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1、Chapter1BritainSocialandCulturalAffairsWhenpeoplerefertoBritain,theyoftenusedifferentnamessuchasBritain,GreatBritain,England,theBritishIsles,theUnitedkingdomortheU.K.Dotheymeanthesamething?Aretheydifferent?Strictlyspeaking,theBritishIsles,GreatBritainandEngland
2、areallgeographicalnames.Theyarenottheofficialnameofthecountry.TheBritishIslesaremadeupoftwolargeislands,theyareGreatBritainandIreland.GreatBritainisthelargerofthesetwoislands.ItformstheUnitedkingdomwithNorthernIreland.SotheofficialnameoftheUnitedkingdomistheUni
3、tedkingdomofGreatBritainandNorthernIreland.Butitissuchalongnameforacountry,sopeoplejustsayBritain,theUnitedkingdomorsimplyU.K.TherearethreepoliticaldivisionsontheislandofGreatBritain:England,ScotlandandWales.Englandisthelargest,mostpopulousandtherichestsection.
4、Sopeopletendtouse“England”and“English”whentheymean“Britain”and“British”.Britainhasbeenoneofthemostimportantcountriesintheworld.Asaresultofitsimperialistexpansion,Britainruledanempirethathadonefourthoftheworldpeopleandlandarea.IthadcoloniesnotonlyinNorthAmerica,
5、butalsoinAsia,AfricaandAustralia.However,thetwoworldwarsgreatlyweakenedBritain.TheBritishcoloniesbecameindependentoneafteranother.TheBritishEmpiregraduallydisappeared.Ⅰ.EducationThereareabout9millionstudentsinBritishnursery,primaryandsecondaryschools.Educationi
6、scompulsoryforallbetweentheagesof5and16inGreatBritain.About90per9centofthestatesecondaryschoolpopulationinGreatBritainattendcomprehensiveschools.Mostotherchildrenattendgrammarschoolsorsecondarymodernschools.ManyofBritain'spublicschoolsarelong-establishedandhave
7、gainedareputationfortheirhighacademicstandards.Andtherearesome90universities.Theproportionofyoungpeopleenteringhighereducationinuniversitiesandcollegeswasoneinthreebytheyear2000,inScotlandandNorthernIrelandwastwoinfive.Highereducationlargelyisfinancedbypublicfu
8、nds,tuitionfeesforstudentsarepaidthroughtheawardssystemandincomeischargedbyinstitutionsforresearchandotherpurposes.TheuniversitiesofOxfordandCambridgedatefromthe12thand13thc
