英语国家概况课后问题答案.doc

Chapter 1 land and people 1. The British Isles, Great Britain and England are geographical names, not the official names of the country, while the official name is the United Kingdom, but the full name is the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.The British Commonwealth is a free association of independent countries that were once colonies of Britian. 2. Britain is an island country. It lies in the north Atlantic Ocean off the north coast of Europe.It is separated from the rest of Europe by the English channel in the south and the North Sea in the east. 3. The north and west of Britain are mainly highland, while the south and south-east are mostly lowlands. 4 Yes, it has a favourable climate, because it has a maritime type of climate-winters are mild,not too cold and summers are cool, not too hot.It has a steady reliable rainfall throughout the whole year.It has a small range of temperature, too. 5. The factors which influence the climate in Britain are the following three:1)The surrounding waters balance the seasonal differences;2)the prevailing south-west winds bring warm and wet air in winter and keep the temperatures moderate;3)the North Atlantic Drift,a warm current,passes the western coast of the British Isles and warms them. The northwestern part has the most rainfall, while the south-eastern corner is the driest. 6. Britain has a population of 57 million. It is densely populated, with an average of 237people per square kilometre. It is also very unevenly distributed , with 90%of the population in urban areas,10% in rural areas. Geographically, most British people live in England. Of the total of 57 million people, 47 million live in England, 14 million live in London and Southeastern England. 7. The three natural zones in Scotland are : the Highlands in the north, the central Lowlands ,and the southern Uplands. 8. The ancestors of the English are Anglo-Saxons,while the Scots,Welsh and rish are Celts. 9. The Welsh are emotional and cheerful people.The Scots are hospitable ,generous and friendly.Irish are known for their charm and vivacity as well as for the beauty of their Irish girls. Throughout the year they have festivals of song and dance and poetry called Eisteddfodau.On these occasions competitions are held in Welsh poetry,music,singing and art and in this way they keep the Welsh language and Welsh culture alive. 10. Hundreds of years ago Scots and English Protestants were sent to live in Northern Ireland.Since then there has been bitter fighting between the Protestants and the Roman Catholics.The former are the dominant group,while the latter are seeking more social, political and economic apportunities.The british Government and the government of Ireland are now working together to bring peace to Northern Ireland. Chapter 2 The Origins of a Nation 1. In 55 BC and 54 BC, Julius Caesar, a Roman general, invaded Britain twice. In AD 43, the Emperor Claudius invaded Britain successfully.For nearly 400 years Britain was under the Roman occupation. Though it was never a total occupation. British recorded history begins with the Roman invasion. 2. Britain was under the Roman occupation for nearly 400 years. The Romans built many towns,roads,baths,temples and buildings.They make good use of Britains natural resources.They also brought the new religion,Christianity,to Britain.However,although Britain became part of the Roman Empire,Roman influence upon Britain was very limited.The Romans treated the Britains as a subject people of slave class.they never intermarried.The romans has no influence on the language or culture of ordinary Britains. 3. The Anglo-Saxons referred to the three Teutonic tribes who invaded Britain in the mid-5th century.They were Jutes,Saxons and Angles. In the 7th century, the Anglo-Saxons invaded Britain and the three tribes settled in different part of britain which was divided into many small kingdoms of Kent,Sussex,Wessex,East Anglia,Mercia and Northumbria.So they have been given the name of Heptarchy. 4 The Anglo-Saxons brought their own Teutonic religion to Britain when they invaded Britain,and Christianity was only a fringe belief.So, in 579,Pope Gregory I sent St. Augustine to England to convert the heathen English to Christianity.Augustine was very successful in converting the king and the nobility, and became the first Archbishop of Canterbury.But the conversion of the common people was largely due to the missionary activities of the monks in the north.Many samll monasteries sprang up throughout the ocuntry. 5. Though the anglo-Saxons were brutal people, they laid the foundation of the English state.Firstly, the modern names of “England”and “English”derived from the Angles.Secondly,they divided the country into shires, with shire courts and shire reaves, or sheriffs, responsible for administering law.Thirdly ,they divised the narrow-strip,three-field farming system which continued to the 18th century.Fourthly , they also eatablished the manorial system, whereby the lord of the manor collected taxes and organized the local army.Finally , they crated the Witan to advise the king, the basis of the Privy Council which still exists today. 6. The Vikings were the Norwegians and the Danes from Denmark.They attacked various part of England from the end of the 8th century. They bacame a serious problem in the 9th century,especially between 835and 878. They even managed to capture York, an important center of Christianity in 867. They gained control of the north nad east of England. 7. Alfred was the king of Wessex. He defeated the Danes who attacked England and reached an agreement with them in 879. The Danes gained control of the north and east, while Alfred ruled the rest. He also converted some leading Danes into Christains. Alfred is known as “the father of the British navy” as he founded a strong fleet to beat the Danes at sea, to protect the coasts and to encourage trade. He recogonized the Saxon army to make it more efficient. He even translated Bedes Ecclesiastial History of the English people from Latin to English. He also establish schools and formulated a legal system. All this makes him worthy of his title”Alfred the Great”. 8. It was said the king Edward had promised the English throne to William, but the Witan chose Harold as king. So , William led his army to invade England. In October 1066, during the important battle of Hastings, William defeated Harold and killed him. On Christmas Day, William was crowned king of England, thus beginning the Norman Conquest of England. 9. The Norman Conquest of 1066 is one of the best known events in English history, It brought about many consequences. William confiscated almost the land and gave it to his Norman followers. He replaced the weak Saxons rule with a strong Norman government.So the feudal system was conpletely established in England. Relations with the continent were opened, and civilization and commerce were extended. Normand-French culture,language,manners,and architecture were introduced.The church was brought into closer connection with Roma,and the courts were separated from the civil courts. 10. The population of Britain is made up of the English ,the Scotish,the Welsh,the Irish,the Northern Irish and other peoples. The formation is complicated because England was invaded by different races at various times from Europe. Besides the early settles,the Iberians,and the Celts,including Gaels and Britons, Roman occupied Britain for nearly 400 years after 55BC. Then the invasions of Anglo-Saxons helped to form English race and language and laid the foundation of the English state. After that, was the invasions of the Vikings and Danes.Finally, in 1066, William of Normandy invaded England and began the age of the Norman Conquest which resulted in great French influence. Therefore,many different people of different origins are living in Britain.Thats the reason why we say English nation is a mixture of nationalities of different origins. Chapter 3 The Shaping of the Nation 1. Under the rule of William the Conqueror, the feudal system in England was completely established. According to this system, the king owned all the land personally.William gave his barons large estates in returnfor military services and a proportion of the lands produce.These estates were scattered all over the king. Then, the barons parceled out land to the lesser nobles, knights and freemen, also in return for goods and services.At the bottom of the feudal scale were the serfs. One peculiar feature of the feudal system of England was that all landowners must take the oath of allegiance not only to their immediate lord,but also to the king. 2. Henry II took some measure to consolidate the monarchy. He forced the Flemish mercenaries to have England; recalled grants of Royal lands made By Stephen;demolished scores of castles built in Stephens time;strengthened and widened the powers of his sheriffs and relied for armed support upon a militia composed of English freemen. 3. Henry II was the first king of the House of Plantagenet.he greatly strengthened the kings Court and extended its judicial work.In Henry IIs reign a common law,which over-rode local law and private law.In Henrys day the jury system was at last replacing old English ordeals by fire and water and old Norman trials by battle. 4. The Great Council of Henry II drew up the Constitutions of Clarendon in 1164 to increase the jurisdiction of the civil courts at the expense of the church courts.Becket reluctantly signed the Constitutions.but shortly afterwards rejected them.Henry II was so angry that he drove Becket into exile. 5. Contents:no tax should be made without the approval of the Grand Council;no freeman should be arrested,imprisoned,or deprived of his property except by the law of the land;the Church should possess all its rights,together with freedom of elections;London and other towns should retain their ancient rights and privileges,and there should be the same weights and measures throughout the country. It was a statement of the feudal and legal relationship between the Crown and the barons,a guarantee of the freedom of the Church and a limitation of the power of the king. 6. Henry IIIs many measure was brought matters between he and barons to a head.and the barons force the king to swear and accept the Provisions of Oxford. Simon de Montfort summoned in 1265 the Great Council to meet at Westminster, together with two knights from each country and two burgesses from each town,a metting which has been seen as that the earliest parliament. 7. The causes were partly territorial and partly economic. 8. The Black Death swept through England in 1348-1349 without warning and any cure.It reduced Englands population from four million to two million and the economic consequences were far reaching. Much land was left untended and there was a terrible shortage of labour. The surviving peasants were in favourable position to demand higher wages and changed their serfdom into paid labourers. So the government issued statutes of Labourers to protect the interests of landowners. These repressive measures and a series of poll taxes caused much hatred and resulted in the Peasant Uprising in 1381. 9 The uprising broke out in Kent and Essex in 1381 and was led by Wat Tyler and Jack Straw. Tyler led the mared villagers to occupy London. The king was forced to accept their demands. Most of the rebels dispersed and went home, while Tyler and other leader stayed on for more rights. Tyler was killed at a meeting with the king,who suppressed the Uprising brutally. Although the Uprising failed,it had great importance in English history. It directed against the rich clergy, the lawyers and the landowners. It effectively blew the serfdom,and a new class of yeomen farmers emerged,paving the way for the development of capitalism. 10. The Lollards were poor priests and travelling preachers who were John Wyclifs followers in the 14th century. They went about preaching the equality of men before god. The most famous one was John Ball. Their ideas provided mental preparation for the Peasant Uprising of 1381. Chapter 4 Transition to the Modern Age 1. In 1453 England was at last defeated in the Hundred Years War, at this time power in England was in the hands of a number of rich and ambitious nobles. Because the Hundred Years War ended,they had to seek a new outlet for their ambition by a attempt to dominate the government at home . There was also a mass of unemployed soldiers. In 1455,war broke out between the House of Lancaster,symbolized by the red rose,and that of York,symbolized by the white rose. Although the Wars of the Roses were waged intermittently for thirty years, ordinary people were little affected. Feudalism received its death blow. The great medieval nobility was much weakened and discredited. The kings power became supreme. From then on,five Tudor monarchs ruled England and Wales for over two hundred years. 2. The reform began as a struggle for a divorce and ended in freedom from the Papacy(罗马教皇). They stressed the power of the monarch and certainly strengthened Henrys position. Parliament had never done such a long and important piece of work before; His attack on the Popes power encouraged many critics of the abuses of the Catholic Church to expect some movement wawy from Catholicism towards Protestant ideology. 3. Elizabeths religious reform was a compromise of views. She broke Marys ties with Rome and restored her fathers independent church of England, i.e. keeping to Catholic doctrines and practices but to be free of the Papal control. Her religious settlement waas unacceptable to both the extreme Protestants known as Puritans and to ardent Catholics. 4. The English Renaissance had 5characteristics:1)English culture was revitalized not so much directly by the classics as by contemporary Europeans under the influence of the classics; 2)England was a great extent independent of the course of history elsewhere in Europe; 3)owing to the great genius of the 14th century Chaucer,the native literature was sufficiently vigorous and experienced in assimilating foreign influences without being subjected by them; 4)English Renaissance literature is primarily artistic,rather than philosophical and scholarly;and 5)the Renaissance coincided with the Reformation in England. 5. How did the Puritans think about the Kings rule? He is a firm believer in the Divine Right of Kings. In early time they were happy to have James as king because the Scottish Church was a pure Protestant Church with democratically elected officials.but later they increasingly suspected him of being a secret Catholic. And James had little sympathy with their demands. 6. The Gunpowder Plot of 1605 was the most famous of the Cathlic conspiracies. On November 5, 1605, a few fanatical Catholics attempt to blow King James and his ministers up in the House of Parliament where Guy Fawkes hadn planted barrels of gun-powdeer in the cellars. The immediate result was the execution of Fawkes and his fellow-conspirators and the imposition of severe anti-Catholic laws. 7. King Charles I rejected the demands of the Parliament ,and the Parliament concluded that the only way it could impress it views on such a king would be to defeat him in battle. Charles was condemned to death. The English Civil War not only overthrew feudal system in England but also shook the foundation of the feudal rule in Europe.It is generally regarded as the beginning of modern world history. 8. After king Charles execution in 1649, Oliver Cromwell and the Long Parliament declared England a Commonwealth. One of Cromwells first acts was to crush without mercy a rebellion in Ireland. Another was the suppression of the Levellers, a group within his own army. In 1653, Cromwell became Lord protector of the Commonwealth of England. He instituted direct military rule by dividing the coutry into 11 districts commanded by major generals. The characteristics of this Period were:the destruction of numerous treasures in churches and cathedrals throughout the country; establishment of colonies and colonial trade; religious toleration for all;and greater understanding of the economy; 9. When Oliver Cromwell died in 1658 and was succeeded by his son,Richard,The regime began to collapse. One of Cromwells generals occupied London and arranged for new parliamentary elections. The Parliament thus was elected in 1660, and to resolve the crisis, it asked the late kings son to return from his exile in France as king Charles II, It was called the Restoration. 10In 1685 Charles II died and was succeeded by his brother James II. James , who was brought up in exile in Europe, was a Catholic. He hoped to rule without giving up his personal religious views. But England was no more tolerant of a Catholic king in 1688 than 40years ago. So the Protestant king , William of Orange, to invade and take the English throne. William landed in England in 1688. The takeover was relatively sommoth, with no bloodshed,nor any execution of the king. This was known as the Glorious Revolution.William and his wife Mary were both protestants and became co-monarchs. They accepted the Bill of Rights. Its the beginning of the age of constitutional monarchy. Chapter 5 The Rise and Fall of the British Empire 1. Whigs stood for 1) a reduction in Crown patronage(保护)2)shypathy towards Nonconformists(新教徒)3)care for the interests of merchants and bankers. Tories were traditionalits who wanted to preserve the powers of the monarchy and the Church of England. 2. Agricultural enclosure became frequent in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. It has good as well as bad results:1) Farms became bigger and bigger units as the great bought up the samll;2)more vegetables ,more milk and more dairy produce were consumed,and diet became varied.3)enclos