Great Britain
The United Kingdom of G.B. and Northern Irelands is situated on the British Isles/ The British Isles consist of two large islands, G.B. and Ireland, and about five thousand small islands. Their total area is over 244,000 square kilometers.
The UK is made up of four countries: England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. GB consists of England, Scotland and Wales and doesn't include Northern Ireland. The capital of the UK is London.
The British Isles are separated from European continent by the North Sea and the English Channel. The western coast of GB is washed by the Atlantic Ocean and the Irish Sea.
The surface of the British Isles varies very much. The north of Scotland is mountainous and is called the Highlands, while the south, which has beautiful valleys and plains, is called the Lowlands.
There are a lot of rivers in GB, but they are not very long. The Severn is the longest river, while the Thames is the deepest and the most important one.
The mountains, the Atlantic Ocean and the warm waters if Gulf Stream influence the climate of the British Isles. The weather in GB is very changeable. A fine morning can change into a wet afternoon and evening and the wrong side out. The English people say: "Other countries have a climate; in England we have weather." The English also say that they have three variants of weather: when it rains in the morning, when it rains in the afternoon or twhen it rains all day long.
The weather is the favorite conversational topic in GB. After they greet each other they start talking the weather.
The best time of the year in GB is spring (of course, it rains in spring too). The two worst months in Britain are January and February. They are cold, damp and unpleasant. The best place in the world then is at home by the big fire. Summer months are rather cold and there can be a lot of rainy days. So most people who look forward to summer holidays, plan to go abroad for the summer.
The most unpleasant aspect of English weather is fog and smog. This is extremely bad in big cities especially in London. The fog spreads everywhere so cars move along slowly and people can't see each other. They try not to be run over by a car but still accidents are frequent in the fog.
Britain in Brief
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland with an area of 244 000 square miles is situated on the British Isles, which are separated from the European continent by the North Sea, the Strait of Dover and the English Channel. Britain's population is over 56 million. Four out of five people live in towns. The largest cities of the country are London, Birmingham, Liverpool, Manchester, Glasgow and Edinburgh.
The UK is a monarchy: the head of the state is a king or a queen. In practice, the Sovereign reigns, but does not rule: the UK is governed by the Government. The present Sovereign is Queen Elizabeth II.
The territory of Great Britain is small. Yet the country has a wide variety of scenery.
The heart of Britain is England. It is the richest, the most fertile and most populated in the country. The north and the west of England are mountainous, but all the rest of territory is a vast plain. In Northwest England, there are many beautiful lakes with green, wooded or grassy shores and grey mountains all around.
The smallest of Britain's countries is Wales. The largest part of Wales is covered with rocky mountains, which are difficult to climb. Most people in Wales live in the coastal plains.
Scotland is a land of mountains, wild moorlands, narrow valleys and plains, famous lakes and no end of large and small islands. The Highlands of Scotland are among the oldest mountains in the world. One-third of the people in Scotland live in or near its capital, Edinburgh, and its great industrial center, Glasgow.
The capital of Great Britain, London, stands on
the Thames. The Thames is the busiest and the most important river in
Great Britain, but it is not very long. The climate of Great Britain is
mild.
British Isles
The British Isles haven't always been a separate part of Europe. Long time ago Britain was a part of the European continent. Then about ten thousand years ago during the end of the last Ice Age, when the climate grew warmer, new rivers and sees were formed and Europe slowly moved into its present shape. The ancient people of Britain were simple hunters and ate flesh of animals, fruits, nuts, honey. They fished and gathered oysters. They didn't have a permanent place of living and travelled from place to place, sheltering in caves. Then the British men have become the farmers. The Stone Age farmer had the patches in the forests that covered most of Britain. He kept half-wild cattle and pigs in a forest. In Northern Scotland, free from forests, people kept sheep. By the end of the Stone Age (2000 BC) metal was already being used. It was time of the Invasion of Beaker people. They came from the Northern Europe. They used bronze and it was them, who started the building of stone monuments at Stonehenge. Mining and trade were growing during the Bronze Age (ab. 2000-500 BC). About 500 BC British people were learning how to smelt iron. Iron tools had an advantage over bronze ones: they were much cheaper. In the beginning of the Iron Age (ab. 400 BC) British Isles were invaded by Celts armed with weapons of iron. They conquered Kent and much of Southern England. They imposed their language on the natives, its Gaelic form was used in Ireland and Scotland, the Brythonic form - in England and Wales. It was the Brythonic tribe that gave its name to the whole country. The first chronicle of Britain was written by an educated merchant from Morsel. He also wrote the first description of the people, called Celts. He said they were a gentlefolk, skilled craftsmen, who welcomed visitors. The most educated visitor of Britain described the British as a fierce race. His name was Julius Caesar. Present English dates back to the 5th-6th centuries, when Germanic tribes of Jutes, Saxons & Angles overran all England except Cornwall & Cumberland. Some religious terms were borrowed from Latin in connection with converting England to Christianity by St. Augustin. Some parts of England were invaded by Danes & Norwegians, that's why the languages of the Anglo-Saxons & Danes formed the basis of English. Normans contributed greatly to the developing of English language during their invasion. Next point of this was the 15th-16th centuries when written language was stabilized with help of spreading of printing. In 19th century the growth of British colonial power led to the spread of English as world language. But still it was only the 1930 when the British Foreign Office stopped using French for all its official memoranda. So It was the long way of coming-to-be the language of international communication from old Anglo-Saxon dialects to the "world language" in 20th century.