The British Isles. Early Invasions

1 The British Islesis the name for a collection of about 4000 islands, including Great Britain and Ireland. This name, the British Isles, is usually only seen on the maps.

2 Great Britain, known as Britain or GB, is the name for the largest of the islands in the British Isles. It includes England, Scotland and Wales. It does not include Northern Ireland or the Republic of Ireland.

3 The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is a political term which includes England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. All of these countries are represented in Parliament of London.

Everybody from the UK is British, but be careful: only people from England are English. People of Wales think of themselves as Welsh; people from Scotland as Scottish; people from Northern Ireland as either British or Irish.

4 The first inhabitants of the British Isles were normandic Stone Age hunters. Between the sixth and the third century BC¹, the British Isles were invaded be Celtic tribes: people from the land which is now the territory of France and Germany. During the next 1,000 years there were many invasions. The Romans came from Italy in AD² 43 and, in calling the country ‘Britannia’, gave Britain its name. The Roman invasion lasted four centuries and brought to Britain Christianity and all the achievements of Roman culture. But the Roman invasion was not peaceful. The tribes in Scotland never completely surrendered to the Romans. In Ireland and Scotland there remained the old Celtic way of life with its native customs and traditions.

5 When Roman legions had left Britain, Germanic tribes began invading the southern part of the country. The first to come were the Saxons, joined later by Jutes and Angles, and England gets its name from this invasion (Angle-land). The Anglo-Saxons came from Germany, Holland and Denmark. The Vikings arrived from Denmark and Norway in the 9^th century, and in 1066 the Normans invaded from France. William, the Duke of Normandy, became king of England, establishing a strong centralized state. Castles appeared all over the country to enforce Norman rule. The Normans’ power was absolute and the language of the new rulers, Norman-French, has had a strong effect on English. Since 1066 England has never been invaded by anybody.

 

Пояснения к тексту:

¹ BC – до нашей эры

2 AD – нашей эры

 

VIII Прочтите 5-й абзац текста и письменно ответьте на следующие вопросы:

1. What territories did the invaders come to Britain from?

2. Why has England never been invaded since 1066?

 

 

Вариант № 2

I Перепишите следующие предложения. Определите по грамматическим признакам, какой частью речи являются слова, оформленные окончанием -s(-es) и какую функцию это окончание выполняет, т.е. служит ли оно:

А) показателем 3-го лица единственного числа глагола в Present Indefinite;

Б) признаком множественного числа имени существительного;

В) показателем притяжательного падежа имени существительного (см. образец выполнения).

Переведите предложения на русский язык.

1. The Queen Elizabeth II opens the new session of Parliament each autumn.

2. What other Newton’s laws do you know besides his theory of gravitation?

3. Not all the parks are in the centre of London.

4. Before the Normans invaded, the language of England was mainly Germanic Old English.

 

II Перепишите следующие предложения и переведите их, обращая внимание на особенности перевода определений, выраженных именем существительным (см. образец выполнения 2).

1. Most medieval men wore knee or calf-length tunics of a “T” shape over hose (trousers).

2. The Carnegie Hall is New York’s most popular concert hall.

3. Over 300 million people speak English as mother language.

4. Spring birds were singing on the trees, spring grass was fresh.

 

III Перепишите следующие предложения, содержащие разные формы сравнения и переведите их на русский язык.

1. Clothes in this shopping center are more expensive than at the market.

2. Hollywood stars are the best actors in the world.

3. In the future it will be more and more difficult for the national economy to support the old people.

4. The more experiments the scientists carry out, the more data they obtain.

 

IV Перепишите предложения, подчеркните в каждом из них глагол-сказуемое и определите его видо-временную форму и залог. Переведите предложение на русский язык. В разделе (б) обратите внимание на особенности перевода пассивных конструкций (см. образец выполнения 3).

а) 1. A lot of people don't enjoy traveling by plane.

2. Many of the traditional heavy industries are disappearing, and the region is developing new technological industries such as electrical engineering, politics, computers and North Sea oil and gas extraction.

3. For centuries the English has tried to gain control of Ireland.

4. Will you have finished your homework by 7 o’clock in the evening?

б) 1. East Anglia was not affected by the Industrial Revolution.

2. The people of Ireland have always been known for their stories and myths.

3. British culture is being enriched through its contacts with other cultures.

4. During the Second World War, the old cathedral had been destroyed by fascists.