Lectures in british studies lecture 01 one of the greatest countries of the world

1.1. General description: what comes to mind first?

1.1.1 United Kingdom is a constitutional monarchy in northwestern Europe, officially the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Great Britain is the largest island in the cluster of islands, or archipelago, known as the British Isles. England is the largest and most populous division of the island of Great Britain, making up the south and east. Wales is on the west and Scotland is to the north. Northern Ireland is located in the northeast corner of Ireland, the second largest island in the British Isles. The capital of the United Kingdom is the city of London, situated near the southeastern tip of England.

1.1.2. People often confuse the names for this country, and frequently make mistakes in using them. United Kingdom, UK, and Britain are all proper terms for the entire nation, although the term Britain is also often used when talking about the island of Great Britain. The use of the term Great Britain to refer to the entire nation is now outdated; the term Great Britain, properly used, refers only to the island of Great Britain, which does not include Northern Ireland. The term England should never be used to describe Britain, because England is only one part of the island. It is always correct to call people from England, Scotland, or Wales British, although people from England may also properly be called English, people from Scotland Scottish, and people from Wales Welsh.

1.1.3. The United Kingdom is a small nation in physical size – 244,110 sq km (94,251 sq mi). It is located as far north in latitude as Labrador in North America, but, like the rest of northern Europe, it is warmed by the Gulf Stream flowing out of the North Atlantic Ocean. These conditions make Britain lush and green, with rolling plains in the south and east and rough hills and mountains to the west and north. Despite its relatively small size, Britain is highly populated, with an estimated population density of 250 persons per sq km (646 per sq mi) in 2004.

1.1.4. It is highly developed economically, preeminent in the arts and sciences, sophisticated in technology, and highly prosperous and peaceful. In general, British subjects belong to one of the more affluent states of Europe and enjoy a high standard of living compared to the rest of the world. Some class distinctions have become blurred in Britain. Today only a small number of people are considered upper class. Because the British economy has created many semiprofessional and technical jobs, it is no longer easy to tell which jobs are middle class and which are working class. Moreover, growing national affluence has brought greater social mobility between the working class and the middle class.

1.2. Contributions to human civilization.

1.2.1. In the early 20th century, a quarter of the world’s people and a quarter of the world’s land surface were controlled in some way by Britain. In fact, it was British travelers and explorers who contributed a lot to our knowledge of the world. One can remember the navigator and explorer Sir Francis Drake. His famous contemporary was Sir Walter Raleigh, also a traveler. Two hundred years later Captain James Cook, British explorer and navigator, made his three voyages of exploration in the South Pacific Ocean and the coastal waters of North America. He is best known as the discoverer of the Hawaiian Islands and Australia. Other travelers of note include David Livingstone, Ernest Henry Shackleton and Robert Falcon Scott who reached the South Pole in 1912.

1.2.2. Britain was a pioneer in economic matters. The first industrial revolution occurred in Britain and led to the development of the world’s first society dominated by a middle class. Rapid economic development and worldwide trade made Britain the richest nation in the world during the reign of Queen Victoria. The technology of the Industrial Revolution was developed by practical craftsmen who pioneered innovations on the earliest machines. A key invention was a practical steam engine, which Scottish inventor James Watt was pivotal in developing in the late 18th century. Engineer George Stephenson built the first railway, steamboats and tunnels were built by Isambard Brunel. All of these early inventions were first used in the textile industry.

1.2.3. Britain has been a world leader in science. Modern science owes much Francis Bacon, whose theories laid the foundation of the scientific method. Sir Isaac Newton, a scientific genius in physics and mathematics. At the end of the XIX century the British physician Edward Jenner discovered the vaccine that is used against smallpox and laid the groundwork for the science of immunology. During the Victorian age, Michael Faraday's and James Maxwell's work led to the practical application of the electric power. Biologist Charles Darwin developed the theory of evolution through natural selection, which radically influenced modern science and thought. Surgeon Joseph Lister introduced antiseptic surgery.

1.2.4. Over the last century, more than 70 British citizens have been awarded the Nobel Prize in science, second only to the United States. One of them is Alexander Fleming who discovered penicillin, the first of the antibiotic medicines. In physics, several British scientists carried on atomic research, most notably Ernest Rutherford. British technology pioneered in the development of radar and jet engines. British scientists contributed to the 1953 discovery of the molecular structure of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) as well as subsequent breakthroughs in medicine and genetics, including DNA fingerprinting, gene therapy, and in vitro fertilization. In the late 1990s a team of researchers led by Ian Wilmut performed the first successful cloning of an animal.