Note môn Văn Minh Anh British Cilvilization

WEEK 2: BRITISH HISTORY (BOOK CHAPTER 3)
History timeline
~850.000 BC Paleolithis
~8,300 BC Mesolithic
~4,000 BC Neolithic
~2,000 BC Beaker folk
~600 BC Celtic groups
~200 BC Belgic tribes
AD 43 The Romans
AD 409 The Romans withdrawal
AD 410 Anglo-Saxons
8th-11th century The Scandinavians
AD 1066 The Norman conquest
1154 The Plantagenets
1399 – 1485 Lancaster and York
1485 – 1603 Tudors
1603 – 1714 Stuarts
1714 – 1901 Hanover
1901 – 1917 Saxe – Coburg & Gotha
1917 - present Windsor
The UK: Overview
- Official name: The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.
Short form: UK or Britain (since 1927).
- Location: off the north-western coast of mainland/continental Europe;
adjacent to an area of North Atlantic Ocean.
- Uk’s map (Click vào để xem ảnh)
- The UK is a Sovereign country - a nation which has one centralized
government and this government has the power to govern a specific
geographic area.
+ Monarch: a king, queen or emperor who reigns over a kingdom or
empire.

+ Current Monarch: Queen Elizabeth II
> Reign: from 1952
> Coronation: 1953
+ Prime Minister: the head of an elected government
+ Current Prime Minister: Boris Johnson
- The UK is a political union between 4 countries: England, Wales, Scotland
and Northern Ireland.
- There are 69 cities in The UK (click vào ‘69 cities’ có list tên) (ảnh đẹp)

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+
+
+
+

England: 51 cities
Wales: 6 cities
Scotland: 7 cities
Northern Ireland: 5 cities

Geographic
‘regions’
(areas)

Capital - Some UK major cities

Location

England

London (Capital of UK), Birmingham,
Liverpool, Manchester

Mainland Great
Britain

Wales

Cardiff, Swansea

Scotland

Edinburgh, Glasgow

Northern
Ireland

Belfast, Londonderry

Northern part

- Official language (de facto): English.
- Main religion: Christianity (63.1%, 2011). There are 4 patron saints in
the UK: Saint George for England, Saint Andrew for Scotland, Saint Patrick
for Northern Ireland, and Saint David for Wales.
- National Anthem: God save the Queen.
- Ethnic groups: UK’s population in 2011: 63,182,178 (England 83.9%,
Scotland 8.4%, Wales 4.8%, N.Ireland 2.9%)

+ White groups: 87.2%
> Gypsy/Irish Traveller: 0.1%
> Other White: 87.1%
+ Asian/Asian British: 7%
> Indian: 2.3%
> Pakistani: 1.9%
> Bangladeshi: 0.7%
> Chinese: 0.7%
> Other Asian: 1.4%
+ Black/African/Caribbean/Black British: 3%
+ Mixed/Multiple ethnic groups: 2%
+ Other ethnic groups: 0.9%

2


UK’S HISTORICAL GROWTH: MILESTONE EVENTS & FIGURES
- Bede: “the father of English history”. He was one of the greatest scholars of
the Anglo-Saxon period.
BC/BCE---------------------The birth of Jesus Christ--------------AD/CE---->
BC: Before Christ
BCE: Before
Common/Current Era

AD: Anno Domini
CE: Common/Current
Era

EARLY HISTORY
The British Isles

- 1993: The earliest human bones 500,000 years old were found in Britain Palaeolithic (Old Stone Age).
- 2002: butchered animal bones and stone tools 700,000 years old were
discovered in East Anglia.
- 2014: human footprints about 850,000 years old were found on the east
coast shore in Norfolk, England.
→ Britain was a mainland part of the continental Europe.
- The current UK is an island country. The isolation makes Britain hard to be
invaded from the land and vice versa → develop their naval army.
The early history
- Ice Age:
+ 6500 BC: English channel formed and separated Britain from the
rest of Europe.
+ 3100 BC - 1500 BC: Stonehenge - a prehistoric temple. The stones
are aligned with the movements of the sun.
- 600 BC: Celts settlement - Celtic tribes moved into the islands and brought
an Iron Age civilization with them.
- 43 AD: Romans arrived and founded Londonium - capital of the Roman
province of Britania (formed the word Britain) → spreaded some Christian

3


practices, introduced political and legal institutions, imported new
agricultural methods and produce.
+ Julius Caesar: a person who initiated one of the first invasions.
- 409/410 AD: Romans withdrew, and Germanic tribes arrived.
+ Germanic tribes: The Anglos, Saxons and Jutes.
→ Anglo-Saxon
→ England: the land of the Angles (Old
English: Engla-land)

+ The country was gradually divided into 7
separate and often warring Anglo-Saxon
kingdoms in England, with isolated Celtic
areas in Wales, Scotland and Ireland.
> The seven Anglo-Saxon Kingdoms:
1. Northumbria
2. Mercia
3. East Anglia
4. Essex
5. Kent
6. Sussex
7. Wessex
(Click vào đây xem cho rõ)
+ The influence of the Anglo-Saxons:
> The ending -ing = family in the Saxon village.
Ex: Reading = the place of the Rada family
Hastings = the place of the Hasta family
> -ham = farm, -ton = settlement
Ex: Birmingham, Nottingham, Southampton
> Days of the week are named after the Germanic God: Tiw, Woden,
Thor, Friya
Ex: Tig (Tuesday), Wod (Wednesday), Thor (Thursday),
Frei (Friday)
+ Jute: invaded and settled in southern Britain. They settled in Kent,
the Isle of Wight, and parts of Hampshire.
> Around the middle of the 5th century, the Jutish kingdom of Kent
was founded, Roman ways and influences must have still had a
strong presence.
→ their name soon died out.
> 673/674 DC: Hlothhere had been ruler in Kent.

> 676 DC: Mercian king invaded Kent.
4


> 681 DC: Mercian king advanced into southern Hampshire and the
Isle of Wight.
- Viking: Scandinavian - military invasions in the 8th and 9th centuries AD.
The Great Heathen Army invaded England in 865 DC.
+ Viking homelands: Denmark, Norway, Sweden
+ Viking settlement: Britain
+ Were defeated in England, Scotland and Ireland in the 10th-11th
centuries.
- Alfred The Great:
+ An Anglo
+ Fought the Vikings (896/897)
+ King of Wessex (871-886 CE) - Winchester was the capital
+ King of the Anglo-Saxons (886-899) - claimed himself
WHY IS BRITAIN CALLED BRITAIN?
1. The name Britain originates from the Common Brittonic term *Pritanī and
is one of the oldest known names for Great Britain
Pytheas of Massalia, a Greek explorer from present-day Marseille, who
travelled to Britain in around 325 BCE and recorded the local names of the
places he visited.
He recorded it ‘Pretannike’ => ‘Britannia’=> ‘Britain
WHY THE V SIGN CAN BE A RUDE GESTURE IN BRITAIN?
In Britain, a V-sign is a rude gesture that is made by sticking up your first two
fingers in a V shape, with the palm of your hand facing you.
“During the Hundred Years’ War the French would cut the middle finger
off the hands of captured English archers so that they could no longer
draw the strings of their deadly yew longbows (the type of wood from

which they were made.) Because of this, English archers would taunt the
French by raising their middle fingers.
WHY DID THE CURRENT ROYAL HOUSE HAVE TO CHANGE THEIR NAME?
- In 1917, the name of the royal house was changed from the anglicised
German Saxe-Coburg and Gotha to the English Windsor because of antiGerman sentiment in the United Kingdom during World War I.
The royal house of the UK: The house of Windsor
Former name: Saxe-Coburg-Gotha or Saxe-Coburg and Gotha
The name comes from Victoria’s German-born husband, Albert => George V
(during the tension of WWI) declared the name The house of Windsor.

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With the outbreak of World War I in the summer of 1914, strong antiGerman feelings within Britain caused sensitivity among the royal
family about its German roots.
Who is the Jutes?
The Jutes were one of the Nordic tribes who settled in Great Britain after the
departure of the Romans. According to Bede (an English Benedictine monk),
they were one of the three most powerful Germanic nations, along with the
Angles and the Saxons.
If Queen Victoria has the second longest reign in the UK, which monarch is
the first?
Queen Elizabeth II became the longest-reigning British monarch on 9 September
2015 when she surpassed the reign of her great-great-grandmother Victoria. On
6 February 2017 she became the first British monarch to celebrate a Sapphire
Jubilee, commemorating 65 years on the throne. She has now reigned for 68
years.
Why is the name England?
England is named after the Angles.
The original use of the name:

- Angli (for the people)
- Anglia (for the country)
- Rex-Anglorum (the king of Angles)
- Engla lande (in the country of Angles)
Then Engla Land (whole country) → Englene Londe → Engle Lond → Engelond
→ The name "ENGLAND" emerged in the 14th century.
Why is the name London?
The name of London is derived from a word first attested, in Latinised form, as
Londinium. By the first century CE, this was a commercial centre in Roman
Britain.
Why is V-sign with the palm of your hand facing you rude in the UK?
The uncertain origin of the V-sign was from the Battle of Agincourt. This story
maintains that British archers were so effective and so feared by their enemy

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that when the French captured an archer they chopped off the two fingers he
needed to draw a bow-string. Bowmen who had not been thus disfigured took to
holding up two fingers to taunt their cowardly foes.
Why not Saxon-land?
Angelcynn policy and the title of King of England helped cement the grip
on the throne.
King Alfred of Wessex - a West Saxon - pursued a deliberate measure to
promote 'Angelcynn' as the National Identity of the varied Anglo-Saxon tribes.
To ensure that the different tribes of England would remain united Alfred
pushed the idea of Anglecynn on his people, that all Saxons, Angles, Jutes, etc,
were all of a common kinship. This provided stability and united this new
Anglecynn national identity against the Danish. If Alfred had attempted to
promote Saxoncynn it is possible, even likely, that Mercia would have rebelled

and crowned the Lord of Mercia as the new King of Mercia, and England would
never have formed either because of remaining small states, or by Viking
conquest.
Why not Celtic-land?
The Saxons didn't 'influence' the culture of the Britons inhabiting modern
England, they supplanted it almost entirely. There's hardly anything left of
underlying Celtic legal, political, or social structures in England.
King Arthur and Knights of the Round Table?
There is still much debate about whether King Arthur and his knights
were also made up or if the legend is based on real people.
-

King Arthur - the most legendary medieval British icon in history.

According to the stories, Arthur was a brilliant Briton-Celtic leader. He led
Britain’s defence against the Saxon invasion in the 5th and 6th centuries. The
story’s details are made up of folklore, and literary invention with the consist of
a round table, knights, Lancelot, a wizard named Merlin and a quest for the
Holy Grail, which is where things extend into the realms of fantasy.
-

However, King Arthur is not mentioned in any official history.

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THE MIDDLE AGE
Norman Conquest
- 14 October, 1066: Battle of Hastings: William - a Norman king - defeated
Harold - an English king (French-Norman invaders)

- The Norman > The Anglo-Saxons
> a watershed in English history, early English history was completed
> mark the last successful external military invasion
> radical change to country’s social and political structures
> the history of English language (influenced by French - language of
nobility for 300y)
- William The Conqueror:
> Introduce feudal system → Feudalism (phong kiến)
> “Feu” (French) = “land given away based on duty or services to lords”
Magna Carta (1215) - Đại Hiến Chương
- English Great Charter granted by King John.
- Declaring sovereign to be subject to the rule of law (not the king).(King did
not make the law, he was under the protection of the law and had to follow
the law).
- Provided the foundation for individual rights in Anglo-American law
systems.
- Mark the decline and fall of feudalism.
Hundred year’s war (1337 - 1453)
- France versus England.
- The conflict appeared from the period of William The Conqueror - a Duke
of Normandy (France) became King of Britain.
- Cause: King Edward III of England and King Philip VI of France
escalated a dispute over feudal rights in Gascony to a battle for the
French Crown.
- Timeline (click rồi kéo tới cuối web nếu muốn coi chi tiết)
+ The Edwardian War (1337-1360) after Edward III of England.
+ The Caroline War (1369-1389) after Charles V of France.
+ The Lancastrian War (1415-1453) after the royal house of England,
the Lancasters.
- With help from such figures as Saint Joan of Arc (1412-1431), the French

won crucial battles at Formigny (1450) and Castillon (1453) to bring final
victory.

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The middle English
- High-prestige language: French
- Low-prestige: English
- At the end of 14th century: English was using in both in written & spoken
language
- Literature work: The Canterbury tales (Geoffrey Chaucer) - a collection of
24 stories written in Middle English (1387 - 1400)
War of the roses (1455 - 85)
- Series of dynastic civil wars between the houses of Lancaster and York
for the English throne.
- The wars were named for the emblems of the two houses: the white rose
is York, The red is Lancaster.
Reason for the war:
- Anarchy (chế độ vơ chính phủ) was prevailing in the mid-15th century.
- The long reign of Henry VI lasted 15 years (1422 - 1437) and the King’s
eagerness to grasp all the power in the state.
Tutors & Stuarts (1485 - 1713)
Tudor rule (1485-1603): the most glorious period in English history in 118
years.
- 1485: Henry Tudor invaded and defeated King Richard III and crowned
king Henry VII. He was the first monarch of the House of Tudor.
→ Built the foundations of a wealthy and powerful nation
- 1487: the Wars of the Roses end.
- 1509: Henry VII died. Henry VIII ascended and he married to his elder

brother’s wife - Catherine of Aragon (former wife of Prince Arthur who
died in 1502)
- 1527 - 1529: Henry starts divorce proceedings against Catherine.
→ Led Henry to initiate the English Reformation, separating the Church of
England from papal authority. ⇒ Anglicanism (Anh Giáo)
- 1533: Henry married Anne Boleyn and she gave birth to Elizabeth I in
the same year.
- 1536: First Act of Union between England and Wales
- 1547: Henry VIII dies; Edward VI (son of the King’s third wife) – aged 9 –
became king and died 4 years later.
- 1558: Elizabeth I became queen.
→ Elizabeth was the last of the five monarchs of the House of Tudor.

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→ She did not get married so that she is known as the Virgin Queen.
Virginia (US) was named after the virgin queen.
→ Queen Elizabeth I defeated the powerful navy of Spain (the Armada).
- 1603: James VI (King of Scotland) - Elizabeth’s cousin, became the king of
England as James I after Elizabeth I died.
→ The end of Tudor/ the start of Stuarts
→ Scotland and England were joined
Key characters:
● Henry VII - The King of England and Lord of Ireland from his seizure of
the crown on 22 August 1485 until his death in 1509.
● Henry VIII - The King of England from 22 April 1509 until his death in
1547.
● Elizabeth I - Queen of England and Ireland from 17 November 1558 until
her death in 1603.

English Civil Wars
Also called Great Rebellion (1642-51)
Reason for the war: Charles I (the second son of King James I) raised an army
against the wishes of Parliament, ostensibly to deal with a rebellion in Ireland.
- The war took place in the British Isles between 2 party
Supporters of the monarchy of
Opposing groups
Charles I including his son, also
including Parliamentarians in
successor - Charles II
England, Covenanters in Scotland,
and Confederates in Ireland.
The event:
- Late 1630s:
+ Charles made efforts to establish a more English-like religious practice
in Scotland. This led to the Scottish army defeating Charles’ forces and
invading England.
+ Parliament acted quickly to restrict the king’s powers after generating
the money to settle the conflict.
- 1642: Charle I called on his supporters to prepare for war after fleeing
(bỏ trốn) to northern England.
- First English Civil War (1642-46):
+ Royalist forces (known as Cavaliers) controlled northern and western
England.
+ Parliamentarians (or Roundheads) dominated in southern and eastern
England.
+ 1644: Parliamentarian force ended the king’s control of northern
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England.
+ 1645: Parliament created a trained army commanded by Sir Thomas
Fairfax and general Oliver Cromwell.
- Second English Civil War (1648-49):
+ Cromwell and the New Model Army easily crushed the Royalist
uprisings.
+ Charles was found guilty of treason and executed by beheading on
January 30, 1649 at Whitehall.
- Third English Civil War (1649-51):
+ 1651: Charles II (king’s eldest son) led an invasion of England and lost to
the Parliamentarian army.
→ End of the Civil War.
Key character:
● Charles I - The King of Great Britain and Ireland (1625–49) whose
authoritarian rule and quarrels with Parliament provoked a civil war that
led to his execution.
● Oliver Cromwell - (1599 - 1658) one of the generals who led
parliamentary forces in the English Civil War against King Charles I.
From 1702: Anne (1665 – 1714) was Queen of England, Scotland, and Ireland.
1707: Political union was achieved between England, Wales and Scotland ⇒
Great Britain
She continued to reign as Queen of Great Britain and Ireland until her death in
1714.
Georgian and Victorians - The house of Hanover (1714 - 1901)
- The Act of Settlement in 1701 excluded the hereditary Stuart heir and
passed the crown of England to the Stuart dynasty's German Protestant
cousins - the House of Hanover.
- The dynasty provided six monarchs:
+ George I (reigned 1714–27)
+ George II (reigned 1727–60)

+ George III (reigned 1760–1820)
- 1770: The industrial revolution. England became the “workshop of the
world”
→ The era of architectures, literatures (Jane Austen), industrialization and
farming methods
- 1776: The loss of the 13 North American colonies.

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- Acts of Union 1800: Great Britain + Ireland
⇒ The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland
+ George IV (reigned 1820–30)
+ William IV (reigned 1830–37)
+ Victoria (reigned 1837–1901)
→ The era of science (Charles Darwin), literature (Charles Dickens, Conan
Doyle) and technology development (James Watt, Alexander Graham Bell).
- 1901: Queen Victoria died. She was the last of the house of Hanover and
gave her name to an era, the Victorian Age.
→ The end of the Victorian period
- 1917: The house was renamed to be the house of Windsor.
Key character:
● George III (reigned 1760–1820): George William Frederick, king of Great
Britain and Ireland (1760–1820) and elector (1760–1814) and then king
(1814–20) of Hanover.
● Victoria (reigned 1837–1901): Alexandrina Victoria, queen of the United
Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland (1837–1901) and empress of India
(1876–1901).
→ The second longest reign in UK (64 years)
THE MODERN DAY

1914–1918: World War I
1921: 26/32 Southern Ireland counties left the Union → no more the UK of
Britain and Ireland
⇒ Independent Irish Free State (1922) & The Republic of Ireland (1949)
1939–1945: World War II
1953: Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II
1966: England won the World Cup
2014: Scottish independence referendum

2016: Brexit referendum
2020: Official Brexit & COVID-19

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The Union Flag
- 1606: King James VI of
Scotland became King James I
of England
- 1707: Acts of Union
> Flag of Great Britain
- 1800: Acts of Union: Union of
Ireland and Great Britain
> Flag of the UK
ATTENTION:

EXTRA QUESTIONS
Why did the current Royal House have to change their name?
The family name was changed as a result of anti-German feeling during the First
World War. King George V opted to change the name of the Royal House of SaxeCoburg and Gotha to Windsor and the name Windsor was adopted after the

Castle of the same name.
Why is the V sign a rude gesture in Britain?
The V sign, when the palm is facing toward the person giving the sign, has long
been an insulting gesture in the United Kingdom, and later in Ireland, Australia,
South Africa, India, Pakistan and New Zealand. It is frequently used to signify
defiance (especially to authority), contempt, or derision.
Who is the Jutes?
The Jutes were one of the Nordic tribes who settled in Great Britain after the
departure of the Romans. According to Bede (an English Benedictine monk),
they were one of the three most powerful Germanic nations, along with the
Angles and the Saxons.
If Queen Victoria has the second longest reign in the UK, which monarch is
the first?
Queen Elizabeth II became the longest-reigning British monarch on 9 September
2015 when she surpassed the reign of her great-great-grandmother Victoria. On
6 February 2017 she became the first British monarch to celebrate a Sapphire

13


Jubilee, commemorating 65 years on the throne. She has now reigned for 68
years.
Why is the name Britain?
The name Britain is derived from the name Britannia, used by the Romans from
circa 55 BC and increasingly used to describe the island which had formerly
been known as "insula Albionum", the "island of the Albions" which Albion was
replaced by the Latin 'Britannia" after.
Why is the name England?
England is named after the Angles.
The original use of the name:

- Angli (for the people)
- Anglia (for the country)
- Rex-Anglorum (the king of Angles)
- Engla lande (in the country of Angles)
Then Engla Land (whole country) → Englene Londe → Engle Lond → Engelond
→ The name "ENGLAND" emerged in the 14th century.
Why is the name London?
The name of London is derived from a word first attested, in Latinised form, as
Londinium. By the first century CE, this was a commercial centre in Roman
Britain.
Why is V-sign with the palm of your hand facing you rude in the UK?
The uncertain origin of the V-sign was from the Battle of Agincourt. This story
maintains that British archers were so effective and so feared by their enemy
that when the French captured an archer they chopped off the two fingers he
needed to draw a bow-string. Bowmen who had not been thus disfigured took to
holding up two fingers to taunt their cowardly foes.
Why not Saxon-land?
- Angelcynn policy and the title of King of England helped cement the grip on the
throne.
- King Alfred of Wessex - a West Saxon - pursued a deliberate measure to promote
'Angelcynn' as the National Identity of the varied Anglo-Saxon tribes.
- To ensure that the different tribes of England would remain united Alfred
pushed the idea of Anglecynn on his people, that all Saxons, Angles, Jutes, etc,
were all of a common kinship. This provided stability and united this new
Anglecynn national identity against the Danish. If Alfred had attempted to
promote Saxoncynn it is possible, even likely, that Mercia would have rebelled
and crowned the Lord of Mercia as the new King of Mercia, and England would
never have formed either because of remaining small states, or by Viking
conquest.

14


Why not Celtic-land?
The Saxons didn't 'influence' the culture of the Britons inhabiting modern
England, they supplanted it almost entirely. There's hardly anything left of
underlying Celtic legal, political, or social structures in England.
-

-

King Arthur and Knights of the Round Table?
There is still much debate about whether King Arthur and his knights were also
made up or if the legend is based on real people.
King Arthur - the most legendary medieval British icon in history.
According to the stories, Arthur was a brilliant Briton-Celtic leader. He led
Britain’s defence against the Saxon invasion in the 5th and 6th centuries. The
story’s details are made up of folklore, and literary invention with the consist of
a round table, knights, Lancelot, a wizard named Merlin and a quest for the
Holy Grail, which is where things extend into the realms of fantasy.
However, King Arthur is not mentioned in any official history.

WEEK 3: BRITISH GEOGRAPHY (BOOK CHAPTER 2)
Geographical identities
❑ The British Isles: group of islands off the Northwestern coast of Europe
❑ The British Isles: 2 mainlands (Great Britain, Ireland) and numerous small
islands (Orkney Islands, Hebrides, Shetland Islands, Isle of Man, Channel
Islands)
❑ Oceans: North Sea, Atlantic Ocean, Irish Sea
Vương quốc Anh là đảo quốc nằm ở tây bắc châu Âu, được bao quanh bởi Đ ại

Tây Dương và Biển Bắc, ngăn cách với lục địa bởi eo Dover và eo bi ển Anh.
bao gồm toàn bộ đảo lớn Great Britain, một phần đảo Ireland và nhi ều đ ảo nh ỏ
khác – trong số đó có những đảo khơng thuộc Vương quốc Anh nh ưng ph ụ thu ộc
vào ngai vàng.
❑ The country’s title for constitutional and political purposes ( mục đích hi ến
pháp và chính trị)
❑ The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (tên gọi
chính thức)
❑ Isles of Man and the Channel Islands are not part of the UK.
❑ Britain used to be divided into geographic regions => served as assistance &
development areas (e.g service location for gas, electricity supplies,
economic areas, etc.).
❑ Regions were unelected politico-economic structures.
❑ English people considered regions as being remote from their electoral
constituents.
❑ RDAs: Regional Development Agencies – abolished in 2012 → Following

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devolution, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland became self-governing
“national” units rather than “regions” and then 9 regions were created in
England
England’s regions and counties

“localism” > “regionalism”
Sense of belonging
Reflecting a wish by locals to assert their individual identities
Being divided based on county structures (such as Sussex, Yorkshire,
Cambridgeshire, etc.), cities and town (Manchester, Liverpool, Newcastle,

Birmingham, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Belfast, London, Swansea and Cardiff),
villages and local government areas
Physical features and climate
Countries

Areas (km2)

Population
(2020)

England

130,279

67.1 mil

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Scotland
Wales
N. Ireland

80,240
20,782
14,130

5.47 mil
3.17 mil
1.89 mil

HCMC
2,061 km2
>9 million
(2020)
Highland and lowland Britain
❑
England: consisting mainly of flat lowland countryside (chủ yếu là vùng
nông thôn bằng phẳng)
❑
Wales: a highland country, with moorland plateau, hills and mountains,
often interspersed with deep river valleys (một quốc gia cao nguyên, có
cao nguyên hoang vu, đồi núi, thường xen kẽ với các thung lũng sông sâu)
❑
Scotland: being divided into 3 areas: North-West and Central Highlands,
Central Lowlands and Southern Uplands (with a number of hill ranges
stretching towards the border with England) (được chia thành 3 khu vực:
Tây Bắc và Tây Nguyên, Vùng đất thấp Trung tâm và Vùng cao phía Nam
(với một số dãy đồi trải dài về phía biên giới với Anh)
❑
Northern Ireland: having a rocky northern coastlines, a south central
fertile plain and mountainous areas in the west, northeast and southeast
Climate
✔
The climate is mainly temperate (neither very hot nor very cold)
✔
Altitudes modifies temperatures (độ cao thay đổi nhiệt độ) =>
Scotland + highlands of Wales and England are cooler in summer and
colder in winter compared with the rest of England.
✔

Global warming: Britain now experiences high temperature averages with
occasional heat waves and very cold periods.
❖ 2018: the hottest summer in UK (heatwave)
❖ Sunshine decreases from south to north, inland from coastal belts, and
with altitudes.
❖ Average daily sunshine:
summer

winter

Northern Scotland: 5 hours
Northern Scotland: 1 hour
Isle of Wight: 8 hours
English South Coast: 2 hours
→ Britain is NOT a particularly SUNNY country.
✔
Frequent clouds cover the islands => even a hot summer day can get very
little sunshine => sticky & humid conditions

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✔
Sunshine can mix with pollutants => poor air quality
✔
“changeability” => weather forecast can be unreliable
=> The weather is a national institution, a topic of daily conversation, a
conditioning factor in the national character.
Agriculture & fisheries
✔

✔
✔

Britain has a long agricultural history which includes a series of
farming revolutions.
In 2015, around 300,000 active farms, ranging from small units to huge
business concerns.
70% of the total land area is used to produce 60% of the country’s food
requirement (40% are imported largely due to food unobtainable in
Britain)

=> Agriculture is still a significant industry and interest group.
Fisheries
✔
Britain is one of Europe’s leading fishing nations thanks to its
geography.
✔
The UK is bordered by 4 bodies of water. What are they?
✔
Despite current decline, the fishing industries still accounts for 66% of
Britain’s fish consumption.
✔

What is Britain’s famous dish related to fish?

✔

FISH AND CHIPS

Transportation & Communication

What to remember about UK transport?
⇒ Roads, railways, shipping and civilaviation provide the country’s transport
system.
❑ Airport:
⮚ Heathrow and Gatwick Airports outside London are the largest and busiest
⮚ Other major airports: Stansted (South-east England and Glasgow),
Edinburgh and Aberdeen (Scotland)
⮚ 6 major airports :
1.

London City,

2.

London Gatwick,

3.

London Heathrow,

4.

London Luton,

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5.
6.

London Stansted
London Southend
● Road transport
○

A1: connects Edinburgh to London

○

Long-distance express coach services: National Express and
Megabus
● Railway and Underground:
- Railway: the world’s first public passenger steam railway (in 1825)
- London Underground system (the Tube): the world’s oldest metro system
(in 1890)
Communication
Main suppliers:
• British Telecom (BT)
• Royal Mail
• Public Post Office

WEEK 4: EDINBURGH AND LONDON
❖ Edinburgh & Scotland
- General facts
- Auld Lang Syne: For old times’ sake, the song ask you to remember
the people from your past, and raise a toast to them, a popular song
to sing at New Year and celebrations. A line about taking your
friends’ hands related to a traditional dance
- Capital city: Edinburgh
- Largest city: Glasgow

- Edinburgh is connected to London:
■ By train (about 5 hours 20 mins)
■ Bus (about 9 hours 40 mins)
- Famous Scottish
- Robert Burns
- Sir Alexander Chapman Ferguson
- Gordon Ramsay
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- James McAvoy (Prof X)
- Gerald Butler
- Scots and Scottish English
- Scots or Scottish English?
- Scots is a language spoken in Scotland, one of the most
constituent countries of the UK.
- 3 main languages in Scotland: Scots, Scottish English and
Gaelic.
- Gaelic is a Celtic language that is only very distantly related to
English and Scots, as an Indo-European language.
- Scots and Scottish English are closely related to each other,
but they are not the same thing.
- Scottish English is, for the most part, Standard English
spoken with a Scottish accent.
- Scots is distinct, having diverge from a dialect of Middle
English, and having features that differ from English.
- Some consider Scots a separate language / a historical
dialect of English
- History of Scots and the Great vowel shift
- The roots of Scots lie in Northumbrian Old English.

Northumbrian Old English was being spoken by the 7th
century, in the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Northumbria.
- The Great Vowel Shift:
- Took place between 1350-1600
-

Caused the vowels of English to be pronounced
differently

- This also affected Scots: the specific changed were
different, some vowels that changed in English remained
unchanged in Scots

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