Otázka: The English Speaking Countries
The English Speaking Countries
Canada, Australia, New Zealand
BASIC INFORMATIONS – Canada is the second largest country in the world but it has quite small population – 32 million inhabitants. Canada is 175 times bigger than Czech Republic but it has only 3 times more inhabitants. It is a North American country. The capital is Ottawa, but it is not the biggest city. Canada’s national symbols are influenced by natural, historical and aboriginal sources. The use of maple leaf as Canadian symbol dates to the early 18th century. The maple leaf is on Canada’s current and previous flags, on the penny, and on the Arms of Canada. Royal anthem is God Save the Queen, but Canadians have their own anthem called O Canada.
GEOGRAPHY – Canada is bordered by the USA to the south and north-west. Most people live 150 km from the US – Canadian border. The border goes through the Great Lakes except of Michigan. The southern part of the country is covered in forests, the northern parts is mostly tundra. There are many lakes and rivers (the Mackenzie and the St. Lawrence). Canada has mostly a continental climate with cold snowy winters and warm summers. The western half of Canada is mountainous (the Cordilleras).
WILDLIFE – Canada has amazing wild nature and provide natural environment for many different animals like the moose, black bear, grizzly bear, polar bear, coyote, foxes, deer, seals and the national animal of Canada – beaver.
ECONOMY – Canada’s economy is traditionally based on natural resources and agriculture. Canada is the world’s second largest exporter of wheat which is mainly grown in the middle of the country. Not all the territory is suitable for planting corn and vegetables, some areas are even too remote for people to live in. Some districts, especially those of British Columbia and Québec are well-known for their forestry. Canada has enormous natural resources – coal, oil, gas, zinc, silver, uranium gold and other. Thanks to agriculture, forestry, fishing and mineral industry, Canada belongs among the richest countries in the world.
POPULATION – The population of Canada is more than 32 million people. 45% of the Canadians are of British origin, 29% of French origin, and 23% have their origins in other European countries. There are also native Canadians – Indians and Inuits (also called Eskimos). Indians probably gave the country its name. Official languages are French and English. Most of the French-speaking population lives in the province of Québec. Canadians love french fries witch cheese, sauce, and maple syrup.
CELEBRITIES – Many celebrities were born in Canada – Jim Carrey, Céline Dion, Nelly Furtado, Justin Bieber, Bryan Adams.
CITIES – Ottawa is the capital and fourth biggest city in Canada and second biggest in province Ontario. It used to be a very small city, but when Queen Victoria chooses it as a capital, it started to grow. Toronto is the biggest city of Canada and capital of Ontario. Montreal is the largest city in the province of Québec and the second largest city in Canada. Montreal is called Canada’s culture capital city or City of Design thanks to enormous numbers of museums and galleries. There were Olympic Games.
SPORTS – Canada’s official national sports are ice hockey and curling in the winter and lacrosse in the summer. Ice hockey is a national pastime and the most popular spectator sport in the country. It is also the sport most played by Canadians, with 1.6 million participants. Canada’s six largest metropolitan areas – Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, Ottawa, Calgary, and Edmonton – have their teams in the National Hockey League (NHL).
BASIC INFORMATIONS – New Zealand is an island located in the Southern hemisphere, in the South Pacific. The island is quite isolated. It is situated 2,000 km from Australia. There live about 4 million people. The Maori name for New Zealand is Aotearoa, which is commonly translated as „land of the long white cloud”. There are 2 official languages – English and Maori.
GEOGRAPHY – New Zealand consists of two main islands and several small islands. Both main islands are well known for their beautiful scenery. There are active volcanoes, caves, deep glacial lakes, amazing fjords, and long sandy beaches. Especially, the North Island has a lot of volcanic activity and we can found there New Zealand’s largest natural lake, the Taupo, but the South Island is much more mountainous. On the South Island we can find the Southern Alps, with the highest peak Mount Cook (called Aoraki). The South Island is larger than the North Island but has only one quarter of the country’s population. It means that most of New Zealand’s population lives on the North Island, mainly for its mild climate. The North Island has a sub-tropical climate, there are warm summers and cool mild winters but the South Island is much colder.
CITIES – In the North Island there are two of the country’s most important cities: Auckland in the north and Wellington in the south. Wellington is the country’s capital and the third largest city by population. The parliament of New Zealand is located here. Auckland is New Zealand’s largest city. It has about 1.4 million people, almost 30% of the country’s population live there. It is the economic centre of New Zealand. Christchurch is the second largest city in New Zealand and the largest on the South Island. Dunedin is the second largest city on the South Island.
WILDLIFE – For millions of years New Zealand has been isolated and unique birds, animals and plants have developed there. The most well-known are flightless birds called kiwi. This bird is the symbol of the country. The kakapo is another unique flightless bird. It is the only type of parrot which is unable to fly. The tuatara lives only in New Zealand also. It looks like a lizard but tuatara is actually type of reptile. This animal is born with a partial third eye. There live also animal called weta. It is a type of insect.
SPORTS – The most popular sport in New Zealand is rugby. New Zealand is one of the top rugby nations in the world. Rugby Union is the national sport in New Zealand and is popular across all selection of New Zealand’s society. The New Zealand’s national rugby team is called All Blacks. The All Blacks traditionally perform a haka dance, a Maori challenge, at the start of international matches. Cricket is popular summer sport. New Zealanders also play netball, basketball and tennis. The country is also very strong sailing nation and has won the America’s Cup twice.
PEOPLE – The majority of the population (about 70 per cent) have their origins in Europe. The Maoris form the second largest group (about 14 per cent). They have their own official Maori language. Maoris decorate their bodies with black tattoos. New Zealander’s are known for being friendly and easygoing, and they are called kiwis. From New Zealand come some famous actors, for example Russell Crowe and Sam Neil. Lucy Lawless is the actress who played Xena. Peter Jackson is a famous director who made The Lord of the Rings trilogy. From New Zealand comes also Edmund Hillary. He was a mountaineer who was the first climb Mount Everest.
FLAG – New Zealand’s flag is like the Australian one. Has a royal blue background with a small Union Jack, it means the flag of Great Britain, in the top-left corner.
BASIC INFORMATIONS – Australia is the world’s smallest and youngest continent with the lowest population density. It has about 7.7 million sq km. Australia is divided from other continents by large distance. This is the reason, why it was discovered in 18th century.
GEOGRAPHY – Australia is situated in the southern hemisphere, it means that Australians has summer when we have winter. Australia is washed by the Indian Ocean in the west and the south Pacific in east. The surface of the land is mostly flat. Western Australia is mostly covered by deserts – Great Sandy and Great Victoria Deserts. Along the eastern coast are the Australian Alps. Here is the highest top of the continent – Mount Kosciusko. The longest river is the Murray River and the second longest river is the Darling. There are three big lakes here. Lake Eyre, Lake Torrens and Lake Gairdner. The nearest islands are Tasmania and King Island. This continent is often visited by destructive hurricanes. Australian climate is warm and subtropical
WILDLIFE – The animals of Australia are numerous and some of them, like the kangaroo which is also the emblem of Australia, koala bear, dingo or Tasmania devil can´t be found elsewhere.
CITIES – The capital of Australia is Canberra, but the oldest and biggest one is Sydney. The Olympic Games took place there. There are two interesting and very well known places in Sydney: The Sydney Opera House and The Harbour Bridge. The third largest city is Brisbane. Melbourne is one of the most beautiful cities, and you can swim with dolphins there and there are also lot of museums, galleries and parks.
PEOPLE – The population of Australia is about 17 million. Around 85% people live in urban areas mainly along the south-east coast. Deserts and the tropical northern part are mostly uninhabited. 95% of inhabitants are of British origin and 3% have their origins in other European ethnic groups. English is the common language, however more than 200 languages are spoken all along the country. Some famous Australians were born here – Kylie Minogue, Nicole Kidman, Russel Crowe, Mel Gibson. People in Australia drive on the left side like Great Britain. Most popular sport in Australia is Cricket.
FLAG – Australian’s flag consist of dark blue background with the flag of the United Kingdom in the upper left corner. There is also seven pointed star known as the Commonwealth star. The star´s points represents six states and the seventh point represent all of the territories.
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