《英语国家概况（ 1 ）》 平时作业（二）
班级： ___________ 学号： ____________ 姓名： ___________ 分数： ___________
I. Multiple-choices. Choose one correct answer to each of the questions. (20%)
1. Which of the following statements is NOT true about the UK economy?
A. Britain remains one of the Group of Seven large industrial economies.
B. Britiain has experienced a relative economic decline since 1945.
C. There has been a period of steady decreasing of living standards.
D. Some smaller economies have overtaken the UK in terms of output per captia.
2. Which of the following is NOT a company in the energy sector?
A. Shell.
B. ICI.
C. RTZ.
D. British Gas.
3. Which is the following books is written by Geoffry Chaucer?
A. The Canterbury Tales.
B. Beowulf.
C. King Lear.
D. Morte D'Arthur
4. Which of the following is a tragedy written by Shakespeare?
A. Dr. Faustus.
B. Macbeth.
C. Frankerstein.
D. The Tempest.
5. Which of the following is the world's oldest national newspaper?
A. The Times.
B. The Observer.
C. The Financial Times.
D. The Guardian.
6. Which of the following statements is not true about the Britain media?
A. They supply people with news, keeping them informed of what is happening in the world.
B. They are mainly interested in making make huge profits by publishing advertisements.
C. They help shape British culture.
D. They provide entertainment.
7. Which of the following sports was not invented in Britain?
A. Football.
B. Tennis.
C. Archery.
D. Cricket.
8. On which day is Halloween celebrated?
A. 31 October.
B. 5 November.
C. 17 March.
D. 25 December.
9. Which of the following livestock has the biggest number in the UK?
A. Beef cattle.
B. Dairy cattle.
C. Chicken.
D. Sheep.
10. Which literary form flourished in Elizabethan age more than any other form of literature?
A. Novel.
B. Essay.
C. Drama.
D. Poetry.
II. Blank-fillings. Fill in the blanks and write your answer at the corresponding places. (30%)
A.
A low rate of (11)__________ industrial investment coupled with a very high rate of (12) __________ investment is a characteristic of the UK economy.
B.
In the 1970s, the devaluation of the UK currency forced the Labour government to borrow money from (13)__________.
C.
Shakespear's plays fall into three categories. They are (14)__________, (15) ____________ and history plays.
D.
Charles Dickens and Elizabeth Gaskell are regarded not only as (16)______ but also as social (17) ________ in the 19 th century.
E.
The BBC stands for (18)_____________.
F.
People usually dress up and show off their fashionable clothes and elaorate hats for the social event called (19) ______________.
G.
Overseas Chinese community in Britain often celebrates Chinese New Year with (20) _________ dance and firework.
III . There are 10 questions in this part. Answer each of the questions in one full sentence. (20%)
21. Where is the international tennis championships held?
22. Which newspaper is a tabloid?
23. How many newspapers are there in Britain?
24. What are the three most popular activities in Britain?
25. Where is the best agricultural land in Britain?
26. Where is one of the busiest share-dealing centres in the world?
27. Which holiday is the biggest and best loved British holiday?
28. Of which people is Robert Burns a national poet?
29. What are the two kinds of horse racing in Britain?
30. When did the British economy dominate in the world?
IV. Explain each of each of the following in no more than five sentences. Write your answer at appropriate place. (30 %)
31. Relative decline of the UK economy
32. “The City”
33. Elizabethan Drama
34. Romanticism
35. The Times
《英语国家概况（ 1 ）》平时作业（二）答案及评分标准
（供参考）
I. Choose the correct answers (20%)
1. C 2.B 3. A 4. B 5.C
6. B 7. C 8. A 9. D 10.C
II. Fill in the blanks (30%)
11. domestic 12. overseas
13. the International Monetary Fund
14.tragedies 15. comedies
16. novelists 17. critics
18. the British Broadcasting Corporation
19.the Grand National 20. dragon
III. Answer each of the questions. (20%)
21.Wimbledon.
22.The News of the World.
23.About 1400.
24. In Britain, the most popular activities are watching TV, listening to the radio and reading newspapers.
25. In the southeast of England.
26. The London Stock Exchange.
27. Christmas is the biggest and best loved British holiday.
28. Scottish people.
29. The two kinds of horse racing in Britain are flat racing and steeplechase.
30. By the 1880s.
IV Explain each of the following in no more than five sentences. (30%)
31. Relative 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.
32. “The City”
“The 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 concentrationof banks, insurance companies and business dealing in commodities. At the heart of the city is the London Stock Exchange.
33. Elizabethan Drama
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 lone-lasting expressions of this development lay in drama. That was the period of the reign of Queen Elizabethan (1558--1603). The first professional theatre in London opened in 1576, and others followed, performing the plays of many notable playwriters, including Christopher Marlowe, Ben Jonson and Willam Shakespeare.
34. Romanticism
Roughly the first third of the 19 th century makes up English literature's romantic perion. 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 Coleridges is regarded as the romantic poetry's “Declaration of Indepencdence”. Keats, Byron and Shelly, the three great poets, brought the Romantic Movement to its height. The spirit of Romanticism also occurred in the novel.
35. The Times
The Times began publishing in 1785 and it is the United Kingdom's oldest daily newspaper.