Тема«Places of Interest in
Great Britain»
Содержание:
Places of Interest in Great Britain
British literature
Christmas in Great Britain British Museums Newspapers
in Britain Достопримечательности
Places of Interest in Great Britain
Britain is rich in its historic places which
link the present with the past.
The oldest part of London is Lud Hill, where
the city is originated. About a mile west of it there is Westminster Palace,
where the king lived and the Parliament met, and there is also Westminster
Abbey, the coronation church.
Liverpool, the "city of ships”, is England's
second greatest port, ranking after London. The most interesting sight in the
Liverpool is the docks. They occupy river frontage of seven miles. The
University of Liverpool, established in 1903, is noted for its School of
Tropical Medicine. And in the music world Liverpool is a well-known name, for
it's the home town of "The Beatles”.
Stratford-on-Avon lies 93 miles north-west of
London. Shakespeare was born here in 1564, and here he died in 1616. Cambridge
and Oxford Universities are famous centres of learning. Stonehenge is a
prehistoric monument, presumably built by Druids, members of an order of priests
in ancient Britain. Tintagel Castle is King Arthur's reputed birthplace.
Canterbury Cathedral is the seat of the Archbishop of Canterbury, head of the
Church of England. The British Museums is the largest and richest museum in the
world. It was founded in 1753 and contains one of the world's richest
collections of antiquities. The Egyptian Galleries contain human and animal
mummies. Some parts of Athens' Parthenon are in the Greek section. Madam
Tussaud's Museum is an exhibition of hundreds of life-size wax models of famous
people of yesterday and today. The collection was started by Madam Tussaud, a
French modeler. In wax, in the 18th century. Here you can meet Marilyn Monroe,
Elton John, Picasso, the Royal Family, the Beatles and many others: writers,
movie stars, singers, politicians, sportsmen, etc.
British literature
Great Britain gave the world a lot of talented
people. Many famous writers and lived in Great Britain. One of the best known
English playwrights was William Shakespeare. He draws ideas for his tragedies
and comedies from the history of England and ancient Rome. Many experts
consider Shakespeare the greatest playwright in English language. William
Shakespeare wrote 37 plays which may be divided into: comedies (such as "A
Midsummer Night's Dream”), tragedies (such as "Hamlet”, "Othello”, "King Lear”,
"Macbeth”) and historical plays (such as "Richard 2”, "Henry 5”, "Julius
Caesar”, "Antony and Cleopatra”). Robert Burns represents the generation of
Romantic writers. In his poems he described of Romantic writers. In his poems
he described with love and understanding the simple life he knew. Among his
well-known poems are "Halloween”, "The Jolly Beggars”, "To a Mouse”. Lord
George Gordon Byron. His free-spirited life style combined with his rare poetic
gift makes him one of the most famous figures of the Romantic Era. His famous
works such as "Stanzas to Augusta”, "The Prisoner of Chillon”, "Childe Harold's
Pilgrimage”, "Manfred” draw readers into the passion, humors and conviction of
a poet whose life and work truly embodied the Romantic spirit. Sir Walter Scott
Wrote the first examples of historical novel. Lewis Carroll became famous when
he published "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland”.
Christmas in Great Britain
For most British families, this is the most
important festival of the year. This is the day when many people are traveling
home to be with their families on Christmas Day. If you try to catch a train on
24th December you may have difficulty in finding a seat. There are a lot of
traditions connected with Christmas butt the most important one is the giving
of presents. Family members wrap up their gifts and leave them at the bottom of
the Christmas tree to be bound on Christmas morning. At some time on Christmas
Day the family will sit down to a big turkey dinner followed by Christmas
pudding.
In the afternoon they may watch the Queen on
the television as she delivers her traditional Christmas message to the United
Kingdom and Commonwealth. Then they enjoy a piece of Christmas cake or eat a
hot mince pie. On the Sunday before Christmas many churches hold a service
where special hymns are sung. Sometimes singers can be heard on the streets as
they collect money for charity. Most families decorate their houses with
brightly-coloured paper or holly, and they usually have a Christmas tree in the
corner of the room, glittering with coloured lights and decoration. 26th
December is also a public holiday, called Boxing Day. This is the time to visit
friends and relatives or be a spectator at one of the many sporting events.
Everyone in Great Britain is waiting and
enjoying this holiday very much!
British Museums
There are many museums in London. One of them
is them is the Tate Gallery in Millmank, which presents modern masters of
England and France. There are some fine examples of modern sculpture. Its
collection of French Impressionists is marvelous. There is the Victoria and
Albert Museum in Brompton Road. It has an outstanding collection of the applied
arts of all countries and periods. The National Gallery in Trafalgar Square has
one of the best picture collections in the world. It has the most valuable
display of French paintings from the early of the Impressionists, and, of
course, the finest English painting, with Gainsborough, Turner, Constable and
others. It shows the progress of Italian painting from the medieval to the
Renaissance, some outstanding pictures of the old Roman masters. It also has a
great variety of Dutch and Flemish masters and an excellent choice of Spanish
painters. There are great treasures dispersed in private collections all over
the world. The Queen's collection is the most valuable among them.
Newspapers in Britain
If you get on a bus or catch a train in
Britain, especially during the morning and evening "rush hour”, you'll see a
lot of people reading newspapers. The press tells us about various political
views, interest and levels of education. Papers are usually divided into
"quality” papers which are serious with long, informative articles and
"popular” which have smaller size. They are less serious and contain more human
interest stories than news.
More daily newspapers, national and regional
are sold in Great Britain than in most other developed countries. There are
about 135 daily papers and Sunday papers, 2000 weekly papers and about 100
papers produced by members of ethnic groups.
A lot of people buy a morning paper, an evening
paper and a couple of Sunday papers. On an average day two out of three people
over the age of 15 read a national morning paper, about three out of four read
a Sunday paper. So it's not surprising to learn that national newspapers have a
circulation of 15.8 million copies on weekdays and 19 million on Sundays.
Newspapers are almost always financially independent
of any political party. However, during general election campaigns many papers
recommend their readers to vote for a particular political party. Ownership of
the national London and regional daily newspapers is concentrated in the hands
of large press publishing groups.
|