Clash of Civilisations – Столкновение цивилизаций
The Clash of Civilisations is a theory that was proposed by one of the political scientists, whose name is Samuel P. Huntington. The author is of opinion that all the conflicts are because of the cultural and religious identities among people. S. Huntington is certain about the conflicts in the future; he believes the clash of civilizations will prevail over the conflicts of the global politics.
The development of the conflict forms are to be divided into the following two forms: 1) the first form is called “fault line conflicts” which occur on a local level and are between the adjacent states belonging to different civilizations or within the states which are the territory for the populations from different civilisations; 2) the second form is called “core state conflicts” which occur on a global level between the major states of different civilisations. This type of a conflict can arise out of the first one – “fault line conflicts” – when
The reasons for the conflicts are numerous: relative influence or power (military or economic), discrimination against people from a different civilisation or different values and culture, particularly when one civilisation attempts to impose its values on people from different civilisation. Other scholars are of opinion that the conflicts occur only because they strive for getting more money and power over other cultures and civilisations.
The climate in Great Britain is generally mild and temperate due to the influence of the Gulf Stream. The south-western winds carry the warmth and moisture into Britain. The climate in Britain is usually described as cool, temperate and humid. British people say: “Other countries have a climate, in England we have weather.” The weather in Britain changes very quickly. One day may be fine and the next day may be wet.
The morning may be warm and the evening may be cool. Therefore it is natural for the people to use the comparison “as changeable as the weather” of a person who often changes his mood or opinion about something. The weather is the favourite topic of conversation in Britain. When two Englishmen are introduced to each other, if they can’t think of any thing else to talk about, they talk about weather. When two people meet in the street they will often say something about
weather as they pass, just to show their friendliness. Every daily paper publishes a weather forecast. Both the radio and television give the weather forecast several times each day. The English also say that they have three variants of weather: when it rains in the morning, when it rains in the afternoon or when in rains all day long. Sometimes it rains so heavily that they say “It’s raining cats and dogs”.Rainfall is more or less even throughout the year. In the mountains there is heavier rainfall then in the plains of the south and east. The driest period is from March to June and the wettest months are from October to January. The average range of temperature (from winter to summer) is from 15 to 23 degrees above zero. During a normal summer the temperature sometimes rises above 30 degrees in the south. Winter temperatures below 10 degrees are rare. It seldom snows heavily in winter, the frost is rare. January and February are usually the coldest months, July and August the warmest. Still the wind may bring winter cold in spring or summer days. Sometimes it brings the whirlwinds or hurricanes.
Droughts are rare. So, we may say that the British climate has three main features: it is mild, humid and changeable. That means that it is never too hot or too cold. Winters are extremely mild. Snow may come but it melts quickly. In winter the cold is humid cold, not the dry one. This humid and mild climate is good for plants. The trees and flowers begin to blossom early in spring. In the British homes there has been no central heating up till recently. The fireplaces are often used. but the coal is not used as it’s very expensive. Britain has no good coal now and imports it itself. Many schools and universities have no central heating either, and the floors there are made of stone. The British bedroom is especially cold, sometimes electric blankets or hotwater bottles are used. Britain was originally a land of vast forests. mainly oak and beech in the Lowlands and pine and birch In the Highlands, with great stretches of marshland and smaller areas of moors.
In the course of time, much forest land was cleared and almost all Lowlands outside the industrial areas were put under cultivation. Today only about 6 per cent of the total land area remains wooded. Extensive forests remain in eastern and northern Scotland and in south-eastern and western England. Oak, elm, ash, and beech are the commonest trees in England, while Scotland has much pine and birch. The Highlands with thin soil are largely moorland with heather and grasses. In the cultivated areas that make up most of Britain there are many wild flowers, flowering plants and grasses. The fauna or animal life of Britain is much like that of north-western Europe, to which it was once joined. Many larger mammals such as bear, wolf have been hunted to extinction, others are now protected by law. There are many foxes. Otters are common along rivers and streams, and seals live along much of the coast. Hedgehogs, hares, rabbits, rats and mice are numerous.
Deer live in some of the forests in the Highlands of Scotland and England. Some 230 kinds of birds live in Britain, and another 200 are regular visitors, many are songbirds. The most numerous are blackbirds, sparrow and starling. Robin Redbreast is the national bird of Britain. The number of ducks, geese and other water fowl has diminished during recent years. There are many threats to wildlife and ecological balance around the coast. The biggest threat to the coastline is pollution. Even much-loved Blackpool is not officially asafe. More than 3.500 million tons of industrial waste is pumped into the North Sea every year. “We cannot continue to use our seas as a dustbin and expect our coastline to survive,” says Greenpeace. Many other ecological problems may be caused by privatization of the coast. Many of the rivers are “biologically dead”, i. e. unable to support fish and wildlife.
The climate of any country depends on its geographical position. Great Britain is situated on the British Isles. The British Isles lie to the west of the continent of Europe. The total land area of the United Kingdom is 244,000 square kilometres. The mountains are in the west and north of the country. There are lowlands in the south and east. There are many rivers in Great Britain but they are not long. The western coast of Great Britain is washed by the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea. The eastern coast is washed by the waters of the North Sea. The English Channel, which is 32 kilometres wide, separates the south-east of Great Britain from France. So Great Britain is surrounded by water. Not far from the British Isles there is warm Golf Stream. All these facts influence the climate of the country. The climate of Great Britain is mild, temperate and wet. In the country it is not hot in summer and it is not very cold in winter. Spring is very beautiful season because everything is covered with flowers. Autumn is wet and cool. In January average temperature is from 3 to 7 degrees below zero and in July it is from 16-17 degrees above zero. It often rains in Great Britain. It does not often snow in Great Britain. The weather changes very quickly. In the morning it may be shining brightly and in the afternoon it may rain. That is why radio and television inform people about weather forecast very often. The British joke “In other countries it is climate, in Britain we have weather.”
(1 оценок, среднее: 5.00 из 5)