The United States of America Today: General Outlook

A. Pre-Reading Activities

Task I. The vocabulary below is essential for understanding the gist of the text:

access (n) – доступ

affairs (n) – дела, вопросы

affluence (n) – достаток, богатство

amendment (n) – поправка

annual (adj) – ежегодный, годовой

appoint (v) – назначать

apportion (v) – распределять, делить

checksandbalances – «сдержки и противовесы»

chiefexecutive – глава исполнительной власти

civilcase – гражданское дело

Commander-in-Chief – Главнокомандующий вооруженными силами

contiguous (adj) – соприкасающийся, смежный, граничащий

convention (n) – собрание, съезд

criminalcase – уголовное дело

declare (v) – заявлять, объявлять, провозглашать

Department of Defense – министерствообороны

Department of Justice – министерствоюстиции

DepartmentofState – государственный департамент, министерство иностранных дел

descendant (n) – потомок

designate (v) – объявлять, называть

detach (v) – отделять

dual (adj) – двойной, состоящий из двух частей

earthquake (n) – землетрясение

election (n) – выборы, избирательная кампания

elective (adj) – выборный, избирательный

enormous (adj) – огромный

executive (adj) – исполнительный, принадлежащий к структурам исполнительной власти

executivebudget – финансовая смета, предлагаемая президентом конгрессу

exercise (v) – осуществлять

external (adj) – иностранный, внешний (о политике, торговле)

gulf (n) – залив

hazard (n) – риск, опасность

heritage (n) – наследие

House of Representatives – Палатапредставителей

imposetaxes – вводить налоги

inherit (v) – наследовать

internal (adj) – внутренний

judicial (adj) – судебный

jurisdiction (n) – власть, полномочия

laborious (adj) – трудоемкий

lack (n) – недостаток, отсутствие

legislative (adj) – законодательный

meltingpot – плавильный котел

mudslide (n) – обвал, оползень

negotiation (n) – переговоры; обсуждение условий

obligation (n) – обязанность, долг

observeaholiday – праздновать, отмечать

outsiders (n) – непосвященные лица

percapita – на душу населения, на человека

populous (adj) – многолюдный, густонаселенный

pre-eminence (n) – преимущество, превосходство

prescribe (v) – предписывать; устанавливать

privateenterprise – частное предпринимательство

proclaim (v) – провозглашать, объявлять

propose (v) – предлагать, вносить предложение

publicholiday – официальный нерабочий день

putemphasis – придавать особое значение, уделять большое внимание, делать акцент

regardlessof – независимо от

retire (v) – уходить в отставку, на пенсию

rugged(adj) – пересеченный, труднопроходимый

SecretaryofState – государственный секретарь, министр иностранных дел

staggered (adj) – смещенный

subject (v) – подчинять

succeed (v) – сменять, быть преемником

taxpayer (n) – налогоплательщик

tongue (n) – язык

treaty (n) – договор, соглашение, конвенция

unevenly (adv) – неровно

urban (adj) городской

vast (adj) – обширный

vetoabill – налагать вето на законопроект

via (adv) – посредством, с помощью

voluntarily (adv) – добровольно, по собственному желанию

welfare (n) – благосостояние

wellover – значительно больше

 

B. Reading and Comprehension Activities

Task II. Read the text and check your understanding by doing the tasks that follow:

The United States of America is located in the middle of the North American continent. It covers 9,666,861 square kilometres and is the fourth largest country in area (after Russia, Canada, and China). The 48 states stretch from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific in the west. The US shares borders with only two countries: Canada in the north and Mexico in the south. It also has a sea-border with Russia. The two newest states, Alaska and Hawaii, are detached from the continental United States: Alaska borders on north-western Canada, and Hawaii lies in the central Pacific. The geographical position of the USA is extremely favourable for its development. It makes the USA a sea power, provides easy access to the country and stimulates foreign trade.

The enormous size of the country influences the diversity of landscape, climate and people. The USA is the third largest country in the world in population (after China and India). About 280 million people live there. They are the people of all races and nationalities, either descendants of immigrants or immigrants that have come to the United States from all the countries of the world in search of independence and self-realization. Whites constitute the majority of the whole population, Afro-Americans make up over 12%, Hispanics about 9% and Native Americans about 1%. The urban population of the country is continuously growing, now it is well over 70%.

America is the land of physical contrasts and can be divided into large regions, each with unique topography, geology and resources. There is a vast central plain, mountains in the west, and hills in the east; rugged mountains and broad river valleys in Alaska; rugged, volcanic topography in Hawaii. The highest mountains are the Rocky Mountains, the Cordilleras and the Sierra Nevada. The high­est peak is MountMcKinley(6193 m), which is located in Alaska. America’s longest rivers are the Mississippi, the Mis­souri, the Rio Grande and the Columbia. The Great Lakes on the border with Canada are the largest and deepest in the USA. The most important cities are New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Philadelphia, Detroit, San Francisco and others. A great proportion of the country consists of open land marked with farm houses and small towns.

The climate of the country varies greatly from arctic in Alaska, through continental in the central part to subtropical in the south. The climate along the Pacific coast is much warmer than that of the Atlantic coast. Hot winds blowing from the Gulf of Mexico often bring typhoons. Among other natural hazards are tsunamis, volcanoes, and earthquake activity around PacificBasin; hurricanes along the Atlantic coast; tornadoes in the Midwest; mudslides in California and forest fires in the west.

In fact, the USA is the world’s wealthiest nation. For almost all of the 20^th century the country has enjoyed economic pre-eminence throughout the world, particularly during the post-World War II era. Still, within the USA wealth and general welfare are unevenly distributed per capita of its population, with areas of affluence often contiguous with areas of poverty.

The USA is a federal republic that is made up of 50 states and the District of Columbia, a special area where the capital of the country, Washington,D.C., is situated. The capital was founded in 1790 and was named after the first President George Washington. The name of the capital always goes with the abbreviation D.C. (District of Columbia) not to be mixed with another Washington, one of the states. Washington, D.C.is the residence of the President and the Congress of the USA.

The basic law of the United States is the Constitution, adopted in 1787, which prescribes the structure of the national government and lists its rights and fields of authority. A federation is a country that is comprised of more than one self-governing regions united by a central, or ‘federal,’ government. Besides the Federal Government each state has its own government. Thus, the Government in America has the dual character of both Federal and State Government.

The basic principle of the American Government is the separation of the three branches: legislative, executive and judicial. Each branch holds a certain degree of power over the others, and all take part in the governmental process creating a system of checks and balances.

Legislative authority is exercised by the Congress of the United States which has two elective houses: the Senate and the House of Representatives. The Senate has 100 senators, two for each state regardless of population, serving six-year terms. Senators’ terms are staggered, so that one third of the Senate stands for election every two years. Members of the House of Representatives are elected for two-year terms. The House has 435 members, apportioned among the states on the basis of population. The most populous states are allowed more representatives than the smaller ones, some of which have only one. The main task of the Congress is to make laws. The US Constitution also gives the Congress the power to control the nation’s currency, to impose taxes, to distribute funding to every government organization, to make rules for trade with other countries and between states, to put foreign treaties into effect, to organize the Armed Forces, to declare war, etc. Another power possessed by the Congress is the right to propose amendments to the Constitution whenever two thirds of both Houses consider it necessary.

The chief executive of the United States is the President who together with the Vice-President is elected for a four-year term. As a result of a constitutional amendment that went into effect in 1951, a President may be elected to only two terms. The President is the head of the state and the Government; he is also the Commander-in-Chief of the US Armed Forces and has a wide range of responsibilities, from external affairs, such as negotiation of treaties, to internal affairs, such as preparation of an annual executive budget and economic report. The President may also veto any bill passed by the Congress.

The President is assisted by the Vice-President and the Cabinet. Other than succeeding a President who is unable to finish his term, the Vice-President’s only official duty is to preside over the Senate. The Vice-President rather tends to be the forgotten man of American politics, because of his lack of power. The US President is also assisted by the Cabinet of 12 members. The Cabinet secretaries are heads of different departments (the Department of State, the Department of Defense or the Pentagon, the Department of Justice, the Department of Commerce, etc.) and are responsible to the President who appoints them for an indefinite time. The Department of State is responsible for American foreign policy and ranks ahead of other Departments in prestige and seniority. The Secretary of State, whose political power is second only to that of the President, has the duty of trying to maintain peace and negotiate economic and political treaties.

The judicial power is the third branch of the US Federal Government. It consists of a system of federal courts and is headed by the Supreme Court of the United States. The Supreme Court meets in Washington, D.C., and the other federal courts are located in cities throughout the United States. Federal judges are appointed for life or until they retire voluntarily; they can be removed from office only via a laborious process of impeachment and trial in the Congress. In addition to federal courts, each state has its own judicial system. This means that the United States has two distinct systems of law, state and federal. By the Constitution the courts have the power to hear and decide criminal and civil cases and to declare legislative acts unconstitutional.

In the United States there exist two major political parties: the Democratic and the Republican. The present-day Democratic Party was founded in 1828, repre­senting Southern slave owners and part of Northern bourgeoisie. The Republican Party, established in 1854, united those who opposed the expansion of slavery. The Democratic Party is considered to be more liberal, and the Republican is more conservative. Democrats generally believe that the government has an obligation to provide social and economic programs for those who need them. Republicans are not necessarily opposed to such programs but believe they are too costly to taxpayers. Republicans put more emphasis on encouraging private enterprise in the belief that a strong private sector makes citizens less dependent on the government. Outsiders often complain that they find it diffi­cult to distinguish between the two major political parties of the USA, which appear to support similar policies.

The main task of the parties is to win elections. Every four years the American parties come together as national bodies in the Presidential nominating conventions and make up the party programs. But once a President is chosen, the parties again be­come amorphous bodies. One of the reasons of the stability of the two-party system is family tradition. Each new generation of Americans inherits its politics and party loyalty from their fathers.

There are other, smaller parties in the United States besides the two major ones. None of these smaller parties has enough popular support to win a presidential election. But some of them are very strong in certain cities and states. They can have their own state or city candidates elected, or can deter­mine which major party wins by sup­porting one or the other.

There are some federal holidays in the United States. In addition, each of the 50 states has jurisdiction over its own holidays. In practice, however, most states observe the federal public holidays, even though the President and the Congress can legally designate holidays only for Fed­eral Government employees. Ten holidays per year are proclaimed by the Federal Government. They are as follows: New Year’s Day (January 1), Martin Luther King’s Day (third Monday in January), George Washington’s Birthday (third Monday in February), Memorial Day (last Monday in May), Independence Day (July 4), Labour Day (first Monday in September), Columbus Day (second Monday in October), Veteran’s Day (November 11), Thanksgiving Day (fourth Thursday in November), Christmas (December 25). There are also traditional holidays, observed by a large number of Americans, which are neither legal nor official. Among these are St. Valentine’s Day, St. Patrick’s Day, Mother’s Day, Easter and Halloween (the last day of October).

The United States of America has often been called ‘a melting pot’ where economic and social pressures have forced non-English speaking immigrants to drop their native tongue and habits and to assimilate into the American way of life. Yet, this vast land is one country, whose people speak the same language, share their cultural heritage and are subject to the same laws as provided by the Constitution of the United States.

 

It’s interesting to know …

ü America was originally peopled by Indians and was opened to European colonization by the first voyage of Christopher Columbus in 1492. Columbus died believing that he had found a new way to the Indies and never understood that he had discovered a new continent. However, the new world was given the name of Amerigo Vespucci who made several voyages to the West and gave spirited accounts of his discoveries. As for Columbus, who is generally recognized as the discoverer of America, he is honoured on Columbus Day celebrated on the second Monday of October in commemoration of his voyage.

ü The USA is about half the size of Russia; about three-tenths the size of Africa; slightly larger than Brazil; slightly smaller than China; about two and a half times the size of Western Europe.

ü The USA is one of the few countries in the world that has no ‘official’ national language. English is the common language by use, but it is not the national language by law.

ü The ration of females and males is 51.4 to 48.6%. The average life expectancy for a white man is 71.3 and for an Afro-American man 65.4 years, for a white woman 78.3 and for an Afro-American woman 73.6 years.

ü The American flag is often called the ‘Stars and Stripes’ or ‘Old Glory’. It has 13 red and white stripes which stand for the original 13 colonies. In the top left corner there are 50 white stars on a blue background: one star for each state. There is no official meaning for the colours of the flag, but it is thought that white represents purity and liberty, red proclaims courage and valour and blue symbolizes perseverance, justice and loyalty. The flag was adopted in 1777.

ü The coat of arms of the US represents a bald eagle with wings outspread, holding a bundle of arrows (the symbol of strength) in the left claw and an olive twig (the emblem of peace) in the right claw. The eagle became the national emblem of the country in 1782. The motto of the coat of arms is ‘one out of many’.

ü The national anthem of the United States is ‘The Star-Spangled Banner’.

ü The Statue of Liberty is the symbol of American democracy. It stands on Liberty Island in New York. It is one of the first things people see when they arrive in New York by sea. France presented the statue to America in 1884 as a symbol of friendship. Liberty carries the torch of freedom in her right hand. In her left hand she is holding a tablet with the inscription ‘July 4, 1776’ – American Independence Day.

ü The US Constitution of 1787 embodied the political theories of the Founding Fathers, who represented the interests of a privileged class, as the great majority of those who formulated the Constitution were men of property. “Private property is the backbone of liberty” is the main principle that forms the basis of the Constitution.

ü The presidential election is in fact an election of presidential electors, not of a President directly. Candidates for the Presidency are chosen by political parties several months before the presidential election. Every leap year on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November Americans choose as many electors as this state has Senators and Representatives in the Congress. The candidate with the highest number of votes wins all the electoral votes of the state.On the first Monday after the second Wednesday in December the electors (538 persons) vote for the candidate with the highest number of popular votes in their respective states and elect the President. To be elected President, a candidate for the Presidency must receive 270 votes.

ü It was during the war of 1812 when the nickname of the US Government ‘Uncle Sam’ appeared. ‘Uncle’ Samuel Wilson was an inspector of provisions the American Army and provided large quantities of meat stamping his barrels with the letters ‘U.S.’. The soldiers knew this meat as ‘Uncle Sam’s’ and thought that the abbreviation meant his name. Later on this familiar name became associated with the US Government.

ü The Republican and Demo­cratic parties chose their own names, but not their party emblems. The cartoonist Thomas Nast invented the Republican elephant and the Democratic donkey in the early 1870s and they soon became fixed types.

Task III. Find the derivatives of the following words and fill in the table:

Noun	Verb	Adjective
access
	succeed
population
		economic
stability
		elective
	distinguish
residence
		responsible
	negotiate

Task IV. Look at the puzzle below. Complete it by guessing the words which correspond to the definitions. Find the name of an important person in American history in the centre boxes:

 

1. a rule or a body of rules made by the legislature

2. a person who comes to a country in order to settle there

3. to lay down as a rule or directive

4. the evidence of the past (historical sites, buildings, the unspoiled natural environment) considered collectively as the inheritance of present-day society

5. dealing or concerned with another country, area, people, etc.

6. to continue or retain, to keep in existence

7. the executive policy-making body of a political unit, community, etc.

8. a formal agreement or contract between two or more states, such as an alliance or trade arrangement

9. to put forward (a plan, motion, etc.) for consideration or action

10. involving a nation’s domestic affairs as opposed to foreign ones