- •Contents
- •Предисловие
- •Методическая записка
- •Britain in ancient times. England in the Middle Ages.
- •1. The Earliest Settlers
- •Celtic borrowings in English
- •Latin borrowings in English
- •3. The Anglo-Saxon period
- •The origin of day names
- •4. The Danish Invasion of Britain
- •5. Edward the Confessor
- •1. Beginning of the Norman invasion
- •2. The Norman Conquest
- •3. England in the Middle Ages
- •Church and State
- •Magna Carta and the beginning of Parliament
- •4. Language of the Norman Period
- •5. The development of culture
- •First universities
- •1. General characteristic of the period
- •2. Society
- •Peasants’ Revolt
- •3 Economic development of England
- •Agriculture and industry
- •4. Growth of towns
- •5. The Hundred Years War
- •6. Wars of the Roses
- •7. Pre-renaissance in England
- •Geoffrey Chaucer
- •William Caxton
- •Music, theatre and art
- •Assignments (1)
- •1. Review the material of Section 1 and do the following test. Check yourself by the key at the end of the book. Test 1
- •2. Get ready to speak on the following topics:
- •III. Topics for presentations:
- •The English Renaissance
- •1. General characteristic of the period
- •2. The Great Discoveries
- •3. Absolute monarchy
- •4. Reformation
- •5. Counter-Reformation
- •6. Renaissancehumanists
- •Elizabethan Age
- •1. The first playhouses
- •2. Actors and Society
- •3. London theatres
- •4. William Shakespeare (1564-1616)
- •5. Shakespeare and the language
- •1. The reign of James I
- •2. Strengthening of Parliament
- •3. Charles I and Parliament
- •4. The Civil War
- •5. Restoration of monarchy
- •6. Trade in the 17th century
- •7. Political parties
- •S 8. Science, Art and Music cience
- •J 9. Literature ournalism
- •Assignments (2)
- •I. Review the material of Section 2 and do the following test. Check yourself by the key at the end of the book. Test 2
- •II. Get ready to speak on the following topics:
- •3. Topics for presentations:
- •Britain in the New Age. Modern Britain.
- •1. The Glorious Revolution
- •2. Political and economic development of the country
- •3. Life in town
- •4. London and Londoners
- •5. The Industrial Revolution
- •6. The Colonial Wars
- •7. The Development of arts
- •8. The Enlightenment
- •1. Napoleonic Wars
- •2. The political and economic development of the country
- •3. Romanticism
- •4. Art and artists
- •5. Victorian Age
- •Victorian Literature
- •1. The beginning of the century
- •2. Britain in World War I
- •3. Social issues in the 1920s
- •4. The General Strike and Depression
- •5. The Abdication
- •6. Britain in World War II
- •7. Britain in the post-war period
- •8. The fall of the colonial system
- •9. The Falklands War
- •10. Britain in international relations
- •11. Britain’s economic development at the end of the century
- •12. Social issues
- •13. 20Th-century literature
- •14. The development of the English language Changes in the language
- •In recent decades the English language in the uk has undergone certain phonetic, lexical and grammatical changes:
- •The spread of English. Variants of English.
- •Spelling differences
- •Phonetic differences
- •Lexical differences
- •Grammatical differences
- •Assignments (3)
- •I. Review the material of Section 3 and do the following test. Check yourself by the key at the end of the book. Test 3
- •II. Get ready to speak on the following topics:
- •III. Topics for presentations:
- •Cross-cultural notes Chapter 1
- •1. Iberians [aI'bi:rjRnz] – иберы/иберийцы (древние племена, жившие на территории Британских островов и Испании; в III–II вв. До н.Э. Завоеваны римлянами и романизированы.
- •Chapter 2
- •Chapter 3
- •Chapter 4
- •16. William Byrd [bR:d], Thomas Weelkes ['wi:lkIs], John Bull [bul] – Уильям Бэрд, Томас Уилкис, Джон Булл – английские композиторы конца XVI и начала XVII в. Chapter 5
- •8. Dark Lady – Смуглая Леди, незнакомка, часто упоминаемая в сонетах у. Шекспира. Chapter 6
- •Chapter 7
- •Chapter 9
- •Key to Tests
- •Электронный ресурс:
- •119454, Москва, пр. Вернадского, 76
- •119218, Москва, ул. Новочеремушкинская, 26
William Caxton
The 15th century saw an event of outstanding cultural significance in Europe. In1438 Johannes Gutenberg printed in Germany the first European book known as The Gutenberg Bible. The idea of printing quickly spread all over Europe. The first English printer was William Caxton.
Caxton was a farmer’s son born in Kent in 1422. At the age of 16 he went to London where he became an apprentice to a company of London merchants who traded in silk and woollen cloth. When his master left for Flanders, William followed him and spent over three decades of his life in Bruges. The boy quickly learned several European languages: French, Italian and German. He read a lot for pleasure and translated books from French into English. When his master died, he left most of his money to Caxton, who had become his partner by the time.
During a visit to Cologne, William saw a printing press and learned the method of printing. In 1473 he bought a printing press of his own and in 1476 printed the first English book. It was Caxton’s own translation of the ancient story of Troy. A few years later Caxton moved to London and set his printing press at Westminster. Later, he bought another printing press which was set up at Oxford. During the next 15 years Caxton printed 65 books, both in the original and in translation. One of the first books to be printed was Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales. In 1484 William Caxton printed Thomas Malory’s Morte D’Athur, the fullest record of the adventures of the knights of the Round Table.
Caxton made a great contribution to standardizing the English language. The concept of the norm had not existed before, it only appeared and was accepted as printed books spread all over England. The development of the printing technique promoted the spread of literacy and the literary norm.
The development of literacy and the English language
Late medieval literacy was not confined to the noble, clerical or government classes. Some artisans, merchants, tailors, mariners could also read and write. Already in the 1470s, the rules and regulations of some craft guilds insisted on a recognized standard of literacy for their apprentices. The fact that wealthy laymen owned small libraries of poems, prophecies, chronicles and even recipes reflects their reading habits. Books were carefully listed in their wills.
The spread of literacy and the increased use of the English language were twin developments of the late fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. They reflected the feelings of patriotism and nationhood. The causes of this quiet linguistic revolution were complex, but among them was patriotism generated by the long French war, the popularity of Lollardy, the lead given by the Crown and the nobility and the greater participation of the English speaking men in the affairs of Parliament. A further factor was the emergence in the 14th century of London as the settled capital of the kingdom, with York as another important administrative centre and Bristol as the second commercial centre. The regional dialect that was spoken in each of the three centres inevitably had to become comprehensible to the others. The dialect of London prevailed although it was greatly influenced by the Midlands dialect.