What comes to your mind when you think about the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland?

7. What comes to your mind when you think about the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland?

The group of islands situated to the North – West of Europe is called the British Isles. The largest island of the British Isles is Great Britain. The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and Republic of Ireland countries are situated on the British Isles. The United Kingdom (or UK) is an abbreviation of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland which is the political name of the country consisting of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland (sometimes called Ulster). The capital of the UK is London. Southern Ireland is a completely independent state: the Republic of Ireland (also called Eire). Its capital is Dublin. The North Sea, the English Channel and the Strait of Dover separate the British Isles from European continent. The Atlantic Ocean and the Irish Sea wash the western coast of GB.

The surface of the British Isles varies very much. The coastline of GB is greatly indented, especially in the west and north-west where the mountains come close to the coast. The coasts of Scotland, as well as the coasts of the Hebrides, the Orkney Islands and the Shetland Islands, are cut by numerous fiords. In the south and east the land gradually slopes down towards the sea, and the coasts are sandy and gentle, here and there interrupted by the ends of hill-ranges, which form low cliffs.

In Scotland there are 3 distinct regions: Highlands, the north of Scotland, then there is the central plain or Lowlands. Finally there are the southern uplands, “the Scott country” with their gently rounded hills. In England and Wales all the high land is in the west and north-west.

In the north you find the Cheviots separating England from Scotland, the Pennines going down England like a backbone and the Cumbrian mountains of the Lake District, one of the loveliest and the wettest parts of England. In the west are the Cambrian Mountains which occupy the greater part of Wales.

The position of the mountains determined the direction and length of the rivers.

There are a lot of rivers is GB, but they are not very long. The most important rivers are the Severn, flowing from the Cumbrian mountains in Wales into the Bristol Channel, the Thames, flowing across the plains of the south-eastern England and emptying into the North Sea, the Mersey, flowing down the western slopes of the Pennines and emptying into the Irish Sea at Liverpool, and the Clyde in Scotland.

GB is a highly – developed industrial country. The main branches of British economy are engineering, mining, shipbuilding, motor vehicle manufacturing, textile, chemistry, electronics, fishing and food processing. The industrial centers of GB are London, Manchester, Birmingham, Leeds, Liverpool, Sheffield and others. Most of countryside England is agricultural land, about a third of which is arable, and the rest is pasture and meadow. Sheep – farming, cattle – farming and dairy – farming are also important branches of GB. Chicken forms produce a great number of Chickens and eggs for the population. In the orchards, people grow apples, pears, cherries, plums and other fruits, and there are also large plantations of different berries. Originally, about 2000 years ago the British Isles were inhabited by the Celts. During the next 1000 years there were many invasions. The Romans came from Italy. The Angles and Saxons came from Germany, Denmark and the Netherlands and gave the country the name England. The Vikings kept coming from Denmark and Norway. The Normans invaded from France. The present – day English are the descendants of all the invaders, although they are more Anglo – Saxon than anything else. These various origins explain many of the differences which exist between England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland – differences in education, religion, the legal system and in language. The UK is a monarchy and the Queen is the head of state. But in practice it is ruled by the elected government with a Prime Minister at the head. The British Parliament consists of two chambers: The House of Lords and The House of Commons. There are three main political parties in GB: the London, the Conservative and the Liberal parties. The Conservative party is the ruling party nowadays.