When people refer to Britain, they often use different names such as Britain, Great Britain, England, the Britain Isles, the United Kingdom or the UK. Do they m    1     the same thing?

Strictly speaking, they are all geographical names. The British Isles are made up of two large islands and h    2     of small ones. The two large islands are Great Britain and Ireland. Great Britain is the larger of these two islands. It forms the United Kingdom with Northern Ireland — the northern p    3     of Ireland. So the o    4     name of the UK is the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

There are three political divisions on the island of Great Britain: England, S    5     and Wales. England is the largest, the most popular and g    6     speaking, it's the richest section. So people tend to use "England" and "English" when they meet the people from Britain. This-sometimes makes the Scots or the Welsh u    7    .

They don't regard themselves as English and they have a culture and even a l    8     of their own.

Britain has been one of the most important c    9     in the world. About a hundred years ago, Britain ruled an empire (帝国) that had one fourth of the world's people and one fourth of the world's l    10     area.