Контрольная работа № 2

I. Read the text.

Immigrants to the usa.

Over ninety-nine per cent of all American citizens are immigrants or descendants of immigrants. The only 'true' native Americans are the American Indians. They inhabited the country many thousands of years ago, long before Christopher Columbus arrived in America. Five hundred years ago there were over one million American Indians, but today only 800,000 remain, in an overall population of 239 million. Nearly 40 % of American Indians live on 200 reservations the largest of which is Navajo.

In many ways the history of the United States is the history of immigration. From 1820 to 1990 almost fifty million people arrived in the 'promised' land. They wanted a second chance in life.

Why did they choose America? As the old Italian proverb says: 'Chi sta bene non si muove': 'He who is doing well doesn't move'. Almost everyone who went to America wanted to escape from something. The Irish came when the potato crops failed; the Italians came when there was no farm land left; the Jews came to escape religious persecution; the Germans, Austnans, Poles, Russians and Mexicans came to escape from the effects of war and revolution. The highest number of immigrants in the past came from Germany and Italy. The Blacks Africans were driven as slaves and forced to work on plantations.

Life was not easy for the new immigrants but they worked hard because they wanted to make a success of their new life. The talent and hard work of millions of these immigrants built American farms, industries and cities, enriched American communities by bringing aspects of their native cultures with them. Americans today are proud of their immigrant ancestors.

The United States passed many laws to limit immigration before 1880. America welcomed immigration before World War II, but after the war, new laws made it harder for refugees to come to the United States. Nowadays the United States continues to accept more immigrants than any other country; in 1998, its population included nearly 25 million foreign-born persons. The revised immigration law of 1990 created a flexible cap of 675.000 immigrants each year. That law attempts to attract more skilled workers, professionals to the country. They come from China, India, Pakistan, Egypt, Bangladesh, but the largest number come from Latin America.

The US Immigration and Naturalization Service estimates that some 5 million people are living in the USA without permission and the number is growing by about 275.000 a year. Many native-born believe that so-called ‘illegal aliens’ take jobs from citizens and can place a heavy burden on tax-supported social services.

President John F. Kennedy, himself the grandson of Irish immigrants, summed up this blend of the old and the new when he called America “a society of immigrants, each of whom had begun life anew, on an equal footing. This is the secret of America: a nation of people with the fresh memory of old traditions who dare to explore new frontiers..."

II. Answer the questions on the text in written form.

1. The US population combines people of different races and nationalities. What are they?

2. Where did the native Americans have to live in?

3. What were the reasons for the immigration to the USA?

4. What did people want to find there?

5. What ethnic minority is the largest in the USA today?

6. What is the attitude of the native-born American citizens towards illegal immigrants?

7. Are there any laws in the USA supporting the new-comers?

8. What are positive and negative aspects of the immigration?

9. How do you understand the old Italian proverb “He who is doing well doesn’t move”?

10. What famous Americans the former immigrants do you know?