1、最新英美文化基础教程笔记总结英国部分1.Who Are the British?The ScotsCharacteristic: inven tive, hardwork ing, serious-min ded and cautious with money Highlanders: a. they are the Scots live in the mountainous regions of the Highlanders in Northern Scotla ndb.they are proud, independent and hardy people who maintain th
2、eir strong cultural ide ntity.c.Living by farming sheep in the mountain areas or fishing on the coasts and isla ndLowlanders: Most Scots are lowlanders who live in the industrialized areas of south Scotla ndScottish n ames: a. Campbell, Macleod, Fraser, Gordon, Stuart and Macdon aldb. Mac6r Mc means
3、 son ofFamous writers: Robert Burns (1759-96), Sir Walter Scott (1771-1893), Robert Louis Steve nson (1850-94)The WelshCharacteristic: a. con scious of their separate Celtic heritageb.famous for their love of music and poetry and they have developed choral singing to a n ati onal art.c.they also hav
4、e a great feeling for the music of words.Two group of the Welsh:a.Those-mostly sheep farmers-from the mountainous regi ons of the centre and n orthb.Those (two-thirds of the population)who live and work in thehighly industrialized south where coal mining and steelmanu facture are the main econo mic
5、activitiesTwo passi ons: a. rugby footballb. choral singing Land of My Father nati on al an themthe Nati onal Eisteddfod:a.Eisteddfod is the Welsh word for sitt ing. Nati onal Eisteddfod isthe most famous festival of music and verse in Walesb.It takes place in each August and last for about a weekc.
6、The highlight of the Eisteddfod is a competiti on for the best epic poem about Wales writte n and read in Welshd.The winner is crowned Bard, considered the supreme honor in WalesWelsh n ames: a. Jon es, Williams, Thomas, Evans, Lloyd, Llewell yn, or begi n with Plike Prichard, Probert or Pryseb.ap m
7、ea ns son ofFamous writers: Dyla n Thomas, Gwyn Thomas(bor n 1913) and Richard Llewelly n(born 1970)The IrishCharacteristic: a. a mainly Celtic peopleb.have rich literary heritage which is apparent their love of wordsc.in the literary works of Irish writers, the Irish are portrayed as introspective
8、dreamers and poets, as well as argumentative and aggressive-especially after a drinking sessi on.Oliver Cromwell: a. Lord Protector of Brita inb.crushed various rebellions in Ireland, and settled English and Scottish Protesta nts there by givi ng them land.c.the main duty of the new immigrants was t
9、o put dowm any an ti-British revolt by the n ative Irish.Home rule: between 1840 and 1900, some Irish nationalists, such as Charles Stewart Parnell, demanded some kind of autonomy and Irish members of the Westm in ster Parliame nt. They called persiste ntly for the con trol of in ternal affairs by a
10、n assembly in Dublin. This was what they called home rule . The home rule question led to even more disturbance and riots as the Ulster Protesta nt feared that an aut onom ous Irela nd would be domin ated be Catholics.* The whole of Irela nd was coloni zed by En gla nd in 1169, and was partiti oned
11、in 1922. The 26 countries of southern Ireland became the Irish Free State, later renamed the Republic of Eire. The six coun tries of Ulster, i n the n orth, rema ined part of the Un ited Kin gdom with their own parliame nt, Storm ont, resp on sible for internal affairs.The Orange Day celebrati ons:a
12、.celebrati ons held by Protesta nt on 12 August each year in Norther n Irela nd to commemorate the Battle of the Royne in 1690 whe n the Protesta nt King William III(William of Orange ) crushed a Catholic rebelli on in London derry.b.The celebrations were aggressively provocative and fightings often
13、 broke out betwee n Protesta nt marchers and Catholic bysta ndersThe Provisional IRA : a. IRA, the Irish Republican Army, is a nationalist organization dedicated to the unification of Irelandb.It was orga ni zed in 1919c.the IRA refused to accept a separate Norther n Irela nd un der British ruled.In
14、 1969 it split into an official majority, which disclaimed violence, and a terrorist provisional wing, whose attacks on British troops in Norther n Irela nd, ran dom bomb in gs, and others acts of terror in En gla nd kept tensions high.The Peace People: a. i n the summer of 1976 Betty Williams, a Pr
15、otesta nt housewife, was so horrified at the killing of two children by a running IRA car that she decided to orga ni zed the wome n of Ulster, both Protesta nt and Catholic in to a pressure group.b.It is a pressure group work for peace and reconciliation in Ireland.c.Williams and her Catholic partn
16、er, Corrigan, soon gathered thousa nds of followers despite threats and in timidati on from both sides.d.they con ti nued to pursue their aims and at the end of 1976 the twoleaders were awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace.Famous writers and playwrights:John Millington Synge(1871-1909), James Joyce(188
17、2-1941) and Sean Oasey(1880-1964)The EnglishCharacteristic: Reserved, un emoti on al, courteous; shy of stra ngers; suspicious of cha nge and slow the accept new ideas; solid and depe ndable with a high sense of honesty, duty and justice; physically and morally courageous; conscious of his place in
18、the social order, disliking any show of emotion and lack of control; and fervently believing that the British are superior to any other race on earth.Romansi nflue nee: a. the Roma ns in vaded En gla nd in 55 BC, and brought with them their laws, taxes, engineering skills, architecture and social sy
19、stem as well as their Ianguage, Latin, and their system of writing and numbering.b.they introduced Christianity and when they departed in AD 411, they left behind a well established Celtic-Roman culture.c.they also left behind the first written description of the land and its peoples as well as reco
20、rds of their adm ini strati on.The Norman Conquest: a. i n AD 1066, William of Norma ndy Ian ded his army in En gla nd (William the Conqueror) b. he defeated the Saxon king Harold and the English soldiers, and became the king of En gla nd the same year.c. French was made the official language and th
21、e feudal system was firmly established in En gla nd.The Com mon wealth Immigra nts Act:From the year of 1962, people from com mon wealth coun tries no Ion ger had free entry to the UK and could not claim automatic full citize nship.UK= the United Kingdom of Great Britain and the Northern Ireland The
22、 British Isles:the British Isles lie northwest of Europe in the Atlantic Ocean. They consist of two large isla nds-Brita in and Irela nd.Northern Irela nd (Ulster):Norther n Irela nd is a part of the Un ited Kin gdom in the n orth-east of the isla nd of Irela nd. It was partitioned from the rest of
23、Ireland during the Irish War of Independence, by an Act of the British Parliament. Northern Ireland shares a border with the Republic of Ireland to the south and west. Norther n Irela nd is largely self-gover ning.William III:known as William of Oran ge. Both his wife and he are Protesta nts. He was
24、 the stadtholder of the Netherlands. In 1689 he was invited by opponents of James II to accept the British throne which was known as Glorious Revolution, and he ruled jointly with his wife Mary II (James daughter) .In the same year, the British Parliame nt passed the Bill of Rights which limited the
25、 powers of the crow n. Thus bega n the En glish Con stituti onal Mon archy.2.English HistoryThe Middle Ages1.King Harold: the Saxon king who was defeated and killed at the Battle ofHasti ngs in 1066, when the Fren ch-speak ing Norma ns un der William the Conq ueror in vaded En gla nd from France2.Al
26、fred the Great: He was a fine Saxon king who successfully defeated theinvading Danes and was the ruler of the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Wessex, contributed greatly to the medieval Europea n culture. He made Wessex the An glo-Sax on culture center by introducing teachers and scholars, founding new monas
27、teries, and promoting translations into the vernacular from Lati n works. He also in spired the compilati on of theAn glo-Sax on Chro ni cles.3.King Arthur: a. he was the king of En gla nd in the sixth cen turyb. little was know about him, except that he was associated with Corn wall and is the cen
28、tral figure of many lege nds about him and his Kni ghts of the Round Table4.Crusades : the Crusades were a series of wars in the Middle Ages in whicharmies from all over Europe tried to snatch the Holy Land i.e. Palestine, where Jesus Christ once lived)from the Infidels(i.e. the Muslims)5.Richard Li
29、on-Heart: a. he was a Norman king in the Middle Agesb.he was also the most famous of the En glish Crusaders at that timec.Many stories have been told about him and his enemy Saladi n6.the Magna Carta( Great Charter):a.the Magna Carta( Great Chapter was a document signed in 1215 by King Joh n un der
30、compulsi on by the powerful baro nsb.the purpose of the Charter was to make King John to recog nize the rights of the baronsc.The Magna Carta is now in the British Museum, London7.the Hundred Year)War:a.a war betwee n En gla nd and France which lasted, on and off, for a hun dred years from 1337 to 1
31、453.b.It was fought entirely in France, and the whole of France very n early fell into En gla nd hands in the famous battles of Crecy and Agi ncourt.c.Eventually, partly through the inspiration of the brave girl Joan of Arc, and partly through the effective use of guns, the French drove the En glish
32、 from their land for good.d.England became completely severed from France, and the En glish Lan guage fin ally took place of French in all classes of society.8.Joa n of Arc: a. she was a French saint and n ati onal heroine.b.during the Hundred Year)War, her bravery and inspirationprovided spirit and morale for French armies.c.later she was captured and burned at the stake.The Sixteenth Century1.the Wars of the Roses: a. It is the name given to the struggle(1455-1486) forthe throne
