Шпора сделана на основе материалов, данных в учебниках Козикиса, статей в интернете и лекций на ютюбе. Минск 2012. MSLU. © Алеся Грабко

Вопросы.

1.Give an account of the geographical position of the United States, its advantages and disadvantages. The size of the country, its composition.

2.Outline the physical features of the US. The chief mountain ranges and plains. The main rivers and lakes. The climate and climatic regions. The main mineral resources and their role.

3.Describe how the New World was settled paying attention to the story of the Native Americans – unique, tragic and inspiring. How do they fare today? Their contribution to the country and American English.

4.Examine the beginning of the colonization of North America by the first settlers from Europe. What considerations influenced many people to move to America? Who were the Pilgrim Fathers? Why are they held so high by the Americans? The Mayflower Compact.

5. Describe the role of immigration in the making of the American Nation – a “melting pot” of nations. Characterize the main ethnic groups. Give a brief survey of the present population of the USA: density, distribution and other characteristics.

6.Discuss the reasons, development and consequences of the War of Independence (1775-1783)

7.Expand on the basic values of the American nation. Explain their importance. The “frontier heritage”, the heroes. What is political correctness? Refer to examples in the language.

8.The territorial expansion of the USA in the first half of the 19^th century. The growing antagonism between the North and the South, the violation of the Missouri Compromise of 1820 and its consequences.

9. The prelude, chief events of the Civil War (1861-1865) and its major consequences.

10. The development of the USA after the Civil War. The Monroe doctrine. American expansionism at the end of the 19^th century.

11. Describe how and when the American Constitution was adopted. The structure of the Constitution and its principles. The Bill of Rights and its role.

12. The role and structure of the Congress – the supreme legislative body. Its main functions (The Senate, the House of Representatives).

13. Examine the institution of the American presidency, its power and functions. Give a motivational criticism of the home and foreign policy of the present administration.

14. Describe the process of presidential elections, their indirect character. What is meant by an “electoral college”. Comment on results of the presidential elections of the year 2012.

15.Explain what is meant by a “strict division and separation of powers” between the Congress, the President, the Supreme Court and the system of checks and balances under the Constitution.

16. Characterize the main political parties in the USA. (the Republicans, the Democrats –history and political platform and role today)

17. Describe the national symbols of the USA: the flag, the Great Seal, the National Anthem and 10 federal holidays.

1. The USA is situated in central North America with Canada to the North, Mexico to the South, The Atlantic Ocean to the east, The Pacific Ocean to the West. The USA consists of 50 states, 48 of which conterminous [ ] (смежные, соседние) and the other two are located apart from the rest of the country. In 1959 the USA welcomed Alaska and Hawaii as the 49^th and 50^th states. The total are of the USA is 9.8 million square kilometers and the population – almost 313 million people. The country stretches 2,575 kilometers from north to south, 4,500 kilometers from east to west. The USA is the 3^rd largest country in the world after Russia and Canada. Alaska is the largest state. Rhode Island is the smallest state.

The Advantages and disadvantages of the geographical position of the USA:

Ad-s

1. The Atlantic Ocean is of great importance for the country’s sea communications with Europe, Africa and South America.

2. The sea routes to Asia and Australia pass over the Pacific Ocean.

3. The sea route through the Panama Canal, which connects the 2 oceans, runs over the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea.

4. Because of the diversity of the country and the fact that its so large all sorts of products are grown, there are industries of every kind.

5. A great variety of mineral resources.

Disad-s

1. Unique weather phenomena(hurricanes, tornadoes)

2. Extreme climates

2. The physical features of the USA are so diverse. The majestic Rocky Mountains divide the country in 2 parts – the east and the west. The east is occupied by the Appalachian Mountains, the coastal plain, the Great Plains and the Central Plain (Interior lowlands). The west is under the influence of the powerful Cordillera Mountain System.

The Appalachian Mountains are mountain ranges which run along the Atlantic Coast, they are ancient and of no great height (2,000 m).

All the western part of the US is occupied by the Cordillera Mountain System.

The Rocky Mountains rank among the highest mountain ranges and form the eastern chain of the Cordilleras. They are high (over 4,000 m),young as compared to the Appalachian and their peaks are covered with snow.

The Cascade Range (Oregon and Washington) and the Sierra Nevada (California) form the Pacific Coastal Range and the western chain of the Cordilleras. In California there’s a desert called Death Valley.

The eastern and the western chains of the Cordilleras enclose THE GREAT NORTH-AMERICAN PLATEAU. The central part of the Plateau is the great Basin which is also knows as the intermontane area between the coastal ranges and the Rocky Mountains. The Grand Canyon is located in that region in the state of Arizona on the Colorado River. The only large sheet of water in that region is the Great Salt Lake in the state of Utah.

THE RIVERS AND LAKES

The Mississippi is world’s third longest river after the Nile in Africa and the Amazon in South America. It’s like 6,5OO km.

The major tributaries [ ] (приток) of the Mississippi River are: the Missouri River, the Ohio River, the Arkansas River and the Red River.

The Mississippi empties out into the Atlantic.

The 2 greatest rivers of the Pacific are The Colorado in the South and The Columbia in the North. The Rio Grande is the most important river of the southwest.

LAKES

There’s a large group of lakes in the USA called the Great lakes:

Only Lake Michigan lies entirely inside the US.

The other 4: Lake Superior, Lake Huron, Lake Erie, Lake Ontario form a natural border between northeastern US and Canada.

CLIMATE

The Sierra Nevada Mountains and the Cascade are so close to the west coast that they catch the largest amount of rain from the Pacific Ocean before it can further inland. That’s why the intermontane region is so dry and depends on irrigation water from the snows or rains that are caught by the mountains. So the whole western part of the USA lies in the “rain shadow”

50-centimetre rainfall line runs through the middle of the country: east of the line farming is easy and there’s enough rain. West of the line, irrigation systems and dry-farming.

The western coast

The temperature changes little between winter and summer.

In the north central part of the country

The temperature difference between winter and summer is very great: winters are very cold and summers are very hot.

The eastern part of the country

The difference between summer and winter is distinct but not extreme.

In the south-eastern corner of the country the climate is mild and moist, summers are hot and humid (влажный).

Southern Florida – tropical moist climate. The growing season is all year long.

Alaska – arctic climate. Hawaii – tropics.

MINERALS

The USA has large resources of COAL (уголь) in the Appalachian Mountains, NATURAL GAS+OIL (in the Cordillera region), IRON ORE in Lake Superior Region (железная руда). Gold and silver + rare metals in the Cordilleras.

The USA is self-sufficient in cold, other resources are imported.

In resources of natural gas and coal the USA holds the 1^st place in the world.

3. Native Americans were the first people to live in America. The Indians had probably arrived 10,000-30,000 years before the European colonization started at the end of the 15^th century. They came from Asia to North America by way of the Bering Strait. By the time the white men appeared the Indians had spread and occupied all parts of the New World.

Native Americans helped the Pilgrim Fathers and other white settlers to get used to life on the new continent.

Pocahontas – she was 12 years old when English settlers came to Jamestown in Virginia and she saved the life of one of the leaders of the expedition John Smith. She threw her arms around him to prevent her father, who was an Indian chief, from killing him. He often visited the colonists and brought them food and gifts but they did not act in the same way. They kidnapped her and held her hostage to control the tribe.

Later she married one of the white colonists and travelled with him to England. At the age of 21 she died of smallpox. She had a son.

The Indians gave food to the white settlers.

Inventions:

Indian corn and white potatoes - were first planted by American Indians. They also introduced the settlers to more than 80 other foods (potato, tomato, peanut, squash, banana and so on).

Cacao (chocolate) and tobacco were among the new crops.

Indian invented cocaine which was used to kill pain and many other drugs which are used today not only for medical purposes.

They invented canoes (ка’ну), pipes, moccasins and so on.

Although the Indians helped the European settlers in many ways, the latter did not treat the natives in the same way. They soon began to cheat them and seize their lands. The whites did not respect Indian culture. They considered them to be savage (дикие). So the Native Americans and white settlers became enemies.

They were doomed to defeat since 1) white settlers had guns and bullets while the Indians had bows and arrows. 2) white settlers were able to unite while the Indians were divided in small tribes which were hostile to each other

In 1786 the US government forced the Indians to live on special territories (called reservations). These lands were the worst (in the southwest or the northwest). In the middle of the 19^th century they were forbidden to leave the reservations without permission. At the end of the 19th century there were only 250,000 Indians.

Today there are about 2.5 million Native Americans.

The majority live in the federal reservations in the southwest and they are free to live, of course. On the reservations traditional Indian customs, languages have survived. Tourists often visit the reservations to observe the Indians’ way of life. On and off the reservations, Native Americans are one of the most deprived and most unhappy of minority groups in the US.

To improve the quality of life for Indians, the US government established the Bureau of Indian Affairs. It’s responsible for the Indians’ cash payments, agricultural equipment, farm animals. They have free schools and hospitals on the reservations. The Indians still have to pay income taxes.

Contribution to the American English:

1) Thousands of mountains, lakes, rivers, cities, states have Indian names – Ohio, Chicago, Massachusetts, Montana.

2) Common nouns: tobacco, moose, canoe and so on.

4. The USA was opened to European colonization by the first voyage of Christopher Columbus in 1492. He wasn’t the first to discover it as the Vikings from Scandinavia visited the country of North America in 11^th century but there were seamen and raiders and didn’t try to settle on the land permanently. The American continent was named after Amerigo Vespucci, a noble man from Florence who helped to organize Columbus’s second voyage in 1493.

In 1565 the 1^st permanent white settlement in North America was founded in Florida by the Spaniards.

In 1607 the 1^st permanent English colony Jamestown was established in Virginia.

The history of English 1^st settlement began in April, 1607, when 3 ships anchored near the mouth of Chesapeake Bay. The white settlers found out from the Indians how to grow tobacco. Tobacco was very popular in Europe and Virginia became a rich colony.

What considerations influenced many people to move to America?

Many European immigrants left their homelands to escape political and religious oppression as well as economic difficulties and poverty.

In 1620 a group of colonists known as the Pilgrim fathers came to North America on the famous ship the Mayflower.

The Pilgrim Fathers were Separatists in England or members of the Puritan movement. They wished to purify the Church of England by making religious services simpler and discipline stricter. That is why they were called Puritans. They were persecuted by English officials and after moving a lot they considered America. Puritans called themselves Pilgrims because of their wanderings in search of religious freedom.

2^nd English settlement In December 1620 the ship called the “Mayflower” with 102 people on board landed on Cape Code, Massachusetts then sailed across to Plymouth Harbor.

The Mayflower Compact – 41 men aboard the Mayflower held a meeting a chose their 1^st governor. They signed a specific document known as the Mayflower Compact to abide by “just and equal laws” drafted by leaders of their own choosing, which was the 1^st agreement for self-government in America.

Why are they held so high by the Americans?

The Pilgrim Fathers established the tradition of celebrating thanksgiving.

During their 1^st winter half of them died of cold and disease but Indians taught them how to grow crops and helped them out a lot in many ways. The next year they had a good harvest and decided to thank God and invited the Indians to this celebration.

The dishes that were made on this day became national dishes cooked on Thanksgiving: turkey with cranberry sauce, corn, squash, pumpkin pie.

5. The American melting pot – (106 ethnic groups in America) when individuals or groups of different ethnic origin are absorbed into the dominant culture of society. Europeans immigrants became almost completely assimilated within 2/3 generations.

+the salad bowl People compare the USA with a salad bowl and believe that America needs to preserve and encourage its diversity. In a salad you can tell the difference between the components all in one bowl. Most important features of American Society are multiculturalism (respect of various cultures) and political correctness (equality of genders, races and religion)

The first immigrants came to the U.S. 10,000-30,000 years before the European colonization (they came from Asia to North America by way of the Bering Strait)

When Columbus discovered America in 1492 about 1, 5 million Native Americans lived in America.

Today there are about 4 million Native Americans

The people from the British Isles prevailed among early settlers (The Puritans for example) and people of other nationalities followed: the Germans(in return for service in the Union army during the Civil war they were offered grants of land++22% of American have German Ancestry), Dutch, French, Irish people and many others.

The 19^th century was the period of mass migration

NY became the gateway (ворота, вход) to America. So many people were entering the US that a special port of entry was established on Ellis Island in NYC’s harbor. The immigrants had to pass the inspection, be healthy and have at least 25 dollars with them. It was closed in 1954(from 1892-1954 12 million people came through it).

Ethnic groups: