Учебно-методическое пособие по английскому языку для подготовки студентов к интернет-тестированию Уфа 2007
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SECTIONAL CONFLICT
The Jacksonian era of optimism was clouded by the existence in the United States of a social contradiction—increasingly recognized as a social evil—that would eventually tear the nation apart: slavery. The words of the Declaration of Independence—"that all men are created equal"—were meaningless for the 1.5 million black people who were slaves. Thomas Jefferson, himself a slave-owner, recognized that the system was inhumane and wrote an attack on slavery into the Declaration, but Southern delegates to the Continental Congress forced him to remove the passage. The importation of slaves was outlawed in 1808, and many Northern states moved to abolish slavery, but the Southern economy was based on large plantations, which used slave workers to grow cotton, rice, tobacco and sugar. Still, in several Southern states, small populations of free blacks also worked as artisans or traders.
In 1820, Southern and Northern politicians disputed the question of whether
slavery would be legal in the western territories. Congress agreed on a compromise: Slavery was permitted in the new state of Missouri and the Arkansas territory, and it was barred everywhere west and north of Missouri. But the issue would not go away, some organized themselves into abolitionist societies, primarily in the North, Southern whites defended slavery with increasing ardor. The nation was also split over the issue of high tariff, which protected Northern industries but raised prices for Southern consumers.
Meanwhile, thousands of Americans had been settling in Texas, then a part of Mexico. The Texans found Mexican rule under General Santa Ana increasingly oppressive, and in 1835 they rebelled, defeated a Mexican army and set up the Independent Republic of Texas. In 1845, the United States annexed Texas, and Mexico suspended diplomatic relations. President James K. Polk ordered American troops into disputed territory on the Texas border. After a battle between Mexican and American soldiers in May 1846, Congress declared war on Mexico.
An American army landed near Vera Cruz in March 1847 and captured Mexico City in September. In return for $15 million, Mexico was forced to surrender an enormous expanse of territory—most of what is today California, Arizona, Nevada, Utah, New Mexico and Colorado.
In 1846, by settling a long-standing border dispute with British Canada, the United States had acquired clear title to the southern half of the Oregon Country—the present states of Oregon, Washington and Idaho. Thus America became a truly continental power, stretching from the Atlantic to the Pacific.
The acquisition of these new territories revived a troubling question: would newly acquired territories be open to slavery? In 1850, Congress voted another compromise: California was admitted as a free state, and the inhabitants of the Utah and New Mexico territories were allowed to decide the issue for themselves. Congress also passed the Fugitive Slave Act, which helped Southerners to recapture slaves who had escaped to the free states. Some Northern states did not enforce this law, however, and abolitionists continued to assist fleeing blacks. Harriet Beecher Stowe of Massachusetts wrote Uncle Tom's Cabin, a sentimental but powerful anti-slavery novel which converted many readers to the abolitionist cause. The issue of slavery became, in American politics, economics and cultural life, the central point of contention.
In 1854, Senator Stephen Douglas of Illinois persuaded Congress to allow the inhabitants of the Kansas and Nebraska territories to resolve the question of slavery within their own borders—which voided the Missouri Compromise of 1820. In Kansas, the result was a violent feud between pro-slavery and anti-slavery settlers. In 1857, the Supreme Court handed down the Dred Scott decision, which held that blacks had no rights as American citizens and that Congress had no authority to bar slavery in the Western territories.
In 1858, when Senator Douglas ran for reelection, he was challenged by Abraham Lincoln and the Republican party (a new anti-slavery party unrelated to Jefferson's Republican party). In a series of historic debates with Douglas, Lincoln remanded a halt to the spread of slavery. He was willing to tolerate slavery in the Southern states, but at the same time he affirmed that "this government cannot endure permanently half slave and half free."
CIVIL WAR
Lincoln lost the senatorial race, but in 1860 he and Douglas faced each other again—as the Republican and Democratic candidates for president. By now the tension between North and South was extreme. In 1859. John Brown, an abolitionist zealot, had tried to begin a slave rebellion in Virginia by attacking an army munitions depot. Brown was quickly captured, tried and hanged, whereupon many Northerners hailed him as a martyr. Southern whites, however, now believed that the North was preparing to end slavery by bloody warfare. Douglas urged Southern Democrats to remain in the Union, but they nominated their own separate presidential candidate and threatened to secede if the Republicans were victorious.
The majority in every Southern and border state voted against Lincoln, but the North supported him and he won the election. A few weeks later, South Carolina voted to leave the Union. It was soon joined by Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Texas, Virginia, Arkansas, Tennessee and North Carolina. These 11 states proclaimed themselves an independent nation—the Confederate States of America—and the American Civil War began.
Southerners proclaimed that they were fighting not just for slavery; after all, most Confederate soldiers were too poor to own slaves. The South was waging a war for independence—a second American Revolution. The Confederates usually had the advantage of fighting on their home territory, and their morale was excellent. They had superb soldiers, cavalrymen and generals, but they were greatly outnumbered by Union (Northern) forces. The Southern railroad network and industrial base could not support a modern war effort. The Union navy quickly imposed a blockade, which created serious shortages of war materiel and consumer goods in the Confederacy. To fight the war, both sides suspended some civil liberties, printed mountains of paper money and resorted to conscription.
Lincoln's two priorities were to keep the United States one country and to rid the nation of slavery. Indeed, he realized that by making the war a battle against slavery he could win support for the Union at home and abroad. Accordingly, on January 1, 1863, he issued the Emancipation Proclamation, which granted freedom to all slaves in areas still controlled by the Confederacy.
The Southern army (Confederates) won some victories in the early part of the war, but in the summer of 1863 their commander, General Robert E. Lee, marched north into Pennsylvania. He met a Union army at Gettysburg, and the largest battle ever fought on American soil ensued. After three days of desperate fighting, the Confederates were defeated. At the same time, on the Mississippi River, Union General Ulysses S. Grant captured the important city of Vicksburg. Union forces now controlled the entire Mississippi Valley, splitting the Confederacy in two.
In 1864, a Union army under General William T. Sherman marched across Georgia, destroying the countryside. Meanwhile, General Grant relentlessly battled Lee's forces in Virginia. On April 2, 1865, Lee was forced to abandon Richmond, the Confederate capital. A week later he surrendered to Grant at Appomattox Court House, and all other Confederate forces soon surrendered. On April 14, Lincoln was assassinated by the actor John Wilkes Booth.
The Civil War was the most traumatic episode in American history. The war resolved two fundamental questions that have divided the United States since 1776. It put an end to slavery, which was completely abolished by the 13th Amendment to the Constitution in 1865. It also decided, once and for all, that America was not a collection of semi-independent states, but a single indivisible nation.
World War I, Great Depression, and World War II
At the outbreak of World War I in 1914, the United States remained neutral. American sympathies were with the British and French, although many citizens, mostly Irish and German, were opposed to intervention. In 1917, however, they joined the Allies, helping to turn the tide against the Central Powers. Reluctant to be involved in European affairs, the Senate did not ratify the Treaty of Versailles, which established the League of Nations. Instead, the country continued to pursue a policy of unilateralism, verging at times on isolationism. After seven decades, the women's rights movement won passage of a constitutional amendment in 1920 granting women's suffrage. In part due to the service of many in the war, Native Americans won U.S. citizenship in the Indian Citizenship Act of 1924.
During most of the 1920s, the United States enjoyed a period of unbalanced prosperity as farm profits fell while industrial profits grew. A rise in debt and an inflated stock market culminated in the 1929 crash that, combined with the Dust Bowl, triggered the Great Depression. After his election as president in 1932, Franklin Delano Roosevelt responded with the New Deal, a range of policies increasing government intervention in the economy. The nation would not fully recover from the economic depression until the industrial mobilization spurred by its entrance into World War II.
On December 7, 1941, the United States was driven to join the Allies against the Axis Powers after a surprise attack on Pearl Harbor by Japan. World War II had a greater economic cost than any in American history, but it helped to pull the economy out of depression by providing much-needed jobs and bringing many women into the labor market. Allied conferences at Bretton Woods and Yalta outlined a new system of intergovernmental organizations that placed the United States and Soviet Union at the center of world affairs. As victory was achieved in Europe, a 1945 international conference held in San Francisco produced the United Nations Charter, which became active shortly after the war's end. The United States, having developed the first nuclear weapons, used them on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August. Japan surrendered on September 2, ending the war.
Postwar superpower
The United States and Soviet Union jockeyed for power after World War II during a new Cold War, dominating the military affairs of Europe through the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and the Warsaw Pact. The United States promoted liberal democracy and capitalism, while the Soviet Union promoted communism and a centrally planned economy, but both sides supported dictatorships when politically convenient and engaged in proxy wars, including the Greek Civil War and the Korean War. As the Communist Party in the Eastern Bloc suppressed dissent, American anti-communists like Joseph McCarthy attempted and failed to suppress their opposition at home.
Meanwhile, America experienced a period of sustained economic expansion. A growing civil rights movement headed by prominent African Americans such as Martin Luther King Jr. fought racism, leading to the abolition of the Jim Crow laws in the South and passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Following Kennedy's assassination in 1963, his successors expanded a proxy war in Southeast Asia into the unsuccessful Vietnam War. As a result of the Watergate scandal, in 1974 Richard Nixon became the first U.S. president to resign, rather than be impeached on charges including obstruction of justice and abuse of power.
The election of Ronald Reagan as president in 1980 marked a significant rightward shift in American politics. In the late 1980s and 1990s, the Soviet Union's power diminished, leading to its collapse. The leadership role taken by the United States and its allies in the United Nations–sanctioned Gulf War and the Yugoslav wars helped to preserve its position as the world's last remaining superpower and to expand NATO.
The highlights (important dates) of American history
1607 Colonizers establish America's first permanent English settlement at Jamestown, Virginia.
1620 The Mayflower Compact establishes government by majority will in the settlement of Plymouth in Massachusetts.
1636 America's first college, Harvard, is founded at Cambridge, Massachusetts.
1754 The Seven Years' War (also known as the French and Indian War) begins between France and Britain. At the war's end, France cedes Canada, the Great Lakes, and the upper Mississippi Valley to the British.
1775 APRIL 19, the first shots of America's war for independence from Britain are fired at Lexington, Massachusetts.
1776 JULY 4, America's 13 colonies sign the Declaration of Independence.
1783 SEPTEMBER 3, Britain and the United States sign the Treaty of Paris,
recognizing American independence.
1789 APRIL 30, George Washington is inaugurated as the first president of the
United States.
1791 Ten amendments-the Bill of Rights-are added to the U.S. Constitution to
protect the rights of individuals.
1800 The federal capital moves from temporary quarters in Philadelphia to
Washington, D.C.
1803 Purchase of Louisiana Territory from France doubles U.S. land area.
1812-14 The United States and Britain fight the War of 1812. British burn the
Capitol and the White House in August 1814.
1844 Samuel F.B. Morse sends the first telegraph message from Washington,
D.C., to Baltimore, Maryland.
1846 The Mexican War between the United States and Mexico begins. The treaty
that ends the war in 1848 gives the United States a vast stretch of land from Texas
west to the Pacific Ocean and north to Oregon.
1860 Abraham Lincoln is elected the United States' 16th president.
1861 APRIL 12, the first shots are fired in the U.S. Civil War.
1863 JANUARY 1, President Lincoln issues the Emancipation Proclamation, granting freedom to slaves in Confederate-held territory.
1865 APRIL 9, the Civil War ends with the surrender of Confederate General Robert E. Lee to General Ulysses S. Grant, commander of Union forces.
**APRIL 14, President Lincoln is shot while attending the theater in Washington, D.C.; Lincoln dies the next morning.
1867 The territory of Alaska is purchased from Russia.
1876 Alexander Graham Bell invents the telephone.
1879 Thomas A. Edison invents the incandescent lamp.
1898 The Spanish-American War is declared in April and ends in August. The
peace treaty signed with Spain in December guarantees Cuban independence and
cedes the Philippines, Puerto Rico, and Guam to the United States.
1908 Henry Ford introduces an efficient, low-cost car, begins the era of mass
production, and "puts America on wheels."
1914 The Panama Canal, built by the United States across Central America,
opens, permitting ships to travel between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans without
rounding the tip of South America.
1917 APRIL 6, the United States enters World War I, declaring war after German violations of American neutrality.
1927 The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) makes the first coast-to-coast
network radio broadcast.
1929 OCTOBER 29, the stock market crash in the United States begins the Great
Depression, a worldwide business slump that ranks as the worst and longest
period of high unemployment and low business activity in modern times.
1941 DECEMBER 7, Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, brings the United States into World War II.
1945 JUNE 26, the United States and 49 other nations sign the United Nations Charter in San Francisco, California.
**AUGUST 6, the United States drops an atomic bomb on Hiroshima and, three days later, on Nagasaki, Japan.
1949 APRIL 4, the United States, Canada, and 10 Western European nations form the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) to provide mutual military aid if any member is attacked.
1958 The United States sends its first satellite, Explorer I, into orbit.
1961 The Peace Corps is established.
1969 JULY 20, Apollo 11 astronauts Neil Armstrong and Edwin Aldrin land on the moon, an event televised 400,000 kilometers to Earth.
1974 AUGUST 9, in the wake of the Watergate break-in and cover-up, President Nixon resigns from office, the first president to do so, and is succeeded by Vice President Gerald R. Ford.
1976 JULY 20 and SEPTEMBER 3, unmanned Viking 1 and II spacecraft successfully land on Mars.
**JUIY 4, the United States celebrates the restoration of the Statue of Liberty, a gift from the people of France in 1886.
1987 DECEMBER 8, at a summit meeting in Washington, D.C., President Reagan and Soviet General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev sign a treaty eliminating an entire class of intermediate-range and shorter-range nuclear missiles.
1993 DECEMBER 8, President Bill Clinton signs the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), establishing free trade between the United States, Canada, and Mexico.
Vocabulary notes
Settlement - поселение
Abundant - обильный
Persecution - преследование
tax revenues – налоговые поступления в казну
interfere - вмешиваться
refuge - убежище
toleration - терпимость
prosperity - процветание
Disguised - замаскированные
Rebellion – восстание, бунт
Besiege - осаждать
Alliance - союз
Troop - войско
Ban - запрещать
Invade – вторгаться, оккупировать
Slavery - рабство
Abolish - отменять
to declare war – объявлять войну
surrender - сдаваться
acquisition - приобретение
conscription – воинская повинность
Assassinate – покушаться на жизнь
Amendments – поправки (конституционные)
Tribe - племя
Incandescent - раскаленный
Armistice - разоружение
mutual aid - взаимопомощь
Government
Introduction
The United States is a federal union of 50 states, with the District of Columbia as the seat of the federal government. The Constitution outlines the structure of the national government and specifies its powers and activities, and defines the relationship between the national government and individual state governments. Power is shared between the national and state (local) governments. Within each state are counties, townships, cities and villages, each of which has its own elective government.
Article 1 of the Constitution defines the legislative branch and vests power to legislate in the Congress of the United States. The executive powers of the President are defined in Article 2. Article 3 places judicial power in the hands of one Supreme Court and inferior courts as Congress sees necessary to establish.
The Constitution
The American Constitution is the oldest written constitution in force in the world. The authors of the Constitution built in a provision for amending the document when political, social or economic conditions demanded it. Twenty-seven amendments have been passed since ratification. The first 10 amendments to the Constitution, called the Bill of Rights, assure individual rights and freedoms.
The Constitution divides the powers of the government into three branches - the Executive, headed by the President; the Legislative, which includes both houses of Congress (the Senate and the House of Representatives); and the Judicial, which is headed by the Supreme Court. In this system of a "separation of powers" each branch operates independently of the others. The Constitution limits the role of each branch, through a system of checks and balances, to prevent any one branch from gaining undue power.
The Executive Branch
The chief executive of the United States is the president, who together with the vice-president is elected to a four year term. As a result of a 1951 constitutional amendment, a president may be elected to only two terms. The president's powers are formidable but not unlimited. As the chief formulator of national policy, the president proposes legislation to Congress and may veto any bill passed by Congress. The president is commander-in-chief of the armed forces.
The executive branch of the Government is responsible for enforcing the laws of the land. The Vice President, department heads (Cabinet members), and heads of independent agencies assist in this capacity.
The executive branch includes 15 executive departments, the Executive Office of the President and numerous other independent agencies. The day-to-day enforcement and administration of federal law is in the hands of the various executive departments, created by Congress to deal with specific areas of national and international affairs. The heads of the departments, chosen by the President and approved by the Senate, form a council of advisers known as the President's Cabinet.
The Legislative Branch
The legislative branch - the Congress - is made up of elected representatives from each of the 50 states. The Constitution sets up a bi-cameral body known as the U.S. Congress to raise and to spend national revenue and to draft laws. It is the only branch of U.S. government that can make federal laws, declare war and put foreign treaties into effect.
Members of the House of Representatives are elected to two year terms. Each member represents a district in his or her home state. The number of districts is determined by the census, which is conducted every 10 years. Senators are elected to six year terms, staggered so that one third of the Senate stands for election every two years. The Constitution provides that the vice-president shall be president of the Senate. He or she has no vote, except in the case of a tie.
The Senate chooses a president pro tempore to preside when the vice-president is absent. The House of Representatives chooses its own presiding officer -- the speaker of the House. The speaker (Nancy Pelosi, D-CA) and the president pro tempore (Senator Robert C. Byrd, D -WV) are members of the political party with the largest representation in each house.
To become a law, a bill must pass both the House and the Senate. After the bill is introduced in either body, it is studied by one or more committees, amended, voted out of committee, and discussed in the chamber of the House or Senate. If passed by one body, it goes to the other for consideration. Once both bodies have passed the the same version of a bill, it goes to the president for approval.
The Judicial Branch
The judicial branch is headed by the U.S. Supreme Court, which is the only court specifically created by the Constitution. In addition, Congress has established 13 federal courts of appeals and 95 federal district courts. The president has the authority to appoint federal judges as vacancies occur, including justices of the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court meets in Washington, D.C., and the other federal courts are located in cities throughout the United States.
The federal courts hear cases arising out of the Constitution, federal laws and treaties and maritime cases; cases involving foreign citizens or governments; and cases, in which the federal government is itself a party. With minor exceptions, cases come to the Supreme Court on appeal from lower courts. Most of these cases involve disputes over the interpretation and constitutionality of actions taken by the executive branch and of laws passed by Congress or the states.
State Government
Like the national government, state governments have three branches: executive, legislative, and judicial; these are roughly equivalent in function and scope to their national counterparts. The chief executive of a state is the governor, elected by popular vote, typically for a four-year term (although in a few states the term is two years). Except for Nebraska, which has a single legislative body, all states have a bicameral legislature, with the upper house usually called the Senate and the lower house called the House of Representatives, the House of Delegates, or the General Assembly. In general, matters which lie entirely within state borders are the concern of state governments. These include internal communications; regulations relating to property, industry, business and public utilities; the state criminal code; and working conditions within the state. Within this context, the federal government requires that state governments not adopt laws which contradict or violate the Constitution or laws and treaties of the United States. Any developing programs are now often developed on a cooperative basis between the two levels of government.
Local Government
Types of city governments vary widely across the nation. However, almost all have some kind of central council, elected by the voters, and an executive officer, assisted by various department heads, to manage the city's affairs. The city directly serves the needs of the people, providing everything from police and fire protection to sanitary codes, health regulations, education, public transportation and housing. Cooperation with both state and federal organizations is essential. The county is a subdivision of the state, usually -- but not always -- containing two or more townships and several villages.
Political Parties
Today, there are two major political parties in the United States, the Democratic and the Republican.
The Democratic Party evolved from the party of Thomas Jefferson, formed before 1800. The Republican Party was established in the 1850s by Abraham Lincoln and others who opposed the expansion of slavery.
The Democratic Party is considered to be the more liberal party, and the Republican, the more conservative. Democrats generally believe that 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 government. Both major parties have supporters among a wide variety of Americans and embrace a wide range of political views.
Vocabulary notes
legislative branch – законодательная власть
executive powers – исполнительная власть
judicial power – судебная власть
ratification - утверждение
undue - несвоевременный
veto - запрет
elect - избирать
amend - дополнять
criminal code – уголовный кодекс
council - совет
obligation - обязательство
Languages
The United States does not have an official language; nevertheless, English (specifically, American English) is the language used for legislation, regulations, executive orders, treaties, federal court rulings, and all other official pronouncements. Additionally, one must demonstrate an ability to read, write, and speak English to become a naturalized citizen. Many individual states and territories have adopted English as their official language.
Although the United States currently has no official language, English has long been the de facto national language, which is spoken by about 82% of the population as a native language. 96% of the population speaks English "well" or "very well".
Spanish is taught in various regions as a second language, especially in areas with large Hispanic populations such as the Southwestern United States along the border with Mexico, as well as Florida, the District of Columbia, Illinois, New Jersey, and New York. In Hispanic communities across the country, bilingual signs in both Spanish and English may be quite common. Furthermore, numerous neighborhoods exist (such as Washington Heights in New York City or Little Havana in Miami) in which entire city blocks will have only Spanish language signs and speaking people.
In addition to Spanish-speaking Hispanic populations, younger generations of non-Hispanics in the United States seem to be learning Spanish in larger numbers due to the growing Hispanic population and increasing popularity of Latin American movies and music performed in the Spanish language. Over 30 million Americans, roughly 12% of the population, speak Spanish as a first or second language, making Spanish easily the country's second-most spoken language.
Chinese, is the third most-spoken language spoken in the United States, almost completely spoken within Chinese American populations and by immigrants or the descendants of immigrants, especially in California. Over 2 million Americans speak some variety of Chinese.
French, the fourth most-common language, is spoken mainly by the native French, Haitian or French-Canadian populations. It is widely spoken in Maine, New Hampshire and in Louisiana, a former colony of France, where it is still used with English as the state's de facto official language.
People of German ancestry make up the largest single ethnic group in the United States and the German language ranks fifth.
Italian, Polish, and Greek are still widely spoken among populations descending from immigrants from those countries in the early 20th century, but the use of these languages is dwindling as older generations die out. Starting in the 1970s and continuing until the mid 1990s, many people from the Soviet Union and later its constituent republics such as Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, and Uzbekistan have immigrated to the United States, causing Russian to become one of the minority languages in the United States.
Tagalog and Vietnamese have over one million speakers in the United States, almost entirely within recent immigrant populations.
There are also a small population of Native Americans who still speak their native languages, but these populations are dropping and the languages are almost never widely used outside of reservations. Hawaiian, although having few native speakers, is still used at the state level in Hawaii along with English. Several states and territories are officially or de facto bi- or trilingual:
- Hawaii (English and Hawaiian)
- Louisiana (English and French legally recognized, although there is no official language)
- New Mexico (English and Spanish de facto)
- American Samoa (Samoan and English)
- Guam (Chamorro and English)
- Northern Mariana Islands (English, Chamorro, and Carolinian)
- Puerto Rico (Spanish and English)
Vocabulary notes
Generation - поколение
Descendants - потомки
Variety - разнообразие
Ancestry - предки
Dwindle - убывать
Minority - меньшинство
Bilingual - двуязычный
Constituent - компонент
Neighborhood - соседи
Community - сообщество
Nevertheless – тем не менее
Legislation - законодательство
Regulation - контроль
Adopt – принимать (закон)
Former - бывший
de facto – на деле, фактически
RELIGION
Introduction
The United States government keeps no official register of Americans' religious status. In a private survey conducted in 2001, 76.7 percent of American adults identified themselves as Christian. Various Protestant denominations accounted for 52 percent, while Roman Catholics, at 24.5 percent, were the largest individual denomination. Other faiths in America include Judaism (1.4 percent), Islam (0.5 percent), Buddhism (0.5 percent), Hinduism (0.4 percent), and Unitarian Universalism (0.3 percent). Fourteen percent described themselves as agnostic, atheist, or as simply having no religion.
Roots of Religions
Europeans coming to the New World brought their own religions with them. Indeed, it was for the freedom to practice these beliefs that many people came to the New World. These communities flourished, and the resulting religious variety helped give rise to a highly unique and important contribution to world religions—the most fundamental commitment to religious pluralism and freedom.
Religious differences still existed, however, and they were often reflected by region. As different as these groups were, though, they all derived from a Judeo-Christian cultural and historical background.
American territorial gains in the nineteenth century added Spanish and French lands and peoples. Between the Napoleonic wars and World War I, waves of immigration brought English, Scots and Irish, Italians and Greeks, Germans and Poles, Swedes and Russians. Immigration to the U.S. changed the mix of religious groups, but America's overall heritage remained primarily European, and primarily Judeo-Christian.
New groups of immigrants from Asia and Latin America brought their cultural and religious values to the U.S., significantly fueling the growth of Islam and having an important impact on American Catholicism.
Present Day Religious Affiliation
After more than 200 years as a nation, religion in America is a complex picture, here are some basic facts and numbers:
- 163 million Americans (sixty-three percent) identify themselves as affiliated with a specific religious denomination.
- Roman Catholics are the single largest denomination with some sixty million adherents.
- Members of American Protestant churches total some ninety-four million persons.
- There are more than 300,000 local congregations.
- There are more than 530,000 total clergy.
- The U.S. has some 3.8 million religiously identified or affiliated Jews (an additional two million define themselves as primarily culturally or ethnically Jewish). Judaism continues to be a religion of substantial importance in the U.S., with persons of Jewish faith and culture making extensive and wide ranging contributions in all walks of American life. More Jews live in the United States than in any other country, including Israel. There are three major branches of Judaism in this country: Orthodox, Reform and Conservative.
- There are an estimated 3.5 to 3.8 million Muslims. Islam is the most rapidly growing religion in the U.S.
- In any given week, more Americans will attend religious events than professional sporting events.
- In terms of personal religious identification, the most rapidly growing group is atheists/ agnostics (currently about eight million).
In fact, radio and television broadcasting have become a major element of contemporary American religion. Major network broadcasters are increasingly likely to have programs with a visible religious content. The explosion of cable and direct broadcast television outlets —many Americans can select from more than one hundred television channels—means that even "minor" or non-traditional denominations or faiths have been able to establish their electronic presence.
Vocabulary notes
Survey - опрос
Adult - взрослый
Denomination – религиозная конфессия, секта
Agnostic - агностический
flourish - процветание
contribution - вклад
derive - извлекать
heritage - наследство
primarily – главным образом
value - ценность
significantly - существенно
impact - влияние
affiliate - присоединяться
adherent – приверженный
congregations – религиозное братство
clergy - духовенство
Orthodox -православный
Muslim - мусульманский
Rapidly - быстро
Contemporary - современный
Broadcasting - радиовещание
Content - содержание
Faiths - верование
Attend - посещать
Jews - евреи
Geography
The United States is the fourth largest country in the world, after Russia, Canada, and China. There are fifty (50) states: 48 contiguous states and Washington D.C., located in the central portion of North America plus the states of Alaska (49th) and Hawaii (50th), both joined in 1959.
Area (50 states and District of Columbia only):
Total: 9.631.418 sq km
Land: 9.161.923 sq km
Water: 469,495 sq km
SIZE COMPARISONS:
The United States is...
• about one-half the size of Russia,
• slightly smaller than China.
BOUNDARIES:
• 48 states: Canada on the north;
Atlantic Ocean on the east; Mexico and the Gulf of Mexico on the south; and Pacific Ocean on the west
• Alaska: Arctic Ocean on the north;
Canada on the east; Pacific Ocean on the south; and Arctic Ocean, Chukchi Sea, Bering Sea, and Bering Strait on the west
• Hawaii: Pacific Ocean
LAND USE (1992):
Cropland-25.8%
Rangeland-26.9%
Forestland-26.6%
Pastureland-8.5%
Urban, mountain, and other-12,5%
COASTLINE: 19,929 kilometers,
including Alaska and Hawaii
INLAND WATERWAYS: 41,009 kilometers of navigable inland channels,
excluding the Great Lakes
Terrain:
Vast central plain, mountains in west, hills and low mountains in east; rugged mountains and broad river valleys in Alaska; rugged, volcanic topography in Hawaii
LONGEST RIVER: Mississippi-Missouri - 5,936 kilometers
DEEPEST LAKE: Crater Lake in Oregon - 580 meters
Elevation extremes:
HIGHEST PDINT: Mount McKinley in Alaska - 6,198 meters above sea level
LOWEST POINT: Death Valley in California - 86 meters below sea level
LARGEST STATE: Alaska
SMALLEST STATE: Rhode Island
NORTHERNMOST CITY: Barrow, Alaska
SOUTHERNMOST CITY: Hilo, Hawaii
EASTERNMOST CITY: Eastport, Maine
WESTERNMOST С1П: Atka, Alaska
Ports and harbors:
Anchorage, Baltimore, Boston, Charleston, Chicago, Duluth, Hampton Roads, Honolulu, Houston, Jacksonville, Los Angeles, New Orleans, New York, Philadelphia, Port Canaveral, Portland (Oregon), Prudhoe Bay, San Francisco, Savannah, Seattle, Tampa, Toledo
Natural resources:
Coal, copper, lead, molybdenum, phosphates, uranium, bauxite, gold, iron, mercury, nickel, potash, silver, tungsten, zinc, petroleum, natural gas, timber
Natural hazards:
Tsunamis, volcanoes, and earthquake activity around Pacific Basin; hurricanes along the Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico coasts; tornadoes in the midwest and southeast; mud slides in California; forest fires in the west; flooding; permafrost in northern Alaska, a major impediment to development
People
Population: 298,444,215 (July 2006 est.)
Ethnic groups:
White 81.7%, Black 12.9%, Asian 4.2%, Amerindian and Alaska native 1%, native Hawaiian and other Pacific islander 0.2%, others 10% (2003 est.)
Note: a separate listing for Hispanic is not included because the US Census Bureau considers Hispanic to mean a person of Latin American descent (including persons of Cuban, Mexican, or Puerto Rican origin) living in the US who may be of any race or ethnic group (white, black, Asian, etc.)
The continental United States stretches from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and from Canada to Mexico and the Gulf of Mexico. Separated by Canada, it touches the Pacific and Arctic Oceans. Hawaii occupies an archipelago in the Pacific, southwest of North America. The commonwealth of Puerto Rico, the largest and most populous U.S. territory, is in the northeastern Caribbean. Deciduous vegetation and grasslands prevail in the eastern U.S., transitioning to prairies, boreal forests, and the Rocky Mountains in the west, and deserts in the southwest. In the northeast, the coasts of the Great Lakes and Atlantic seaboard host much of the country's population. With a few exceptions such as the territory of Guam and the westernmost portions of Alaska, nearly all of the country lies in the western hemisphere.
Beyond the coastal plain, the rolling hills of the Piedmont end at the Appalachian Mountains. The Rocky Mountains, at the western edge of the Great Plains, extend north to south across the continental U.S., reaching altitudes higher than 14,000 feet (4,270 m) in Colorado. Between the Appalachian and Rocky Mountains, the Interior Plains and Great Plains are relatively flat, fertile farm land. The Mississippi-Missouri River, the world's fourth longest river system, runs mainly north-south through the heart of the country. Active volcanoes are common throughout the Alexander and Aleutian Islands and the entire state of Hawaii is built upon tropical volcanic islands. The supervolcano underlying Yellowstone National Park in the Rockies is the continent's largest volcanic feature.
The States, Districts and Territories of the U.S.A.
| STATES | CAPITALS | Zip Code Abbreviations |
| Alabama | Montgomery | AL |
| Alaska | Juneau | AK |
| Arizona | Phoenix | AZ |
| Arkansas | Little Rock | AR |
| California | Sacramento | CA |
| Colorado | Denver | CO |
| Connecticut | Hartford | CT |
| Delaware | Dover | DE |
| Florida | Tallahassee | FL |
| Georgia | Atlanta | GA |
| Hawaii | Honolulu | HI |
| Idaho | Boise | ID |
| Illinois | Springfield | IL |
| Indiana | Indianapolis | IN |
| Iowa | Des Moines | 10 |
| Kansas | Topeka | KS |
| Kentucky | Frankfort | KY |
| Louisiana | Baton Rouge | LA |
| Maine | Augusta | ME |
| Maryland | Annapolis | MD |
| Massachusetts | Boston | MA |
| Michigan | Lansing | MI |
| Minnesota | St. Paul | MN |
| Mississippi | Jackson | MS |
| Missouri | Jefferson City | МО |
| Montana | Helena | MT |
| Nebraska | Lincoln | NE |
| Nevada | Carson City | NV |
| New Hampshire | Concord | NH |
| New Jersey | Trenton | NJ |
| New Mexico | Santa Fe | NM |
| New York | Albany | NY |
| North Carolina | Raleigh | NC |
| North Dakota | Bismarck | ND |
| Ohio | Columbus | OH |
| Oklahoma | Oklahoma City | OK |
| Oregon | Salem | OR |
| Pennsylvania | Harrisburg | PA |
| Rhode Island | Providence | RI |
| South Carolina | Columbia | SC |
| South Dakota | Pierre | SD |
| Tennessee | Nashville | TN |
| Texas | Austin | TX |
| Utah | Salt Lake City | UT |
| Vermont | Montpelier | VT |
| Virginia | Richmond | VA |
| Washington | Olympia | WA |
| West Virginia | Charleston | WV |
| Wisconsin | Madison | WI |
| Wyoming | Cheyenne | WY |