Ðåôåðàò: Èñòîðèÿ Âåëèêîáðèòàíèè
3) New studies (approximately 20 minutes)
This part of the lesson is dedicated to the present
topic: the Winter holidays. It basic part represents a text which must be read
and immediately translated by paragraphs, one paragraph by every student, one
by one. The text is approximately following:
“The Christmas Day in the United
Kingdom is celebrated on 25 December, as well as in the most of European
countries. Pope Julius I (A.D. 337-352), after much inquiry, came to the
conclusion that a very old tradition giving 25 December as the right date of
the Birth of the Lord was very probably true. This date already had a sacred
significance for thousands of people throughout the Roman Empire because it was
the Birthday of the Unconquered Sun, and also the chief festival of the
Phrygian god, Attis, and of Mithras, the soldier’s god, whose cult was carried
to Britain and many other countries by the Roman army. In the barbarian North,
also, the long celebration of Yule was held at this period. The Christian
Church, therefore, following its ancient practice of giving Christian meaning
to pagan rituals, eventually adopted 2 December for the Christmas Day.
Many of the British modern Christmas
customs and traditions are directly derived from pagan ceremonies belonging to
ancient midwinter feasts. One of the oldest is probably the decoration of
houses with greenery. Evergreens, which are symbols of undying life, were
commonly used to adorn the dwellings of forefathers, and their sacred
buildings, at the time of the winter solstice, and they have been so used ever
since.
The
curious custom of kissing under the mistletoe seems to be altogether English in
origin, and to appear in other European countries only when Englishmen have
taken it there. It has almost vanished nowdays, but can still be met in the
northern regions of England. The kissing bough, the lovely garland that used
to hang from the ceiling of the living room in so many houses before the coming
of the Christmas tree, had a bunch of mistletoe attached to its base. It was a
crown, or a globe, of greenery, adorned with lighted candles, red apples,
rosettes and ribbons, with the mistletoe hanging below. Sometimes small
presents were suspended from it. The Christmas tree surepceeded it in many
homes in the middle of the nineteenth century, but it never faded away
altogether.
The Christmas
tree came originally from Germany and went to America with German settlers
before it reached the British Isles in the first half of nineteenth century.
The first Christmas tree in Britain is believed to be set up at a children
party in 1821. By 1840 the custom became quite well-known in Manchester, but
what really established the Christmas tree and made it one of the British
cherished Christmas customs was the setting-up by Prince Albert of a Christmas
tree at Windsor castle in 1841. With little more than twenty years, the
Christmas trees were to be seen in countless British homes, and thousands were
annually on sale at Covent Garden Market. A century later the tradition has
overflowed from the houses into the streets and squares. Churches of every
denomination have their lighted and decorated trees, and since 1947 Oslo had
made an annual gift to the people of London, in the form of an immense tree
which stands in Trafalgar Square, close to Nelson’s Monument.
The giving of
presents and the exchange of Christmas cards are almost equally essential parts
of the Christmas festival in Britain today. The first one has its roots in the
pre-Christian times, and the latter is little more than a century old. Presents
were given to kinsfolk and to the poor at the feast of the Saturnalia in pagan
Rome, and so they were at the three-day Kalends of January, when the New Year
was celebrated. The Christmas cards began life in the late eighteenth century
as the “Christmas piece”, a decorated sheet of paper on which schoolchildren
wrote polite greetings for the season in their best handwriting, to be
presented to their parents at the end of the winter term. Sometimes, also,
adults wrote complimentary verses for their friends. It is now usually supposed
that the artist J.C.Horsley designed the first genuine pictorial Christmas card
at the instigation of Sir Henry Cole in 1843.
Father
Christmas is the traditional gift-bringer in the United Kingdom. Originally he
was Odin, one of the pagan gods that were brought to the British Isles from the
ancient Scandinavia. When Christianity swept away the old gods, Odin’s role was
overtaken by St. Nicholas, who was the Bishop of Myra during the fourth century,
and who now appears in some European countries (such as Germany, Austria,
Switzerland and others) wearing episcopal robes and a mitre, being accompanied
by a servant carrying a sack of gifts.
Still one
should note that the pure British Father Christmas seems to have been more a
personification of the joys of Christmas than just a gift-bringer. He was first
mentioned in a fifteen-century carol, then abolished by Parliament in 1644
(along with everything else connected with the Feast of Christmas), came back
after Restoration, and is nowdays one of the British living traditions. In the
nineteenth century he acquired some of the attributes of the Teutonic Santa
Claus, and now is being thought of as the essential gift-bringer, coming by
night from the Far North in a reindeer-drawn sleigh, and entering the houses he
visits by way of the chimney.
Christmas
food has always been largely a matter of tradition, but its nature has changed
a great deal with passage of time. The turkey which is now the most usual dish
on Christmas Day didn’t appear in Britain until about 1542. Its predecessors
were goose, or pork, or beef, or a huge pie made up of a variety of birds. In
the grater houses venison, swans, bustards, or peacocks in their feathers were
eaten. The ancestor of another traditional British food, the Christmas pudding,
was plum porridge (until 1670).
Another
feature of the Christmas time in Britain is represented by carols, which are
the popular and happy songs of the Christian religion which came into being
after the religious revival of the thirteenth century, and flourished more
strongly in the three centuries that followed. Carols were swept away by
Puritanism during the Commonwealth, and they didn’t come back into general favor
for about 200 years afterwards, but never vanished altogether. Now, nearly all
British churches have their carol service. In many towns, the people gather
round the communal Christmas tree, or in the town hall, to sing carols under
the leadership of the local clergy, or of the mayor.
The 26 December
is the St. Stephen’s Day, the first Christmas martyr, far better known in
England as Boxing Day. A name is derived either from the alms boxes in
churches, which were opened, and their contents distributed to the poor on that
day, or from the earthenware boxes that apprentices used to carry round with
them when they were collecting money gifts from their master’s customers. Until
very recently it was usual for the postman, the dustman and a few other
servants of the public to call at all the houses they have served during the
year, and to receive small gifts from the householders on Boxing Day.”
Then follows
a set (3-4) of brief reports by students on the holidays that follow the Christmas
season (that time which is called the Opening Year in GB). Reports are supposed
to be prepared at home. The approximate variants of 3 reports are:
- “The New
Year comes in very merrily in most parts of Britain, with the pealing of bells
and the blowing of ships’ sirens and train whistles, and singing of the
traditional “Auld Lang Syne”, although the majority know only some of the
words. Great crowds assemble outside St. Paul’s Cathedral in London to see the
Old Year out and welcome in the New. Private parties are held everywhere, and
good wishes are exchanged. Some celebrate the occasion more quietly and see a
Watch Night service in some Anglican or Nonconformist church.
In the north
of United Kingdom, especially in Scotland, the custom of First-footing has been
flourishing for centuries. The First Foot is the first visitor to any house in
the morning hours of 1 January. He is considered to be a luck-bringer. He is
welcomed with food and drink (especially the last one), and brings with him
symbolic gifts, which are most usually a piece of bread, a lump of coal, salt,
and a little money, all of which together ensure that his hosts will have food
and warmth and prosperity all throughout the year.
In
Northumberland the New Year is welcomed by a fire ceremony, followed by
First-footing. A great bonfire is built in the main square of a town or
village, and left unlit. As the midnight approaches, The so-called Guisers in
various gay costumes form a procession, each man carrying a blazing tar barrel
on his head. Thus crowned with flames and preceded by the band, they march to
the bonfire, circulate it and throw their burning barrels on it, setting it on
fire. The spectators cheer and sing, and the Guisers go off First-footing all
round the perish.”
- “Another New
Year custom is Burning the Bush, not very widely spread now but of great fame
in the days gone, especially in the rural England. In former years, almost
every home and farm had its own Bush, or howthorn globe which, together with a
bunch of mistletoe, hung in the farm kitchen all through the year. At about
five o’clock in the morning on 1 January it was taken down, carried out to the
first-sown wheatfield, and there burnt on a large straw fire. Then all the men
concerned in the affair made a ring round the fire and cried “Auld-Ci-der”.
Afterwards there was cheering, and the drinking of the farmer’s health, and
feasting upon cider and plum cake. Meanwhile, a new Bush was being made at home
and hung up in the place of the old. All this was supposed to bring good luck
to the crops.
The Twelfth
Night and Twelfth Day - 5 and 6 January – are popularly so called because the
mark the end of the Twelve Days of Christmas. Over the last two centuries, the
twelve-day period had steadily shrunk, and now only three days – Christmas Day,
Boxing Day and the New Year’s Day – remain as official holidays. Bonfires are
lit on Twelfth Night in many parts of the British Midlands, often 12 in number,
with one made larger than the rest, to represent Lord and his Apostles.
Sometimes there are 13 bonfires, one standing for Judas Iscariot, which is
stamped out soon after it is lit.”
- “The Monday
after Twelfth Day is Plough Monday, a day of rural festivity, especially in the
northern counties and the Midlands. Theoretically, work starts again then on
the farm, after the end of the Twelve Days of Christmas, and the spring
ploughing begins, but in fact, very little work is done.
On 2
February, the double feast of the Presentation of Christ in the Temple and the
Purification of Our Lady is celebrated in Britain. It is popularly known as
Candlemas Day because candles are blessed in the churches then, distributed to
the congregations, and carried in procession. This custom has existed on the
British Isles since the fifth century, as well as in the continental Europe
under the Roman Catholic Church influence.
The day after
Candlemas is the Feast of St. Blaise, who is the patron saint of wool-combers,
and of all who suffer from diseases of the throat. The beautiful ceremony of
Blessing the Throat takes place on this day in many English churches.
Another
famous and well-known February celebration is St. Valentines Day, on 14
February. The word “Valentine” has a double meaning. It means the person
concerned, the chosen sweetheart, but it is also applied to the Valentine gift
or to the Valentine card, which replaced the traditional gift in the nineteenth
century as it (the gift) went out of fashion. “
4) Systematization of the new knowledge and
training for it’s application in practice (
20 minutes)
The basis for
practical training can be listening to a record of native speaker’s narration
or any other kind of listening comprehension exercise with following wide
discussion on the spoken subject. The whole idea of the lesson is to minimize
the amount of time that students spend working with textbook material and
maximize the communicative aspect of the lesson. Each exercise should be spoken
over by students upon the completion. In course of all conversation, students
should tend to apply new words and expressions that they learn while studying
the given topic.
5) Homework (2-3 minutes)
The homework,
on the contrary, should engage as much textbook/written exercises as possible.
It can include writing a short essays on the passed material, preparing reports
and dialogs etc. Also there’d be a text on the topic of the following lesson
which might undergo analysis at home for further discussion in class. The
example of the text is as follows:
“
Shrovetide and Lent
Shrove
Tuesday is the eve of Lent, the last day of Shraft, the end of the short
festival season which includes Egg Saturday, Quinquagesima Sunday, and shrove,
or Collop, Monday. The English name “Shrove” is derived from the
pre-Reformation practice of going to be shriven on that day in preparation for
the once severe fast of Lent. What the British now call the Pancake Bell is
supposed to be a signal to start making pancakes. Originally it was rung to
call the faithful to church to make their confessions. But though the religious
side of Shrovetide was always important, it is also a time of high festivity,
renowened everywhere for the playing of traditional games, cock-fighting,
wrestling, dancing, feasting upon pancakes and other good things that the
coming forty-day fast forbids.
One of the
traditional sports of Shrovetide is football – not the organized game we know
today, but the old wild type of game without proper rules or set teams, played
in the streets and churchyards, and strongly disliked by the authorities.
Hurling takes place of football in Cornwall. In this extremely popular Cornish
game, the ball is about the size of cricket ball, made of light wood or cork,
and thinly coated with silver, and it can be carried, tossed, hurled by the
players, but never kicked.
Shrove
Tuesday is the one of the traditional days on which in some old-established
English schools, the custom of barring-out the schoolmaster can be observed.
The children lock the master out of the school, and bargain with him for a
holiday that day, or sometimes for a series of holidays in the coming terms. If
the master manages to force the entry, the victory is his, and no holiday is
granted. But if the children can hold out for the day (or, for three days, in
the past), the schoolmaster makes an agreement with them and grants at least
some of their demands.
On Ash
Wednesday, Lent begins, and from then on there is no true festival date until
Mid-Lent Sunday, the fourth in Lent, also known in Britain as Mothering Sunday.
On that day, which is a welcome relaxation in the midst of the long, harsh fast,
simnel cakes are customarily baked and eaten. The custom can be traced back to
the year 1042, and the name “simnel” is believed to come from the cakes made by
Lambert Simnel’s father and nicknamed after his son when the latter’s rebellion
failed. Another version is that the word is derived from the Latin, simila,
meaning fine wheaten flour. There are three principal types of simnel cakes,
named after the towns which first made them: Shrewsbury, Devizes and the most
famous Bury simnel.
On Palm
Sunday, a fortnight later, palms are carried in procession in the churches in
memory of Christ’s entry into Jerusalem.
On Maundy
Thursday, the Queen, or in her absence, the Lord High Almoner acting for her,
presents the Royal Maundy gifts to as many poor men and as many poor women as
there are years in her age. This distribution usually takes place in
Westminster Abbey when the date of the year is even, and in some other great
cathedral when it is odd. Originally, Maundy Thursday was the day on which the
Last Supper eaten by Christ and his Apostles is commemorated. The modern
ceremony consists of a lovely and colorful procession, prayers, hymns and
anthems, the distribution of Maundy Money, and the final Blessing and singing
of the National Anthem.
On Good
Friday, countrymen plant potatoes and sow parsley, Sussex people skip, the
children in Liverpool “burn Judas” (a straw-stuffed effigys), and everyone eats
Hot Cross buns, which are small, round, spiced cakes marked with a cross. They
appear to be the Christian descendants of the cross-marked wheaten cakes which
the pagan Greeks and Romans ate at the Springtime festival of Diana.
Many popular
superstitions are associated with Good Friday. Blacksmiths do not shoe horses
because of the use to which nails had been put, long ago, on Calvary. Miners do
not go down the pit, believing that some disaster occurs if they do. Housewives
do not sweep their houses because to do so is to sweep away the life of one of
the family”.
8.2. “American English”
The basic idea of this lesson is to introduce main
lexical and grammatical differences between the British English language and
its American variant.
Lesson topic: “American English”
Lesson goal: study of the basic distinctions
between the English language and it’s
American dialect, try to
apply the knowledge in practice.
Lesson structure:
1) Lesson organization (2-3 minutes)
2) Particular review of the previous studies (4-5 minutes)
We accept that the there was a homework related to the
given topic; it was based on the analysis of the following text:
“
American English
In the early part of the
seventeenth century English settlers began to bring their language to America,
and another series of changes began to take place. The settlers borrowed words
from Indian languages for such strange trees as the hickory and persimmon, such
unfamiliar animals as raccoons and woodchucks. Later they borrowed other words
from settlers from other countries – for instance, chowder and prairie
from the French, scow and sleigh from the Dutch. They made
new combinations of English words, such as backwoods and bullfrog,
or gave old English words entirely new meanings, such as lumber ( which
in British English means approximately junk ) and corn ( which in
British means any grain, especially wheat ). Some of the new terms were
needed, because there were new and un-English things to talk about. Others can
be explained only on the general theory that languages are always changing, and
American English is no exception.
Aside from the new
vocabulary, differences in pronunciation, in grammatical construction, and
especially in intonation developed. If the colonization had taken place a few
centuries earlier, American might have become as different from English as
French is from Italian. But the settlement occurred after the invention of
printing, and continued through a period when the idea of educating everybody
was making rapid progress. For a long time most of the books read in America
came from England, and a surprising number of Americans read those books, in or
out of school. Moreover, most of the colonists seem to have felt strong ties
with England. In this they were unlike their Anglo-Saxon ancestors, who
apparently made a clean break with their continental homes.
A good many Englishmen
and some Americans used to condemn every difference that did develop, and as
recently as a generation ago it was not unusual to hear all “Americanisms”
condemned, even in America. It is now generally recognized in this country that
we are not bound to the Queen’s English, but have a full right to work out our
own habits. Even a good many of the English now concede this, though some of
them object strongly to the fact that Americanisms are now having an influence
on British usage.
There are thousands of
differences in detail between British and American English, and occasionally
they crowd together enough to make some difficulty. If you read that a man,
having trouble with his lorry, got out his spanner and lifted the
bonnet to see what was the matter, you might not realize that the driver
of the truck had taken out his wrench and lifted the hood.
It is amusing to play with such differences, but the theory that the American
language is now essentially different from English does not hold up. It is
often very difficult to decide whether a book was written by an American or an
English man. Even in speech it would be hard to prove that national differences
are greater than some local differences in either country. On the whole, it now
seems probable that the language habits of the two countries will grow more,
rather than less, alike, although some differences will undoubtedly remain and
others may develop.
It also seems probable
that there will be narrow-minded and snobbish people in both countries for some
time to come. But generally speaking, anybody who learnsto speak and write the
standard English of his own country, and to regard that of the other country as
a legitimate variety with certain interesting differences, will have little trouble
wherever he goes”.
Students should translate
and discuss this text in class, expressing their understanding of differences
between two dialects, and to tell examples of such from their personal
experience (if they have any).
3) New studies (approximately 20 minutes)
This section will be very useful if
built upon listening comprehension and discussion exercises mainly. Thus
students will be given both listening and oral experience of distinguishing
between dialects and using their knowledge in practice.
The approximate volume of information
for the first (but not the only one!) lesson on this topic is given below, for
both lexical and grammatical differences.
3.1.) Lexical difference
Lexical differences of American variant highly
extensive on the strength of multiple borrowing from Spanish and Indian
languages, what was not in British English.
American
variant British variant
Subway
underground
the movies
the cinema
shop store
sidewalk
pavement
line queue
soccer
football
mailman
postman
vacation
holiday
corn
maize
fall
autumn
Also claim attention differences in writing some
words in American and British variants of language.
For instance, following:
American variant British
variant
honor
honour
traveler
traveller
plow
plough
defense
defence
jail gaol
center
centre
apologize
apologise
3.2.) Grammatical
difference
Grammatical differences
of American variant consist in following:
1.
In that events, when British
use Present Perfect, in Staffs can be used and Present Perfect, and Past
Simple.
2.
Take a shower/a bath instead
of have a shower/a bath.
3.
Shall is not used. In all
persons is used by will.
4.
Needn't (do) usually is not
used. Accustomed form -don't need to (do).
5.
After demand, insist, require
etc should usually is NOT used. I demanded that he apologize (instead of I
demanded that he should apologise in British variant).
6. to/in THE hospital
instead of to/in hospital in BrE.
7. on the weekend/on
weekend instead of at the weekend/at weekend.
8. on a street instead of
in a street.
9. Different from or than
instead of different to/from
10. Write is used with to
or without the pretext.
11. Past participle of
"got" is "gotten"
12. To burn, to spoil and
other verbs, which can be regular or
irregular in the
British variant, in the American variant ALWAYS
regular.
13. Past Perfect, as a
rule, is not used completely.
4) The training of practical application of the new knowledge
should be given mainly in the form of listening/spoken exercises.
5) Homework (2-3 minutes)
A good kind of a homework for this particular lesson would
be a task to compose a free-style topic in the British English language (about
an A4 page in size) and then rewrite it in the American English; then discuss
the lexical and grammatical differences between topics in class.
Bibliography
1. Hole, Christina.
English traditional customs. London - Sydney, Batsford, 1975.
2. Hogg, Garry. Customs
and traditions of England. Newton Abbot, David & Charles, 1971.
3. Baker, Margaret.
Folklore and customs of rural England. Newton Abbot, David & Charles, 1974.
4. Rabley, Stephen.
Customs and traditions in Britain. Harlow (Essex), Longman, 1989.
5. Murphy Raymond. English Grammar in Use. - Cambridge
University Press, 1997.
6. Øâåéöåð À.Ä. Àìåðèêàíñêèé âàðèàíò
ëèòåðàòóðíîãî àíãëèéñêîãî ÿçûêà: ïóòè ôîðìèðîâàíèÿ è ñîâðåìåííûé
ñòàòóñ.//Âîïðîñû ÿçûêîçíàíèÿ,1995, ¹6,ñòð. 3-17.
7. Ïîäëàñûé È.Ï. Ïåäàãîãèêà. ò.1.
Ìîñêâà, Âëàäîñ, 2001.
8. Bowle, John. England: A portrait. London, Benn,
1966.
9. Bryant,
Arthur. A history of Britain and the British people. London, Collins, 1990.
10. Clark, George. English history: A survey. London, Oxford
univ. Press, 1971.
Contents
1. Great Britain: General Facts ……………………………………………..…… 1
2. The History of Great Britain ……………………………………………...……1
2.1. Britain in the reign of Elizabeth
…………………………………………..… 2
2.2. Britain in
the seventeenth century ……………………………………….….. 3
2.3. Britain in
the eighteenth century ……………………………………………. 5
2.4. Britain in
the nineteenth century ……………………………………….…… 6
2.5. Britain in
the twentieth century ……………………………………………... 9
3.
Culture of Great Britain ……………………………………………………... 12
3.1.
Cultural Life in Great Britain ……………………………………………... 12
3.2. Musical culture of Great Britain …………………………………….….…. 13
3.3. Art Galleries ……………………………………………………………….. 14
3.4. The British Theatre ………………………………………………………...
15
4. The British Education …………………………………………………….….
15
4.1. The British Schools ………………………………………………………...
16
4.2. Universities and
Colleges in Great Britain ………………………………… 16
5.The Modern British Economy ……………………………………………...… 17
6. The Modern
British Industry ………………………………………………….18
7. The Modern
British Army ……………………………………………...……. 18
8. The Two Lessons ……………………………………………………..……… 20
8.1. “Customs and Traditions of Great Britain”
……………………………...… 20
8.2. “American English” …………………………………………………..…….
27
Bibliography ……………………………………………………………...…….. 32
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