Lifestyle in Britain. Дворжец О.С. - 14 стр.

                                          The term ‘lifestyle’ is so wide, controver-
                                     sial, promising and vague a notion that one can-
                                     not but feel that it‘s a lot in general and nothing
                                     in particular unless something is done to make it
                                     narrower.
                                          Dictionary definitions, for example: ‘Life-
                                     style - a way of life of an individual or a society’
                                     (School dictionary, McMillan Publishing Com-
                                     pany, NY, London COLLIER 1987), ‘Lifestyle
                                     - a way of life or style of living that reflects the
                                     values and attitudes of an individual or group’
(Webster’s II New College Dictionary, Houghton Mufflin Company, NY) and
others while giving a general idea, are still of little help.
     The idea becomes more and more tangible as one reads texts describing the
UK and giving the popular images of the country, characterising it as a centralised
and unitary state. It is widely assumed that the British form a relatively homogene-
ous society with a strong sense of identity, but this is an assumption that requires
considerable qualification. Even after 300 years the terms ‘British’ and ‘Britain’,
which are used for official purposes, can seem very artificial. For centures there
has been the idea of England (or Scotland, or Wales), rather than of Britain. If you
look up ‘Britain’, ‘British’ or ‘Briton’, you will find ‘See England’. Many people
call Britain ‘England’, and the British ‘English’, as if Wales, Northern Ireland and
Scotland were merely outer additions to England.

     The idea of England evokes images of the Queen, the Houses of Parliament,
Westminster Abbey, the Tower of London and the soft landscape of the southern
counties of England. This is not surprising since almost one quarter of the British
people live within 25 miles (40 km) of London’s Trafalgar Square. But it also re-
veals that England as well as Britain is dominated by the south, and particularly the
southeast.

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