文档介绍：电大《英语国家概况》科目考试复****资料详细版
Chapter 1 Land and People
一、本章知识点
: ① Different names for Britain and its parts
、考点: ① Britain’s official name ② monwealth
三、课本内容
(一)Different names for Britain and its parts

Strictly speaking, the British Isles, Great Britain and England are all geographical names.
1. The British Isles are made up of two large islands and hundreds of small islands. (see map of UK) The two large islands are Great Britain and Ireland. Great Britain is the larger of these two islands.
2. ★The official name of the United Kingdom is the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. But it is too much of a mouthful to say such a long name for a country, so people just say Britain, the United Kingdom or simply .
(UK) capital: London
The Republic of Ireland爱尔兰共和国 has been an independent republic since 1949 and its capital is Dublin.
3. There are three political divisions on the island of Great Britain: England, Scotland, and Wales. England is the largest, most populous and richest, so people tend to use “England” and “English” when they mean “Britain” and “British”.
4. The British Empire大英帝国: one fourth of the world’s people and one fourth of the world’s land area.
5. The British Empire gradually disappeared and it was replaced by the monwealth or monwealth of Nations in 1931. ★monwealth is a free association of independent countries that were once colonies of Britain. Member nations are joined together economically and have certain trading arrangements. monwealth has no special powers. The decision to e a member of monwealth is left to each ,则只需要第一句话.
(二)Others
Geographical Features
1. The United Kingdom is separated from the rest of Europe by the English Channel in the south and the North Sea in the east. The English Channel lies between Britain and France. ()
Taiwan Strait:台湾海峡
2. “Chunnel”: channel + tunnel, opened to traffic in 1994. ()
Smog: smoke +fog Mortel: motor +hotel Kidult: