Chapter 4 practice: modern society

Key facts to learn

• The UK is in north-west Europe. The furthest you can travel on the mainland is from John O'Groats, at the top of Scotland, to Land's End, at England's south-western tip: about 870 miles, or roughly 1,400 kilometres. London is the capital of the UK, while Edinburgh, Cardiff and Belfast are the capitals of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
• UK money is the pound sterling (£), and a pound is made up of 100 pence. The coins are 1p, 2p, 5p, 10p, 20p, 50p, £1 and £2; the notes are £5, £10, £20 and £50. Banks in Scotland and Northern Ireland issue their own notes, which can be used anywhere in the UK, although a shop or business is free to refuse them.
• English is spoken with many accents and dialects around the UK. Welsh, a language quite separate from English, is spoken by many people in Wales and taught in its schools and universities. Gaelic, also a separate language, is used in parts of the Scottish Highlands and Islands, and some people in Northern Ireland speak Irish Gaelic.
• The handbook's figures show the UK population rising from just over 4 million in 1600 to 5 million in 1700, 8 million in 1801, 20 million in 1851, 40 million in 1901, 50 million in 1951, 57 million in 1998, just under 60 million in 2005 and just over 62 million in 2010. Recent growth has been quicker, helped by people moving to the UK and by longer lives. The four nations are very different in size: roughly 84% of people live in England, just over 8% in Scotland, about 5% in Wales and under 3% in Northern Ireland.
• Thanks to higher living standards and better health care, people in the UK now live longer than ever. More people than ever before are aged 85 or over, and this pushes up the cost of pensions and health care.
• The handbook says UK law protects men and women from unfair treatment because of their sex or their marital status. Men and women share the same rights to have a job, own property, marry and divorce, and a married mother and father carry equal responsibility for their children. Roughly half of all workers are women; girls tend to finish school with better results than boys, and more women than men go to university.
• UK law lets everyone choose their religion, and also lets them choose to follow none. Many faiths have places of worship around the country, among them mosques, Hindu temples, synagogues, Sikh gurdwaras and Buddhist temples.
• In England the Church of England is the established church, meaning the official church of the state. It is a Protestant church that began at the Reformation in the 1530s. The handbook adds that it is known as the Anglican Church in other countries, and as the Episcopal Church in Scotland and the United States. The monarch is its head, and its spiritual leader is the Archbishop of Canterbury. Formally the monarch picks the Archbishop and other senior church figures, but the real choice is normally made by the Prime Minister together with a Church committee. A number of its bishops are members of the House of Lords.
• Scotland's national church is the Church of Scotland, which is Presbyterian. Ministers and elders run it, and its General Assembly is chaired by the Moderator, a post held for a single year whose holder often speaks for the Church. Wales and Northern Ireland have no established church. Other Protestant groups in the UK include Baptists, Methodists, Presbyterians and Quakers, and the biggest of the other Christian denominations is the Roman Catholic Church.
• Each nation of the UK has a patron saint with its own day: St David (Wales) on 1 March, St Patrick (Northern Ireland) on 17 March, St George (England) on 23 April and St Andrew (Scotland) on 30 November. Scotland and Northern Ireland are the only parts of the UK where the saint's day is an official holiday, though in Scotland some businesses stay open; England and Wales still mark their saints' days with parades and small festivals.
• On 25 December, Christmas Day, Christians celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ; it is a public holiday, and many go to church that day or on Christmas Eve (24 December). Most families spend the day at home with a special meal, often roast turkey followed by Christmas pudding and mince pies, and they swap presents, send cards and decorate the house, usually including a tree. Small children believe Father Christmas (Santa Claus) leaves their presents during the night before. The next day, 26 December, is Boxing Day, also a public holiday.
• Easter comes in March or April. Christians remember the death of Jesus Christ on Good Friday and his rising from the dead on Easter Sunday; Good Friday and Easter Monday are public holidays (Easter Monday is not one in Scotland). Chocolate eggs are given at Easter as a sign of new life. The 40 days before Easter are Lent, when Christians reflect and prepare, and many people give up something they enjoy. Lent starts on Ash Wednesday. The day before, Shrove Tuesday, is known as Pancake Day: making pancakes was a way to finish eggs, milk and fat before the fast began.

In our own words, from the official handbook. The full course turns the dates, people, places and numbers into flashcards: see the full course.