АНГЛИЙСКИЙ ЯЗЫК - Учебное пособие

Федеральное агентство по образованию

Омский государственный институт сервиса

Кафедра иностранных языков

 

C. Ю. НЕЙМАН

 

АНГЛИЙСКИЙ ЯЗЫК

Учебное пособие

 

Омск 2005

УДК 4И (Англ): 371

Н 46

Нейман С. Ю.

  Целью данного учебного пособия является развитие навыков понимания, чтения и… Пособие состоит из 5 разделов, словаря к текстам разделов, включающего общенаучную и страноведческую лексику и…

ДК 4И (Англ): 371

  Библиогр.: 6 назв.  

ПРЕДИСЛОВИЕ

 

Целью пособия является развитие навыков понимания, чтения, перевода и пересказа оригинальных текстов страноведческого характера, а также усвоение лексики общенаучного и страноведческого характера. Большой объем лексики, упражнения и вопросы после разделов обеспечивают самостоятельную работу студентов с текстами. Тексты учебного пособия могут использоваться как материал для внеаудиторного чтения, так как страноведческая тематика является обязательным компонентом в обучении английскому языку студентов I курса.

Тематически пособие построено по принципу логической и исторической последовательности в освещении культурно-исторических, национальных и международных проблем страны изучаемого языка. Учебное пособие дает знания и формирует представления о национальном характере британцев и особенностях их исторической судьбы, развивает общую эрудицию студентов и обеспечивает готовность к кросс-культурной коммуникации.

 

ВВЕДЕНИЕ

 

Учебное пособие состоит из тематических разделов, словаря общенаучной и страноведческой лексики и заканчивается контрольными вопросами. Каждый раздел состоит из текста для чтения и перевода, который сопровождается упражнениями и вопросами контрольного характера на понимание прочитанного, которые могут служить также и планом для пересказа текста, что позволит осуществлять тренинг устной речи. Характер текстов, повторяемость лексического и грамматического материала позволяют развивать контекстуальную догадку. Словарь поможет при самостоятельной подготовке внеаудиторного чтения.

Тексты могут использоваться для самостоятельной подготовки студентов.

 

 

UNIT 1. THE BRITISH CHARACTER
Millions of people in Britain, wrote George Orwell in 1947, "willingly accept as their national emblem the bulldog, an animal noted for its obstinacy, ugliness, and impenetrable stupidity." A foreigner, he went on, would find the salient characteristics of the common people to be ''artistic insensibility, gentleness, respect for legality, suspicion of foreigners, sentimentality about animals, hypocrisy, exaggerated class distinctions, and an obsession with sport." The Welsh and the Scots would point out that Orwell was thinking primarily of the English - a distinction that would never occur to the English themselves, who, to the fury of the Welsh and Scots, persistently equate the terms "British" and "English". Stung by England's self-centered attitude, nationalists from both Celtic fringes call for a greater degree of self-government - perhaps even independence - for Wales and Scotland, but the demands become more muted during periods of economic difficulty and rhetoric has so far not resulted in action. Confusion reigns: But then the English have a gift for ambiguity. As a character in Alan Bennett's play The Old Country put it: "In England we never entirely		mean what we say, do we? Do I mean that? Not entirely. And logically it follows that when we say we don't mean what we say, only then are we entirely serious." If that seems contradictory, there's worse to come. The British embrace marriage more frequently than any other European nation, yet their divorce rate is second only to Denmark's.
On average, they work more hours per week than any other European Community country (43.9 hours for men), yet their productivity is lowest. They have 54,600 churches, but by far the lowest active church membership in Europe (14 percent of the total population). They laud family life, yet many prefer to send their children off to boarding school as soon as possible and park
their aged parents in old people's homes. They love animals, yet enthusiastically pursue blood sports. They pride themselves on their solidarity in war, yet cling to a divisive class system in peacetime. They are famed for their tolerance and sense of humor, yet, as the writer Paul Gallico observed: "No one can be as calculatedly rude as the British, which amazes Americans, who do not understand studied insult and can only offer abuse as a substitute." Britain's nearest neighbors can be just as amazed as Americans. Andre Maurois advised his fellow countrymen: "In France it is rude to let a conversation drop; in England it is rash to keep it up. No one there will blame you for silence. When you have not opened your mouth for three years, they will think, "This Frenchman is a nice quiet fellow". The truth, as always, is more complicated. If Maurois had been in Liverpool or in Leeds, in		Glasgow or in Cardiff, he might not have got a word in. The Englishman who has "all the qualities of a poker except its occasional warmth" probably lives in the overcrowded south-east, where standoffishness is a way of protecting precious privacy. But certain generalizations can be made. Because Britain is an island - a status not compromised in anyone's mind by the existence of the Channel Tunnel - its people have retained their bachelor outlook despite marrying into the European Union. Because it has not been successfully invaded for nearly 1,000 years, Britain remains deeply individualistic. On the one hand, its people perhaps overvalue tradition - a substitute for thought, critics say; on the other hand, they tend not to kill one another in civil conflict and they have absorbed, with relatively little civic pain, large numbers of their former imperial subjects.
Ex. 1. Read and translate the text. Use the vocabulary at the end of the book if necessary.
Ex. 2. Give the Russian equivalents to the underlined words in the text.

Preceding page:The old British dressed to shop.

Wales fights back: To the English, the Welsh appear a much more homogeneous group than themselves: ebullient, warm-hearted and emotional but also rather sly and extremely garrulous. A certain amount of antipathy exists. Evelyn Waugh for instance, claimed in his novel Decline and Fall: "We can trace almost all the disasters of English history to the influence of Wales." And Shakespeare poked fun at Welsh hyperbole by having the Welsh hero		Certainly, they are distinctively different from the English - "Mediterraneans in the rain" broadcaster Rene Cutforth called them. Within Wales itself, the people seem anything but homogeneous. Many in North Wales, where Welsh is still widely spoken, look down on people from South Wales whose blood is much more mixed and whose habits are thought too anglicized. Naturally, South Walians return the compliment by re-
Owain Glyndwr boast, in Henry V, "I can call spirits from the vasty deep" - only to be put down by Hotspur, who replies, "So can any man; but will they come?" The Welsh, for their part, have had to work hard, like many minority nations, to protect their self-esteem and culture from a strong, self-confident neighbour. that is, they were not open-planned. Then, half a dozen strangers would look out of the window, or suck their mints, or read their newspapers, but they would not speak to each other. It was not the 'done' English thing. The English are happy with few words and like to keep strangers at a comfortable distance from themselves. And in a train leaving England for Wales, who knows who is not English?		garding North Walians as less progressive and less sociable. Whether their preferred tongue is English or Welsh, however, there is no denying that the Welsh are voluble. "It is not so long ago," remembers the poet Dannie Abse, "that the trains leaving from London for South Wales consisted of separate carriages – Only when the train had passed through the Severn Tunnel, only when the passengers felt themselves to be safely in Wales, only then would the carriage suddenly hum with conversation." Because Wales, particularly in the 19th century, was fertile ground for preachers and trade union leaders, this gift of the gab was nourished.
Ex. 3. Read and translate the text. Use the vocabulary at the end of the book if necessary.
Ex. 4. Give the Russian equivalents to the underlined words in the text.
Ex. 5. Give the English equivalents to the following words in the text.
1. веселый, приветливый 2. упадок 3. хвастаться 4. болтливый 5. процветать	6. однородный 7. добросердечный 8. существовать 9. защищать 10. краснолречие
Preceding page:Welsh couple at the Eisteddlod, Lloangollen.

Scotland the Brave: In contrast, the Scots are seen by the English as "dour", though they'd be hard put to justify the claim in a noisy Glasgow pub. English literature is peppered with anti-Scots aphorisms, ranging from Dr Samuel Johnson's claim that "the noblest prospect that a Scotchman ever sees is the high road that leads him to England" to P.G. Wodehouse's observation that		1707 in what most Scots still regard as a shotgun marriage. Indeed, when the future Pope Pius II visited the country in the 15th century, he concluded: "Nothing pleases the Scots more than abuse of the English." Not that the Scots can't cooperate with the English when it suits them; the work ethic and ingenuity of Scots played a major role in creating the British Empire.
"it is never difficult to distinguish between a Scotsman with a grievance and a ray of sunshine." The Scots' principal grievance is that the London-based parliament treats them as second-class citizens, especially when implementing its economic policies. This is far from being a new complaint, having been echoed long before the two nations united in		Unlike the English and Scots, the Scots were never conquered by the Romans, and they also avoided Norman centralisation after the Conquest in 1066. Their religious experience also differentiated them: while England absorbed the Reformation with a series of cunning compromises, Scotland underwent a revolution, replacing the panoply of Roman Catholicism
with an austere Presbyterianism designed to put the ordinary people directly in touch with their God. No man was deemed inherently better than the next - and that included the clergy, who were directly answerable to their congregations. In many ways, the Scots character confuses the English. It com-		bines sourness and humour, meanness and generosity, arrogance and tolerance, cantankerousness and chivalry, sentimentality and hard-headedness. One aspect of these contradictions was caught by a flinch cartoon showing a hitchhiker trying to entice passing motorists with a sign reading "Glasgow - or else!"
Ex. 6. Read and translate the text. Use the vocabulary at the end of the book if necessaryю
Ex. 7. Give the English equivalents to the underlined words in the text.
хмурый, изобретательность, хитроумный, изысканность, суровый, невоспитанность, привлекать внимание, язвительность, религиозное сообщество.
Ex. 8. Give the Russian equivalents to the following words in the text.
justify high road abuse austere ordinary people Conquest ingenuity	cantankerousness entice congregations deem tolerance complaint implement
Preceding page:Spectators at the Highland games.

Come again: To understand Great Britain, its people will take many visits. This, bearing in mind their inability to say exactly what they mean, translates as: "Although we regard tourism as terribly vulgar, we do rather need the repeat business." When French and British construction workers met beneath the English Channel in 1990. Britain became linked to Continental Europe for the first time in 7.000 years. For it was then, when the last Ice Age ended, that melting		ice flooded the low-lying lands, creating the English Channel and the North Sea, and turning Britain into an island. This fact of being "set apart" from Europe was one of two seemingly contradictory factors which would affect every aspect of the country's subsequent history. The other was a genius for absorbing every invader and immigrant, creating a mongrel breed whose energies would establish an empire incorporating a quarter of the population of the planet.
Ex. 9. Read and translate the text. Use the vocabulary at the end of the book if necessary.
Ex. 10. Give the Russian equivalents to the following words in the text.   bearing in mind regard subsequent mongrel breed repeat business incorporating set apart creating affect genius beneath   Ex. 11. Retell the text.

 

 

Early settlers: A race of nomadic hunter-gatherers were the earliest inhabitants. By about 3000 BC tribes of Neolithic people had crossed the water from Europe, probably from the Iberian peninsula, now Spain. They were farming folk who kept animals and grew crops. The barrows which can still be found, mostly in the chalky lands of Wiltshire and Dorset, were their huge communal burial mounds. More dramatic monuments were the henges, the most important of which was Stonehenge in Wiltshire, constructed before 2000 BC. Exactly why it was built is unknown but it must have had religious and political significance: the massive undertaking involved in bringing bluestones all the way from Wales for plice of its construction suggests that its builders had a substantial power base. Although in popular mythology Druids are associated with Stonehenge, they were Celtic priests who arrived much later. They met in sacred groves, usually near water, the symbol of fertility, and there is evidence that they made human sacrifices. At about the time Stonehenge was built another race arrived from Europe. With them they brought the art of pottery making, the ability to fashion bronze tools and the custom of individual burial. Because decorated pottery beakers people altogether. They drained much of the marshlands and built houses of wood and wickerwork with a weatherproof coating of mud. The Celtic tribes are ancestors of the Highland Scots, the Irish and the Welsh, and their languages are the basis of both Welsh and Gaelic. We have been left with a rich legacy of intricate and beautiful Celtic metalwork, some purely decorative, some with religious significance and many fine examples can be seen in London's		have been found in their graves, they are known as Beaker people. They appear to have accepted the existing culture and many were buried at Stonehenge. But they developed their own farming soci­ety and built hill forts which took over the role of henges. These forts, of which Maiden Castle in Dorset is one of the finest examples, became small fortified towns.
As far as can be known - and, by definition, very little can be known about prehistory except through archaeological finds and modern dating methods - the next wave of immigrants were the Celts. They began to arrive about 700 BC and kept coming until the arrival of the Romans. They may originally have come from eastern and central Europe and they probably became dominant because, being ironworkers, their weapons were superior. They seem to have been a more sophisticated British Museum. The Celts have given history an undeniably famous figure: Boadicea (or Boudicca) queen of the Iceni in what is now East Anglia. She is said to have been tall, red-haired and fearsome, and she attempted to drive the Romans from Britain in AD 61. She succeeded in destroying their capital, Londinium, before being defeated. Her bravery and that of other female warriors was reported by her Roman enemies.
Ex. 12. Study the words to the text.
1. nomad – кочевник; 2. barrow – курган, холм; 3. mound – курган, холм из камней; 4. bluestone – медный купорос; 5. fertility – плодородие; 7. pottery – глиняные горшки, гончарная глина; 8. sophisticated – сложный, умный, изощренный; 9. marshland – болото; 10. wickerwork – плетение из прутьев, зд. плетеные крыши; 11. beaker – банка, горшок с прямыми краями, сосуд; 12. legacy – последствие, результат, наследство; 13. intricate – зд. сложный, многогранный, состоящий из множества частей, деталей; 15. repel – остановить, задержать; 16. firth – устье, пойма; 17. stronghold – крепость, цитадель, оплот; 18. literacy – грамотность; 19. indigenous – разрушиться, развалиться; 20. crumble – разрушиться, развалиться.
Ex. 13. Read and translate the text.

The Romans: British recorded history begins with the Roman invasion. Julius Caesar first crossed the English Channel and arrived in Britain in 55 BC but, meeting resistance and bad weather, he returned to Gaul. The successful invasion did not take place until nearly a century later, in AD 43, headed by the Emperor Claudius. This time, the land they knew by its Greco-Roman name, Pretani, was subdued with relative ease, apart from the country in the far north they called Caledonia (now Scotland). To repel persistent raids by the warlike Picts, or "painted ones", the Emperor Hadrian had a wall built right across the north of England. Much of the wall still remains, running from Carlisle to Newcastle, but the border with Scotland is now further north. When raids continued, a second wall was built by the Emperor Antoninus Pius, linking the firths (estuaries) of the Forth and the Clyde, but this also failed to contain the Picts. The Romans remained in control of Pretani, renamed Britannia, for nearly 400 years. Then, with barbarians at the gates of Rome, under repeated attacks from Picts and also from the Scots (the "tattooed ones" who invaded from the north of Ireland) and needing to set up a new military front on the east coast to repel the Germanic Saxon tribes invading		from Europe, they pulled out. Behind them they left a network of towns, mostly walled, many on the sites of Celtic settlements or their own military camps. The suffix -caster or -chester in English place names – Lancaster, Winchester and Chester itself- derives from castra, the Latin word for camp. The Ro-
man capital was London (Londinium), York had been created as a northern stronghold and Bath (Aquae Sulis) rapidly developed because of its waters. Many of these centers were linked by a network of roads, so well constructed that they survived for centuries and became the roles of other, much later, highways. Their main purpose was military, but they also encouraged trade by enabling goods to be moved rapidly about the country. The most famous Walling Street, stretched from Dover to Chester, and passed through London.
The Romans also utilized Britain's natural resources, mining lead, iron and tin and manufacturing pottery. They constructed baths, temples, amphitheatres and ornate and beautiful villas, some with rudimentary under-floor central heating, the remains of which can still be seen today. They also brought literacy to the country, the use of the Latin language and the new religion, Christianity. This came at first by indirect means,		probably brought by traders and soldiers, and was quite well-established before the first Christian Emperor, Constantine, was proclaimed in AD 306. But the majority of the indigenous people continued to live much as they had before Roman rule and, when the conquerors left, their influence faded surprisingly fast. Buildings crumbled through lack of repair and language, literacy and religion soon disappeared.
Ex. 14. Read and translate the text. Use the vocabulary at the end of the book if necessary.
Preceding pages: Early Britons; early map; Victorian depiction of Caesar's arrival in Britain; Roman mosaic from Dorset.

Religious change: The Anglo-Saxons brought their own Teutonic religion. Among their gods were Woden, king of heaven, Thor, the god of storms, and Freya, goddess of peace. The names Wednesday, Thursday and Friday derive from these gods. Christianity soon disappeared, except among the Celts of Corn-		continued, under Christian auspices. Lindisfarne produced its beautifully illustrated Gospels, now in the British Museum; the Irish abbey created the exquisite Book of Kells, much of it executed at Lindisfarne; it is now on display in Dublin, in the Irish Republic. Even so, Christianity remained a fringe belief.
wall, Wales, Scotland and Ireland. In AD 563 on the island of Iona,off the west coast of Scotland, a monk called Columba established a monastery which was to be responsible for much of the Christian conversion of the people of the north. Under its influence a monastery was founded at Lindisfarne in Northumberland and another at Kells in Ireland, and many smaller ones sprang up throughout the Celtic areas. The earlier deco- rative traditions of the Celts were Monasteries sprang up throughout the country and became places of learning. In Jarrow-on-Tyne a monk called Bede (AD 673-735) wrote the Ecclesiastical History of the English People. Bede's work, and the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, compiled under the direction of King Alfred the following century, are the principal sources of knowledge for this period. An 8th-cenlury epic poem, Beowulf, captures the essence of courtly life of the time and is the first poem written in a European vernacular language. Alfred, who is said to have taught himself Latin at the age of 40, translated Bede’s work into English. A learned man himself, he encouraged learning in others, established schools and formulated a legal system. This, as well as his sterling work with the army and the navy, makes him worthy of his title "Alfred the Great". After the great king's death, trouble broke out again. His successors reconquered the Danelaw, but in 980 Viking invasions recommenced. King Ethelred tried paying them to stay away by imposing a tax, called the danegelt, on his people. But Ethelred, whose		At the end of the 6th century the monk Augustine (who was once heard to remark "O Lord make me chaste, but not yet") was sent from Rome to convert the Anglo-Saxons. He went to Canterbury, in Kent, and became its first archbishop. He was remarkably successful in converting the king and the nobility, but the conversion of the common people was largely due to the missionary acti-vities of the monks in the north.   title 'The Unready" was as well earned as Alfred's, was a poor psychologist. The Danes merely grew more predatory while he grew more confused. When his death left no strong Saxon successor, the Witan chose Canute, the Danish leader, as king. Canute proved to be a wise ruler. He divided power between Danes and Saxons and, to protect his northern border, compelled Malcolm II, king of the Scots, to recognise him as overlord. Some 20 years later, Malcolm's grandson, Duncan, would be murdered by Macbeth, Lord of Moray, who was greedy for power. Macbeth, in his turn, was killed and the throne restored to Duncan's son, who became King Malcolm III. Thus the bones of Shakespeare's plot for Macbeth are true, although his scheming Lady and Banquo's ghost are less well authenticated. Had Canute's sons, Harold and Hardicanute, not died within a few years of him, the whole history of Britain might have been very different. As it was, the succession passed to Edward, son of Ethelred, who had spent most of his life in Normandy, the part of France settled by the Vikings.
Ex. 15. Read and translate the text. Use the vocabulary at the end of the book if necessary.
Preceding page:King Canute.
The Norman Conquest: Edward (1042-66), known as the Confessor, was a pious man who built Westminster Abbey to the glory of God. He was also far more Norman than Saxon and soon upset his father-in-law, Earl Godwin, by filling his court with "foreign" favourites and appointing a Norman priest Archbishop of Canterbury. He is also said to have		Field, near Hastings. The Norman Conquest of 1066 is perhaps the best-known event in English history and probably remains so important because England has never been invaded since. William was crowned king in Westminster Abbey on Christmas Day and set out to consolidate his kingdom. Many Saxon nobles had died in battle while others fled to
promised the English throne to William, Duke of Normandy. But, when Edward died, the Witan chose Harold, son of Godwin, as king. Harold's reign lasted less than a year. In October 1066 William of Normandy came to claim the throne. He landed at Pevensey on the Sussex coast, near the great Roman fort of Anderida, and defeated Harold in battle on Senlac		Scotland. Their coming intensified the anglicisation of Scotland which had begun with the marriage of King Malcolm III to Margaret, an English princess. William filled the vacuum with Norman barons and strengthened and formalised the feudal system which had begun before his arrival. His barons received their land in return for a promise of military service and a proportion of the
land's produce. The barons then parcelled out land to the lesser nobles, knights and freemen, also in return for goods and services. At the bottom of the heap were the villeins or serfs, unfree peasants who were little better than slaves.		William needed to know exactly who owned what in his new kingdom, the amount of produce he could expect and the taxes he could demand. So he sent his clerks to compile a properly record. This collection, called the Domesday Book because it seemed to the English not unlike the Book of Doom to be used by the greatest feudal lord of all on Judgment Day, was completed in 1086. Today, Domesday Book is kept in the Public Records Office in London, and is a fascinating document of early social history. The early Norman kings had trouble keeping peace on their borders. William's son, Henry I, tried a pacific approach to Scotland: he married King Malcolm III's daughter, Matilda. He died in 1135 leaving no male heir. His daughter, who was also called Matilda, had married Henry Plantagenet, Count of Anjou, and became embroiled in a civil war against the followers of her cousin, Stephen. This war ended in 1153 with Stephen in control of the Crown but forced to accept Matilda's son, Henry, as joint ruler. On Stephen's death the following year, Henry, founder of the Angevin dynasty (the dynasty of Anjou), usually known as the Planlagenet dynasty, became king and went on to rule for 35 years.
William's influence was strongest in the south. Faced with combined Saxon-Danish rebellion in the north, he took swift and brutal action in what has been called the "harrying of the north", devastating the countryside and destroying much of the Roman city of York. He then buttressed his power with a string of defensive castles, and replaced the Witan with the Great Council of his new tenants-in-chief, which met three times a year in the southern cities of Winchester, Westminster and Gloucester.
Ex. 16. Read and translate the text.
The great monasteries: While battles raged and kings connived, there was another side to life in this period, which has been described as "the flowering of Norman culture on English soil". The monasteries, both Benedictine and Cistercian, formed the new cultural centers: Canterbury. Westminster and Winchester were among the most active in the south, as were Fountains Abbey and Rievaulx in the north and Strata Florida in mid-Wales.		some of whom went in search of other branches of learning in European monasteries, but they made no attempt to educate those outside the Orders. Benedictine monasteries were a vital part of the feudal system, some gradually becoming almost indistinguishable from the great landed estates. Their abbots lived very well indeed, eating and drinking with great abandon. The Cistercian orders were not feudalised and their members were far less
In Scotland the great monasteries at Melrose, Dryburgh, Jedburgh and Kelso were all built in the reign of Malcolm III's son, David I (1124-53), who also established the nation's capital at Edinburgh. These great houses produced erudite historians and scholars, would also become involved in this profitable business a century later. Both Black and White monks, as the Benedictines and Cistercians were called, after the colours of their habits, offered hospitality to travellers and charity to the poor, although the Abbot of Evesham may have been unusual in "washing their feet, giving clothes to some and money to others". A constant stream of pilgrims also had to be provided for, because pilgrimages were a feature of the age. Two pilgrimages to St David's in Wales were deemed the equivalent of one to Rome.		self-indulgent. Located in remote spots, many in the Yorkshire dales and Welsh valleys, they lived a far more spiritual life and supported their communities through sheep farming. The Cistercians were the founders of the wool trade, which was to become the country's main source of wealth. The Benedictines Chaucer's Canterbury Tales was not written until the 14th century; but his characters, a group of pilgrims travelling towards Canterbury, would have been a common enough sight at any time in the Middle Ages. They might not all have had such bawdy tales to tell but the popularity of Chaucer's book shows that a ribald sense of humour was appreciated at the time and that women, if his Wife of Bath is anything to go by, were expected to be just as lascivious as men.
Ex. 17. Read and try to understand the text.
Ex. 18. Answer the questions according to the text.
1. What another side to life existed along with the Norman Conquest. 2. What are the most famous among the monasteries of that period? 3. What was the life at the monasteries like? 4. How did the Benedictine Orders olitter from the Cisterians? 5. What was Chauser's Canfecerry tales about?
Preceding pages:William the Conqueror sets sail for England, as depicted in the Bayeux Tapestry; illuminated 12th century Psalter from York; pilgrims their way to Canterbury.

King Arthur and Albion: But Chaucer's knight, his "verray parfit gentil knight", shows another side of medieval life: the courtly tradition and the code of chivalry. The highly exaggerated, romantic ideals of knights who would fight and die to win a smile from their pure and unblemished ladies first gained popularity in the 12th century at the time of the Crusades. From this tradition sprang the Arthurian myth. Arthur probably existed and may well have been a Celtic leader of the 6th or 7th century. But it was Geoffrey of Monmouth, a 12th-century historian, who invented many of the legends which surround him, his magical sword, Excalibur, and the wizard Merlin. Tintagel Castle in Cornwall, supposedly Arthur's birthplace, was not built until the 12th century – but there is no need to let historical facts spoil a good story. As more people learned to read, curiosity about the history of Britain grew and, as there were few historical details to go on, it is understandable that writers should embellish, romanticize and quite simply invent. Geoffrey attributed one of Britain's early names, Albion, to the fact that the country had first been ruled by Albina,		daughter of a Roman Emperor, Diocletian. More sober writers believe the name comes from the Latin for white, alba, and refers to the cliffs at Dover. The Romans' first sight of Britain. In the 15th century William Caxton, the priming pioneer, published a book which blended historical fact and fantasy, myth and legend, in a fascinating account called The Description of Britain.
A century later, Raphael Holinshed compiled a history of Britain, called Chronicles; this featured the story of King Lear, later adapted and dramatized by Shakespeare, who relied heavily on Holinshed's work for several plays.
Ex. 19 Read and translate the text. Use the vocabulary at the end of the book if necessary.
UNIT 2. SHAKESPEARE’S KINGS
For his Histories. William Shakespeare drew on the lives of the Plantagenet and Tudor kings who ruled from 1154 to 1547. These were the King Henrys, the Richards and King John, around whom he wove fanciful plots, bloody deeds and heroic tales. He did not tackle the first of the Plantagenet kings, Henry II: that was left for T. S. Eliot, in tie 20th century, who made a classic drama out of the king and his archbishop in Murder in the Cathedral. Henry cemented the Anglo-Norman state. Through his mother's line he was the rightful king of England and through his father he inherited the title Count of Anjou. With his marriage to Eleanor of Aquitaine he also gained control of her lands, which stretched down to Pyrenees. Scotland, Ireland and Wales, however, formed no part of his kingdom. In order to consolidate his power, he introduced administrative reforms and instigated the system of common law which still operates today, distinguishing English from Continental and Scottish legal systems. But relations between the Church and the State became increasingly strained during Henry's reign. As part of his legal reforms, he tried to end the Church's monopoly of jurisdiction over members of the clergy who		committed secular crimes, and to bring clerics under the law of the land. Thomas Becket, his strong-willed Archbi-shop and erstwhile friend, balked at this and tension between the two leaders mounted. In 1170 four knights of the royal household took literally the king's wish that someone would "rid me of this meddlesome priest" and murdered Becket on the altar steps of Canterbury Cathedral. Sheep outrage resulted; the Pope placed England under an Interdict and removed it only when Henry agreed lo do penance at Becket's tomb and be publicly whipped for his sins. When Henry II died in 1189, his son Richard came lo the throne. Richard has always been one of England’s most popular kings even though – or maybe because – he spent most of his time in the Holy Land fighting Crusades against the Infidel. Known as Coeur de Lion (Lionheart) for his bravery, he was deeply mourned when killed in France, despite the domestic mess into which his prolonged absence and expensive exploits had plunged the country. It was the injustice at home, presided over in part by Richard's brother and successor John, that produced the legendary Nottingham outlaw, Robin Hood, who, with his Merry Men, preyed on the rich to give to the poor.
Magna Carta: Every English schoolchild knows that King John was a Bad King. He quarreled with the Pope over his practice of siphoning off the revenues of ecclesiastical estates and over the Papal appointment of Stephen Langton as Archbishop of Canterbury. This resulted in another Interdict and John's excommunication. He also caused a rising tide of resentment among the bacons, chiefly because he failed in protect their Norman lands from the advances of the French king, Philip Augustus. Another important grievance was that John had imposed high taxes, undermined the power of the feudal courts and taken for himself the fines of offenders which had previously been part of the barons' income. Angered by the king's contempt of them, the barons threatened to take up arms against John unless he agreed to a series of demands on behalf of the people. These became the basis of the Magna Carta (Great Charter) signed at Runnymede near Windsor in 1215. Under its terms, the Church was given back its former rights. The Charter also limited royal power over arrests and imprisonments and prevented the king from expropriating fines. For the barons the main interest was to stop him encroaching on their feudal rights and privileges.		Although history sees the Charter as a milestone, the document on which British freedoms are based, it brought no immediate solution. The Pope condamned it and John defied it and his barons: as soon as he could, he raised troops and ravaged the north. The barons retaliated by turning Louis of France for help, but John died in 1216 before he could cause any more trouble.
His son, who became Henry III, proved little better. He filled all the highest posts in Church and State with foreign favorites who flocked to England after his marriage to Eleanor of Province. In 1242 he embarked on a disastrous war with France which ended with the loss of the valuable lands of Potiou. The barons, under Simon de Montfort, rebelled and the king was defeated at the Battle of Le-
	tem of representation was still centuries away. But de Montfort's lust for power soon lost him the support of the barons and in 1266 Henry was restored to the throne where he reigned peacefully, if not very well, until his death six years later. Under Edward I, Henry's son, Wales was conquered and came under the English Crown. Llewellyn, Prince of Wales, was killed in the Battle of Builth on the River Wye and his brother David was captured and executed. The Statute of Wales in I284 placed the country under English law and Edward presented his newborn son to the Welsh people as Prince of Wales, a title held by the heir to the throne ever since.
wes (now the county town of East Sussex). In 1265 de Montfort summoned a parliament, which represented all the chief towns and boroughs and has been called the first House of Commons, although anything approaching a fair sys-
Ex. 1. Read the text and answer the questions according to the text.   1. Why is King John considered to be bad? 2. What became the basis of Magna Carta and what was it aimed at? 3. Why did Simon de Monfort and barons rebel? 4. When did the first House of Commons called and who did it represent? 5. When did Wales come under the English Crown? 6. Why does the hair of the British throne hold the title Prince of Wales?
Preceding pages:brave King Henry V; bad King John; knight's coat of arms.

Scotland's independence: Scarcely had Wales been subdued than the struggle with Scotland began. More than a century earlier King David had united the country - apart from the islands, which were still controlled by the Danes. Gaelic was still the language of the Highlands, but elsewhere most people spoke English and trade links between the two countries had been established. But this did not mean that the Scots had to like the English.		made a treaty with Edward's enemy, the king of France, then crossed the border and ravaged Cumberland. Edward diverted his attentions from France to Scotland. Balliol was captured and imprisoned and the sacred kingmaking Stone of Scone was taken to Westminster Abbey. The struggle against English domination was later renewed by Robert Bruce (1274-1329), one of Scotland's greatest heroes. Defeated by the Earl of Pembroke, he
When Alexander II died in 1286, rival claimants to the throne arose. The first, John Balliol, son of the founder of Balliol College, Oxford, was persuaded to accept the throne as England's vassal and was crowned at Scone Abbey in Perthshire. But he resented owing allegiance to England and soon In England, the reign of Edward II had little to commend it. His defeat by Bruce paved the way for a Scottish invasion of Ireland. He lost Gascony and thoroughly upset his own barons by appointing his unsuitable friends to high office. Even his wife eventually deserted him and joined his enemy, Roger Mortimer. The pair assumed power and in 1327 Edward was deposed by Parliament, who named his young son king. Edward was later murdered, unmourned, in Berkeley Castle in Gloucestershire. As soon as he was old enough, young Edward III, showing little filial loyalty, had his mother incarcerated for life in Castle Rising, Norfolk, and Mortimer executed. Much of his long reign was spent fighting the Hundred Years' War with France, which actually lasted from 1337 to 1453 with several periods of peace.		became a fugitive bin re-emerged to be crowned at Scone, and in 1314 defeated the English at Bannockburn in Stirlingshire. Scottish independence was recognized. Robert's daughter Margery married Walter Stewart and their son Robert II came to the throne in 1371, the first Stuart King. These protracted hostilities began when Edward, whose maternal grandfather was Philip IV of France, claimed the French throne. The fortunes of war shifted from one side to the other. At the Battle of Crecy more than 30.000 French troops were killed and the Massacre of Limoges, led by England's Black Prince, left 3.000 dead. But by 1371 the English had lost most of their French possessions. After a long peaceful lull, Edward's claim was revived by his great-grandson, Henry V, immortalised by Shakespeare (and memorably portrayed on film in our own time by Laurence Olivier and Kenneth Branagh) as Prince Hal. With miraculously few English casualties - although rather more than Shakespeare claimed - Henry defeated the French at Agincourt and starved Rouen into submission four years later. By the time of his death in 1422 he controlled all of northern France.
Ex. 2. Read and translate the text. Use the vocabulary at the end of the book if necessary.
Ex. 3. Give the Russian equivalents to the underlined words in the text.
Preceding page:the Battle of Agincourt, where Henry V defeated the French.
Plague and Poll Tax: On the domestic front, times were also hard. The Black Death, which reached England in 1348, killed nearly half the population. Followed by lesser epidemics during the next 50 years, it had reduced Britain's population from four million to two million by the end of the century. This had far-reaching effects. By leaving so much land untended and making labor scarce, it gave surviving peasants, and those who came after them, a bet-		duced in 1381 they rose in rebellion, both against the tax and against the landlords' far-reaching effects. "When Adam delved and Eve span / Who was then the gentleman?" the people sang, publicly suggesting for the first time that the social order had not been created by God. Wat Tyler and Jack Straw were the most prominent leaders of the Peasants' Revolt, which gained the support of the urban poor and briefly took control of
ter bargaining position. But it also meant that some landlords, unable or unwilling to pay higher wages, tried to force peasants back into serfdom. The more affluent peasants of Kent and East Anglia began to flex their economic muscles and when a Poll Tax was intro- their lords and masters nervous and landlords became more wary about enforcing villeinage. Gradually. The "Yeomen of Old England" who feature in some patriotic songs also emerged as a result of the 14th-century plagues. Landlords found it more profitable to rent out much of their land rather than pay laborers to tend it and in so doing they created a whole new class of yeomen fanners. The name originally meant simply "young men", presumably those with the energy to scratch a living from the often poor pieces of land and convert them, as they gradually did, into valuable smallholdings. In 1399 the Lancastrian Revolution overthrew Richard II and		London. (A pub called Jack Straw's Castle does a thriving trade on London's Hampstead Heath.) Soon the rebellion was brutally suppressed and Richard II reneged on his promise to abolish serfdom. But this manifestation of "the power of the people had made put Henry IV, Duke of Lancaster, on the throne. It was during his reign that the first English heretic was burned at the stake. He was William Sawtrey, Rector of Lynn, in Dorset, and his heresy was preaching the Lollard Doctrines. Lollards were the followers of John Wycliffe, who rejected the authority of the Pope and had the Bible translated into English so that any literate person could understand it. The persecution of the Lollards continued into the next reign when the movement, not strong or organized enough to withstand the pressure, went underground. The demands for change and reform in the Church would resurface successfully 100 years later, when they suited the purposes of the king.
Ex. 4. Read and translate the text. Use the vocabulary at the end of the book if necessary.   Ex. 5. Give the Russian equivalents to the words in the text.   domestic front; far-reaching effects; scarce; surviving peasants; prominent leaders; serfdom; overthrew ;withstand; the pressure; literate person; persecution; manifestation. Preceding page:Wat Tyler beheaded by the Lord Mayor of Londonafter the peasants revolt watched by Richard (also seen on the right inspecting his troops).

Wars of the Roses: Times were rarely peaceful during these centuries. Foreign wars were fought to gain or retain land and glory, while at home periodic attacks on the throne by rival contenders were equally bloody. Henry IV had to contend with the Rebellions of the Preys, a powerful Northumberland family, and the guerrilla warfare conducted by Owain Glyndwr (Owen Glendower, 1354-1416), a self-declared prince who was pressing for independence for Wales.		Dukes of York and Somerset led to the romantically named Wars of the Roses. This name was, in fact, coined by the great 19th-century novelist Sir Walter Scott, but it has become the accepted way of referring to these battles between the great House of York, symbolised by the white rose, and that of Lancaster, symbolised by the red. Edward IV (1461-83) reigned for most of the duration of these wars. He has been called "a man of gentle nature and cheerful aspect", although he did not extend his
Henry IV‘s son, Henry V (1413-22), faced a conspiracy led by the Earl of Mortimer and, in 1455, after Henry VI had gone completely insane and government put into the hands of a Protector, rivalries between the powerful One of the nastiest things about these wars was the number of people who were executed, with or without a trial, off the field of battle. Perhaps the best known of these murders was that of the young princes, Edward and Richard, said to have been smothered while imprisoned in the Tower of London in 1483. The guilt of their uncle, Shakespeare's hunchbacked Richard III, has never been proved and there is today a society dedicated to proving his innocence. Certainly, he's unlikely to have been as black as he was painted by Shakespeare - who, after all, was writing a melodrama calculated both to entertain and to conform diplomatically to the prejudices of his own time. The circumstances of Richard's own death are also well known. He was killed during the Battle of Bosworth, in Leicestershire, where Shakespeare had him offering his kingdom for a horse, while his crown came to rest ignominiously in a nearby hawthorn bush.		gentleness towards his brother, the Duke of Clarence, who incurred the king's displeasure, was found guilty of treason in 1478 and drowned in a butt of Malmsey wine.   The wars ended with the marriage of Henry VII (1485-1509), part-Welsh grandson of Owen Tudor and descendant of John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, to Elizabeth of York. This united the opposing factions and put the country under the rule of the Tudors. Henry was something of a financial wizard and, determined to enrich a throne impoverished by years of war, proceeded to extort money wherever possible. Through loans, subsidies, property levies and fines he refilled the royal coffers but, regrettably, most of the money was squandered by his son. Henry VIII on a series of French wars. These renewed hostilities gave the Scots an opportunity to ally themselves with the French and invade England. But they were terribly defeated at the Battle of Folding Field, a name still familiar to every Scot, when James IV and 10,000 of his men were slaughtered.
Ex. 6. Read and translate the text. Use the vocabulary at the end of the book if necessary.
Preceding pages: medieval jousting.

The break from Rome: Henry VIII is the most famous of British kings. He was the hugely fat, gluttonous and licentious ruler who married six times, divorced twice and beheaded two of his wives. He is also famous as the man who brought about the Reformation, which made England a Protestant rather than a Catholic country, because the Pope refused to annul his marriage to Catherine of Aragon, who could not oblige him by producing a male heir. There are other well-known characters in this drama: one is Thomas Woolsey, Archbishop and Lord Chancellor, who had Hampton Court Palace built as an exhibition of his wealth and who was later charged with high treason for not giving sufficient support to his King. Another is Sir Thomas More, beheaded for refusing to recognise Henry as Supreme Head of the Church of England: and a third is Thomas Cromwell who, between 1536 and 1539.carried out the King's drastic wish to destroy the country's monasteries. But he made the mistake of taking Protestantism too far for Henry's liking and was rewarded with decapitation on Tower Hill, while all the monastery lands and riches went to his ungrateful monarch. The causes of the English Reformation were not. of course, quite so simple. Papal dispensa-   died in 1547, Henry was succeeded by his only male heir, Edward, a sickly 10-year-old who died six years later. His half-sister Mary then came to the throne and won herself the nickname "Bloody Mary", proving that a woman could be just as ruthless as a man when the occasion demanded. A devout Catholic, she restored the Old Religion and raised fears that her marriage to Philip II of Spain would lead to undue Spanish interference and the introduction of the dreaded Inquisition. During her rule the Marian Persecution, as it was called, saw at least 300 Protestants		tion for the divorce was only withheld because Pope Clement VII was living in fear of Charles of Spain, the Holy Roman Imperor and Europe's most powerful monarch, who happened to be Catherine's nephew. A desire for change and reform in the Church had been growing for many years and now, encouraged by the success of Martin Luther (1483-1546), the great German reformer,
many believed its time had come. The privilege and wealth of the clergy were also resented, even by those who had no doctrinal quarrels with the Church. And, of course, Henry needed the money which the vast amounts of seized monastic lands and property would bring him. Under Henry, Wales was joined with England in the 1536 Act of Union, which gave it representation in parliament. When he   burned as heretics. Including Archbishop Cranmer, who died at Oxford after first thrusting into the flames "the unworthy hand" which had earlier signed a recantation. Mary is also remembered as the monarch who lost the French port of Calais, the "brightest jewel in the English crown" and the last British possession on the Continent, during a renewed war with France. More remorseful, it seems, about the loss of territory than the loss of so many lives, she declared that when she died the word "Calais" would be found engraved on her heart.
Ex. 6. Read and translate the text. Use the vocabulary at the end of the book if necessary.   Ex. 7. Give the Russian equivalents to the words in the text.   1. hugely 2. gluttonous and licentious ruler 3. refused to annul 4. charged with high treason 5. drastic wish 6. desire for change and reform 7. encouraged by the success 8. won herself the nickname 9. won herself the nickname 10. engraved on her heart
Preceding page:Cardinal Wolsey, Archbishop and Chancellor to Henry VIII.

UNIT 3. THE GOLDEN ACE
The Elizabethan Age has a swashbuckling ring to it: the Virgin Queen and her dashing courtiers at the palace in Whitehall; the defeat of the Spanish Armada and the exploits of the "sea dogs", Frobisher and Hawkins. Sir Walter Raleigh brought tobacco back from Virginia; Sir Francis Drake circumnavigated the world. In this age of the renaissance man, even the great poets Sir Philip Sidney and John Donne spent lime before the mast - although William Shakespeare, born six years after Elizabeth had been crowned queen, stayed at home, entertaining the crowds at the Globe Theatre in Southwark. Poetry, plays and pageants were the thing, and they accompanied the Queen on her tours of the country. Elizabeth I, Henry VIII daughter by Anne Boleyn whom he beheaded, may have had an interesting life at court but in fact she spent nearly 20 years of her long reign (1558-1603) resisting Catholic attempts to either dethrone or assassinate her. She had re-established Protestantism but was constantly challenged by those who wished to put Mary Stuart, Queen of Scots, on the throne and return to the Old Religion. Mary had a colorful background. Sent to France as a child, Mary in 1587 removed the conspirators focal point and the defeat of the Armada the following year put an end to Catholic conspiracies against Elizabeth. It also gave England naval supremacy, which laid the foundations for the years of flourishing trade, expansionism and colonization which were to come. When Elizabeth died without an heir she was succeeded by Mary's son, James. He was James VI of Scotland, but James I in England, where he was the first of the Stuarts to take the throne. His succession brought a temporary union of the two countries but his		she returned a young widow and in 1565 married her cousin, Lord Darnley. But she became far too friendly with her secretary, Rizzio, who was stabbed to death by her jealous husband at Holyrood Castle in Edinburgh (tour guides will point out the exact spot where it happened - some can even discern traces of faded bloodstains) Shortly afterwards Darnley himself was
killed and, as Mary rather too swiftly married Lord Bothwell, suspicions were aroused, a rebellion mounted and Mary had to abdicate in favour of her son, James. On fleeing to England, however, she was promptly incarcerated by Elizabeth and languished in prison while plots were fomented, mostly involving the assistance of Spain. The trial and execution of reign, too, was bedeviled by religious controversy. The Puritans became prominent, believing that the Reformation had not gone far enough and calling for a purer form of worship. And the Catholics engineered a number of plots, one of which resulted in Sir Waller Raleigh's 13-year imprisonment in the Tower of London (his well-appointed rooms can be visited). Ironically, Raleigh was released by James who was short of money and sent in search of gold in Guiana. The expedition failed and Raleigh was accused of treason and executed at Winchester.
Ex. 1. Study the words to the text.
Swashbuckling – авантюрный Dashing – шикарный, модный Courtier – фаворит, придворный mast – мачта pageant – праздник, празднество, шествие background – история жизни, жизненный опыт stab – наносить удар discern – различать, заметить bloodstain – пятно крови abdicate – отречься от престола flee – бежать, спасаться languish – томиться, быть заключенным насильственно forment – причинять беспокойство, подготавливать bedevil – причинять трудности, раздираться worship – преклонение, зд. вера treason – измена
Ex. 2. Read and translate the text. Use the vocabulary at the end of the book if necessary 3.
Plots and protests: The most famous of the Catholic conspiracies was the Gunpowder Plot of 1605, when Guy Fawkes attempted to blow up the Houses of Parliament. The immediate result was the execution of Fawkcs and his fellow-conspirators and the imposition of severe anti-Catholic laws. The long-term result has		cessions. James declared that he would "make them conform or harry them from the land". Some left of their own volition. Going first to Holland, a small group who became known as the Pilgrim Fathers set sail in the mayflower 1620 and founded New Plymouth in North America. Britain's first settlement in the New World.
been an annual celebration on 5 November, when Fawkes is burned in effigy throughout the land and thousands of pounds-worth of fireworks go up in smoke. The Puritan protests were more peaceful, but James had little sympathy with their demands. A new translation of the Bible into English (known thereafter as the "Authorized" or "King James" Version) was one of the few con-		Meanwhile, in Ireland, events were taking place which would leave a long and bloody legacy. Tile lands of northern Irish lords had been seized in Elizabeth's reign after a series of rebellious had been brutally suppressed. Now they were redistributed among English and Scottish settlers. The county of Derry was divided up among 12 London merchant guilds and renamed Londonderry. Ulster became England's first important colony.
The Stuart period was one of conflict between Crown and Parliament. James I, a staunch believer in the Divine Right of Kings, a belief held by most European rulers of the time, would have preferred no Parliament at all		and actually did without one for seven years. But, once recalled in 1621, the House of Commons renewed its insistence on political power in return for the taxes it was constantly asked to raise.
Ex. 3. Read and translate the text. Use the vocabulary at the end of the book if necessary.   Ex. 4. Give the Russian equivalents to the words in the text.   1. hugely 2. conspiracies 3.immediate result 4. imposition of severe anti-Catholic laws 5. make them conform or harry them from the land 6. annual celebration 7. bloody legacy 8. brutally suppressed 9. redistribute 10. merchant guilds 11. staunch believer 12. the Divine Right of Kings 13. a series of rebellious   Ex. 5. Retell the text. Preceding pages: defeat of the Spanish Armada: Elizabeth I; the execution of Mary Stuart Queen of Scots.

The Civil War: Under Charles 1, relations with Parliament went from bad to dreadful. In 1628 he reluctantly accepted the Petition of Right, regarded as one of the most important documents in British history, which forbade arbitrary arrest and imprisonment and deemed that taxes should be raised only by an act of Parlia-		Book of Common Prayer on the Scottish Church, or Kirk. Influenced by the great French theologian, John Calvin (1509-64), the Scottish Church had become strictly Puritan, and was called Presbyterian because its elders were Presbyters, not Bis-hops. Laud's intransigence provoked a massive popular rebellion.
ment. But a year later he dissolved Parliament and initiated an 11-year period of absolute rule. Surprisingly, he managed very well and might have continued indefinitely had it not been for the overzealous attempts of William Laud, the anti-Puritan Archbishop of Canterbury, to impose the English were constantly at each other's throats and in 1641 discontented Irish Catholics took advantage of their disarray to attack the settlers who had taken their land. Thousands were massacred and the outcry in England was heightened by a belief that Charles had backed the Irish Catholic side. This belief, together with Charles's attempt to arrest the five members of Parliament most openly opposed to him, precipitated the Civil War. Charles gained the support of the north and west of the country and Wales. Oliver Cromwell, member of Parliament for Cambridge and a stout defender of the Puritan cause, became leader of the Ironsides, backed by London und the southern counties and later joined by Scottish troops. An enormous amount of damage was done to castles, churches and fortified ho isles during the war and when it was over many were "slighted" either destroyed completely or made indefensible. The Civil War has been heavily romanticized, with the King and his Cavaliers being shown more sympathy than Cromwell and his Roundheads - so called because of their short haircuts. A society flourishes today which regularly re-enacts the principal battles of the war. King Charles's execution in 1649, on a scaffold erected outside Indigo Jones's new Banqueting		The Covenanters, so-called because they had signed a National Covenant "to resist Popery", formed an army and invaded England. Short of money and trained men, Charles was unable to cope. He was forced to summon a Parliament, but King and Commons House in Whitehall, has also become the stuff of which legends are made. He reputedly wore two shirts, so that he would not shiver in the January cold and cause people to think he was afraid. The poet Andrew Marvell, deeply moved by the event, wrote: "He nothing common did or mean/ Upon that memorable scene." As so often in politics, making a martyr of the enemy proved a big mistake. There was public outrage at home while in Scotland Charles's son and namesake was crowned king. Young Charles, however, was not happy with the Presbyterian religion he was pledged to uphold. He marched into England where he was defeated at Worcester, was pursued south and, after many adventures, finally escaped to France. Meanwhile, Cromwell and "the Rump" – the Parliamentary members who had voted for Charles's execution declared England a Commonwealth. One of Cromwell's first acts was to exact reprisals for the massacres in Ireland by killing all the inhabitants of the towns of Drogheda and Wexford. Another was the suppression of the Levelers, a group within his own army who did not believe that his democratization had gone far enough. In 1653 Cromwell dissolved Parliament, formed a Protectorate with himself as Lord Protector and ruled alone
until his death in 1658. Without him republicanism I altered and, in 1660. Charles II was declared king. Britain prospered under Charles (1660-85), of whom it was said that he "never said a foolish thing nor ever did a wise one". True or not, one unwise thing Parliament was afraid he would do was become a Catholic. They therefore passed the Test Act. which excluded all Catholics from public office of any kind. In 1678 Titus Dates (whose house can still be seen in the narrow high street in I lastings in Sussex) disclosed a bogus "Popish Plot" to assassinate the king. In the resultant hysteria, thousands of Catholics were impri-		soned and the Disabling Act forbade anyone of their religion to sit in the House of Commons - an act that was not repealed for nearly 300 years. Puritans, now known as Nonconformists, also aroused paranoia and were subject to a series of severe laws called the Clarendon Code after their instigator. Two of the most famous literary works of the late 17th century were written by Puritans: John Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress, which he wrote while in prison for "unlicensed preaching", and the blind poet John Melton’s Paradise Lost, which was a thinly-veiled lament for the Puritan cause.
Ex. 6. Read and translate the text. Use the vocabulary at the end of the book if necessary.
Whigs and Tories: Fear of the monarchy ever again becoming too powerful led to the emergence of the first political parties. Both were known by nicknames: Whigs was a derogatory name for cattle drivers, Tories an Irish word meaning thugs. Loosely speaking, the Whigs opposed absolute monarchy and supported the right to religious freedom for Nonconformists, while Tories were the upholders of Church and Crown, the natural successors of Charles I's Royalists. The Whigs were to form a coalition with dissident Tories in the mid-19th century and become the Liberal Party. The Tories were the forerunners of the Conservative Party, which still bears the nickname today. In 1685 Charles was succeeded by his brother. James II (1685-89) was not a success. Within a year he had imposed illegal taxation and tried to bring back absolute monarchy and the Catholic religion. Rebellions led by the Dukes of Monmouth and Argyle were savagely put down and. in their aftermath. Judge Jeffreys, known as the Hanging Judge, was sent to the West Country on the Bloody Assize to deal with Monmouth’s followers who had landed in Dorset. Some 300 people were hanged and many more were sold into slavery to the West Indies.		In desperation. Whigs and Tories swallowed their differences and invited James's daughter, Mary, and her husband, the Dutch prince William of Orange, to defend the country. James fled and the crown was offered to William and Mary in 1688. This became known as the Glorious Revolution and, although bloodless, a revolution it certainly was. By choosing
the new monarch, Parliament had proved itself more powerful than the Crown. This power was spelled out in a Bill of Rights, which limited the monarch's freedom of action and ushered in a new era in which Divine Right and Absolute Monarchy would never again be possible. But James II had not yet given up hope. Backed by the French, he landed in Ireland in 1689, believing that the disaffected Irish Catholics would support his-
cause. This they did, but with disastrous results for both sides. At Londonderry 30,000 pro-William Protestants survived a siege lasting 15 weeks, but were finally defeated. Their Loyalist descendants still call themselves "Orangemen", and "No Surrender" is the Protestant rallying cry heard in Ulster's streets today. The next year, William's troops defeated James at the Battle of the Boyne. James fled to France, the south of Ireland was subdued and Protestant victory complete. War with France dragged on throughout this period, to be transformed in Queen Anne's reign into the War of the Spanish Succession, the aim of which was to put Charles, Archduke of Austria, on the Spanish throne. John Churchill, Duke of Marlborough, won a famous victory at Blenheim in 1704, for which he was rewarded with Blenheim Palace in Oxfordshire. In the same year Gibraltar was taken. Still in British hands, this remains a source of dispute with the Spanish government of		today. The Treaty of Utrecht ended the war in 1713 and the Queen died without an heir the next year. It was during Anne's reign that the name Great Britain came into being when, in 1707, the Act of Union united England and Scotland. The motives for this union were largely economic: the Darien Scheme, which was to have facilitated Scottish trade with the Indies, had failed, largely through opposition from the immensely powerful English-owned East India Company, and the duties on goods traded between Scotland and England had become exorbitant. Under the Act the two countries were to share the same monarch and parliament while trade and customs laws were to be standardised, though Scotland was to retain its own Church and legislature. The Act did not, however, bring about instant friendliness and accord between the two nations, and it was largely the cause of the Jacobite Rebellions a few years later.
Ex. 7. Read and translate the text. Use the vocabulary at the end of the book if necessary. Preceding pages:the execution of Charles I; William of Orange defeats the Irish in the Battle of the Boyne; Portrait of John Churchill, Duke Marlborough.
Handel's Britain: On Anne's death, a reliable Protestant monarch was needed in a hurry and George of Hanover, great-grandson of James 1 on his mother's side, but a Hanoverian through his father's line and German in language, upbringing and outlook, was invited to Britain. Throughout his 13-year reign he never learned to speak English fluently, nor did he have any great li-		The Hanoverian dynasty, under the four Georges, spanned a period of nearly 115 years. It was a time of wars with France and Spain, of expanding empire, industrialization and growing demands for political reform. It also saw the last violent attempts to overthrow a British monarch, in the shape of the two Jacobite Rebellions in support of the "Pretenders", descendants of James II.
king for his subjects. Some good, however came of the king. The composer George Frederic Handel had been a musician at George's court in Hanover but had come to London before his master to try his luck. This had annoyed George and, when he was appointed king, Handel wrote the Water Music for a river procession to placate him. Handel became a quintessentially English composer and is buried at Westminster Abbey. he returned north of the border where his Highland troops were savagely defeated in battle at Culloden by the Duke of Cumberland, nicknamed "the Butcher". Laws were subsequently imposed which removed the jurisdiction of the clan chiefs, forbade the wearing of national dress and ended the traditional Highland way of life forever. Charles roamed the highlands for several months as a fugitive before escaping to France with a huge price on his head. Seldom has any figure captured the popular imagination quite so thoroughly as the Bonnie Prince, who became a legend both		The first rebellion, in 1715, raised by the Earl of Mar in favor of James, the "Old Pretender", was defeated near Sterling and its leaders forced to flee to France. Thirty years later English war with France encouraged the Jacobites to try again. Charles, the "Young Pretender", popularly known as Bonnie Prince Charlie, returned from France, raised a huge army and marched into English. Finding little support from English Jacobites, to his own countrymen and to the country which defeated him and his cause. No more "Pretenders" arose. From then on power struggles would be political ones, for it was with politicians and Parliament that real power lay. Monarchs were gradually becoming titular figures. Historians may talk about the importance of the reign of George III, but it was the policies of William Pitt or Lord Liverpool which mattered. Similarly, the Victorian Age was really the age of Peel and Palmerston, Gladstone and Disraeli.
Ex. 8. Read and translate the text. Use the vocabulary at the end of the book if necessary.
Ex. 9. Study the words to the text.
Outlook – мировоззрение Placate – успокоить Pretender – претендент, зд.самозванец Descendant – потомок Fugitive – беглец Matter – иметь значение
Ex. 10. Answer the questions according to the text.
1. Was king George of Hanover famous for his political activity and why? 2. Who was Handel? 3. How can the period of the Hanover dynasty be characterized? 4. What were the stories of Pretenders? 5. How did the English kings and queens become titular figures?

Early 18th-century London: What was London like when George and his queen, Sophia, arrived from Hanover in 1714? It was a city of great contrasts. Despite the ravages of the Great Plague of 1665 which killed 100,000 people in the metropolis, and a high infant mortality rate, the population had more than doubled since 1600 and now stood at 550,000. This was largely due to		city. But the subsequent elegant buildings of Sir Christopher Wren (1632-1723), of which St Paul's Cathedral is the jewel, were a far cry from the overcrowded and unsanitary slums in which the majority of the population lived in poverty and discontent. In the more affluent parts of London some streets were widened to allow carriages to pass and rudimentary street lighting was introduced in
migrants from poor rural areas who came in search of work, and their numbers would increase substantially as new farming techniques and machinery made them redundant. The city had been partially rebuilt after the Great Fire of 1666, which started in a baker's shop in Pudding Lane and destroyed two-thirds of the cramped, limber-built lonial trade which stimulated banking, insurance and share dealing. Quickly made fortunes could also be lost, as happened when the South Sea Bubble burst in 1720. In return for exclusive trading rights in the area, the South Sea Company had agreed to pay off part of the vast National Debt. But the shares crashed spectacularly and the City's first financial scandal left thousands ruined. Whig politician Robert Walpole 1676-1745) stepped in to sort it out and restore public confidence, which he did so well that he subsequently became Chancellor of the Exchequer and, the following year, Britain's first Prime Minister. A flourishing trade and financial sector also created work for craftsmen and artisans, to furnish		the mid-18th century. Westminster Bridge was illuminated by gaslight for the first time in 1813. But in the slums there were few improvements and the squalor and degradation captured in William Hogarth's famous picture Gin Lane was probably typical. London was then, as now, the country's leading commercial centre and fortunes were made in co- homes, build carriages and make clothes. At the same time it brought in service industries to cater for the habitués of the theatres, concert halls and the coffee houses which were springing up in the more fashionable parts of town. London was also the centre of court life and the seat of political power. The royal families spent their time at Buckingham House, Kensington Palace and at Hampton Court. George III was the first monarch to live in Buckingham House and George IV had it redesigned by John Nash into a Palace. A system of patronage flourished around Parliament, which met at Westminster, although not in the present building, which was built after a serious fire destroyed its predecessor in 1834.
Ex. 11 Read and translate the text. Use the vocabulary at the end of the book if necessary.
Ex. 12. Answer the questions according to the text.   1. What was London like in the times of king George? 2. When did the first gaslight appear in London? 3. How did the City’s first financial scandal happen? 4. What did Robert Walpole do? 5. How did the service industry develop in London? 6. What does it mean “the center of court life”?   Preceding pages:the defeat the Jacobites at Culloden; Gin Lyne by William Hogarth.

 

 

UNIT 4. BRITANNIA RULES THE WAVES
The treaty signed at the end of the Seven Years' War with France in 1763 allowed Britain to keep all its overseas colonies. This made it the leading world power. The empire had been growing since the beginning of the 17th century. In 1607, Virginia, the first British colony in America, had been established. In 1620 English Puritans had settled in Massachusetts and other settlements were made later in the century. By 1700 most were governed by a Crown official and incorporated into Britain's Atlantic Empire. Throughout the 17th century the demand for goods - furs, rice, silk, tobacco, sugar -led to a series of wars with the Dutch and the French from which Britain emerged in control of much of West Africa, Newfoundland and Nova Scotia and some of the Caribbean islands. French and English battled for supremacy in Canada and India during the 18th century. By 1760 England had proved the clear winner: General James Wolfe's capture of Quebec ended French power in Canada and Robert Clive had beaten both Indians and French for control of the Indian subcontinent, a victory which		made the East India Company a private colonial power. Britain's loss of its American colonies in 1783 was made easier to bear by the opening up of the Pacific. Captain Cook reached Tahiti in 1768 and then went on to New Zealand and Australia, where he landed at Botany Bay. When American Independence deprived Britain of a place to send its convicts, the harsh, undeveloped lands of Australia were the obvious alternative. Colonial trade, unfortunately, went hand in hand with slavery. European traders bought slaves in West Africa, shipped them to the Americas under appalling conditions and sold them to plantation owners, often in exchange for produce which they took back home. The raw materials would then be converted into finished products and exported to other parts of the Empire. It was a neat trade triangle which resulted in high profits for some, misery and degradation for others. It was not until 1807 that the tireless efforts of William Wilberforce made the trade illegal and another 27 years before slavery itself was finally abolished in all British colonies.
Ex.1. Read and translate the text. Use the vocabulary at the end of the book if necessary.
The road to riches: Radical changes took place in the English countryside in the late 18th century. Since Saxon times large areas of land had been cultivated in narrow strips by tenant farmers, and common land had been used for grazing. Little was known about crop rotation or fertilisation and land would be worked until it was exhausted. During the late 18th and early 19th centuries this system ended when the Enclosure Acts empowered wealthier landowners to seize any land to which tenants could prove no legal title and to divide it into enclosed fields. This accounts for the patchwork quality of much of Britain's countryside today, and the paintings of Suffolk by John Constable (1776-1837) show that in some parts of the country little has changed. A system of crop rotation meant land could be exploited to the full while the cultivation of fodder crops enabled livestock to be kept through the winter months. Artificial fertilizer and new agricultural machinery, such as the seed drill invented by Jethro Tull, also made arable farming more efficient and more profitable. But for the tenants evicted from their lands by the enclosures and the labourers thrown out of work by mechanisation, it was a disaster. Riots erupted in many areas but they could not prevent the march		of progress. Many dispossessed peasant farmers were forced to leave their homes and look for work in the towns, which rapidly became hopelessly overcrowded. In Ireland and the Scottish Highlands the agricultural revolution led to mass emigration, particularly to the New World, and to lasting resentment.
Those who had done well out of new farming methods began to look for ways to invest their capital. They soon joined flourishing city bankers and merchants who had been made prosperous by international trade, to finance what we now call the Industrial Revolution. This surfeit of capital was one reason why Britain was the first country to industrialise, but it was also helped by relative political stability, the security which came from being an island, from natural
arrangements. These fortunate circumstances combined to produce a		resources and from good trade genuine revolution, so rapid and complete were the changes it made.
Ex. 2. Study the words to the text.   Tenant – арендатор Graze – пастись,царапать Exhaust – исчерпывать, истощать Enclosure – огороженное место Fodder – корм, фураж Livestok – скот Fertilizer – удобрение Evict – выселять Erupt – взворваться Dispossessed – лишенные собственности Surfeit – излишек, избыток Genuine – подлинный, истинный   Ex. 3 Read the text and try to comprehend it.   Ex. 4. Answer the questions according to the text.   1 What was the traditional system of farming in Britain before the 18th century? 2. What were the results of the Enclosure Acts? 3. What were the reasons of many riots and mass emigration? 4. Who financed the Industrial revolution in Britain?

Preceding pages:the Battle of Trafalgar, as painted by Turner; bustling trade with New World from the quays of the port Bristol.

 

Industrialisation: The first steam engine was devised at the end of the 17th century but it was only when the Scottish inventor James Watt (1736-1819) modified and improved the design in the 1770s that steam became an efficient source of energy, which would power trains and ships as well as factory machinery and make many later developments possible. The new steam pumps, for example, allowed speculators to drain deep coal mines, which vastly increased		ture, mechanisation destroyed the livelihood of those who could not invest in it. Handloom weavers, many of them women and children, were obliged to leave their homes and work in these "dark satanic mills". Attempts to destroy the hated machines were made by "Luddites", named after Ned Ludd of Leicestershire, the first to try it, but were severely repressed and cottage industry virtually died out. Perhaps the most important element in speeding industrialisa-
coal production, an important factor when the country's opencast and shallow mines were nearly exhausted. Textiles had long been a vital part of Britain's economy and the invention of the Spinning Jenny and the power loom in the 1770s and 1780s opened the way to mass production. As in agricul be seen. Cast steel was first produced in the mid-18th century but it was another 100 years before the Bessemer process made the cheap mass production of steel a possibility. It was, of course, pointless to produce goods or materials unless they could reach a market, so improved transportation ran parallel with production. The 18th century saw massive outlay on canal building. By 1830 all the main industrial areas were linked by waterways and Scotland was sliced in two by the Caledonian Canal. Unfortunately, most of these would fall into disuse when the new railways proved faster and more efficient,		tion was the break through which came when Abraham Darby of Coalbrookdale, Shropshire, succeeded in smelting iron with coke, instead of charcoal. This hugely increased the production of iron which was used for machinery, railways and shipping. Here, in 1776, the world's first cast-iron bridge was constructed and can still but today, cleared out and cleaned up, they provide thousands of miles of leisure boating. There are more miles of canal in Birmingham than there are in Venice. New roads were built. A process involving crushed stones and a layer of tar was named after its inventor, the blind Scot John Macadam, and gave us the road surface called "tarmac". By the early 19th century, men such as Macadam and Thomas Telford, whose masterpiece is the magnificent Menai Strait Bridge in North Wales, had created a road network totalling some 125,000 miles (200,000 km).
Ex. 5. Study the words to the text.
speculator – спекулянт opencast – открытая добыча shallow – мелкий, неглубокий, поверхностный loom – ткацкий станок, станок weaver – ткач smelt – плавить, сплавлять charcoal – древесный уголь outlay – затраты tar – деготь tarmac – асфальт masterpiece – шедевр
Ex. 6. Read the text and answer the questions according to the text.
1. What did steam engine and steam pumps give the society? 2. How did the textile industry change in the 1770s-1780s? 3. Why did people try to destroy the machines? 4. What largely increased the production of iron? 5. Which transport was highly developed in the 18th century in Britain?

The Railway Age: But above all this was the age of the railways, when iron and steam combined to change the face of the country, and were romanticised in such vivid paintings as Rain, Steam and Speed by J.M.W. Turner (1775-1851). Isambard Kingdom Brunei (1806-59), who also designed the elegant Clifton Suspension Bridge across the Avon Gorge, laid down the Great Western Railway. The Stockton and Darlington line, designed by George Stephenson, in-		In the 18th and 19th centuries a whole new class of industrialists and entrepreneurs made fortunes to rival those of the aristocracy, who in turn looked down on them as nouveaux riches, with no breeding. But what about the workers? The new factories and mines certainly provided employment, but working conditions were dreadful. Fatalities in the new deepcast mines were high and those who survived sudden death often had their lives shortened by pneumoconiosis. Children
ventor of the Rocket, was the first steam line to open, in 1825, followed five years later by the first inter-city line, from Liverpool to Manchester. This historic occasion was marred when William Huskisson, the President of the Board of Trade, was accidentally killed while officiating at the opening.		as young as four were employed underground and women worked alongside the men. In factories, too, employees of all ages were treated abominably, working 15-hour days in poor light and deafening noise. It was not until 1833 that the first Factory Act made it illegal to employ children under nine and for women and under - 18 to work mo-
re than 12 hours a day. Sixty years were to pass before another act dealt with health and safety at work, and then in a very minor way. These early industrial reforms were the initiatives of enlightened, liberal-minded men, acting on behalf of the under-privileged, often arousing great opposition from members of their own class for their "interference". It would be some time before working people would be able to achieve benefits on their own behalf. The Combination Acts of 1824 allowed workers to "combine" together to improve wages,		but nothing else. The case of the Tolpuddle Martyrs, six Dorset men sentenced to deportation for their attempts to organise a more comprehensive union, demonstrated the need for workers to protect tnemselves against exploitation, but it was not until 1868 that the first Trades Union Congress met. Unions then went from strength to strength, although for a long time they largely benefited the so-called "Triple Alliance" of miners, railwaymen and transport workers, and they did little for workers in other areas.
Ex. 7. Study the words to the text.
Occasion – событие Mar – портить, испортить Officiating – совершать церемонию, официально присутствовать Breeding – воспитание, хорошие манеры Dreadful – ужасный Abominably – отвратительно Enlighten – просвещенный Martyr [‘ma:te] – мученик
Ex. 8. Read the text and answer the questions according to the text.
1. What change the face of the country? 2. When was the first steam line open? 3. Who rivaled aristocracy in the 18th and 19th centuries? 4. What were the working conditions at the factories and mines? 5. What were the early industrial reforms? 6. What were six Dorset men sentenced to deportation for? 7. When did the first Trade union Congress meet? 8. What does “Triple Alliance” mean?

Time for change: The two events which most alarmed the British ruling classes in the closing decades of the 18th century were the American War of Independence and the French Revolution. In the former, people proved themselves willing to fight and die for equality, national identity and political representation. In the latter, they were prepared to remove the heads of the aristocracy and anyone else who denied them liberty, equality and fraternity. Radical thinkers such as Edmund Burke (1729-97) and Tom Paine (1737-1809) enthused over the American people's struggle and Paine also supported the ideals of the French Revolution, although he later became sickened by its excesses. The Rights of Man, which he published in 1792, defended the right of the people to reform what was corrupt. It attracted a lot of like-minded followers and seriously worried the government. Freedom of the press was suppressed, many radical leaders imprisoned, and Paine escaped to France to avoid retribution. The fear of revolution was exacerbated by wars with France and Spain and the dissatisfaction provoked by the heavy taxes and loss of trade they caused. Known as the Napoleonic Wars, these hostilities began with the threatened French invasion of Belgium and Holland		in 1793 and rumbled on, with only three years' break, until 1815. These were wars which gave Britain two of its greatest heroes, Admiral Lord Nelson (1758-1805) and the Duke of Wellington (1759-1852) and some of its most famous victories. There was the Battle of the Nile in 1798, when Nelson an-
nihilated the French fleet; the Battle of Trafalgar, where he himself was killed after reminding his men that "England expects that every man will do his duty"; Sir John Moore's inspired strike at Corunna, and Wellington's victory at Waterloo, which ended the war and Napoleon's career, in 1815. However, political change in England was to come not through revolution but gradual reform. Between 1832 and 1884 three Reform Bills were passed. The first abolis-
hed "rotten boroughs", places which returned members to Parliament but had few or no inhabitants, and redistributed parliamentary seats more fairly among the growing towns. It also gave the vote to many householders and tenants, which was based on the value of their property. The later reform acts extended the franchise more widely, but it was still property-based. Only in 1918 was universal suffrage granted and, even then, it was not quite universal: women under 30 were excluded and had to wait another 10 years. It is unlikely that women would have been enfranchised until much later had it not been for the determined and sometimes violent efforts of the suffragettes, led by Emmeline Pank the heavy taxes on imported corn which were crippling trade and starving the poor - caused such controversy that it split the ruling Conservative Party. The "Peelite" faction, followers of Prime Minister Sir Robert Peel, who favoured		hurst, and the role women had played in the workforce during World War I. However limited the 19th-century reforms now appear, they provoked enormous opposition from people who believed that the whole structure of society was being changed - and not for the better. The Chartists, who lobbied for a secret ballot and votes for the working class, were regarded as dangerous revolutionaries, but their movement collapsed in disarray in 1848. The Emancipation Act, passed in 1829, which allowed Catholics to sit in Parliament, was another measure which frightened many of the old school, who feared it might pave the way for Popish plots and undermine both Church and State. And the Repeal of the Corn Laws - repeal, soon joined with Whigs to form the embryonic Liberal Party. This new grouping was committed to free trade, religious tolerance and a growing conviction that Ireland should be granted Home Rule.
Ex. 9. Study the words to the text.
Enthuse – поддерживать, выступать с энтузиазмом за Retribution – возмездие Exacerbate – усугублять Rumble – гудеть, зд. продолжаться Inspire – вдохновлять, внушать Strike – военная атака Franchise – право голоса Suffrage – право голоса Disarray – смятение, беспорядок Repeal – отмена Cripple – искалечить Conviction – убеждение Home rule – самоуправление
Ex. 10. Read the text and answer the questions according to the text.   1. What events most alarmed the British ruling class and why? 2. What was its reaction? 3. What were Nelson and Willington famous for? 4. How was the political change implemented in reforms? 5. When was universal suffrage granted and for women especially? 6. Why did the role of women during World War I change? 7. What did the Chartists demand? 8. What controversy split the ruling Conservative Party? 9. How was Liberal Party organized?

Preceding pages:coal mine in the Midlands at the start of the Industrial revolution; Turner's Rain, Stem and Speed; naval hero Admiral Nelson; industry produced a new working class.

The trouble with Ireland: The "Irish Question" was one to which no satisfactory answer could be found. The resentment of centuries bubbled to the surface after the potato famine of 1848, when about 20 percent of Ireland's population died of hunger and more than a million people emigrated to escape a similar fate. Hostility to Britain and all things British manifested itself in sporadic outbreaks of violence over the next decades. In 1885, after the extension of the franchise, 86 members of the Irish Party were		sonal scandal. It was not until 1914 that Britain agreed to establish an Irish parliament. But World War I intervened, delaying action, and Irish nationalists, tired of waiting, decided to fight. At Easter 1916 a group of nationalists staged a rebellion. It was savagely repressed and the ringleaders executed. The severity of the reprisals swung Irish public opinion firmly behind the rebels, who established their own parliament, the Dail, and fought a guerrilla campaign against the British. This
elected to Parliament. Under the leadership of Charles Parnell, the "Uncrowned King of Ireland", and with the backing of Prime Minister Gladstone and many of his Liberal Party, it seemed that their demands for Home Rule would be met. But Gladstone's bills were defeated and Parnell brought down by a per-		prompted a compromise: in 1921 Ireland was partitioned. The Irish Free State in the south was given Dominion status, not full independence, and obliged to accept the loss of six counties in the north which remained under British rule as Northern Ireland. Partition led to civil war in Ireland. In 1932, a new
party, Fianna Fail, won the election and five years later the Prime Minister, Eamon de Valera, declared southern Ireland a Republic. But bitterness grew, polarised between Protestants and Catholics as well as against Britain, and an influential and vocal minority continued to believe that their aim, a united Ireland, could be achieved by violence. After years of relative		peace, this violence exploded on the streets of Belfast in 1969, sparked by civil rights protests over discrimination against Catholics in allocating public housing. Since then, British troops have been stationed in Northern Ireland and the IRA (Irish Republican Army) has regarded itself as at war with Britain.
Ex. 11. Study the words to the text.
Famine – голод Intervene – вмешиватья Savagely – свирепо Ringleader – предводитель, главарь Severity – жестокость Reprisal – расправа Spark – зажечь, воспламенять Explode – взорваться, резко возрастать Troops – войска
Ex. 12. Read the text and answer the questions according to the text.
1. What does it mean: “Irish Question?” 2. Why did people emigrate from Ireland? 3. When was an Irish Parliament established? 4. Why did Irish nationalists decide to fight? 5. What was the compromise of 1921? 6. When was the Republic of Ireland declared? 7. What is the aim of IRA?

Preceding pages:election meeting in Blackburn, in the new industrial Midlands.

The age of Dickens:In 1848, famine raged in Ireland and revolution broke out all over Europe. In Britain, once fear of the Chartists was quashed, the country entered a period of self-confidence and relative domestic harmony, despite the polarisation of rich and Conservative prime minister, called "the two nations" in his mid-century novel, Sybil. The Crystal Palace was designed by Joseph Paxton to house the Great Exhibition of 1851. This showcase for Britain's industrial and technical achievements was conceived by Queen Victoria's beloved Consort, Prince Albert, and it was a roaring success. But many of London's inhabitants at this time might well have wondered when they would benefit from these achievements. For them, the squalor and crime which Charles Dickens (1812-70) portrayed so evocatively in his novels - which were first written for serialisation in popular newspapers - were all too real. Fortunately, Dickens was not the only one who saw a need for improvement. Change, although slow, was on the way. The idea that public health was a public responsibility was gradually taking hold. After a cholera epidemic in 1832 claimed thousands of lives, health officials		were appointed and measures taken to provide drainage and clean water. The police force which Sir Robert Peel had established in 1829, and which took the nickname "bobbies" from him, was helping combat crime in London and other large towns. At the same time, Peel had abolished the death penalty for many petty crimes, such as pocket-picking, influenced perhaps by the ideas of Jeremy Bentham, the utilitarian thinker who believed there should be a balance between reward and punishment. Bentham was the founder of University College, London and his corpse, fully clothed, still sits in a glass case in the entrance hall. A newly created class of clerks, tradespeople and artisans were adopting the values f thrift, sobriety and selfimprovement which Samuel Smiles exhorted in his famous work, Self-Help. The Co-Operative Movement, which began in 1844 in Rochdale, Lancashire, was run on self-help lines, providing cheap goods and sharing profits with its members. Methodism, founded by John Wesley (1703-91), who established the first Methodist chapel in Bristol, had become the religion of the working class. It is often said that the British Labour Party owes more to Methodism than to Marxism.
Ex. 13. Read and translate the text.
The working class:It is certainly true that working-class people, on the whole, were not attracted by revolutionary struggle and preferred to pursue their aims through trade union organisation and representation in Parliament. The first working-class member of Parliament in 1892 was John Keir Hardie, the Scottish miners' leader, and 14 years later the British Labour Party won its first parliamentary seats. Although Karl Marx (1818-83) lived and worked in London for much of his life - his		Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood of painters and writers which flourished in the late 19th century. William Morris, who devoted himself to the revival of medieval arts and crafts, shared Ruskin's anger at the social deprivation caused by capitalism. Examples of his decoration and furnishings can be seen at Kelmscott Place, near Oxford, which was for a time the centre of the Brotherhood's activities. Fellow Pre-Raphaelites were Edward Burne-Jones, John Millais and Dante Gabriel Rossetti, artists who
tomb can be seen in London's Highgate Cemetery - his ideas were known and shared only by a relatively small group of middle-class intellectuals. Also largely ignored by the working man for whom he hoped to speak was John Ruskin (1819-1900), one of the founders of the		were perhaps less concerned with the social ills of the 19th century but equally convinced of the need to return to pre-Renaissance art forms. They eventually became establishment figures and their work is spread through the galleries of London, Birmingham, Manchester and Liverpool.
Ruskin and Morris were among a growing number of those who believed that the lot of working people would only be improved through education. Despite fears in some quarters that education for the masses was a dangerous thing, two Education Acts were passed towards the end of the century which made schooling free and compulsory up to the age of 13. The educational provision may have been rudimentary, but at least it was there - which put England on a more equal footing with Scotland, which had had state education since 1696. Working-class life improved considerably during the last quarter of the 19th century. Many homes had gas lighting and streets were cleaned by the new municipal councils. The music hall provided entertainment in towns. Bicycles beca-		me a common method of transport and day trips by train to seaside resorts were the highlight of summer, even if most could not afford the bathing machines which allowed more affluent visitors to get into the water without any great loss of modesty. Middle-class life was comfortable and pleasant. Improved transport, including the underground railway in London, which opened in 1900, enabled people to work in towns but live in leafy suburbs. Most of their new homes were built with bathrooms and the majority had a maid. Art and drama were flourishing. Aubrey Beardsley's fluid, sensual drawings were creating a stir. The Art Nouveau movement had reached Britain and influenced the work of Charles Rennie Mackintosh (1868-1928), who founded the Glasgow School at the end of the century, where he created his own strikingly simple style. At the theatre, audiences were being entertained by the plays of two Anglo-Irish writers: George Bernard Shaw believed in combining education with entertainment and introduced some of his radical politics into his work; Oscar Wilde, who would soon end his glittering career in a prison cell on charges of homosexuality, poked sophisticated fun at London's high society.   vast areas coloured red, signifying that they were British colonies. The Punjab and much of Southern Africa had been added to earlier possessions. Egypt and the Sudan had become colonies - in practice if not in name - after Britain invaded in 1882 to protect its shipping routes to India through the newly built Suez Canal. Britannia did indeed rule the waves.
So Britain was feeling quite pleased with itself by the time of Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee in 1897, and continued to do so for another decade or so. The Jubilee celebrated 60 years on the throne for the woman who had spent much of her reign as a black-clad widow and who had given her name to the age. She ruled over the biggest empire in the world. Atlases of the time showed
Ex. 14. Study the words to the text.
Compulsory – обязательный Provision – условие Rudimentary – элементарный Highlight – кульминация Affluent – благополучный Maid – служанка, горничная Fluid – текучий, переменчивый, зд. живой Stir – сенсация Poke fun – зд. высмеивать
Ex. 15. Read the text and answer the questions according to the text.
How did the working class try to pursue their aims? When did the British Labour Party win its first parliamentary seats? Why did John Ruskin address to the revival of medieval arts and crafts? Who were the members of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood? When did the system of state education begin in Scotland? How did the life conditions of the working class differ from middle class life? What art style was flourishing at that time? What were the specific features in the plays of Bernard Shaw and Oscar Wilde?   Preceding pages:print by William Morris who revived medieval arts and crafts; Victoria with George V, Edward VII, and Edward VIII.

 

UNIT 5. THE 20TH CENTURY
All good things must come to an end. The Boer War of 1899-1902 ended in victory for Britain in South Africa but damaged its international reputation. France, Germany and America were becoming powerful competitors for world markets. The newly united German state was emerging as the biggest threat. Its education system put it far ahead of Britain in scientific and technological developments. It had good reserves of coal and iron and was becoming the world's biggest producer of steel, which it was using to build battleships to rival those of the British navy. Fear of Germany's growing strength forced Britain and France into an alliance. This, together with an earlier treaty which promised to guarantee Belgium's neutrality, plus the fear that Germany would overrun Europe and gain control of parts of the Empire, brought Britain into World War I in 1914. The Edwardian era, sandwiched between the turn of the century and the outbreak of war, is looked back on as the zenith of		prosperous stability, but its foundations had been shifting for some time. World War I claimed over a million British casualties, most of them under the age of 25. The scale of the carnage shocked even such patriots as the writer Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936) who had been firmly committed to the aims of the war. But there were other effects, too. Men who had fought in France and been promised a "land fit for heroes" were disillusioned when they found unemployment and poor housing awaited them at the war's end. Women who had worked in factories while the men were away were not prepared to give up any of their independence. There were strikes on the railways and in the mines and political unrest led to four general elections in just over five years, icluding one which brought the Labour Party to power for the first time. In 1926 a general strike paralysed the country but the unions' demands were not met and the men returned to work, much disgruntled and worse off than before.
Ex. 1. Read and translate the text. Use the vocabulary at the end of the book if necessary.
Preceding page:bathing belles.

 

Jazz age: There was another side to life, of course. For some, unaffected by gloomy financial reality, these were the Roaring Twenties. Women with cropped hair and short dresses drank cocktails and danced to the new music, jazz, which had crossed the ocean from America. Silent films, another American import, were the wonder of the age. Writers such as Virginia Woolf and D.H. Lawrence were opening new horizons for the curious and daring - although it would be another 30 years before Lawrence's Lady Chatterley 's Lover won the legal right to be published in Britain. The New York Stock Market crash of 1929 looked as if it would bring the party to an end. The effects soon spread throughout Europe and by 1931 Britain was entering the Great Depression. It ruined a few fortunes, but the principal victims of the recession were in the industrial areas of northern England, south Wales, and Clydeside in Scotland. Some three million people lost their jobs and suffered real misery with only the "dole", a limited state benefit, to keep them from starvation and homelessness. Walter Greenwood's classic 1933 novel, Love on the Dole, is perhaps the best book written about this period. In the south of England and the Midlands, the depression hit less hard and recovery was faster,		mainly due to the rapid growth of the motor, electrical and light engineering industries. The bold, geometric designs of Art Deco, which began in Paris in 1925, could soon be seen adorning the spanking new factories which lined main roads, roads which were beginning to fill with small, family cars.
In 1936, following the death of George V, the country had been rocked by an unprecedented crisis. Edward VIII succeeded his father but was obliged to abdicate when family, Church and Government united in their refusal to let him marry the twicedivorced Mrs Wallis Simpson. The couple married in France and remained in permanent exile as the Duke and Duchess of Windsor. Edward's brother came to the throne and, as George VI, became one of Britain's most popular monarchs, not least for the support
which he and his Queen, Elizabeth, later the Queen Mother, gave to		their subjects during the Blitz, as the German air raids were called.
Ex. 2. Study the words to the text.   gloomy – мрачный cropped – укороченные, стриженые волосы dole – пособие по безработице subjects – поданные victim – жертва recession – спад, упадок производства curious – любопытный, любознательный daring – смеющий что-либо сделать, рискованный, смелый adorn – украшать, принаряжать spanking – совсем, совершенно (новый) exile – ссылка   Ex. 3. Read and translate the text.
Preceding page:Emmeline Pankhurdt, arrested campaining for votes for womenoutside Buckinghan Palace.

World War II: With memories of the "war to end all wars" still fresh in people's minds, there was great reluctance to enter another conflict. But by 1939 the policy of appeasement of German aggression was no longer tenable and war became inevitable. Although Britain's island status protected it from invasion, it was a war which involved civilians in a way that had never happened before. German bombing raids destroyed many cities. Co-ventry was particularly badly hit;		of the modern building in British towns, not always blending too harmoniously, has been erected on bomb, sites. Many London families spent their nights in the underground stations, the safest places during an attack, and a lot of people from cities and industrial areas were evacuated to the countryside during the worst of the Blitz, For children, sent to live with strangers while their parents remained behind, it was both a time of great loneliness
its present cathedral, with its renowned John Piper windows, was built to replace the one that was lost. The Blitz radically changed the face of London for the first time since the Great Fire nearly three centuries earlier. Ports and ship yards around the country were battered by repeated raids. Much		and the first glimpse many of them had ever had of green fields and woodlands. For some of the country families on whom they were billeted, it may have been their first glimpse of the effects of urban deprivation. Sir Winston Churchill had received massive popular support as a war leader, and he is still regarded
by many people as Britain's greatest prime minister. But when hostilities ended in 1945 the electorate returned a Labor government, hoping that it would be able to sort out the problems of the war-torn country. The basis of the welfare state was laid during these years, provid-		ing free medical care for everyoneand financial help for the old, the sick and the unemployed. The Bank of England, coal mines, railways and steelworks were nationalized. But these were clothing and fuel continued as the country struggled back to its feet.

Ex. 4. Read and translate the text. Use the vocabulary at the end of the book if necessary.

 

Ex. 5. Answer the questions according to the text.

 

1. Did Britain wish to enter another conflict?

2. Why was World War II different from all other wars for Britain?

3. Why did the Blitz change the face of London radically?

4. Why did not the electorate support Sir Winston Churchill after the war?

5. What became the basis of welfare state at that time?

Preceding pages:underground station were used as bomb shelters during London's Blitz; St Paul's Cathedral miraculously survived during the Blitz.

 

 

End of empire:One of the most far-reaching consequences of the war was that it hastened the end of Britain's empire. Starting with India's independence in 1947, the colonies one after another achieved autonomy during the next two decades, although many remained in the Commonwealth, with the Queen as their titular head. Jamaica and Trinidad did not gain independence until 1962, but they were two islands whose people were among the first black		The post-war years were ones of uneasy peace. Britain joined the war against North Korea in 1950 and its troops, still a conscripted army, fought there for four years. In 1956, following Egyptian nationalization of the Suez Canal, British and French forces attacked Egypt. The action was widely condemned both at home and abroad and led to the resignation of the Prime Minister, Sir Anthony Eden. These were also the years of the Cold War between the Soviet
immigrants to Britain in the early 1950s, when work was plentiful and immigrants were welcomed to fill the labor gap. Newcomers from the Caribbean settled mainly in London at first, while later immigrants from the Indian subcontinent made their homes in the Midlands, where textiles and the motor industry offered employment.		Union and the West, which prompted Britain to become a nuclear power. The first British hydrogen bomb was tested in 1957, two years after the world's first nuclear power station had opened in Cumberland (now Cumbria). The Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament was born in response and organised annual marches from the
Atomic Weapons Research Establishment at Aldermaston, Berkshire, to London. But all was not gloom and doom. In 1947 Edinburgh had a highly successful festival of music and drama, which has gone from strength to strength. At the same time the first annual International Music Eisteddfod was held in Llangollen in Wales. Four years later the Festival of Britain was held in the newly built Royal Festival Hall on London's South Bank- the National Theatre was added to this massive and controversial concrete complex in 1964. The Festival was designed to commemorate the Great Exhibition 100 years earlier and to celebrate the beginning of the end of austerity. More than eight million people visited the Exhibition, which had a heartening effect on the morale of the country. In 1953 there was another event to celebrate: following the death of her father the previous year, Princess Elizabeth was crowned Queen Elizabeth II in Westminster Abbey, the coronation being watched by millions on the wonderful new invention, television. By the latter half of the decade things were definitely looking up. Harold Macmillan, the Conservative prime minister, declared in a famous speech that people had "never had it so good": unemployment was low, average living stan-		dards were rising. Increasing numbers of people owned television sets and labour-saving devices. Car ownership was rising too, congesting roads and leading to the construction of Britain's first motorway, the Ml, between London and Birmingham, which opened in 1959. New universities were built, with the aim of making higher education a possibility for more than just the privileged elite. Most people had two weeks' paid holiday a year and, alongside the traditional seaside resorts, holiday camps blossomed, offering cheap family holidays with basic accommodation, swimming pools, sports facilities and dance halls under one brightly-coloured roof. Social attitudes were changing too, reflected in the rise of a group of writers known as "angry young men", including John Osborne and Arnold Wesker, whose plays challenged conventional attitudes and values. The popularity of these writers also marked the beginning of a move away from the dominance of the middle class in literature and of America in popular culture. The 1960s saw an explosion of new talent, much of it from the north of England. Alan Sillitoe and Stan Barstow wrote about working-class life in a way no one had done before. Northern actors, such as Albert Finney, achieved huge
success and, in the cinema, directors Lindsay Anderson and Karel Reisz (best known for If and Saturday Night and Sunday Morning) made British films big box-office attractions. Pop music, as it was now called, underwent a revolution when the Beatles became world-famous ("we're probably more famous than Jesus" said John Lennon) and turned their home town of Liverpool into a place of pilgrimage. This was the Swinging Sixties, the permissive age. Not yet permissive enough, in 1963, to save Cabinet Minister John Profumo from disgrace over his widely publicised affair with Christine Keeler, popularly referred to as a "call girl". But long before the end of the decade a relaxation of attitudes and the introduction of the contraceptive pill had prompted a revolution in sexual attitudes. As Philip Larkin, one of The country entered a more subdued phase. The optimism of the 1960s evaporated, rising oil prices pushed up the cost of living, high inflation was taking its toll, unemployment was rising and an IRA bombing campaign brought home the seriousness of the situation in Northern Ireland. Oil was discovered in the North Sea but, although building oil rigs provided jobs and towns like Aberdeen grew prosperous, the revenues from oil did not create an economic miracle. The 1970s also saw the growth of nationalism in Wales and Scotland. Plaid Cymru (pronounced Plied Cumree) became a political force to be reckoned with. Wales-		Britain' s most respected modern poets, put it: Sexual intercourse began In nineteen sixty-three (Which was rather late for me) Between the end of the Chatter ley ban And the Beatles' first LP. Not everyone was swept along with the nons, but this was a decade of optimism national self-confidence was infectious: in 1966 England's footballers had even won the World Cup. It was during the winter of 1973, when an oil embargo and a miners' strike provoked a State of Emergency and brought down Edward Heath's Conservative Government, that the honeymoon appeared to be over. In the same year, with mixed feelings, Britain finally became a full member of the Common Market (now known as the European Union). was given television and radio channels in Welsh and the language was reintroduced into schools, although it is still spoken by less than 20 percent of the population. In Scotland support grew for the Scottish Nationalist Party (SNP). In national elections it overtook the Conservatives and be gan to threaten the Labour Party, which had always done rather better north of the Border. In 1976 a Devolution Bill proposed much more regional control for Scotland and Wales. But referenda failed to produce the required number of votes in favour, and the Bill never became law.
Ex. 6. Read and translate the text. Use the vocabulary at the end of the book if necessary.   Ex.7. Answer the questions according to the text.   1. What was the end of the British Empire? Was it peaceful? 2. What does it mean "to remain in Commonwealth"? 3. When did the first black immigrants appear in Britain? 4. Did Britain join the Korean War and how long was its army there? 5. Why did British and French forces attack Egypt? 6. What made Britain become a nuclear power? 7. What was the cultural life of Britain at that time? 8. When was the first motorway opened in Britain? 9. When did Britain become a Full Member of Common Market? 10.What differs the 60s from the 50s and the 70s?     Preceding pages:Shirley Ann Field and Albert Finney starring in Saturday Night and Sunday Morning;oil rig in the raging North Sea.
The Thatcher years: By 1979, unemployment had reached 3'/2 million and a wave of strikes plunged the country into what was called "the winter of discontent" - the media has a tendency to quote Shakespeare in times of crisis. The country lost confidence in its Labour government and an election returned the Conservatives to office under their new leader, Margaret Thatcher. The impact of the western world's first woman prime minister was enormous, but her personal popularity soon began to fade. It was dramatically revived in 1982 by the Falklands War when an invading Argentinean force was beaten off these South Atlantic islands, remnants of the empire. The 1980s became known as the Thatcher decade. For many it was a decade of increased prosperity. Docklands in Cardiff, Liverpool and Hull tried to emulate the chic shopping centre that Eliza Doolittle's flower and vegetable market in Covent Garden had become, and even some of the north's satanic mills were given facelifts. Most ambitious of all was the development of London's once-bustling docklands area which established a small airport and turned disused warehouse sites into prestigious housing for young City professionals. Docklands became a symbol of the decade.   ve which ex-Prime Minister Harold Macmillan - himself a Conservative - likened to "selling the family silver", but which was greeted with enthusiasm by the thousands who flocked to buy shares in the companies. Although twice re-elected, Mrs. Thatcher was finally removed in November 1990, not by the electorate, but by her own party who thought she had lost touch with the country, particularly over its role within the European Union, and might therefore lose them the next election. She was replaced by a less combative leader, John Major. Britain's technical status as an		But as the 1990s began, the City was no longer riding so high. Recession returned and many newly constructed luxury apartments remained empty. For others, particularly in the north, where steelworks, shipyards and mines had closed and much of the infrastructure of Britain's industry had collapsed, the 1980s was a grim decade, and Disraeli's description
of Britain as "two nations" was recalled. A long and acrimonious miners' strike in 1984 weakened the unions, and coal mines, including most of those in South Wales, were subsequently closed. Scotland, also badly hit, showed its dissatisfaction clearly in the 1987 election when only 10 Tory MPs were returned to Parliament. Most of Britain's nationa-lised industries were sold off, a mo- island was removed in 1994 when the first fare-paying passengers travelled by rail to Paris and Brussels through the long-awaited Channel Tunnel. The problems did not change, though. The economy remained weak, manufacturing went on shrinking (with BMW buying Rover, Britain's last major car maker), distrust of the European Union did not abate, nationalism in Wales and Scotland increased, and the Royal Family's eventful private life continued to obsess the tabloid press. It was business as usual, in fact - which, in a country obsessed by continuity, was immensely reassuring.
Ex. 8. Read and translate the text. Use the vocabulary at the end of the book if necessary.
Preceding pages:Margaret Thatcher who dominated the decade.

VOCABULARY

obstinacy – упрямство ugliness – уродство, неприглядность impenetrable t – непроницаемый, непроходимый

Prehistory

5000 BC Britain becomes an island. 3000 BC Stone-age people arrive, probably from the Iberian peninsula. 2000 BC Stonehenge built.

ЗАКЛЮЧЕНИЕ

Соответственно, вопросы к прочитанным текстам, заключающие каждый из разделов, могут не только контролировать понимание и являться моделью для… Тексты пособия аутентичны, не подвергались адаптации и демонстрируют блестящий…  

БИБЛИОГРАФИЧЕСКИЙ СПИСОК

2. R.Williams. Insight Guides. Great Britain. APA Publications, 1997. 3. The Oxford Popular Thesaurus by S. Hawer Oxford University Press, Harper… 4. Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English. Longman, Barcelona, Spain, 2000, 1668 pp. (80,000 words)

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