The American People

The United States has the third-largest population in the world (after China and India). In 1990, population of the United States passed the 250,000,000 mark.

The most distinctive characteristic of the United States is its people. As nineteenth-century poet Walt Whitman said, The United States “is not merely a nation but a nation of nations”. People from around the world have come to the United States and influenced its history and culture.

The Situation Today

The United States is a large country and is rich in natural resources. It is a leading producer of fuel – of oil, natural gas, and coal. It is also a leading producer of many other minerals, including copper, gold, aluminium, iron, and lead. The United States grows wheat, corn, and other crops and raises many cows, pigs, and chickens.

However, the USA is also a major consumer of resources. This means, for example, that the United States must import much of the fuel it uses.

Not surprisingly, international trade is important to the United States. Major exports include machinery, high-technology equipment, chemicals, cars, aircrafs, and grains. Major imports include machinery and telecommunications equipment, oil, cars, metals, and chemicals.

Today, the United States faces some major economic challenges. One important challenge is increasing its productivity, or the efficiency of the labour force, in order to increase the rate of economic growth. Another challenge, as the country shifts from manufacturing to services, is to train people to fill new kinds of jobs.

The Family

The American family has changed greatly in the last 20 or 30 years. Many of these changes are similar to changes taking place in other countries.

Marriage and Children

Young people are waiting longer before getting married. Women are also waiting longer to have children. It’s not unusual today for a woman to have her first child in her midthirties. And families are having fewer children. Today most families have one or two children.

Dual-Earning Families

In the traditional family, the wife stayed home with the children while the husband earned money. Now 60 percent of all married women work outside the home. So a majority of couples have two wage-earners. One reason for this change is that women want and expect to have careers. Another reason is economics. With rising prices, many families cannot survive on one person’s salary.

Future of the Family

Is the American family in trouble? People point to the divorce rate, to the fact that working mothers might have less time with their children, and to the “generation gap”, or the problems that parents and children sometimes have understanding each other. Experts say, however, that the family is as strong as ever. Family is still at the center of most people’s lives.

Exercises

1. Make up sentences

1. challenges, the USA, major, faces, today, some, economic.

2. people, most, of, distinctive, the US, is, characteristic, the, its.

3. capitalist, the USA, is, powerful, advanced, the, most, country, in, world, the, most, and.

2. American president Benjamin Franklin was known for his humour and common sense. Here are some sayings that he made up. Discuss them in pairs. Find corresponding variants in the Russian language.

1. Remember that time is money.

2. Little strokes fell great oaks.

3. God helps them to help themselves.

4. Experience keeps a dear school but fools will learn in no other.

3. What does the 4^th of July celebrate?

1. Thanksgiving Day

2. Christmas

3. Independence Day

4. Birthday of the Statue of Liberty

4. How many words can you make from the word “Washington” In five minutes’ time? When the time is up the person who has made up most words wins.

5. What book have you read and what film have you seen about the history of the Civil War in America?