-
名词解释
：
(1)The Anglo-
Saxon
（盎格鲁）
They
were
two
groups
of
Germanic
peoples
who
settled
down
in
England
from
the
5
th
century. They were regarded as the
ancestors of the English and the founders of
England.
(2)The Good Friday
Agreement
（北爱和平协议）
As
a
result
of
multi-party
negotiations,
the
Good
Friday
Agreement
was
approved
on
10
April
1998.
This
agreement
assures
the
loyalist
community
that
Northern
Ireland
remains
part of the United
Kingdom and it won
’
t change
its political status unless the majority of the
people of Northern Ireland agree. Under
the terms of the agreement, Northern Ireland
should
be
governed
by
three
separate
jurisdictions:
that
of
the
Republic
of
Ireland,
that
of
Great
Britain
and that of its own elected executive government
of ten ministers.
(3)The
Bill of Rights of 1689
（权利法案）
In
1688,
king
James
II
’
s
daughter
Mary
and
her
husband
William
were
invited
by
the
politician and church authorities to
take the throne, on condition that they would
respect the
rights
of
Parliament.
The
bill
of
rights
was
passed
in
1689
to
ensure
that
the
king
would
never be able to
ignore Parliament.
(4)The
constitution of
Britain
（英国的宪法）
Britain has no written constitution.
The foundation of the British state are laid out
in statute
law,
which
are
laws
passed
by
parliament;
the
common
laws,
which
are
laws
established
through common
practice in the courts; and conventions.
(5)The function of
Parliament
（议会的功能）
To
pass
laws,
to
vote
for
taxation,
to
scrutinize
government
policy,
administration
and
expenditure and to
debate the major issues of the day.
(6)The house of
commons(
众议院
)
The
house of commons is the real center of British
political life because it is the place where
about
650elected
representatives
(members
of
Parliament)
make
and
debate
policy.
These
MPs
are elected in the General Elections and should
represent the interests of the people who
vote for them.
(7)Class system in Britain
society
（英国社会的等级制度）
The class system does
exist
in
British
society.
Most
of
the
British population would claim
themselves to be either of middle-class
or working-class, though some people would
actually
belong
to
the
upper
middle-
class
or
lower
middle-class.
Class
division
are
not
simply
economic,
they
are
cultural
as
well.
People
of
different
classes
may
differ
in
the
kind
of
newspapers they read, in the way they
speak and in the kind of education they receive.
One
of the distinctive features about
the British class system is that aristocratic
titles can still be
inherited.
(8)Privatisation in UK
economy
（英国经济私有化）
The British economy went through a
particularly bad period in the 1970s, with high
rates of
inflation and devaluation of
the pound. Therefore, in the 1980s, when the
conservative party
under Margaret
Thatcher was in power, an extensive programme of
privatization was carried
out. Many
state-owned businesses (such as steel, telecom,
gas, aerospace) were turned into
private companies. Privatisation was
successful in controlling inflation but at the
same time
unemployment rate increased
rapidly.
(9)Elizabethan
drama
（伊丽莎白一世时的戏剧）
The
general
flowering
of
cultural
and
intellectual
life
in
Europe
during
the
15
th
and
16
th
centuries
is
known
as
the
renaissance.
In
British
culture,
one
of
the
most
successful
and
long-lasting expressions
of this development lay in drama. That was the
period of the reign of
Queen Elizabeth
(1558-1603). The first professional theatre in
London opened in 1576, and
others
followed,
performing
the
plays
of
many
notable
playwrights,
including
Christopher
Marlowe, Ben
Jonson and William Shakespeare.
(10)Romanticism
（浪漫主义）
Roughly
the
first
third
of
the
19
th
century
makes
up
English
literature
’
s
romantic
period.
Writers of romantic literature are more
concerned with imagination and feeling than with
the
power of reason. A volume of poems
called lyrical ballads written by William
Wordsworth
and
Samuel
Taylor
Coleridge
is
regarded
as
the
romantic
poetry
’
s
“
Declaration
of
I
ndependence.”
Keats,
Byron
and
Shelley,
the
three
great
poets,
brought
the
romantic
movement to its height, the spirit of
romanticism also occurred in the novel.
(11)Modernism
（现代
主义）
Modernism refers to a
form of literature mainly written before
WW
Ⅱ
. It is characterized by
a high degree of experimentation. It
can be seen as a reaction against the
19
th
century forms
of
realism.
Modernist
writers
express
the
difficulty
they
see
in
understanding
and
communicating how the world works.
Often, modernist writing seems disorganized, hard
to
understand. It often portrays the
action from the viewpoint of a single confused
individual,
rather than from the
viewpoint of an all-knowing impersonal narrator
outside the action. One
of the most
famous English modernist is Virginia Woolf.
(12)Declaration of
independence
（独立宣言）
The declaration of independence was
mainly drafted by Thomas Jefferson and adopted by
the
congress
on
July 4, 1776, when
the
people of 13
English colonies in
North America were
fighting
for
their
freedom
and
independence
from
the
British
colonial
rule.
The
document
declared that all men were equal and
that they were entitled to have some unalienable
rights
such
as
life,
liberty
and
the
pursuit
of
happiness.
It
also
explained
the
philosophy
of
government:
the
powers
of
government
came
from
the
consent
of
the
governed
and
the
purpose
of governments was to secure the rights mentioned
above. The theory of politics and
the
guiding principles of the American Revolution
mainly came from john locks.