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

technical skills of those at the top and, more and more, fail to get comparable pay raises, health insurance coverage, and other benefits. But the globalization of trade, and especially the rise of low-wage producers such as China, has put additional downward pressure on wages and upward pressure on the return to capital. Since 1975, practically all the gains in household income have gone to the top 20% of households. Since 1996, dividends and capital gains have grown faster than wages or any other category of after-tax income.

Imported oil accounts for more than 50% of US consumption and oil has a major impact on the overall health of the economy. Crude oil prices increased 150% in 2000s, the year home prices peaked; higher gasoline prices ate into consumers’ budgets and many individuals fell behind in their mortgage payments. While oil prices were climbing, bank foreclosures more than doubled in the same period. Besides dampening the housing market, soaring oil prices caused a drop in the value of the dollar and a deterioration in the US merchandise trade deficit, which peaked at $840 billion.

Since the USA economy is energy-intensive, in 2010s falling oil prices have alleviated many of the problems the earlier increases had created. The mortgage crisis, falling home prices, investment bank failures, tight credit, and the global economic downturn pushed the USA into a recession. Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan required major shifts in national resources from civilian to military purposes and contributed to the growth of the budget deficit and public debt. The direct costs of the wars have totalled about $2 trillion a year, according to US Government figures.

Today the USA is a leading industrial power in the world, highly diversified and technologically advanced. Its main agricultural products are wheat, corn, other grains, fruits, vegetables, cotton; beef, pork, poultry, dairy products; fish; forest products. The dominating industries are steel and chemicals, motor vehicles and aerospace technologies, telecommunications and electronics, food processing and consumer goods, lumber and mining.

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Task 3.7. Prepare a description of the USA national symbols: the flag, the Great Seal, the national anthem, etc. Explain their historical meaning.

Task 3.8. Prepare a presentation on American mass culture: a popular writer / singer / artist / public figure / celebrity.

Task 3.9. Find any popular stereotypes about the USA and Americans. Discuss the stereotypes in your group. Are the stereotypes true or false? Can they help understand American culture?

4. CANADA

Task 4.1. Read Text 4.1, find out the meaning of the new words, retell.

Text 4.1. A General Overview and the Government of Canada

A land of vast distances and rich natural resources, Canada became a self-governing British dominion in 1867, while retaining ties to the British crown. Former British colony, Canada gained legislative independence from Britain in 1931 and formalised its constitutional independence from the UK when it passed the Canada Act in 1982. Economically and technologically, the nation has developed in parallel with the US, its neighbour to the south. Canada faces the political challenges of meeting public demands for quality improvements in health care, education, social services, and economic competitiveness, as well as responding to the particular concerns of predominantly francophone Quebec.

Government type of Canada is a parliamentary democracy, a federation, and a Commonwealth realm. This means that the country is a constitutional monarchy with the capital in Ottawa. The titular or formal head of the country is the reigning monarch of the United Kingdom, locally called the king of Canada. The monarch is represented on the territory of Canada by

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a governor-general, now always a Canadian appointed by the Canadian prime minister. The system of government is called “King-in-Parliament”, organised according to the British parliamentary model.

The prime minister is the leader of the majority party in the House of Commons and the head of the executive Cabinet. Canadian Parliament is bicameral, the lower but dominant chamber is the House of Commons, the upper chamber is the Senate, which rarely opposes the decisions of the House of Commons.

In practice Canada is an independent federal state established in 1867 by the British North America Act, which created a self-governing British dominion. The Union of British North American colonies was recognized by the UK in 1931. The national Canada Day is the 1 July (since 1867).

Administratively the country is divided into 10 provinces and 3 territories: Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba, New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia, Ontario, Prince Edward Island, Quebec, Saskatchewan, Yukon Territory, Northwest Territories, Nunavut Territory.

Task 4.2. Study the Canadian History Timeline Guide and find out about the key events of Canadian history in more detail, using britannica.com.

Canadian History Timeline Guide

60,000–12,000 BC, Ice Age: first settlers from the eastern hemisphere arrive by the now-submerged land bridge from Siberia to Alaska. Native American population.

Precontact period: 12 major language groups among the peoples living in what is now Canada: Algonquian, Iroquoian, Siouan, Athabascan, Kootenaian, Salishan, Wakashan, Tsimshian, Haidan, Tlinglit, Inuktitut, and Beothukan. Within each language group there were usually political and cultural divisions. Considerable variation in cultures, tribal customs and philosophies of intertribal relations.

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9–10th cc.: European contact and early exploration. Seaborne Norse invaders pushed out of the Scandinavian Peninsula to Britain, Ireland, and northern Europe. Several Norse craft reached Iceland. Near the end of the 10th century the Norse reached Greenland and ventured to the coast of North America. On the northern tip of Newfoundland there are the remains of what are believed to be three Norse settlements.

1497: The Italian navigator Giovanni Caboto, known in English as John Cabot, sailed from Bristol under a commission from the English king to search for a short route to Asia (what became known as the Northwest Passage). In that voyage and in a voyage the following year, during which Cabot died, he and his sons explored the coasts of Labrador, Newfoundland, and possibly Nova Scotia.

1534: Frenchman Jacques Cartier was the first European to navigate the great entrance to Canada, the Saint Lawrence River and claimed its shores for the French crown.

1604–1627: The French navigator Samuel de Champlain, led groups of settlers to start colonies in various parts of St. Lawrence basin, including Ottawa river.

1620s–1660s: The Company of New France: Cardinal de Richelieu sought to make French colonial policy comparable to that of England and the Netherlands and enforce trading rights by means of joint-stock companies. The Company of New France was created, commonly called the “Hundred Associates”.

1660–1730s: The Anglo-French rivalry in exploiting the resources and settling the lands of New France and New England. Fur trade with Europe. New France steady growth: iron forges, cannons and ship-building flourished. The colony remained dependent on the fur trade, which relied on keeping the west open.

1740: The War of the Austrian Succession. Fighting broke out again in Acadia, on Lake Champlain, and among the English and French First Nations allies in the Great Lakes region and the Ohio River valley, followed by a series of raids and reprisals of settlements.

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1749: Pierre-Joseph C loron de Blainville led an expedition down the Ohio river to claim the valley for France.

1754–1763: The Anglo-French war / the French and Indian War / Seven Years’ War (1756–1763). The British victory results: 1) Britain got a colony populated by persons of French descent and Catholic religion; 2) the British took over the Canadian fur trade; 3) the danger from New France to the American colonies was ended, thus weakening their dependence on Britain, which made possible the American War for Independence.

End of 18th c.: Early British rule and the influence of the American revolution: the 1st act of the American Continental Congress in 1775 was to invade Canada. The failure of that invasion ensured that the continent would be divided between the Americans and the British.

19th c.: The influx of loyalists (supporters of the British Crown) increased the population by some 6,000 in the old province of Quebec. The Napoleonic Wars can be traced in Canada to the Anglo-U.S. rivalry in the fur trade, causing political unrest.

1841: The united Province of Canada was established. 1855: The British North American colonies achieved

self-government, and their laws and institutions were remodelled to fit the individual needs of each colony.

1860–1880s: Canada fortified with new protectionist tariffs, incorporated the Canadian Pacific Railway in 1881, the acquisition of the northwest of Canada by the British North America Act. Canada had united its new and old territories but faced a fierce reaction in the French-speaking province of Quebec.

1896–1898: Gold rush on the Klondike River, the land rush to the Prairies widened the country’s agricultural base by the Northwest Territories. Rapid population growth to 1,3 mln in 1911.

20th c.: Vast and extravagant expansion of the railway network in response to the settlement of the west; the development of the mineral and forest wealth and the acquiescent

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politics of prosperity and progress fostered a degree of social activism to alleviate poverty, establish safe and sanitary working conditions, and improve urban life. Canada’s contacts with the world since 1900s were through Great Britain and the United States.

1914–1918: Support of the Western Allies in World War I by ammunition, foodstuffs and raw materials turned out by Canadian factories. Article IX of the Imperial War Cabinet in 1917, which stated that the British Empire was made up of self-governing nations as well as colonies, with India in a special position. Canada won the right to sign separately as a member of the British Empire panel and was given membership in the League of Nations. Thus, Canada became a member of the community of nations.

1930s: The Great Depression. With the economy heavily dependent on natural resource extraction, Canada was hit by the crash of the U.S. stock market in 1929. Unemployment followed the industrial production collapse; prices for farm commodities fell as demand for all consumer goods disappeared.

1939–1945: After Germany’s invasion of Poland, Canada’s Parliament voted to declare war on Germany. Canada’s war effort in World War II far more extensive than that in World War I, more than 1 million Canadians served in the military services; foods, direct cash contributions for the Allies, including the Soviet Union, contributed to the overall war effort.

1945–1990s: Postwar prosperity: veterans reentered civilian life, causing dramatic increase in consumption, much of what Canadians were buying was manufactured in the USA. Much of the new economic development took place in Canada’s northlands. Large-scale immigration stimulated by the government contributed to the country’s prodigious economic growth.

French Canadian nationalists favoured some form of enhanced status for Quebec: special status within confederation, a form of association on the basis of equality with English Canada. During the 1960s the movement was motivated by the belief

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that the economic difficulties of Quebec were caused by English Canadian domination of the confederation and could only be ended by altering or terminating the ties with other provinces and the central government. By the late 20th century, economic conditions had begun to improve, cultural and linguistic differences became the primary motivation for the resurgence of Quebec separatist sentiment in the 1990s.

2000s: The problem of US domination. The historic ties with Great Britain are waning further. European countries regard Canada as an economic dependency of the United States.

Task 4.3. Using the Canadian History Timeline Guide and britannica.com prepare your own brief history chart (see the template in Table 4.1) for Canada. Use the charts from previous topics as a model. Choose the most important events, that influenced the future of the country and the people of the country. Compare your chart and 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.

Task 4.4. Study the materials for Tasks 4.2, 4.3, and answer the case study questions.

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1.What factors formed the basic Anglo-French controversy, which dominated life in the present-day Canadian territories in the 16–18th centuries?

2.Which wars led to the British political dominance on the Canadian territories? Why were the European countries interested in establishing control over the colonised territories in the North American continent?

3.What natural resources formed the basis for the constant and active trade between Canada and its economic partners in Europe?

4.To what extent has the fact that the colonisation of Canadian lands started as a business enterprise, The Company of New France, commonly called the “Hundred Associates”, determined the history of the country?

5.What are the current demands of the Quebec francophone population? What political solutions appeared to be effective to keep the French-speaking province within the Canadian administrative and governmental power?

Task 4.5. Read Text 4.2, find out the meaning of the new words, retell.

Text 4.2. Canadian Economy Overview

Canada resembles the US in its market-oriented economic system, pattern of production, and living standards, with Canadian dollar as the national currency. Since World War II, the growth of the manufacturing, mining, and service sectors has transformed the nation from a largely rural economy into an industrial and urban state. Canada has a large oil and natural gas sector with the majority of crude oil production derived from oil sands in the western provinces. Canada now ranks third in the world in proved oil reserves behind Venezuela and Saudi Arabia and is the world’s 7th-largest oil producer.

Canada and the US created the world’s most comprehensive bilateral trade and investment relationship, with two-way investment stocks of more than $800 billion in the late 2010s. Over three-fourths of Canada’s merchandise exports are des-

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tined for the US each year. Canada is the largest foreign supplier of raw materials and energy to the US, including oil, natural gas, electric power, and uranium imports.

Given its abundant natural resources, highly skilled labour force, and modern capital stock, Canada enjoyed solid economic growth from 1993 through 2007. The global economic crisis of 2007–2008 moved the Canadian economy into sharp recession by late 2008, and Ottawa posted its first fiscal deficit after the years of surplus. Canada’s major banks emerged from the financial crisis of 2008–2009 among the strongest in the world, owing to the financial sector’s tradition of conservative lending practices and strong capitalization. Canada’s economy has posted strong growth since 2017, but the combined impact of slowing global growth and of aggressive monetary tightening by the Bank of Canada will weigh on Canada’s economy in 2020s. However, global demand for and high prices of Canadian traditional commodity exports like wheat, barley, oilseed, tobacco, fruits, vegetables; dairy products; forest products, and fish; as well as industrial products – transportation equipment, chemicals, processed and unprocessed minerals, food products, wood and paper products, petroleum and natural gas – will continue to support exports. The current government priorities are reducing emissions, protecting indigenous rights and providing relief from high inflation.

Task 4.6. Prepare a description of Canadian national symbols: the flag, the coat of arms, the national anthem, etc. Explain their historical meaning.

Task 4.7. Prepare a presentation on Canadian culture: a popular writer / singer / artist / public figure / celebrity.

Task 4.8. Find any popular stereotypes about Canada and the Canadians. Discuss the stereotypes in your group. Are the stereotypes true or false? Can they help understand Canadian culture?

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5. AUSTRALIA

Task 5.1. Read Text 5.1, find out the meaning of the new words, retell.

Text 5.1. A General Overview and the Government of Australia

Australia, or officially, Commonwealth of Australia, with the capital in Canberra, is the smallest continent and 6th largest country in area on Earth, lying between the Pacific and Indian oceans. The country has three major physiographic regions. More than half of its land area is on the Western Australian plateau. A second region, the Interior Lowlands, lies east of the plateau. The Eastern Uplands, which include the Great Dividing Range, are a series of high ridges, plateaus, and basins. The country’s highest point is Mount Kosciuszko in the Australian Alps, and the lowest is Lake Eyre. Major rivers include the Murray-Darling system, the Flinders and Swan rivers, and Cooper Creek. There are many islands and reefs along the coast, including the Great Barrier Reef, and Tasmania. Australia is rich in mineral resources, such as coal, petroleum, and uranium. A vast diamond deposit was found in Western Australia.

Most Australians are descendants of Christian Europeans, but the largest non-white minority is the Australian Aborigine population. Since the 1960s the government has sought to deal more fairly with the Aborigines, and a loosening of immigration restrictions has led to a more diversified population. The Asian portion of the population has grown as a result of relaxed immigration policy. English is the official language of the state.

Formally the state is a constitutional monarchy, de jure its head of state is the British monarch since the country emerged as a part of the British Empire. The monarch is represented by the governor-general. In fact, it is a parliamentary state with two legislative houses of parliament. The head of the government is the prime minister. Britain granted its colonies limited

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