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　　As you are students of English, it's very likely that you'll be interested in England. That's where the language was first spoken. But England is often called by other names. This often confused（混淆）people and I wonder if you know what these names mean. So, what I'd like to tell you about now is this matter of names. I believe you've heard people use the names England, Britain or Great Britain. Let's see what each of these names means.

　　If you look at a map of Europe, you'll see a group of island--one larger island off the northwest coast, one smaller and many tiny（极小）ones. These make up what is called the British Isles. The largest island of the British Isles is Britain. It is also called Great Britain. The smaller island is Ireland.

　　Britain is divided（分开）into three parts: Scotland, Wales and England, but sometimes the word“England”is used instead of“Britain”. Why so?

　　In ancient（古代）times, what is Britain now used to be three different countries. People in these different countries spoke different languages. Over many years the three countries became one. England is the largest and richest of the three and it has the most people. So the English people take it for granted（认为当然）that their own name stands for（代表）the whole island.

　　There's another thing that confuses people: Sometimes you may hear people say“the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. That is the official name of the country. Northern Ireland is only one sixth of the island of Ireland. The rest of the island is an independent（独立）state , called the Republic of Ireland. So we have the names of”England“,”Britain“,”Great Britain“and”the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, now do you know what each of them means?