The British Isles. Early Invasions

1 The British Islesis the name for a collection of about 4000 islands, including Great Britain and Ireland. This name, the British Isles, is usually only seen on the maps.

2 Great Britain, known as Britain or GB, is the name for the largest of the islands in the British Isles. It includes England, Scotland and Wales. It does not include Northern Ireland or the Republic of Ireland.

3 The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is a political term which includes England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. All of these countries are represented in Parliament of London.

Everybody from the UK is British, but be careful: only people from England are English. People of Wales think of themselves as Welsh; people from Scotland as Scottish; people from Northern Ireland as either British or Irish.

4 The first inhabitants of the British Isles were normandic Stone Age hunters. Between the sixth and the third century BC¹, the British Isles were invaded be Celtic tribes: people from the land which is now the territory of France and Germany. During the next 1, 000 years there were many invasions. The Romans came from Italy in AD² 43 and, in calling the country ‘Britannia’, gave Britain its name. The Roman invasion lasted four centuries and brought to Britain Christianity and all the achievements of Roman culture. But the Roman invasion was not peaceful. The tribes in Scotland never completely surrendered to the Romans. In Ireland and Scotland there remained the old Celtic way of life with its native customs and traditions.

5 When Roman legions had left Britain, Germanic tribes began invading the southern part of the country. The first to come were the Saxons, joined later by Jutes and Angles, and England gets its name from this invasion (Angle-land). The Anglo-Saxons came from Germany, Holland and Denmark. The Vikings arrived from Denmark and Norway in the 9^th century, and in 1066 the Normans invaded from France. William, the Duke of Normandy, became king of England, establishing a strong centralized state. Castles appeared all over the country to enforce Norman rule. The Normans’ power was absolute and the language of the new rulers, Norman-French, has had a strong effect on English. Since 1066 England has never been invaded by anybody.

Пояснения к тексту:

¹ BC – до нашей эры

2 AD – нашей эры

VIII Прочтите 5-й абзац текста и письменно ответьте на следующие вопросы:

1. What territories did the invaders come to Britain from?

2. Why has England never been invaded since 1066?

Вариант № 2

I Перепишите следующие предложения. Определите по грамматическим признакам, какой частью речи являются слова, оформленные окончанием -s(-es) и какую функцию это окончание выполняет, т.е. служит ли оно: