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Cooperstown, New York, in 1839. But the first real rules of baseball were written in 1845 By Alexander Cartwright. The first teams were not professional. They played only for fun, not for money. But from the start businessmen saw they could make money with professional teams. The first professional team was started in 1869 – the Red Stockings of Cincinnati. In 1876 the professional teams came together in a group called the National League. In 1901, the American League was founded. In 1903, the two leagues decided to have their first-place teams play each other. This event was called the World Series. Since then, millions of people look forward to this exciting sport event. Americans go to the games, be-cause of all sports baseball is still the most family friendly. Perhaps more importantly, however, is that baseball is the most affordable of all of the big sports –especially when one is taking the whole family. The best seats may be purchased for under $30 a seat. Compared to basketball, hockey or football it’s a mere pittance - twice as lower. It is a relaxed sport. There’s no time limit, it can be played by people of average height and weight, no matter race and back-ground. The critical reason, perhaps why kids have less enthusiasm for the game today is that there are so many other distractions, ones which don’t require socializing as much to have fun, and maybe it’s the fact that baseball today is about $200 mitts, $40 bats, $35 glove, $50 shoes, shin guards, helmets, and so much other equipment that it’s no longer “everybody’s” game. Still it’s refreshing to note that baseball simulations are among the top selling video games.

Pennsylvania was established as a Quaker colony in the 1680s, and other similar groups such as the Amish and Mennonites who came from Germany, soon founded their settlements. Quakers - the Christian Protestant sect founded in England in the 17th century - were persecuted for their nonviolent activism in Europe and many emigrated to form communities elsewhere - in Pennsylvania and New England. If you travel into Lancaster County, you could believe you traveled back in time to the last century and even beyond. For that is where the Amish hold fast to their customs and beliefs: no buttons on clothing because soldiers’ uniforms were crowded with them, no ostentation in dress or furniture. They are farming people who are immediately recognizable by their unusual dress - severe black suits for the men, long skirts and bob caps for the women, since it seems the heads must be covered at all times, even the children’s. They will not use electricity or motor-propelled vehicles of any kind; they work the land with horses and light their homes with kerosene lamps and candles - nothing more than God intended a man to do unaided. The community speaks a Rhine dialect. Their children get little education – acquiring it would make a person vainglorious. Owning motorized transport is banned because cars would give youngsters a chance to travel and

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experience other ways. The others religious sect – Mennonites- also dress in black and favor chin beards but no mustaches but allow a much freer pattern of living. They use musical instruments in church, and mechanical aids in farming, and automobiles fiercely opposed by the Amish. Productive farms abut in the southeast. This is home of shoofly pie.

Questions

1. George Washington once called this state the “Empire State.” What state did he mean? 2. Was Statue of Liberty made in the USA? If not, where? 3. What does woman have in her left hand and what does the date July 4, 1776 stand for? 4. Where is the

American Museum of Immigration? 5. What is the nation’s mostly populated state? 6. Which of the states bears the nickname of “the First State” and why? 7. What city (state) is called “the chemical capital of the world? Why? 8. Which US state was established by Quakers? 9. Who are Amish and Mennonites? 10. Are there communities in your country where people hold fast to their customs and beliefs? What lifestyles do they retain?

The Mid-Atlantic Region is densely populated. Its cities include Washington D.C., the nation’s capital. D.C. stands for District of Columbia. The District of Columbia does not belong to any of the fifty states of the USA. It is a tract of land about 70 square miles (181 sq. km) on the east bank of the Potomac River. The city was founded in 1790 on a site chosen by George Washing-ton, the first American President. Maryland and Virginia granted land on each side of the river. The city was built according to a preliminary plan and the law forbidding to build houses more than 90 feet (27.4 m high). The White House, the official name of the President’s executive mansion, designed by James Hoban, is only four-storied high. Foreign tourists are surprised not to find a single skyscraper in the US capital. A visitor to Washington D.C. is impressed by the straight tree-lined avenues of the capital city and grand houses in neo-classic style. The author of the design for the capital city was the French engineer Pierre Charles

L’Enfant. His design is based on Versailles, a palace near Paris. Many of the government buildings, historical and other attractions are located in the downtown area and are easily accessible. The central place of the city is the Mall, a large open space, a kind of park, stretching from the building of the Capitol to Lincoln Memorial in the middle. The Moll is often used by people for public meetings, picnics, games, concerts. On both sides of the Moll are the numerous buildings of the Smithsonian Institution - a group of museums (the National Museum of Natural History, the National Museum of American History, the National Gallery of Art), scientific buildings and collections. James Smithson was an English scientist of the 19th century, who left his entire fortune

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to the United States asking to use it in order to found “an establishment for the increase and diffusion of knowledge”. The Smithsonian Institution was founded in 1846, and it includes now thirteen museums. The Library of Congress contains more than 75,000,000 books, pamphlets, bound newspaper files, manuscripts, maps, prints and photographs, books in Braille, recordings, movie films, and micro-filmed doctoral dissertations. There are five universities in Washington. The Washington, Jefferson and Lincoln Memorials are among the city sights. The monument to George Washington is one of the tallest monuments in the world. From its top you can see the entire District of Columbia and even the neighboring State of Virginia. The main business street is Pennsylvania Avenue. The first President to live in the White House was Adams, the second US President. It was back in 1800. During the war of 1812-14 ( which is sometimes called “the Second War for Independence” because since that war England has stopped regarding America as her colony), the British burned most of the public buildings in Washington, including the White House and the Capitol. In 1814 the brown stone walls of the President’s home were painted white, and it became to be called the “white house”. One hundred years later, “White House” became its official name. All in all, the White House has 132 rooms. Large receptions and new conferences are held in the East Room. The elliptical Blue Room is for different social, diplomatic and official receptions The Red and Green Rooms are used for private and quasi-official gatherings. The President and his family live upstairs. Since the White House belongs to the American people and not to the President, it is open to the public; you can go inside and look around. The offices and the living quarters of the White House are closed to the public. But you can visit Capitol Hill, and there you’ll be able to see the work of the Senate, the House of

Representatives and the Supreme Court which have public galleries. On top of the Capitol is a huge iron dome. No building in the city may be taller than the dome. Dismayed by widespread immorality, President Theodore Roosevelt decided to create a federal detective service (FBI). Congress approved the plan in 1908 but, fearing an American secret police, restricted the new Bureau of Investigation to enforcing laws regarding pornographic books, condoms, and prizefighting movies. During WWI, the Bureau watched enemy aliens, caught draft dodgers, and arrested alleged radicals. In the 1920s, the role of the Bureau was changed from law enforcement to investigation. It recruited only lawyers and accountants, amassed the world’s largest fingerprint collection, built scientific crime-detection laboratory, and trained local police officers. During WWII, the FBI fought enemy spies but tarnished its image with illegal wiretaps in postwar drive against subversives. In 1960, the FBI strengthened its investigations of

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organized crime and later took on the growing threat of terrorism. They investigate serious crimes here.

The Arlington Memorial Bridge across the Potomac River connects the city with

Arlington National Cemetery.

During the Revolution, to 1799, the state capital was Philadelphia. Today it is the

USA’s fourth largest city. Its name means “City of Brotherly Love” in Greek. The University of Pennsylvania (Penn) is on the list of America’s Hot Colleges, among those icons that live up to their reputations.

The city and its immediate environs contain more historic structures, landmarks, and mementos of America’s birth than any other city. Independence Hall, a distinguished red brick Georgian building, houses the inkstand and chair used by the signers of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. In Philadelphia you can touch Liberty Bell, which was rung after the Declaration of Independence was read. The bell cracked when it was rung on George Washington’s birthday in 1846. Today the Bell hangs in a special pavilion on nearby Independence Mall.

Questions

1. Is District of Columbia one of the USA states? What is it? Where is it? 2. Which city - New York or Philadelphia - was the state capital before Washington? 3. When was Washington, D.C. founded? 4. What is the first impression of a visitor to Washington? 5. Who was James Smithson? 6. What is White House and why is it called that? 7. Who was the first president to live in White House? 8. What building in Washington is taller than the Capitol dome? 9. When was FBA created and what for? 10. Which city’s name mean “City of Brotherly Love”? 11. Where was the Declaration of Independence signed?

THE SOUTH

in many ways - economically, historically and culturallyis the most distinctive of the US regions. It includes Kentucky (Frankfort), Virginia(Richmond), North Carolina(Raleigh), South Carolina(Columbia), Tennessee (Nashville), Arkansas(Little Rock), Louisiana(Baton Rouge), Mississippi(Jackson), Alabama (Montgomery), Georgia(Atlanta) and Florida (Tallahassee). Geographically ‘Dixie’- that’s what the region is calledis the largest region in the United States. It has well over one-fourth of the total population of the USA. Contrary to the image some have of the South, blacks are not in a majority. The South preserves its traditions, for example good cooking. Among American regions the South has been noted for its hospitality and friendliness, and also for its relatively relaxed and unhurried way of life. When you’re offered ice tea

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(notice: ‘ice tea’ not ‘iced tea’ which is regarded as pretentious) by one of charming southern hostesses, know you’re in for a long afternoon of hearing about Cousin Mary Alice’ new babe and its genius antics in the playpen. Many southern women are sure that the Southern lady today isn’t that different from the Southern lady back in the antebellum South. The family background is the most important distinguishing feature of a lady. They are gracious, charming and well-bread. These ideal qualities of charm and grace are learned. Southern girls are willing to identify with their mothers, because there are a lot of social functions and mother-daughter banquets sponsored by the cheerleading club. When a girl is 12, she is usually taught party manners, etiquette, dancing etc. Later, at14 or 15, she joins the club where balls are given. Down here

‘Coca-Cola’ will be seen as putting on airs, just as obviously as if you employed “you” as a collective pronoun. The southern dialects are more widely recognized and more

“different” than other regional dialects. In the South, they say “you-all,” CoCola, and collect monetary fines from strangers who misspeak. Ignorance before the law is no excuse. Lemons are essential and should be of the thick-skinned variety, cut into sixth. They are never! squeezed but only plumped into the pitcher, four or five slices. Extra slices are offered on a cut-glass plate six inches in diameter. Mint may be added, but it is always submerged in the pitcher and never put into a glass. In the South sweetened ice tea is taken for granted, like the idea that stock car racing is their national pastime.

Alongside these traits there has been a southern emphasis on personal honor and valor that is not characteristically American. New Yorkers’ reservations melt as they watch charming South Carolina’s buddies in gentlemanliness action: shag dancing rather than doing the humpty hump, and opening doors for their dates. Yes, they may spill beer on her heels from time to time, but there would always be an apology with a light touch on the small of her back. Here the old man you chatter with pays more attention to the fact that you call him sir and that you defer to your lady when she speaks. The campus is the sort of place where you sign the honor code, and ever after leave your car, dorm room and bike unlocked. Students take tests at home unsupervised but without cheating. Elsewhere in the country, students attend class in flip-flops and pajamas; here the students go in coat and tie. Some professors invite students to have a tipple during the last class of the semester, or have them taught in front of a cracking fireplace in their living room. The University of the South is an increasingly rare bulwark against the relentless spread of McUniversity-style education in the USA. Pockets of culture like this are losing rough edges everywhere. Homogenized Atlanta is the capital of today’s

South, not beautiful, decrepit New Orleans or joyously antiquated Charleston.

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With its warm climate and rich soil, the South developed an economy on cotton export. This was the area of great cotton plantations with large numbers of slaves. In the upland South the soil was poorer, farms were smaller, and slaves were few. In the mountain areas of the South - the Appalachians and the Ozark mountains of Arkansas - life was hard and isolated, and blacks were generally absent.

The South has produced a variety of Negro song styles, such as the gospel, spirituals, blues, known since the mid 1800 and marked by messages of “good news” and driving, dynamic rhythm. Scholars debate how African rhythms, slaves’ work songs, English ballades, and Southern spirituals mixed together to form the blues. Many of the earliest blues guitarists were traveling with street performers who, because many could not read either words or music, developed patterns that were ideal for improvisation. The anguish of love lost, the perils of gambling and liquor, and a longing for the open road were widely known to cause someone to sing the blues. Listeners could nurse their heartache to a slow blues melody or enjoy raucous tales of no-good men and loose women. But it was not until 1920 that the music industry realized how popular the blues could be. Once the depression set in, however, the blues lost out – people preferred to be cheered up. The blues never regained the popularity it had enjoyed in the mid-1920s, but its raw feeling and rhythmic energy have greatly influenced R&B, rock, and jazz.

Usually accompanied by instruments and punctuated with spontaneous shouts, claps, and stomps, the gospel and spiritual became integral to worship in black churches. Gospel popularized by ac-claimed Dixie musicians won fans world-wide. Elvis Presley, a boy from East Tupelo, Mississippi, the biggest star of the 20th century, known as “the

King of rock ‘n’ roll, was influenced by gospel music. Then, in Memphis - the center for blues music – he, just for fun, recorded a song at the Recording Studio. Presley’s potential was immediately recognized. The style that made him famous was discovered while fooling around in the studio. He brought more black content than others to the combination of blues and country music – influential popular white style, the cowboy music in large part derived from the South. By the 1920s, Southern rural folk had emigrated to the cities. Soon the “mountain” or “hillbilly” music was picked up by radio and spread by shows.

The first country-music superstars melded blues with a yodel that “displayed hopes and prayers and dreams of the common people.” Elvis Presley pushed the beat, adding an exciting urgency to the music. In the 195Os Presley’s popularity grew though the music critics found his music “atheistic, criminal and threat to democracy.” In the early ‘60s, the Beatles replaced Elvis as the most important figures in rock. When asked about

Elvis and rock, the Beatles’ John Lennon said simply, “Before Elvis there was nothing.”

Elvis brought together the musical sounds of the blacks in America and of country

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people. His songs started a new period in American music. People love to imitate him.

There’s even an Elvis Presley Impersonation Society. Elvis impersonators dress up like

Elvis and sing on stage. Some of them do wish they were Elvis!

Alabama (Heart of Dixie) is a South’ heavy industry state, a space flight center and the land of rich crops. The world’s only monument to an insect pest was erected here. Kentucky ranks as one of the country’s leading coal producers. It is also famous for its race-horses, whiskey and tobacco. The world’s longest cave system is at Mammoth

Cave. Kentucky is known to be the birth-place of Abraham Lincoln, the 16th USA President. (a log cabin where he was born is preserved with care).

The nickname of Arkansas is Land of Opportunity. The discovery of coal and oil conversed this area into a mining belt, well-known for its industrial violence. At the nation’s only diamond field – now a state park finders can keep any gem uncovered.

Louisiana (Pelican State) was established as a French colony. As a result, the area is largely Catholic in religion and there is still a considerable French-speaking population in rural areas. The largest city New Orleans was founded by the French in 1718. From 1764 to 1800, it was under the rule of Spain. Then it was sold by Napoleon to the USA as part of the Louisiana Purchase almost for nothing. But the influence of France is still strongly felt there: French is spoken by most of the natives as a second language. The city has been known to the world as the “Big Easy”- it was easy to find work there for African-Americans who were often turned away from other cities - or “the City that never sleeps”- the half-million people city of indolent charm, “the best jazz, the best gumbo, the best Margaritas, the best French Quarter.” It has long been an inspiration to soulful writers and artists who sing the blues. New Orleans is the birth place of Jazz

(that’s why one of its symbols is saxophone) which is played by a number of people everywhere. A lot of people associate the place with Bourbon Street - a real paradise of nightlife (by the way, this is the only city in the USA where drinking outside is not punished by the law. But you must be 21). The people of the city and Louisiana have worked hard enough to construct a good part of US seafood and energy industries. After a devastating Hurricane Katrina (August 2005), when the catastrophic flooding left 80% of New Orleans submerged, it got the name of “the Lost City.” The devastation brought on by Katrina was nature’s 9/11: it seemed to have inflicted her wrath on the world’s most powerful country for not believing in the threats posed by global warming. The interesting peculiarity of the city is that it’s located below sea level. New Orleans’s earliest settlements were built on higher ground, but by the 19th century, the city had spread into areas up to 10 feet below sea level between a massive Lake Pontchartrain and a mighty Mississippi River on the fragile shore all along the path of hurricanes in

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the South and Eastern United States. The levees have been in place since 1947, providing 58 years of a false sense of security. A hurricane like Katrina packs the energy of a 10-megaton nuclear bomb exploding every 20 minutes with winds of 140 to 165 miles an hour. The storm surge that hit the Gulf coast, some 29 feet, was the highest ever recorded. The suffering all along the Gulf Coast, where the airport and expressway were underwater, homes and whole islands vanished, was terrible, with thousands of people’s lives falling into ruin, with the looting and arson following Katrina’s deadly strike. The hurricane devastated an entire city and made a large percentage of povertystricken Africa-American homeless. The horrendous damage wrought by Katrina will take years to repair, the ensuing rampant anarchy irreparably damaged America’s reputation in the civilized world. Lost oil production in the Gulf of Mexico accounted for nearly 95% and its lost natural-gas output – 80%.

P.S. A century of disaster: Sept.8, 1900 Galveston Hurricane – 16-foot swell leveled 97% of this Texas city, killing 6,000 residents. Reconstruction took some 25 years. April18, 1906 San Francisco Quake. The 7.9 quake struck at 5:15 a.m., and by 7 Army troops were pouring in; rebuilding began within a week. Aug.17, 1969 Hurricane Camille. For the second most intense US storm, the Red Cross set up shelters for 85,000 prior to its landfall; by November, the Army had cleared 11 million tons of debris. Aug. 24, 1992 Hurricane Andrew- 5,000 federal troops were sent to Florida 3 days after this Category 5 storm hit; the full cost paid on Sept. 1.

Florida (Nickname: “Sunshine State”) though still retaining many Southern patterns, has be-come the place for retirement or recreation of the middle and upper classes which first were arriving from the North and then were followed by an influx of Latin Americans. Florida is one of the fastest growing states in the nation. Tourism is the state’s leading industry with world-famous re-sort centers along the “Gold Coast”.

Many observers now consider Miami a major Latin American city. Cape Canaveral has developed into the most important space research center.

Virginia is home of the first English settlement in North America (Jamestown, 1607). In Virginia, there are many historic old towns and also Civil War sites to explore. George Washington , the first American President, lived and farmed at Mount Vernon, Virginia. He owned an immense area of land. Now the mansion is a museum. President Thomas Jefferson was an architect. He designed his own house, called Monticello. Inside, there are lots of gadgets, designed by him, too, including the writing machine. It made an instant copy as he wrote. Georgia, (Empire State of the South), one of the first colonies to be settled, was barely 60 years old in 1793 when the cotton gin made cotton profitable. Atlanta is noted for its educational system, the largest center devoted

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primarily to black education in the nation. It is a birthplace of Martin Luther King – the Nobel Peace Prize Winner, the late Black civil rights leader. This is where his grave is. Among the city’s numerous parks is Grant Park with the Cyclorama of the Battle of Atlanta during the Civil War. The world’s largest peanut processing plant is in Ashburn, another city of Georgia. Outside the town, there is a huge model of peanut – it is over 3 yards high. There are all sorts of tasty foods to try in the Southern states. Corn is ground to a grainy powder and cooked. This is called grits. Southern fried chicken is really crispy on the outside. Flour made from ground corn is used in making corn bread.

At Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, in 1903, Wilbur and Orville Wright, bicycle mechanics, piloted first manned, powered flights of heavier-than-air craft. There is a model of their plane Flyer there – a skeletal flying machine of spruce, ash and muslin, with a wingspan of 40 ft. and an unmanned weight of just over 600 lbs. that first 12-sec. flight changed the world, lifting it to new heights of freedom and giving mankind access to places it had never before dreamed of reaching. Although the flight was to transform life in the 20th century, only four newspapers in the USA carried news of their achievement – news widely dismissed as exaggerated. The Wrights created one of the greatest cultural forces since the development of writing, for their invention effectively became the World Wide Web of that era, bringing people, languages, ideas and values together. It also ushered in the age of globalization. Those superhighways of the sky not only revolutionized international business; they also opened up isolated economies, carried the cause of democracy around the world and broke down every kind of political barrier. Their example reminds us that genius does not have a pedigree, and that you don’t discover new worlds by plying safe, conventional waters. The 20th century was the American Century in large part because of great inventors such as the Wright brothers.

Questions

1. What is Dixie? 2. Why is the South regarded as the most distinctive of the US regions? 3.What values do the Southerners emphasize? 4. Are blacks in a majority here?

5. What is Dixie’s contribution to the American and world’s music culture? 6. Which

US state is the birth-place of Abraham Lincoln? 7. Why is the influence of France strongly felt in Louisiana? 8. Why is New Orleans called the Lost City? Whose responsibility do you think it is – state/local emergency forces police/active-duty troops/civilian volunteers to handle disasters? 9. Where is the most important space research center? Where is Russia’s space research center? 10. What are Virginia and

Georgia famous for? 11. How did the Wright brothers transform life in the 20th century? Where did it happen?

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THE MIDWEST

includes twelve states: Minnesota (St. Paul), Wisconsin(Madison), Michigan (Lansing),Ohio(Columbus), Indiana(Indianapolis), Illinois (Springfield), Iowa(Des Moines), Kansas(Topeka), Nebraska (Lincoln), South Dakota (Pierre) and North Dakota (Bismark). It is a large, economically important region. It is an area of strong Scandinavian, German, Swiss, Dutch, and New England influence. In parts of

Minnesota and Wisconsin some people still refer to each other as ”Swedes” or “Danes” or “Norwegians”, even though their ancestors left their home countries and settled in the

US a hundred years ago. Even Americans with little knowledge of what countries their ancestors came from, and little sense of having a particular ethnic heritage, may carry on a family tradition without realizing what the origin of the tradition is. For example, one family may traditionally open Christmas presents on Christmas Eve while another always waits until Christmas morning. It is in many ways a city-dominated area, with the “cultures” of Chicago, St. Louis, and Kansas City determining much of the life. Yet it is quintessential American, the area to which the news media refer when they speak of the “heartland.” Here politics is regarded as equally the concern of all. The educational standards and aspirations of the region have been high from the beginning, and the tradition continues today.

From a political and social viewpoint this region is centered on Chicago, the regional center of Illinois, the nation’s second largest city, the most important port and industrial center which grew through a series of separate residential and industrial communities. Stretching for 47 km around the south-west shore of Lake Michigan, it is a railway center, Great Lakes shipping center and famous for its stockyards and grain elevators. Actually, Chicago is included in the Northeast regional division because it is part of the network of northern industrial and shipping centers. Among the city’s most impressive buildings are the John Hancock Center and the Standard Oil Company, both more than 335m. high, and Sears Tower (442 m..) which has long been the tallest in the world. The

University of Chicago- one of the work’s great universitieshas been shaping higher education and the intellectual lives of 4,000 undergraduates for over a century. A private institution charted in 1890, Chicago’s 203-acre campus on the shores of Lake Michigan has been home to 73 Nobel laureates, the largest number affiliated with any American university. The university’s scholars were the first to split the atom, to measure the speed of light, and to develop the field of sociology. Geographically the region may be subdivided into three smaller regions: the Great Lakes area with many hills, lakes and forests; the prairie area south of it, which has good soil for farming; the Great Plains area to the west, much drier than the prairie. It is mostly wheat fields and grassland, where