Обучение навыкам разговорной речи на английском языке. Страноведение США (120

Московский государственный технический университет имени Н.Э. Баумана

Т.Д. Борисова, Л.А. Иванова, Т.И. Кузнецова

ОБУЧЕНИЕ НАВЫКАМ РАЗГОВОРНОЙ РЕЧИ НА АНГЛИЙСКОМ ЯЗЫКЕ

Страноведение США

Методические указания

Москва Издательство МГТУ им. Н.Э. Баумана

2011

УДК 802.0 ББК 81.2 Англ-923

Б82

Рецензент С.Ю. Бабанова

Борисова Т.Д.

Б82 Обучение навыкам разговорной речи на английском языке. Страноведение США : метод. указания / Т.Д. Борисова, Л.А. Иванова, Т.И. Кузнецова. — М.: Изд-во МГТУ им. Н.Э. Баумана, 2011. — 39, [1] с.

Методические указания, предназначенные для обучения навыкам разговорной речи на английском языке по страноведческой тематике, состоят из пяти уроков. Каждый урок имеет свою тематику и содержит основной текст, дополнительные тексты и упражнения, способствующие развитию навыков устной речи. Методические указания составлены на основе оригинальных текстов, взятых из американских источников.

Для студентов факультета «Инженерный бизнес и менеджмент», обучающихся по программе референтов-переводчиков.

Рекомендовано Учебно-методической комиссией НУК ФН МГТУ им. Н.Э. Баумана.

УДК 802.0 ББК 81.2 Англ-923

Учебное издание

Борисова Татьяна Дмитриевна ИвановаЛюдмила Андреевна Кузнецова Тамара Ильинична

ОБУЧЕНИЕ НАВЫКАМ РАЗГОВОРНОЙ РЕЧИ НА АНГЛИЙСКОМ ЯЗЫКЕ

СТРАНОВЕДЕНИЕ США

Корректор Е.К. Кошелева

Компьютерная верстка С.А. Серебряковой

Издательство МГТУ им. Н.Э. Баумана. Типография МГТУ им. Н.Э. Баумана. 105005, Москва, 2-я Бауманская ул., 5.

© МГТУ им. Н.Э. Баумана, 2011

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ПРЕДИСЛОВИЕ

Методические указания предназначены для студентов, обучающихся по программе референтов-переводчиков факультета «Инженерный бизнес и менеджмент», а также других факультетов.

Методические указания знакомят студентов с особенностями политической, экономической и финансовой систем США, а также

самериканской системой высшего образования.

Вметодических указаниях использованы оригинальные материалы, изданные в США, статьи из журналов, газет и справочников по страноведческой тематике.

Тексты снабжены тематическими заданиями в форме детальных вопросов по той или иной теме, а также заданиями обобщающего характера, способствующими развитию умений не только высказываться по теме, но делать выводы и высказывать свое мнение, что способствует развитию коммуникативных навыков.

Методические указания состоят из следующих пяти уроков: 1. Политическая система США.

2. Экономика США.

3. Финансовая система США.

4.Система высшего образования.

5.Глобализация.

Помипо этого предлагаемые методические указания могут служить дополнительным материалом для занятий студентов вто- рого–третьего курсов факультета «Инженерный бизнес и менеджмент».

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Unit 1

AMERICAN POLITICAL SYSTEM

The Constitution

Unlike Britain but like most nation states, the American political system is clearly defined by basic documents. The Declaration of Independence of 1776 and the Constitution of 1789 form the foundations of the US federal government. The Declaration of Independence establishes the United States as an independent political entity, while the Constitution creates the basic structure of the federal government.

To emphasize its democratic intent, the Constitution opens with a statement, called a Preamble, which makes it clear that the government is set up by ‘We, the People’ And its purpose is to ‘promote the general welfare and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity’. The Constitution guarantees individual freedom to all.

The US Constitution has proved to be a remarkably stable document. To all Americans, another basic foundation of their representative democracy is the Bill of Rights, adopted in 1791. This consists of 10 very short paragraphs which guarantee freedom and individual rights and forbid interference with the lives of individuals by the government. Each paragraph is an Amendment to the original Constitution. There have only been 17 other amendments for over 200 years.

At the heart of the US Constitution is the principle known as ‘separation of powers’, a term coined by the French political enlightenment thinker Montesquieu. This means that power is spread between three institutions of the state: the executive — the US President, the legislative — the US Congress and the judiciary — the Supreme Court — and no one institution has too much power and no individual can be a member of more than one institution.

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The principle is also known as ‘checks and balances’, since each of the three branches of the state has some authority to act on its own, some authority to regulate the other two branches, and has some of its own authority, in turn, regulated by the other branches.

Not only is power spread between the different branches; the members of those branches are deliberately granted by the Constitution different terms of office which is a further brake on rapid political change. So the President has a term of four years, while members of the Senate serve for six years and members of the House of Representatives serve for two years. Members of the Supreme Court serve for life.

The Presidency

The Executive Branch is headed by the President, who, together with the Vice President, is chosen in nationwide elections every four years (in every year divisible by four).

The president may serve a maximum of two terms. Elections are always held on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November to coincide with Congressional elections.

The President is both the head of the state and the head of government as well as the military commander-in-chief and chief diplomat. Within the executive branch, the President has broad constitutional power to manage national affairs and the workings of the federal government and he may issue executive orders to affect internal policies. The President may sign or veto legislation passed by the Congress and has the power to recommend measures to Congress. The Congress may override a presidential veto but only by a two-thirds majority in each house.

The Vice President acts as chairman of the Senate, and in the event of the death or disability of the President, assumes the Presidency for the balance of his term.

The Legislative Branch

The Legislative Branch is made up of two houses; the Senate and the House of Representatives known collectively as Congress. The Senate is the upper chamber in the bicameral legislature. The original

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intention of the authors of US Constitution was that the Senate should be a regulatory group, less politically dominant than the House. However, since the mid 19th century, the Senate has been the dominant chamber and indeed today it is perhaps the most powerful house of any legislative body in the world.

The senate consists of 100 members, each of which represents a state and serves for a six-year term (one third of the Senate stands for election every two years). The presiding officer of the Senate is the Vice president of the United States. Much of the work of the Senate is done through 16 standing committees which perform both legislative and investigatory functions.

The House of Representatives is the lower chamber in the bicameral legislature. The founders of the United States intended the House to be the politically dominant entity in the federal system and, in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, the House served as the primary forum for political debate. However, subsequently the Senate has been the dominant body. The House consists of 435 members, each of whom represents a congressional district and serves for a two-year term. The House of Representatives elects from its own members a Speaker as the presiding officer. Much of the work of the House is done through 19 standing committees which perform both legislative and investigatory functions. Each chamber of Congress has particular exclusive powers. The House must introduce any bills for the purpose of raising revenue. However, the consent of both chambers is required to make any law. Congress assembles each year on January the 5th and regular sessions of Congress usually adjourn in the early summer.

The main duty of the Congress is to make laws, including those which levy taxes that pay for the work of the federal government. A law begins as a proposal called a ‘bill’. It is read, studied in committees, commented on and amended in the Senate or House chamber in which it was introduced. It is then voted upon. If it passes, it is sent to the other house where a similar procedure occurs. Members of both houses work together in ‘conference committees ‘if the chambers have passed different versions of the same bill. Groups who try to persuade congressmen to vote for or against a bill are known as ‘lobbies’. When both houses of Congress pass a bill on which they agree, it is sent to the President for his signature. Only after it is signed does the bill become a law.

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The Senate and House are often referred to by the media as Capitol Hill or simply the Hill.

The Judicial Branch

The Judicial Branch is made up of Federal District Courts (at least one in every state), 11 Federal Courts of Appeals and, at the top, the Supreme Court. Together, these three levels of courts represent the federal judicial system.

The Supreme Court consists of nine Justices: The Chief Justice of the United States and eight Associate Justices. They have equal weight when voting on a case and the Chief Justice has no casting vote or power to instruct colleagues.

The Justices are nominated by the President and confirmed with the ‘advice and consent’ of the Senate. As federal judges, the Justices serve during ‘good behavior’, meaning essentially that they serve for life and can be removed only by resignation or by impeachment and subsequent conviction. The Supreme Court deals with matters pertaining to the federal government, disputes between states, and interpretation of the Constitution. It can declare legislation or executive action made at any level of the government as unconstitutional, nullifying the law and creating precedent for future law and decisions.

The Supreme Court in practice has a much more ‘political’ role than the highest courts of European democracies. Given how difficult it is to change the US Constitution through the formal method, one has seen informal changes to the Constitution through various decisions of the Supreme Court which have given specific meanings to some of the general phases in the Constitution.

It is one of the many ironies of the American political system that an unelected and unaccountable body like the Supreme Court can in practice exercise so much political power in a system which proclaims itself as so democratic.

Political Parties

There is one more very important part of the American political scene which is not a part of any formal written document: the political party system.

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Political parties are organized groups of people who share a set of ideas about how the United States should be governed and who work together to have members of their group elected in order to influence the governing of the country. When members of a political party form a majority in Congress, they have great power to decide what kinds of laws will be passed.

Today, the United States has two major political parties. One is the Democratic party which evolved out of Thomas Jefferson’s party, formed before 1800. The other is the Republican party, which was formed in the 1850s, by people in the states of the North and West, such as Abraham Lincoln, who wanted the government to prevent the expansion of slavery into new states then being admitted to the union.

Most Americans today consider the Democratic party the more liberal party. By that they mean that Democrats believe the federal government, and the state governments should be active in providing social and economic programs for those who need them, such as poor, the unemployed or students who need money to go to college. Democrats earned the reputation in the1930s when there was a worldwide economic depression. Under President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s ‘New Deal’ plan, Democrats set up government programs that provided paid employment for people building dams and roads and public buildings. The government under the Democratic party established many other programs, including Social Security, which ensures that those who are retired or disabled receive monthly payments from the government. Labor unions also received active government, and Democratic party, support in the New Deal era.

Republicans are not necessarily opposed to such programs. They believe, however, that many social programs are too costly to the taxpayers and that when taxes are raised to pay for such programs, everyone is hurt. They place more emphasis on private enterprise and often accuse the Democrats of making the government too expensive and of creating too many laws that harm individual initiative. For that reason, Americans tend to think of the Republican party as more conservative.

There is so much variety in both major parties that not all members of Congress or other elected officials who belong to the same party agree with each other on everything. There are conservative Democrats who tend to agree with many Republican ideas and liberal Republicans who often agree with Democratic ideas. These differences often show

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up in the way members of Congress vote on certain laws. Very frequently, there are both Democrats and Republicans who do not vote the way their party leaders suggest.

There are other, smaller parties in the United States besides the two major parties. None of these smaller parties has enough popular support to win a presidential election, but some are very strong in certain cities and states.

Assignments to the texts

1. Context and topical questions.

1.Name three branches of government in the USA.

2.Specify the number of senators and representatives in Congress.

3.Specify the role and functions of both — the President and VicePresident.

4.Refer to the information concerning the Judicial Branch make up.

5.Specify how many votes are required in each house to amend the Constitution.

6.Specify the procedure of a bill becoming a law.

7.Refer to the most important function of the Supreme Court.

8.Specify the idea of ‘checks and balances’. Substantiate your point.

9.Specify the functions of the Supreme Court.

10.Specify two major political parties and trace their origins in the text.

11.Speak on three branches of the US Government.

12.Speak on the US Constitution and the Bill of Rights. Comment on the significance of each.

13.Give your assessment of the American political system.

2. Scan the text and summarize it.

The Electoral College

The President and Vice-President of the United States are the only elective Federal officials not elected by direct vote of people. They are elected by members of the Electoral College.

On presidential election day, the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November of every fourth year, each state elects as many

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electors as it has Senators and Representatives in Congress, with the present 100 Senators and 435 representatives there are 535 members of the Electoral College, with the majority of 266 electoral votes needed to elect the President and Vice-President. An elector cannot be a member of Congress or any person holding Federal office. Political parties nominate their lists of electors at their state conventions.

The electors of the party receiving the highest vote are elected. The electors meet on the first Monday after the second Wednesday in December and vote for their party nominee thus giving all the state’s electoral votes to him.

3. Read the text and answer these questions.

1.When was the beginning of the term of office for the President and Vice-President fixed?

2.What does Election day depend on?

3.Describe the Inauguration ceremony.

Inauguration Day

The 20th Amendment of the Constitution proclaimed on 6 February, 1933 and taking effect on 15 October, 1933, fixed the beginning of the term of office for the President and Vice-President at noon 20 January.

Thus while Election day and the day when Electoral College votes depends on the calendar, Inauguration always takes place at noon on 20 January. The wording of the President’s oath is also laid down in the Constitution.

By 12 o’clock on 20 January the participants of the ceremony and guests take their places on a rostrum. At noon the President-Elect is sworn into office. The President’s Inauguration speech is regarded as a declaration of principles proclaimed by the new administration.

4. Render the text into English.

Предварительные выборы (Праймериз)

Праймериз — процедура предварительных выборов для претендентов на выборные должности США.

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