Elementary England National Football Team

Napi Angol Percek 2009. október 28.
Elementary

England National Football Team

The England national football team represents England (not the whole United Kingdom) in
international football competitions such as the World Cup and the European Championships. It is
controlled by The Football Association, the governing body for football in England.

Partly thanks to historical accident, and continuing national sentiment among them, each of the
four Home Nations of the United Kingdom possesses its own separate football association,
domestic league and national team. Because the IOC does not accept regional representative
teams, England, like the other three, do not compete in Olympic football.

England are by far the most successful of the Home Nations, having won the 1966 World Cup and
the British Home Championship outright thirty-four times, as many as the other three nations have
won outright altogether.

For the first 80 years of its existence, the England team played its home matches at different
venues all around the country; for the first few years it used cricket grounds, before later moving on
to football clubs' stadiums. England played their first match at Wembley Stadium in 1924, the year
after it was completed, against Scotland, but for the next 27 years would only use Wembley as a
venue for Scotland matches; other opposition were still entertained at club grounds around the
country.

In May 1951, Argentina became the first team other than Scotland to be entertained at Wembley,
and by 1960 nearly all of England's home matches were being played there. Between 1966 and
1995, England did not play a single home match anywhere else.

England's last match at Wembley before its demolition and reconstruction was against Germany
on October 7, 2000, a game which England lost 1-0. Since then the team has played at 14 different
venues around the country, with Old Trafford having been the most often used. The FA have ruled
that when the new Wembley is completed in mid-2006, England's travels will end, and the team will
play all of their home matches there until at least 2036. The main reason for this is financial. The
FA did not own the old Wembley stadium, but it does own the new one, and has taken on debts of
hundreds of millions of pounds to pay for it. Thus it needs to maximise the revenue from England
matches, and does not wish to share it with the owners of other grounds.

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "England National Football
Team". You can explore more on the Wikipedia website. The text and the images are used here only for educational purposes.

Napi Angol Percek 2009. október 28.
Intermediate

Fish and chips

"Fish and chips" is deep-fried fish in batter with deep-fried potatoes, and a popular take-away food.
Fish and chips is originally from the United Kingdom, but also very popular in Australia, Canada,
Ireland, New Zealand, South Africa and some coastal towns of the Netherlands and Norway; and
also increasingly so in the United States and elsewhere. For decades it was the dominant (if not
the only) take-away food in the United Kingdom.

The fried potatoes are called chips in British and international usage; and while American English
calls them french fries, the combination is still called "fish and chips". (Potato chips, an American
innovation, are a different potato-derived food, and are known as crisps in the United Kingdom.)

Fish and chips have separately been eaten for many years – though the potato was not introduced
to Europe until the 17th century. The originally Sephardi dish Pescado frito, or deep-fried fish,
came to Netherlands and England with the Spanish and Portuguese Jews in the 17th and 18th
centuries.

The dish became popular in more widespread circles in London and the south-east in the middle of
the 19th century (Charles Dickens mentions a "fried fish warehouse" in Oliver Twist) whilst in the
north of England a trade in deep-fried "chipped" potatoes developed.

It is unclear when and where these two trades were merged to become the fish and chip shop
industry we know today. The first combined fish and chip shop was probably the one opened in
London by Joseph Malin in 1860.

During World War II, fish and chips were one of the few foods that were not rationed in the UK.

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Fish and chips". You can explore
more on the Wikipedia website. The text and the images are used here only for

Napi Angol Percek 2009. október 28.
Advanced

Queen Elizabeth II: Life as Queen

After the Coronation Elizabeth and Philip moved to Buckingham Palace in central London. Like
many of her predecessors, however, she dislikes the Palace as a residence and considers
Windsor Castle, west of London, to be her home. She also spends time at Balmoral Castle in
Scotland.

Queen Elizabeth is the most widely travelled head of state in history. In 1953-54 she and Philip
made a six-month round-the-world tour, becoming the first reigning monarch to circumnavigate the
globe, and also the first to visit Australia, New Zealand and Fiji. In October 1957 she made a state
visit to the United States, and in 1959 she made a tour of Canada. In 1961 she toured India and
Pakistan for the first time. She has made state visits to most European countries and to many
outside Europe. She regularly attends Commonwealth Heads of Government meetings.

At the time of Elizabeth's accession there was much talk of a "new Elizabethan age". Elizabeth's
role, however, has been to preside over the steady decline of Britain as a world military and
economic power, the dissolution of the British Empire and the gradual development of its
successor, the Commonwealth. She has worked hard to maintain links with former British
possessions, and in some cases, such as South Africa, she has played an important role in
retaining or restoring good relations.

Elizabeth is a conservative in matters of religion, moral standards and family matters. She has a
strong sense of religious duty and takes seriously her Coronation Oath. This is one reason why it is
considered highly unlikely that she will ever abdicate. Like her mother, she never forgave Edward
VIII for, as she saw it, abandoning his duty, and forcing her father to become King, which she
believed shortened his life by many years. She used the authority of her position to prevent her
sister, Princess Margaret, marrying a divorced man, Peter Townsend. For years she refused to
acknowledge her son Prince Charles's relationship with Camilla Parker-Bowles.

Elizabeth's political views are supposed to be less clear-cut (she has never said or done anything
in public to reveal what they might be). She preserves cordial relations with politicians of all parties.
It is believed that her favourite Prime Ministers have been Winston Churchill, Harold Macmillan and
Harold Wilson. Her least favourite was undoubtedly Margaret Thatcher, whom she is said to
"cordially dislike". She was thought to have very good relations with her current Prime Minister,
Tony Blair, during the first years of his term in office, however, there has been mounting evidence
in recent months that her relationship with Blair has hardened. She reportedly feels that he does
not keep her informed well enough on affairs of state.

Napi Angol Percek 2009. október 28.

The only public issue on which the Queen makes her views known are those affecting the unity of
the United Kingdom. She has spoken in favour of the continued union of England and Scotland,
angering some Scottish nationalists. Her statement of praise for the Northern Ireland Good Friday
Agreement raised some complaints among some Unionists in the Democratic Unionist Party who
opposed the Agreement.

Despite a series of controversies about the rest of the royal family, particularly the marital
difficulties of her children throughout the 1980s and 1990s, Queen Elizabeth remains a remarkably
uncontroversial figure and is generally well-respected by the British people. However, her public
persona remains formal, though more relaxed than it once was. Her refusal to display emotion in
public prevents the growth of deeper feelings for her among the public.

Queen Elizabeth has never become unpopular, certainly not as unpopular as Queen Victoria was
during a long period of her reign. However, in 1997 she and other members of the Royal Family
were perceived as cold and unfeeling when they were seen not to participate in the public
outpouring of grief at the death of Diana, Princess of Wales. This brought sharp criticism from the
normally royalist tabloid press.

It is widely believed that Elizabeth held negative feelings towards Diana and thought that she had
done immense damage to the monarchy. However, the sight of the entire Royal Family bowing to
Diana's coffin as it passed Buckingham Palace, together with a rare live television broadcast by the
Queen, addressed the public grief. The Queen's change of attitude is believed to have resulted
from strong advice from the Queen Mother and Tony Blair.

The Queen remains a highly respected head of state. In 2002 she celebrated her Golden Jubilee,
marking the 50th year of her accession to the throne. The year saw an extensive tour of the United
Kingdom, state visits to several Commonwealth Realms, and numerous parades and official
concerts. In June thousands gathered outside Buckingham Palace for the "Party at the Palace", a
massive concert featuring various famous musicians from across the British Isles. A national
service of thanksgiving was held the following day at St. Paul's Cathedral, to which the Queen and
Prince Philip travelled in the centuries-old Gold State Coach. This was followed by massive
carnivals and processions, finishing with a fly-past by Concorde and the Red Arrows. The Royal
Family watched all this from the balcony of Buckingham Palace, before a crowd of one million
people.

Sadly the Jubilee year coincided with the deaths, within a few months, of the Queen's mother and
sister. Elizabeth's relations with her children, while still somewhat distant, have become much
warmer since these deaths. She is particularly close to her daughter-in-law the Countess of
Wessex. The Queen and Prince of Wales still see little of each other, however. She is known to
disapprove of Charles's long-standing relationship with Camilla Parker-Bowles, but has made
gestures of recognition of the relationship in recent years. On the other hand, she is very close to
her grandchildren, noticeably Prince William and Zara Phillips.

In 2003 the Queen, who is often described as robustly healthy, underwent three operations. In
January she had torn cartilage removed from her right knee as a result of a fall over Christmas. In
December 2003 she underwent a similar operation to her left knee, at the same time having
several lesions removed from her face. This prompted rumours that she might have skin cancer,
quickly scotched by the Palace. However, these surgeries have brought concerns that she is now
overworked.

As the Queen approaches her 80th birthday, she has made it clear that she has no intention of
abdicating. Those who know her best have stated that she intends to reign as Queen until the day

Napi Angol Percek 2009. október 28.
she dies. She has, however, begun to hand over some public duties to her children. She is also
reducing the amount of international travel she normally undertakes (she has usually undertaken
two state visits each year, her first in 2004 being her state visit to France, and her second to
Germany in November, and up to two Commonwealth visits a year). Like her mother, she intends
to keep working until she is physically unable.

Elizabeth's public image has noticeably softened in recent years, particularly since the death of the
Queen Mother. Although she remains reserved in public, she has been seen laughing and smiling
much more than in years past, and to the shock of many she has been seen to shed tears during
emotional occasions such as the memorial service at Westminster Abbey for those killed in the
September 11 terrorist attacks.

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Elizabeth II of the United
Kingdom". You can explore more on the Wikipedia website. The text and the images are used here only for educational purposes.