Reading: The Scottish Independence (British English - Intermediate)

 Before reading the text answer these questions. Use your own words.

a) What do you know about Scotland?

b) Do you know any other countries that conquered or are still fighting for its independence?

Now let's read the text.

Scotland (dark blue) inside Great Britain

The Scottish Independence


The Scottish independence is a political ambition of political parties, groups pressure and individuals in order to make Scotland separated from the United Kingdom.

The Kingdom of Scotland was an independent state from his unification in 843 to 1707 when the Treaty of Union was passed by the Parliament of Scotland and led to the formation of the United Kingdom of Great Britain. The Acts of Union made the Treaty valid by fusing the two nations through the dissolution of the English and the Scottish Parliaments, and their replacement by the new Great Britain Parliament. As a result of provisions in the Treaty, as well as a much of Scotland's relative isolation, many Scottish institutions remained separate, and the Scottish national identity has remained strong and distinct.

At the period of the parliament union, the measurement was deeply impopular both in Scotland and England. The Scottish treaty signatories were forced to sign the documents in secrecy because the popular revolt and the unrest in the Scottish capital, Endinburgh.

The ones who opposed to the Scottish independence and approved the continuity of a sort of union made a distinction between patriotism and nationalism, believing that being a part of the United Kingdom would be Scotland's national interest, and articulating that cultural, social, political, diplomatic and economic influence and benefits, without compromising its distinctive national identity, outweighed the total loss of Scottish independent sovereignty. Scottish independence supporters argues that the loss of Scottish independent representation is internationally prejudicial for Scottish interests, and, as the British Government acts chiefly at the interests of the whole United Kingdom, they argue that it can be, in specific cases, prejudicial to the specific interests of Scotland.


Article adapted from the original in Portuguese at: htpp://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Independência_da_Escócia and is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported

Map of Scotland inside the United Kingdom extracted from: http://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ficheiro:Map_of_Scotland_within_the_United_Kingdom.png and is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported



After reading the text: Please answer the questions:

1. How long had Scotland been an independent country before forming the Great Britain in 1707?

2. Was the union of the Scottish and the English Parliaments well accepted? Why?

3. At the period of the Union. Scotland was divided in two groups, one was in favour of the union and the other against it. What each group argued about the union. Answer using your own words.


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English for Today by Nimlot Logan is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.