Текст на английском про Англию

England is a country in Europe. It is on an island. The capital of England is London.

London is very big and very old. There are a lot of museums and parks. The river in London is the Thames.

England has got green hills and old castles. It often rains there.

English people like tea. They often drink tea with milk. Football is very popular in England.

I want to visit England. I can speak a little English!

Last spring I went to London with my English class. We flew there on a Monday morning, and it was raining when we arrived, of course!

On the first day we went on a big red bus and saw the Houses of Parliament and Big Ben. Then we walked to Buckingham Palace, but we didn't see the King.

The next day we visited the British Museum. It was bigger than I expected, and I liked the Egyptian mummies best. In the evening we had fish and chips, which was tastier than I thought.

The most difficult thing was the traffic, because cars drive on the left in England. Every time I crossed the road, I looked the wrong way first!

Now I am reading a book about English history. Next year I am going to visit Oxford and Cambridge.

Many people use the words England, Britain and the United Kingdom as if they meant the same thing. However, they are different. England is only one of the four nations which make up the United Kingdom. The other three are Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

Great Britain is the name of the largest island, where England, Scotland and Wales are situated. The United Kingdom includes Great Britain and Northern Ireland, which is on the island of Ireland. That is why it is better not to call a Scot or a Welsh person English: they may feel offended.

England is the largest and most populated part of the UK, and London, its capital, is also the capital of the whole country. England has its own flag, the red cross of Saint George on a white background, while the famous Union Jack represents the whole United Kingdom.

England is famous for its universities, its countryside and its writers. William Shakespeare was born in Stratford-upon-Avon in 1564, and his plays are still performed all over the world.

I have read a few books about the UK, but I have only been to London. If I go back, I will visit the north of England, which people say is completely different.

Ask a foreigner to describe England, and you will probably hear a familiar list: rain, tea, queues, red buses and an obsession with politeness. Like most stereotypes, these images contain a grain of truth, yet they say surprisingly little about the country itself.

One reason England is hard to define is that it rarely stands alone. For centuries it has been the dominant part of a larger state, so English and British identity have become almost impossible to separate. Many English people describe themselves as British first, whereas Scots and Welsh people tend to be far more conscious of their own nationality. It is only relatively recently that the red and white flag of Saint George has become a common sight at football matches.

The country is also far more varied than its image suggests. The industrial cities of the north, the quiet villages of the Cotswolds and the multicultural streets of London can feel like different worlds. Even the accents change noticeably within a short train journey, which often comes as a shock to learners who have studied only one standard form of English.

What, then, unites the English? Perhaps it is a certain attitude rather than any single tradition: a fondness for understatement, a habit of laughing at oneself and a deep attachment to the countryside. Had I not spent a month living with a family in Yorkshire, I would never have noticed how much these unspoken rules shape daily life.

In my view, the best way to understand England is to stop looking for the postcard version. The real country is to be found in ordinary conversations, local pubs and small towns that never appear in guidebooks.