英美概况名词解释

美国篇

A

①Anglo-Saxons: They were two groups of Germanic peoples who settled down in

England from the 5th century. They were regarded as the ancestors of the English and the founders of England.

②The aerospace industry in the UK: The UK’s aerospace industry is the

third-largest in the world, producing the full range of aerospace products from civil and military aircrafts to missiles, satellites and jet engines. It produces 2% of the UK national output, accounting for 8% of manufactured export goods.

③The Articles of Confederation: After the War of Independence was won, the new

nation of the United States was organized under the agreement of the Articles of Confederation with a weak national government called the Congress. Each state had its own government, made its own laws and handled its internal affairs. The states did not cooperate with the Congress and with each other. The Congress hand no power to force any state to contribute money to the national government and the Congress could not tax any citizen either. As a result, the Articles of Confederation failed.

B

①The 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 passed in 1689 to ensure that the King would never be able to ignore Parliament.

C

①The Constitution: Britain has no written Constitution. The foundations 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.

②Class system in British society: 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 divisions 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.

③The City: refers to the historic area at the center of London. It is one of the biggest financial centers in the world with the greatest concentration of banks, insurance companies and businesses dealing in commodities. At the heart of the city is the London Stock Exchange.

④Comprehensive schools: Comprehensive schools are the most popular secondary schools in Britain today. Such schools admit children without reference to their academic and provide a general education. Pupils can study everything from academic subjects like literature to more practical subjects like cooking.

⑤The Commonwealth: In the author’s opinion, the Commonwealth is a voluntary association of states which is made up mostly of former British colonies. There are

50 members of the Commonwealth: many of these are developing countries like India and Cyprus; others are developed nations like Australia, Canada and New Zealand. The Commonwealth was set up as a forum for continued cooperation and as a sort of support network.

E

①The 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.

② The electoral campaigns: 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 advertisements in newspapers, door-to-door campaigning, postal deliveries of leaflets and “party electoral broadcasts” on the television. The parties also try to attack and criticize the opponents’ policies. Therefore, these campaigns sometimes can be quite aggressive and critical.

③Ethnic relations in the UK: The coming of immigrants groups from other parts

of the world has greatly enriched British culture. But ethnic relations are also sometimes tense: the local people vies the newcomers as a threat to their way of living; and despite much official actions to minimize racism, both subtle and overt oppression remains. The immigrant population is not well-off economically. They face problems of unemployment, under-representation in politics and unfair treatment by police and by the justice system.

④Elizabethan Drama: The general flowering of cultural and intellectual life in

Europe during the 15th and 16th 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(1588-1603). The first professional theatre in London opened in 1576,and others followed, performing the plays of many notable playwrights, including Christopher Marlowe, Bend Jonson and William Shakespeare.

F

①The functions of Parliament: to pass laws, to vote for taxation, to scrutinize

government policy, administration and expenditure and to debate the major issues of the day.

②The formation of the government: 651 members of parliament are elected in the

general election representing 651 constituencies in the UK. The party which holds

a majority of those “seats”in parliament forms the government, with its party

leader as the Prime Minister.

③The foundation of British foreign policy: The contemporary foreign policy of

the UK is greatly influenced by its imperial history and also by its geopolitical traits. As Britain lost its empire so recently, British policy-makers frequently forget that Britain is not as influential as it used to be in world affairs.

Another decisive influence upon the way Britain handles its external affairs is geopolitical attitude to Europe.

①The Good Friday Agreement: 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 3 separate jurisdictions; that of the Republic of Ireland, that of Great Britain and that of its own elected executive government of 10 ministers.

②Grammar schools: It is a type of secondary schools in Britain. Grammar schools

select children at the age of 11, through an exam called “the 11-plus”. Those children with the highest marks go to grammar schools. These schools lay emphasis on advanced academic subjects rather than the more general curriculum of the comprehensive schools and expect many of their pupils to go on to universities.

H

①Home 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 passed in 1914, but the process was overtaken by the First World War and was suspended for the duration of the war.

②The House of Lords: The House 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 those lords who either have inherited the seat from their forefathers or they have been appointed. The lords mainly represent themselves instead of the interests of the public.

③The House of Commons: The House of Commons is the real center of British political

life because it is the place where about 650 elected 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.

I

①The importance of general elections: General elections are very important in

western democracy. According to the author, they provide opportunities for people to influence future government policies and to replace those incompetent political leaders.

② Independent schools: Independent schools are commonly called public schools

which are actually private schools that receive their funding through the private sector and tuition rates, with some government assistance. Independent schools are not part of national education system, but the quality of instruction and standards are maintained through visits from Her Majesty’s Inspectors of Schools. These schools are restricted to the students whose parents are comparatively rich.

L

①London: London is the largest city located in the south of the country. It is

dominant in Britain in all sorts of ways. It is the cultural and business center and the headquarters of the vast majority of Britain’s big companies. It is not only the financial center of the nation, but also one of the three major international financial centers in the world.

①Main sectors of the UK economy: The UK national economy can be divided into 3

main areas: primary industries, such as agriculture, fishing and mining;

secondary industries which manufacture complex goods from those primary product;

and tertiary(or service) industries such as banking , insurance, tourism and the retailing.

②Modernism: 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 19th 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 writers is Virginia Woolf.

K

①King Arthur: It is said that he was the King of England in the 5th century and

united the British and drove the Saxons back with his magical sword, Excalibur.

His real existence is in doubt. He is the central figure of many legends.

②King Harold: He was the Saxon Kong whose army was defeated in the Battle of

Hastings in 1066, when William the Conqueror invaded England from France.

③The King James Bible: King James Ⅰordered the translation of the Holy Scriptures,

which came to be known as the King James Bible. It appeared in 1611.Althouth it was not the first English translation and there have been many translations since, the King James Version will probably never be matched for majesty of language. For many generations it has had a greater influence on style and standards of taste than any other single work in English literature.

O

①The Open University: The Open University was founded in Britain in the 1960’s

for people who might not get the opportunity for higher education for economic and social reasons. It’s open to everybody and does not demand the same formal educational qualifications as the other universities. University course are followed through TV, radio, correspondence, videos and a net work of study centers. At the end of their studies at the Open University, successful students areawarded a university degree.

P

①The Provisional IRA: In 1919, a group calling itself the IRA(Irish Republic Army)

expanded fighting for Irish freedom and independence. The Provisional IRA is the radical faction of the IRA. They prefer the use of force and believe that armed force is the only way to get the British out and to have a unified Ireland.

②Privatisation in the 1980s: The British economy went through a particularly band

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.

①Quality papers: They belong to one the categories of the national dailies. The

quality papers carry more serious and in-depth articles of particular political and social importance. They also carry reviews, such as book reviews, and feature articles about high culture. These papers are also referred to as “the broadsheets”because they are printed on large-size paper. The readers of such newspapers are generally a well-educated middle class audience.

R

①Robin Hood: Robin Hood was a Saxon nobleman. As he could no longer put up with

oppressions from the Normans, he became an outlaw and hid himself with his band of “merry men”in the forest. From this secret place, he went out to rob from the rich to give the poor.

②Relative decline of the UK economy: the UK has experienced an economic decline

since 1945. But this is a relative decline rather than an absolute one. Britain is wealthier and more productive than it was in 1945, but since other countries developed more rapidly, it has slid from being the second largest economy to being the sixth.

③Romanticism: 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 poetr y’s “Declaration of Independence.” Keats, Byron and Shelley, the 3 great poets, brought the Romantic Movement to its height.

The spirit of Romanticism also occurred in the novel.

S

①Sinn Fein: Sinn Fein is a legal political party in Northern Ireland which supports the IRA to fight for the union of Ireland. The leaders of Sinn Fein prefer union with Ireland by a twin campaign, both military and political which they call the policy of “the Bullet and the Ballot Box”. It believes that without the participation of Sinn Fein the political problem of Northern Ireland cannot be thoroughly solved.

英国篇

A

①Agribusiness:P83

Because American agriculture is big business, people coined the term“agribusiness”to reflect the large-scale nature of agricultural enterprises in the modern US economy.……

②Affirmative Action Programs:P137

B

①Benjamin Franklin: Benjamin Franklin was one of the founding fathers of the

United States of America. He participated in writing the Declaration of independence and making the US Constitution.

②The Bill of Rights: The Bill of Rights consists of the first 10 amendments which

were added to the Constitution in 1791. The Bill of Rights was passed to guarantee freedom and individual rights such as freedom of speech, the right to assemble is public places, the right to own weapons and so on.

③The Baptists in the US:P98

④Boards of educationLP137

⑤The black “underclass”:P172

⑥Bill Gates:P191

⑦The abuse of power by government:P173

⑧The abuse of power by corporations:P173

⑨Blues:P236

⑩Boogie Woogie:P236

C

①Corporation:P83

②The Catholics in the US:P99

③The civil rightsmovement:P154

④Counterculture:P155

⑤The Cold War:P204

⑥The containment policy:P204

D

①The Declaration of Independence: 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 some unalienable rights such as life，liberty and the pursuit of happiness. It also explained the philosophy of government; the powers of governments came from the consent of the governed and the purpose of governments were to secure the rights mentioned above. The theory of politics and the guiding principles of the American Revolution mainly came from John Locke.

②Drug abuse as a social problem:P172-173

①The executive:P65

②Eli Whitney:P83

③Elementary school：In the United States, elementary school usually means grades kindergarten(k) through 8. But in some places, it includes only k-6. Many Americans refer to elementary grades as “grammar school”. Elementary schools teach mathematics, language, arts, social studies and some other subjects.

③Engagement and expansion:P204

④Early jazz music:P235

F

①The first English settlement in North America: The first English permanent

settlement was organized in 1607 by the London Company with a charter from the English King. The colonists settled in Virginia and survived by imposing strict discipline on themselves and by transplanting tobacco into the colony of Virginia.

In 1619, the settlers elected their delegates and set up the House of Burgesses, and the same time they bought and enslaved black servants. These two events greatly influenced the political and social development of the United States later.

② A federal system: A federal system is one in which power is shared between a

central authority and its constituent parts, with some rights reserved to each.

G

①George Washington: George Washington was one of the founding fathers of the

American Republic. He was the Commander-in-chief of the Continental Army in the War of Independence against the British colonial rule and the first President of the United States.

②Greensboro sit-in:P154

③The Grand Canyon National Park :P222

H

①Higher education: P137

American higher education includes 4 categories of institutions. They are the university, the four-year undergraduate institution (the college), the technical training institution and the two-year community college.……

I

①Industrial Revolution in America：After independence, America was principally

an agricultural country. The Industrial Revolution in England brought many changes to American industry factory between 1776 and 1860.One key development was the introduction of the factory system. A second development was the “American system”of mass production. A third development was the application of new technologies to industrial task. A fourth development was the emergence of new forms of business organization-the bank and the corporation.

②The Internet:P191

①James Naismith:P222

L

①Louis Armstrong:P236

M

①The making of the US Constitution:P65

②Migrant workers: Many big farms hire temporary workers only for a specific chore

—such as picking crops. Many of these seasonal workers travel from farm to farm, staying only until the crops are picked. They are known as migrant workers.

③Montgomery bus boycott：P154

④Martin Luther King.Jr.:P154

N

①NBA:P222

P

①Puritanism: Puritans were those who followed the doctrine of John Calvin and

wanted to purify the Church of England. They believe that human beings were predestined by God before they were born. Some were God’s chosen people while others were damned to hell. No church nor good works could save people. The sign of being God’s elect was the success in his work or the prosperity in his calling.

They also argued that everyone must read the Bible in order to find God’s will and establish a direct contact with God. These beliefs had great impact on American culture.

②Poverty as a social problem:P172

③PC :P191

R

①Religious liberty in the US: The Declaration of Independence guaranteed the basic

right of religious freedom and this right was a political necessity. The First Amendment to the US Constitution explicitly forbade the federal government to give special favors to any religion or to hinder the free practice, or exercise, of religion. When disputes about the relationship between government and religion arise, American courts must settle them. But American institutions presuppose a Supreme Being, therefore Christianity is often, in practice, more favored than other religions.

②Religious diversity:P99

③Richard Nixons:P173

④Ragtime music:P236

S

①Samuel Slter:P83

②Service industries:P83

③Stock:P83

④The Servicemen’s Readjustment Act:P137

⑤Socially stratified American society:P172

⑥Sept.11 terrorist attack :P204

⑦The strategy of preemption:P204

⑧Super Bowl:P222

①Three Faiths in the US: By the 1950s,the 3 faiths model of American religion

had developed. Americans were considered to come in 3 basic varieties: Protestant, Catholic and Jewish. In terms of numbers, the Protestants are the strongest, the Catholics are next to the Protestants and Jewish are the smallest among the

3 groups.

②Taylorism and Fordism:P190

U

①Unilaterlism:P204

W

①White-collar crimes:P173

②“The Wizard of Menlo Park”:P190

Y

①Yellowstone National Park:P222