Anglo-Saxons
They were two groups of Germanic peoples who ttled down in England from the 5th century. They were regard as the ancestors of the English and the founders of England.
The Easter Rising
In order to gain independence, different Irish groups had been fighting against the British institutions and the British military forces, one such activity was the Easter Rising which took place in 1916. The rebels occupied Dublin's Post Office and forced the British to take it back by military force. The leaders of the rebellion were executed by the British authorities.
Home Rule
Ireland had long been dominated by Britain, but Irish desire for an independent Irish state was never lost. "Home Rule" refers to a campaign for Irish control of Irish affairs. The Home Rule Bill was finally pasd in 1914, but the process was overtaken by the First World War and was suspended for the duration of the war.
The Bill of Rights of 1689
In 1688, King James II's daughter Mary and her husband William were invited by the politicians and church authorities to take the throne, on condition that they would respect the rights of Parliament. The Bill of Rights was pasd in 1689 to ensure that the King would never be able to ignore Parliament.
The Constitution
Britain has no written Constitution. The foundations of the British state are laid out in statute law, which are laws pasd by Parliament; the common laws, which are laws established through common practice in the courts; and conventions.
The functions of Parliament
The functions of Parliament are: to pass laws, to vote for taxation, to scrutinize government policy, administration and expenditure and to debate the major issues of the day.
The Hou of Lords
The Hou of Lords consists of the Lords Spiritual, who are the Archbishops and most prominent bishops of the Church of England; and the Lords Temporal, which refers to tho lords who either have inherited the at of their forefathers or they have been appointed. The lords mainly reprent themlves instead of the interests of the public.
The Hou of Commons
The Hou of Commons is the real center of British political life becau it is the place where about 650 elected reprentatives (Members of Parliament) make and debate policy. The MPs are elected in the General Elections and should reprent the interests of the people who vote for them.
The formation of the government
651 members of parliament are elected in the general election reprenting 651 constituencies in the UK. The party which holds a majority of tho “ats” in parliament f
orms the government, with its party leader as the Prime Minister.
The electoral campaign
Before a general election, the political parties would start their electoral campaigns in order to make their ideologies and policies known to the public. The campaign involves advertiments in newspapers, door-to-door campaigning, postal deliveries of leaflets and “party electoral broadcasts” on the television. The parties also try to attract and criticize the opponents’ policies. Therefore, the campaigns sometimes can be quite aggressive and critical.
Romanticism
Roughly the first third of the 19th 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 “Declarati
on of Independence.” Keats, Byron and Shelley, the three great poets, brought the Romantic Movement to its height. The spirit of Romanticism also occurred in the novel.
Modernism
Modernism refers to a form of literature mainly written before WWⅡ. It is characterized by a high degree of experimentation. It can be en as a reaction against the 19th century forms of Realism. Modernist writers express the difficulty they e in understanding and communicating how the world works. Often, Modernist writing ems disorganized, hard to understand. It often portrays the action from the viewpoint of a single confud individual, rather than from the viewpoint of an all-knowing impersonal narrator outside the action. One of the most famous English Modernist writers is Virginia Woolf.
Comprehensive schools
Comprehensive schools are the most popular condary schools in British today. Such schools admit children without reference to their academic abilities subjects and provide
a general education. Pupils can study everything from academic subjects like literature to more practical subjects lik转让群
e cooking.
