[00:05.09]Lesson 85
[00:08.75]1.Dialogue
[00:12.59]David and Zhou Lan are talking about Britain.
[00:17.55]Are you English?
[00:20.82]No,I'm not.
[00:24.66]But you speak English!
[00:27.72]That's correct.
[00:30.46]Where are you from then?Canada?
[00:34.40]No,I'm from Britain.
[00:38.06]But I thought you said you weren't English.
[00:41.61]Right.I'm British,but I'm not English.
[00:46.16]What are you then?
[00:49.11]I'm Scottish.I'm from Scotland.
[00:53.19]Where's that?
[00:56.03]It's to the north of England;it's part of Britain.
[01:01.47]Have you got a map to show me?I'm puxxled!
[01:05.70]Lesson 86 Reading
[01:15.13]Read the text.
[01:18.29]Then match the numbers on the map with the following words:
[01:23.25]England,Scotland,Wales,Northern Ireland,Republic of Ireland,
[01:31.79]Dublin,Edinburgh,Belfast,Cardiff and London.
[01:38.74]BRITAIN AND IRELAND
[01:42.01]On the right is a map of the islands of Britain and Ireland.
[01:47.05]The larger of the two islands is Britain,which lies to the east of Ireland.
[01:53.29]The two are separated by the Irish Sea.
[01:58.05]The letters"UK"stand for"The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northem Ireland."
[02:06.30]The UK is made up of four countries.
[02:10.56]In the north is Scotland,With its capital edinburgh.
[02:15.60]Scotland has many lades and mountains,and is famous for its beautiful countryside.
[02:22.16]Wales lies to the west of England.
[02:26.10]Its capital is Cardiff.
[02:29.63]Everyone here can speak English,but the first language in North Wales is Welsh.
[02:36.40]There are Welsh newspapers.
[02:40.03]Programmes on the radio and TV are in Welsh.
[02:44.86]The countryside here is very beautiful too,with lots of mountains and rivers.
[02:51.81]There used to be a lot of coal mines in the south,
[02:56.07]but many of them have been closed,or are about to be closed.
[03:01.63]England,the largest country in Britain,is in the southeast.
[03:07.51]Its capital is London,which is also the capital of the UK.
[03:13.07]London lies on the River Thames and has a population of seven million.
[03:19.84]Much of England is rather flat,
[03:23.49]although there are hills in the northeast and in the centre of the country.
[03:28.95]Ireland is divided into two countries.
[03:33.71]In the north,Northern Ireland,
[03:37.55]with its capital Belfast,is part of the United Kingdom.
[03:43.40]The southern part of the island is a separate county,
[03:48.15]called the Republic of Ireland with Dublin as its capital.
[03:54.21]Generally,the weather in Britain is neither too cold in winter
[03:59.78]nor too hot in summer.
[04:03.15]It is colder in the north,warmer in the south,
[04:07.69]drier in the east and wetter in the west.
[04:12.55]Ireland is especially wet.
[04:16.31]In all parts of Britain it rains every month of the year;there is no'dry season'.
[04:24.39]Snow falls in Scotland every winter,and sometimes in England and Wales too.
[04:30.92]Falls of snow in Irland are most unusual.
[04:36.06]Lesson 87 1.Reading
[04:47.43]IRELAND
[04:50.77]Long ago, the first travellers went to Ireland from Scotland,
[04:56.54]and later from the south and west of Europe.
[05:00.80]They found that much of the land was poor.
[05:05.16]But there was enough grass for sheep and cows,because it rained so much.
[05:11.54]The seas around Ireland were full of all sorts of fish.
[05:16.68]Many of the peasants were very poor.
[05:20.65]They lived mainly on potatoes.
[05:24.49]Around 1850,a terrible disease hit the potato crop,
[05:30.14]and potatoes went bad in the soil.
[05:33.90]Tens of thousands of people died of hunger.
[05:38.73]Many had to leave Ireland
[05:42.36]and travelled to Britain or to North America to look for a better life.
[05:47.92]Although many families became separated,
[05:52.29]people still kept in touch with each other.
[05:56.73]Today,life has improved for the population,
[06:01.30]although many farmers in the west continue to lead a simple life.
[06:06.86]Most Irish people go to church every Sunday
[06:11.72]and the church plays an important patr in people's lives
[06:17.18]The Irish are very fond of music and poems.
[06:21.94]In towns and villages people join together in the evening to sing and play music.
[06:28.99]They also together to read their own poems to each other. |