Lesson4 This Is Britain
"Great Britain" has several different names, "Britain", "United Kingdom", orjust the "UK". There are four different countries in the United Kingdom:
England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
Everyone from Britain is British, but only people from England are English.
People from Scotland are Scottish, people from Wales are Welsh, and peoplefrom Northern Ireland are Irish.
Don't call a Scottish or Welsh person English. He won't like it!
Altogether more than 56 million people live in Britain, in big cities likeLondon, Liverpool and Manchester, and in the open country with lovely hillsand woods, quiet rivers, lakes and farmlands.
Everyone in Britain speaks English, but in some parts of Scotland and Walespeople speak their dialects as well. The Welsh are required by thegovernment to learn Welsh, and you can see road signs in Welsh all overWales.
Everyone speaks English, but they do not all speak it in the same way. AScottish person has to listen carefully if he wants to understand a Londonerand when a Welsh person speaks, everyone knows at once where he comes from!
Many people think that the weather is cold and wet in Britain all yearround, but it isn't! True, it sometimes rains and even snows for days anddays, but every year there are weeks of beautiful sunny weather when theBritish go out to sunbathe in their bikinis.
dialect 方言
sunbathe 日光浴
bikini 比基尼，三点式女泳装
这就是英国
“英国”有几个不同的称呼：“不列颠”、“联合王国”或“UK”。大不列颠联合王国由英格兰、苏格兰、威尔士和北爱尔兰四个地区组成。
所有大不列颠人都是英国人，但只有来自英格兰的人是英格兰人，来自苏格兰的是苏格兰人，来自威尔士的是威尔士人，来自北爱尔兰的是爱尔兰人。不要称苏格兰人或威尔士人为英格兰人，他们不喜欢。
英国总人口五千六百多万。大城市有伦敦，利物浦，曼彻斯特。在广袤无垠的乡村，可见秀丽的山峦和树林、静静流淌的河流、湖泊和农场。
英语是英国的通用语言，但在苏格兰和威尔士的一些地方，人们也讲自己的方言。威尔士政府要求威尔士人学习威尔士语，在威尔士全境可见使用威尔士语的交通标识。
人人都会说英语，但讲出来的方式不一样。苏格兰人要非常认真，才能听懂伦敦人讲的英语。威尔士人一开口讲英语，大家就知道他是哪里人了。
很多人认为英国的天气一年到头都是阴冷潮湿的，但事实不是这样。的确，有时会连续数日地下雨，甚至下雪，但每年都会有阳光灿烂的几周，这时候英国人就会穿着比基尼出来晒太阳。 |