英美文化考点

1.

IRELAND’S SOCIAL

CHANGES

1. Women have more rights like had equal access to jobs in terms of hiring, as well as equal opportunities

in subsequent promotions and pay awards.

2. Any citizen of an EU country can work and live legally in Ireland.

3. High house price give them a lot of pressure. So that most young people would have to live in far-flung

suburbs.

4. Ireland is now the most car- dependent society in the world.

5

. Ireland’s living standards have increased dramatically. But the new wealth has not

been shared equally.

The wealthy have become almost indecently rich, the poor have become more deprived.

6. The exposure of corruption has shocked the ordinary Irish public and made them increasingly cynical

about politicians in particular

.

7. The lack adequate public facilities and programs to tackle these emerging problems is striking in Ireland.

Some problems even reached almost crisis point in some cities.

8. Young people were better educated and more aware of their options in life, and better able to take

them up.

9. Young people no longer wish to inherit an enterprise which is a hard life at best, and world now yield

only a meager income in comparison with other was of living.

10. Many people went out and bought expensive cars and second houses.

2. THE BRITISH MONARCHY

1. The oldest institution of government is the Monarchy.

power of the monarchy was largely derived from the ancient doctrine(

天赐神授的

)of the “divine

right of kings”.

3. It was held that the sovereign derived his authority from God, not from his subjects.

4. For a thousand years Britain has had a hereditary king or queen as the head of state.

5. In medieval times the king should not exercise absolute power

.

6. Instead, the sovereign should be willing to receive advice from prominent men.

7.

The monarch’s unwillingness to do this led to many battles between the king and other powerful groups

like the Church and powerful, land- owning feudal barons.

8. Britain is both a parliamentary democracy and a constitutional monarchy.

9. Today, the official head of state is the queen and her powers are largely traditional and symbolic.

10. It was a gang of feudal barons and the Church which opposed some of King John

’

s policies.

3. CLASS IN THE UK

1. I

t makes a difference to an individual’s “life

-

chance” which group or class he or she is born into.

2.

Though

it

should

be

stressed

that

it

is

far

from

impossible

for

the

working-class

child

to

acquire

middle-class status: it is simply statistically much more unlikely than for his middle-class school-friend.

3. Manual

(or “blue

-

collar”) workers would usually call themselves working

-class, and office

(or “white

collar”)

workers would usually call themselves middle-class.

4. There is a hazy area around unskilled office-work and skilled well-paid manual work which leads to

sub-

divisions such as “lower middle

-

class” being used

.

5. T

he term “upper middle

-

class” might be used to describe doctors and lawyers w

ho have relatively high

incomes and high-status professions--- especially in families with long traditions of such employment.

6. Such class- divisions are not simply economic: a working-class car worker may earn more money than a

middle-class university teacher

, but there are additional cultural differences. 7. An obvious one in the UK is

which newspaper people read.

8. Strangers would probably be able to place each of them in the right class simply by listening to the way

they speak: regional accents tend to be stronger amongst the working-class.

9

. Another factor marking off what might be termed an “upper middle

-

class” is education. The top levels

of many aspects of British society----arts, media, industry and politics contain a very high proportion of

“Oxbridge” graduates. When hiring they tend to hire fellow Oxbridge graduates.

10.

It

has

also

retained

a

hereditary

aristocracy.(

保留了世袭贵族

)

Among

the

students

at

the

private

schools attended by the upper-middle- class above would be a thin scattering of aristocratic children, who

will inherit titles. But their significance should not be over- stated. Their position has changed with the

century.

4. POLITICAL PARTIES IN THE UK

major national parties: The Conservative party(

保守党

)and the Labour party(

劳工党

)are the two

biggest,

and

any

general

election

is

really

about

which

of

those

two

is

going

to

govern.

The

third

important party is the Liberal Democrats(

自由民主党

), who usually receive up to about 20% of the votes:

not enough to form a government, but enough to have a big impact on which of the other two parties

does so.

2.

The Labour party

is the newest of these three, created by the growing trade union movement at the

end of the nineteenth century. … …P54

3.

The Conservative party

is the party that spent most time in power

. Basically the Conservatives are seen

as the party of the individual, protecting the individual’s right to acquire wealth and to spend it how they

choose, and so favoring economic policies which businessmen prefer

, such as low taxes. …

...P54

4.

The Liberal Democrats

occupying the ideological ground between the two main parties. At such, at

election time they may receive votes both from those who usually vote Labour and from those who usually

vote Conservative. Many people see them as comparatively flexible and pragmatic in their balance of the

individual and the social.

5. There are small parties supporting the independence of each of the three smaller countries in the Union,

though at the moment they all receive a small share of the vote at election time.

5. Immigration to Australia

1.

Since

the

earliest

days

of

European

settlement,

migration

has

accounted

for

up

to

50

percent

of

Australia’s population increase.

2. During the middle of the 19

th

century migrants were predominantly British and those who benefited

from assisted migration were almost all from Britain. However

, the population also included migrants from

Italy, Greece, the Lebanon, Afghanistan and the Pacific Islands. Gold rushes attracted many people from

other countries especially from Germany and China.

3. By the 1870s, the Chinese constituted the third largest group in Australia, after the British (including the

Irish) and Germans.

4.

The

White

Australia

Policy

1901

was

manifested

in

the

Immigration

Restriction

Act.

It

remained

a

guiding principle of Australian immigration until its gradual abolition between 1966 and 1973. The framers

of

the

policy

made

it

clear

that

Chinese

and

other

’

non-whites

’

had

to

be

stopped

from

permanently

settling here.

5. Today, there is a much higher proportion of settlers arriving from Asia although Anglo Australia migrants

still predominate.

6. Irish economy

Ireland is a

small, open, trade-dependent economy.

The Irish economy has

been transformed from