每日英语听力

当前播放

Unit2 The United Kingdom-Reading(1)

Unit 2 The United Kingdom Reading

Puzzles in Geography People may wonder why different words are used to describe these four countries: England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.

You can clarify this question if you study British history. First there was England.

Wales was linked to it in the thirteenth century. Now when people refer to England you find Wales included as well.

Next England and Wales were joined to Scotland in the seventeenth century and the name was changed to " Great Britain" . Happily this was accomplished without conflict when King James of Scotland became King of England and Wales as well.

Finally the English government tried in the early twentieth century to form the United Kingdom by getting Ireland connected in the same peaceful way. However, the southern part of Ireland was unwilling and broke away to form its own government.

So only Northern Ireland joined with England, Wales and Scotland to become the United Kingdom and this was shown to the world in a new flag called the Union Jack.

To their credit the four countries do work together in some areas (eg, the currency and international relations) , but they still have very different institutions.

For example, Northern Ireland, England and Scotland have different educational and legal systems as well as different football teams for competitions like the World Cup!

England is the largest of the four countries, and for convenience it is divided roughly into three zones. The zone nearest France is called the South of England,

下载全新《每日英语听力》客户端,查看完整内容
点击播放