ancient Rome. Many experts
consider Shakespeare the greatest writer and the greatest playwright in English language.
William Shakespeare wrote 37 plays which may be divided into: comedies (such as "A
Midsummer Night's Dream"), tragedies (such as "Hamlet", "Othello", "King Lear",
"Macbeth") and historical plays (such as "Richard II", "Henry V", "Julius Caesar", "Antony
and Cleopatra").
   Robert Burns represents the generation of Romantic writers. In his
poems he described with love and understanding the simple life he knew.
Among his well-known poems are "Halloween", "The Jolly Beggars", "To
a Mouse".
   Lord George Gordon Byron. His free-spirited life style combined with
his rare poetic gift makes him one of the most famous figures of the
Romantic Era.
His famous works such as "Stanzas to Augusta", "The Prisoner of Chillan",
"Childe Harold's Pilgrimage", "Manfred" draw readers into the passion,
humors and conviction of a poet whose life and work truly embodied the
Romantic spirit.
   Sir Walter Scott wrote the first examples of historical novel.
   Lewis Carroll became famous when he published "Alice's Adventures in
Wonderland".