people in different parts of england speak with different accents and use different dialects.

　　a nation of differences

　　the uk is made up of four parts, england, scotland, wales and northern ireland. this year is the 300th anniversary (周年紀(jì)念) of the joining of england and scotland. in 1707, these two once separate kingdoms became one union. this country is the birthplace of naturalist darwin, writer dickens and the famous band the beatles. it has the world's richest football club - manchester united. it is also the home of j.k. rowling, the author of the harry potter books.

　　the official name for the uk is the united kingdom of great britain and northern ireland. it is in the northwest part of the european continent (大陸) between the atlantic ocean and the north sea. it has an area of 244,100 square kilometers, about one-40th the size of china. about 99 percent of the country is land. from north to south, it is about 1,000 kilometers long.

　　the uk has four parts: england, scotland (蘇格蘭), wales (威爾士) and northern ireland (北愛爾蘭). its capital is london.

　　the national flag of the uk is also popularly known as the union jack. it shows the union of the parts of the united kingdom. it comes from the three flags of england, scotland and northern ireland. as wales is not a kingdom, its flag is not on the national flag.

　　a dress for man

　　who says that skirts are only for girls? men can also wear them. scotsmen have worn them for hundreds of years.

　　they call their skirts kilts (蘇格蘭方格呢短裙). a kilt is a colored skirt. it reaches down to the knee. it has different colored checks (方格) on it, like red or blue. some families in scotland have their own colors and designs. from the kind of kilt they wear you can tell which group they come from.

　　the kilt goes back to the 1720s. scottish soldiers used to wear them. later, many scottish men wore them. today the kilt is not much seen in scotland. however, in some parts of the country you can still see some older men wearing kilts. most scotsmen see the kilt as formal dress for national ceremonies (慶典), weddings or big dinners.

　　even kilt makers have moved with the times. some modern designs have a pocket for a mobile phone.

　　not just one kind of english

　　you might think that there's only one language spoken in the uk - english - but you'd be wrong. although people are taught "standard (標(biāo)準(zhǔn)的) english" - a kind of english that makes sure everyone can understand everyone else, there's real variety too.

　　in wales thousands of people speak welsh (威爾士語(yǔ)). it's a language completely (完全地) different from english. and many people speak the languages of the countries they came from, or their parents and grandparents came from, like pakistan (巴基斯坦), bangladesh (孟加拉) and china.

　　in scotland a very different kind of english can be heard, scots english. it's spoken with different accents, and with many special words and even some different grammar. some fear the language is being lost because people feel speaking it will make it difficult for them to be understood or make them seem old-fashioned (老式的).

　　here are some examples of scots english. if something is small scottish people say it is "wee". a child is a "bairn" (or a "wean" in glasgow). a boy is a "laddie", a girl a "lassie". a little girl in scottish english is therefore "a wee lassie'.

　　people in different parts of england speak with different accents and use different dialects. in newcastle, for example, in the northeast of england, they use "hinnie" for "female", "divvnt" for "do not" and "canny" for "very" and "good".

　　---------------------------------------

　　your turn: writing

　　if you could live in the uk, where would you choose? write about your experience.