Highland and lowland Britain

Britain is varied in scenery. Despite its comparatively small area Great Britain contains rocks of all the main geological periods, making contrast between highland and lowland Britain. The new rocks, which are less resistant to weather, have been worn down to form lowland. They lie to the south and east forming bands of hills which alternate with areas of lowland. The hills of lowland are formed of chalk and limestone. The agricultural plain of England lies to the Channel and the continent of Europe. The soils are deeper and richer than in highlands. The climate is drier and better suited to farming. Communications are easier. Thus human settlement in these areas is dense and more evenly spread.

The rocks of most of the north and west of Great Britain are harder and older than those of the south and east. These older rocks are covered by large areas of moorland such as the Lake District, the Pennines and much of Scotland and Wales, where the soils are poor, thin and stony. These areas are wetter and harder to reach than the lower land to the south and east. As a result, these areas of Great Britain are thinly populated except where coal or iron have been discovered.

Highland Britain comprises all those mountain parts and uplands of Great Britain which lie above 1000 ft (305 m). Geologically these mountains are among the oldest in the world, more than 3500 million years old, formed by ancient hard rocks with traces of volcanic action.

The Cumbrians is the mountain range running along the Western Coast, in Wales. Its highest point at the centre of the range is Snowdon — 3560 ft (1085 m) above sea level. The Welsh call Snowdonia the "Eagles" Nestling place". The first men to conquer Everest trained in Snowdonia. He was Sir Edmund Hillary. With his team he made his famous expedition to the top of Mount Everest in 1953.

To the east of Cumbrian massif lies the broad central upland known as the Pennines — the "backbone" of Britain, a continuous stretch of high land expending to 890 km. The Pennines have few sharp peaks and chiefly consist of plateaux situated at various levels. To the north of the Pennines are the Cheviot Hills. The Cheviots are the northerly extension of the Pennine proper and stretch to the Scottish Border.

Scottish Highlands are formed by the Grampian Mountains and North-West Highlands. Ben Nevis, Britain's highest mountain, 4406 ft (1343 m), towering above Fort William in Scotland, is a granite mass more than 500 million years old. The oldest rocks dating back 2,6 billion years are found in the Scottish Highlands and the Outer Hebrides.

Scottish mountains would be lost in the foothills of the Andes or the Himalayas, but they yield nothing to the highest peaks in the world in their beauty and capacity to inspire awe. It's because they share the landscape with wild sea lochs, with icy streams, that tumble through green and wooded glens.

In Northern Ireland the large central plain with boggy areas is surrounded by mountains and hills.

Despite its comparatively small area, Great Britain possesses a wide range of landforms and is famous for the rich variety of its scenery, which is well described by J. B. Priestley in his "The Beauty of England":

"The beauty of our country is as hard to define as it is easy to enjoy. (...) We have here no vast mountain ranges, no illuminable plains, no leagues of forest. But we have superb variety. A great deal of everything is packed into little space. (...) Nature, we feel, has carefully adjusted things — mountains, plains, rivers, lakes — to the scale of the island itself.

A mountain 21000 ft high would be a horrible monster here, as wrong as a plain 400 miles long, a river as broad as the

Mississippi.

Though the geographical features of this island are comparatively small, and there is astonishing variety almost everywhere, that does not mean that our mountains are not mountains, our plains not plains. Consider that piece of luck of ours, the Lake District. You can climb with ease — as I have done many a time — several of its mountains in one day. Nevertheless, you feel that they are mountains and not mere hills. (...)

Within a few hours you have enjoyed the green valleys, with their rivers, fine old bridges, pleasant villages, hanging woods, smooth fields; and the moorland slopes, with their rushing streams, stone walls, salty winds and crying curlews, white farm-houses; and then the lonely heights which seems to be miles above the ordinary world...

With variety goes surprise. Ours is the country of happy surprises. You have never to travel long without being pleasantly astonished".

 

MINERAL RESOURCES

They are not plentiful in the British Isles. But since times immemorial people have had here all the necessities: coal, iron, copper, tin, silver, clay, salt, chalk. Gas and oil were discovered in the North sea in Scotland in 1970. The oil comes ashore by a submarine pipeline 105 miles long (169 km).

Coal is still the mineral that contributes much to the development of many industries in Britain. By the absolute deposits of coal the UK claims the sixth place in the world, though now oil and gas have become a major mineral resource, having a fundamental effect on the economy of Great Britain.

Among other mineral resources iron ores, found alongside coal layers, are of primary importance, but the iron content of most of the ores is very low. There are also tin and copper mines in England. Lead and silver ores are also mined. But ore-mining once very intensively developed, now takes a low percentage of the total of heavy industry in Britain.

CLIMATE

The topic which never fails to start any conversation in Britain is weather. "We have no climate, only weather" may be heard from an Englishman. And it is generally believed that England experiences weather rather than climate, because of its extreme variability. Periods of settled weather are rare. One day may be different from the next and predication cannot be made for more than a very short time ahead. Sunshine can rapidly change to rain, winds can alter their direction abruptly.

Nevertheless, Britain has a generally mild and temperate climate, milder than the climate in any other country in the-same latitudes (50"—60°). It is due to the influence of the warm current of Gulf Stream.

Britain is as far north as Canada's Hudson Bay or Siberia. Edinburgh is 56° north of the equator, the same latitude as Moscow, yet its climate is much milder. Edinburgh and London enjoy the same temperatures in winter because of Gulf Stream, which brings warm water and air across the Atlantic from the Gulf of Mexico. As a result, snow only falls occasionally and does not remain for long, except in the Scottish mountains, where skiing is possible.

Though the climate is subject to frequent changes extremes of temperature are rather few. Average temperatures in England and Wales vary from 4 °C in January to 16 °C in July and August. In Scotland averages are one or two degrees cooler. During a normal summer, the temperatures occasionally rises above 27 °C in the south, but temperature of 30—32 C° and above are infrequent. Extreme minimum temperatures depend largely on local conditions, but —7 °C may occur on a clear winter's night, —12°Cis rare, and —18°C or below has been recorded only during exceptionally cold periods.

The prevailing winds are south-westerly. Winds are generally stronger in the north than in the south of the British Isles, stronger on the coasts than inland, and stronger in the west than in the east. The strongest winds usually occur in winter. Occasionally during the winter months easterly winds may bring a cold, dry, continental type of weather which, once established, may persist for many days or even weeks. Winds may bring winter cold in spring or summer and sometimes whirlwinds or hurricanes. Droughts are rare.

The wind brings rain from the Atlantic to the hills of the west. This means that the western parts of Britain are wetter than the east, which is sheltered by the mountains. London is drier than continental cities such as Hamburg, for example. Its weather may be unpredictable, but it is not particularly wet. Generally, all parts of the British Isles get a lot of rain in all seasons.

The annual rainfall is about 1100 mm, the mountainous areas of the west and north having far more rain than the lowlands of the south and east. Rain is fairly well distributed throughout the year, but on average March to June are the driest months and September to January the wettest.

The distribution of sunshine over Britain shows a general decrease from the south to north, from the coast inland. The average daily duration of sunshine varies from 5 hours in the north-west Scotland to 8 hours in the Isle of Wight during the months of longest daylight (May, June, July). And during the months of shortest daylight — November, December and January — sunshine is at a minimum, with an average of half an hour a day in some parts of the Highlands of Scotland and two hours a day on the south coast of England.

So it may be said that the British climate has three main features: it is mild, humid and changeable. It means that it is never too hot or too cold. Winters are extremely mild, so that there are places in the south where people have never seen snow. Cornwall (a part of south-western England) is called British (or Cornish) Riviera as resemblance to the continental Riviera is impressive: the exceptionally mild climate which allows subtropical flowers and trees flourish, the sparkling blue sea, luxuriantly coloured landscape and yachting resorts. And there is Scottish Riviera — in the east of Scottish Highlands. The name is pardonable exaggeration for the Morey coast with many beaches of firm sand and red sandstone cliffs and fat cattle feeding on green pastures.

More suitable this name is to one of the most fascinating spots on the western coast of Scottish Highlands — the Inverewe Garden which possesses a constant element of surprise. The Inverewe Garden houses a wide variety of plants ranging from alpine to subtropical. The garden was created on poor soil from barren land just almost 150 years ago and it survives in a latitude that is further north than Moscow's because the area is warmed by the Gulf Stream. In 1862 Osgood Mackenzie began making a garden and building a house on a small peninsular with the Gaelic name Amploc Ard — "the high lump".

 

Vocabulary

 

limestone – известняк

moorland – местность, поросшая вереском

to conquer – завоёвывать

awe – страх, трепет

boggy area s – болотистые места

a curlew – кроншнеп (птица)

iron ore – железная руда

adrought – засуха

a pasture – пастбище

UNIT 9

BRITISH MONARCHY

ANCIENT INSTITUTION

The monarchy is the most ancient secular institution in the United Kingdom, going back at least to the 9th century. The Queen can trace her descent from the Saxon King Egbert, who united all England under his sovereignty in 829. The continuity of the monarchy has been broken only once by a republic that lasted only 11 years (1649—1660). Monarchy is founded on the hereditary principle and it has never been abandoned. The succession passed automatically to the oldest male child or, in the absence of males, to the oldest female offspring of the monarch. Quite recently the rules of descent have been changed. Now the succession passes to the oldest child irrespective of its sex.

The coronation of the sovereign follows some months or a year after the accession. The ceremony has remained much the same in substance for over 1000 years. It consists of recognition and acceptance of the new monarch by the people; the taking by the monarch of an oath of royal duties; the anointing and crowning (after communion); and the rendering of homage' by the Lords Spiritual and Temporal.

The coronation service, conducted by the Archbishop of Canterbury, is held at Westminster Abbey in the presence of representatives of the Lords, the Commons and all the great public interests in the United Kingdom, the Prime Minister and leading members of the Commonwealth countries, representatives of foreign states.

By the Act of Parliament, the monarch must be a Protestant. The Queen's title in the United Kingdom is "Elizabeth the Second, by the Grace of God, of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and of Her other Realms and Territories Queen, Head of the Commonwealth, Defender of the Faith".

For several centuries the monarch personally exercised supreme executive, legislative and judicial powers but with the growth of Parliament and the courts the direct exercise of these functions progressively decreased. The 17th-century struggle between the Crown and Parliament led to the establishment of a constitutional monarchy.

FUNCTIONS AND POWERS

The monarch in law is the head of the executive, an integral part of the legislature, the head of the judiciary, the commander-in-chief of all the armed forces of the Crown and the temporal governor of the established Church of England. But the Crown is only sovereign by the will of Parliament, and the Queen acts on the advice other ministers which she cannot constitutionally ignore. And in most matters of state the refusal of the Queen to exercise her power according to the direction of her Prime Minister would risk a serious constitutional crisis. That's why it is often said that the monarch reigns but does not rule.

Nevertheless, the functions of the monarch are politically important. The powers of the monarch are to summon, prorogue (suspend until the next session) and dissolve Parliament; to give royal assent to legislation passed by Parliament. The Queen is the "fountain of justice" and as such can, on the advice of the Home Secretary, pardon or show mercy to convicted criminals.

As the "fountain of honour" the Queen confers peerages, knighthoods and other honours. She makes appointments to many important state offices. She appoints or dismisses government ministers, judges, governors, members of diplomatic corps. As the Commander-in-Chief of the armed services (the Royal Navy, the Army and the Royal Air Force) she appoints officers, and as temporal head of the established Church of England she makes appointments to the leading positions in the Church.

In international affairs as Head of the State the Queen has the power to conclude treaties, to declare war and to make peace, to recognize foreign states and governments, and to annexe and cede territories.