Britain At A Glance Flashcards
Which are the isles that comprise the archipielago?
Great Britain, Ireland, Shetlands, Orkneys, Hebrides, Man, Wight
Where is the archipielago located?
Off the nothwest coast of Europe.
What is a nation?
A community of people sharing a territory, common past experiences, common cultural features, and some goal for the feature.
What is a state?
A political organization of a nation, with a system of goverment and international recognition.
Goverment
Group of people, usually a political coalition, in control of the state of a certain period of time. Goverments are temporary and the state is permanent.
Which are the four nations in the British Isles?
England, Scotland, Wales, and Nothern Ireland.
What’s the full name of the UK?
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Nothern Ireland
Which are the two nations in the Island of Ireland?
Nothern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland
Celtic name of The Republic of Ireland
Eire
Celtic name of Nothern Ireland
Ulster
How many counties or shires compose Britain?
71
Uk population
60.6 million
Why does Britain have a negative population rate?
Because more people die or emigrate that are born or arrive.
Main countries from which people immigrate to the UK
India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and the Caribbean region.
Britain’s natural resources
Coal and iron
How has Britain sustained her industrial activities?
Importing raw materials from abroad
What is the Maritime commerce?
Hence the dominion of the seas through the navy.
Britain’s most important product in the middle ages
Wool ans its manufacture
What important event was caused in the 19th century thanks to the abundance of coal and iron?
Coal and ironthe industrial revolution
Britain’s production nowadays
Chemicals, electronics, plastics, vehicles, ships, aircrafts, clothing, printing, computers,cprossesed food and drinks,coil, dairy, and fishing products.
Most active economic sector
The invisible commerce.
What is the invisible commerce?
The profits made by investments on insurance, banking services, and stocks.
The City
An area of London where these institutions have their headquarters.
Which foundation partly organizes the tourism industry?
The National Trust (or Heritage) Foundation
How is Britain defined in political terms?
As a constitutional monarchy and a parlimentarian democracy.
Which are the two types of law in legal matters?
The common law and the statue law
Common Law
Law based on precedent or tradition
Statue Law
Law dictated by the parliment
Magna Carta by King John, 1215
First attempt of creating a Constitution
Creation of the parliment
1295
Comstitution
Basic or fundamental law
How is Britains Constitution?
Largely unwritten and very flexible
Executive power
The one who truely and effectively exercises the goverment
Who is the Prime Minister?
The head of the Government in charge of setting the board lines of the policy of the nation
Current Prime Minister
Theresa May
Parliment
Where the legislative power is laid
Who composes the parliment?
The Queen, the House of Lords, and the House of Commons.
Who is the Head of the State?
The queen Elizabeth II, of the House of Windsor.
Which are the Queens duties?
Mostly ceremonial, as a historical symbol of the continuity of the nation.
When was Elizabeth II crowned?
In 1953
In whose hands does the real political power reside?
In The House of Commons
Who are the Commons
Around 640 members elected by the people for a maximum of five years
What’s the House of Lords?
A group of around 740 members who do not have much real power, they are basically a remanent of the old days of the kingdom
Which are the two types of Lords?
Lord temporal and Lord Spiritual
Where does the Judicial power reside?
In the Court of Justice
Who are the supreme authority in matters of justice?
A group of members of the House of Lords called Law Lords.
Two main political parties
Conservative and Labour Parties
Shadow Cabinet
A sort of fake parallel cabinet to the oficial one created by the opposition.
Civil Service
The ones who take charge of the daily administration of the country
Western Bloc
UK, Germany, France, Italy, USA, Canada, among others
NATO
Nothern Atlantic Treaty Organization
NATOs purpose
To face the military challange of the Eastern Bbloc led by the Sovietic Union
European Union
Economic coalition initiated by France, Italy, and West Germany in the 1950s. Now it is a political, cultural and economical association of more than 25 countries
Since when has Britain been part of the EU?
1973
Britains currency
Sterling pound
Whcih religion deeply marked the historical development of Britain?
Christianity
Most serious crisis of the Christian church in England
16th century, when Henry VIII decided that the church in England should be independant from the Catholic Pope in Rome
Two official churches in Britain
The Church of England/ Anglican Communion, and the Church of Scotland or Presbyterian Church (Kirk)
Archbishop of Canterbury, from the Anglican Church
Rev. Justin Welby
Followers of the Church of England around the world
70 million followers
How is the Church of England known in the USA?
Episcopal Church
Lambeth Conference
Religious meeting that gathers every ten years in the city of Lambeth, near London. It is the supreme religious meeting of their church
Free churches
Baptists, Methodists, Pentecostalists, Salvation Army.
Number of Roman Catholics in England, Scotland and Wales
Six million
Secularization in Britain
Separation from religious or spiritual connections.
Sport most connected with Britain
Cricket
Where were criket’s rules created?
In Britain
Most popular sport in Britain
Football
What is cricket associated with?
It is associated with a kind of sentimental vision of Old England
Most relevant thing when playing Cricket
To play by the rules of fair play
That’s not cricket
That’s not fair
Other important sports
Football, rugby, boxing, climbing, skiing, tennis, rowing, golf, etc
Importance of sports in the 19th century
Develops personal discipline in the formation of the British character
Which ideas were considered as fundamental in the education of a gentleman?
Fair play, team work, and amateurism.
Why did sports influence the idea of education?
Because they internalized some values such as self discipline, courage, team work, honesty, and endurance.
Activities which traditionally have been a symbol of the English way of life
Horse riding, greyhound racing and fox haunting
British character
Traditionalist and conservative. They are prone to compromise, practical, determined and have a strong-will.
Provincialism
British tend to understand the workd and other cultures comparing them to their culture, and seeing themselves as superior.
What did the Puritan Experience teach them?
Habits of strict responsibility, self control and personal reserve in social behaviour
Some of the British worst defects
Feeling of snobbishness and suoerciliousness. A tendency to look down upon. A trait of hypocrisy and selfish pursuitof their own interest
British in social treatment
Formal and reserved. Polite but distant and even shy. Class minded society
Main concern in the British idea of education since the 16 th century
The formation of character
Aim of education in the 19th century
To shape man as empire builders
Who created the educational project of the Scout Movement?
Robert Baden Powell
Education in the 20th century
Academic achievements became more important than physical and moral ones. Recognizes the role of woman in society
Human capital of a nation
Complex set of values and attitudes which people bring into the interplay of social life
British human capital values
Practical and realistic approach to problems, inventiveness, a deep sense of individual and community awareness, and educational and managerial skills
What’s the name of the narrow passage that separates Britain from French?
The English Channel
What’s the width of the English Channel?
35 kilometers
Surface of the Island of Britain
240.000 square km
Length from north to south of the British Island
1000 km
Widest point
No more than 500 km
Attitude towards the sea the first ten centuries
Passive and receptive
Attitude towards the sea the last 500 years
Active and acquisitive
Where are the highlands located?
In the north and west part of the terrain
Why is Britains climate milder than in the continent?
Because of the influence of the ocean
Celtic fringe
Western and nothern boundaries of the Island where people there are mostly descendants of the earliest inhabitants of the archipelago
What percentage of the UK population lives in the southeastern partnof England?
80%
Westminster Abbey
One of the UKs most notable religious buildings. Place of the coronation and burial for British monarchs.
Trafalgar square
Public square in the city of Westminster, London. Statue of Almirant Nelson
Piccadilly circus
Road conjunction and public soace of London.
London Eye
Giant Ferris wheel by the river Thames in London. Millennium wheel
Buckingham palace
London residence and administrative headquarter of the monarch of the UK
Westminster palace
Meeting place of the House of Commons and the House of Lords
Tower of London
Historical palace, now it is a museum
Queens guards
Contingent infantery responsible for guarding Buckingham palace
