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IELTS Reading Test 4 section 4 - IELTS Simulation Test - Bài dịch A geography lecture on the British Isles IELTS listening

A geography lecture on the British Isles IELTS listening​

Hello. I'm glad so many of you have turned out to hear what I have to say today about the British Isles, that area of the eastern Atlantic that we Americans find so confusing. I'm afraid just looking at a map or a page in the atlas doesn't necessarily explain the geographic terminology. In referring to the British Isles, a word of apology for those of you of Irish descent - that is, those whose ancestors come from Eire, the Republic of Ireland - no matter how geographically accurate the place names that I use today are, some of you will be understandably upset to be included in anything termed 'British'.
Xin chào. Tôi rất vui vì có nhiều người đã đến đây để nghe những gì tôi muốn nói hôm nay về Quần đảo Anh, khu vực ở phía đông Đại Tây Dương mà chúng ta, những người Mỹ, thường thấy bối rối. Tôi e rằng chỉ nhìn vào bản đồ hay một trang trong cuốn atlas thì chưa chắc đã giúp giải thích được thuật ngữ địa lý. Khi nói đến Quần đảo Anh, tôi xin lỗi những người có gốc gác từ Ireland - tức là những người có tổ tiên đến từ Éire, Cộng hòa Ireland - bất kể những cái tên địa lý tôi sử dụng hôm nay có chính xác thế nào, một số người trong các bạn sẽ cảm thấy khó chịu khi bị coi là một phần của cái gì đó gọi là "Anh".

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I have a very useful image that might help you differentiate between the various labels that distinguish the political and geographic reality of the so-called British Isles. I want to show you a Venn diagram which is a mathematical illustration that shows all the possible relationships between sets. Look at this Venn diagram and you will see that the geographical terminology is in bold while the political terms are in italics. See here the British Isles in bold and the British Islands in italics.

The aim of this lecture is to explain the meanings of and relationships among those terms. In geographical terms, you will see that the British Isles is an archipelago made up of the two large islands of Great Britain and Ireland and including many smaller surrounding islands. Of course you can't tell from the Venn diagram the true comparative size of these islands - you'll need to look at the map for that - but, take my word for it, Great Britain is the largest island of the archipelago followed by Ireland which, in reality geographically, lies to the west and there are over a thousand smaller islands.

Now in political terms, the 'United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland' is the constitutional monarchy which includes the island of Great Britain, some small nearby islands (although not the Isle of Man or the Channel Islands) and the north-eastern part of the island of Ireland. Thank goodness it is generally shortened to United Kingdom, the UK, Great Britain or Britain or even the abbreviation GB - although none of these are strictly correct of course. You'd better listen carefully to the next part because, I warn you, it is very confusing...Ireland is the name of the sovereign republic occupying the larger part of the island of Ireland. But to distinguish it from the name of the island itself, and most importantly from the other part which belongs to the UK, it is called the Republic of Ireland or its Irish- language name, Eire - that's E-I-R-E - even though Eire directly translates as 'Ireland'. The smaller portion of the island is called Northern Ireland. The partition of Ireland took place in 1922 after a great history of struggle that we won't go into here.

England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are legal jurisdictions within the United Kingdom but Great Britain refers to the countries of England , Wales and Scotland as a unit.

The British Islands contain the United Kingdom, the Channel Islands (made up of Guernsey and Jersey) and Isle of Man which all have the British Monarch as head of state. Interestingly, the Isle of Man, although governed as a British Crown dependency, has its own parliament but relies on the UK for defence and in matters of external relations.

So, you've learnt something about the geographical and political confusion surrounding the British Isles; let's have a look at some of the linguistic confusion. To start with, there isn't an adjective to refer to the United Kingdom, so the term British is generally used. However, that means that citizens of Northern Ireland, although not on the island of Great Britain, still describe themselves as British because this reflects their political and cultural identity. Irish, in a political sense, refers to the Republic only, so sometimes citizens of Northern Ireland would call themselves Northern Irish as a point of difference. Of course the 'northern' in 'Northern Irish' is not completely accurate either as the most northerly peninsula on the island is in the County of Donegal which is part of the Republic.

OK, we might get in a muddle over the term Irish, but at least Scottish, Welsh and English should be self-explanatory... apparently not to us Americans - and Europeans are often guilty of this too - we often use the term English incorrectly to mean British. I'd have to be the first to admit to calling my Welsh colleague, English, which really gets his heckles up. He is Welsh, he tells me, and he may also be British, but he is definitely not English!

Just one more thing: what is the British Commonwealth? It's a voluntary association of independent states many of which were former British colonies; in fact, what was primarily the old British Empire. However, it's no longer known as the British Commonwealth but is now called the Commonwealth of Nations instead presumably because current members do not want to remember the old colonial ties.

Câu hỏi A geography lecture on the British Isles​

Questions 31 and 32​

Write NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS for each answer.

  1. Where are the British Isles situated?
    In the ......................................................

  2. The Venn diagram is being used to help students see the difference between geographic and what other regions?
    ......................................................

Questions 33-36​

Label the diagram below.
Write ONE WORD ONLY for each answer.

Questions 37-40​

Complete the sentences below.
Write ONE WORD ONLY for each answer.

  1. There is .................. with language also when it comes to describing the British Isles.
  2. The northernmost point of Ireland belongs to the Republican .................. of Donegal.
  3. A Welshman will be upset if you call him .................. .
  4. The former British Empire is now known as the Commonwealth of Nations to avoid recalling previous .................. relationships.

Đáp án​

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Questions 31-40
31. eastern Atlantic
32. political
33. Ireland
34. Ireland/Eire
35. England
36. Man
37. confusion
38. County
39. English
40. colonial