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1、Chapter1BritainSocialandCulturalAffairsWhenpeoplerefertoBritain,theyoftenusedifferentnamessuchasBritain,GreatBritain,England,theBritishIsles,theUnitedkingdomortheU.K.Dotheymeanthesamething?Aretheydifferent?Strictlyspeaking,theBritishIsles,GreatBritainandEnglandareallgeographical
2、names.Theyarenottheofficialnameofthecountry.TheBritishIslesaremadeupoftwolargeislands,theyareGreatBritainandIreland.GreatBritainisthelargerofthesetwoislands.ItformstheUnitedkingdomwithNorthernIreland.SotheofficialnameoftheUnitedkingdomistheUnitedkingdomofGreatBritainandNorthernI
3、reland.Butitissuchalongnameforacountry,sopeoplejustsayBritain,theUnitedkingdomorsimplyU.K.TherearethreepoliticaldivisionsontheislandofGreatBritain:England,ScotlandandWales.Englandisthelargest,mostpopulousandtherichestsection.Sopeopletendtouse“England”and“English”whentheymean“Bri
4、tain”and“British”.Britainhasbeenoneofthemostimportantcountriesintheworld.Asaresultofitsimperialistexpansion,Britainruledanempirethathadonefourthoftheworldpeopleandlandarea.IthadcoloniesnotonlyinNorthAmerica,butalsoinAsia,AfricaandAustralia.However,thetwoworldwarsgreatlyweakenedB
5、ritain.TheBritishcoloniesbecameindependentoneafteranother.TheBritishEmpiregraduallydisappeared.9Ⅰ.EducationThereareabout9millionstudentsinBritishnursery,primaryandsecondaryschools.Educationiscompulsoryforallbetweentheagesof5and16inGreatBritain.About90percentofthestatesecondarysc
6、hoolpopulationinGreatBritainattendcomprehensiveschools.Mostotherchildrenattendgrammarschoolsorsecondarymodernschools.ManyofBritain'spublicschoolsarelong-establishedandhavegainedareputationfortheirhighacademicstandards.Andtherearesome90universities.Theproportionofyoungpeopleenter
7、inghighereducationinuniversitiesandcollegeswasoneinthreebytheyear2000,inScotlandandNorthernIrelandwastwoinfive.Highereducationlargelyisfinancedbypublicfunds,tuitionfeesforstudentsarepaidthroughtheawardssystemandincomeischargedbyinstitutionsforresearchandotherpurposes.Theuniversi
8、tiesofOxfordandCambridgedatefromthe12thand13thc
