Countries of the English language. Страны английского языка. Учебное пособие

3.What fierce rebellions and harsh repressions characterise the bitter pages of Irish history in connection to British history?

4.What is meant by the term Irish Renaissance and what were the causes for it? Name the people who played a significant role in Irish Renaissance ideas.

5.What is called the Young Irish movement; Fenianism?

6.What are the differences in religious and political views between Ireland, British Northern Ireland (and Ulster province)?

7.What do you know about the Sinn Fein party? Find out and comment on their activities in connection to CatholicProtestant struggle.

8.What is the role of the USA in the Good Friday Agreement? Why was it so important to reach this agreement?

Task 2.5. Read Text 2.3, find out the meaning of the new words, and retell.

Text 2.3. Irish Economy Overview

Ireland is a small, modern, trade-dependent economy, which joined the euro-zone currency union in 1999. The economic boom years of the Celtic Tiger (1995–2007) saw rapid economic growth, which came to an abrupt end in 2008–2011 with the meltdown of the Irish banking system and the collapse of its domestic property market and construction industry. In 2013, Ireland formally exited its EU-IMF bailout program, benefiting from its strict adherence to deficit-reduction targets. In 2014, the economy rapidly picked up, as the government introduced a fiscally neutral budget, marking the end of the austerity program. Continued growth of tax receipts has allowed the government to lower some taxes and increase public spending while keeping to its deficit-reduction targets. As a small, open economy, Ireland has excelled at courting foreign direct investment, especially from US multi-national companies, which helped the economy recover from the financial crisis and insulated it from the economic shocks of the COVID-19 pandemic.

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Irish main agricultural products are turnips, barley, potatoes, sugar beets, wheat; beef and dairy products. The most developed industries are natural resources (steel, lead, zinc, silver, aluminium, barite, and gypsum) mining and processing; food products, brewing, textiles, clothing; chemicals and pharmaceuticals; machinery and rail transportation equipment. Tourism is one of the notable sectors of Irish economy.

Task 2.6. Prepare a presentation on Irish culture: a popular writer / singer / artist / public figure / celebrity, etc.

Task 2.7. Prepare a description of Irish national symbols: the flag, the coat of arms, the national anthem, etc. Explain their historical meaning.

Task 2.8. Find any popular stereotypes about Ireland and the Irish. Discuss the stereotypes in your group. Are the stereotypes true or false? Can they help understanding Irish culture?

3. THE UNITED STATES

Task 3.1. Read Text 3.1, find out the meaning of the new words, and retell.

Text 3.1. The USA History Overview

13 Britain’s North American colonies broke with the metropole after signing the Declaration of Independence in 1776 and were recognized by the United Kingdom as the new nation of the United States of America following the Treaty of Paris in 1783. During the 19th and 20th centuries, 37 new states were added to the original 13 as the nation expanded across the North American continent and acquired a number of overseas possessions. The two most traumatic experiences in the nation’s history were the Civil War (1861–1865), in which a northern Union of states defeated a secessionist Confederacy of 11 southern slave states, and the Great Depression of the

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1930s, an economic downturn during which about a quarter of the labour force lost its jobs. Buoyed by victories in World Wars I and II and the end of the Cold War in 1991, the USA remains the world’s most powerful state.

Task 3.2. Study The USA History Timeline Guide and find out about the key events of US history in more detail, using An Illustrated History of the USA textbook and britannica.com.

The USA History Timeline Guide

Colonial Period in the history of America, the 13 original states, and the formation of the regional and religious variety:

1)New England: Puritan English Protestants (Massachusets, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New Hampshire), traditions of education.

2)Middle Atlantic: Quakers (New York, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland), traditions of industrial and urban culture.

3)The South: Anglican English Protestants (Virginia, Georgia, North and South Carolinas, Arkansas; traditions of agricultural lifestyle.

1607: 1st sustainable English settlement and the beginning of Jamestown, Virginia state.

1620: Mayflower Pilgrims start their settlement in Plymouth, Massachusetts. Thanksgiving tradition.

1636: Roger Williams starts a settlement and a new state of Rhode Island to establish the tradition of the freedom of religion in contrast to strict religious rules of Puritans in Massachusetts.

By 1773 13 original states had become prominent enough to fight for either the representation in British Parliament in London or political independence. The slogan of the struggle for American self-government became “NO TAXATION WITHOUT REPRESENTATION”.

1773: Boston Tea Party. The heaviest tea tax was not removed by the British government and Americans refused to buy tea imported to them by Britain with a heavy tax burden.

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1774: 1st Continental Congress in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania discussed the grounds of American self-government.

1775: 2nd Continental Congress established the Continental Army to resist British troops arriving to protect the monarchy in the American colonies.

1775/19/04: British soldiers start a war against rebels in Lexington, Massachusetts.

1775–1783: US War for Independence, known as American Revolution.

July, 4th, 1776: The Declaration of Independence signed by the US founding fathers.

1777: Battle of Saratoga, NY, final battle in the War for Independence.

1783: Treaty of Paris signed by Britain, recognised the independence of the USA.

1787–1791: The Constitutional Convention discussed and ratified the US Constitution with 7 articles and 10 amendments known as the American Bill of Rights. George Washington became the 1st US president.

End of 18th – 19th century: The “tidewater period” and new lands acquisition: Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Oregon, Missouri. 1803: Louisiana purchase from France. 1867: Alaska purchase from Russian Empire.

1821, 1846–1848, 1853: Wars with Mexico, territories of Texas, California, Arizona, Nevada, Utah, Colorado, New Mexico annexed.

1849: Gold Rush in California, Sacramento. Wildlife, wild west, the generation of “forty-niners”, the rule of the strongest, miners in jeans, service companies. The frontier and frontiersmen. The formation of the US national identity stereotypes.

1825: Erie canal construction: new water way from the Hudson river to the Great Lakes and the Mississippi river across the whole country.

1850s–1869: Transcontinental railroad constructed. Used to deliver food supplies from central Plaines to the coasts, and

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industrial products to Central Plaines. Agricultural central plains farming, buffalo land and cowboy lifestyles. Extermination of wild buffalo as the numerous herds were damaging the railways.

1/2 19th c.: New lands had to choose between the laws of the North or the South on the question of slavery.

1861–1865: US Civil War between the North and the South on the question of slavery abolition. Slavery is economically profitable for the Southern states, as farming of tobacco, cotton and rice seemed impossible without slave labour. The North used the European immigrants’ cheap labour force and was not interested in competition with the Southern economic lifestyle. Abolitionism, or the movement for the freedom of slaves, formed in 1774–1865 among Puritans of the North.

1860s: Parties divided on slavery question: Democratic South and Republican North, new Western lands were to deicide about legalisation of slavery in their new state legislation.

1861: President Abraham Lincoln elected with his main aim to abolish slavery.

1861: After the presidential elections but before the inauguration Democrats of the 11 Southern States left the United States to make the Confederate States of America.

The Confederate States of America / 10 Confederate States / the Dixie / Dixieland with the capital in Richmond, Virginia, and their president Jefferson Davis.

1861: President Lincoln started military actions to protect the unity of the country. 1st Civil war battle took place at Fort Sumter.

1863: Slavery is legally abolished by US Congress. Battle of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania and the 1st big loss of the Confederate army.

1865, April, 9th: Civil war final battle of Appomattox Court House, Virginia.

1865, April, 14th: President Lincoln shot by Wilkes Booth. 1865–1877: Period of Reconstruction. New agricultural or-

der and lifestyle across the country: farming, ranching.

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1866: 13th and 14th amendments to Constitution banish the slave labour in the USA and declare US citizen any person born on its territory.

1862 Homestead Act: After 5 years of land use anyone becomes the landowner.

1860s – 1880s: Native Population Issues: suppression of the Indian population, reservations with the poorest quality lands. Indian lands given to farmers. Urban Life and Immigration Issues: crowded, unsanitary tenements, slums, public transport (trams). Formation of Labor Unions to protect the rights of workers.

1906: President Theodore Roosevelt starts social programs to improve the life of urban population working in manufacturing.

1921: The USA begins to set immigration limits to protect the labour market.

Extraterritorial issues:

1)1895 – Annexation of Hawaii Islands;

2)1898 – war with Spain for Cuba, Puerto Rico, Phillipine Islands, НGuam;

3)1850 – 1870es, 1909–1914: Construction of Panama Canal.

1876: The USA 100 years anniversary: Philadelphia International Exhibition.

1908: Henry Ford introduced an affordable Model T motorcar that changed the US lifestyle.

1912: President elected Woodrow Wilson. (1914)–1917–1918: World War I. During the war the US

supports the Triple Entente with military supplies and weapons. This support stimulates the economy of the country.

1915–1917: British ocean liner Lusitania was sunk by a German submarine with over a thousand of victims among its passengers. A number of American supply ships were sunk by Germany as well, that made the USA officially declare war on Germany.

1918: Woodrow Wilson came up with a peaceful plan of a “war without victory” and an idea to create the League of Na-

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tions. The League of Nations was organised in Europe without the USA participation and made Germany pay heavy contributions to the winning countries.

1918–1929: The Roaring Twenties: flourishing post-war economic and cultural life. Emerging industry of entertainments. The Lost Generation.

1929–1939: Wall Street Stock Market crash followed by the Great Depression: stock markets fell because of over credited economy.

Franklin Roosevelt’s plan of economic recovery: Brain Trust, Alphabetic Agencies.

The USA in World War II during 1939–1941–1945:

1)The Lend-Lease Plan;

2)The Manhattan Project.

The Cold War era.

Extraterritorial wars 1945–2010s: Korea, Vietnam, Iraq. From wars with communism to wars with terrorism. Globalisation and mass culture in the 21st c.

Task 3.3. Using the The USA History Timeline Guide / An Illustrated History of the USA textbook or britannica.com prepare your own US history chart (see the template in Table 3.1). Choose the most important events, that influenced the future of the country and the people’s life. Compare the chosen events with your group members. Try to explain the priority of your choice. Add or remove events after the group discussion to make the final version of the history chart. Use Table 1.1 in Task 1.3 as an example.

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Task 3.4. Study the US History Timeline Guide and the prepared table from Task 3.3, then answer the case study questions.

1.Why is the colonial period of the USA still important for the national identity of the US citizens?

2.What political situation in the British Empire stimulated the beginning of the 13 states’ struggle for independence?

3.How do you estimate the wars of the USA with Mexico for the territories in the South and South-West of the presentday USA in the 1820s – 1850s? Were these campaigns invasive, colonial, or exploratory?

4.What were the political, economic, and religious reasons for the regional differences between the North and the South of the USA? Was it legal and reasonable for the US federal power and president to take military actions against the selfproclaimed Confederate States of America?

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5.How can you explain that nowadays the Dixie cultural and ideological tradition is still strong, popular and dear to the hearts of many Americans in the US South?

6.Why, in your opinion, the years after the Civil War started the bitter practices of racial segregation in the USA? What political and social measures could have prevented the humiliated position of the people of colour?

7.What were the reasons for the quick economic growth of the US economy during the years of Reconstruction and onwards to the end of the 19th century?

8.What are the economic and political reasons for the Great Depression between World Wars I and II? Can you find any interdependence between the periods in US history called the Roaring Twenties, the Lost Generation and the Great Depression?

9.What is the role of the USA in the organisations called the League of Nations and the United Nations? What is the difference in their function? Do you find the work of the UN, located in the USA effective for the regulation of global issues?

10.What was the global meaning of the extraterritorial wars, supported by the USA in Vietnam, Korea, Iraque? Give reasons for the conflicts and describe the sides of the conflicts to justify your answer.

Task 3.5. Read Text 3.2, find out the meaning of the new words, and retell.

Text 3.2. The USA Government

The Constitution of the United States defines a federal system of government in which certain powers are delegated to the national government and others are reserved to the states. The national government consists of executive, legislative, and judicial branches of power that are designed to ensure, through separation of powers and through checks and balances, that no one branch of government is capable of subordinating the other two branches. All three branches are interrelated, each with overlapping nonetheless quite distinct authority. The head

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of the state as well as the executive branch of power is the US President. The US capital is Washington, located in District Columbia that ensures the independent position of the federal power from any of the states.

Task 3.6. Read Text 3.3, find out the meaning of the new words, and retell.

Text 3.3. The USA Economy

After the Great Depression period and since the end of World War II, the US economy has achieved relatively steady growth, low unemployment and inflation, and rapid advances in technology. Today the USA has the most technologically powerful economy in the world, with a per capita GDP of 59,500 US dollars. US firms are at or near the forefront in technological advances, especially in computers and pharmaceuticals; medical, aerospace, and military equipment. However, their advantage has narrowed since the end of World War II. Based on a comparison of GDP measured at purchasing power parity conversion rates, the US economy, having stood as the largest in the world for more than a century, slipped into second place behind China, which has more than tripled the US growth rate for each year of the past four decades.

In the USA, private individuals and business firms make most of the decisions, and the federal and state governments buy needed goods and services predominantly in the private marketplace. US business firms enjoy great flexibility in decisions to expand capital plant, to lay off surplus workers, and to develop new products. Long-term problems for the US include stagnation of wages for lower-income families, inadequate investment in deteriorating infrastructure, rapidly rising medical and pension costs of an aging population, energy shortages, and sizable current account and budget deficits.

The onrush of technology has been a driving factor in the gradual development of a “two-tier” labour market in which those at the bottom lack the education and the professional/

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