Summary 3

England:

What do the English like doing?

Popular hobbies are gardening, fishing in rivers, clubbing for the teenagers , also DIY that means ‘do it yourself’ and it involves repairing or decorating your home, they love go on holidays aboard the country because it’s cheaper and for sure go shopping.

What is there to eat in England?

Most English people eat breakfast, lunch (which it’s also called dinner) and dinner (also called tea). English food does not have a good reputation in other countries but there are in fact some delicious dishes like fish and chips, roast diner ( roast turkey on Christmas), stilton cheese (King of Cheeses).

English cakes and biscuits are very popular with English people and tourists. A full English breakfast is a great way to start the day if you’re not in diet because it includes sausages, grilled tomatoes, mushrooms, fried eggs…

Curry it’s also really famous there but it’s not originally English. Curry came to England from South Asia in the 18th century, and it became popular after the second world war.

Sport:

Main sporting events are: the FA Cup, the Oxford-Cambridge boa trace, the Grand National and the Derby, Wimbledon, the Open Golf, the Six Nations and the international Test Matches.

They say that they invented football but so do other countries. However, they play it since the eighth century. The first international football match was between England and Scotland in 1870. The ‘Big Four’ teams are Manchester United, Chelsea, Arsenal and Liverpool but other teams with rich owners may soon join them.

Also cricket its really famous by many English- speaking nations.

Celebrations:

Christmas and Easter are the most important festivals for English but there are many other. Like the Fireworks’ Night on 5th November that reminds that Guy Fawkes did not  succeed in killing the King in 1605. Another date is 1st of April, or April Fool’s Day. People are allowed to play jokes on other people.

Music:

English pop and rock music is popular all over the world. From the Rolling Stones and the Beatles to Elton John to punk bands to Coldplay and Radiohead in the 2000s.

Iconic Places

Like Stonehenge and Hadrian’s wall from the early history of Britain. When the Normans came and they built many castles but the most famous is the Tower of London, where many people were executed there including three Queens of England. As well as castles, England also has many famous cathedrals: Canterbury Cathedral, York Minster, Salisbury  and Lincoln Cathedral, Westminster Abbey and St Paul’s . There are also many great houses such as Chatsworth House and Blenheim Palace.

British cities with are famous for their beauty are Canterbury, Bath, York, Stratford-on-Avon, Oxford, Cambridge and Liverpool.

The Lake Distric is one of the most attractive landscapes in the United Kingdom. It’s in the north-west. But the beaches are not really famous but if you go to Newquay in Cornwall you can enjoy surfing. Also the White cliffs of Dover are wonderful.

Iconic People:

Such as Queen Elizabeth I, Shakespeare, Isaac Newton, Dickens, Darwin and Winston Churchill. But the recent iconic people are:

Princess Diana was the wife of Prince Charles, the people loved her for her beauty, kindness… But she died in a car crash in 1997.

John Lennon wrote most of the songs of the Beatles. He was murdered in New York in 1980.
Margaret Thatcher was the first woman to became Prime Minister of the UK.
David Beckham: he is probably the most famous English footballer of the 1990s and 2000s.

 

 

Summary 2

From the Gunpowder Plot to Global Warming

The Execution of a King.

On 4th November 1605 Guy Fawkes hid under the Parliament around 20 barrels of gunpowder and they exploted when the King James I opened the Parliament the next day. He was angry because he thought that the King laws were unfair to the people of his religion. He was arrested and the King was safe.

Afterwards Charles, James son wanted to close the Parliament and govern him the country alone but the Civil War started in 1642 between the Royalists and the Parliamentarians. Finally, the Parliamentarians won and Charles was beheaded.

Christmas is cancelled.

From 1649 to 1660 there was no King in the UK, Cromwell became ‘Lord Protector’. Christmas was also banned by limiting Christmas celebrations.

 Plague Fire and Revolution.

Charles II became the king after the Cromwell death. There were two terrible events during his reign. The ‘Great Plague’ when around the 20 % of the population of London death. And the other one was the ‘Great Fire of London’ which destroyed many building of the capital.

After his death the new king was James II

 

England + Wales + Scotland + Ireland:

Anne baceme Queen. During her reign, twi political parties developed in Parliament: Whigs and Tories. This was thes tart of the modern British political system.
Two important acts: - No Roman Catholic could be king or queen (Act of Settlement)
- England and Scotland were 1 contry (Act of Union)

Anne died, without any children, so Britain had to look for a Protestant king, George, wasthe start of the Georgian Age in Britain.
During the reign of George III, Britain lost its colonies in America.
In 1801, the government introduced the Act of Union with Ireland.

 

The Industrial Revolution.

It began in the end of the eighteenth century. The new machines changed the way that the people lived, and also they started to work in factories. The Industrial Revolution made Britain rich, but it also created problems like the bad living conditions for the works.. Coal was the main fuel of the revolutions and a lot of children worked in the mines to get the coal.

The Victorian Age

A Young woman called Victoria became the queen of England, and after she became the Empress of India. During her reign many British men and women such as Dickens, Nightingale, Darwin… became world-famous.  In those days the society changed so much the children weren’t allow to work and education became free, also the railway system was better. But Queen Victoria and her government had also a lot of problems at the end and many people moved to America. And after that the government of India became Independence.

The Twentieth Century.

The population grew from about forty million to sixty million. The country was involved in two world wars and in other wars too. The technological and scientific progress had a huge effect in the Uk too. In 1919 the Irish War of Independence began and finally they won and South of Ireland became Independent.

Some Irish people wanted to unite all Ireland, and this period is known as ‘the troubles’. After the Second World War a lot of countries in the British Empire became independent. In the 60s the teenagers had more freedom, and the role of women began to change the rules of society were relaxed, this was the time of Beatles and the Rolling Stones. Also they had a lot of changes in the second half of the twentieth century when it entered to the European Community.

 Into the Twenty-first Century:

The Scottish Parliament, the National Assembly for Wales and the Northern Ireland Assembly make thos nations more independent. People face the problem of global warming.
From 2008 ther gave been economic problems.

Four weddings and a funeral

 In class we just read the novel Four weddings and a funeral. This post I'm going to talk about the characters of the novel or film, and then I'll write my own opinion about this novel.

Characters:

Charles: He is the main character of the film. He is a handsome, friendly, English man around 30  years old. He don't fancy marry anyone, because he didn't find the right woman. He had plenty of girlfriends but like one of her ex girlfriends said he's afraid to fall in love with a woman, this is why he split up fast with every woman he is with! At the end he love the other main character of the film Carrie, he's mad because she is going to marry and Scottish man but at the end of the film, Charles and Carrie they final together because they love each other.

Carrie: She is a beautiful American woman who's had many boyfriends.

Scarlett: shares flat wiht Charles; she's not his girlfriends and she's looking for the right man.

Fiona: is clever and elegant, unlike her brother. She hasn't got a boyfriend; she's in love with Charles since the first time they met.

Tom: is Fiona's brother, he's rich but not very clever friend of Charles; no girlfriend, but he's looking for love.

Henrietta: is an old girlfriend of Charles and stills wants to marry him; people call her Duck Face, behind her back.

Gareth: is a loud and lively friend of CHarles, he enjoys his food and drink and lives with his boyfriend Matthew.

Matthew: is quiter than Gareth, and kind and intelligent. He and Gareth have been together a long time.

John: is Henrietta's brother; he's very boring.

David: is Charles's younger brother; he's deaf, and he and Charles communicate by sign language.

Serena: she fall in love with David, and she learn sign language so she can talk to David.

Bernard: is Tom's best friends. He likes Lydia.

Lydia: is Laura's bridemaid at the first wedding. She's not interested in Bernad at first.


Some of the vocabulary:

bride: muller.

bridegroom / groom : maritg.

best man: the man who helps the bridegroom on his wedding day. Padrí

coffin: a long box in which a dead person is places. Taut.

gloomy: dark and sad-looking.

bridesmaid: a woman usually unmarried, who helps a bride on her wedding day. Dama d'honor.

nod: to move you rhead up and down to mean 'yes'.

maid: a female servant, especially in a large house or hotel.

rusty: coverd in the reddish-bround substance that forms on old metal.

 self-conscious: worried about what you look like or what other people think of you.

aisle: a long passage between rows of seats, in a church or plane, for example.

noon: 12 pm.

4. personal opinion

the characters

Chapters summary: