《英語國家概況》介紹了美國、英國、愛爾蘭、加拿大、澳大利亞、新西蘭、印度、南非等主要英語國家的地理概貌、歷史變遷、政治制度、經(jīng)濟概況、教育體系、宗教信仰、風俗習慣、國防建設、對外關系等方面的基本知識。
《英語國家概況》既可供英語專業(yè)本科生使用，也可作為非英語專業(yè)本科生高年級英語的拓展教材，還可用作非英語專業(yè)研究生的英語課程教材。
本書介紹了美國、英國、愛爾蘭、加拿大、澳大利亞、新西蘭、印度、南非等主要英語國家的地理概貌、歷史變遷、政治制度、經(jīng)濟概況、教育體系、宗教信仰、風俗習慣、國防建設、對外關系等方面的基本知識，旨在擴大學習者知識面，拓展國際視野，加深對主要英語國家思維方式、價值觀念、生活方式、軍政文化的理解和把握，增強跨文化意識，鞏固英語能力，提高人文素養(yǎng)。本書具有以下特點：
第一，內(nèi)容全面豐富�！叭妗斌w現(xiàn)在兩方面，其一，它擺脫以往類似教材以英、美兩國概況為核心的傳統(tǒng)做法，將五大洲八個主要英語國家概況囊括其中，通過對它們的介紹可進一步了解它們所在地區(qū)的基本概貌；其二，教材除介紹英語國家地理、歷史、政治、經(jīng)濟、教育、宗教等內(nèi)容外，還介紹了這些國家的軍事和外交，幾近涵蓋了一個國家的各個方面。
第二，內(nèi)容新穎、趣味性強、語言通俗易懂。“新穎”在于引用了權威機構發(fā)布的大量最新數(shù)據(jù)和信息。同時，本書還介紹了各國在相關領域最近發(fā)生的事件，特別是軍事和外交領域的事件，既新穎，又增強了趣味性。
第三，教材各單元正文之后均附有討論題、術語解釋和思考題。討論題旨在加深對正文的理解，進一步厘清單元內(nèi)容脈絡；術語解釋涉及主要事件、歷史人物、重要組織或機構、特色城市和地理概念等，旨在加深對所學知識點的理解；思考題要求學習者基于已知信息，對相關問題進行一定的研判，旨在提高分析和評價能力。同時，通過這些練習，對進一步鞏固英語應用能力又能夠起到積極作用。
Chapter One The United Kingdom of Great Britain and
Northern Ireland
Unit 1 Land and People
Unit 2 The Origins of the Nation
Unit 3 The Shaping of the Nation
Unit 4 Transition to Modern Age
Unit 5 The Rise and Fall of the British Empire
Unit 6 Economy
Unit 7 Government and Administration
Unit 8 Justice and the Law
Unit 9 Cultural Affairs
Unit 10 Social Life
Unit 11 Military Affairs and Foreign Relations
Chapter Two The Republic of Ireland
Unit 12 Geography and History
Unit 13 Politics， Economy， Demographics and Culture
Unit 14 Military Affairs and Foreign Relations
Chapter Three The United States of America
Unit 15 Geography
Unit 16 Population， Race and Ethnic Groups
Unit t7 The Making of the Nation （1600-1900）
Unit 18 The Making of the Nation （1900-1945）
Unit 19 The Making of the Nation （Post-WWII Era）
Unit 20 Economy
Unit 21 Political Institutions
Unit 22 Education and Cultural Affairs
Unit 23 Military Affairs and Foreign Relations
Chapter Four Canada
Unit 24 Geography， History and Economy
Unit 25 Government and Politics
Unit 26 Society and Culture
Unit 27 Military Affairs and Foreign Relations
Chapter Five Australia
Unit 28 Administrative Divisions and
Federal Government
Unit 29 The Making of the Nation
Unit 30 Economy
Unit 31 Education and Culture
Unit 32 Military Affairs and Foreign Relations
Chapter Six New Zealand
Unit 33 Land and People
Unit 34 Military Affairs and Foreign Relations
Chapter Seven Republic of India
Unit 35 Land and People
Unit 36 The Making of the Nation
Unit 37 Military Affairs and Foreign Relations
Chapter Eight The Republic of South Africa
Unit 38 Land and People
Unit 39 Military Affairs and Foreign Relations
At the start of Hitlers arrogant expansion in Europe， the Britishgovernment followed a foreign policy of nonintervention or appease-ment. Together with France， it signed the notorious MunichAgreement with Hitler. But Hitler soon went back on his word andattacked Poland which Britain and France were bound by treaty to de-fend. Britain was thus forced to declare war on Germany and the Sec-ond World War broke out in September， 1939. Because of its ap-peasement policy， Britain was ill prepared for war. Its army sufferedrepeated defeats on the European Continent. To deal with the serioussituation， the British reshuffled their Cabinet and Churchill was soonafter appointed Prime Minister of the War Cabinet. The whole nationwas mobilized and industries were centered on war production. Exter-nally， Britain entered into alliance with America， France， Russia andother anti-fascist countries to form a united international front. Aftersix years of fierce fighting with much bloodshed and heavy loss ofwealth， the Second World War came to an end in 1945.
The Second World War ushered in the last stage of the disinte-gration of the British Empire. During World War 1I ， Britain sufferedheavy losses with her financial position greatly weakened. On theother hand， most of her colonies had joined in the war and contribu-ted a great deal to the final victory. They had been awakened andtempered by war and a large scale independence movement was on af-ter the war. India， "the brightest jewel in the British Crown" tookthe lead and won independence in 1947. Pakistan followed suit andthen Burma， Egypt and all the other colonies in a quick succession.By the year 1970 Britain had lost all her former colonies except HongKong.
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