Introductory Text 4.
Ex. 1 Memorize the following words and word combinations. Give their Russian equivalents.
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Ex. 2. Give English equivalents for the following words and phrases using your active vocabulary from Exercise 1:
Ex. 3. Read and translate the text using a dictionary.
The English Settlers
Emigration from Europe to North America began in the early 17th century. The first immigrants crossed the Atlantic long after Spanish colonies had already been established in Mexico, West Indies, and South America. Like all early travellers to the New World they came in small
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overcrowded ships. Many of them died of diseases, and their ships were often battered by storm and lost at sea.
People had serious motives for crossing the Atlantic. Some left the mother country for religious or political reasons. But most English settlers risked their lives in the hope that they would find prosperity across the ocean. In Europe land was scarce and labour plentiful. And in America every white settler expected to own land.
In December 1606 a London Company sent a group of settlers on board three ships to colonize the North American territory named Virginia. They reached the New World in May 1607 and founded Jamestown, the first permanent colony on the American Continent.
It is quite likely that the settlement would not have survived, if the local Indians had not given the colonists food in the first hard winter. They taught them the ways of the forest and introduced them to such a valuable new crop as maize. The settlers accepted the Indian help and...took whatever they wanted by force. But the Indians did not submit meekly to such treatment. They proved to be brave and skilled fighters once they realized that their very existence was at stake.
By 1624 Virginia began to prosper because of its profitable exports to Europe. Meanwhile, far to the North, in Massachusetts, another English colony, Plymouth, was established by the Pilgrims who arrived on the "Mayflower" in 1620. The Pilgrims also received friendly help from the Indians. Incidentally, after a rich harvest they celebrated their first Thanksgiving Day in November of 1621, thus establishing a new tradition. Soon other colonies were organized in New England. The settlers began coming to the new continent.
Many influential Englishmen were eager to try their luck as colonizers. They received grants from the king which made them owners of great estates that became their property. But most immigrants were from lower levels of society. They found work as laborers, especially in Virginia, Maryland and Pennsylvania.
With the restoration of Charles II in 1660 came a new wave of settlement, for the British crown wanted to expand and strengthen its hold on North America. The first American colonies were settled chiefly by Englishmen, but soon they were joined by Germans, Irish, Dutch, French and others. Naturally all these people brought with them a great variety of cultural backgrounds. Although most settlers didn't completely lose their European heritage, they eventually became quite different from their brothers who remained in the Old World.
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This was mainly because people were transformed by their new physical surroundings. America was separated from Europe by 3,000 miles of ocean. Besides, the ocean was practically closed for navigation during the winter months and dangerous enough in any season. The emptiness and the wilderness of the continent also changed the colonists.
Two basic patterns of life sprang up in British America, geographically divided. Agriculture was the bulwark of southern life. The southerners' first cash crop was tobacco. Yet tobacco cultivation required a great deal of labour and thus planters turned to Negro slaves. Throughout the entire 18th century a constant stream of slaves arrived from Africa, accelerating the trend towards large-scale plantations. In this way the economy of the South was tied to slavery from the beginning.
The northern colonies raised cereal crops that did not have a ready market in Europe. Thus, while the northern colonies could feed themselves without difficulty, they could not turn their surpluses into the European-manufactured goods they wanted. Families had to make all kinds of objects themselves. So under such conditions each family began to specialize, producing goods that they could sell and exchange.
The solution was to build merchant fleet and to look for markets in far corners of the world. So trade became the key to prosperity in northern colonies.
Foreign trade stimulated the growth of cities. By 1750 Boston, Philadelphia and New York were large enough and soon became the intellectual centers of colonial America. However, all the colonies at that time were mostly rural. Each colony had a governor appointed by the English king or by proprietors in Maryland, Pennsylvania and Delaware. These governors executed the local laws but for the most part were financially dependent.
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Ex.4. Answer the following questions.
1) When did emigration from Europe to America begin and what hardships did the first immigrants face when they came to the New World?
2) What made them cross the Atlantic?
3) When was the territory called Virginia colonized?
4) How did the Indians treat the newcomers?
5) Were the American colonies settled only by the English?
6) Who were the Pilgrims?
7) What social groups did the new settlers represent - what was their social background?
8) How did it happen that Americans eventually began to differ from the Europeans though they never completely lost their heritage?
9) Why did the southern states turn to Negro slavery?
10) What role did foreign trade play in the American colonies?
11) Where did industry develop more rapidly: in the South or in the North? Why?
Ex. 5. Speech practice
1) The emigration from Europe to North America began in the early 17th century, a) Describe the hardships the first immigrants had to overcome when crossing the Atlantic; b) list the motives that made them leave their homeland; c) show Virginia and Jamestown on the map; d) describe the colonization of Virginia and mention the factors that contributed to its economic prosperity.
2) The early settlers would hardly have survived the first hard winter but for the Indians, a) Briefly describe how the Indians helped the new settlers.
3) Meanwhile other colonies were established. A) Tell about Pilgrims and the "Mayflower"; b) show Massachusetts and Plymouth on the map.
4) The early colonists belonged to different sections of society. A) Show Maryland and Virginia on the map; b) state the social and ethnic background of the people who came to America.
5) Describe two economic patterns that developed in American colonies.