[00:08.80]The united kingdom
[00:11.08]Reading
[00:10.08]Puzzles in geography
[00:13.21]There is no need to debate any more
[00:16.97]about why different words are used to describe the four countries:
[00:21.23]England, wales, Scotland and northern Ireland.
[00:24.99]You can easily clarify and problems if you study british history.
[00:29.96]First there was England.
[00:32.59]Wales was linked to England in the 13th century ad .
[00:37.14]now when people refer to England you find wales included as well.
[00:42.89]Great Britain was the name given when England and wales were joined to Scotland .
[00:49.34]it happened in 1603
[00:52.39]when king james of Scotland became king of England and wales as well.
[00:57.75]To their surprise,
[01:00.39]the three countries found themselves united peacefully instead of by war.
[01:06.21]However,
[01:07.36]just as they were going to get Ireland connected to form the united kingdom.
[01:12.01]The southern part of that country broke away
[01:14.94]to form its own government.
[01:16.69]So only northern Ireland joined with England,
[01:21.13]wales and Scotland
[01:22.64]to become the united kingdom and this was shown to the world in a new flag called the union jack.
[01:30.01]Although the four countries do work together in some areas(for example,
[01:35.57]in international relations) they are still very different.
[01:39.55]For example, northern Ireland,
[01:42.50]England and Scotland
[01:44.33]have developed different educational and legal systems
[01:48.06]as well as different football teams for competitions like the world cup!
[01:53.34]England is the largest of the four countries
[01:57.39]and for convenience
[01:59.35]it is divided roughly into three zones.
[02:02.19]The zone nearest france is called the south of England,
[02:06.35]the middle zone is called the midlands,
[02:08.80]and the one nearest to Scotland is known as the north.
[02:13.30]You find most of the population settled in the south,
[02:17.32]but most of the large industrial cities in the midlands and north of England.
[02:22.49]Although many of the cities are not as large as those in china,
[02:27.53]they have famous football teams and some even have two.
[02:31.79]However, these industrial cities built in the 19th century
[02:37.15]do not have the historical attractions of other places.
[02:41.17]For those you have to go to older but smaller towns first built by the romans.
[02:48.01]There you will find out more about british history and culture.
[02:53.16]The greatest historical treasure of all is London with its museums,
[02:58.83]art collections, theatres, parks and buildings.
[03:03.08]It has the oldest port built by the romans in the lst century ad,
[03:08.94]the oldest building begun by the anglo-saxons
[03:13.01]in the 1060s
[03:14.76]and the oldest castle constructed by later Norman rulers in 1066.
[03:20.93]but London has been in fluenced only by some invaders of England.
[03:25.94]The first invaders,the Romans ,
[03:29.60]left their towns and roads. The second,
[03:33.57]the anglo-saxons, left their language and their the fourth,
[03:45.32]the Normans, left castles and words for food.
[03:49.87]if you look around the British countryside,
[03:53.34]you will find evidence of all these invaders.
[03:59.30]if you are going to make your trip to the united kingdom worthwhile!
[04:03.74]Using language
[04:10.87]Sightseeing in London
[04:14.79]Worried about the time available,
[04:18.55]zhang pingyu had made a list of the sites
[04:21.61]she wanted to see in London.
[04:23.25]Her first delight was going to the tower.
[04:26.91]It was built long ago by the Norman invaders of ad 1066.
[04:33.16]fancy! This solid, stone, square tower had remained standing for one thousand years.
[04:41.70]Although the buildings had expanded around it,
[04:44.86]it remained part of a royal palace and prison combined.
[04:48.91]To her great surprise,
[04:51.86]zhang pingyu found the queen's jewels guarded by special royal soldiers who,
[04:57.71]on special occasions,
[04:59.62]still wore the four-hundred -year-old uniform of the time of queen Elizabeth i
[05:06.54]There followed st pau1's cathedral
[05:09.10]built after the terrible fire of London in 1666.
[05:13.51]it looked splendid when first built!
[05:16.47]Westminster abbey, too, was very interesting.
[05:20.12]It contained statues in memory of dead poets and writers,
[05:24.56]such as Shakespeare.
[05:26.31]Then just as she came out of the abbey,
[05:29.34]pingyu heard the famous sound of the clock, big ben,
[05:33.16]ringing out the hour.
[05:34.99]She finished the day by looking at the outside of Buckingham palace,
[05:39.82]the queen's house in London. Oh ,she had so much to tell her friends!
[05:45.25]The second day the girl visited Greenwich
[05:49.01]and saw its old ships and famous clock that sets the world time.
[05:53.06]What interested her most was the longitude line.
[05:57.11]It is an imaginary line dividing the eastern and western halves of the world
[06:01.48]of the world and is very useful for navigation.
[06:05.24]It passes through Greenwich,
[06:08.01]so pingyu had a photo taken so pingyu had a photo taken standing on either side of the line.
[06:12.63]The last day she visited Karl Marx's Statue in highgate cemetery.
[06:18.06]It seemed strange that the man who had developed communism
[06:22.43]should have lived and died in London.
[06:24.38]Not only that,
[06:26.24]but he had worked in the famous reading room of the library of the british museum.
[06:31.10]Sadly the library had moved from its original place
[06:35.46]into another building and the old reading room was gone.
[06:39.22]But she was thrilled by so many wonderful treasures
[06:43.06]from different cultures displayed in the museum.
[06:46.22]When she saw many visitors enjoying looking at the beautiful old Chinese pots
[06:52.15]and other objects on show, she felt very proud of her country.
[06:56.80]The next day pingyu was leaving London for Windsor castle.
[07:02.37]"perhaps I will see the queen?" she wondered as she fell asleep |