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Produce (v) – производить, предъявлять. What does this plant produce? The policeman asked him to produce his driving license.

production (n) – производство. The factory has increased production recently.

Invade (v) – вторгаться. The troops invaded the country. Tourists invaded the city.

invasion (n)– завоевание. The history of humanity is the history of invasions. The invasion of the country took place at the beginning of World War II

 

The British Isles

In the west of the continent of Europe lie two large islands, called the British Isles. The larger of these, consisting of England, Scotland and Wales, is known as Great Britain, the smaller, Ireland. The North Sea separates Great Britain from West Germany and the Scandinavian countries, while the English Channel lies between England on the one hand, and France and Belgium on the other.

England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland were once separate kingdoms. After centuries of war between England and Scotland, the two were finally united at the beginning of the eighteenth century. Wales had already been conquered in the thirteenth century. Ireland fought against the English still longer than Scotland, but finally in 1801 was included in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, as it was called then. The Irish, however, continued to struggle for self-government, and after the World War of 1914 – 1918, England was forced to give in. Southern Ireland is quite independent of England. Northern Ireland (Ulster), where there are many English settlers, forms part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, as it is called now.

Many thousands of years ago, the mainland of Europe stretched much further west than now, and by the sinking of the land, the ocean covered a great deal of the continent. The British Isles and the neighbouring small islands were left above the surface of the sea, because they were the highest parts of the land. The water flowed into the valleys among the hills, thus producing an uneven coast and many good harbours.

There are many facts that prove this. None of the seas around the British Isles are very deep; in fact in some parts of the North Sea, there is a depth of less than six metres. The rounded, flat-topped hills, that give character to the English scenery, have been worn down by the slow-moving sheet of ice that once covered the whole of Northern Europe. The white calk cliffs of Southern England correspond to those of Northern France, while the lowlands of the east coast correspond to the lowlands of Holland. The plants and animals found in Britain lead one to the same conclusion. The wolf and the bear, neither of which is any longer found wild in the British isles, and the fox, all reached the country from the Continent. The forests that once covered the greater part of the country were made up of common European trees like the oak in the south and the pine in the north. Nowadays there are practically no forests in Britain, but there are very many leafy trees that give beauty to the countryside.

The island can be roughly divided into two main regions, Lowland Britain and Highland Britain. The highest mountains are in the central and northern parts of Scotland, in Wales, in the north-west of England, but they are by no means high as we understand high mountains. The mountains of the British Isles are much the same height as those of the Crimea.



There are many rivers in Britain, but none of them are very deep. The Thames, on which London is situated runs through rich agricultural districts in an easterly direction into the North Sea. Many of the rivers have been joined one to another by means of canals, so that it is quite possible to travel by water from one end of England to the other.

The climate of the British Isles is rather mild. Even in the most northern parts of Scotland snow never lies very long on the ground in winter, while in the south of England, snow falls only a few times during the winter. Besides this, rivers never freeze. In England there is much rain and fog in winter, and few sunny days. The summers are never very hot, and it often rains. Generally speaking, Great Britain is a very damp country.

It is often somewhat incorrectly said that the British Isles are bathed by the warm waters of the Gulf Stream. The waters of the Gulf Stream do sweep round the British Isles, but they would not feel warm, however, to anyone attempting to bathe in them even in the summer, and it is not really the water which keeps the climate of the British Isles relatively mild. The water, on its way across the Atlantic Ocean, helps to raise the temperature of the winds blowing over it, and it is the warm south-west winds which keep the winter climate mild as well as wet. In summer the effect of the ocean waters and the winds is to prevent the climate becoming very warm.

One of the most striking things about the British Isles is the rapidity with which the weather changes from day to day or even during the day.

Most of Britain, however, is agricultural land. The cool climate of Britain and the even distribution of rainfall ensure a long growing season; streams rarely dry up, grassland is green throughout the year and full of wild flowers from spring to autumn.

 


Date: 2016-03-03; view: 1183


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