美語情景對話 第853期:Countries United 聯合王國
Yuri: So, Shirley, we were talking about politics. How is the situation in your country?
尤里：雪莉，我們來談談政治。你們國家的政治環境怎麼樣？Shirley: Well, you know I'm pretty much an on-the-fence kind of person and politics is not my forte. It's not something I like to get into a conversation about, so I'll just change the subject if that's alright. I'd like to tell you a bit about the United Kingdom. You know, I'm from Scotland and, you know, where is Scotland. I get this question so often. Is that in Norway? Is it a region of England? So just to clarify, it's a bit complicated, but in the United Kingdom — the U.K — we have Scotland, England, Wales and Northern Ireland, and then people know Great Britain.
雪莉：你知道我是一個非常中立的人，政治不是我的專長。這是我不太想聊的話題，如果可以的話我想改變一下談話主題。我想和你說說聯合王國。我來自蘇格蘭，你知道蘇格蘭在哪裏嗎？經常有人問我這個問題，是在挪威嗎？是英格蘭的一個地區嗎？要想說清楚可能有點兒複雜，聯合王國包括蘇格蘭、英格蘭、威爾士和北愛爾蘭，一般人們都知道大不列顛。Yuri: Yes, so I do.
尤里：對，我也是。
Shirley: Great Britain is Scotland, England and Wales. To give the country it's full title, it's the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Norther Ireland. That's the full titl for the U.K. or Great Britain or GB, or England is just one country within four that are united. It sounds really complicated.
雪莉：大不列顛包括蘇格蘭、英格蘭和威爾士。所以國家的全稱是大不列顛及愛爾蘭聯合王國。這是英國或者說大不列顛的全稱，英格蘭只是四個聯合王國的其中一個。聽起來是有點兒複雜。Yuri: Right, it's the biggest one right?
尤里：好，英格蘭是最大的，對吧？Shirley: England is the biggest country with a population of forty million. Scotland's about five million. Now, I correct myself. England is I think 49 million. Wales is about two million. Northern Ireland about two or three million, so in total the whole of the United Kingdom is about sixty million population. How did that come about? Go back three hundred years or more even. England and Wales united over three hundred years ago and then Scotland was invited to join the union between England and Wales. Scotland agreed with actually many conditions. For example, one of the conditions was the money, the value of the pound. In Scotland, we have the Bank of Scotland pounds, and in England, it's Bank of England pounds. It's all the same sterling currency of the U.K. And it's very difficult in England to spend any money that's got Bank of Scotland written on it, even though it's all the same money. Anyway, that's another issue. So, yeah, three hundred years ago, Scotland joined the union between England and Wales to become Great Britain and then I think early in the 1800's that's when Ireland joined. Of course now it's just Northern Ireland, and there's other history related to that. We could go on all day talking about how it became Northern Ireland. So yeah, so when people think of the U.K., they generally think the U.K. is England, but it's actually four countries.
雪莉：英格蘭是最大的王國，人口有4000萬。蘇格蘭有500萬人口。我要糾正一下，我想英格蘭的人口大概是4900萬。威爾士的人口約爲200萬。北愛爾蘭的人口爲200萬或300萬，所以聯合王國的總人口約有6000萬人。聯合王國是怎麼形成的？這要追溯至300年前，甚至是更久之前。英格蘭和威爾士在300年前合併，然後蘇格蘭加入英格蘭和威爾士的合併王國。蘇格蘭同意了許多條件。其中一個條件是貨幣，英鎊的價值。我們蘇格蘭用的是蘇格蘭銀行發行的英磅，而英格蘭用的是英格蘭銀行發行的英鎊。在英國這兩種英鎊的匯率是一樣的。不過很難在英格蘭使用蘇格蘭銀行發行的英鎊，雖然是同一種貨幣。這是另一個問題。300年前，蘇格蘭加入了英格蘭和威爾士的合併王國，組成大不列顛，然後大概在19世紀早期，愛爾蘭加入進來。現在只是北愛爾蘭，這是另一部分歷史。如果要講清楚爲什麼現在只是北愛爾蘭在聯合王國裏，那我們可能得說上一整天了。當提到英國時，人們一般認爲英國就是英格蘭，但其實一共有四個國家。
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重點講解：
1. in total 總共；總計；
例句：There are 13 working procedures in total.
總共有13道工序。
2. come about 產生；發生；
例句：He could hardly realise how it had all come about.
他難以理解這一切是怎麼發生的。
3. agree with 同意；贊成；意見一致；
例句：I agree with his plans, but only to a certain extent.
我同意他的計劃，但只在一定程度上。
4. even though 即使；儘管；縱然；
例句：It's a thrilling movie even though it lacks subtlety.
這部電影雖說不算精巧，但還是很動人的。
5. think of 想到；想起；想出；
例句：She was pained to think of them still living such a miserable life.
想到他們還過着這樣悲慘的生活，她心裏很難受。
