第一章  英美历史文化

第二章  英美节日文化

第三章  英美名人轶事

第一章英美历史文化 

Who Are the British不列颠人的来历http://blogsinacomcnAlthough the United Kingdom covers only a small area of the earths surface, it represents people of many different origins and cultures Yet all of them are British Indeed, it would be difficult to find anyone in modern Britain who could say with certainty that his ancestors had not come to the British Isles from somewhere else Who, then, are todays Britons and what kind of people are they？ The history of human habitation and settlement in Britain goes back to the Stone Age hunters and gatherers who arrived from the European continent about 10 000 years ago The Neolithic peoples who followed them were settled agriculturatlists who kept domestic animals and knew how to make simple pottery Around 2000 BC these Stone Age people started to erect huge monuments, or henges, of giant rock slabs, possibly for religious purposes Work on the henges continued intermittently into the Bronze Age, until about 1500 BC The most imposing and mysterious of these ancient monuments is Stonehenge, on windswept Salisbury plain in southwest England

尽管联合王国仅仅占有地球表面很小一片地域，但它却代表了有不同起源和文化的人们。他们仍旧是英国人。事实上，你很难找到一个现代的英国人，他能很肯定地说自己的祖先不是从其他地方来到不列颠岛的。那么，谁是今天的不列颠人，他们又是什么人呢？人们移民和定居于不列颠的历史可以追溯到石器时代的游猎者及游牧寻食者，他们大约在10 000年前从欧洲大陆来到这里。继他们之后，新石器时代的人类移居于此并长于农耕，他们饲养家养牲畜，会制造简单的瓷器。公元前2000年左右,这些石器时代的人们开始用巨大的岩石板兴建大型纪念物或者石林，这些石林可能是用于膜拜。兴建石林的历程一直持续到大约公元前1500年的青铜时代。在这些古老的建筑群中最为壮观和神秘的就是位于英格兰西南部受强风吹打的的索尔兹伯里平原上的巨石阵。

Easy communication between the islands and the continental mainland must have existed and, from earliest times, this encouraged migration By the end of the Bronze Age, around 700 BC, Celtic peoples had arrived from northwestern Europe bringing with them a revolutionary new skill: ironworking Celtic continued to come and settle in Britain for about 500 years, by the time the Romans first landed in 55 BC, the Celtic culture was well established The earliest written records of Britains inhabitants come from the Romans who eventually conquered the various Celtic kingdoms then flourishing in England, Wales and the Scottish Lowlands

岛屿和大陆之间便捷的交流方式必然是存在过的，而且在早期这曾促进了移民。在青铜时代末期，大约公元前700年，凯尔特民族从欧洲的西北迁徙至此，他们带来了一种革命性的新技术——冶金术。凯尔特人不断地到来并定居于不列颠岛一直持续了大约500年。当罗马人在公元前55年第一次登陆不列颠岛时，凯尔特文化完全建立起来。最早的有关于不列颠居民的记载来自罗马，罗马人最终占领了凯尔特诸族的王国，之后在英格兰，威尔士和苏格兰东南部的低地繁荣地发展起来。

The Scots苏格兰人

The Scots, particularly the Highlanders form the mountainous north, try to maintain their separate identity Like the Welsh, they object to being called ‘English’ Their earliest known ancestors were the Picts and the Celts and the Gaelic language，still spoken in remote parts, comes from the ancient language of the Celtic tribesThe Scottish Highlanders consider himself the ‘true’ Scot and they wears their national dress, the kilt, with pride Kilts, pleated skirts made of material with a squared, coloured design called a tartan, probably derive from the costume of the Roman conquerors Each Scottish clan（a Gaelic word for ‘tribe’ or ‘family’）has its own tartan with specific colours and design and only members of that clan are entitled to wear it There are tartans for all the famous Scottish names like Campbell, MacLeod, Fraser, Gordon, Stuart and Macdonald（‘Mac’ or ‘Mc’, found in many Scottish names, means son of）.

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