1. It is said that British people have great love for nature.

Can you find examples to support

this opinion? C5
British people have great love for nature, so they have an idealized vision of the countryside. To
the British, the countryside means peace and quiet, beauty, good health and no crime. Most of
them would live in a country village if they thought that they could find a way of earning a living
there…. Those who live in towns and cities take an active interest in country matters and the
British regard it as both a right and a privilege to be able to go ‘into the country’ whenever they
want to. Large areas of the country are official ‘national parks’ where almost no building is
allowed. If the British can’t get into the countryside, they still spend a lot of their time with
‘nature’. They grow plants. Gardening is one of the most popular hobbies in the country. Even
those unlucky people who don’t have a garden can participate. Each local authority owns several
areas of land which it rents very cheaply to these people in small parcels. On these ‘allotments’,
people grow mainly vegetables.
2. Discuss some strengths of the British education system. C14
The British educational system: full-time education is compulsory up to the middle teenage
years; the academic year begins at the end of summer; compulsory education is free of charge.
There are 3 recognized stages: primary, secondary and tertiary. And the British educational
system has lots of strengths.
Organisation: having little central control and uniformity, not prescribe a detailed programme of
learning or determine what books and materials should be used, offering advice and funding,
setting overall learning objectives up to the end of compulsory education, and having a system of
inspectors for compulsory education.
Style: learning for its own sake. A strength of the British education has been put on the quality of
person. Besides, education has been an emphasis on character building and team spirit, helps to
bring about a better society. Another strength of this educational system is about the general style
of teaching, which has tended to give priority to developing understanding rather than acquiring
factual knowledge and learning to apply this knowledge to specific tasks. A next one has been an
emphasis on academic ability rather than practical ability, this has resulted in high-quality
education for the intelligent and academic inclined with comparatively little attention given to
the educational needs of the rest. Students receive greater personal guidance with their work, and
independent learning is encouraged. Moreover, British schools and universities have tended to
give such a high priority to sport to develop the ‘complete’ person.
3. Can you find examples of British individualism? C5
The British may not behave in traditional ways, but they like symbols of tradition and stability.
EX: there are some very untraditional attitudes and habits with regard to the family in modern
Britain, such as nostalgia, monolinguals, mad about football, drinking a lot of tea, and so on. The
pub names are taken the names of aristocrat a monarch or traditional occupation is also another
example for this. Besides, they prefer houses with gardens, so it’s the reason why they dislike
living in a flat because they don’t want to share a front door with other people. Another

THÚY DIỄM
opportunity for self-expression of the British is about houses, when they choose flowerbeds,
gardens, patches of grass, fences, walls and hedges. The British also express their individualism
by respecting privacy, it means that they always keep personal information private like income,
healthy status, marital status, and children.
4. What are the features of the British welfare system? C18
The British welfare system includes some following features:
The benefits system: any adult who cannot find paid work, or any family whose total income
isn’t enough for its basic needs, is entitled to financial help by the Department of Social Security.
Anyone below the retirement age of 65 who has previously worked for a certain minimum period
of time can receive unemployment benefit from the Department of Employment. Some people
are entitled to neither pension nor employment benefit can apply for income support and if they
have no significant savings, they will receive it.
Social services and charities: As well as giving financial help, the government also takes a more
active role in looking after people’s welfare. Services are run either directly or indirectly by local
government. Professional social workers have the task of identifying and helping members of the
community in need, such as the old, the mentally handicapped and children suffering from
neglect or from maltreatment.
Charities and the social services departments of local authorities sometimes co-operate. Ex: the
‘meal-on-wheels’ system, whereby food is cooked by local government staff and then distributed
by volunteers to the homes of people who cannot cook for themselves.
The national health service: Interestingly, it’s very ‘un-British’ in the uniformity and
comprehensiveness of its organization. The system is organized centrally and there is little
interaction with the private sector. Medical insurance is organized by the government and is
compulsory. The NHS is very typically British. This is in its avoidance of bureaucracy. The
system, from the public’s point of view, is beautifully simple. There are no forms to fill in and no
payments to be made which are later refunded. Britain’s health system can already claim cost-
efficiency.
5. How can you describe a typical British pub? In what ways are the British pubs different
from typical cafes and bars in Vietnam? C20
A typical British pub: a social meeting place which is the only indoor place where the average
person can comfortably meet others, even strangers, and get into prolonged conversation with
them. In pubs, like fast food restaurants, are classes. A pub with 40 cus in it is nearly always
much noisier than a café or restaurant with the same number of people in it. The British pubs
serve beer and spirit, no drinking and driving. One of their notable aspects is that there is no
waiter service. If you want something, you have to go and ask for it at the bar. In pubs, there also
have the availability of pubs games and a television. Another notable aspect of pubs is their
appeal to the idea of tradition. Moreover, pubs take the name of aristocrat a monarch, traditional
occupation.

THÚY DIỄM
 In the UK Vietnam
Have no waiter service, so if you want something, Having waiter/waitress service, so when
you have to go and ask for it at the bar you want something, you just ask them
Its own name always with old-fashioned Usually taking names according to foreign
associations languages
In the pubs, people can comfortably meet others, In café and bars in VN, people just go there
even strangers, and get into prolonged conversation to meet their friends or relatives
with them
In pubs, wine, beers, and fast food are served, so In café and bars, people are expected to
it’s nearly always much noisier than a café with the drink their coffee or wine
same number of people in it
In pubs, you can get up and walk around whenever In café and bars in Vietnam, people usually
you want, so it brings to people the ‘home from sit only seat until they leave
home’ atmosphere
It’s also helped by the availability of pub games, It usually just open music for customers
and a television

6. How do the trade unions protect the British employees’ benefits?

THÚY DIỄM
 7. Between the qualities (broadsheets) and the tabloids (popular papaers), which type of
newspapers is more valued in Britain? Why?
The qualities are more valued than the tabloids in Britain. Each of the national papers can be
characterized as belonging to one of two distinct categories. The quality papers cater for the
better educated readers. The tabloids sell to a much larger readership. They contain far less print
than the qualities and far more pictures. They use larger headlines and write in a simpler style of
English.
While the qualities devote much space to politics and other ‘serious’ new, the tabloids
concentrate on ‘human interest’ stories, which often means sex and scandal. However, the
qualities do not completely ignore sex and scandal or any other aspect of public life. Both types
of paper devote equal amounts of attention to sport. The different between them is in the
treatment of the topics they cover, and in which topics are given the most prominence. The
qualities are twice as large as the tabloids.
8. Discuss the British’s love of nature.
Most of the British live in towns and cities, but they have idealized vision of the countryside. To
the British, the countryside means peace and quiet, beauty, good health and no crime. Most of
them would live in a country village if they thought that they could find a way of earning a living
there. Ideally, this village would consist of thatched cottages built around an area of grass known
as a ‘village green’. Nearby, there would be a pond with ducks on it, and such a village is a
stereotypical picture that is well-known to the British.
This love of the countryside is another aspect of British conservatism. The countryside represents
stability. Those who live in towns and cities take an active interest in country matters and the
British regard it as both a right and a privilege to be able to go ‘into the country’ whenever they
want to.
Even if they cannot get into the countryside, many British people still spend a lot of their time
with nature. They grow plants. Gardening is one of the most popular hobbies in the country.
Even those unlucky people who do not have a garden can participate. Each local authority owns
several areas of land which it rents very cheaply to these people in small parcels. On these
‘allotments’, people grow mainly vegetables.
9. What do you think about the following saying: The British are rather formal?
I think it’s true to say: “the British are rather formal” because some of the following formal rules
of correct or polite behavior in society or among members of a particular profession: men always
open doors for women and stand when a woman enters a room; always hold the door for a person
following behind them; honor rank when entering a room, allow higher rank to enter first; they
don’t insult the royal family or show great interest in their private lives; respect the British desire
for privacy, don’t ask personal questions such as where a person lives or what a person does for a
profession or job, don’t talk about money; they never stare at someone because this is considered
impolite; don’t violate a queue since it’s considered very rude to push ahead in a line; don’t
shout or be loud in public places and don’t use excessive, demonstrative and gestures when

THÚY DIỄM
speaking; don’t be too casual, especially with the English language; never try to sound British or
mimic their accent. I think that all of them are intellectual culture of the British.
10. Discuss how individualism is expressed in the British everyday activities.
The British express their individualism through houses, such as flowerbeds, gardens, patches of
grass, fences, walls and hedges. They also give their house a name to achieve extra individuality.
In suburbs and towns, there is a constant battle going on between the individualistic desires of
the householder and the necessity for some element of regimentation in a densely populated area.
This contest is illustrated by the fact that anybody who wants to build an extention to their house,
or even a garden shed, must first get ‘planning permission’ from the local authorities.
11. Discuss how individualism is expressed in the British education.
Learning for its own sake, rather than for any particular practical purpose, has traditionally been
given a comparatively high value in Britain. The British education emphasises strongly on the
quality of person. The general style of teaching in Britain is to give priority to developing
understanding rather than acquiring factual knowledge and learning to apply this knowledge to
specific tasks. Therefore, British young people don’t appear to have to work s hard as their
counterparts in other countries. Primary schoolchildren don’t have as much formal homework to
do and university students have fewer hours of programmed attendance than students on the
continent do. Moreover, the British students also has been emphasised on academic ability rather
than practical ability. This has resulted in high-quality education for the intelligent and
academically inclined. British schools and universities have tended to give such a high priority to
sport, too. The idea is that it helps to develop the ‘complete’ person. Furthermore, there is
nothing to stop a 65 year-old doing a few of exams for fun. In practice, of course, the vast
majority of people who do these exams are school pupils, but formally it’s individual people who
enter for these exams, not pupils in a particular year of school. At the age of 16 people are free to
leave school if they want to. There has been a great increase in educational opportunities for
people at this age or older in the last quarter of the 20 century.
12. Should the British abolish their monarchy? Why/ Why not?
The position of the monarch in Britain is a perfect illustration of the contradictory nature of the
constitution. From the evidence of written only, the Queen has almost absolute power, and it all
seems very undemocratic. In reality the Queen has almost no power at all. She cannot actually
stop the government going ahead with any of its policies.
The role of the monarch: the monarch could act as a final check on a government that was
becoming dictatorial. If the government ever managed to pass a bill through Parliament which
was obviously terribly bad and very unpopular, the monarch could refuse the royal assent and the
bill wouldn’t become law. Similarly, if a Prime Minister who had been defeated at a general
election were to ask immediately for another dissolution of Parliament, the monarch could refuse
the request and dismiss the P.M. The monarch also has a very practical role to play. Queen
Elizabeth II can perform the ceremonial duties in order to the real government has more time to
get on with the actual job of running the country.

THÚY DIỄM
The value of the monarch: other modern democracies manage perfectly well without one. The
British monarchy is probably more important to the economy of the country than it’s to the
system of government. Every tourist brochure for britian in every country in the world gives
great prominence to the monarchy. It’s impossible to estimate exactly how much the British
royal family and the events and buildings associated with the monarchy help the tourist industry,
or exactly how much money they help to bring into the country. But most people working in
tourism think it’s an awful lot!
Apart from this, the monarchy is very popular with the majority of the British people. The
monarchy gives British people a symbol of continuity, and a harmless outlet for the expression of
national pride. Even in very hard times it has never seemed likely that britain would turn to a
dictator to get it out of its troubles. The grandeur of its monarchy may have been one of the
reasons for this. In adition the glamorous lives of ‘the royals’ provide a source of entertainment
that often takes on the characteristics of a television soap opera
13. What do you think about the following saying: On the continent, people have good food;
in England people have good table manners?
I think it’s true to say that ‘….’ because most of visitors to Britain agree that the food is terrible
such as the vegetables are overcooked, so it’s all too bland, the British also haven’t got into the
habit of preparing sauces with grilled food. However, they have good table manners because they
appreciate eating manners. When they eat, they always chew & swallow all the food in their
mouth before taking more or taking a drink. They break bread and rolls with their fingers, and
break off a small piece of bread. Besides, they never chew with their mouth open or talk with
food in their mouth or put too much food in their mouth when they eat, they are taught these
things from a young age. They always wait until their host starts eating and always say ‘please’,
‘thank you’ when served something. The British never use their fingers to push food onto their
spoon or fork and never reach across the table, they always scoop soup away from them, use a
knife and fork to eating. The British also don’t blow on hot food or drink, so they wait until the
food or drink cools. These eating manners express well the British’s behaviors as well as
attitudes like polite, respect, and so on, so I think it’s good for us to improve ourselves in how we
eat.
14. Discuss two major factors which can go towards creating the British identity.

THÚY DIỄM