My summer holidays

Exercise 5. Speak about your own day off.


THE UNITED KINGDOM
The U.K. (short for the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland) is situated on two large islands called the British Isles. The larger island is Great Britain, which consists of three parts: England, Scotland and Wales, and the smaller part is Ireland. The United Kingdom is that part of the British Isles which consists of Scotland, Wales and England (the whole of Great Britain), and also Northern Ireland which is situated in the north-eastern part of Ireland. The U.K. is separated from the continent of Europe by the English Channel.
There are no high mountains on these islands. Ben Nevis in Scotland and Snowdon in Wales are the highest ones. The British Isles have many rivers, but they are not very long. The Severn, the Thames, the Clyde are among them. There are many beautiful lakes, especially in Scotland and one of them is the Loch Ness, which attracts many tourists by the mythical Loch Ness monster. The sea is naturally important to the British Isles and seaports play a great part in the life of the country.
The climate of the British Isles is not very cold in winter and never very hot in summer. As a rule, there is no ice on the lakes and rivers in winter, and snow never lies on the ground for long. All parts of the British Isles get a lot of rain in all seasons.
People in countries outside the British Isles often call the inhabitants of the United Kingdom the English. This is incorrect, for there are at least four main nationalities, the English, the Scots, the Welsh and the Irish and they all have their own language and culture.
The population of the United Kingdom and Northern Ireland is almost 60 million. Britain is mainly an industrial country and most of the people live in large towns: London, Birmingham, Manchester, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Bristol and others. Coal-mining, heavy industry, textile industry, production of electronic equipment, ship-building and production of food make the U.K. one of the highly-developed industrial countries of the world.
Great Britain is known by its traditions. English tea-time, English polite manners, delicate English humour are widely spoken about all over the world.