5分钟了解英国

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United Kingdom， England， Great Britain？ Are these three the same place？ Are they different places？ Do British people secretly laugh those who use the terms incorrectly？ Who knows the answers to these questions？ I do， and I’m gonna tell you right now.

“英国”，“英格兰”，“大不列颠”？这三个词指的是同一个地方，还是不同地方？如果有人用错了词，英国人会偷笑吗？谁知道这些问题的答案？我知道，我现在就来给你们解释。

Part of the confusion is that the United Kingdom is not a single country but it instead is a country of countries. It contains inside of it four co-equal and sovereign nations.

让人疑惑的可能是，英国并不是一个单一的国家，而是联合王国。它包含了四个地位平等的国家。

Each country has a local term for the population. While you can call them all “British”， it’s not recommended as the four countries generally don’t like each other.

每个国家都有自己的民族名称。虽然你可以都叫他们“英国人”，但是我不建议这样，因为这四个地方的人们并不喜欢彼此。

The Northern Irish， Scottish and Welsh regard the English as slave-driving colonial masters ― no matter that all three have their own devolved Parliaments， and are allowed to vote on English laws despite the reverse not being true ― and the English generally regard the rest as rural yokels who spend too much time with their sheep.

北爱尔兰、苏格兰和威尔士人认为英格兰人是驱使奴隶的殖民者――尽管它们三个都拥有独立的地方议会，可以投票表决英国法案，而英格兰就没有。英格兰人也常常认为其他三个地方的人们是农村来的土包子，花太多时间和羊待在一起。

However， as the four constituent countries don’t have their own passports， they are all British Citizens， like it or not. They are British Citizens of the United Kingdom， whose full name by the way is the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

尽管如此，这四个国家并没有独立的护照。他们都是英国公民，不管喜欢不喜欢联合王国，全称是大不列颠及北爱尔兰联合王国。

Unlike England， Scotland， Wales and Northern Ireland， Great Britain is a geographical rather than a political term. Great Britain is the largest island among the British Isles.

不像英格兰，苏格兰，威尔士和北爱尔兰，大不列颠是一个地理概念，而不是政治概念。大不列颠是不列颠群岛中最大的岛屿。

Within the United Kingdom， the term ‘Great Britain’ is often used to refer to England， Scotland and Wales alone， with the intentional exclusion of Northern Ireland. This is mostly， but not completely true， as all three constituent countries have islands that are not part of Great Britain， such as The Isle of Wight， part of England， the Welsh Isle of Anglesey， the Scottish Hebrides， the Shetland Islands， the Orkney Islands and the Islands of the Clyde.

在英国，“大不列颠”通常指英格兰、苏格兰和威尔士，北爱尔兰被故意排除在外。这点大部分是对的，但不全对，因为他们都有不属于不列颠岛的小岛，像怀特岛、锡利群岛和兰迪岛属于英格兰，安格尔西岛属于威尔士，赫布里底群岛、设德兰群岛、奥克尼群岛和克莱德群岛属于苏格兰。

The second biggest island in the British Isles is Ireland.

不列颠群岛中的第二大岛是爱尔兰岛。

It is worth noting at this point that Ireland is not a country. Like Great Britain， it’s a geographical， not political term.

“爱尔兰”并不是一个国家。像不列颠一样，它是一个地理概念，不是政治概念。

The Island of Ireland contains on it two countries： Northern Ireland， which we have already discussed and the Republic of Ireland.

爱尔兰岛上有两个国家：北爱尔兰――我们之前谈过了――和爱尔兰共和国。

When people say they are Irish， they are referring to the Republic of Ireland， which is a separate country from the United Kingdom.

当人们提到“爱尔兰人”，通常指的是爱尔兰共和国，它是一个不属于联合王国的独立国家。

However， both the Republic of Ireland and the United Kingdom are members of the European Union， even though England in particular likes to pretend that it’s an Island in the Mid-Atlantic， rather than 50 kilometers off the coast of France. But that’s a story for another time.

爱尔兰共和国和英国都是欧盟成员，虽然英国经常假装自己是一个位于大西洋中部的孤岛，而不是离法国海岸只有50公里的欧洲的一部分。当然，这就是另一个故事了。