AsyouarestudentsofEnglish,it’sverypossiblethatyou’ll...

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As you are students of English, it’s very possible that you’ll be interested in England. That’s where the language was first spoken. But England is often called by other names. This often confuses （把……弄糊塗）people and I wonder if you know what these names mean. So, what I’d like to tell you about how is this matter of names. I believe you’ve heard people use the names－England, Britain or Great Britain. Let’s see what each of these names means.

If you look at a map of Europe, you’ll see a group of islands－one larger island off the northwest coast（海岸）, one smaller and many tiny ones. These make up what is called the British Isles（不列顛羣島）. The largest island of the British Isles is Britain. It is also called Great Britain. The smaller island is Ireland.

Britain is divided （分為）into three parts: Scotland, Wales and England. But sometines the word “England”is used instead of “Britain”. Why so?

In ancient times, what is Britain now used to be three different countries. People in these different countries spoke different languages. Over many, many years the three countries became one.

England is the largest and richest of the three and it has the most people. So the English people take it for granted（認為當然）that their own name stands for the whole island.

There’s another thing that confuses people－sometimes you may hear people say “the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland”. That is the official name of the country. Northern Ireland is only one sixth of the island of Ireland. The rest of the island is an independent（*的）state, called the Republic of Ireland. So we have the names of “England”, “Britain”, “Great Britain”and “the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland”. Now do you know what each of them means?

（）1. Britain is divided into ______, _______ and _______.

A. England; Britain; Wales B. Wales; Scotland; Great Britain

C. England; Scotland; Wales D. Great Britain; Wales; Scotland

（）2. Britain is divided into three parts. Which of the following is true?

A. Britain is the only name of the largest island of British Isles.

B. Scotland is the largest of the three.

C. Wales is the richest of the three.

D. England has the most people.

（）3. Why is “England”sometimes used instead of “Britain”? Because ______.

A. there are three different countries in Britain

B. England is the most important part of Britain

C. people in Britain speak different languages