The Union Jack, устная тема по английскому языку с переводом. Топик
1. What is the capital of Great Britain?
a. Edinburgh
b. Boston
c. London
2. How many parts does Great Britain contain?
a. 4
b. 3
c. 5
3. What is the English flag called?
a. Union Patric
b. Union Jack
c. Lines and Crosses
4. Who is the symbol of the typical Englishman?
a. John Bull
b. John Bell
c. St. Patrick
5. What is the London underground called?
a. the tube
b. the metro
c. the subway
6. Who is the Head of State in Britain?
a. the Mayor
b. the Queen
c. the Prime Minister
7. What is the river in London?
a. Thames
b. London
c. Avon
8. What is the most expensive part of London?
a. West End
b. East End
c. Westminster
d. the City
9. What colour are the taxis in London?
a. blue
b. red
c. black
10. The building in the picture is…
a. St. Paul’s Cathedral
b. The British Museum
c. The National Galery
11. If you go to London, you’ll see…
a. the White House
b. St. Paul’s Cathedral
c. Greenwich
12. English people say…
a. candies
b. cookies
c. sweets
13. What is the home of the Queen?
a. Buckingham Palace
b. the White House
c. Westminster Abbey
14. What city did The Beatles come from?
a. London
b. Manchester
c. Liverpool
15. They say the Loch Ness Monster lives in a lake in…
a. Scotland
b. Wales
c. Ireland
Key: 1. c; 2. b; 3. b; 4. a; 5. a; 6. b; 7. a; 8. a; 9. c; 10. a; 11. b; 12. c; 13. a; 14. c; 15. a
By Natalia Korotaeva,
School “Feniks”, Moscow
The British flag, known as Union Jack, has an interesting history. It’s a combination of three flags, the St Andrew’s Cross, St George’s Cross and St Patrick’s Cross.
The first flag appeared in April 1606 when Scotland and England were united by James I. Wales was part of England then and didn’t have its own separate flag.
On the 1 st of January 1801 the present-day Union Jack was formed. It happened when the Kingdom of Ireland and the Kingdom of Great Britain became the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.
The St George’s cross is the English flag. Saint George is the patron saint of England. He was a soldier famous for saving the Princess Cleolinda from being eaten by a dragon. He wounded the dragon and took it back to the city of Silene on a lead like a dog. Saint George’s Day is celebrated on the 23d of April. Saint George is also the patron saint of Germany, Portugal and Greece.
The St Andrew’s cross is the Scottish flag. Saint Andrew, a fisherman, was one of the 12 apostles who followed Jesus Christ. St Andrew’s Day is celebrated on the 30 th of November. He is the patron saint of both Scotland and Russia.
The St Patrick’s cross is the former flag of Ireland. He was born about AD 390. He converted the Irish to Christianity and is supposed to have got rid of all the snakes in Ireland. St Patrick’s Day is celebrated on the 17 th of March.
The Welsh flag shows a dragon. Saint David, the patron saint of Wales, started s number of monasteries in the country. Saint David’s Day is celebrated on the 1st of March.
References: patron saint - святой покровитель; Jesus Christ – Иисус Христос; Christianity - христианство; get rid of - освободиться.
Ex. 1. Complete the table.
|
Patron Saint |
Date of celebration |
|
|
e. g. Wales |
The 1 st of March |
|
Ex.2. Ask your friend:
If the British flag is a combination of three or four flags.
When the first flag appeared.
When the present-day Union Jack appeared.
Who the patron saint of England (Scotland, Ireland, and Wales) is?
What the Welsh flag looks like?
Who the patron saint of Russia is?
How many crosses form the Union Jack?
Ex.3. Speak about:
1. the history of the British flag;
2. the three crosses of the flag and their meaning.
Economy and industry
Britain used to have many manufacturing industries, but since the Second World War its service industries, especially banking and retailing, have expanded. Between 1951 and 1991, the percentage of people working in service industries rose from 36 per cent to 71 per cent. The number of people working in manufacturing industries has gone down.
Heavy industries, including steel manufacture and shipbuilding, have been replaced by high-technology manufacturing industries, such as aeroplane engine manufacture and pharmaceuticals.
The City is a part of London. It used to be the old Roman town, but is now the area of London with all the banks. The City is now one of the most important financial centers in the world. Although the City is only one square mile, 300 000 people work there. It contains 8500 companies and 524 banks from 76 countries. The City earns £10 billion a year by selling its financial services. In 1994, London had 40 per cent of the world’s foreign exchange trade (buying and selling of foreign currencies), far more than its nearest rival, New York.
In Britain, there are only a few successful large companies, but many successful small companies. The large companies often invest a lot of money in research and development. For example, BP is now the second-largest company in Europe. It is involved in oil and gas exploration, oil refining and manufacture of petrochemical products. It is investing money in making cleaner petrol. Glaxo is Britain’s leading pharmaceutical company and is one of the largest in the world. It tries to find and make new medicines which can cure or reduce the effects of diseases.
References:
retailing – розничная торговля; service industry - индустрия обслуживания;
exchange trade - биржевая торговля; oil refining - перегонка нефти; petrochemical – нефтехимический; pharmaceutical company - фармацевтическая компания.
Ex.1. Agree or disagree:
There are more people working in manufacturing industries than in service industries in Britain.
The City is a powerful financial centre.
BP is a service industry.
There are no successful large companies in Britain.
High-technology manufacturing industries have been replaced by heavy industries.
Ex.2. Ask your friend:
what service industries have expanded in Great Britain since the Second World War.
when the percentage of people working in these industries rose.
if heavy industries have been replaced by high-technology industries.
if the City is one of the most important financial centers in the world.
how many people work in the City.
if large companies often invest money in research and development.
what the second largest company in Europe is.
if Glaxo is Britain’s leading pharmaceutical company.
if Glaxo tries to find and make new medicines which can cure or reduce the effects of diseases.
Ex.3. Speak about:
1. Manufacturing and service industries of Great Britain.
2. The City – one of the most important financial centers in the world.
3. Successful business companies.
Great Britain lives by manufacture and trade. Its agriculture provides only half the food it needs, the other half of its food has to be imported.
Britain is one of the most highly industrialized countries in the world: for every person employed in agriculture, eleven are employed in mining, manufacturing and building. The industrial centers of Great Britain are Manchester, Birmingham, Leeds, Liverpool, Sheffield and others.
In the heart of England about 112 miles north-west of London is Birmingham. Birmingham is a city with the population of over one million.
It is the centre of the iron industry. The district around Birmingham is known as the Black Country. It is the land of factories and mines. Steam-engines, motor-cars, railway carriages, bicycles and agricultural implements are manufactured in the factories of the Black Country.
Manchester is the centre of the cotton industry. With its large suburb Salford Manchester has a population of nearly one million. Manchester has few ancient buildings, but few English cities have better parks of which there are over fifty. The largest of them is Heaton Park. Manchester is rich in libraries and schools. The University of Manchester founded in 1880 is famous for its studies.
The wool industry is centered in Leeds and Bradford, the iron ore goes to the steel, heavy machinery and shipbuilding industries of Newcastle and other cities. The industries of Midlands with Birmingham as its chief city produce metal goods, from motor cars and railway engines to pins and buttons. The Midland plain makes farming land.
The most important city of Scotland is Aberdeen which is the oil centre. Ships and helicopters travel from Aberdeen to the North Sea oil rigs. Work on an oil rig is difficult and dangerous.
Most of the population of Scotland is concentrated in the Lowlands. Here, on the Clyde, is Glasgow, Scotland"s biggest city. Shipbuilding is one of its most important industries, other industries are iron and steel, heavy and light engineering and coal-mining. It is an industrial city and an important port in the UK.
Except for coal, mineral resources of Wales are limited, and include gold, silver, lead, and copper. South Wales is more developed: coal-mining, steel production, electronics, electrical engineering and chemicals can be found here.
The capital of Wales is Cardiff, the largest city of Wales. Cardiff is situated near the mouth of the Taff River. It is an important industrial city and a port. It is also an administrative and educational centre.
The second largest city in Wales is Swansea where mainly steel production can be found. Since World War II there has been intensive development in the metals industries especially in the south and south-east.
The whole economy of Northern Ireland is closely integrated with that of Great Britain. It has its roots in three basic industries - agriculture, textiles and shipbuilding. The largest industry is agriculture conducted for the most part on small family farms. It occupies about 72 per cent of the land area.
Belfast, the capital of Northern Ireland is the leading industrial centre and a large port. Its chief industries are the production of linen and other textiles, clothing, shipbuilding, engineering.
Union Jack is the name of the flag of the United Kingdom. Union Flag, as it is officially called, is a combination of several flags: Scottish, English and Irish. The creation of the flag started when Scotland joined England and Wales.
It originally consisted of English and Scottish flags: St. Andrew’s cross, blue flag with a white cross, was joined with English St. George’s Cross, white flag with a red cross. This way original Union Jack of 1606 was a blue flag with two crosses (white and red). Later, in 1801 when Ireland joined the union a red cross from St. Patrick’s Cross (Irish flag) was added to the flag and the Union Jack began to look as it does today.
Despite being a part of the United Kingdom, Welsh flag (St. David) is not represented on the flag of the union. The reason might be that Wales is not a kingdom. It is interesting to notice that the Union Jack is also a part of the flags of Australia and New Zealand. King James III ordered that the flag should be flown on the main mast of all British ships.
Today the Union Jack is a popular symbol that regularly appears on clothes, bags, souvenirs and even cars. Its colours attract people so that it has become a fashionable emblem all over the world.
Перевод:
«Юнион Джек» – название флага Объединенного Королевства. «Юнион флаг», как он официально называется – это комбинация нескольких флагов: Шотландского, Английского и Ирландского. Создание флага началось, когда Шотландия присоединилась к Англии и Уэльсу.
Изначально он состоял из английского и шотландского флагов: «Андреевский Крест», синий флаг с белым крестом, был объединен с английским «Георгиевским Крестом» – белым флагом с красным крестом. Таким образом, «Юнион Джек» в 1606 году имел вид синего флага с двумя крестами (белым и красным). Позднее, в 1801 году, когда Ирландия присоединилась к союзу, красный крест с «Креста Святого Патрика» (Ирландского флага) был добавлен к флагу и «Юнион Джек» приобрел свой современный вид.
Несмотря на то, что Уэльс также является частью Объединенного Королевства, его флаг (Сент-Де́йвид) не представлен на флаге союза. Причиной, возможно, является то, что Уэльс не королевство. Интересно отметить, что «Юнион Джек» также является частью флагов Австралии и Новой Зеландии. По распоряжению короля Якова III этот флаг развевался на грот-мачте каждого британского корабля.
Сегодня «Юнион Джек» — знаменитый символ, регулярно появляющийся на одежде, сумках, сувенирах и даже машинах. Его цвета привлекают людей, поэтому он стал модной эмблемой по всему миру.
Слова и выражения:
Cross – крест
To be joined with – присоединить к..., объединиться с…
Despite +V ing/N – несмотря на (Despite being a part of...)
To be represented – быть изображенным/представленным
Kingdom – королевство
to order – распорядиться, приказать
The national flag of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the most obvious symbol of the United Kingdom. It is called the Union Jack.
"Jack" is an old word which means "sailor". It explaines the name of the flag. King James III (1566-1622) ordered the Union Flag to be flown on the main mast of all British ships, except for the ships of war. So the flag was flown at the front of the ships.
Union Jack is a mixture of several overlaid flags. It combines three flags representing England, Scotland and Ireland.
These flags are the crosses of the Patron Saint of England (St. George"s Cross — red cross on a white ground), the flag of the Patron Saint of Scotland (St. Andrew"s Cross — white diagonal cross on a blue ground) and the flag of the Patron Saint of Nothern Ireland (St. Patrick"s Cross — red diagonal on a white ground).
St. David of Wales is not represented in the flag probably because Wales is a principality, not a kingdom.
The National Anthem of the UK
People all over the world know the first line of the national anthem of Great Britain which is called "God Save the Queen" . It was adopted after the War with Napoleon.
God save our gracious Queen Long Hue our noble Queen God save the Queen! Send her victorious Happy and glorious Long to reign over us God save the Queen!Читайте также другие темы раздела "The National Emblems / Государственные эмблемы (Национальные символы)" :
- The National Emblems / Государственные эмблемы (Национальные символы)
- The National Flag of the UK. The National Anthem of the UK / Национальный флаг и гимн Великобритании