1.

Climate:
 The popular belief that it rains all the time in Britain is simply not true. In fact, London
gets no more rain in a year than most other major European cities, and less than some
 The amount of rain that falls on a town in Britain depends on where it is. the further
west you go, the more rain you get. The winters are in general slightly colder in the east
o f the country than they are in the west, while in summer the south is warmer and
sunnier than the north.
 Why has Britain’s climate got such a bad reputation? This is its changeability. It may not
rain very much altogether, but you can never be sure of a dry day; there can be cool
(even cold) days in July and some quite warm days in January.
 The lack of extremes is the reason why, on the few occasions when it gets genuinely hot
or freezing cold. These things happen so rarely that it is not worth organizing life to be
ready for them.
2. Land and settlement :
 Britain has neither towering mountain ranges nor impressively large rivers, plains or
forests. the south and east of the country are comparatively low-lying, consisting of
either flat plains or gently rolling hills. Mountainous areas are found only in the north
and west, although these regions also have flat areas
 Human influence has been extensive. The forests that once covered the land have
largely disappeared. Britain has a greater proportion of grassland than any other
country in Europe except Ireland. Although many hedgerows disappeared in the second
half of the twentieth century, there are still enough o f them to support a variety o f bird
life.
 Much of the land is used for hum an habitation. As a result, cities in England and Wales
have, wherever possible, been built outwards rather than upwards.
 However, because most people live in towns or cities rather than in villages or in the
countryside. There are areas of completely open countryside everywhere and some of
the mountainous areas remain virtually untouched.
3. The environment and pollution :
 It was in Britain that the word 'smog’ (a mixture of smoke and fog) was first used. As the
world's first industrialized country, its cities were the first to suffer this atmospheric
condition. In the nineteenth century, London's cpea-soupers' () became famous ( worst
in 1952), which lasted for several days, was estimated to have caused between 4,000
and 8,000 deaths.
 Water pollution was also a problem. In the nineteenth century. River Thames was one of
the most polluted RIVER, BUT it no longer polluted now.
 the great increase in the use of the motor car in the last quarter o f the twentieth
century caused an increase in a different kind of air pollution.
4. London :
 London (the largest city in western Europe) dominates Britain. It is home to the
headquarters of all government departments, the country’s parliament, its major legal
institutions, and the monarch. It is about seven times larger than any other city in the
country. About a fifth of the total population o f the UK lives in the wider London area.
  Like many large cities, London is in some ways untypical of the rest o f the country in
that it is so cosmopolitan. More than 300 languages are spoken there; its restaurants
offer cuisine from more then 70 different countries. In fact, nearly a third of the people
in London were born outside Britain.

 London has most of both the richest and the poorest areas in Britain. Despite this, you
have less chance of being the victim of a crime there than you have in many other
British cities. In late 2007, it was voted the most popular city in the world in an on-line
poll of international tourists.

5. SE:
This is the most densely populated area in the UK which does not include a large city,
and millions of its inhabitants travel into London to work every day.
 The county o f Kent, is known as ‘the garden of England’ because o f the many kinds o f
fruit and vegetables grown there. The Downs, a series of hills in a horseshoe shape to
the south of London, are used for sheep farming. The southern side of the Downs
reaches the sea in many places and form the white cliffs o f the south coast.
Employment in the south-east o f England has always been mainly in trade, the
provision o f services and light manufacturing. There was never m uch heavy industry.
 The region known as ‘the West Country’ has an attractive image of rural beauty in
British people’s minds. There is some industry and one large city, but farming is more
widespread than it is in most other regions.
 Some parts of the West Country are well-known for their dairy produce and wild
moorlands such as Exmoor and Dartmoor, is the most popular holiday area in Britain.
The winters are so mild in some low-lying parts of Cornwall.
 East Anglia, to the north-east o f London, is also comparatively rural. It is the only region
in Britain where there are large expanses of uniformly flat land. it the main area in the
country for the growing of wheat and other arable crops. Part o f this region, the area
known as the Fens, has been reclaimed from the sea. Further east, the Norfolk Broads
are criss-crossed by hundreds o f waterways, but there are no towns here, so it is a
popular area for boating holidays.
6. The Midlands of England :
 Birmingham is Britain’s second largest city. During the Industrial Revolution Birmingham
and the area to its north and west developed into the country’s major engineering
centre. There are other industrial areas in the Midlands, notably the towns between the
Black Country and Manchester and several towns further east such as Derby, Leicester,
and Nottingham, On the east coast, Grimsby, once one o f the world’s greatest fishing
ports, has become the country’s major fish processing centre.
 Although the Midlands do not have many positive associations in the minds of British
people, tourism has flourished in 'Shakespeare country5
7. Northern England
 The Pennine mountains run up the middle of northern England like a spine. On either
side, the large deposits of coal and iron ore enabled these areas to lead the Industrial
Revolution. On the western side, the Manchester area became the world’s leading
 producer of cotton goods; on the eastern side, became the world’s leading producers of
woollen goods. Further south, Sheffield became a centre for the production o f steel
goods. Further north, around Newcastle, shipbuilding was the major industry
 The decline in heavy industry in Europe in the second half of the twentieth century hit
the industrial north of England hard. For a long time, the region as a whole had a level of
unemployment significantly above the national average.
 The towns on either side of the Pennines are flanked by steep slopes on which it is
difficult to build and are surrounded by land, most o f which is unsuitable for any
agriculture other than sheep farming. Open and uninhabited countryside is never far
away from its cities and towns. The typically industrial landscape and the very rural
landscape interlock.
 In the north-western corner of the country is Lake District. The Romantic poets
Wordsworth, Coleridge and Southey lived here and wrote about its beauty. It is the
favourite destination of people who enjoy walking holidays and the whole area is
classified as a National Park .
8. Scotland:
 Scotland has three fairly clearly marked regions. Just north of the border with England
are the southern uplands, whose economy depends to a large extent on sheep farming.
Further north, there is the central plain. there are the highlands. An area of spectacular
natural beauty, it occupies the same land area as southern England but fewer than a
million people live there. Tourism is important in the local economy, and so is the
production o f whisky.
 It is in the central plain and the strip of east coast extending northwards from it that
more than 80% o f the population o f Scotland lives.
 Scotland’s two major cities have very different reputations. Glasgow has a strong artistic
heritage. At the turn of the last century the work of the Glasgow School put the city at
the forefront of European design and architecture. Over the centuries, Glasgow has
received many immigrants from Ireland.
 Edinburgh has a comparatively middle class. It is the capital of Scotland and the seat of
its parliament. It is associated with scholarship, the law, and administration.
9. Wwales:
 As in Scotland, most people in Wales live in one small part of it. In the Welsh case, it is
the south-east o f the country that is most heavily populated. They locate its prototype
coal mine in south Wales. Despite its industry, no really large cities have emerged in this
area . It is the only part of Britain with a high proportion of industrial villages. Coal m
ining in south Wales has now almost entirely ceased and, as elsewhere, the transition to
other forms of employment has been slow and painful.
 Most of the rest of Wales is mountainous so travel between south and north is very
difficult. As a result, each part of Wales has close contact with its neighbouring part of
England than itself. The area around Mount Snowdon in the north-west o f the country
is very beautiful and is the largest National Park in Britain.
10. Northern Ireland:
 With the exception of Belfast, which is famous for the manufacture of linen, this region
is, like the rest of Ireland, largely agricultural. It has several areas of spectacular natural
beauty.