高中英語必修五課文及翻譯

1、必修5Unit 2 The United KingdomReadingPUZZLES IN GEOGRAPHYPeople may wonder why different words are used to describe these four countries: England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. You can clarify this question if you study British history.First there was England. Wales was linked to it in the thi

2、rteenth century. Now when people refer to England you find Wales included as well. Next England and Wales were joined to Scotland in the seventeenth century and the name was changed to "Great Britain". Happily this was accomplished without conflict when King James of Scotland became King o

3、f England and Wales as well. Finally the English government tried in the early twentieth century to form the United Kingdom by getting Ireland connected in the same peaceful way. However, the southern part of Ireland was unwilling and broke away to form its own government. So only Northern Ireland j

4、oined with England, Wales and Scotland to become the United Kingdom and this was shown to the world in a new flag called the Union Jack.To their credit the four countries do work together in some areas (eg, the currency and international relations), but they still have very different institutions. F

5、or example, Northern Ireland, England and Scotland have different educational and legal systems as well as different football teams for competitions like the World Cup!England is the largest of the four countries, and for convenience it is divided roughly into three zones. The zone nearest France is

6、 called the South of England, the middle zone is called the Midlands and the one nearest to Scotland is known as the North. You find most of the population settled in the south, but most of the industrial cities in the Midlands and the North of England. Although, nationwide, these cities are not as

7、large as those in China, they have world-famous football teams and some of them even have two! It is a pity that the industrial cities built in the nineteenth century do not attract visitors. For historical architecture you have to go to older but smaller towns built by the Romans. There you will fi

8、nd out more about British history and culture.The greatest historical treasure of all is London with its museums, art collections, theatres, parks and buildings. It is the centre of national government and its administration. It has the oldest port built by the Romans in the first century AD, the ol

9、dest building begun by the Anglo-Saxons in the 1060s and the oldest castle constructed by later Norman rulers in 1066. There has been four sets of invaders of England. The first invaders, the Romans, left their towns and roads. The second, the Anglo-Saxons, left their language and their government.

10、The third, the Vikings, influenced the vocabulary and place-names of the North of England, and the fourth, the Normans, left castles and introduced new words for food.If you look around the British countryside you will find evidence of all these invaders. You must keep your eyes open if you are goin

11、g to make your trip to the United Kingdom enjoyable and worthwhile.人們可能會奇怪為什么用不同的詞語來描述英格蘭、威爾士、蘇格蘭和北愛爾蘭這四個國家。如果你研究英國的歷史，你就能夠弄明白這個問題。首先是英格蘭。威爾士于公元13 世紀就同英格蘭聯(lián)合起來了。如今只要有人提起英格蘭，你就會發(fā)現(xiàn)威爾士總是包括在內(nèi)的。然后，于17 世紀英格蘭、威爾士同蘇格蘭聯(lián)合起來，名字改為大不列顛。令人慶幸的是，當蘇格蘭的詹姆士國王成為英格蘭和威爾士的國王時，這三個國家在無（軍事）沖突的情況下實現(xiàn)了聯(lián)合。最后在20世紀初通過同樣的和平方式，英國政府盡力把愛爾蘭也納入進來，組成了聯(lián)合王國。然而，愛爾蘭的南部卻不情愿這樣并分離出去建立了自己的政府。因此只有北愛爾蘭同英格蘭、威爾士、蘇格蘭聯(lián)合起來組成了聯(lián)合王國，這一點從新的聯(lián)合王國國旗（“聯(lián)合杰克”）上就可以看得出來。值得稱贊的是：這四個國家在一些方面（比方說在貨幣和國際關(guān)系上），它們的確是共同合作的，但是有些制度仍然區(qū)別很大。例如，北愛爾蘭、英格蘭和蘇格蘭在教育體制和立法體制上都存在著差異，并且它們有著各自的足球隊參加像世界杯之類的比賽！在這四個國家中，英格蘭是最大的。為了方便，它大致可以劃分為三個地區(qū)。最靠近法國的那個地區(qū)叫做英格蘭南部，中部地區(qū)叫英