Britain's 81-year-old Queen Elizabeth II embraced modern technology yesterday, setting up her own special Royal Channel on YouTube.
The queen will use the popular video-sharing website to send out her 50th annual televised Christmas message, which she first delivered live to the nation and its colonies on December 25, 1957.
Buckingham Palace also began posting archive and recent footage of the queen and other royals on the channel yesterday, with plans to add new clips regularly.
YouTube, which allows anyone to upload and share video clips, was founded in 2005 and bought by Google last year.
"The queen always keeps abreast with new ways of communicating with people," Buckingham Palace said in a statement. "The Christmas message was podcast last year."
The palace said, "She has always been aware of reaching more people and adapting the communication to suit. This will make the Christmas message more accessible to younger people and those in other countries."
The royal page - which bears the scarlet lettered heading "The Royal Channel - The Official Channel of the British Monarchy" - is illustrated with a photograph of Buckingham Palace flanked by the queen's Guards in their tall bearskin hats and red tunics.
Its modern video clips show shots of garden parties, state visits, the queen, the many British prime ministers who have served during her reign and a day in the life of her son, Prince Charles.
The footage of the queen's 1957 Christmas TV broadcast will remind viewers that TV once was as groundbreaking a creation as Internet is today.
"I very much hope that this new medium will make my Christmas message more personal and direct. That it is possible for some of you to see me today is just another example of the speed at which things are changing all around us," the queen said of television at the time.
Queen Elizabeth II's message is followed closely by millions of Britons and others in Commonwealth countries worldwide on Christmas Day each year.
Buckingham Palace revealed this week the queen likes to sneak off from the rest of her family on Christmas Day and watch the recorded message alone, judging for herself how she comes across.
Questions:
1. In which year did the Queen first broadcast her Christmas message to the Commonwealth?
2. What is the Queen’s attitude towards new technology?
3. Which company bought Youtube last year?
Answers:
1.1957.
2.The Queen always keeps abreast with new ways of communicating with people.
3.Google.
（英语点津 Celene 编辑）
About the broadcaster:
Brendan is an Australian who has been involved in education and writing for over a decade. He has published most recently for the Tiger Airways Inflight magazine, The Bangkok Post, The Taipei Times and Japan's Hiroshima Outside Magazine. He holds a Masters Degree in Community Development and Management and has resided in China for over 3 years.
