____________________________________1_london_______________________
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Arrangement:
- the capital of the UK and England, the seat of the Monarch, the Supreme Court, the Government, the Parliament
- lies on the river Thames
- 7,000,000 inhabitants in the city, about 12,000,000 million in its conurbation
- consists of the City of London and and 32 boroughs
- an area of 1,580 km2
- the Prime Meridian runs across Greenwich (in the east of London)
- industry: London was an important port => a lot of products (wood, furniture, chemicals, food - beer, sugar, diamonds) exported; clothing, printing; from the 60s => big plants moved to the outskirts; new plants (paper-making, oil refineries, car industries); 25% of the financial transactions take place in London (NY 18%, Tokio 10%); the London Stock Exchange is the biggest in the world; postal services, gold, silver and platinum trade, art trade; a great importance of tourism; more than 50% of sea and air transport is centred in London
- transport: The Port of London declines (now developing into "The Metropolitan Water City" - shops, railway, London City Airport); some docks for oil reloading; riverbuses (on the Thames between Chelsea and Docklands and City Airport); 5 airports (Heathrow - the largest, Gatwick); railway - controlled by computers, rail connection to all parts of the island from 15 stations (Victoria, Liverpool Street Stations); underground = the tube - 273 stations, 420 km long; buses: the busiest place for bus traffic - Trafalgar Square (recently double-deckers, nowadays quick single deck Red Arrow Buses and Green Line buses); long distance buses = coaches (Victoria Coach Station)
- parts of London: (a) The City of London (headed by the Lord Mayor, the "square mile"): Central London - the most famous sights; the City - a financial district; the East End - immigrants, ethnic groups; the West End - Trafalgar Square, theatres, shops, restaurants; (b) Westminster - Buckingham Palace, the Government, the Parliament; (c) Southwark; other parts: Kensington, Knightsbridge, Chelsea
- places of interest: (1) The City of London: The Tower of London (built by William the Conqueror, till the 16th c. a royal home; nowadays a museum (the Crown Jewels (the Jewel House)); the prison (famous prisoners - Walter Raleigh, Guy Fawkes, Rudolph Hess); the White Tower (an arsenal of weapons); the execution block (Ann Boleyn, Catherine Howard, Thomas More beheaded); the Tower guarded by the Yeomen Warders (well-known Beefeaters); six ravens to protect the UK kept there); Tower Bridge (is raised in the middle in 90 seconds to allow ships to pass); St. Katherine′s Dock; St. Paul′s Cathedral (1711; the Baroque style; the largest church in the world after St. Peter′s in Rome; the Whispering Gallery; Sir Winston Churchill′s funeral, the wedding of Prince Charles and Princess Diana in 1981; graves of Admiral Nelson, Sir Wren); the Monument (commemorates the place in Pudding Lane where the Great Fire started; 311 steps, 60 metre high); Lloyds; the Bank of England; the Stock Exchange; (2) The City of Westminster: The Houses of Parliament (1547 - the Seat of Parliament => Great Britain is the oldest democracy in the world; the House of Lords - a gothic hall decorated in red, the Woolsack (the seat of the Lord Chancellor) in the front ; the House of Commons - green benches, presided over by the Speaker; Big Ben (the name of the bell; the strike of Big Ben used by BBC as a time signal); Parliament Square (a lawn with statues of renowned statesmen - Churchill, Lincoln, Benjamin Disraeli); Westminster Abbey (the most important church in the country; from the 11th c. (founded by Edward the Confessor); the Coronation Chair; almost all coronations since William the Conqueror have been held here; graves of Mary Stuart, Elizabeth I., Charles II., Henry VII., Edward the Confessor; the Poet′s Corner (tombstones and monuments of John Milton, Walter Scott, Byron, Wordsworth, Shakespeare, several even buried here - Chaucer, Robert Browning)); Whitehall (Government offices); 10th Downing Street (the home of the Prime Minister); Buckingham Palace (1703; outside - the Changing of the Guard (they have red coats and black helmets of bear skin); the north wing - the Royal Family (the Royal Standard is flown when the Queen is in residence)); the Queen Victoria Monument; the Mall (expensive shops); Trafalgar Square (political demonstrations; Nelson′s Column (about 50 m high with 5-metre tall statue of Horatio Nelson at the top; two fountains, pigeons); the National Gallery (one side of Trafalgar Square; Vinci, Tizian, Rembrandt, van Gogh, Monet, Manet, Dégas, Renoir, Turner, Goya)=> near to it the National Portrait Gallery; Piccadilly Circus (the busiest and noisiest place in London, an entertainment centre; the Statue of Eros); the Millenium Dome; the London Eye (a rollercoaster)
- shopping: Oxford Street (the best-known - John Lewis, Selfridges, Marks&Spencer); Regent Street (Hamley′s - toys, Liberty′s - fine fabrics); Bond Street (Sotheby′s - the famous auction house, jewellery shops, antiques); Piccadilly (sportswear, menswear); Knightsbridge - the home of Harrod′s; Tobacco Dock (a vast complex of shops set into warehouse); Soho (metropolitan place); Chelsea (young fashion)
- sports: Wembley (football), Wimbledon (Wimbledon Tennis Championships), Ascot (horse-racing)
- schools: London University (the first to confer academic degrees on women - 1878), the Royal College of Art, the Royal Naval College, City University, Brunel University
- parks: London - famous for its parks and greenery (all major parks were once royal gardens): St. James′ Park; Hyde Park (with the Serpentine Lake (swimming, boating) and Rotten Row (horse-riding), the Marble Arch (former an execution place), the Speaker′s Corner (everybody can say whatever she wants, but mustn′t touch the royal family)); Kensington Gardens (the Albert Memorial - built by Victoria in memory of her husband Albert); Kensington Palace (a home for the royal family); the Albert Hall (a round concert hall); Regent′s Park (gardens, lakes, a zoo (1826; about 6000 species including a Panda bear))
- journalism - connected with Fleet Street, but nowadays most magazines have moved to the Docklands
- music: 6 orchestras; halls: The Royal Festival Hall, the Queen Elizabeth Hall, the Purcell Room, the Royal Albert Hall, Wembley Arena
- opera & ballet: the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden (the home of the Royal Opera and the Royal Ballet), the London Coliseum (the home of the English National Opera), the Sadler′s Wells Theatre
- theatre: Mostly in the West End, the area around Leicester Square; the oldest - the Old Vic, Aldwich; the National Theatre (a complex of 3 theatres); the Barbican Centre (the largest centre for arts and conferences in Europe, the Barbican Hall (the home of the London Symphony Orchestra); the Barbical Theatre; studio the Pit); cinemas: the South Bank Culture Centre has the National Film Theatre and the Museum of Moving Image
- museums and galleries: usually free of charge; the British Museum (including the British Library - the Magna Charta, manuscripts of Charles Dickens, Alexander Fleming, da Vinci), mummies...; S Kensington: the National History Museum, the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Science Museum; London Dungeon (a horror museum); Madama Tussaud′s (wax figurines - Jack the Ripper, Margaret Thatcher, Gandhi, Churchill, the Beatles, Elizabeth I., Martina Navrátilová); the Sherlock Holmes Museum
- environs: Greenwich; the Cutty Sark (a Victorian sailing clipper that carried tea from China); the Old Royal Observatory; the National Maritime Museum (former hospital for sailors), the Royal Naval College; the Royal Botanical Gardens at Kew (18th c.); Hampton Court Palace; Windsor Castle (originally from11th c., but burned down; the largest inhabited castle in the world); Eton College (1440; famous students: William Pitt, P. B. Shelley...)
- the history of London:
- about 800 BC - the Celts settled here (old Celtic word "Llyndum - a walled place situated high")
- 43 - Roman Londonium established
- 12th c. - during the reign of the Norman kings (1st one - William the Conqueror) - the royal court moved here from Winchester, for ever
- growth, economic rise
- 1565 - the Royal Exchange in service
- 1665 - more than 75,000 people died from a plaque
- 1666 - the Great Fire of London destroyed 4/5 of the city (nobody died)=> formerly wooden town rebuilt with stone houses (mostly by Christopher Wren - about 50 churches, St. Paul′s Cathedral)
- 17th c. - Lloyd′s Insurance Company established
- 1694 - the Bank of England
- 1773 - the Londonpostal services Stock Exchange
- 1837 - 1901 - Victorian Age - the Houses of Parliament, the Crystal Palace, the Covent Garden Opera House; Victorian style of red brick=>belt of suburbs
- from 1836 - railway network
- from 1863 - underground network
- 1982 - the rescue and new development of the Docklands (East) - criticized
______2_Great_Britain_geography_places_of_interest_selected_history____
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Arrangement:
UNITED KINGDOM OF GREAT BRITAIN AND NORTHERN IRELAND
- the four countries: England (London), Scotland (Edinburgh), Wales (Cardiff), Northern Ireland (Belfast)
- total area: 244872 sq km
- population: 60,4 mil
- capital: London (7000000 inhabitants)
- 17% people below the poverty line
- life expectancy - men 76, women 81
- unemployment about 4,8%
- currency: Pound sterling = 100 pence
- languages: English, Welsh, Gaelic
- the highest point: Ben Nevis (1343 m)
- the lowest point: Fens of East Anglia (-4 m)
- about 800 islands
- geography: The prime meridian of 0° passes through the old observatory in Greenwich; no point in the country is more than 121 km from the sea; islands: the Isle of Wight (S of England), the Isles of Scilly (the extreme SW), the Isle of Man (in the Irish Sea), Anglesey (N Wales), the Channel Islands, Western Scotland: The Hebrides, the Orkneys, the Shetlands; The highland area: Scotland (Ben Nevis), Wales (Snowdon), the Pennines, the Lake District; the lowland area: midland, S and E England ("the garden of England"); rivers: the Severn and the Thames in England, the Clyde in Scotland; the climate: Temperate, determined by the Eastern Atlantic and the Gulf Stream, rain is fairly common throughout the year; woodlands occupy about 8% of the surface, most of Britain is agricultural land
- Protestant Church of England
- flag: ="Union Jack", England and Wales (the red cross of St George), Scotland (the diagonal white cross of St Andrew) and NI (the diagonal red cross of St Patrick). In its present form first appeared in 1801.
- other places of interest: Stratford-upon-Avon (the birthplace of William Shakespeare - his house was pulled down, there is the old grammar school he attended and the Holy Trinity Church); Kenilworth (a Norman castle); Warwick (castle from the 10th century, the home of the Earl of Warwick; Oxford (1st university); Cambridge (2nd university); Canterbury (the seat of the Archbishop, the 1st convent in England established here); York (the residence of the Archbishop of the Church of England, a superb Gothic cathedral called York Minster); Folkestone; Winchester; Hastings; Cornwall (situated on the Land′s End (SW, beautiful landscape); Stonehenge (8 miles North of Salisbury, from about 2,800 BC, two circles, two horseshoes and the Alter stone); Coventry (cars and bicycles); Liverpool (the Beatles, Steeplechase, football); the Lake District (Windemere, Grassmere glacier lakes, lake poets: William Wordsworth, Samuel Coleridge); Hadrian′s Wall (from between 122 and 126 AD); Edinburgh (annual Festival of Music and Drama, university); Loch Ness (a Loch Ness monster); Loch Lomond
- economy: A member of the G-7 countries; a well-developed agricultural system (wheat, barley, oats, hay, potatoes, sugar bets (flax in the NI) => cattle, poultry, sheep, pigs, horse breeding)=> the products feed 3/4 of English inhabitants; raw materials: Coal, iron, tin, zinc, lead, in the sea: Oil, natural gas; Export: machines (Rols Royce), chemicals, means of transport, Scotch Whiskey; import: foodstuff, machinery; services are growing; Manchester - textile, machinery
-history:
the 1st c. BC - the Britons (Celts by race, warriors, had druids)
43 - the Roman invasion began (druids massacre)=> Hadrian′s Wall and the Wall of Anthonius built
the 5th c. - invasions from Germany (Angles, Saxons)
597 - St. Augustine landed in Kent
800 - England split up into seven kingdoms
489-901 - King Alfred the Great protects England from the Danish and the Norsemen => feudalism arose
991 - Danegeld imposed (money for the Danes to go away)
1016 - the Danish King Canute ruled England (prosperity)
1042-1066 - the Anglo-Saxon King Edward the Confessor
1066 - William the Conqueror, Duke of Normandy against English King Harold
1087 - 1100 - William II.
1100 - 1135 - Henry I.
1154 - 1189 - Henry II. (1st Plantagenet)
1167 - Oxford University
1189 - 1199 - Richard I. the Lion-Heart
1199 - 1216 - John I. Lackland - 1215 - the Magna Charta (or the Great Charter)
1272 - 1307 - Edward I. - Parliament formed
1377 - 1399 - Richard II. - roots of the struggle between York and Lancaster
1338 - 1453 - the Hundred Year′s War (wool export to Flanders; John of Luxemburg, Joan of Arc)
1348 - the Black Death
1381 - the Peasants′ Revolt (Wat Tyler)
15th c. - the Wars of the Roses - nearly 85 years, 1485 => the Battle of Bosworth => Richard III. killed, Henry Tudor became King Henry VII. (Tudors till 1603)
1509 - 1547 - Henry VIII. - the Anglican Church founded, had 6 wives, daughter Elisabeth I.
1536 - the Act of Union - merge of Wales
1558 - 1603 - Elizabethan Age (culture - Shakespeare, trade)
1588 - the defeat of the Spanish Armada
1600 - the East India Company formed
1603 - 1625 - James I. (a Stuart) - GB united
1625 - 1649 - Charles I. - struggled with Parliament
1649-1660 - the English Revolution
1653 - 1658 - Oliver Cromwell as the Lord Protector
1685 - 1688 - James II. - a great favour to Catholics
1688 - the Glorious Revolution (William III. and Mary II. king and queen)
1689 - power into the hands of the Parliament
1707 - Scotland joined
1702 - 1713 - the War of the Spanish Succession (Gibraltar)
1714 - 1727 - George I.
1715, 1745 - pro-Stuart uprisings in Scotland
1756 - 1763 - the Seven Years′ War => 1763 - the Treaty of Paris - GB got Canada, Florida, some islands and African settlements
1721 - 1742 - 1st Prime Minister - Sir Robert Walpole (two parties - the Tories and the Whigs)
1760 - 1820 - George III.
1776 - 1789 - the American War of Independence
1801 - NI joined
1803 - 1815 - the Napoleonic Wars (1805 - the French defeated by Admiral Nelson at Trafalgar; 1815 - the French defeated by Welington and the Prussian general Blücher at the Battle of Waterloo)
19th c. - the Luddites (Ned Ludd) - they destroyed machines