Señores Padres de Familia - Estudiantes de Octavo 8ab - Jornada mañana y tarde
Reciban un Cordial y Fraterno Saludo
Les recuerdo que para nuestro" ENGLISH DAY",Actividad cultural - academica que se llevara a cabo el proximo mes de septiembre del 2017 ; nos corresponde England - Inglaterra una de las cuatro naciones constituyentes del Reino Unido. Su territorio está formado geográficamente por la parte sur y central de Gran Bretaña, isla que comparte junto a Escocia y Gales.Es importante indagar ,conocer toda su cultura y aspectos de interes como economia - moneda - ubicacion geografica - vestuario - division politica - gastronomia en fin...por medio de este tipo de propuestas padres de familia nuestros niños conoceran otras culturas que por supuesto sera de gran utilidad y aporte para el proceso de aprendizaje de nuestra segunda lengua extranjera English...
por favor alguna inquietud comunicarme...
Cordialmente,
Lic.Edward Jaramillo
Foreign Languages.England
England
constituent unit, United Kingdom
Outside the British Isles,
England is often erroneously considered synonymous with the island of
Great Britain (England, Scotland, and Wales) and even with the entire
United Kingdom. Despite the political, economic, and cultural legacy
that has secured the perpetuation of its name, England no longer
officially exists as a governmental or political unit—unlike Scotland,
Wales, and Northern Ireland,
which all have varying degrees of self-government in domestic affairs.
It is rare for institutions to operate for England alone. Notable
exceptions are the Church of England (Wales, Scotland, and Ireland, including Northern Ireland, have separate branches of the Anglican Communion) and sports associations for cricket, rugby, and football (soccer). In many ways England has seemingly been absorbed within the larger mass of Great Britain since the Act of Union of 1707.
Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
Laced
by great rivers and small streams, England is a fertile land, and the
generosity of its soil has supported a thriving agricultural economy for
millennia. In the early 19th century, England became the epicentre of a
worldwide Industrial Revolution and soon the world’s most industrialized country. Drawing resources from every settled continent, cities such as Manchester, Birmingham, and Liverpool converted raw materials into manufactured goods for a global market, while London,
the country’s capital, emerged as one of the world’s preeminent cities
and the hub of a political, economic, and cultural network that extended
far beyond England’s shores. Today the metropolitan area of London encompasses much of southeastern England and continues to serve as the financial centre of Europe and to be a centre of innovation—particularly in popular culture.
Time-lapse video of London.Alex Silver (A Britannica Publishing Partner)
One of the fundamental English characteristics is diversity
within a small compass. No place in England is more than 75 miles (120
km) from the sea, and even the farthest points in the country are no
more than a day’s journey by road or rail from London. Formed of the
union of small Celtic and Anglo-Saxon kingdoms during the early medieval period, England has long comprised several distinct regions, each different in dialect,
economy, religion, and disposition; indeed, even today many English
people identify themselves by the regions or shires from which they
come—e.g., Yorkshire,
the West Country, the Midlands—and retain strong ties to those regions
even if they live elsewhere. Yet commonalities are more important than
these differences, many of which began to disappear in the era after World War II,
especially with the transformation of England from a rural into a
highly urbanized society. The country’s island location has been of
critical importance to the development of the English character, which
fosters the seemingly contradictory qualities of candour and reserve
along with conformity and eccentricity and which values social harmony
and, as is true of many island countries, the good manners that ensure
orderly relations in a densely populated landscape.
With the loss of
Britain’s vast overseas empire in the mid 20th century, England suffered
an identity crisis, and much energy has been devoted to discussions of
“Englishness”—that is, not only of just what it means to be English in a
country that now has large immigrant populations from many former
colonies and that is much more cosmopolitan than insular but also of what it means to be English as opposed to British. While English culture draws on the cultures of the world, it is quite unlike any other, if difficult to identify and define. Of it, English novelist George Orwell, the “revolutionary patriot” who chronicled politics and society in the 1930s and ’40s, remarked in The Lion and the Unicorn (1941):
There is something distinctive and recognizable in English civilization.…It is somehow bound up with solid breakfasts and gloomy Sundays, smoky towns and winding roads, green fields and red pillar-boxes. It has a flavour of its own. Moreover it is continuous, it stretches into the future and the past, there is something in it that persists, as in a living creature.
For many, Orwell
captured as well as anyone the essence of what Shakespeare called “this
blessed plot, this earth, this realm, this England.”
Land
Test Your Knowledge
Let’s Move: Fact or Fiction?
England is bounded on the north by Scotland; on the west by the Irish Sea, Wales, and the Atlantic Ocean; on the south by the English Channel; and on the east by the North Sea.
Relief
England’s topography
is low in elevation but, except in the east, rarely flat. Much of it
consists of rolling hillsides, with the highest elevations found in the
north, northwest, and southwest. This landscape is based on complex
underlying structures that form intricate patterns on England’s geologic
map. The oldest sedimentary rocks and some igneous rocks (in isolated
hills of granite) are in Cornwall and Devon
on the southwestern peninsula, ancient volcanic rocks underlie parts of
the Cumbrian Mountains, and the most recent alluvial soils cover the Fens of Cambridgeshire, Lincolnshire, and Norfolk.
Between these regions lie bands of sandstones and limestones of
different geologic periods, many of them relicts of primeval times when
large parts of central and southern England were submerged below warm
seas. Geologic forces lifted and folded some of these rocks to form the
spine of northern England—the Pennines, which rise to 2,930 feet (893 metres) at Cross Fell. The Cumbrian Mountains, which include the famous Lake District,
reach 3,210 feet (978 metres) at Scafell Pike, the highest point in
England. Slate covers most of the northern portion of the mountains, and
thick beds of lava are found in the southern part. Other sedimentary
layers have yielded chains of hills ranging from 965 feet (294 metres)
in the North Downs to 1,083 feet (330 metres) in the Cotswolds.
Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
The hills known as the Chilterns, the North York
Moors, and the Yorkshire and Lincolnshire Wolds were rounded into
characteristic plateaus with west-facing escarpments during three
successive glacial periods of the Pleistocene Epoch (about 2,600,000 to
11,700 years ago). When the last ice sheet melted, the sea level rose,
submerging the land bridge
that had connected Great Britain with the European mainland. Deep
deposits of sand, gravel, and glacial mud left by the retreating
glaciers further altered the landscape. Erosion by rain, river, and
tides and subsidence in parts of eastern England subsequently shaped the
hills and the coastline. Plateaus of limestone, gritstone, and carboniferous strata are associated with major coalfields, some existing as outcrops on the surface.
The geologic complexity
of England is strikingly illustrated in the cliff structure of its
shoreline. Along the southern coast from the ancient granite cliffs of Land’s End
in the extreme southwest is a succession of sandstones of different
colours and limestones of different ages, culminating in the white chalk
from the Isle of Wight to Dover.
A varied panorama of cliffs, bays, and river estuaries distinguishes
the English coastline, which, with its many indentations, is some 2,000
miles (3,200 km) long.
Drainage
The Pennines, the Cotswolds, and the moors and chalk downs of southern England serve as watersheds for most of England’s rivers. The Eden, Ribble, and Mersey rise in the Pennines, flow westward, and have a short course to the Atlantic Ocean. The Tyne, Tees, Swale, Aire, Don, and Trent rise in the Pennines, flow eastward, and have a long course to the North Sea. The Welland, Nene, and Great Ouse
rise in the northeastern edge of the Cotswolds and empty into the Wash
estuary, which forms part of the North Sea. The Welland river valley
forms part of the rich agricultural land of Lincolnshire. The Thames,
the longest river in England, also rises in the Cotswolds and drains a
large part of southeastern England. From the moors and chalk downs of
southern England rise the Tamar, Exe, Stour, Avon, Test, Arun,
and Ouse. All flow into the English Channel and in some instances help
to form a pleasing landscape along the coast. England’s largest lake is Windermere, with an area of 6 square miles (16 square km), located in the county of Cumbria.
Soils
In
journeys of only a few miles it is possible to pass through a
succession of different soil structures—such as from chalk down to
alluvial river valley, from limestone to sandstone
and acid heath, and from clay to sand—each type of soil bearing its own
class of vegetation. The Cumbrian Mountains and most of the
southwestern peninsula have acid brown soils. The eastern section of the
Pennines has soils ranging from brown earths to podzols. Leached brown
soils predominate in much of southern England. Acid soils and podzols
occur in the southeast. Regional characteristics, however, are
important. Black soil covers the Fens in Cambridgeshire and Norfolk;
clay soil predominates in the hills of the Weald (in East Sussex
and West Sussex); and the chalk downs, especially the North Downs of
Kent, are covered by a variety of stiff, brown clay, with sharp angular
flints. Fine-grained deposits of alluvium occur in the floodplains, and
fine marine silt occurs around the Wash estuary.
Climate
Related Topics
Weather in England is
as variable as the topography. As in other temperate maritime zones, the
averages are moderate, ranging in the Thames river valley from about 35
°F (2 °C) in January to 72 °F (22 °C) in July; but the extremes in
England range from below 0 °F (−18 °C) to above 90 °F (32 °C). The Roman
historian Tacitus
recorded that the climate was “objectionable, with frequent rains and
mists, but no extreme cold.” Yet snow covers the higher elevations of
England about 50 days per year. England is known as a wet country, and
this is certainly true in the northwest and southwest. However, the
northeastern and central regions receive less than 30 inches (750 mm) of
rainfall annually and frequently suffer from drought. In parts of the
southeast the annual rainfall averages only 20 inches (500 mm). Charles II
thought that the English climate was the best in the world—“a man can
enjoy outdoor exercise in all but five days of the year.” But no one
would dispute that it is unpredictable: hence Dr. Samuel Johnson’s
observation that “when two Englishmen meet their first talk is of the
weather.” This changeability of the weather, not only season by season
but day by day and even hour by hour, has had a profound effect on
English art and literature. Not for nothing has the bumbershoot been the
stereotypical walking stick of the English gentleman.
Plant and animal life
England
shares with the rest of Britain a diminished spectrum of vegetation and
living creatures, partly because the island was separated from the
mainland of Europe soon after much of it had been swept bare by the last
glacial period and partly because the land has been so industriously
worked by humans. For example, a drastic depletion of mature
broad-leaved forests, especially oak,
was a result of the overuse of timber in the iron and shipbuilding
industries. Today only a small part of the English countryside is
woodland. Broad-leaved (oak, beech, ash, birch, and elm) and conifer
(pine, fir, spruce, and larch) trees dominate the landscapes of Kent,
Surrey, East Sussex, West Sussex, Suffolk, and Hampshire. Important forests include Ashdown in East Sussex, Epping and Hatfield in Essex, Dean in Gloucestershire, Sherwood in Nottinghamshire,
Grizedale in Cumbria, and Redesdale, Kielder, and Wark in
Northumberland. A substantial amount of England’s forestland is
privately owned. Vegetation patterns have been further modified through
overgrazing, forest clearance, reclamation and drainage of marshlands,
and the introduction of exotic plant species. Though there are fewer
species of plants than in the European mainland, they nevertheless span a
wide range and include some rarities. Certain Mediterranean species
exist in the sheltered and almost subtropical valleys of the southwest,
while tundra-like vegetation is found in parts of the moorland of the
northeast. England has a profusion of summer wildflowers in its fields,
lanes, and hedgerows, though in some areas these have been severely
reduced by the use of herbicides on farms and roadside verges. Cultivated
gardens, which contain many species of trees, shrubs, and flowering
plants from around the world, account for much of the varied vegetation
of the country.
Mammal
species such as the bear, wolf, and beaver were exterminated in historic
times, but others such as the fallow deer, rabbit, and rat have been
introduced. More recently birds of prey have suffered at the hands of farmers protecting their stock and their game birds. Protective measures have been implemented,
including a law restricting the collecting of birds’ eggs, and some of
the less common birds have been reestablishing themselves. The bird life
is unusually varied, mainly because England lies along the route of
bird migrations. Some birds have found town gardens, where they are
often fed, to be a favourable environment, and in London about 100 different species are recorded annually. London also is a habitat conducive
to foxes, which in small numbers have colonized woods and heaths within
a short distance of the city centre. There are few kinds of reptiles
and amphibians—about half a dozen species of each—but they are nearly
all plentiful where conditions suit them. Freshwater
fish are numerous; the char and allied species of the lakes of Cumbria
probably represent an ancient group, related to the trout, that migrated
to the sea before the tectonic changes that formed these lakes cut off
their outlet. The marine fishes are abundant in species and in absolute
numbers. The great diversity of shorelines produces habitats for
numerous types of invertebrate animals.
People
Ethnic groups and languages
The English language
is polyglot, drawn from a variety of sources, and its vocabulary has
been augmented by importations from throughout the world. The English
language does not identify the English, for it is the main language of
Wales, Scotland, Ireland, many Commonwealth countries, and the United States. The primary source of the language, however, is the main ethnic stem of the English: the Anglo-Saxons,
who invaded and colonized England in the 5th and 6th centuries. Their
language provides the most commonly used words in the modern English
vocabulary.
Learn about “global English.”© Open University (A Britannica Publishing Partner)
In
the millennia following the last glacial period, the British Isles were
peopled by migrant tribes from the continent of Europe and, later, by
traders from the Mediterranean area. During the Roman occupation England
was inhabited by Celtic-speaking Brythons (or Britons), but the
Brythons yielded to the invading Teutonic Angles, Saxons, and Jutes
(from present northwestern Germany) except in the mountainous areas of
western and northern Great Britain. The Anglo-Saxons preserved and
absorbed little of the Roman-British culture they found in the 5th
century. There are few traces of Celtic or Roman Latin in the early
English of the Anglo-Saxons, though some words survive in place-names,
such as the Latin castra, for “camp,” providing the suffix -cester, and combe and tor, Celtic words for “valley” and “hill.” Old Norse, the language of the Danes and Norsemen, left more extensive traces, partly because it had closer affinities
to Anglo-Saxon and because the Danish occupation of large tracts of
eastern and northern England was for a time deeply rooted, as some
place-names show.
The history of England before the Norman Conquest
is poorly documented, but what stands out is the tenacity of the
Anglo-Saxons in surviving a succession of invasions. They united most of
what is now England from the 9th to the mid-11th century, only to be
overthrown by the Normans in 1066. For two centuries Norman French became the language of the court
and the ruling nobility; yet English prevailed and by 1362 had
reestablished itself as an official language. Church Latin, as well as a
residue of Norman French, was incorporated into the language during
this period. It was subsequently enriched by the Latin and Greek of the
educated scholars of the Renaissance.
The seafarers, explorers, and empire builders of modern history have
imported foreign words, most copiously from Europe but also from Asia.
These words have been so completely absorbed into the language that they
pass unselfconsciously as English. The English, it might be said, are
great Anglicizers.
The
English have also absorbed and Anglicized non-English peoples, from
Scandinavian pillagers and Norman conquerors to Latin church leaders.
Among royalty, a Welsh dynasty of monarchs, the Tudors, was succeeded by the Scottish Stuarts, to be followed by the Dutch William of Orange
and the German Hanoverians. English became the main language for the
Scots, Welsh, and Irish. England provided a haven for refugees from the
time of the Huguenots in the 17th century to the totalitarian
persecutions of the 20th century. Many Jews have settled in England.
Since World War II there has been large-scale immigration from Asia,
Africa, and the Caribbean, posing seemingly more difficult problems of
assimilation, and restrictive immigration regulations have been imposed
that are out of step with the open-door policy that had been an English
tradition for many generations.
Religion
Although the Church of England
is formally established as the official church, with the monarch at its
head, England is a highly secularized country. The Church of England
has some 13,000 parishes and a similar number of clergy, but it
solemnizes fewer than one-third of marriages and baptizes only one in
four babies. The Nonconformist
(non-Anglican Protestant) churches have nominally fewer members, but
there is probably greater dedication among them, as with the Roman Catholic church. There is virtually complete religious tolerance in England and no longer any overt prejudice
against Catholics. The decline in churchgoing has been thought to be an
indicator of decline in religious belief, but opinion polls substantiate
the view that belief in God and the central tenets of Christianity
survives the flagging fortunes of the churches. Some churches—most
notably those associated with the Evangelical movement—have small but
growing memberships. There are also large communities of Muslims, Jews, Sikhs, and Hindus.
Cathedral of Saint Mary, Chelmsford, England.The J. Allan Cash Photolibrary
Settlement patterns
The
modern landscape of England has been so significantly changed by humans
that there is virtually no genuine wilderness left. Only the remotest
moorland and mountaintops have been untouched. Even the bleak Pennine
moors of the north are crisscrossed by dry stone walls, and their
vegetation is modified by the cropping of mountain sheep. The marks of
centuries of exploitation and use dominate the contemporary landscape.
The oldest traces are the antiquarian survivals, such as the Bronze Age forts studding the chalk downs of the southwest, and the corrugations left by the strip farming of medieval open fields.
More
significant is the structure of towns and villages, which was
established in Roman-British and Anglo-Saxon times and has persisted as
the basic pattern. The English live in scattered high-density groupings,
whether in villages or towns or, in modern times, cities. Although the
latter sprawled into conurbations during the 19th and early 20th
centuries without careful planning, the government has since limited the
encroachment of urban development, and England retains extensive tracts
of farming countryside between its towns, its smaller villages often
engulfed in the vegetation of trees, copses, hedgerows, and fields: in a
phrase of the poet Gerard Manley Hopkins, “the sweet especial rural scene,” which is so prominent in English literature and English art.
Village of Hambleden, Buckinghamshire, Eng.© Chrislofotos/Shutterstock.com
The
visual impact of a mostly green and pleasant land can be seriously
misleading. England is primarily an industrial country, built up during
the Industrial Revolution
by exploitation of the coalfields and cheap labour, especially in the
cotton-textile areas of Lancashire, the woolen-textile areas of
Yorkshire, and the coal-mining, metalworking, and engineering centres of
the Midlands and the North East. England has large tracts of derelict areas, scarred by the spoil heaps of the coal mines, quarries and clay pits, abandoned industrial plants, and rundown slums.
One of the earliest initiatives to maintain the heritage of the past was the establishment in 1895 of the National Trust,
a private organization dedicated to the preservation of historic places
and natural beauty in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland. (There is a
separate National Trust for Scotland.) In 1957 the Civic Trust was
established to promote interest in and action on issues of the urban
environment. Hundreds of local societies dedicated to the protection of
the urban environment have been set up, and many other voluntary
organizations as well as government agencies are working to protect and
improve the English landscape. Greenbelts have been mapped out for
London and other conurbations. The quality of town life has been
improved by smoke control and checks on river pollution, so effectively
that the recorded sunshine in London and other major urban centres has
greatly increased and the “pea soup” fogs that once characterized London
have become memories of the past. Fish have returned to rivers—such as
the Thames, Tyne, and Tees—from which they had been driven by industrial
pollution.
Traditional regions
Although England is a small and homogeneous country bound together by law, administration, and a comprehensive
transport system, distinctive regional differences have arisen from the
country’s geography and history. It was natural for different groups of
the population to establish themselves in recognizable physical areas.
In the north, for example, the east and west are separated by the
Pennines, and the estuaries of the Humber, Thames, and Severn rivers
form natural barriers. The eight traditional geographic regions—the
South West, the South East (Greater London often was separated out as
its own region), the West Midlands, the East Midlands, East Anglia,
the North West, Yorkshire, and the North East—often were referred to as
the standard regions of England, though they never served
administrative functions. In the 1990s the government redrew and renamed
some regions and established government development agencies for each.
The South West
The South West contains the last Celtic stronghold in England, Cornwall, where a Celtic language was spoken until the 18th century. There is even a small nationalist movement, Mebyon Kernow (Sons of Cornwall),
seeking to revive the old language. Although it has no political
significance, the movement reflects the disenchantment of a declining
area, with the exhaustion of mineral deposits toward the end of the 19th
century. Cornwall and the neighbouring county of Devon share a splendid coastline, and Dartmoor and Exmoor national parks are in this part of the region. Farther east are the city of Bristol and the counties of Dorset, Gloucestershire, Somerset, and Wiltshire. The last is famous for the prehistoric stone circles at Stonehenge and Avebury and for associated remains dubbed “woodhenges.” Development in the manufacturing sector in the 1970s and ’80s and the growth of service activities and tourism in the 1990s contributed to the region’s significant population increase.
Sarsen horseshoe of Stonehenge III, Wiltshire, Eng.Katherine Young/EB Inc.
The South East
The
South East, centred on London, has a population and wealth to match
many nation-states. This is the dominant area of England and the most
rapidly growing one, although planning controls such as greenbelts have restricted the urban sprawl of London
since the mid-20th century. While fully one-third of the South East is
still devoted to farming or horticulture, the region as a whole also has
an extensive range of manufacturing industry. With improvements in the
transportation systems, however, nuclear and space research facilities,
retailing, advertising, high-technology industries, and some services
have moved to areas outside London, including Surrey, Buckinghamshire, and Hertfordshire.
With
its theatres, concert halls, museums, and art galleries, London is the
cultural capital of the country. It is the administrative headquarters
of not only government but also many of Britain’s industrial, financial,
and commercial undertakings. Moreover, it is the focus of the national
transport system, acting as a hub for the United Kingdom’s international
and domestic air traffic and its mainline railway network. At Tilbury,
26 miles (42 km) downstream from London proper, the Port of London
Authority oversees the largest and commercially most important port
facilities in Britain. Whether the people of the South East feel a
regional identity is questionable. Sussex and Bedfordshire or Oxfordshire, Hampshire, and Kent
have nothing much in common apart from being within the magnetic pull
of London. Loyalties are more specifically to towns, such as St. Albans or Brighton,
and within London there is a sense of belonging more to localities—such
as Chelsea or Hampstead, which acquire something of the character of
urban villages—than to the metropolis as a whole.
The West Midlands
Regional characteristics are stronger outside the South East. The West Midlands region, comprising the historic counties of Herefordshire, Worcestershire, Shropshire, Staffordshire, and Warwickshire, has given its name to the metropolitan county of West Midlands, which includes the cities of Birmingham and Coventry and the Black Country
(an urban area whose name reflects the coating of grime and soot
afflicting the buildings of the region). With a history dating to the
beginnings of the Industrial Revolution, the West Midland towns gained a
reputation for being ugly but prosperous. However, the decline of heavy
industry during the late 20th century took its toll on employment and
prosperity in the region. Not exclusively an industrial area, the West
Midlands includes Shakespeare country around Stratford-upon-Avon, the fruit orchards of the Vale of Evesham, and the hill country on the Welsh border.
Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, England.Kenneth Scowen
The East Midlands
The East Midlands are less coherent as a region, taking in the manufacturing centres of Northampton, Leicester, Nottingham, and Derby.
In broad swathes between the industrial centres lies much of England’s
best farmland. Several canals in the region, including the Grand
Junction and the Trent and Mersey, were used for commerce primarily from
the late 18th to the early 20th century. They are now being revived,
mainly for recreational use.
East Anglia
East
Anglia retains an air of remoteness that belongs to its history. With
the North Sea on its northern and eastern flanks, it was at one time
almost cut off by fenland to the west (now drained) and forests (cleared
long ago) to the south. In medieval times it was one of the richest
wool regions and, in some parts, was depopulated to make way for sheep.
It is now the centre of some of the most mechanized farming in England.
Compared with other regions, East Anglia has a low population density;
with rapid industrialization in cities such as Norwich and Bacton, however, this pattern is changing. Cambridge is home to one of the world’s foremost universities; Newmarket, in Suffolk, is a world-famous centre for horse racing.
The North West
Regions become more distinctive the farther they are from London. The North West, chronically wet and murky, comprises the geographic counties of Cumbria, Lancashire, and Cheshire and the metropolitan counties of Greater Manchester and Merseyside (including Liverpool).
This region’s declining cotton-textile industry is rapidly being
replaced by diversified manufacturing. The North West expresses itself
in an accent of its own, with a tradition of variety-hall humour (from
the classic work of George Formby and Gracie Fields to the more recent efforts of Alexie Sayle); it has also earned global renown for giving birth to British rock music, with the Beatles and other groups in Liverpool, and for football (soccer), notably with the Liverpool FC and Manchester United
football clubs. However, these advantages could not hide Liverpool’s
economic decline in the late 20th century. Much of the city’s prosperity
was built on its port, which served transatlantic and imperial trade,
but, as trade switched increasingly to Europe, Liverpool found itself on
the wrong side of the country and increasingly lost business to ports
in the south and east. Overall, the North West is still breaking into
the new territories of modern industry, its old cotton towns
symbolically overshadowed by the grim gritrock Pennine escarpments that
have been stripped of their trees by two centuries of industrial smoke.
Nonetheless, Manchester remains an important financial and commercial
centre. Several canals traverse the region, including the Manchester Ship Canal and the Leeds and Liverpool Canal. The Lake District in the Cumbrian Mountains, the Solway coast, the northern Pennines, Hadrian’s Wall, and part of Yorkshire Dales National Park contribute to the scenic landscape of Cumbria.
Mountain-encircled Esthwaite Water in the Lake District of northwestern England.Tom Wright/FPG
Yorkshire
On the east side of the Pennines watershed, the metropolitan county of West Yorkshire, including the cities of Leeds and Bradford,
has a character similar to that of the industrial North West. Its
prosperity formerly was based on coal and textile manufacture, and,
though manufacturing remains important, West Yorkshire has diversified
its economy. Indeed, Leeds has become England’s most important financial
centre outside London. This region also shows a rugged independence of
character expressed in a tough style of humour. Farther south, steel is
concentrated at Sheffield, world-famous for its cutlery and silver plate (known as Sheffield plate). Sheffield is the cultural and service centre of the industrial metropolitan county of South Yorkshire. The region also has extensive areas of farming in North Yorkshire and East Riding of Yorkshire, a deep-sea fishing industry operating from Hull,
and tourist country along a fine coast in the east (North York Moors
National Park) and in the beautiful valleys of the west (Yorkshire Dales
National Park).
The North East
The North East extends to the Scottish border, taking in the geographic counties of Northumberland and Durham. It also includes the metropolitan county of Tyne and Wear and the Teesside metropolitan area (centred on Middlesbrough) and is therefore unusually diverse.
Teesside was heavily industrialized (iron and steel and shipbuilding)
during the 19th century, but it has more recently become an important
tourist destination along the North Sea at the edge of North York Moors
National Park. Teesside also has one of the largest petrochemical
complexes in Europe, and oil from the Ekofisk field in the North Sea is piped ashore there. Coal mining was formerly the biggest industry in the county of Durham,
but the last mine closed by the end of the 20th century, and the
emphasis is now on engineering, the manufacture of pharmaceuticals, and
service industries. The local flavour of life can be found in the
dialect known as Geordie and in the folk songs of Tyne and Wear and the
former coal-mining villages. The city of Newcastle upon Tyne is an important industrial and commercial centre. The region also contains some of the most desolate land in England, in the Cheviot Hills along the Scottish border.
Demographic trends
England
comprises more than four-fifths of the total population of the United
Kingdom. Although during the 1970s and ’80s the overall birth rate
remained constant, the number of births per thousand women between the
ages of 20 and 24 fell by two-fifths, the drop reflecting a trend among
women to delay both marriage and childbirth. The overall death rate
remained constant, but the mortality rate among young children and young
adults decreased. Over the last half of the 20th century the number of
people aged 65 and older almost doubled. During that same period the
populations of the larger metropolitan areas, especially Greater London
and Merseyside, decreased somewhat as people moved to distant outlying
suburbs and rural areas. The standard regions of East Anglia, the East
Midlands, the South West, and the South East (excluding Greater London)
gained population, while the other standard regions all lost population.
However, in the late 1990s the population of London started to climb
once more, especially in the former port areas (the Docklands), where economic regeneration led to the creation of new jobs and homes.
profesor pero a 8a escogió australia no inglaterra
ResponderBorrar