- •Белорусский государственный университет Кафедра английского языка гуманитарных факультетов
- •Абрамчик е.Ф., Поваляева в.Н., Турляй л.П., Козел л.А.
- •History as a Science
- •Preview
- •Text 1. Understanding History
- •Text 2. How do We Know?
- •Text 3. Examining Archaeology
- •Text 4. Museum – Source of Knowledge and Impressions
- •Polydialogue. The University-wide Open Days
- •The usefulness of archives
- •Video. Dartmoor National Park
- •Vocabulary
- •Follow-up
- •Vocabulary
- •Follow-up
- •Vocabulary
- •Before you view
- •Vocabulary
- •Comprehension tasks
- •Follow-up
- •Writing tasks
- •Finally …
- •Unit 2 first steps toward civilization
- •Text 1. The Early Accomplishments of Homo sapiens
- •Text 2. Setting the Stage for Civilization: The Origins of Food Production
- •Text 3. The Gradual Transition From Food Gathering To Food Production
- •Text 4. The Transition to a Sedentary Way of Life
- •Ex. 1. Translate the text into English.
- •Unit III classical civilization. Ancient greek culture
- •Text 1. The ancient Greeks
- •Text 2. The Evolution of Democracy
- •Text 3. Sparta and Athens
- •Text 4. The Age of Pericles
- •The economy of Athens
- •Text 5. Religions and sports festivals
- •Text 6. Greek Drama
- •Text 7. The Spread of Greek Culture
- •The Golden age of Greek Theatre
- •The tragedy form
- •Александрия
- •Unit IV ancient rome and its socio-political development. The roman empire
- •Text 1. The Rise Of The Republic
- •Text 2. Overseas Expansion
- •Text 3. The Fall Of The Roman Republic
- •Text 4. Greece and Rome
- •The Birth of Rome
- •Text 5. The Early Empire
- •Text 6. Social Rank in the Empire
- •Text 7. The Roman Economy
- •Rich and Poor
- •Золотой век
- •Unit V rome and the christians
- •Text 1. The Early Christians
- •Text 2. Rome and the Christians
- •Text 3. The Decline of Rome
- •Text 4. The Fall Of Rome
- •The Causes of the Fall
- •Христианство
- •Unit VI the middle ages
- •Text 1. The Middle Ages. Their Classification and General Characteristics.
- •Text 2. Byzantine and Its Influence on Neighboring Countries
- •In the Field of Learning and Religion
- •Text 3. Medieval Europe
- •Text 4. The Spirit of the Renaissance
- •Features of Renaissance Art
- •Ex. 2. Translate the text into English. Феодальная система в Западной и Центральной Европе
- •Discussion
- •Text 1. Primordial Belarus – From Forest Tribes to the Decline of Polatsk
- •Text 2. The Development and Flourishing of Great Lithuania
- •Text 3. Belarus after Vitaut: its Golden Age and Decline
- •Text 4. Belarus after the Third Division of Rech Paspalitaya
- •Dialogue Travelling Broadens the Mind
- •B. Some old and Rare Books in the Francisk Skaryna Library in London
- •Part III
- •Britain
- •Preview
- •Reading Text 1. Primitive Society on the territory of the British Isles
- •The Earliest Men
- •The Celts
- •The Primitive Communal System
- •Word Check
- •Comprehension
- •Text 2. The British Empire
- •Text 3. Economic and Social Changes
- •In England in the 18th and 19th Centuries
- •Text 4. Modern Britain. Stability and Change.
- •Rich and Poor
- •Unit II american continet:
- •Its first civilizations and colonies.
- •Text 1. From Early People to Colonies.
- •Text 2. Colonization of America. War For Independence
- •Discussion
- •Text 3. Constitution. Bill of Rights.
- •Comprehension
- •Word Check
- •Ex. 2. Discuss which of them one can find in a) democratic society
- •Text 2. The European Union Read the text and say in a few words the main points of the text
- •Text 3. United Nations Read the text and assimilate its information
- •Security Council.
- •Translation
- •Unit II outstanding people
- •Text 1. The “Father of History”
- •Text 2. Alexander the Great and his Influence
- •Text 3. Elizabeth I.
- •Text 4. John Fitzerald Kennedy.
- •Contents
Comprehension
Ex. 1. Complete the sentences, use the information from the text.
We don’t know much about the Iberians because …
Today the words “Briton” and “British” refer to …
We know more about the earlier inhabitants of the islands, because …
They Celts worshipped Nature. They imagined the sky …
The Iberians had gathered or hunted their food, but the Celts …
The labour productivity was low, because …
In primitive society there was no private property, therefore …
The transition from primitive communal society to class society gradually began when …
Ex. 2. Say if the statements are true or false.
Very little is known about the Iberians who lived on the British Isles about three thousand year B.C.
The Romans were the first to mention the British Isles.
Powerful Celtic tribes, the Britons, held most of the country, and the southern half of the island was named Briton after them.
The pagan gods the Celts worshipped were called by the same names in various places.
The Celtic priests, druids, were not so important and powerful as the Celtic chiefs.
In the primitive society of the Celts there was no private property.
Ex. 3. Answer the following questions.
What people inhabited the British Isles in ancient times?
What do we know about the Iberians?
Whose written accounts help us learn more about the way of life of the Celts?
Why did the primitive people have to live collectively?
Why was labour productivity very low in primitive society?
What did the primitive people own jointly?
How was a tribe governed?
Text 2. The British Empire
Read the text and do the tasks that follow:
The growth of the British Empire was due in large part to the ongoing competition for resources and markets which existed over a period of centuries between England and other European countries – Spain, France, and Holland. During the reign of Elizabeth I, England set up trading companies in Turkey, Russia, and the East Indies, explored the coast of North America, and established colonies there. In the early seventeenth century those colonies were expanded and the systematic colonization of Ulster in Ireland got underway.
Until the early nineteenth century, the primary purpose of Imperialist policies was to facilitate the acquisition of as much foreign territory as possible, both as a source of raw materials and in order to provide markets for British manufactured goods. Britain imported food and raw materials for her factories from all over the Empire, while selling back manufactured goods. A profitable balance of trade, it was believed, would provide the wealth necessary to maintain and expand the Empire.
After ultimately successful wars with the Dutch, the French, and the Spanish in the seventeenth century, Britain managed to acquire most of the eastern coast of North America, the St. Lawrence basin in Canada, territories in the Caribbean, stations in Africa for the acquisition of slaves, and important interests in India. The loss in the late eighteenth century of the American colonies influenced the so-called “swing to the East” (the acquisition of trading and strategic bases along the trade routes between India and the Far East).
In 1773 the British government was obliged to take over for the financially troubled East India Company, which had been in India since 1600, and by the end of the century Britain’s control over India extended into neighbouring Afghanistan and Burma.
Australia was the last continent to be discovered and developed, and its development was very slow until it had become of sufficient importance in itself to be the terminus of regular trade roads to and from the Old World.
The discovery of gold in Australia in 1851 attracted thousands of diggers from all over Europe. The powerful Australian aristocracy who saw in these immigrants a menace to their vast holdings of land, and found that the rush to the gold-fields made in hard to obtain shepherds and sheep shearers used their influence with the British government to have heavy taxes and all kinds of irksome police restrictions placed upon them.
The gold deposits gave out after a few years, but the population continued to increase. Sheep farming and mining continued to be important, but with the growth of railways considerable industries developed in Australia.
With the end, in 1815, of the Napoleonic Wars, the last of the great imperial wars which had dominated the eighteenth century, Britain found itself in an extraordinarily powerful position, though a complicated one. It acquired Dutch South Africa, for example, but found its interests threatened in India by the southern and eastern expansion of the Russians. (The protection of India from the Russians, both by land and by sea, would be a major concern of Victorian foreign policy). At this time, however, the empires of Britain’s traditional rivals had been lost or severely diminished in size, and its imperial position was unchallenged. In addition, Britain had become the leading industrial nation of Europe, and more and more of the world came under the domination of British commercial, financial, and naval power.
This state of affairs, however, was complex and far from stable. The old mercantile Empire was weakened during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries by a number of factors: by the abolition in 1807 of slavery in Britain itself, and by adoption of Free Trade, which minimized the influence of the oligarchies and monopolistic trading corporation, and by various colonial movements for greater political and commercial independence.
During the Victorian Age, however, the acquisition of territory and of further trading concessions continued (promoted by strategic considerations and aided or justified by philanthropic motivations), reaching its peak when Victoria had been crowned Empress of India. Advocates of the imperialist foreign policies justified them by invoking a paternalistic and racist theory which saw Imperialism as a manifestation of “the white man’s burden”. The implication, of course, was that the Empire existed not for the benefit – economic or strategic or otherwise – of Britain itself, but in order that primitive peoples, incapable of self-government, could, with British guidance, eventually become civilized. The truth of this doctrine was accepted naively by some, and hypocritically by others, but it served in any case to legitimize Britain’s acquisition of portions of central Africa and her domination, in concert with other European powers, of China.
At the height of the Empire, however, growing nationalist movements in various colonies presaged its dissolution. The process accelerated after World War I, although in the immediate post-was period the Empire actually increased in size as Britain became the “trustee” of former German and Turkish territories (Egypt, for example) in Africa and the Middle East. The English-speaking colonies, Canada and Australia, had already acquired dominion status in 1907, and in 1931 Britain and the self-governing dominions – Canada, Australia, New Zeland, South Africa, and the Irish Free State – agreed to form the “Commonwealth of Nations”. The Dominions came to the aid of Britain during World War II, but Britain’s losses to the Japanese in the Far East made it clear that it no longer possessed the resources to maintain the old order of things. The Americans were in any case ready, indeed anxious, to replace British influence in many areas of the world.
Britain’s hold on India had gradually loosened. India achieved qualified self-government in 1935 and independence in 1947. Ireland, which had at last won dominion status in 1921 after a brutal guerrilla war, achieved independence in 1949, although the northern province of Ulster remained a part of Great Britain. The process of decolonization in Africa and Asia accelerated during the late 1950’s. Today, any affinities which remain between former portions of the Empire are primarily linguistic or cultural rather than political.
Ex. 1. Answer the questions.
What was the growth of the British Empire due to?
When were the first English trading companies set up? Where did they establish colonies? What was the primary purpose of Imperialist policies until the early nineteenth century?
What caused the “swing” to the East in British colonial policy?
When did Australia become Britain’s colony? How did it develop?
What was Britain’s position in the world with the end of the Napoleonic Wars?
What factors weakened the British Empire?
What doctrine was the British Empire guided by during the Victorian Age to ligitimize Britain’s acquisition of portions of Central Africa and its domination of China?
What presaged the Empire’s dissolution?
What happened when Britain’s hold on her colonies had loosened?
Speak on the biggest British colonies and what they provided Britain with.