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1、英语国家概况名词解释系列（1） Amerigo Vespucci-Amerigo Vespucci, a navigator, proved that the land was not India,but a new continent. Therefore, the land was named America after. The Puritans-The Puritans were wealthy, well-educated gentlemen. They wanted to purify the Church of England and threatened with religi
2、ous persecution, the Puritans leaders saw the New world as the a refuge provided by God for those He meant to save. 英语国家概况名词解释系列（2） The Bill of Rights-In 1789, James Madison introduced in the House of Representatives a series of amendments which later were drafted into twelve proposed amendments and
3、 sent to the states for ratification. Ten of them were ratified in 1791 and the first ten amendments to the constitution were called the Bills of Rights because they were to insure individual liberties. The Emancipation Proclamation-After the Civil war began, Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclama
4、tion to win more support at home and abroad. It granted freedom to all slaves in areas still controlled by the Confederacy. 英语国家概况名词解释系列（3） Pilgrims Thanksgiving Day-The Pilgrims in 1620, 201 of them sailed to the New World in a ship called Mayflower. The first winter after their arrival was very co
5、ld and when spring came, half of them were dead. Then the Indians came to their help and taught them how to grow corn. They had a good harvest that year. So they invited the Indians and held the first Thanksgiving celebration in America to give thanks to God. The Chunnel-In 1985 the British governme
6、nt and French government decided to build a channel tunnel, which is called “Chunnel”, under the Straits of Dover so that England and France could be joined together by road. The Chunnel was open to traffic in May 1994. 英语国家概况名词解释系列（4） Eisteddfod-Eisteddfod is the Welsh word for “sitting” National E
7、idteddfod is the most famous festival of music and verse in Wales. It takes place each August and lasts for about a week. The highlight of the festival is competition for the best epic poem about Wales written and read in Welsh. The winner is crowned Board, considered the supreme honour in Wales. In
8、 this way the Welsh people keep the Welsh language and culture alive. Cockney-A cockney is a Londoner who is born within the sound of Bow Bells-the Bells of the church of St. Mary-LeBow in east London. 英语国家概况名词解释系列（5） Stonehenge-It is a group of huge monuments of grant rock Slabs on salisbury plain
9、in Southwest England built as long ago as the New Stone Age. It is generally believed that stonehenge served some sort of religious purposes. The Celts-The Celts came to Britain in three main waves. The first wave were the Gales, the second wave were the Brythons and the Belgae came about 150BC. The
10、 Celts were practised farmers. The Celtic tribes are ancestors of the Highland Scots, the Irish and the Welsh, And their languages are the basis of both Welsh and Gaelic. They religion was Druidism. 英语国家概况名词解释系列（6） Norman Conquest-The Norman Conquest of 1066 is perhaps the best-known event in Englis
11、h history. William the conqueror confiscated almost all the land and gave it to his Norman followers. He replaced the weak Saxon rule with a strong Norman government. So the feudal system was completely established in England.Alfred the Great-He was king of Wessex, one of the seven Anglo-Saxon Kingd
12、oms. It was he who led the Anglo-Saxon to flight against the invading Danes and maintained peace for a long time. Alfred was not only a brave king at wartime, but also a wise king at peacetime. He encouraged education and introduced a legal system. He is known as “the father of the British navy”. 英语
13、国家概况名词解释系列（7） St. Augustine-In 597,Pope Gregory I sent St. Augustine, the Prior of St. Andrews Monastery in Rome, to England to convert the heathen English to Christianity. That year, St. Augustine became the first Archbishop of Canterbury. Augustine was remarkably successful in converting the king
14、and the nobility, but the conversion of the common people was largely due to the missionary activities of the monks in the north. Domesday Book-It is a book compiled by a group of clerks under the sponsorship of King William the First in 1086. The book was in fact a property record. It was the resul
15、t of a general survey of England. It recorded the extent, value, state of cultivation, and ownership of the land. It was one of the important measures adopted by William I to establish the full feudal system in England. Today, it is kept in the Public Records Office in London. 英语国家概况名词解释系列（8） Geoffr
16、ey Chaucer-He was an important English poet in the fourteenth century. His best known is The Canterbury Tales, which describes a group of pilgrims travelling to Canterbury to visit Thomas Beckets tomb. Because he was the first important English poet to write in English. He has been known as the “Father of English Poetry”. The Black Death-It is a modern name given to the dearly bubonic plague, a
