На данной странице размещены основные темы по предмету "Страноведение Великобритании"
The House of Lords (also known as the House of Peers for ceremonial purposes) is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom and is also commonly referred to as "the Lords". Parliament comprises the Sovereign, the House of Commons (which
is the lower house of Parliament and referred to as "the Commons"), and
the Lords. Membership of the House of Lords was once a right of birth
to hereditary peers, but following a series of reforms these now only
form a portion of the membership. As of July 2009 the House of Lords has
740 members, 94 more than the 646 seat House of Commons. The House of
Lords, like the House of Commons, assembles in the Palace of
Westminster.
Almost
every nation has a reputation of some kind. The French are supposed to
be amorous, gay, fond 'of champagne; the Germans dull, formal,
efficient, fond of military uniforms, and parades; the Americans
boastful, energetic, gregarious and vulgar. The English are reputed to
be cold, reserved, rather haughty people who do not yell in the street,
make love in public or change their governments as often as they change
their underclothes. They are steady, easy-going, and fond of sport.
Parliament. The House of Lords
The House of Lords (also known as the House of Peers for ceremonial purposes) is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom and is also commonly referred to as "the Lords". Parliament comprises the Sovereign, the House of Commons (which
is the lower house of Parliament and referred to as "the Commons"), and
the Lords. Membership of the House of Lords was once a right of birth
to hereditary peers, but following a series of reforms these now only
form a portion of the membership. As of July 2009 the House of Lords has
740 members, 94 more than the 646 seat House of Commons. The House of
Lords, like the House of Commons, assembles in the Palace of
Westminster.
The full, formal title of the House of Lords is The
Right Honourable the Lords Spiritual and Temporal of the United Kingdom
of Great Britain and Northern Ireland in Parliament assembled.
Each
session of Parliament is usually opened in the House of Lords by the
Queen (King), who is attended by heralds, officers of the Court and
members of the Diplomatic Corps. The Commons are "summoned" to the
Chamber by Black Rod (the Gentleman Usher of the Black Rod, whose title
derives from the black staff with gold fittings which he carries on
formal occasions). The peers sit comfortably on their red leather
benches as the MPs stand awkwardly huddled together below the bar while
the Queen reads the throne speech which outlines the Government's
programme of legislation for the coming session.
Before the throne
in the House of Lords, and dividing the benches, is the woolsack upon
which the Lord Chancellor sits as Speaker of the House. By tradition,
the woolsack was introduced in the reign of Edward III and it is
recorded in the House of Lords muniments "that the judges shall sit upon
woolsacks". The woolsack is now stuffed with wool from England,
Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland and from the Commonwealth
countries.
Members of the Government and their supporters sitting
to the right of the throne, and those of the Opposition to the left. The
bishops always sit on the Government side of the House. Cross-benches,
set near the bar of the House, are for the use of peers who sit as
Independents.
The House of Lords consists of the Lords "Spiritual and Temporal". The Lords Spiritual are the two archbishops (Canterbury and York) and twenty-four bishops of the Church of England. The Lords Temporal
include peers by hereditary right, peers by virtue of their office (the
Law Lords), and Life peers created under the Life Peerages Act: 1958.
Peerages are created by the Sovereign; about half have been created
since 1920. Peerages can also be renounced for life under the Peerages
Act, 1963. In the full House of Lord) there are some 1,000 potential
members, though the actual numbers are cut to above 700 working members
by a voluntary process of "leave of absence".
\When Cromwell's
troopers crushed the King's men the House of Lords, which had backed the
King in his dictator ship, was abolished – only to be restored when
Charles II was restored to the throne. Over the past two centuries оf
more modern times, there has been pressure for the House of Lords to be
abolished or reformed.
The Liberals, faced with a Lords veto of a
Budget, had to pass the Parliament Act of 1912 restricting the House of
Lords delaying powers on laws to two years. In 1949 this power to delay
was reduced to one year. The Lords do not possess the power to reject a
money bill.
Thus the House of Lords – a hangover from a past age
with the principle of hereditary rule as its basis, stands for all that
is backward and undemocratic in present-day society.
The English (Англичане)
Almost
every nation has a reputation of some kind. The French are supposed to
be amorous, gay, fond 'of champagne; the Germans dull, formal,
efficient, fond of military uniforms, and parades; the Americans
boastful, energetic, gregarious and vulgar. The English are reputed to
be cold, reserved, rather haughty people who do not yell in the street,
make love in public or change their governments as often as they change
their underclothes. They are steady, easy-going, and fond of sport.
The
foreigner's view of the English is often based on the type of
Englishman he has met travelling abroad. Since these are largely members
of the upper and middle classes, it is obvious that their behaviour
cannot be taken as general for the whole people. There are, however,
certain kinds of behaviour, manners and customs which are peculiar to
England.
The English are a nation of stay-at-homes. There is no
place like home, they say. And when the man is not working lie withdraws
from the world to the company of his wife and children and busies
himself with the affairs of the home. “The Englishman's home is his
castle”, is a saying known all over the world; and it is true that
English people prefer small houses, built to house one family, perhaps
with a small garden. But nowadays the shortage of building land and
in-flated land values mean that more and more blocks of flats are being
built, and fewer detached and semi-detached houses, especially by the
local councils.
The fire is the focus of the English home. What do
other nations sit round? The answer is they don't. They go out to cafes
or sit round the cocktail bar. For the English it is the open fire, the
toasting fork and the ceremony of English tea. Even when central
heating is installed it is kept so low in the English home that
Americans and Russians get chilblains, as the English get nervous
headaches from stuffiness in theirs.
Foreigners often picture the
Englishman dressed in tweeds, smoking a pipe, striding across the open
countryside with his dog at his heels. This is a picture of the
aristocratic Englishman during his holidays on his country estate. Since
most of the open countryside is privately owned there isn't much left
for the others to stride across. The average Englishman often lives and
dies without ever having possessed a tweed suit.
Apart from the
conservatism on a grand scale which the attitude to the monarchy
typifies, England is full of small-scale and local conservatisms, some
of them of a highly individual or particular character. Regiments in the
army, municipal corporations, schools and societies have their own
private traditions which command strong loyalties. Such groups have
customs of their own which they are very reluctant to change, and they
like to think of their private customs as differentiating them, as
groups, from the rest of the world.
Most English people have been
slow to adopt rational reforms such as the metric system, which came
into general use in 1975. They have suffered inconvenience from adhering
to old ways, because they did not want the trouble of adapting
themselves to new. All the same, several of the most notorious symbols
of conservatism are being abandoned. The twenty-four hour clock was at
last adopted for railway timetables in the 1960s – though not for most
other timetables, such as radio programmes. In 1966 it was decided that
decimal money would become regular form in 1971 — though even in this
matter conservatism triumphed, when the Government decided to keep the
pound sterling as the basic unit, with its one-hundredth part an
over-large “new penny”.
Before the Treaty of 1921 put a border between Northern and Southern Ireland, Ulster comprised nine counties and was one of the four ancient kingdoms of Ireland. That treaty cut off three counties – Donegal, Cavan, and Monaghan – from the rest, and left us in the other six, neither British, nor Irish, nor all of Ulster. But the history that has made us what we are goes back further than 1921. The first date that belongs to us rather than to Ireland as a whole is 1609, when thousands of Scots Presbyterians were brought over for the Plantation of Ulster. The hatred between colonised and coloniser was underlined by the difference in their religions, and the Irish were persecuted not only for being the natives but on the basis of being Catholics as well. From then on they never quite sorted out religion from politics.
The march of the Orange Order, which was founded in 1795 to keep up the traditions of Protestantism in Ulster takes place every year. In fact, it is a semi-religious, semi-political organisation. All over Northern Ireland on July 12th, branches of the Orange Order march off some three or four miles to a field where a meeting is held. Having blasphemed their fellow-Christians, they do another Christian stomp home again, get drunk, sing Orange songs, and take in the Union Jack to be put away till next year.
It's the same thing, but in reverse, when it comes round to the 1916 Commemoration day, or to August 15th. This day is the feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin, and what that has to do with politics nobody knows. But the Nationalists, the Catholic Tories of Northern Ireland, keep it as their day, and sing anti-Orange songs, meaning every bitter word they sing.
Both the Protestant Unionists and the Catholic Nationalists deny they discriminate against each other, but both use religion to divide and rule the working class. It is only less serious on the Catholic side because there are fewer Catholic bosses and fewer Catholic local authorities in a position to practise discrimination. It is a tactic which has made the ruling minority look like a majority and kept the Unionist Party in power since Northern Ireland existed.
Polarised by this ploy into their religious sects, and set against each other, the ordinary people have not been able to combine and fight politically for their real interests. At the bottom of the social pyramid with nothing to lose, the Catholic working man doesn't really fear the Protestant; but the Protestant working man, who has very little, feels the need to hang on to his Protestant identity in case he loses what little he has. He fears the Catholic because he knows that any gain made by the Catholic minority will be his loss, for the businessmen and the landowners, Orange or Nationalist, are not going to suffer losses on anybody's behalf.
Where discrimination hurts most is in employment and, housing. You come to a factory looking for a job and they ask you which school you went to. If its name was "Saint Somebody", they know you are a Catholic and you don't get taken on. Until the civil rights campaign forced a promise of reform, housing was the burning issue in Northern Ireland, because only householders have a vote in local elections: subtenants, lodgers, adult children living at home are nil without the vote, and thus a quarter of the electorate disenfranchised. So it is very important where you build houses and for whom you build them. Too many houses for Catholics could upset the majority on a Protestant council, in vice versa. The policy in both the Protestant-run councils, which are the majority, and the few Catholic-run councils, is to control the way the votes go by having separate housing estates for people of different religions, and by awarding tenancies in the interests of political dominance.
Little is heard about the main body of the Republican movement which continues the socialist, working class-oriented traditions. However, Republicanism is a deep and strongly held tradition in Ireland, widely supported in both north and south. In the mid-1960s it raised its voice against the increasing repression of Catholics and the attacks on the civil rights movement.
The Scots are not English. Nor are the Scots British. No self-respecting Englishman calls himself a Briton, neither does any self-respecting Scot. The words Britain, Briton and British were uneasily disinterred after a long burial as a kind of palliative to Scottish feeling when our Parliament was merged with the English one at Westminster. But the attempt was not successful. The best things on either of the Border remain obstinately English or Scottish. Are Shakespeare and Burns British poets? When the Australians meet the United Kingdom at that most civilised of all games that was born on the fields of England, do they meet the all British eleven? And is there anyone in the whole world who has ever asked for a British whisky and soda?
The two nations of the United Kingdom have each derived from mixed sources, racially and, as it were, historically. Each has developed strong national characteristics which separate them in custom, habit, religion, law and even in language.
The English are amongst the most amiable people in the world; they can also be very ruthless. They have a genius for compromise, but can enforce their idea of compromise on others with surprising efficiency. They are generous in small matters but more cautious in big ones. The Scots are proverbially kindly, but at first glance are not so amiable. They abhor compromise, lean much upon logic and run much to extremes. They are penny-wise but can be prodigally pound-foolish. They can be dour and grey, or highly coloured and extravagant in gesture and manner.
In general the nation of modern Scotland derives from three main racial sources. The Celts, the Scandinavians or Teutons and the mysterious and shadowy Picts. These Picts, historically speaking, were the first inhabitants of what we now call Scotland. They were a small tough people. They have left their strain in the blood and occasional marks in the land and language. They were conquered by the invading Celts from Ireland who, incidentally, were called Scots and from whom the name of the modern nation comes.
Two and three centuries later, however, the Celts retreated into the north-western hills and islands, their place in the east and south lowlands being taken by the Scandinavians, Teutons and Angles. Hence the celebrated division of the Scottish people into Highlanders and Lowlanders.
It was a division which marked the distinction between people of different culture, temperament and language.
It is from the Celts that there comes the more colourful exciting and extravagant strain in the Scots. The Gaelic language and song, the tartan, the bagpipes, the Highland panache, and so on. It is in the contemplation of the debasement of this lively, attractive and touching tradition in Scotland and the Scottish temperament for commercial purposes that we natives have to endure the greatest embarrassments and discomforts.
It is from the Lowland strain that there comes the equally celebrated Scottish tradition of dourness, pawkiness, implacability and splendid courage in defence, providing a complementary virtue to the splendid Highland courage in attack. The cautious, dry, humourless, mean, red-nosed Scot is, of course, a stock figure for stage, fiction and comic picture postcard use. The legend of this alcoholic miser, the hero of all Scotch stories, has of course, little more than the most remote origin in fact (no more indeed than has the stock, garrulous, insensitive, over-eating Englishman of some North-of-the-Border stories about our neighbours). But in so far as this admittedly highly comical, and sometimes even affectionately regarded figure, touches reality at all he derives from certain Lowland characteristics.
The truth is that since the break-up of the old Highland system in the 18th century we are in Scotland all so mixed up in blood that most of us combine something of the characteristics of both Highlander and Lowlander. A little over two hundred years ago nearly all Scots living north and west of the Highland line which, geographically speaking, still runs diagonally across Scotland were true Celtic Highlanders. That is to say they spoke the Gaelic language, lived under the ancient Celtic system of land tenure and, of course, as members of clans, bore Highland names. South and east of that line in the Lowland towns, villages and in the countryside, Highland names were rare.
There is no other part of the British Isles where national spirit is stronger, national pride more intense or national traditions more cherished than in Wales. The Welsh still proudly wear their national dress on festive occasions; the Welsh language is still very much a living force and is taught side by side with English in schools; and Welshmen, who have a highly developed artistic sense, have a distinguished record in the realm of poetry, song and drama.
Welsh, as distinct from British history, really begins with the Anglo-Saxon victories in the sixth and seventh centuries which isolated the Welsh from the rest of their fellow-Britons. Henceforth the people of Wales were vulnerable on two fronts: on the east they were constantly harried by the English chieftains, and until the eleventh century the vikings made frequent raids on the coasts. Then came the Normans who penetrated into the south of the country and established many strongholds, in spite of strong resistance organised by the Welsh. Eventually, however, the subjection of the people was completed by Edward I, who built many castles and made his son, afterwards Edward II, the first Prince of Wales.
The population of Wales amounts to about two and a quarter million. The Welsh language is a Celtic branch of the Indo-European languages and has some roots in common with them. The Welsh call their country Cymru, and themselves they call Cymry, a word which has the same root as camrador (friend,or comrade).
Have you noticed the number of Welsh place-names that begin with Llan — Llanbers, Llandudno, Llangollen, Llanfair? There are hundreds of them in Wales. In the dark days of the early Saxon occupation of England, Christianity still lived on among the Welsh, and specially chosen men, the first Celtic saints, went from place to place teaching the Christian faith, preaching, organising little groups of believers, and starting centres of worship. These centres were called Hans (the word is generally translated church), and the Hans often took the name of the saint who started them or some other holy name; for example, Llandudno was the llan started by St Tudno, Llandewi was the llan of St Ddewi (David), Llanfair was the llan of Fair (Mary). Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch is the name of a station in Anglesey. The name means: The church of St. Mary in a wood of hazel trees near a rapid whirlpool and near St Tysilio's cave not far from a red cave. The town is generally known as Llanfair P.G.
Тесты по предмету:
The Irish (Ирландцы)
Before the Treaty of 1921 put a border between Northern and Southern Ireland, Ulster comprised nine counties and was one of the four ancient kingdoms of Ireland. That treaty cut off three counties – Donegal, Cavan, and Monaghan – from the rest, and left us in the other six, neither British, nor Irish, nor all of Ulster. But the history that has made us what we are goes back further than 1921. The first date that belongs to us rather than to Ireland as a whole is 1609, when thousands of Scots Presbyterians were brought over for the Plantation of Ulster. The hatred between colonised and coloniser was underlined by the difference in their religions, and the Irish were persecuted not only for being the natives but on the basis of being Catholics as well. From then on they never quite sorted out religion from politics.
The march of the Orange Order, which was founded in 1795 to keep up the traditions of Protestantism in Ulster takes place every year. In fact, it is a semi-religious, semi-political organisation. All over Northern Ireland on July 12th, branches of the Orange Order march off some three or four miles to a field where a meeting is held. Having blasphemed their fellow-Christians, they do another Christian stomp home again, get drunk, sing Orange songs, and take in the Union Jack to be put away till next year.
It's the same thing, but in reverse, when it comes round to the 1916 Commemoration day, or to August 15th. This day is the feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin, and what that has to do with politics nobody knows. But the Nationalists, the Catholic Tories of Northern Ireland, keep it as their day, and sing anti-Orange songs, meaning every bitter word they sing.
Both the Protestant Unionists and the Catholic Nationalists deny they discriminate against each other, but both use religion to divide and rule the working class. It is only less serious on the Catholic side because there are fewer Catholic bosses and fewer Catholic local authorities in a position to practise discrimination. It is a tactic which has made the ruling minority look like a majority and kept the Unionist Party in power since Northern Ireland existed.
Polarised by this ploy into their religious sects, and set against each other, the ordinary people have not been able to combine and fight politically for their real interests. At the bottom of the social pyramid with nothing to lose, the Catholic working man doesn't really fear the Protestant; but the Protestant working man, who has very little, feels the need to hang on to his Protestant identity in case he loses what little he has. He fears the Catholic because he knows that any gain made by the Catholic minority will be his loss, for the businessmen and the landowners, Orange or Nationalist, are not going to suffer losses on anybody's behalf.
Where discrimination hurts most is in employment and, housing. You come to a factory looking for a job and they ask you which school you went to. If its name was "Saint Somebody", they know you are a Catholic and you don't get taken on. Until the civil rights campaign forced a promise of reform, housing was the burning issue in Northern Ireland, because only householders have a vote in local elections: subtenants, lodgers, adult children living at home are nil without the vote, and thus a quarter of the electorate disenfranchised. So it is very important where you build houses and for whom you build them. Too many houses for Catholics could upset the majority on a Protestant council, in vice versa. The policy in both the Protestant-run councils, which are the majority, and the few Catholic-run councils, is to control the way the votes go by having separate housing estates for people of different religions, and by awarding tenancies in the interests of political dominance.
Little is heard about the main body of the Republican movement which continues the socialist, working class-oriented traditions. However, Republicanism is a deep and strongly held tradition in Ireland, widely supported in both north and south. In the mid-1960s it raised its voice against the increasing repression of Catholics and the attacks on the civil rights movement.
The Scots (Шотландцы)
The Scots are not English. Nor are the Scots British. No self-respecting Englishman calls himself a Briton, neither does any self-respecting Scot. The words Britain, Briton and British were uneasily disinterred after a long burial as a kind of palliative to Scottish feeling when our Parliament was merged with the English one at Westminster. But the attempt was not successful. The best things on either of the Border remain obstinately English or Scottish. Are Shakespeare and Burns British poets? When the Australians meet the United Kingdom at that most civilised of all games that was born on the fields of England, do they meet the all British eleven? And is there anyone in the whole world who has ever asked for a British whisky and soda?
The two nations of the United Kingdom have each derived from mixed sources, racially and, as it were, historically. Each has developed strong national characteristics which separate them in custom, habit, religion, law and even in language.
The English are amongst the most amiable people in the world; they can also be very ruthless. They have a genius for compromise, but can enforce their idea of compromise on others with surprising efficiency. They are generous in small matters but more cautious in big ones. The Scots are proverbially kindly, but at first glance are not so amiable. They abhor compromise, lean much upon logic and run much to extremes. They are penny-wise but can be prodigally pound-foolish. They can be dour and grey, or highly coloured and extravagant in gesture and manner.
In general the nation of modern Scotland derives from three main racial sources. The Celts, the Scandinavians or Teutons and the mysterious and shadowy Picts. These Picts, historically speaking, were the first inhabitants of what we now call Scotland. They were a small tough people. They have left their strain in the blood and occasional marks in the land and language. They were conquered by the invading Celts from Ireland who, incidentally, were called Scots and from whom the name of the modern nation comes.
Two and three centuries later, however, the Celts retreated into the north-western hills and islands, their place in the east and south lowlands being taken by the Scandinavians, Teutons and Angles. Hence the celebrated division of the Scottish people into Highlanders and Lowlanders.
It was a division which marked the distinction between people of different culture, temperament and language.
It is from the Celts that there comes the more colourful exciting and extravagant strain in the Scots. The Gaelic language and song, the tartan, the bagpipes, the Highland panache, and so on. It is in the contemplation of the debasement of this lively, attractive and touching tradition in Scotland and the Scottish temperament for commercial purposes that we natives have to endure the greatest embarrassments and discomforts.
It is from the Lowland strain that there comes the equally celebrated Scottish tradition of dourness, pawkiness, implacability and splendid courage in defence, providing a complementary virtue to the splendid Highland courage in attack. The cautious, dry, humourless, mean, red-nosed Scot is, of course, a stock figure for stage, fiction and comic picture postcard use. The legend of this alcoholic miser, the hero of all Scotch stories, has of course, little more than the most remote origin in fact (no more indeed than has the stock, garrulous, insensitive, over-eating Englishman of some North-of-the-Border stories about our neighbours). But in so far as this admittedly highly comical, and sometimes even affectionately regarded figure, touches reality at all he derives from certain Lowland characteristics.
The truth is that since the break-up of the old Highland system in the 18th century we are in Scotland all so mixed up in blood that most of us combine something of the characteristics of both Highlander and Lowlander. A little over two hundred years ago nearly all Scots living north and west of the Highland line which, geographically speaking, still runs diagonally across Scotland were true Celtic Highlanders. That is to say they spoke the Gaelic language, lived under the ancient Celtic system of land tenure and, of course, as members of clans, bore Highland names. South and east of that line in the Lowland towns, villages and in the countryside, Highland names were rare.
The Welsh (Валлийцы)
There is no other part of the British Isles where national spirit is stronger, national pride more intense or national traditions more cherished than in Wales. The Welsh still proudly wear their national dress on festive occasions; the Welsh language is still very much a living force and is taught side by side with English in schools; and Welshmen, who have a highly developed artistic sense, have a distinguished record in the realm of poetry, song and drama.
Welsh, as distinct from British history, really begins with the Anglo-Saxon victories in the sixth and seventh centuries which isolated the Welsh from the rest of their fellow-Britons. Henceforth the people of Wales were vulnerable on two fronts: on the east they were constantly harried by the English chieftains, and until the eleventh century the vikings made frequent raids on the coasts. Then came the Normans who penetrated into the south of the country and established many strongholds, in spite of strong resistance organised by the Welsh. Eventually, however, the subjection of the people was completed by Edward I, who built many castles and made his son, afterwards Edward II, the first Prince of Wales.
The population of Wales amounts to about two and a quarter million. The Welsh language is a Celtic branch of the Indo-European languages and has some roots in common with them. The Welsh call their country Cymru, and themselves they call Cymry, a word which has the same root as camrador (friend,or comrade).
Have you noticed the number of Welsh place-names that begin with Llan — Llanbers, Llandudno, Llangollen, Llanfair? There are hundreds of them in Wales. In the dark days of the early Saxon occupation of England, Christianity still lived on among the Welsh, and specially chosen men, the first Celtic saints, went from place to place teaching the Christian faith, preaching, organising little groups of believers, and starting centres of worship. These centres were called Hans (the word is generally translated church), and the Hans often took the name of the saint who started them or some other holy name; for example, Llandudno was the llan started by St Tudno, Llandewi was the llan of St Ddewi (David), Llanfair was the llan of Fair (Mary). Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch is the name of a station in Anglesey. The name means: The church of St. Mary in a wood of hazel trees near a rapid whirlpool and near St Tysilio's cave not far from a red cave. The town is generally known as Llanfair P.G.
Тесты по предмету:
1. The United Kingdom includes …
A. England and Scotland
B. Great Britain and Northern Ireland
C. England, Scotland and Wales
D. Great Britain, Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic
B. Great Britain and Northern Ireland
C. England, Scotland and Wales
D. Great Britain, Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic
2. The currency of the UK is …
A. pound = 100 cents
B. dollar = 100 cents
C. pound = 100 nickels
D. pound = 100 pence
B. dollar = 100 cents
C. pound = 100 nickels
D. pound = 100 pence
3. The national emblem of Northern Ireland is the …
A. shamrock
B. rose
C. thistle
D. daffodil
B. rose
C. thistle
D. daffodil
4. What do the abbreviations a.m. and p.m. stand for?
A. Members of Parliament
B. Time
C. Members of Congress
D. Time and Tense
B. Time
C. Members of Congress
D. Time and Tense
5. Which town is the birthplace of William Shakespeare?
A. Glasgow
B. London
C. Edinburgh
D. Stratford-upon-Avon
B. London
C. Edinburgh
D. Stratford-upon-Avon
6. A VIP is a …
A. very important person
B. very interesting person
C. very intelligent person
D. very indifferent persoт
7. A blind date is a date with someone …
B. very interesting person
C. very intelligent person
D. very indifferent persoт
7. A blind date is a date with someone …
A. who hasn’t met you before
B. who cannot see
C. who is not good-looking
D. who is pleasant
B. who cannot see
C. who is not good-looking
D. who is pleasant
8. Who discovered penicillin?
A. Fleming
B. Newton
C. Armstrong
D. Einstein
B. Newton
C. Armstrong
D. Einstein
9. What are these: “The Guardian”, “The News of the world”, “The
Independent”?
A. newspapers
B. TV programmes
C. towns
D. magazines
B. TV programmes
C. towns
D. magazines
10. What title does Prince Charles, the eldest son of the British Queen
have?
A. Prince of Wales
B. Prince of Scotland
C. Prince of England
D. Prince of Ireland
B. Prince of Scotland
C. Prince of England
D. Prince of Ireland
11. The UK …
A. a constitutional republic
B. a presidential republic
C. a federal republic
D. a constitutional monarchy
B. a presidential republic
C. a federal republic
D. a constitutional monarchy
12. The longest rivers are …
A. The Tay and the Thames
B. The Severn and the Thames
C. The Avon and the Thames
D. The Thames and the Tweed
B. The Severn and the Thames
C. The Avon and the Thames
D. The Thames and the Tweed
13. Do you know the hometown of the famous band “The Beatles”?
A. Manchester
B. London
C. Liverpool D. Glasgow
B. London
C. Liverpool D. Glasgow
14. Who wrote “Gulliver’s
travels”?
A. Mark Twain
B. Jonathan Swift
C. Robert Burns
D. William Shakespeare
B. Jonathan Swift
C. Robert Burns
D. William Shakespeare
15. “Auld Lang Syne” is often sung on …
A. July 4
B. New Year’s Eve
C. Veteran’s Day
D. Labour Day
B. New Year’s Eve
C. Veteran’s Day
D. Labour Day
16. The queen signs the bill and the Great Seal is fixed after …
A. the first reading
B. the second reading
C. the third reading
D. the fourth reading
B. the second reading
C. the third reading
D. the fourth reading
17. The most famous of all British newspapers is…
A. The Guardian
B. The Times
C. The Financial Times
D. The Daily Express
B. The Times
C. The Financial Times
D. The Daily Express
18. What is the nickname of London’s Underground?
A. Metro
B. Subway
C. The Tube
D. Metropolitan
B. Subway
C. The Tube
D. Metropolitan
19. Great Britain includes …
A. England and Scotland
B. England and Irish Republic
C. England, Scotland and Northern Ireland
D. England, Scotland and Wales
B. England and Irish Republic
C. England, Scotland and Northern Ireland
D. England, Scotland and Wales
20. What is the name of the Great Britain flag?
A. Union Jack
B. Union John
C. Blue and Red
D. Red and white Crosses
B. Union John
C. Blue and Red
D. Red and white Crosses
21. The queen’s closest official contacts with the Prime Minister and
the Cabinet on average…
A. twice a day
B. twice a month
C. once a week
D. twice a week
B. twice a month
C. once a week
D. twice a week
22. 12 p.m. is …
A. lunch time
B. breakfast time
C. bed time
D. dinner time
B. breakfast time
C. bed time
D. dinner time
23. The English breakfast consists of …
A. fish and chips
B. toast and marmalade
C. bacon and eggs
D. coffee and a roll
B. toast and marmalade
C. bacon and eggs
D. coffee and a roll
24. This round place is often called the Centre of London. There is a
statue of Eros in the middle of it.
A. Trafalgar Square
B. Piccadilly Circus
C. Leicester Square
D. London Circus
B. Piccadilly Circus
C. Leicester Square
D. London Circus
25. What park of London is the Speaker’s Corner situated in?
A. Regent’s Park
B. Hyde Park
C. Green Park
D. St. James’s Park
B. Hyde Park
C. Green Park
D. St. James’s Park
26. The climate in the UK is generally …
A. hot and temperate
B. mild and temperate
C. cold and wet
D. hot and wet
B. mild and temperate
C. cold and wet
D. hot and wet
27. The national emblem of England is …
A. the white rose
B. the leek
C. the shamrock
D. the rеd rose
B. the leek
C. the shamrock
D. the rеd rose
28. What is the official address of Prime Minister house in the UK?
A. 5 Fleet Street
B. 21 Baker Street
C. 10 Downing Street
D. 7 Broadway
B. 21 Baker Street
C. 10 Downing Street
D. 7 Broadway
29. “Ulster” is another name for …
A. Scotland
B. Northern Ireland
C. Republic of Ireland
D. Wales
B. Northern Ireland
C. Republic of Ireland
D. Wales
30. You must go to school in Great Britain …
A. from 5 till 16
B. from 6 till 17
C. from 7 till 18
D. from 7 till 16
B. from 6 till 17
C. from 7 till 18
D. from 7 till 16
31. What is another name for the Houses of Parliament?
A. The Clearness Palace
B. St. James’s Palace
C. Palace of Westminster
D. Buckingham Palace
B. St. James’s Palace
C. Palace of Westminster
D. Buckingham Palace
32. Is a mile about …?
A. 1,000 metres
B. 1,600 metresC.2,000
metres
D.2,600 metres
B. 1,600 metresC.
D.
33. Who is the architect of the famous St. Paul’s Cathedral?
A. Michelangelo
B. Sir Christopher Wren
C. Masterly
D. Charles Barry
B. Sir Christopher Wren
C. Masterly
D. Charles Barry
34. What is the name of the oldest and best-known public school for boys
in GB?
A. Norwich
B. Rugby
C. Eton
D. Winchester
B. Rugby
C. Eton
D. Winchester
35. In what town is the residence of the head of the English Church?
A. Canterbury
B. Manchester
C. Liverpool
D. London
B. Manchester
C. Liverpool
D. London
