3. Karen Hewitt, a British author, made a personal account (оценка) of the British people and their lives on the ‘beautiful, off-shore island' in her book Understanding Britain.
1) Which aspects of life does K. Hewitt explain for visitors? (reading for detail)
We live on a very small island with a mild climate and a history of centuries of efficient road-building. This is partly because we have excellent road-building materials. We rarely have severe winter frosts that damage (портить) the roads very much, and we do not normally suffer from heat, drought or flooding.
About 44% of the population spend time gardening. The climate is ideal. Most of us do not need to grow vegetables, but home-grown vegetables taste better than those in shops. We also grow flowers and have a passion for lawns of grass which stay green throughout the year.
It was the British who started the fashion for seaside holidays. Not surprisingly, nobody in Britain lives more than one hundred and twenty kilometres from the sea. The nearest holiday area of France is only three or four hundred kilometres away. Many families prefer to drive to the warm south and camp in comfortable campsites. Spain is also popular. It offers a wonderful climate.
The British love of compromise is the result of the physical geography. This may or may not be true, but it is certainly true that the land and climate in Britain don’t have extremes (крайность). Britain has mountains, but none of them are very high, it also has flat land, but you can’t travel far without seeing hills, it has no big rivers, it doesn’t usually get very cold in the winter or very hot in the summer, it has no active volcanoes.
2) How does the author explain the reasons why
• there are excellent roads in England?
• a lot of people like gardening?
• most British people spend their holidays at the seaside?
• a lot of people like spending their holidays in France and Spain?
• English people like compromise?