Great Britain

11

Федеральное агентство по образованию РФ

Государственное образовательное учреждение высшего профессионального образования

"Тульский государственный университет"

кафедра иностранного языка

Курсовая работа

на тему:

"Great Britain"

выполнил: ст-ка группы 622341

Тимофеева Т.Ю.

проверил: Кудряшова Л.В.

Тула, 2006

Table of contents

The summary

1. The abstract

2. Great Britain

2.1 Religion today

2.2 Newspapers

2.3 Radio and Television

2.4 Who watches what?

2.5 Rock Music

3. london

The list of the used literature

1. The summary

In my course work I want to tell you about Great Britain and its capital - London. We learn slightly about their history, people living in England, and that can see in London today.

So, the United Kingdom of Great Btitain is situated is over 57 million people. London is the capital of the UK.

Great Britain is a constitutional monarchy.

England was a Roman Catholic country until 1534. Today the Church of England is still the established church in England, and the British king or queen is still head of the Church. But only a minority of people regularly go to church in Britain today. Most people see Sunday as a day for relaxing. For example, they very much like to read the newspapers or watch TV.

Now we shall speak about the capital of England. London is one of the largest cities in the world and the largest city in Europe. Its population is about 8 million. London is one of the oldest and most interesting cities in the world.

London was founded by the Romans in 43 AD. It was called Londinium. The history of London is different from the history of other great cities if the world. It is impossible to point out all English historical buildings to be the work of this or that architect or builder. The Westminster Abbey, for instance, built by Edward the Confessor, who died in 1066. William the Conqueror was crowned King of England the same year in the cathedral. Nearly all English kings and queens were crowned in the Abbey since the time of the Conquest. The official residence of the Queen is the Buckingham Palace.

Another old historical building in London is the White Tower, built by monk Gimdulf.

When we speak about London we must, of course, remember of the London Bridge. The Bridge was a sort of town to itself. Men born and reared upon the Bridge found life dull and inane elsewhere.

Also we can see many interesting places in London today. For example, the Trafalgar Square (It's the heart of London), Tate Britain, Covent Garden, British Museum, St Paul's Cathedral, Victoria & Albert Museum, Camden Markets, Hyde Park, Holland Park and ofter places.

Great Britain is one of the most interesting and picturesque countries of the world. It is impossible to describe all of its sight. I think, that it is better to see all by the eyes!

2. The abstract

In my course work I want to tell you about Great Britain and its capital - London. We learn slightly about their history, people living in England, and that can see in London today.

So,the United Kingdom of Great Btitain and Northern Ireland is situated off the Northwest coast of Europe. The UK lies on the British Isles. There are some 5.500 islands. The two main islands are: Great Britain and Ireland. The west coast of the country is washed by the Atlantic Ocean and the Irish Sea, the east coast is washed by the North Sea. The area of the UK is some 244,100 km2. Its population is over 57 million people.

English is the official language, but it is not the only language which people speak in the country.

The Romans conquered most part of Britain, but were unable to subdue the independent tribes in the West and .in the North. For many centuries this country was known simply as England. It had a strong army and navy. It waged numerous colonial wars. In the modern world England was the first country, where capitalism was established.

Geographically Great Britain is divided into Lowland Britain and Highland Britain. Lowland Britain comprises Southern and Eastern England. Highland Britain includes Scotland, Wales, the Pennines and the Lake District. The country is not very rich In natural resources.

There are many rivers in Great Britain.

London is the capital of the UK.

The largest cities of Great Britain besides London are: Birmingham, Glasgo, Liverpool, Manchester, . Sheffield, Bristоl, Leeds, Edinburgh.

Great Britain is a constitutional monarchy. The powers of the British Queen are limited by Parliament. The British Parliament consists of the sovereign, the House of Lords and the House of Commons.

Throughout British history religion has been closely connected with kings, queens and politics. England was a Roman Catholic country until 1534. Why did this change?

In 1525 King Henry VIII decided to divorce his queen, Catherine of Aragon who, at the age of forty, was five years older than Henry. He fell in love with Anne Bolleyn who was younger, but when Henry asked the Pope for permission to divorce Catherine, he refused. Henry was so angry with the Pope that he ended all contact between England and Rome, divorced Catherine of Aragon without the Pope's permission and married Anne Boleyn. In 1534 Parliament named Henry head of the Church of England. This was the beginning of the Anglican Church. This quarrel with Rome was political, not religious. The Anglican Church did not start as a Protestant Church and Henry certainly did not regard himself as a Protestant. When Henry quarrelled with Rome and ordered the Bible to be translated into English, the way was open for Protestantism to spread in England. Over the years many people changed to this new religion.

By the way son Генри VIII was Edward VI.

This English king (prince at the beginning) was meant Mark Twain when he wrote his "The Prince and the Pauper". Of course, the boy did not change clothes with a pauper boy just before his father's death and did not brood through his country in rags, this is the author's fancy. In reality Henry the Eighth had made a will, appointing a council of sixteen to govern the kingdom for his son while that latter was under age, and another council of twelve to help the first one. The most powerful of the first council was the Earl of Hertford, the young King's uncle, his late mother's brother, who lost no time in bringing his nephew with great state up to Enfield, and thence to the Tower.

So, the Earl of Hertford made himself Duke of Somerset, and made his brother Edward Seymour a baron. To be more dutiful, they made themselves rich out of the Church lands, and were very comfortable. The new Duke of Somerset proclaimed himself Protector of the kingdom, and was, indeed, the King, as the chief power was all in his hands. He was an ardent Reformer and very soon introduced great changes, not in Church government, but in doctrine and ritual. When the Duke of Somerset was still Lord Protector, he was anxious to have the young King engage in marriage to the young Queen of Scotland (Mary Stuart) in order to prevent this princess from making an alliance with any foreign power; but as a large party in Scotland were unfavourable to this plan, he invaded that country. His excuse for doing that was that the Border men -- that is, the Scotch who lived in that part of the country where England and Scotland joined -- troubled the English very much. However, the Protector invaded Scotland. The ground for four miles, all the way to Edinburgh, was strewn with dead men, and with arms, and legs, and heads.

In Norfolk the popular leader was a man named Robert Ket, a tanner of Wymondham. There was a large oak-tree in that place, on a spot called Moushold Hill, which Ket named the Tree of Reformation; and under its green boughs he and his men sat, in the midsummer weather, holding courts of justice, and debating affairs of state. Ket and his men became stronger than ever, until the Earl of Warwick went after them with a sufficient force and cut them all to pieces. A few were hanged, drawn, and quartered, as a traitors, and their limbs were sent into various country places to be a terror to the people.

As we already mentioned, the Duke of Somerset was arrested as a traitor and took to the Tower.

In 1533 Mary, Henry's daughter by Catherine of Aragon, became Queen of England. Because she was a Roman Catholic, the country re-entered the Roman Church. While Mary was Queen, many Protestants were burned at the stake for their beliefs. She also put her non-Roman Catholic sister, Elizabeth (the daughter of Henry and Anne Boleyn), into prison in the Tower of London.

Edward always viewed it with horror. In 1552 very soon after Somerset's execution, the Second Prayer Book of Edward VI was published, and it was distinctly Protestant in tone.

Protestants were glad when Mary died in 1557 and Elizabeth became Queen. Elizabeth also became Head of the Anglican Church, like her father, and Roman Catholicism was never again the established (official) religion in England.

After Elizabeth became Queen, a group of Protestants wanted to "purify" the Church of England of all Roman Catholic influence. These people were called Puritans -- they were the English Protestants. When James I was King (1603 -- 1625) the Puritans were often put in prison and sometimes even killed.

Today the Church of England -- or the Anglican Church-- is still the established church in England, and the British king or queen is still head of the Church. There are, however, many other churches to which people belong: for example Roman Catholics and the basically protestant Methodists, Congregationalists, Baptists and other smaller groups. In Scotland the Presbyterian Church (called the kirk) is the established church and it is completely separate from the Church of England. Although there is a complete religious freedom in Britain today, there is still tension between Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland, where religion is still caught up with politics.

In spite of the great variety of forms of worship, only a minority of people regularly go to church in Britain today. Most people see Sunday as a day for relaxing with the family.

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