Great Britain
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Great Britain
england cambridge midland
The United Kingdom of G.B. and Northern Irelands is situated on the British Isles. The British Isles consists of two large islands, G.B. and Ireland, and about five thousand small islands. Their total area is over 244,000 square kilometres.UK is made up of four countries: England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. GB consists of England, Scotland and Wales and doesnt include Northern Ireland. The capital of the UK is London.British Isles are separated from European continent by the North Sea and the English Channel. The western coast of GB is washed by the Atlantic Ocean and the Irish Sea.surface of the British Isles varies very much. The north of Scotland is mountainous and is called the Highlands, while the south, which has beautiful valleys and plains, is called the Lowlands.are a lot of rivers in GB, but they are not very long. The Severn is the longest river, while the Thames is the deepest and the most important one.mountains, the Atlantic Ocean and the warm waters if Gulf Stream influence the climate of the British Isles. The weather in GB is very changeable. A fine morning can change into a wet afternoon and evening and the wrong side out. The English people say: "Other countries have a climate; in England we have weather." The English also say that they have three variants of weather: when it rains in the morning, when it rains in the afternoon or, when it rains all day long.weather is the favourite conversational topic in GB. After they greet each other they start talking the weather.best time of the year in GB is spring (of course, it rains in spring too). The two worst months in Britain are January and February. They are cold, damp and unpleasant. The best place in the world then is at home by the big fire. Summer months are rather cold and there can be a lot of rainy days. So most people who look forward to summer holidays, plan to go abroad for the summer.most unpleasant aspect of English weather is fog and smog. This is extremely bad in big cities especially in London. The fog spreads everywhere so cars move along slowly and people cant see each other. They try not to be run over by a car but still accidents are frequent in the fog
The United Kingdom and Its Component Parts
As it has already been said, the British Isles today are shared by two separate and independent states. The smaller of these is the Republic of Ireland, with its capital in Dublin. The larger, with London as its capital, is the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. This long title (usually shortened to the United Kingdom or UK) is the result of a complicated history.island of Great Britain contains three nations which were separate at earlier stages of their history: England, Scotland and Wales. Wales had become part of the English administrative system by the sixteenth century. Scotland was not completely united with England until 1707. The United Kingdom is a name which was introduced in 1801 when Great Britain became united with Ireland. When the Republic of Ireland became independent of London in 1922, the title was changed to its present form.
England
The Largest Part of the UKthe four parts which make up Great Britain England is the largest, the most industrial and most densely populated part of the United Kingdom. Over 46 million people out of the population of the UK live in England.greatest concentrations of population are in London, Birmingham and northwest industrial cities. The coasts of England are washed by the North Sea, the Irish Sea, the English Channel and the Strait of Dover. No part of England is more than 120 kilometres from the sea.is interesting to note that the sea has always been important in the history of England. It was a good protection against the attacks of outside peoples. Fishing has always been an important industry, especially in the east. The sea also has a great effect on Englands climate.are many rivers in England. The longest is the Severn (388 km), the most important is the Thames (354 km). The rivers are of great importance for communication and especially for carrying goods.is mostly a lowland country. There are upland regions in the north and the southwest, but the rest of England is almost flat.England, Midlands and South England - each part of England is different. Lake District in Northern England with its lakes, mountains and valleys is a favourite holiday resort. On either side of the Pennines the plains of Yorkshire and Lancashire stretch to the sea. Swift rivers that flow down from the hills into valleys are called dales.wool industry is centred in Leeds and Bradford, the cotton industry in Manchester, the iron ore goes to the steel, heavy machinery and shipbuilding industries of Newcastle and other cities. The industries of Midlands with Birmingham as its chief city produce metal goods, from motor car and railway engines to pins and buttons. The Midland plain makes farming land.South England between Highlands lie Lowlands. In this part of England some of the oldest British settlements and traces of ancient monuments such as Stonehenge are found. London is the chief city of South England.
The Southeast
The Southeast is the most densely populated region of England. It is only 11 per cent of the land area of the country, but a third of the total population lives here. Because of this a large part of the region is affected by urban development: housing, factories, offices and a complex network of roads and motorways. However, there is still attractive countryside to be found in all counties outside the influence of London. The south cost has a mild and sunny climate which makes it popular both with holiday-makers and with the elderly, who find it a comfortable area to retire to.county of Kent is known as the Garden of England because it produces a lot of the fruit and vegetables which are eaten all over the country. The soil and climate make ideal growing conditions., on the south coast, is a famous seaside resort. There are entertainments of all kinds. Brighton Pier is a popular place to spend a few hours, especially if the weather is not good enough to stay on the beach. Brighton is also well known as a conference centre, all the major political parties, as well as the Trade Union Congress, may hold their conferences there in autumn.is a town in Kent with a population of about 120,000. It is the religious capital of England because its cathedral is the seat of the Archbishop of Canterbury who is head of the Church of England.the 12th to the 15th centuries, it was a place of pilgrimage. Thousands of people came to pray at the shrine of a former Archbishop of Canterbury who was murdered in the Cathedral in 1170. His name was Thomas Becket.best-known Canterbury pilgrims are probably those who appear in the book by Geoffrey Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales. It was written in the 14th century, when the pilgrimage had become a rather pleasant holiday for the groups of people who travelled together for protection and companionship. The Canterbury Tales is a collection of stories told by the members of a group of pilgrims. Through the stories we get a vivid picture of the religious and social life of the 14th century. There are twenty-nine pilgrims altogether, including a knight, a doctor, a miller, a middle-aged widow and numerous members of religious orders of one kind or another.
East Anglia
East Anglia is extremely flat, and it is dominated by agriculture. It has beautiful cities with fine historic buildings (such as Cambridge, Ely, Norwich, Peterborough and Colchester), and it has many sandy beaches and inland waterways.mediaeval times, it became rich because of the wool trade. It was not affected by the industrial revolution, and even today there is little heavy industry. It was, however, the home of the agricultural revolution and is now best known as a farming region.is rather isolated from the rest of Britain because of its position away from the main national routes and because of its shape. It is more than half surrounded by sea.must be one of the best-known towns in the world. The principal reason for its fame is its University, which started during the 13th century and grew rapidly, until today there are more than twenty colleges. Most of them allow visitors to enter the grounds and courtyards. The most popular place from which to view them is from the Backs, where the college grounds go down to the river Cam.year, in summer, thousands of folk music fans arrive in Cambridge for one of the biggest festivals of folk music in England. The festival is held in the grounds of an old house, where there is plenty of room for people to put up their tents if they want to stay overnight.
The Midlands, the Heart of England
Birmingham is the most important city in the Midlands, one of Englands most productive regions, with large industrial areas such as the Black Country in the West Midlands. However, there is also a lot of farming country, for example in the counties of Shropshire, Worcestershire and Leicestershire. This region has some beautiful countryside in the Peak District National Park, the Cotswold Hills and the Malvern Hills.upon-Avon is well-known all over the world. Here, at Henley Street, a son was born to John and Mary Shakespeare in April 1564. His mother was the daughter of Robert Arden, an important farmer in Warwickshire. His father was a rich citizen whose business was making and selling leather gloves.parents did not guess that their son, William, was going to be such an important figure in English poetry and drama, and that his plays would still be acted four hundred years later-not only in England, but all over the world!still a teenager of nineteen, William married Anne Hathaway, a farmers daughter some years older