1ДЛ ICO ЛЬ НАЛ ЛЮ^А1/исА
Intermediate
Английский клуб
Людмила Халилова
США: ИСТОРИЯ
И СОВРЕМЕННОСТЬ
Книга для чтения на английском языке
в старших классах средних школ
лицеев, гимназий, 9-10 классах школ
с углубленным изучением английского
языка, на II-III курсах неязыковых вузов
АЙРИС ПРЕСС
РОЛЬФ
Москва

ББК 81.2Англ-93
УДК 802(075)
Х17
Серия «Английский клуб» включает книги и учеб¬
ные пособия, рассчитанные на три этапа изучения
английского языка: Elementary (для начинающих),
Intermediate (для продолжающих) и Advanced (для со¬
вершенствующихся) .
Серийное оформление А. Драгового
Халилова JI. А.
Х17 США: История и современность. - М.: Рольф, 1999. -
256 с., силл. — (Английский клуб). ^ (Школьная моза¬
ика).
ISBN 5-7836-0201-9
Книга для чтения предназначена для использования на уроках анг¬
лийского языка и страноведения, факультативных занятиях в старших
классах средних школ, лицеев, гимназий, 9"-10 классах школ с углуб¬
ленным изучением английского языка, на II—III курсах неязыковых
вузов, а также абитуриентами.
Пособие содержит тексты по географии, истории, политическому
устройству и культуре Соединенных Штатов Америки, снабженные
лингвострановедческим комментарием, транскрипцией, тематическим
словарем, а также предтекстовыми и послетекстовыми упражнениями,
обучающими работе с текстом и устному общению.
ISBN 5-7836-0201-9
© Рольф, 1999.
Предисловие
Пособие “The USA: History and the Present” (США: Исто¬
рия и современность) представляет собой книгу для чтения по
страноведению США (на английском языке).
Книга предназначена для учащихся старших классов сред¬
них школ, лицеев и гимназий, 9—10 классов школ с^углублен¬
ным изучением английского языка, а также для студентов И—III
курсов неязыковых вузов. Пособие может быть использовано как
для аудиторной, так и для факультативной и самостоятельной
работы. Лексико-грамматический и страноведческий материал
подобран с учетом программы вступительных экзаменов в веду¬
щие вузы России, что дает возможность абитуриентам использо¬
вать пособие в качестве сборника экзаменационных тем.
Материал сборника — это аутентичные тексты страно¬
ведческой направленности, обладающие высокой степенью ин¬
формативности, создающие достаточно полную картину жиз¬
ни современной Америки.
Цель пособия — развитие у обучаемых коммуникативных
способностей в целях достижения лингвистической и социо¬
культурной компетенции.
Особенностью пособия, отличающей его от других подоб¬
ных изданий, является особый подбор языкового инструмента¬
рия, дающего возможность его интеграции в общий курс ино¬
странного языка любого среднего или неязыкового высшего
учебного заведения. Другая отличительная черта — учебная на¬
правленность сборника: тексты являются не только источни¬
ком лингвистического (лексического, грамматического) и куль¬
турологического материала, они обучают учащегося разным
видам работы с/над текстом (изучающему, ознакомительно¬
му, поисковому, просмотровому типам чтения). И, наконец,
фактологический материал подбирался с учетом интереса уча¬
щихся к определенным аспектам США.
Структура пособия представлена 19 тематическими уро¬
ками, каждый из которых состоит из нескольких текстов гео¬
графической, исторической, политической и культурологичес¬
кой направленности (“The Land”, “The People”, “Historical
Background”, “The System of Government”, “Elections and Political
Parties”, “Outstanding Presidents”, “Religion”, “The Media”, “The
Welfare State”, “Work and Money”, “Transport”, “Arts and Science”,
3

“Educating the Nation”, “Sports, Leisure and Entertainment”,
“Music and Literature”, “Cities and Towns”, “The Symbols”,
“Traditions and Ways”, “Americans about America”). Тексты уро¬
ков взаимосвязаны и являются языковым и логическим расши¬
рением друг друга. Тем не менее, каждый текст — это само¬
стоятельная единица, содержащая достаточную информацию
для понимания той или иной реалии. Тексты могут быть ис¬
пользованы как для языкового анализа, так и для изучения в
рамках спецкурса «Соединенные Штаты Америки».
Тексты снабжены лингвострановедческим комментарием;
включенные в него единицы даны в соответствии с транскрип¬
ционным стандартом. После каждого текста выделяется темати¬
ческий словарь. Упражнения носят коммуникативный харак¬
тер. Тексты и задания повышенной степени сложности для дан¬
ной ступени обучения помечены звездочкой (*).
Пособие иллюстрировано.
Unit I
THE LAND
ГП Read the text.
The Country
The United States of America has an area of 3,615,122 square
miles (9,4 mln square kilometers) almost all of which is on the
American continent. Its overseas possessions are mainly small Pacific
Islands (Guam, Samoa, etc.) plus Puerto Rico. There are 50 states
and one Federal District, ^created as a site for the Federal Capital,
Washington, and known as the District of Columbia.
The USA is considered to be the fourth largest country in the
world. The, 48 conterminous states extend from latitude 25° N to
50° N and longitude 125° W to 67° W. From New York in the East
to San Francisco or Los Angeles in the West, i.e. from the Atlantic
coast to the Pacific coast, you have to travel more than 4,500 km
5

and leave behind four time zones. The other two states, Alaska and
Hawaii, are situated respectively near the Arctic circle and in the
tropical part of the Pacific Ocean (3,200 km from the mainland).
Thanks to these geographical extremes, different parts of the
country range front moist rain forest areas to arid desert regions and
bald mountain peaks. Mount McKinley in Alaska of 20,320 feet
(6,194 meters) above sea level is the highest point in the USA,
while part of Death Valley in California is 282 feet (89 meters)
below sea level. The West is an extensive mountain area occupying
approximately one-third of the United States and is a region of
tremendous variety, which can be subdivided into various other
areas. It consists of high ranges of the Cordillera parallel to the
Pacific Coast culminating on its eastern border in the Rocky Mountains
(a high, discontinuous chain of mountains with peaks of 13,000
and 14,000 feet), which, in their turn, stretch from mountainous
Alaska down to Mexico. These mountains are rich in resources such
as gold, lead and uranium.
Among high mountains at the western edge of the Cordillera Ш
the Sierra Nevada, the Cascades and the Coastal Ranges — there
are broad, fertile valleys and large plateau regions with canyons,
cliffs and basins that contain many important metals, oil and natural
gas.
The heart of the United States is a vast plain, which extends
from Central Canada southwards to Mexico and from the Cordillera
eastwards to the Appalachian Mountains. These interior plains,
which rise gradually like a saucer to higher land on all sides, are
divided into two major parts: the eastern portion is called the Central
Plains and the western portion — the Great Plains, both of which
have good soil.
The Appalachian Mountains — a chain of low, almost unbroken
mountains — are extremely rich in coal and iron. These mountains
are at the western edge of the Atlantic coastal plain, which is a
long, gently rolling lowland area. These coastal plains are very flat:
nowhere in Florida, for example, is more than 350 feet above sea
level. The soil is very poor, except in the fertile southern part — the
Cotton Belt of the Old South and the citrus country of Central
Florida.
Hawaii is a chain of twenty islands, only seven of which are
inhabited. The mountainous islands were formed by volcanic activity
and there are still a number of active volcanoes.
6
Notes and Commentary
the District of Columbia (D. С.) — федеральный округ Ко¬
лумбия, названный в честь открывателя Америки Христо¬
фора Колумба; эта территория на реке Потомак была специ¬
ально выделена штатом Мэриленд для возведения столицы
нации	w
25° N (25 degrees north; 25 degrees of latitude north of the equator) —
25 градусов северной широты
125° W (125 degrees west; 125 degrees of longitude west of the zero
meridian) — 125 градусов западной долготы
foot — фут; равен 30,48 см
Death Valley — Долина смерти печально знаменита как место,
где разыгрывалась драма «золотой лихорадки» 1849 года
the Cotton Belt — «хлопковый пояс»; включает те районы США,
где выращивают хлопок
Geographical Names
Pacific Ocean [pa'sifik 'ouJ(3)n]
Guam [gwom]
Samoa [s3'mo(u)3]
Puerto Rico [/pwa:to(u)
/ri:ko(u)]
Washington f'wDfirjtan]
District of Columbia (DC.)
[ko'Lvmbia]
New York fnju: jo:k]
San Francisco [,saen frsn'siskou]
Los Angeles [las' 'aend3ebs]
the Atlantic Ocean [dt'laentik
'ои/(э)п]
Alaska [a'laeska]
Hawaii [hct:'wci:(i)i]
McKinley [ms'kinli]
Death Valley ['de0 'vseli]
California fkaeli'fomja]
Canada fkaenads]
Тихий океан
о-в Гуам
о-ва Самоа
Пуэрто-Рико
г. Вашингтон
округ Колумбия
г. Нью-Йорк
г. Сан-Франциско
г. Лос-Анджелес
Атлантический океан
Аляска (штат)
Гавайи (штат)
Мак-Кинли (гора)
Долина смерти (межгорная впа¬
дина)
Калифорния (штат)
Канада
7

the Cordillera [.kordi'ljeara]
the Rocky Mountains, Rockies
['roki 'mauntinz], [ rokiz]
Mexico ['meksikou]
the Sierra Nevada [si'era
ne'vtrdo]
the Cascades [kaes'keids]
the Coastal Ranges ['koustal
'reind3iz]
the Central Plains ['central
'pleinz]
the Great Plains ['greit 'pleinz]
the Appalachian Mountains
[sepo'laetjian 'mauntinz]
Florida [ florida]
Кордильеры (	горн массив)
Скалистые горы
Мексика
Сьерра-Невада (,хребет)
Каскадные горы
Береговые хребты
Центральное плоскогорье
Великое плоскогорье
Аппалачи (	горный массив)
Флорида (штат)
Vocabulary
overseas
possession
district
site
conterminous
to extend
latitude
longitude
coast
mainland
extreme
arid
lead
fertile
plateau
basin
southward(s)
eastward(s)
заморский
владение, собственность
район, округ
место; местоположение
имеющий общую границу, смеж¬
ный
простираться
широта
долгота
побережье
материк
крайность
засушливый
свинец
плодородный
плато
бассейн
к югу, на юг, в южно^1 направ¬
лении
к востоку, на восток, в вос¬
точном направлении
soil
volcano
почва
вулкан
Assignment
Comprehension
Supply answers to the following questions.
1) Where is the United States of America situated?
2) What parts does the country consist of?
3 ) What makes the USA the fourth largest country in the
world?
4 ) Why is the United States called a country of geographical
extremes?
5) How can the physical features of the West be characterized?
6) What part of the USA is compared with a saucer? Why?
7) What region is rich in coal and iron?
8) What is special about Hawaii?
Discussion
1. Using the text, account for the poetic description of the
USA as the'country of “mountain majesties above the
fruited plain”.
2. How do you understand “brotherhood from sea to shining
sea”?
3. Using your background knowledge, tell your friends
everything you know about the geographical position of
the USA.
4. Compare the physical features of the USA and Russia.
Ш Read the text and pick out the facts you did not know before.
Rivers
The United States has several immensely long rivers. There
are a large number of rivers in the eastern part of the country, the
9

longest of which is the Missouri (4,740 km), a tributary of the
Mississippi (3,950 km). The Mississippi-Missouri system extends for
over 6,000 km before entering the Gulf of Mexico near New Orleans.
Two other tributaries of the Mississippi — the Ohio and Tennessee —
are more than 1,500 km long.
The river Mississippi in Iowa
In the West the Rio Grande, which forms part of the United
States-Mexico border, flows for 3,016 km and only the Colorado
(2,320 km), Columbia (2,240 km) and the San Joaquin-Sacramento
river systems reach the Pacific.
Geographical Names
the Missouri [mi'zuqn]
the Mississippi [,misi'sipi]
the Gulf of Mexico ['gxlf av
'meksikou]
New Orleans [nju: 'odianz]
the Ohio [o(u)'haiou]
the Tennessee [,tena'si:]
the Rio Grande ['ri:o(u)
'graendi]
the Colorado [,kola'ra:dou]
(the) Columbia [ka'Lvmbia]
the San Joaquin [,saen wa'ki:n]
the Sacramento [,saekra'mentou]
p. Миссури
p. Миссисипи
Мексиканский залив
г. Новый Орлеан
р. Огайо
р. Теннесси
р. Рио-Гранде
р. Колорадо
р. Колумбия
р. Сан-Хоакин
р. Сакраменто
ю
tributary
Vocabulary
приток
ш Read the text. Say whether it is connected with the preceding texts
of the Unit or not. And if it is, then in what way?
Weather and Climate
Virtually every type of climate can be found somewhere in the
United States — from arctic in Alaska to subtropical in Florida. The
climate is not generally temperate, despite the latitude, because the
tremendous size of the North American land mass heightens the
extreme variations in temperature and precipitation, especially in
the central regions (in Dakota temperatures have reached a maximum
of 49 °C and a minimum of —60 °C).
Most of the country has a humid continental climate with hot
summers and cold winters, while the lack of natural barriers either to
the north or south allows cold, dry air to flow south from Canada
and warm, humid air north from the Gulf of Mexico, giving rise to
spectacular weather of every possible type in the Great Plains and
Midwest. Summers are hot and very humid in this region and rainfall
decreases to the west as a result of the rain shadow created by the
West Pacific Range and the Sierra Nevada. The southwest portion
of the Great Plains is the hottest and most arid region of the United
States, with precipitation, mostly in the form of summer showers,
averaging less than 250 mm a year.
The Pacific coast is almost rainless in the summer, although
there is often fog. In winter there is frequent drizzle, but the climate
remains generally warm and dry, especially in California.
The eastern part of the country is moderately rainy, with the
precipitation fairly well distributed throughout the year. Summers tend
to be extremely humid, especially along the coast of Texas and Florida.
Notes and Commentary
49 °C (49 degrees Celsius) — 49 градусов по ЦельСию
11

Geographical Names
Dakota [da'kouta]
Midwest [, mid'west]
the West Pacific Range ['west
pa'sifik 'reind3]
Texas ['teksas]
temperate
precipitation
to average
drizzle
Дакота {штат)
Средний Запад {часть террито¬
рии США)
Западно-Тихоокеанская гряда
гор
Техас {штат)
Vocabulary
умеренный
осадки
составлять в среднем
моросящий дождь
СиЭ Read the text. Is there any new information here as compared with
the information of the text “The Country”?
Natural Resources
The United States possesses vast non-fuel natural resources.
The major resource is iron, three quarters of which comes from the
Lake Superior region of the Great Lakes. Other basic metals and
minerals mined on a large scale are zinc, copper, silver and phosphate
rock (used for fertilizers). This wealth is distributed throughout most
of the country, but Texas and the West (especially California) are
the most important mineral-producing areas. Mining and quarrying
account for only about 2 % of GNP.
The United States produces one quarter of the world’s coal and
one seventh of its petroleum, with sufficient coal reserves to last for
hundreds of years. About half of the nation’s electric power comes from
coal-fired power stations, while natural and manufactured gas supply
more than 33 % of the nation’s power. The main gas fields are found
near the main oil fields in Texas, Louisiana and Alaska. Nuclear
power is also used in many places, using uranium mined in New Mexico
and Wyoming, and produces over 10 % of the nation’s energy output.
12
Notes and Commentary
the Great Lakes — Великие озера: Верхнее, Гурон, Мичиган,
Эри и Онтарио; расположены на северо-востоке Соединенных
Штатов Америки на границе с Канадой
GNP (Gross National Product) — ВНП (валовой национальный
продукт)
Geographical Names
Lake Superior ['leik sjir'piaris]	о. Верхнее
Louisiana [1и:,ш'эепэ]	Луизиана {штат)
Wyoming [wai'oumirj]	Вайоминг
Vocabulary
copper
phosphate rock
to quarry
to account (for)
output
медь
фосфориты
добывать карьерным способом
зд. составлять
производство
ш Read the text.
National Parks
No nation had ever done anything like that. Indeed, the very
idea of the Federal Government’s setting aside a portion of the public
domain in the Rocky Mountains for use as a national “pleasuring
ground” instead of for private exploitation by farmers, ranchers, or
miners had a faintly improper ring, particularly in the “robber baron”
era of unbridled private enterprise following the Civil War.
Nevertheless, depictions by artists and photographers, and
the reports of official survey teams all pointed to one inevitable
conclusion: that the Yellowstone region of the Rockies was of such
exceptional beauty, such awe-aspiring dimensions, that this sublime
13

gift of nature was a national treasure, far too valuable for private
development, and that it must belong in perpetuity to the entire
American people.
Accordingly, Congress passed and President Grant signed
legislation establishing Yellowstone National Park, which over the
years has been extended to take in 2.2 million acres of breathtakingly
beautiful country in^Idaho, Montana, and — mainly — Wyoming.
Yellowstone became the first reserve of its kind in the world
and the model for US national park system.
Almost two decades passed before new national parks were created,
and then, in 1890, Sequoia and Yosemite were both established in
California. Subsequently, the pace quickened, particularly during
Theodore Roosevelt’s conservation-minded administration (1901—
1909), when eight new national parks were established.
Today there are 38 national parks, most of them in the West,
covering more than 14 million acres. Additional millions of acres
have been set aside as national monuments, national recreation areas,
national forests and national seashores. Within those sanctuaries
millions of vacationing Americans each year enjoy days or weeks of
relaxation amid nature’s most impressive splendours — preserved by
man for posterity.
Notes and Commentary
national park, national monument, national recreation area, national
forest, national seashore — разнообразные типы национальных
заповедников в Соединенных Штатах Америки, первым из ко¬
торых был Национальный парк в Йеллоустоуне. Он был от¬
крыт в 1872 году после тщательного обследования специально
созданной в 1871 году экспедицией, в состав которой вошли не
только ученые, но также фотографы и художники, чьи снимки
и зарисовки, запечатлевшие красоту и величие Большого Кань¬
она и прилегающей местности, поразили конгрессменов и по¬
служили убедительным доказательством необходимости созда¬
ния заповедника.
the very idea ... had a faintly improper ring ... — сама идея ... была
несколько неуместной
in the “robber baron” era — в период хищнического обогащения
магнатов-стяжателей
14
the Civil War — гражданская война (1861—1865) между Севе¬
ром (Союзом штатов) во главе с Федеральным правитель¬
ством и Югом (Конфедерацией южных штатов). Хотя граж¬
данская война и привела к уничтожению рабства, основной
причиной начала гражданской войны историки склонны счи¬
тать не столько желание северян отменить рабовладение, сколь¬
ко выход южных штатов из состава Союза. 15 апреля *1861 года
президент Авраам Линкольн объявил южные штаты мятеж¬
ными и призвал в армию 75 тысяч добровольцев; столица Вир¬
гинии, Ричмонд, на период гражданской войны стала и сто¬
лицей конфедератов; война завершилась победой федеральных
сил.
Grant, Ulysses ['grant 'julisirz] — Грант Улисс (1822—1885), глав¬
нокомандующий союзной армией в годы гражданской войны с
марта 1864 года, 18-й президент Соединенных Штатов Амери¬
ки (1869-1877)
acre — акр, равен 0,405 гектара
Sequoia [si'kwoia], Yosemite [jou'semati:] — Секвойя, Йосемит-
ский парк, национальные парки в Калифорнии
Geographical Names
Idaho j'aidahou]
Montana [mon'taena; -’tana]
Айдахо (штат)
Монтана (штат)
Vocabulary
to set (aside)
domain
unbridled
enterprise
survey
inevitable
awe-aspiring
dimensions
sublime
откладывать, приберегать
владение, собственность
разнузданный
предпринимательство
обследование, анализ, осмотр,
съемка
неизбежный
благоговейный
размеры, величина
величественный, грандиозный,
возвышенный
15

in perpetuity	навсегда, навечно
to pass	принимать	(закон)
legislation	закон, законодательство
breathtakingly	поразительно, захватывающе
sanctuary	,	святилище
splendour	великолепие, роскошь
posterity	потомки, потомство
Assignment
^ Comprehension
Supply answers to the following questions.
1) For what purpose was a portion of the public domain
in the Rockies set aside?
2) What provided eloquent testimony that the Yellowstone
region was a national treasure?
3) How was Yellowstone National Park established?
4) Why is Theodore Roosevelt’s presidency called
conservation-minded?
5) How many national parks are there in the USA now?
6) What are different national reserves called?
Discussion
1. Point out the main stages in establishing US national
conservation areas.
2. Do you agree that no other nation has ever done anything
like that?
3. Do you care about nature?
4. What is, in your opinion, environmental protection? Do
you consider it to be important?
Ш Read the text. Prove with the help of it that:
1) Massachusetts occupies a special place in the history of the USA;
2) fishing was and is an important industry;
3) the State is a student area.
16
The Northeast: Massachusetts
It is one of New Englaftd States with a coastline on the
Atlantic. The interior is hilly, rising to over 30,000 feet. The
Merrimack and Connecticut are the chief rivers.
Boston is the capital and largest city.
The State became one of the original 13 States. Almost everyone
knows at least a little about the early days of Massachusetts. The
names of Plymouth, Boston, Cape Cod, Salem, Concord and
Lexington are' also familiar. Plymouth is the very place where the
Pilgrim Fathers on board the “Mayflower” landed in 1620 to found
the Plymouth Colony. It is in Lexington that the American Revolution
began. This town is matched historically with its Revolutionary
twin, Concord. The “shot heard round the world” was fired in
Concord.
From earliest colonial days, the Massachusetts men were
fishermen. Fish, lobsters, and clams certainly saved some of the
settlers from starvation. Fishing is still a big industry. Until the
middle of the 19th century Massachusetts sent whaling vessels on
voyages to the Pacific Ocean.
Part of Massachusetts is a good farming country. The Connecticut
Valley produces general crops, including potatoes, but its successful
tobacco farms are more famous. One of the best known specialities of
the State is its cranberry crop, grown at the landward end of the Cape
Cod.
Early Massachusetts was well forested, and every port had a
shipyard where fishing boats were built, and also wooden trading
vessels which were sailed by the Massachusetts men to the ports of
Europe, Asia and Africa, and to domestic ports farther south on
the Atlantic coast. The traders brought back raw materials that gave
Massachusetts an early start in manufacturing.
Cotton from the South was the basis of the textile industry in
which Massachusetts was a leader until the 20th century. Then the
South became the center of cotton manufacture but Massachusetts
still has many textile mills, as well as a wide variety of other
manufacturing industries.
Now Massachusetts is a highly industrial State. Electrical
machinery, including electronics and communications equipment,
has become the State’s leading product.
Massachusetts has many famous universities and colleges. Across
17
2—1870

the Charles River, close to Boston, stands Caimbridge, where the
cultural history of America has developed side by side with the
history of Harvard University (the country’s oldest). Named after
John Harvard, a clergyman, who at his death in 1638 left the
institution a few hundred books and half his estate, Harvard has
turned into one of the largest, richest, and best universities in the
world.
Notes and Commentary
New England States — Новая Англия; северо-восток США был
назван «новой Англией» в отличие от «старой Англии», выход¬
цами которой были первые поселенцы этих мест; в состав шта¬
тов Новой Англии входят: Мэн, Вермонт, Нью-Гемпшир, Мас¬
сачусетс, Род-Айленд, Коннектикут
the original 13 States — первые тринадцать колоний, которые в
1776 году стали штатамй: Делавэр, Пенсильвания, Нью-Джер¬
си, Джорджия, Коннектикут, Массачусетс, Мэриленд, Юж¬
ная Каролина, Нью-Гемпшир, Виргиния, Нью-Йорк, Север¬
ная Каролина, Род-Айленд
Concord, Lexington — два города, исторически связанные друг
с другом; именно здесь проходили первые ожесточенные схват¬
ки американских повстанцев с регулярными частями англий¬
ской армии в апреле 1775 года
the Pilgrim Fathers, the “Mayflower” — английские колонисты,
прибывшие в Новый Свет на корабле «Мейфлауэр», основали
колонию Плимут; позже этих поселенцев назовут «пуритане»,
«пилигримы», «отцы-пилигримы»
Harvard University — Гарвардский университет, старейший уни¬
верситет США; основан в 1636 году английским священнослу¬
жителем Джоном Гарвардом; был изначально университетом со
значительным религиозным уклоном; впоследствии универси¬
тет приобретает светский характер, о чем свидетельствует от¬
крытие факультетов медицины и права (в 1782 и 1817 году со¬
ответственно); один из частных университетов СЦ1А (наряду со
знаменитыми Йельским университетом, Стенфордским уни¬
верситетом, Массачусетским технологическим институтом, Бо¬
стонским университетом и др.)
18
Geographical Names
Massachusetts [, maeso'tfusets]
the Merrimack ['merimaek]
(the) Connecticut [ks'nektikot]
Boston [boston]
Plymouth ['plimoG]
Cape Cod ['keip 'kod]
Salem ['seilom]
Concord ['korjkod]
Lexington ['leksipton]
the Charles River ['tjculz 'rivo]
Cambridge ['keimbrid3]
Массачусетс (штат)
p. Меримек
p. Коннектикут
г. Бостон
г. Плимут
п-ов Кейп-Код
г. Сейлем
г. Конкорд
г. Лексингтон
р. Чарльз Ривер
г. Кембридж
Vocabulary
lobster
clam
whaling
vessel
crop
cranberry
landward
омар
съедобный морской моллюск
китобойный
судно, корабль
культура, урожай
клюква
зд. материковый
ш Look through the following texts and say what unites them and what
distinguishes.	-
The South: Florida
The State is completely different from all other southern
States. It consists mainly of a peninsula between the Atlantic
Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico. The entire State is flat, with only
a very few hills in the interior. In the south there is a swampy
region.
Agriculture is the chief industry, and sugar, rice, cotton,
tobacco and tropical fruits are grown. Fishing is important, and
there are valuable forest reserves. Cattle raising is gaining importance.
2*
19

Florida was chosen by NASA as a perfect launching place.
At Cape Kennedy, formerly Canaveral, is the US Missile Test
Center from which satellites are sent into manned space and orbital
flights.
Although an agricultural State by geography, inclination and
climate, it has been developed primarily as a resort area. The
shorelines are sandy, with miles of fine white bathing beaches. So
the State’s leading business activity is tourism.
Tallahassee is the capital but Jacksonville and Tampa are larger.
Miami is a famous resort on the southeast coast. Other resort towns
are Palm Beach, Key West, Venice.
Florida was discovered in 1513 and was bought by the USA
from Spain in 1819, becoming a State in 1849.
Notes and Commentary
NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) — HACA
(Национальное управление по аэронавтике и исследованию кос¬
мического пространства)
mile — миля; одна уставная миля равна 1,609 км; одна морская
миля равна 1,852 км
Geographical Names
Tallahassee [ДаеЬЪзевэ]	г.	Таллахасси
Jacksonville ['d3aeksnvil]	г.	Джэксонвиль
Tampa [Чэетрэ]	г.	Тампа
Miami [mai'semi]	г.	Майами,(
Venice f'venis]	г.	Венеция
Vocabulary
swampy	болотистый
cattle	крупный рогатый скот
missile	(«крылатая») ракета
test center	зд. испытательный полигон
20
inclination
(пред)расположенность, склон¬
ность
The Southwest: Texas
It is the largest and most southern state on the Mexican border
with a coastline on the Gulf of Mexico. The chief rivers are the Rio
Grande and the Colorado. Much of the central part of the State is
flat prairie land.
Cattle raising and poultry are major activities. Texas is also an
important agricultural state. Agriculture products include cotton,
corn, vegetables, grains, and cereals. Minerals include petroleum
and cement. The State’s leading manufactures are chemicals, oil
and gas, wood products and leather.
Cotton fields in Texas
Austin is the capital, but Houston, Dallas and San Antonio
are much larger. The Capitol at Austin, built in 1888 of red granite,
covers three acres and is 311 feet to the top of its dome; it is the
largest of the States’ Capitols.
There are more than 600 airports in Texas, including about
60 major US Air Force bases.
21

Texas has more than 130 higher educational institutions, the
most famous being the University of Texas at Austin.
Texas became independent in 1836, and entered the Union in
1846. Texas is the only State that was an independent republic
recognized by the United States before annexation.
Geographical Names
Austin ['o(:)stin]	г.	Остин
Houston ['hjusten]	г.	Хьюстон
Dallas ['daelasj	г.	Даллас
San Antonio [,sasn an'touniou] г.	Сан-Антонио
Vocabulary
домашняя птица
зерно
злаки
химикалии
кожа
Военно-воздушные силы
присоединение, аннексия
The Central Northwest: Colorado
Colorado is the State in the Rocky Mountains. Being the
highest State in the country, it contains some of the highest peaks as
well. А1Гin all, there are 52 peaks over 14,000 feet in elevation.
Numerous rivers rise in the mountains, the chief being the Colorado
and the Arkansas.
Coal, gold, silver, copper, lead and petroleum are mined.
Agriculture is becoming important, sugar-beet, wheat, maize and
oats being the chief crops.
There are several National Parks. Denver is the capital and
largest town; others are Pueblo and Colorado Springs.
Colorado became a State in 1876.
poultry
grain
cereals
chemicals
leather
Air Force
annexation
22
Geographical Names
the Arkansas ['atkanso:]	p.	Арканзас
Denver ['denva]	г.	Денвер
Pueblo [pjir'eblou]	г.	Пуэбло
Colorado Springs [,kola'ra:dou г.	Колорадо-Спрингс
'sprnjz]
Vocabulary
сахарная свекла
пшеница
маис, кукуруза
овес
|Щ Read the text and say what Arizona is especially famous for.
The Southwest: Arizona
The natural features of this State are the Colorado River with
its extensive deserts and famous canyons among which is the world
known Grand Canyon.
The soil is not fertile; cattle and sheep are reared, but the
chief products are minerals.
Phoenix is the capital.
The Grand Canyon of Arizona has sometimes been called the
greatest of the world’s wonders. It is, in fact, the world’s most
spectacular illustration of erosion, being the result of the combined
action of a great river, of rain, wind and of frost.
The Grand Canyon is a gigantic chasm, 247 miles long, 4 to
14 miles wide and 1 mile deep. At the bottom is the mighty Colorado
River that rushes to the sea and carries an average of nearly half a
million tons of silt through the Canyon every day. Rising from the
depths of the Canyon are ranges of mountains.
According to geologists’ estimates, it has taken 7 to 9 million
years to cut the Grand Canyon. Rocks from the first era of
geological history are exposed on the Canyon’s walls. More than
sugar-beet
wheat
maize
oats
23

6,000 prehistoric sites have been found in Grand Canyon National
Park.
The colors of the Canyon change through the day. One
cannot describe its beauty, and the Grand Canyon is always
mysterious.
Geographical Names
Arizona Lan'zouna]	Аризона (штат)
the Grand Canyon ['grand	Гранд-Каньон (Большой Кань-
'kaenjan]	он)
Phoenix [ frniks]	г. Финикс
Vocabulary
chasm	расселина, бездна, пропасть
silt	ид
estimate	оценка, подсчет
to expose	обнажать, выставлять	напоказ
mysterious	таинственный
to rear	разводить, выращивать
ш Look through the text. Using the material of the text, make up an
advertisement inviting tourists to visit California.
The Far West: California
This State lies north of the Mexican border and has a long
Pacific coastline. Except for the south, where there is the California
Desert, there are three distinct geographical divisions: the Sierra Nevada,
which runs the length of the state and rises to 14,500 feet in Mount
Whitney; the Coast Range, a series of ranges; and the,great California
Valley, containing the Sacramento and San-Joaquin rivers, which unite
and flow through the Golden Gate into San Francisco Bay.
Gold, silver, copper, lead and petroleum are produced. The
film industry is important.
24
Sacramento is the geographical capital, but Los Angeles and
San Francisco are very important. Los Angeles is the motion picture
capital, with major studios in Hollywood, and San Francisco is the
biggest Pacific Coast port, a major banking, communications,
financial, and industrial center.
California was part of Mexico from its discovery until 1846,
when it was claimed by the USA. It became a State in 1850,
following the increase in population and property caused by the “gold
rush” of 1849.
California is nicknamed the Golden State. The emblem of
the State is a golden poppy, and the entrance to its finest harbor is
called the Golden Gate. The glamour of Hollywood, a romantic
past, snow-topped mountains, rushing streams, the sparkling blue
Pacific, mysterious deserts, warm winters — all these make California
very attractive for the people who dream of it.
California has about 200 higher educational institutions.
Among the world famous are the University of California, Stanford
University, University of Southern California, and California
Institute of Technology.
Notes and Commentary
the Golden Gate — Золотые Ворота; это имя лучшая гавань Ка¬
лифорнии получила как в связи с очень удачным географиче¬
ским положением, так и с тем, что она считалась «воротами
рая» во времена «золотой лихорадки»
Geographical Names
the Sierra Nevada [si'era	Сьерра-Невада {горный хребет)
na'vaeda, -'va:-]
Mount Whitney ['maunt 'witni]	Маунт Уитни {гора)
Vocabulary
poppy
glamour
мак
чары, обаяние
25

Revision Assignment
Write a composition on one of the topics.
1) “America, the beautiful”. j
2) US nature reservation programs.
3) Each State is a diamond in the US crown.
4) The USA: its fauna and flora.
Unit II
THE PEOPLE
Ы Read the text.
Population
With more than 245,000,000 inhabitants, the United States
is the fourth country in the world in terms of population. About
75 % of the population live in urban areas and there are 170 cities of
more than 100,000 inhabitants, 24 of which have populations of
oyer 500,000. Most of these urban centers lie along the Atlantic and
Pacific Coasts, the Gulf of Mexico and the Great Lakes. The most
populous area is the relatively small Northeast, which accounts for
nearly one fourth of the nation’s population.
In 1990 the US Bureau of the Census conducted a new census
of the American people. The Census counted 245,837,683 people in
the USA. But the figures might be incorrect. One of the Governors,
referring to his state’s smaller-than-expected growth, said, “Do you
21

honestly believe that everybody who should be counted has been
counted?”
“What then is the American, this new man?” One of enthusiastic
French visitors first posed the question in 1782. Even in his day his
answer — that an American was “either a European or the descendant
of a European” — was inadequate to describe a variegated people
that already included Indians and Africans.
America’s population remains richly diverse. Statistics tell part
of the story. 87.5 per cent are classified as white by the US Bureau
of the Census. The vast majority of the population was WASP until
about 1860. Between 1860 and 1920 almost 30 million immigrants
arrived from central and southeastern Europe in particular. These
mainly Italian, Russian, Polish and Hungarian immigrants quickly
formed their own culturally homogeneous neighborhoods (“Little
Italys”, for example) and became a second economic class behind
the WASPs. So now the majority, fully 65 per cent, are other than
“Anglo-Saxon”.
Almost 12 per cent of the population that are black are
bottom of the economic and educational table, with far higher
unemployment than whites, especially as a result of racial dis¬
crimination.
The most rapidly growing ethnic group is the Hispanics
(almost 7 % of the Americans), who still continue to use Spanish
in their homes even though the vast majority were born in the
United States. Like the blacks, they have a generally lower economic
and educational level than the rest of the population and are also
isolated in ghetto areas.
There are almost 2 million generally prosperous Oriental
Americans (predominantly from Japan, China and the Philippines),
who are concentrated mainly in California.
The 1.5 million Native Americans live mainly in reserves in
the southwestern states in usually deep poverty and there has been
little or no integration into American society.
Notes and Commentary
WASP (White Anglo-Saxon Protestant) [wasp], [wasp] — потомок
английских поселенцев, которые, в основном, были протес¬
тантами
28
Hispanic [his'paenik] — гражданин Соединенных Штатов Амери¬
ки испаноязычного происхождения
Native Americans — коренные жители Америки — индейцы
Geographical Names
Венгрия
Япония
Китай
Филиппины
Vocabulary
городской
густонаселенный
сравнительно, относительно
перепись населения
ссылаться
зд. задавать (вопрос)
потомок
недостаточный
пестрый, разнообразный
разный, разнообразный
однородный
зд. община
процветающий
восточный
в основном
зд. резервация
Assignment
^ Comprehension
Supply answers to the following questions.
1)	What place does the United States occupy in the world
in terms of population and why?
urban
populous
relatively
census
to refer
to pose
descendant
inadequate
variegated
diverse
homogeneous
neighborhood
prosperous
oriental
predominantly
reserve
Hungary ['Илддэп]
Japan [d3a'paen]
China [Ч/атэ]
the Philippines ['filipfcnz]
29

2) What are the most populous areas?
3) Can we call an American “a descendant of a European”?
4) Which layers of the US population have a lower economic
and educational level?
5) Are there any Native Americans left in the United
States?
$ Discussion
1. Why do you think some people are bottom of the general
level of life?
2. Do you agree that in the course of a census many people
who should be 'counted are not counted?
3. Is the population of Russia diverse? How many nationalities
are there in this country?
ffl Look through the text and be ready;
1) to give the difference between “a melting pot” and “a salad bowl”;
2) to speak about some Presidents’ attempts to improve the situation
of Afro-American people;
3) to explain to your fellow-student what the phrase “Here, it is not
asked what or who was your father, but ... what are you?” means.
The Society
While most of US minorities maintain their individual cultural
identity, any gains that are made by one group serve to help them
all. It was once widely believed that the US was a “melting pot”,
fueled by the clash of immigrant cultures. In recent years the interest
of America’s myriad ethnic minorities in the customs and traditions
of the lands from which their fathers came has grown, sparked in
part by a new sense of self-esteem. More accurate than “melting
pot” might be the metaphor “salad bowl”, implying that each
ingredient makes its contribution and adds flavor 4p the whole.
Since there are different ethnic groups in the United States,
the civil right issue has always dominated American politics. It became
very urgent in the 1950s and 1960s.
Numerous Presidents attempted to improve the situation of
30
black people and other minorities in American society. President
Truman appointed the first black judge in the Federal Court system
and some progress was made towards racial integration in schools,
restaurants and transportation in the South by Eisenhower, Kennedy
and Johnson, despite congressional opposition. The blacks them¬
selves, led by peoplelike the Reverend Martin Luther King, became
increasingly active in attempting to improve their status; and numerous
non-violent protests began in 1960 to speed up the end of segregation.
In the mid-1960s these mass demonstrations often degenerated into
violent clashes, as the militant Black Power movements replaced the
non-violent organizations.
Much has changed for the better since then, though substantial
segments of American population are still excluded from the American
dream of equal opportunity for all. America has not solved all her
social problems yet, but an unprecedented national awareness of
their existence gives hope that the basis has already been laid for a
better spreading of the good life.
Once mostly English and Dutch, then one-fifth slave, then
host to immigrants from a hundred lands, the American people have
grown increasingly diverse as they have prospered. The national
character has been immeasurably enriched by the special skills and
outlooks each successive wave of newcomers has included in its ethnic
luggage.
Despite sporadic setbacks and slowdowns, America continues
to inch toward full realization of the ideal first expressed almost two
centuries ago: “Here, it is not asked what or who was your father,
but ... what are you?”
Notes and Commentary
“Melting pot” — тигель, плавильный горшок, «сосуд с кипя¬
щей в нем массой»; в переносном смысле означает огромное
количество и разнообразие национальностей, населяющих Со¬
единенные Штаты Америки. Впервые фраза была использова¬
на в 1908 году английским драматургом Израилом Зангвилом,
который написал пьесу об эмиграции и назвал ее “The Melting
Pot”.
Truman, Harry [Чга:тэп Ъэеп] — Трумэн Гарри (1884—1972),
33-й президент США
31

Federal Court system — система федеральных судов, судебная
система США
Eisenhower, Dwight ['aizenhaua 'dwait] — Эйзенхауэр Дуайт
(1890—1969), 34-й президент США
Kennedy, John ['kenadi 'бзэп] — Кеннеди Джон (1917—1963),
35-й президент США; был убит выстрелом 22 ноября 1963 года
в г. Даллас, штат Техас; в истории США самый молодой пре¬
зидент (в момент избрания) и самый молодой из умерших во
время президентства
Johnson, Lyndon fd3onsan 'lindan] — Джонсон Линдон (1908—
1973), 36-й президент США
Martin Luther King ['matin '1и:0э kip] — Кинг Мартин Лютер
(1929-1968), священнослужитель, лидер движения за граж¬
данские права негров, великий гуманист; убит выстрелом 4 ап¬
реля 1968 года. Начиная с 1986 года третий понедельник янва¬
ря отмечается в США как национальный праздник — день рож¬
дения Мартина Лютера Кинга.
Black Power movements — различные движения за гражданские
права негров
Vocabulary
minority
национальное меньшинство
to maintain
зд. сохранять
identity
зд. индивидуальность
self-esteem
чувство собственного достоин¬
ства, самоуважение
to imply
подразумевать, предполагать
Reverend
преподобный (i священни¬
ка)
violent
яростный, неистовый, отчаян^
ный; насильственный
unprecedented
беспрецедентный, беспример¬
ный
awareness
осознание, понимание, зна¬
ние
Dutch
голландский
sporadic
случайный, единичный, спо-
радический
32
setback
slowdown
препятствие, задержка
замедление, снижение темпа
ш Before doing the text, read the title and try to guess what the text is
about. Then look through the text and say if there is* any new
information, which adds to what you have already said. Speak about
each wave of migration in detail. Explain the use of the word “saga”.
The Story of the People: the Saga of Migration
The American continent was peopled by four great migrations.
First to come were prehistoric hunters from the steppes of Asia who,
most anthropologists believe, crossed a bridge of land that then
extended across the Bering Sea and Strait. Their descendants, the
American Indians, developed scores of complex and colorful cultures
before the arrival of the white man in the early 17th century.
The British and Western European settlers came to America
seeking riches, land, and sanctuary. They conquered the wilderness,
established the Thirteen Original Colonies, and eventually launched
a new nation.
With the white settlers came a massive and unwilling immigration
of Negro slaves from West Africa. The natural talents of those Negroes
and their extraordinary powers of endurance enabled them to survive the
horrors of slavery and to make incalculable contributions to American
civilization.
Finally, in increasing numbers throughout the 19th century
and well into the 20th, came the outpouring of immigrants from
almost everywhere that made a reality of poet Walt Whitman’s vision
of America as “not merely a nation but a teeming nation of nations” .
Since the birth of the United States, some 44 million immigrants
have flocked to this country in search of opportunities denied them in
their native lands. Among them have been men and women of every
sort — seekers after land and freedom, religious and political dissidents
searching for sanctuary, adventurers and misfits, merchants and artists.
But most of these people have been unlettered farmers from
Europe’s peasant heart, ordinary people with strong backs, hope, and
a will to succeed. Through unshakable optimism, hard work, and
grit, most have made a go of it. They have carved homes from
—1870
33

America’s wilderness, peopled cities and towns, transformed her
politics, and manned her farms and factories. The saga of the
immigrants’ struggle to fashion a new life in a foreign and often
unfriendly land is among the most stirring “pages” in America’s history.
Notes and Commentary
Walt Whitman ['wo:lt'witmsn] — Уитмен Уолт (1819—1892), изве¬
стный американский поэт
Geographical Names
the Bering Sea ['benr) 'si:]
the Bering Strait ['benri 'streit]
Берингово море
Берингов пролив
Vocabulary
saga
steppe
scores
to conquer
wilderness
endurance
incalculable
teeming
to flock
misfit
unlettered
grit
to make a go of it
to man
to fashion
stirring
сага, сказание
степь
много
завоевывать
дикая местность, пустыня
выносливость, стойкость, тер¬
пение
неисчислимый
многолюдный; кишащий, изо¬
билующий
стекаться, скапливаться, дер¬
жаться толпой
неудачник
неграмотный, необразованный
твердость характера, выдержка
добиться успеха, преуспеть
снабжать людьми, укомплекто¬
вывать
моделировать
волнующий
34
03 Read the text.
Ellis Island: Gateway to America
From across New York Bay, Ellis Island lies in the shadow of
the Statue of Liberty. Today its handsome buildings may be unfamiliar
to some onlookers from shore; however, Ellis Island “occupies a
permanent place in America’s history. It stands as a constant reminder
of American nation’s immigrant saga. Located just a few hundred
yards north of the Statue of Liberty in New York Harbor, Ellis Island
is a monument to the great traditions of freedom and opportunity in
America.
Ellis Island was a major federal immigration facility in America.
Between 1892 and 1954, 12 million immigrants were processed at
Ellis Island, which means that more than half of the immigrants
entering the United States between those years passed through its
gates. Today more than 40 per cent, or over 100 million, of all
living Americans can trace their roots to an ancestor who came
through Ellis Island. The immigrants arrived with little money, but
a wealth of hopes and dreams. They dreamed of a better life for
themselves and for their children.
Immigrants await processing at Ellis Island
35

While mass examination of immigrants at Ellis Island ended in
1924, it continued to be used as a detention center for immigrants
whose status in the country was questioned. In 1954, the island was
permanently closed as an active immigration station. In 1965,
however, it was added by Presidential Proclamation to the Statue of
Liberty National Monument and was opened for public tours in
1976. In 1984, Ellis Island was closed for a restoration.
The restoration of Ellis Island cost approximately $160 million
and was the largest restoration project of its kind in American history.
Ellis Island reopened to the public on September 10, 1990 with
new exhibits, films, and programs and it is once again receiving
millions of visitors from around the world.
The new Ellis Island Immigration Museum tells the inspiring
story of the largest human migration in modem history . The museum
is located in the 200,000-square-foot Main Building — the most
historically significant structure on Ellis Island. It was here, in
various rooms of the building, where new arrivals — many fearful of
rejection — were inspected and ultimately granted permission to enter
the country. It offers visitors a fascinating complete look at the total
immigrant experience, using innovative displays that feature historic
artifacts and photos, interactive devices, computers and taped
reminiscences of the immigrants themselves.
One of the unique exhibits is the American Immigrant Wall of
Honor, which is devoted solely to the display of thousands of names
of immigrants. Many Americans think that in years to come , children
who visit Ellis Island will be proud to find the name of their grandparent
or great-grandparent recorded with others who came and built
America. They also think that the Wall is a way to make sure that
the values and ideals symbolized by Ellis Island — tolerance,
opportunity and freedom— are transmitted to their children.
Notes and Commentary
the Statue of Liberty — Статуя Свободы, подарок французского
народа, была установлена на острове Бедлоу (ныне, остров Сво¬
боды, расположен рядом с островом Эллис) в 1886 году; работа
скульптора Фредерика Бартольди; основание выполнено Гюс¬
тавом Эйфелем
yard — ярд; равен 91,44 см
36
Geographical Names
New York Bay ['nju: 'jo:k 'bei]	Нью-Йоркский залив
Ellis Island [ elis 'aibnd]	о-в Эллис
Vocabulary
onlooker
случайный зритель, свидетель
reminder
напоминание
to process
подвергать обработке
ancestor
предок
detention center
карантинный лагерь
approximately
приблизительно
inspiring
вдохновляющий
rejection
отказ, отклонение
ultimately
в конечном счете, в конце кон¬
цов
to grant
предоставлять, допускать, доз¬
волять
to feature
показывать, демонстрировать
artifact
экспонат
reminiscence
воспоминание
unique
уникальный
solely
исключительно
tolerance
терпимость
Assignment
K. Comprehension
1. Select the main points of the history of the Ellis Island
Federal Immigration Facility.
2.	Is Ellis Island still an immigration station?
3. What story does the Ellis Island Immigration Museum tell?
4. What is the Wall of Honor devoted to?
Discussion
1.	Explain why Ellis Island is called “a gateway to America”.
37

2. How do you imagine an immigrant arriving in the United
States? Give his (her) description.
3 . Why do you think Ellis Island stopped being an immigration
station?
4. Can you agree with Americans that the Immigrant Wall
of Honor symbolizes tolerance, opportunity and freedom?
5. If you were a descendant of American immigrants, would
you like the name of your predecessors to be mentioned
on the Wall of Honor? Give you reasons.
Ш Read the text and describe the procedure of processing immigrants at
the Ellis Island Immigration station. What information does this text
add to that of the previous one? J
If You Don’t Keep Their Names Alive... Who Will?
Suppose for the moment, that we could return to Ellis Island
when it teemed with immigrants and share the experience of an
immigrant’s progress.
“When I first arrived in this country I was filled with so many
hopes, dreams and tears. One of the greatest fears was of a place
known as Ellis Island, but called by us the ‘Island of Tears’.
“In my village I had heard of this place to be inspected and
may be, it was said, sent home if you did not pass; ‘Sent home to
what? To where?’, I worried. I tried to convince myself that America
would never send me home once I had reached her doors.
“I will never forget the joy I felt when I saw the tall buildings
of New York and the Statue of Liberty after so many dark days on
board that crowded ship. There was the symbol of all my dreams —
freedom to start out in a new life. Then came Ellis Island.
“When I landed the noise and commotion were unbelievable.
There were so many languages being spoken. The shouting and pushing
guards calling out the big numbers on the tags attached to our coats
created more noise and confusion. Surely, I felt, the noise surrounding
the Tower of Babel could not have been worse.
“We were told ‘keep moving’ and ‘hurry up’ as my group was
pushed along one of the dozens of metal railings which divided the
room into several passageways. Immigrants walked along those
38
passageways until they reached the first medical inspector who looked
at face, hair, neck and hands. Interpreters asked, ‘What is your
age?’, ‘What work do you do?’
“I walked on to where a doctor inspected me for diseases.
Again I moved to another doctor, the ‘eye man’ about whom I had
heard so many terrible rumors. I passed inspection but the man in
front was marked with an ‘E’ in chalk on his coat and sent te another
area. I had heard that an ‘E’ meant deportation.
“For a long time I sat on a bench in the main part of the great
hall waiting for the final test. I talked anxiously with those around me
and rehearsed the answers to questions I might be asked about jobs,
money and relatives. Some people said it was best to answer as fully
as possible; others said it was best to say just ‘Yes’ or ‘No’.
“Finally, I went before a tired, stern looking official who
checked my name against the ship’s passenger list and quickly fired
questions at me: ‘Can you read and write?’, ‘Do you have a job
waiting for you?’, ‘Who paid your passage?’, ‘Have you ever been
in prison?’, ‘How much money do you have?’, ‘Let me see it now’.
On and on went the questions until I got more and more confused.
“Suddenly I was handed a landing card. It was hard to believe
the ordeal was over in an afternoon. My fears were unfounded, the
Statue in the harbor had not turned her back on me. America had
accepted me”.
The island is empty of immigrants now and it may be hard to
imagine their laughter and tears echoing throughout the buildings.
By listening hard, however, we may still hear the sound of many
languages they spoke decades ago on the “Island of Tears” .
Notes and Commentary
the Tower of Babel ['beib(a)l] — Вавилонская башня, в строитель¬
стве которой, согласно библейскому преданию, принимало уча¬
стие несметное количество людей. Заставив их говорить на раз¬
ных языках, Бог не позволил людям построить башню до неба.
Vocabulary
to convince
убеждать
39

commotion	волнение, смятение, суматоха
tag	ярлык, метка
railing	ограда, перила
rumor	слух
anxiously	с беспокойством, озабоченно
to rehearse	репетировать
stern	строгий, суровый", неумоли¬
мый
passage	переезд,	проезд
landing card	декларация
ordeal	тяжелое испытание
to accept	принимать
ш Read the text.
The Involuntary Immigrants
Thomas Jefferson, the author of the first draft of the
Declaration of Independence, which boldly recognized that “all
men are created equal”, was himself a prosperous slave-owner. The
nation that first proclaimed the essential dignity of man also officially
sanctioned the ownership of one man by another.
Of all America’s immigrant peoples, only the Africans came in
chains. Although slavery had a long, bitter history in America, it
never took root in the North, mostly because Northern farms and
factories were initially too small to require large labor forces such as
those provided by slaves. It must be said that Northern disapproval
of slavery and slave-owning rarely came into play when a profit was
at stake. So, many New England fortunes rested on the shipment
and sale of slaves to buyers in Southern ports.
Even in the South, however, white servants outnumbered
black slaves in every Colony until 1700. But gradually the South
developed great plantations of rice, sugar, and tobacco, which
demanded large numbers of workers. Consequently slavery became
the very foundation of the Southern economy.
No one knows how many African men, women, and children
were shipped to the New World aboard slave vessels, but estimates
range as high as 24 million. Perhaps one of every four died on the
40
10-week voyage. Shackled below deck in foul-smelling, tight-packed
rows, they subsided on stagnant water and stale provisions. Those
who fell ill were thrown overboard. Many went mad or died struggling
with their captors or by throwing themselves into the sea. By 1776
there were some 500 thousand slaves in the Colonies.
The sudden demand for Southern cotton turned slave trading
into an enormously profitable industry. Once ashore, the slaves were
at the mercy of their masters’ whims. The best they could expect was
unremitting toil; the worst was cruelty and even death. Although all
Northern States had barred slavery by 1804, it was maintained in the
South until the end of the Civil War. By 1860 there were well over
4 million slaves in the United States.
Those black Africans and their descendants proved an
astonishingly resilient and resourceful people. Forced to work long
hours, kept even from learning to read the Bible for fear they would
be inspired to rebel, they managed to establish their own clandestine
churches, develop their own African-tinged music and folklore,
and express in myriad ways their longing to be free.
Slave revolts were rare. The few that did develop were brutally
crushed.
The conflict over slavery and States rights eventually came
to dominate American politics and finally drove the Nation to a
terrible and bloody Civil War. The Emancipation Proclamation
and the Union Army — with the aid of some 186,000 black
volunteers — finally freed the slaves and the 13th Amendment to
the Constitution made their freedom official. The 14th Amendment
granted blacks citizenship and the 15th Amendment gave them
the right to vote.
Notes and Commentary
Thomas Jefferson ['tomss 'd3ef3san] — Джефферсон Томас (1743—
1826), государственный деятель, активный участник Амери¬
канской революции, автор Декларации независимости; 3-й пре¬
зидент США
the Declaration of Independence — Декларация независимости,
объявившая свободными от господства Великобритании пер¬
вые тринадцать колоний. Традиционно считается, что Декла¬
рация была принята и подписана 4 июля 1776 года.
41

the Emancipation Proclamation — Декларация эмансипации, до¬
кумент, подписанный 22 сентября 1862 года президентом Ав¬
раамом Линкольном, 16-м президентом США (1809-1865), об
эмансипации негритянского населения в пределах тех юэкных
территорий, которые все еще назывались Конфедерацией. Это
решение сыграло огромную роль? во-первых, иностранные дер¬
жавы после опубликования документа уже не могли выступить
на стороне рабовладельческого Юга; во-вторых, освобожден¬
ные рабы сотнями тысяч присоединялись к войскам Севера и
внесли свой вклад в победу Севера Над Югом,
the Union Army -- армия Союза северных штатов во время Граж¬
данской войны (1861—1865); главнокомандующим Союзными
войсками был Улисс Грант, Конфедеративными — Эдвард Ро¬
берт Ли
Amendments to the Constitution — поправки к Конституции США,
внесение которых в текст предусмотрено самой Конституцией
Vocabulary
involuntary
непроизвольный,' невольный
boldly
решительно^ смело
prosperous
процветающий, богатый
essential
неотъемлемый, существенный
dignity
достоинство
to take root
укорениться
disapproval
неодобрение
to come into play
действовать, иметь значение
to be at stake
быть поставленным на карту
to outnumber
превосходить численно
consequently
в результате этого
to shackle
заковывать в кандалы
foul-smelling
отвратительно пахнущий
to subside
зд. жить, кормиться
stagnant
стоячий, тухлый
stale
несвежий
overboard
за борт
captor
захвативший в плен
ashore
на берегу
at the mercy
во власти, на милость
42
прихоть, каприз
беспрестанный
тяжелый труд
запрещать
несгибаемый
восставать
тайный	t*
окрашивать, придавать оттенок
страстное желание
мятеж, восстание
доброволец
Assignment
fp Discussion
1. Enlarge upon the phrase: ‘'.„Northern disapproval of slavery
and slave-owning rarely came into play when a profit was
at stake”.
2. Why are the Africans called “involuntary” immigrants?
Can you compare the way they came to the US with the
way other immigrants arrived?
3. Using your background knowledge, prove that black
Africans are resilient and resourceful people.
whim
unremitting
toil
to bar
resilient
to rebel
clandestine
to tinge
longing
revolt
volunteer
Look through and compare the poem and the text. Say which of the
ideas of the poem find their realization in the text.
Afro-American Migration (1915-1940)
I am fed up
With Jim Crow laws,
People who are cruel
And afraid,
Who lynch and run,
Who are scared of me
And me of them.
I pick up my life
And take it away
On a one-way ticket —*
Gone up North,
Gone out West,
Gone!
Langston Hughes
43

Between 1915 and 1940, hundreds of thousands of black
Americans left the South and migrated to the cities of the North.
This “Great Migration” changed both the lives of the Afro-American
migrants and the racial status quo in much of the North.
The national impact of this crucial period in Afro-American
and American history was immense. The Great Migration altered
the very structure of American society and thrust the question of the
“colour line” onto the national agenda. Newcomers, faced with an
existence far different from their lives in the South, helped to create
a new, more aggressive Afro-American community in the large,
predominantly black neighbourhoods that emerged in northern cities.
Black ghettos in major cities became centers of a vibrant Afro-
American culture in spite of the poverty, prejudice, crime, crowding,
and disease that accompanied their growth. Despite the odds, increasing
numbers of blacks worked their way into the professions, while others
became prominent in sports and entertainment. Black Americans have
had a lasting influence on the Nation’s cultural and artistic life, while
millions of Negroes in more prosaic Callings — men and women, slave
and free — have played an important role in building the economy.
Notes and Commentary
Jim Crow laws ['d3im 'krou 'b:z] — законы Джима Кроу. Практика
дискриминации и сегрегации чернокожего населения США (осо¬
бенно на территории бывшей Конфедерации) получила название
«Джим Кроу» и происходит от популярной в XIX веке песни.
Фраза «законы Джима Кроу» используется для обозначения при¬
нятых после Гражданской войны Конгрессом США законов, обес¬
печивающих превосходство белого населения над чернокожим.
Vocabulary
impact	влияние, воздействие
crucial	'	решающий, критический
immense	огромный, чрезвычайный
to alter	изменять, переделывать
to thrust	толкать, проталкивать
agenda	повестка дня
to emerge	возникать, появляться, всплы¬
вать
44
vibrant	живой, полный	жизни
prejudice	предубеждение,	предрассудок
odds	неравенство
calling	призвание, профессия
ш *Scan the text for the information which will enable you to speak on
civil liberties and civil rights. Use a dictionary whenever necessary.
The Search for Equality
America in the 1950s was beset by controversies over civil
liberties and civil rights. Negroes, particularly those who had moved
to the north, were at last beginning to demand some economic
independence. Wartime jobs had provided many with new
opportunities to learn skills and gain promotion. Blacks were also
gaining some political leverage; voting in blocks in such large cities
as Detroit, Chicago, and Cleveland, they often held the balance of
power in elections. But while there was some progress, it was partial
and erratic.
Blacks, however, began to find unexpected allies and make
strong gains among concerned religious groups, in the growing
influence of biratial organizations, and, most importantly, in the
courts. Slowly but surely legal barriers to equality in everything from
education and voting rights to sitting in bus terminals were declared
unconstitutional.
Gradually school districts in the South began complying fully
with Federal Court desegregation orders. But although segregation
was no longer sanctioned by law, many schools in both the North
and South remained segregated in fact, because they were located in
all-white or all-black neighbourhoods.
Negroes by this time had taken many of the issues into their
own hands. A crucial step forward was the 1955—56 bus boycott in
Montgomery, Alabama, led by a young Baptist minister, Martin
Luther King. Although Dr. King and other ministers were thrown
into jail for a brief time, segregated seating in Montgomery buses
and, later, in all forms of transportation was ended, and a new era
in nonviolent resistance to discrimination was begun.
Such organizations as King’s Southern Christian Leadership
45

Conference and the Congress of Racial Equality organized scores of
blacks and whites, many of them college students, to participate in
demonstrations, Sit-ins, and freedom rides. All were efforts to
force businessmen — storekeepers, hotel managers, and bus line
owners — to end discrimination. In some cases the reaction of
Southern whites was positive, and a number of chain stores, hotels,
and eating places stopped segregation practices. In many instances,
however, the demonstrators were booed, spat on, and even
physically harmed.
In the mid-1960s the problems of bettering the lot of the
disadvantaged outran the progress achieved. Some angry young black
activists turned away from the nonviolent methods and joined various
militant separatist groups.
In many places there was violence. In the long, hot summer
of 1965, rioting broke out in Los Angeles. Buildings were burnt,
stores looted, and blacks and whites alike were killed. Two years
later violence started in the black ghettos of Newark, New Jersey,
and Detroit, Michigan, and spread to some 20 other communities.
In 1968 Dr. Martin Luther King was assassinated (for motives
never satisfactory explained) as he stood on a motel balcony in
Memphis, Tennessee. James Earl Ray, a white southerner, pleaded
guilty to the murder and was sentenced to a 99-year prison term.
By the mid-1970s, although much had been made in the
battle for improvement, the social evils of discrimination against
minority groups and the poor, lack of opportunity, unequal education
and health care, unemployment, hunger, and slum living remained
ugly realities in the eyes of all who cared to look. It was obvious
that city, State, and national agencies were failing to cope with
the growing problems. There was general agreement on what to
do, but most Americans had at least become aware that finding
workable solutions was a matter of urgency and worthy of their
utmost efforts.
Notes and Commentary
Federal Court (Supreme Court, High Court) — Верховный суд,
главное звено юридической системы США; состоит из 9-ти су¬
дей; его решения окончательны и подлежат исполнению всеми
юридическими органами. В последние десятилетия федеральные
46
судебные власти оказывают большое влияние и на законода¬
тельную структуру.
Montgomery, Alabama [тэп(1)'длтэп] [,эе1э'Ьэетэ] — город Монт¬
гомери, штат Алабама. После географического названия горо¬
да в США обычно употребляется название штата во избежание
путаницы с одноименными городами Великобритании и других
стран.
Southern Christian Leadership Conference, the Congress of Racial
Equality — известные общественные организации США, создан¬
ные для борьбы негритянского населения за свой гражданские
права
Geographical Names
Detroit [di'troit]	г.	Детройт
Chicago [fi'kargou]	г.	Чикаго
Cleveland ['klirvbndj	г.	Кливленд
Newark ['nju(:)9k]	г.	Ньюарк
New Jersey ['nju; 'd33:zi]	Нью-Джерси (штат)
Michigan ['mifigan]	Мичиган (штат)
Memphis ['memfis]	г.	Мемфис
Assignment
Comprehension
Make up a list of topical vocabulary.
Discussion
Why do you think it became possible to maintain segregation
and racial discrimination?
Revision Assignment
1.	Answer the question of one of the inquisitive Frenchmen:
“What is then the American, this new man?”
47

Your friend thinks that the US is a “melting pot fueled
by the clash of immigrant cultures”. You have a different
viewpoint. Explain your reasons.
Do you think we can define the history of the Russian
people as “the saga of migration”?
Ethnic minorities in Russia: problems and perspectives.
Ш Read the text.
Pre-Colonial America
Before Europeans set foot on the American continent, complex
cultures flourished in different parts of the Americas. Those peoples
varied enormously, ranging from poor nomadic food gatherers of the
interior plains of North America to opulent fishing societies of the
Pacific North-West, from the woodland hunting tribes of what is
now the northern United States to the wealthy and powerful peoples
of Central America. Together they constituted somewhere between
fifty and one hundred million people, of which about ten million
lived in North America. Many areas in the western hemisphere
contained denser populations than regions of Western Europe in the
age of Christopher Columbus. America was not “a vacant wasteland”
awaiting the arrival of “civilized Europeans”.
Unit III
HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
4—1870

Across the continent, from the Great Lakes to the Atlantic
seaboard, lived groups of interrelated cultures. Speaking such languages
as Siouxan, Algonquian, and Iroquoisan, they formed complicated
societies that often differed markedly from one another. Relying
upon agriculture, as well as on fishing, hunting and trapping, the
peoples of the Eastern Woodlands built stable villages, some of them
with as many as five thousand inhabitants. Living either in birch-
covered wigwams or in re'ctangular longhouses, they usually palisaded
their villages with long stockades. They also possessed, in their
light birch-bark canoes, a reliable means of commerce and
communication with other tribes.
The chiefdoms of the Pacific Northwest were blessed with an
incredibly rich environment based on the vast stock of fish, especially
salmon, and abundant edible plants. The large succulent fish annually
made their way upstream to spawn and then return to the sea, and
the indigenous peoples learned to make nets and weirs to harvest
this crop. The natives of the region also developed techniques to
preserve their fish, thus assuring sufficient food in seasons of scarcity.
The natural abundance encouraged the formation of a sedentary
society even though agriculture remained generally undeveloped in
this region.
Notes and Commentary
Siouxan, Algonquian, Iroquoisan ['sirzan] [ael'gor)k(w)i3n]
['irakwoizan] — языки сиу, алгонкинский, ирокезский были
языками индейцев разных племен — коренных жителей Аме¬
рики
Vocabulary
nomadic	кочевой
opulent	обильный, богатый
tribe	племя, род
hemisphere	полушарие
dense	густонаселенный
wasteland	зд. пустующая	земля
birch	береза
50
rectangular	прямоугольный
longhouse	длинный вигвам у ирокезов и
других индейских племен,
используемый для обществен¬
ных нужд
stockade	частокол
bark	кора (дерева)
means	средство, способ
chiefdotn	территория племени
abundant	изобилующий, обильный, бо¬
гатый
edible	съедобный
succulent	зд. крупный
to spawn	метать икру
indigenous	туземный, местный
weir	запруда, плотина
scarcity	нехватка, недостаток
sedentary	оседлый обществе)
Assignment
■Js- Comprehension
Supply answers to the following questions.
1) What flourished in different parts of the Americas?
2) Was America a “vacant wasteland”?
3) What kind of people lived on the territory of the would-
be United States?
4) How can you describe the environment in which Native
Americans lived?
t!? Discussion
1.	Find the sentences (sentence) which	fully correspond
(corresponds) to the title and account	for your choice.
2.	Compress the text to four sentences.	Write down the
summary.
51

ш Read the text. Consult the dictionary if needed.
How It All Started
Although intrepid Norsemen skirted the New World’s Northern
shore about A. D, 1000, the news of their discovery remained veiled
in the mist of Viking sagas for centuries. The Americas were not
visited again until 1492, when Christopher Columbus reached the
Bahamas. North America was at first considered nothing but a
vast, maddening obstacle between spice-hungry Europe and the riches
of the Orient. For 150 years it remained largely unsettled by
Europeans. During that time, however, Spanish adventurers roamed
Florida, the gulf coast, and the Southwest in a vain search for
treasure. French voyagcurs braved the Canadian wilderness in pursuit
of furs, and Dutch and Swedish traders established small outposts on
the Northeast coast in present-day New York and Delaware.
The English, too; came looking for easy riches. In December
1606, a London Company sent a group of settlers on board three shi ps
to colonize the North American territory called Virginia. They reached
the New World in May 1607 and founded Jamestown, which became
the first permanent English settlement on the American continent.
The most well-described in all history books is probably the
landing of the “Mayflower” in November 1620. Instead of reaching
the mouth of the Hudson River, battered off course by Atlantic storms,
the sturdy little ship approached the Massachusetts coast and anchored
in Plymouth harbor. The leaders (part of a religious group later
called Pilgrims) resolved to land anyhow. The 102 passengers founded
New England’s first Colony, and it was the Mayflower Compact (a
number of rules and regulations) that kept the Colony united till
1691, when Plymouth became part of the Massachusetts Bay Colony.
The British proved more adaptable than their rivals and readier
to see the possibilities of colonization. Between 1607, when the first
ill-equipped settlers landed at Jamestown, and 1733, when a shipload
of British debtors went ashore to found Georgia, Britain managed to
establish a dozen bustling Colonies.
By the 1770s Britain had eliminated — almost completely—
its chief competitor, France, from the North American Continent.
The British Colonies, scattered along the Atlantic seaboard,
varied widely. They could even be called the different worlds of colonial
America. The regional variations can be presented in the following way.
52
New England Colonies
Massachusetts Puritans spread inland and along the coast to
people this region’s stony soil. Most became small farmers or artisans,
dwelt in villages, and fiercely insisted on self-government. Others
depended on the sea: they fished, built or manned ships, or traded
with England. Busy ports, such as Boston and Newport, were
havens for merchants who slyly evaded British attempts to tax and
regulate their trade with French and Dutch colonies.
Middle Colonies
New York, New Jersey, and Delaware, first settled by Dutch
and Swedish traders, and Pennsylvania were the most cosmopolitan
of the English Colonies. Most residents were prosperous farmers,
but numbers of tradesmen, mechanics, and shippers clustered around
Philadelphia and New York. More genial and tolerant than New
England, more energetic than, the South, the Middle Colonies best
represented the creative ferment of classes and cultures that would
characterize America after the Revolution.
Southern	Colonies
Agriculture was the heart of Southern life, and the tidal rivers
were its arteries. Along their banks flourished vast, self-sufficient
plantations that shipped their crops to foreign markets from their
own wharves. Because plantations were scattered and isolated,
development of the South lagged behind that of the other Colonies;
Charleston was its only real city until after the Revolution. Along
the Appalachian Frontier independent woodsmen cultivated small
farms.
From the above description one can see that some Colonies
were divided into hundreds of small farms; others had a few sprawling
plantations intermingled with smaller holdings; yet others traded
and shipped. But all Colonies had something in common — they
drew sustenance from the production of agricultural and other raw
materials for the mother country.
The Colonies often quarreled among themselves, but loyalty
to the King and faith in parliamentary self-government were common
to all. As long as the distant rulers kept their hands off local affairs,
relations were generally friendly. It was only after 1763, when London
sought closer control over their affairs without consulting them,
that the colonists rebelled.
53

Notes and Commentary
A. D. ['ei 'di:] (anno Domini) — лат. нашей эры
Geographical Names
the Bahamas [ba'haimaz]
Delaware ['debweaj
Virginia [уэ'ёзгщэ]
Jamestown ['d3eimztaun]
the Hudson River ['ludsan 'rivaj
Georgia ['d3o:d3ia]
Newport ['nju:po:tj
Pennsylvania [(pensil'veinja]
Charleston ['tjcdstan]
Assignment
7s. Comprehension
Make up a list of topical vocabulary.
ft? Discussion
1. Speak about the most important events in the history of
British settlement in the New World.
2. Prove that the British Colonies, scattered along the Atlantic
coast, varied widely at the end of the 18th century.
Ш Read the text.
The Making of a People
By the end of the 18th century, the whole of the Eastern
coast of North America had been colonized. The entirely separate
Colonies differed widely, and their differences generated almost
Багамские о-ва
Делавер {штат)
Виргиния {штат)
г. Джеймстаун
р. Гудзон
Джорджия {штат)
г. Ньюпорт
Пенсильвания {штат)
г. Чарльстон
54
constant sectional friction. There were bitter inter-colonial
squabbles over religion, trade and boundaries. Within the Colonies,
too, there were disagreements between factions, in some cases
resulting in civil wars. “Fire and Water are not more heterogeneous
than the different Colonies in N6rth America”, wrote one early
visitor, and until 1754 even repeated threats of annihilation by
France and its allies failed to produce unity.
Yet, despite their differences, the colonists were slowly
transformed into one quarrelsome but distinctive people. Several
factors contributed to this process. Perhaps the most important was
t)ie fact that the colonists were overwhelmingly Protestant and English.
They shared the English language, they believed in British customs
and traditions of parliamentary self-government and trial by jury,
and they were loyal to the British King. Their rich colonial culture —
their books and buildings, fabrics and furnishings, portraits and
poetry — was solidly based on British models. They saw themselves
as transplanted Englishmen and called England “home”, though
after the first generation most had never been there. Major exceptions
to this early homogeneity were the Dutch of New Netherland,
Germans and Scotch-Irish on the backwoods frontier, and large
numbers of African slaves.
The very fact of leaving the settled life of the Old World
for the uncertainties of the New one bespoke a profound
independence of mind and spirit. The vast majority of the colonists
were farmers who owned and worked their land. They were all
animated with the spirit of an industry which was unrestrained
because each person worked for himself without any part being
claimed by a despotic prince, a rich abbot or a mighty lord.
Such self-employment bred self-reliance and the determination
to succeed.
Notes and Commentary
New Netherland ['nju: 'netblsndj — Новые Нидерланды. К 1626 году
голландские купцы расселились на берегах реки Гудзон и назва¬
ли свою колонию Новыми Нидерландами; спустя девять лет
англичане захватили эту территорию и переименовали в Нью-
Йорк.
55

Vocabulary
friction
squabble
faction
heterogeneous
annihilation
overwhelmingly
trial by jury
to bespeak
to be animated
unrestrained
конфликт, трения
ссора из-за пустяков
фракция, группа
разнородный
уничтожение
в подавляющем большин¬
стве
суд присяжных
свидетельствовать
быть воодушевленным
зд. несдерживаемый
Assignment
Comprehension
Prove with the help of the text that:
1) there were inner- and inter-colonial squabbles at the
turn of the century.
2) several factors contributed to the colonists’ transformation
into one quarrelsome but distinctive people.
3) the colonists were people with independent mind and
spirit.
\k Discussion
1.	Compare the text above with the text “How it all started”.
Can you point out common elements (ideas, problems,
etc.) which unite both texts?
2.	How do you understand the words of one early visitor who
compared the Colonies to Fire and Water?
3.	Do you support the author’s idea that the very fact of the
colonists’ working for themselves meant a lot? ..Give your
reasons.
4.	Using the text and any other source of information, say
what the first colonists of New England were like.
56
SB Read the text.
Britain and the Colonies
Whatever their private wishes, the King and his ministers
could maintain only minimal control over their far-off possessions,
separated from them by some 3,000 miles of open sea. For the
colonists, the great thing about this empire, apart from the sheer
pride of belonging to it, was that it let you alone. Some colonists
lived a lifetime without ever encountering a royal official, and they
had far more control of their own government than their compatriots
in Britain had.
Only in matters of trade did England have a consistent imperial
policy. The Colonies were expected to supply the mother country
with raw and semi-finished materials, including furs, fish, rice,,
tobacco and timber. In exchange they received a host of manufactured
goods from the homeland. Both sides profited handsomely. Special
Acts of the British Parliament required that all American goods
should be carried in British or colonial vessels and sold only to
British buyers. Those Acts discouraged American manufacturing so
as to protect British firms from competition. American trade with
other nations or their colonies was officially forbidden. And even in
this situation, favorable for itself, the Crown decided to tighten the
grip on the Colonies.
Since Britain’s treasury was almost empty after different wars,
Parliament asked the colonists to contribute towards the cost of
maintaining the British army through centrally-raised taxes. But
there was serious opposition to this “taxation without representation”
(the British Parliament did not contain any American-elected
members).
After the taxes had been repealed, there was relative peace
everywhere except Boston, but when Parliament freed the tea of the
nearly bankrupt British East India Company from import duties,
numerous merchants throughout the colonies were threatened with
bankruptcy, and colonial opinion united against the British. So,
when the first cargoes of this tea arrived in Boston harbor, the
American Patriots boarded the three ships on the night of the 16th of
December 1773 and threw the tea into the sea. It was the famous
Boston Tea Party.
The British Parliament reacted to this “act of vandalism” by
57

closing Boston harbor. In return to this, representatives from every
colony, except Georgia, met in Philadelphia in the First Continental
Congress in September 1774 and replied by imposing a trade embargo
on Britain. For 15 months Britain’s North American Colonies had
been in revolt. Gradually, the daring word “independence” was on
everyone’s lips, and a cause, thought radical only a few months
earlier, had achieved an astounding degree of respectability.
In early June 1776, representatives of American Colonies met
in Philadelphia in the Second Continental Congress to formalize
their rebellion by adopting a Declaration of Independence. They
chose Thomas Jefferson to draft the Declaration. On July 4, 1776,
after having made several revisions in Jefferson’s text, the Congress
adopted the Declaration. One delegation, New York, abstained.
No man among those present at the Congress could, on that day,
foresee the outcome; yet each well knew that before peace was
restored, he and his countrymen would have to endure a long period
of privation and strife.
The United States of America was born, but its survival
remained to be determined by the uncertain fortunes of war.
Notes and Commentary
the British East India Company — британская компания, через
которую проходила основная торговля Великобритании с Ин¬
дией; в 1773 году оказалась в трудном финансовом положе¬
нии
American Patriots — члены революционной организации «Сыны
свободы», которая возникла в связи с тем, что Англия попы¬
талась установить более строгий режим в своих американских
колониях
the Boston Tea Party — так называемое Бостонское чаепитие;
явилось результатом попытки введения британскими властями
налогов на потребительские товары и услуги (согласно закону о
Гербовом сборе “Stamp Act” и «чайному» закону “Tea Act”)
Geographical Names
Philadelphia [.fild'delfio] г. Филадельфия
.	58
Vocabulary
to encounter
timber
treasury
to repeal
duty
to impose an embargo
daring
astounding
to abstain
to foresee the outcome
to endure
privation
strife
survival
встретйть(ся)
лесоматериал, строевой лес
зд. казна
отменять, аннулировать
пошлина, гербовый сбор»*
ввести эмбарго
дерзкий, смелый
изумляющий, поражающий
воздержаться
предвидеть результат (исход)
выдерживать, терпеть, выно¬
сить
лишение, нужда
борьба
выживание
Assignment
"S. Comprehension
Supply answers to the following questions.
1) Why could the Crown maintain only minimal control
over its New World Colonies?
2) How can you describe the trade policy of England?
3) What was the main reason for tightening Britain’s grip
on the Colonies?
4) Why did the famous Boston Tea Party take place?
5) What was the reaction of the British Parliament to this
“act of vandalism”?
6) What happened in early June 1776?
’б’ Discussion
1. In logical order, enumerate the events that preceded the
Second Continental Congress. Define the importance of
each event.
2. Give another title to the text and explain you choice.
59

Ш Read the first passage and say what the whole text will be about.
Then read the remaining passages and compare the given information
with your prediction.
The Declaration: History of Creation
In the summer of 1776, when it occurred to the delegates
assembled in Philadelphia that they needed a document to spell out
the grounds of their dissatisfaction with Britain, the task was handed
to Thomas Jefferson. To us, he seems the obvious choice. He was
not.
In 1776 Thomas Jefferson was a fairly obscure figure, even in
his own Virginia. Aged just thirty three, he was the second youngest
of the delegates and one of the least experienced. The Second
Continental Congress was in fact his first exposure to a wider world
of affairs beyond those of his native Colony.
He had not been selected to attend the First Continental
Congress and should not have been at the Second. He was called
only as a late replacement for Payton Randolph, who had been
summoned home to Virginia.
Jefferson’s reputation rested almost entirely on one of his essays,
written two years earlier, advising the British on how they ought to
conduct themselves in their principal overseas possession. Although
the essay had gained him some attention as a writer, to his fellow
Virginia delegates he was known as a dilettante and admired for the
breadth of his reading in an age when that truly meant something.
He was adept at seven languages;
By no means, however, did he have what might be called a
national standing. Nor did he display any evidence of desiring one.
He showed a distinct lack of keenness to get to Philadelphia: on his
way there he stopped to shop for books and to buy a horse, and
once there he said almost nothing. “During the whole time I sat
with him I never heard him utter three sentences together”, John
Adams later marveled.
Moreover, Jefferson went home to Virginia in December
1776, in the midst of debates, and did not return for nearly five
months. Had he been able, he would gladly have abandoned the
Congress altogether, leaving the drafting of the Declaration of
Independence to someone else in order to take part in drawing up a
new constitution for Virginia, a matter much closer to his heart.
60
Nonetheless, because he showed a “peculiar felicity for
expression”, in John Adams’s words, he was one of five men chosen
to draft the Declaration of Independence — John Adams, Benjamin
Franklin, Roger Sherman and Robert R. Livingston were the
others — and this Committee of Five in turn selected him to come
up with a working draft.
The purpose, as Jefferson saw it, was“not to find out n6V
principles, or new arguments, never before thought of, not merely
to say things which had never been said before; but to place before
mankind the common sense of the subject, in terms so plain and
firm as to command their assent”. But of course the Declaration of
Independence is much more than that. As one politician has written,
it stands as “perhaps the only piece of practical politics that is also
theoretical politics and also great literature”.
The signing of the Declaration of Independence
The first adopted form of the Declaration was given the title “A
Declaration by the Representatives of the United States of America,
in General Congress Assembled” It was the first time the country
had been officially designated the United States of America, though
in fact until 1778 the formal title was the United States of North
61

America. Even after the Declaration, “united” was often left lower
case, as if to emphasize it was merely descriptive, and the country
was variously referred to throughout the Civil War as “the Colonies”,
“the united Colonies”, the “United Colonies of America” or “the
United Colonies of North America”. The last two are the forms
under which officers were commissioned into the army.
Notes and Commentary
Payton Randolph ['peitan 'raendalf] — Пейтон Рандольф, главный
кандидат от Виргинии на второй Континентальный Конгресс
dilettante [,dili'taenti] — дилетант. Это слово, заимствованное в
английский язык из итальянского, во времена Американской
революции еще не приобрело отрицательных коннотаций и при¬
менялось для описания человека, который восхищался богат¬
ством человеческих возможностей.
John Adams ['бзэп 'aedamz] — Адамс Джон (1735—1826), государ¬
ственный деятель, активный участник Американской револю¬
ции; 2-й президент США
Benjamin Franklin [Ъепбзэтт 'frasnklin] — Франклин Бенджа¬
мин (1706—1790), государственный деятель, ученый, изобре¬
татель, писатель, активный участник Американской револю¬
ций
Roger Sherman ['гэбзэ 'Jaman], Robert R. Livingston ['robat a:
'livirjstan] — Шерман Роджер, Ливингстон Роберт, государствен¬
ные деятели, участники Американской революции
Vocabulary
to spell out the grounds	изложить основные причины
obscure	неизвестный, незаметный, не¬
понятный
to summon	вызывать
breadth	широта (кругозора)
to be adept	знать, владеть
standing	положение, вес (в обществе)
felicity	способность (к языку), мет¬
кость (выражения)
62
to command smb’s assent	зд. добиться чьей-либо	благо¬
склонности
lower case	строчная буква
to commission	призывать
Assignment	t*
f}’ Discussion
1. Using the facts from the text, explain to your fellow-
students the way you understand the words: “...the task
was handed to Thomas Jefferson. To us, he seems the
obvious choice. He was not.”
2. From the text select the statement which best expresses its
main idea.
3. Make up a plan of the text. Discuss its points with your
fellow-students.
4. Give a brief history of the Russian Constitution. Present
it in written form.
Ш Read the text.
Another Mystery
That the signing of the Declaration of Independence is
celebrated on July 4 is one of American history’s most singular
mistakes. America did not declare independence on July 4, 1776.
That had happened two days earlier, when the proposal was adopted.
The proceedings on July 4 were a mere formality endorsing the
form of words that were to be used to announce this breach. Most
people had no doubt that July 2 was the day that would ring through
the ages. “The second day of July, 1776 will be the most memorable
Epocha in the History of America”, John Adams wrote to his wife
on July 3.
John Dunlap, a Philadelphia printer, hastily ran off an
apparently unknown number of copies. Dunlap’s version was dated
July 4, and it was this, evidently, that persuaded the nation to make
63

that the day of revelry. The next year, at any rate, the great event
was being celebrated on the fourth, and so it has stayed ever since.
It was celebrated “with Pomp and Parade, with Shews, Games,
Sports, Guns, Bells, Bonfires, and Illuminations from one End of
this Continent to the other”, in John Adams’s words. The first
anniversary saw the entrance of a new word into the language:
“fireworks”. Fireworks themselves were not new, but previously they
had been called “rockets”.
Until recently only twenty four of Dunlap’s copies were thought
to have survived — two in private hands and the rest lodged with
institutions. But in 1992 a shopper at a flea market in Philadelphia
found a copy folded into the back of a picture frame, apparently as
padding. It was estimated to be worth up to $3 million.
So, July 4, 1776, was not Independence Day. Still less
was the Declaration signed on that day, except by the president of
the proceedings, John Hancock, and the secretary, Charles
Thomson. It was not signed on July 4 because it had first to be
transcribed on to parchment. The official signing did not begin
until August 2 and was not concluded until 1781 when Thomas
McKean of Delaware, the last of the signatories, finally put his
name to it. Such was the fear of reprisal that the names of the
signers were not released until January 1777, six months after the
Declaration’s adoption.
Equally mistaken is the idea that adoption of the Declaration
of Independence was announced to a breathless Philadelphia on
July 4 by the ringing of the Liberty Bell. For one thing, the
Declaration was not read out in Philadelphia until July 8, and there
is no record of any bells being rung. Indeed, though the Liberty Bell
was there, it was not so called until 1847 when the whole inspiring
episode was recounted in a book titled “Washington and His
Generals”, written by one George Lippard, whose previous literary
efforts had been confined almost exclusively to producing third-rate
novels. He made the whole thing up.
Notes and Commentary
John Dunlap ['d3on 'dxntap] — Данлэп Джон, издатеЛь, опубли¬
ковавший Декларацию 4 июля и тем самым повлиявший на
неправильное установление даты Дня независимости США
64
John Hancock [%)п Ъэепкэк], Charles Thomson ['tjculz 'tomsan] —
Хэнкок Джон, Томсон Чарльз, делегаты второго Континен¬
тального Конгресса, первыми подписавшие Декларацию неза¬
висимости
Thomas McKean ['tomas m(a)'ki:n] — Маккин Томас, делегат вто¬
рого Континентального Конгресса, последним подписавший
Декларацию
George Lippard ['d3o:d3 'lipad] — Липпард Джордж, писатель, со¬
гласно версии которого подписание Декларации сопровожда¬
лось звоном Колокола независимости
Vocabulary
зд. заседание
подтверждать
разрыв
лат. поворотный пункт, пере¬
ломный момент
напечатать
пир, пиршество, праздник
редк. зрелища, шоу
блошиный рынок
подкладка
пергамент
репрессия
рассказывать
ограничиваться
Assignment
"Js. Comprehension
Say what is wrong here.
1) America declared independence on July 4, 1776.
2) John Dunlap published his version of the Declaration
on July 4, 1776.
3) John Hancock was the first to sign the Declaration of
Independence.
65
proceedings
to endorse
breach
epocha
to run off
revelry
shew (= show)
flea market
padding
parchment
reprisal
to recount
to be confined (to)
5—1870

4) The signing of the Declaration was greeted by the ringing
of the Liberty Bell.
5) The copy of the Declaration which was found at a flea
market in Philadelphia was of no importance.
Ф Discussion
1. From the text pick out the information that was new to
you.
2. Do you think Americans should change the date of their
Independence Day?
3. Tell your friend everything you know about our In¬
dependence Day.
РЦ Read the text. .
Struggle for Independence
The members of the Second Continental Congress belonged to
the elite of colonial society. They were men of status and wealth,
men who in normal circumstances might be expected to shrink from
the yery word “rebellion” and seek shelter under the comforting
mantle of established authority. Yet in July 1776 those men—
successful lawyers, merchants, ministers, plantation owners, and
artisans — signed their names to one of the most revolutionary
documents of modem times in which they pledged to each other
“our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor” in the cause of
American independence and the seemingly quixotic ideal that “all
men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with
certain unalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and
the Pursuit of Happiness”.
The American War of Independence — with George Washington
as Commander-in-Chief— lasted for about six years. American
troops4 most of them undermanned, ill-trained, and poorly equipped,
harassed and stung British forces that were often overwhelmingly
superior in numbers and weapons: Occasionally the Americans
advanced, but more often they retreated; and often their cause seemed
hopeless.
66
After the American victory in the Battle of Saratoga in
October 1777, the French entered the war, providing decisive
military and economic assistance. The fighting ended when
Washington, aided by the French army and navy, surrounded the
British forces at Yorktown in October 1781. The peace settlement,
signed two years later, recognized the independence, freedom
and sovereignty of the thirteen Colonies. But at that time the
United States of America was not a real Nationr it was a loosely
knit confederation brought together by common dissatisfaction
and shared aspirations.
Notes and Commentary
Saratoga [.saere'touga] — Саратога, населенный пункт в восточ¬
ной части штата Нью-Йорк, где в период революции амери¬
канскими войсками была одержана решающая победа над анг¬
лийской армией
Yorktown [jo:ktaun] — Йорктаун, город в Виргинии, где 17 ок¬
тября 1781 года британская армия потерпела сокрушительное
поражение
Vocabulary
to shrink
mantle
artisan
to pledge
sacred
quixotic
to endow
Creator
unalienable
pursuit
undermanned
to harass
зд. избегать
покров
ремесленник
торжественно обещать, пору¬
чать, ручаться, давать сло¬
во
священный
донкихотский
даровать, наделять
Создатель, Бог
неотъемлемый
поиск, стремление (к)
имеющий некомплект личного
состава, численно слабый
изнурять, изматывать
67

to sting	жалить, наносить точный	удар
loosely	слабо
to knit	соединять, объединять,	связы¬
вать
aspiration	стремление, желание
Assignment
Ф Discussion
1. Characterize the leaders of the American Revolution.
2. Do you agree with one of the ideals of the Revolution
according to which “all men are created equal”? Does the
author consider it to be quixotic?
Щ Read the text. Make use of a dictionary.
The US Constitution
The American Revolution was a rare historical event. Unlike
other successful uprisings it was not nationalistic: thirteen quarrelsome
Colonies were united by their common history, language and customs;
by their common sense of betrayal as British subjects; and by their
common suspicion of remote and centralized power. The hard-fought
conflict brought them together as Americans, but once peace was
won, the new States swiftly reverted to their old and independent
ways. The Nation of almost 4 million was threatening to break apart
even before it emerged from infancy.
George Washington wondered if the Revolution he had led
had been worth all the blood and effort. “We are either a united
people under one head, for Federal purposes”, he wrote, “or we
are thirteen independent sovereignties, eternally counteracting each
other”.	^
When the Thirteen Colonies began their revolution in 1775,
the leaders of the Nation had only the vaguest notion of what kind
of a united government would emerge once victory was won. Because
of the history of uneasy relations with England’s monarch, most
68 ,
Americans believed that the broad form should be that of a republic.
But they were wary of granting great power to a central government,
even one of their own making.
It took 5 years of debate for all the States to approve the
Articles of Confederation, America’s short-lived first constitution,
which went into effect on March 1, 1781. The Articles established
a Congress which could make war, negotiate peace, condtfct foreign
relations, control the currency, borrow money, settle boundaries,
and oversee relations with the Indian tribes. But Congress lacked
the power to tax, to regulate commerce, or to enforce its own
measures. There was no national judiciary and no chief executive.
By 1787 the States themselves saw the need for greater Federal
strength, and a few influential men already envisioned an entirely
new constitution.
So in 1787 the States sent 55 delegates to Philadelphia to the
Constitutional Convention. Among those people were George
Washington, Benjamin Franklin, Alexander Hamilton and James
Madison. Thomas Jefferson hailed the 55 delegates as an assembly of
demigods. Certainly they were an extraordinary group of citizens-
statesmen. They were remarkably young — average age 43. For 16
weeks (May 25 — September 17, 1787) they debated the Nation’s
future behind closed doors.
What emerged from the Philadelphia Convention was a
document — now the world’s oldest written constitution — that kept
the new Nation from splitting into as many as a dozen tiny ones;
safeguarded its independence and republicanism against attack from
both within and without; and struck a shrewd balance between State
and Federal power.
There were many opponents to the Constitution, and even
some supporters had their doubts. “I consent to this Constitution”,
wrote Benjamin Franklin, “because I expect no better, and because
I am not Sure that it is not the best”.
And yet, the Constitution turned out to be an extraordinary
document by which America still abides more than two centuries
later. One of the secrets of the Constitution^ longevity lies in the
flexible ambiguity its authors built into it. The Founding Fathers
wisely avoided the temptation to solve every foreseeable problem
on paper. Instead, they arranged that this document should be
adaptable to inevitable changes. So the Constitution may well be
what John Adams called it in 1787: “The greatest single effort of
69

national deliberation that the world has ever seen”. It was, indeed,
a work of collective genius that still commands the Nation’s utmost
respect.
Article V allowed for amendments to be made to the Constitution
(once passed by a two-thirds majority in both houses of Congress
and then ratified by the legislatures of three-fourths of the states).
The Constitution, finally ratified by all thirteen states in 1791,
already contained ten amendments, collectively known as the
Bill of Rights (the freedoms of religion, speech and the press,
etc.), to protect the citizen against possible tyranny by the federal
government. So far only twenty six amendments have been made to
the Constitution.
Notes and Commentary
the Articles of Confederation — Устав Конфедерации. Хотя Дек¬
ларация независимости и заложила основы зарождающегося еди¬
ного государства, этого было недостаточно: власть центрально¬
го органа федерации — Континентального Конгресса — над три¬
надцатью независимыми колониями была ничтожно мала.
12 июля 1776 года Конгресс предложил Устав Конфедерации,
согласно которому устанавливался слабый контроль над штата¬
ми; но штаты сопротивлялись принятию даже такого докумен¬
та, подписали его только 27 февраля 1781 года, а Конгресс
ратифицировал Устав через два дня.
George Washington [^30:63'wqfir)tan] — Вашингтон Джордж (1732—
1799), государственный деятель, главнокомандующий Конти¬
нентальной армией в период Американской революции; 1-й пре¬
зидент США
Alexander Hamilton [,selig'za-nda 'haemiltan] — Гамильтон Алек¬
сандр (1757—1804), государственный деятель, видный участ¬
ник Американской революции; министр финансов в кабинете
Джорджа Вашингтона
James Madison ['d3eimz 'maedisn] — Мэдисон Джеймс (1751 —
1836), государственный деятель, видный участник Американ¬
ской революции; 4-й президент США
the Founding Fathers — «отцы — основатели нации*», известные
государственные деятели, активные участники Американской
революции, внесшие огромный вклад в создание Декларации
70
Независимости и Конституции США (Вашингтон, Джеффер¬
сон, Франклин, Мэдисон, Адамс, Гамильтон и др.)
both houses of Congress — имеются в виду две палаты Конг¬
ресса
Assignment	>*
Comprehension
1. Make up a list of topical vocabulary.
2. Supply answers to the following questions.
1) Why did the American Revolution differ from other
revolutions?
2) What made George Washington pronounce those bitter
words?
3) In what form of power did the leaders of the Nation
believe and why?
4) What document is considered to be the first American
constitution? Describe how this important document
defined the role of the Congress.
5) What was the result of the Constitutional Convention?
6) When was the Constitution finally ratified?
7) What does Article V allow for?
Ф Discussion
1. Describe the relationship between the States and the
Federal power after the Revolution. Was it really so urgent
to hold the Constitutional Convention?
2. Why do you think Thomas Jefferson called the delegates
“demigods”? When characterizing the participants, use
the information of the previous texts,, the notes and your
background knowledge.
3. What meaning did Benjamin Franklin put into his words?
4. Do you consider it important that there is a special article
in the US Constitution that allows for amendments to be
made to the original text? Give your reasons. ■
5. Point out the most obvious differences between the US
Constitution and the Constitution of the Russian Federation.
71

щ Read the text and say what you have learned about:
1) the relationship between the Federal Government and an individual;
2) the freedoms which are basic to the American way of life.
Human Liberties Shared by All
For all the genius of that remarkable document, the
Constitution of the United States, it had a glaring defect, according
to many critics. They deplored the absence of articles specifically
prohibiting the Federal Government from invading an individual’s
rights of life, liberty, and property. But the consensus at the
Constitutional Convention was that no Federal bill of rights was
needed because the States guaranteed individual rights in their
constitutions. However, Massachusetts, Maryland, and New York
made their ratification of the Constitution contingent upon the
adoption of a Federal bill of rights.
When the newly established Congress met in 1789, one of its
first priorities was to amend the Constitution, provided for in Article
V. James Madison proposed a series of amendments, and 12 of
them were adopted by Congress. In 1791, 10 of the 12 amendments
were ratified by the States.
The articles, commonly known as the Bill of Rights^ have
stood the test of time, but the exact meaning of some is still debated.
For example, should the second amendment’s right “to keep and
bear Arms” to maintain a “Militia” be interpreted as an all-inclusive
right to keep firearms? Where do the modern forms of electronic
eavesdropping stand in relation to the fourth amendment’s stricture
against “unreasonable searches and seizures”? In the light of the
eighth amendment’s statement on “cruel and unusual punishments”
how should the death penalty be considered? Judicial interpretation
will continue to shade their precise meaning, but the freedoms
bestowed by these articles, as indicated below, are basic to the
American way of life.
At Home and in the Community
We are exempt from:	We	are	to:
Unreasonable or unwarranted Worship as we please
searches and seizures of persons,
houses, papers, and effects Speak freely
72
The taking of property for public Publish the truth
: use without just compensation
Assemble peaceably
The quartering of soldiers in our
homes	Keep and bear arms
In a Court of Law	■
We are exempt from:	We	are	entitled	to:
Being tried twice for the same Petition for redress of grievances
offense
Due process of law regarding life,
Bearing witness against ourselves	liberty, and property
Excessive bail	Speedy public trial by impartial jury
Be informed of the nature and
Excessive fines	cause of an accusation
Infliction of cruel and unusual Confront any witnesses against us
punishments
Obtain witnesses in our favour
Assistance of counsel for defense
Geograp
Maryland ['meribnd]	Мэриленд	{штат)
Vocabulary
glaring
to deplore
to prohibit
contingent (upon, on)
to stand the test of time
all-inclusive
eavesdropping
явный, очевидный
считать предосудительным,
осуждать
запрещать
зависимый (от)
выдержать проверку временем
всеобщий, включающий всех
подслушивание
73

stricture
to bestow
to be exempt from
to be entitled to
unwarranted search
to be tried twice for the same
offense
redress of grievances
to bear witness
due
impartial jury
excessive
bail
infliction
punishment
accusation
counsel for defense
строгость, точность (не допус¬
кающая отклонений)
давать, дарить
не подлежать
иметь право
обыск без ордера
быть судимым дважды за одно
и то же преступление
зд. возмещение убытков
свидетельствовать
надлежащий, должный
беспристрастные присяжные
чрезмерный
залог
наложение, причинение
наказание
обвинение
адвокат
Assignment
Discussion
1. Comment on any right that the Federal Government
guarantees at home and in the community.
2. Which of the freedoms in a court of law do you consider
to be the most important one? Give reasons for your
choice.
3. Speak about the shortcomings of the Bill of Rights.
Read the text. In each paragraph try to find the word (or the phrase)
which could serve as a title for this paragraph.
19Ih-Century Expansion
The American Revolution was achieved by the “original 13
states” on the eastern seaboard. The Treaty of 1783, which ended
74
(he war with Britain, gave another huge area of land, further to
(he west, to the new country, and over the next fifty years the whole
of the American mainland was brought under the US control. Some
of that land was acquired by treaty, such as Florida; some by purchase,
such as Louisiana (the Mid-West) which was sold to the US by
Napoleon in 1803; and some by war, such as Texas and California,
which were ceded by Mexico in the war of 1845—1847. c*
Having gained control of the continent, the Americans began
to expand across it, continually pushing westwards from their original
settlements, forming new farmsteads, villages and towns in the wilds,
and displacing and dispossessing the Native Americans in the process.
By the end of the century this form of continuous colonizing or
“pioneering” had led to the settlement of the entire United States
from the east coast to the west.
For most of the pioneers, life was a constant struggle against
the Indians and the land itself, which had to be laboriously cleared
before it could be planted. Religion was very important in the settlers’
lives. Camp meetings provided solace and hope as well as a reason
for widely scattered neighbours to congregate and enjoy each other’s
company.
Vocabulary
уступать, сдавать (территорию)
на запад
хозяйство, усадьба
вытеснять
лишать собственности, права
владения
усердно, старательно
утешение
Assignment
Discussion
1.	Comment on the ways the United States acquire^, different
lands.
to cede
westwards
farmstead
to displace
to dispossess
laborously
solace

2.	The author only mentions the role of religion in the
pioneers’ lives. Could you enlarge upon the problem using
your background knowledge?
Ш Read the last paragraph of the text and say what information you
expect to find in the whole text. Then read the remaining paragraphs
and compare this information with what you have predicted. Say if
you were a success in guessing the main facts of the text.
The Trail of Tears
For the Indians of the United States, the American dream of
gaining control of as much land as possible has been nothing less
than a nightmare. From the landing of the first settlers, the Indians
have been the victims of almost unrelieved woe. Those tribes that
escaped annihilation by the white man’s bullets and diseases suffered
instead something close to cultural genocide.
At the root of the centuries-long confrontation between red
man and white was one inescapable fact: the Indians inhabited vast
territories that the whites had to have in order to fulfil their destiny
to develop the continent. It mattered little what precautions the
Indians took to preserve their lands, what alliances they formed,
what concessions they made, what solemn treaties they secured from
the settlers: the story was always the same. Whenever the white
moved west he displaced the Indian by force of arms, by destroying
his hunting grounds, or by fraudulent treaties in which the
uncomprehending red man often exchanged his patrimony for glittering
trinkets.
Some Indian tribes met the onrush of white civilization by
adopting Christianity as well as the whiteN man’s dress and
mannerisms, and turning to a wholly agricultural lifestyle. One
such, the most renowned of the so called Five Civilized Tribes,
was the Cherokee Nation of western Georgia, which even had its
own written constitution. But the Cherokees’ assimilation proved
no protection against expulsion when white settlers began to claim
for their lands.
Although the Cherokee holdings were guaranteed by a 1791
treaty between the tribe and the Federal Government, the
76
administration of President Andrew Jackson supported the efforts of
I he Georgia government to force the Indians off their land. Finally,
In 1838, Jackson’s successor ordered his troops to expel the
Cherokees and transport them to newly established Indian territory
In distant Oklahoma. One soldier, sickened by his task, described
an all too common scene that year: “I saw the helpless Cherokees
arrested and dragged from their homes... In the chill rairf*I saw
them loaded like cattle or sheep into wagons and started toward
the west”.
The trek to Oklahoma, called by the Cherokees Trail of
Tears, took a tragic toll: many of them fell ill, and thousands
died from expose, disease, and starvation and were buried in
unmarked graves.
Notes and Co
the Five Civilized Tribes — пять Цивилизованных Племен, пле¬
мена, перешедшие на оседлый образ жизни; надеялись даже
создать свой штат на территории Оклахомы. Среди этих племен
особо выделялось племя чероки.
the Cherokee Nation [.tfera'ki: 'neifnj — племя чероки
Andrew Jackson ['aendru:'dsseksn] — Джексон Эндрю (1767—1845),
государственный деятель; 7-й президент США
Geographical Names
Oklahoma [,оик1эЪоитэ]	Оклахома
Vocab
trail	тропа
unrelieved	тяжелый, постоянный
woe	горе, скорбь
to escape	избежать
precaution	предосторожность
to make concessions	идти на уступки
to secure	получать, добиваться
77

fraudulent
uncomprehending
patrimony
trinket
onrush
renowned
expulsion
successor
to expel
to drag
trek
toll
to die from expose
starvation
обманный, мошеннический,
жульнический
ничего не подозревающий, ни¬
чего не понимающий
место обитания, вотчина
безделушка
натиск, нападение, атака
знаменитый
изгнание
преемник
выгонять
тащйть, волочить, вытаски¬
вать
путешествие, переселение (
бенно в фургонах, запряжен¬
ных волами)
перен. дань; потери
умирать, будучи брошенными
на произвол судьбы
голод, истощение
Assignment
2». Comprehension
Arrange the points of the plan in logical order (i.e. the way
they are given in the text).
1) Christianity and expulsion.
2) The tragic toll of the trek to Oklahoma.
3) The victims of unrelieved woe.
4) The Cherokees and the Federal Government.
5) The whites and the Indian territories.
$ Discussion
1. Say whether you agree or disagree with the author’s point
of view expressed in the sentence: “From the landing of
the first settlers, the Indians have been the victims of
almost unrelieved woe”.
78
2.	Why do you think nothing has helped the Indians of the
United States to preserve their lands? Expand upon the
problem.
Ш Read the text.
The Civil War (1861-1865)
Expansion brought problems, not least because of the very
different societies of the North and the South. The problem of
slavery was first raised over the status of Missouri when it was admitted
into the Union in 1821.
The anti-slavery movement gained tremendous support after
publication of a book called “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” by Harriet Beecher-
Stowe, atnd political divisions over slavery in the Whig and Democratic
parties led to the formation of the.Republican Party, whose main
principle was opposition to the extension of slavery.
When the Republican candidate, Abraham Lincoln, was
elected President in 1860, South Carolina announced that its union
with all other states was dissolved and was immediately followed by
Mississippi, Florida, Alabama; Georgia, Louisiana and Texas,
which together formed a Confederacy with a constitution based on
slavery.
The Northerner did not want war, and Lincoln in his opening
speech as President declared that he would not interfere with slavery
in the Southern states, but merely affirmed the constitutional right
of the Union to determine the status of new states.
Lincoln refused to allow secession to disrupt the Union,
however, and, as civil war became inevitable, Virginia also seceded
on the constitutional grounds that every state in the Union enjoyed
sovereign rights; Nebraska, North Carolina and Tennessee quickly
followed. The twenty three states of the industrial North, with a
population of 22,000,000, were, therefore, opposed by eleven
Southern states, almost 4,000,000 of whose 9,000,000 inhabitants
were slaves.
The three main theaters of action when a war broke out in
1861 were the sea, the Mississippi Valley and the Eastern seaboard
states. Although the Union had naval superiority, it was unable to
79
/

establish an efficient blockade until 1863. In the Mississippi Valley
in the west, General Grant and his forces gradually split the
Confederacy in two, while in Virginia, Union forces suffered
numerous defeats against the two brilliant Southern generals, Robert
L. Lee and Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson. But the South was unable
to obtain the decisive victory it needed to gain foreign recognition.
The war became a lost cause for the South after the battle of
Gettysburg in July 1863, although it heroically fought on until April
1865, when Lee and his army were forced to surrender at Appomattox,
Virginia. The war had cost the lives of 618,000 men — over half
from disease.
Notes and Commentary
Harriet Beecher-Stowe ['haerist 'bi:tjh 'stou] — Бичер-Стоу Гарриет
(1811—1896), известная американская писательница, ярый по¬
борник освобождения цз рабства негритянского населения Юга.
Ее роман «Хижина дяди Тома» сыграл немаловажную роль в
усилении антирасистских настроений.
the Whig Party ['wig 'pa:tij — политическая партия Вигов была
создана (1834—1855) как оппонент Демократической партии; в
историческом плане явилась промежуточным звеном между Фе¬
дералистской партией (1789—1820) и Республиканской партией
(1853 — до настоящего времени)
the Democratic Party — Демократическая партия; существует с
1828 года; ее предшественницей является Демократическая-Рес-
публиканская партия (1796-1828)
Abraham Lincoln ['eibrahaem 'linkan] — Линкольн Абрахам (1809-
1865), государственный деятель, один из «отцов — основате¬
лей нации»; 16-й президент США; был убит
Thomas Jackson ['tomas 'd3aeksnj — Джексон Томас Джонатан
(1824-1863), военный деятель, генерал, войск Конфедерации;
за смелость его называли «Каменной стеной»; разбил Союзные
войска при местечке Бул Ран (Bull Run) в 1861 году; погиб в бою
Gettysburg ['getizbag] — Геттисбург, город в южной ДТенсильва-
нии, место битвы, выигранной Союзной армией над Конфе¬
деративными войсками генерала Ли. Эта битва, одка из круп¬
нейших и важнейших битв Гражданской войны, происходила
1—3 июля 1863 года.
80
Appomattox ['aepa'mastaks] — Апоматокс, город в центральной
Ниргинии, где генерал Роберт Ли сдался генералу Улиссу Гран¬
ту 9 апреля 1865 г., что явилось логическим концом Гражданс¬
кой войны
Geographical Names
Nebraska [ni'braeska]	Небраска {штат)
South Carolina ['sau6	Южная Каролина
1 ,каегэ'1атэ]
North Carolina ['по:0	Северная Каролина	{штат)
t ,к8егэ'1атэ]
Vocabulary
not least
lo dissolve
secession
to disrupt
to secede
efficient
to split
не в последнюю очередь
расторгать, распускать
раскол, отпадение, сепаратизм
разрывать
отделяться, откалываться
действенный, эффективный,
продуктивный
отделяться, откалываться
Assignment
Comprehension
1. From the text choose the sentences that convey the most
valuable information.
2. Make up a plan of the text.
Discussion
1. Are there any facts in the text about the Civil War that
you have not known before?
2. Explain what is meant by the following: “... the South
81
(. -1870

was unable to obtain the decisive victory it needed to gain
foreign recognition”.
3.	If you have read any book or you have seen any film about
this period of American history, share your opinion with
your fellow-students. Say what information should be added
to the text to present a full picture of the Civil War in the
US.
НЛП Read the text. Find examples to prove that:
1) very many people were obsessed with the idea of becoming rich;
2) there were several gold discoveries;
3) there were different ways of making a lot of money in that situation.
The Rush for Wealth
The cry was “Gold!” and within a year of its discovery in 1848
on the south fork of the American River, the word spread near and
far. From Oregon and New England, from Turkey and China, from
France and Australia, men converged on California by the tens of
thousands. At roaring gold camps, with names like Red Dog,
Hangtown, and Rich Bar, they built huts and pitched tents and set
about the business of panning the waters of the American or San
Joaquin rivers or scratching in nearby hills in hopes that fortune
would favor them.
By the late 1850s the California Gold Rush was over. Four
decades later another major trek to new gold-fields began. This
time Eldorado was in the North. Overnight, a remote region
long scorned as a valueless icebox became the focus of feverish
activity. Thousands of people, heedless of biting winds and subzero
cold, streamed into Canada’s Yukon Territory, following the
discovery of gold in Klondike. Many who missed the Klondike
rush headed west, into Alaska where gold discoveries precipitated
another rush.
Indeed, some of the gold seekers were lucky, fabulously lucky.
There were stories, some of them true, of men literally picking
handfuls of gold rich pebbles off the ground. Others made fortunes
by supplying gold seekers with necessities. For most, however,
weeks of backbreaking labor yielded virtually nothing.
82
Notes and Commentary
Ked Dog, Hangtown, Rich Bar—- экзотические названия, кото¬
рые золотоискатели давали своим поселениям
Eldorado [.eldo'rcrdouj — исп.Эльдорадо, страна сказочных бо¬
гатств
Geographical Names
Turkey l'ta:ki]
China ['t/ашэ]
France [fra:ns]
Australia [as'treilja]
Yukon ['jirkon]
Klondike ['klondaik]
Турция
Китай
Франция
Австралия
Юкон	{территория
Клондайк (	территоприле¬
гающая к реке Юкон на Аляс¬
ке)
Vocabulary
Rush (Gold Rush, Gold Fever)
fork
to converge
to pitch
to pan (off)
to scratch
to scorn
heedless of
to precipitate
fabulously
pebble
to yield
virtually
«золотая лихорадка»
рукав (реки)
стекаться, собираться
устанавливать, ставить (палат¬
ки); разбивать (лагерь)
промывать золотоносный пе¬
сок
«прочесывать», искать
презирать
не обращая внимания на
ускорять, торопить
баснословно, невероятно
галька, голыш
приносить, давать (плоды, до¬
ход, урожай); «еден, возда¬
вать
фактически
83

Assignment
ft Discussion
1.	In written form present a portrait of a gold-miner and
the surroundings in which he worked and lived. Use the
material of the text and other sources of information.
2.	What does the word “Eldorado” mean to you? Can it
denote not only material but also spiritual wealth?
Ш Read the text, divide it into logical parts and give them titles.
Industrialization
In less than fifty years, between the Civil War and the First
World War, the United States was transformed from a rural republic
into an urban state. The nation’s economic progress, based on
iron, steam and electric power, was speeded up by thousands of
inventions like the telephone and typewriter, but the terrible working
and living conditions, and the unfair monopolies that characterized
the industrial revolution in Britain, were repeated on an even bigger
scale.
An important factor was continuous and unrestricted immi¬
gration from Europe. While many of the 5 million immigrants who
had come over between 1850 and 1870 had been able to obtain
cheap land in the west, this was no longer possible/for the 20
million people who poured into the country between 1870 and
1910 (mainly from southern and eastern Europe) and who were
eager to work at almost any wages and under almost any conditions.
The often better educated blacks, who had left the South in search
of work, became the object of violent racial discrimination,
particularly on the part of the newly arrived white immigrants, and
were forced into ghettoes.
Virtual monopolies were created in every sector through metgers
and takeovers, and the great captains of industry like Rockefeller in
oil and Carnegie in steel, with their enormous economic ahd political
power, were the representative figures of the age.
While such monopolies enabled the United States to invade
84
Europe with its manufactures and brought the benefits of large-
scale production to almost every American home, legislative changes
were needed to control the power of these trusts. President Teddy
Roosevelt, a Republican, began a social crusade in 1901 with the
help of the progressive members in both Democratic and Republican
parties. The activities of trusts were regulated and legislative reforms
were introduced to improve general living and working conditions
(such as an eight-hour working day). Woodrow Wilson, a
Democrat, added even more profound reforms. Protective tariffs
were substantially reduced, a new anti-trust law was introduced
and other important reforms were carried out in the field of agriculture
and labor.
Notes and Commentary
Rockefeller, John Davison [.roka'feb 'dpn 'daevisan], Carnegie,
Andrew ['ktcnagi: 'sendru:] — Рокфеллер Джон Дэвисон (1839—
1937), Карнеги Эндрю (1835—1919), крупные американские
промышленники
Teddy Roosevelt ['tedi'ru:z(a)velt] — Рузвельт Тедди (Теодор)
(1858—1919), государственный деятель; 26-й президент США
Woodrow Wilson ['wu:drou 'wilsn] — Вильсон Вудро (1856—1924),
государственный деятель; 28-й президент США
Vocabulary
rural
on a bigger scale
i virtual monopolies
merger
takeover
trust
crusade
profound
protective tariff
substantially
сельский
в большем масштабе
естественные монополии
слияние, объединение
захват контроля (над предпри¬
ятием)
трест, монополия
«крестовый поход», кампа¬
ния
глубокий
покровительственный тариф
значительно, основательно
85

Assignment
"Js.' Comprehension
1. In the text find the words or phrases very closely related to
the topic of industrialization.
2. Find the part of the text related to the decisive measures
taken by the Federal Government.
$ Discussion
1.	Convey the gist of the text in the form of a thesis.
2.	Compare the period of industrialization in the United
States with the 1990s in Russia. Are there any similar
features?.' • yfaMkhto Ш
ш *Read the text. Make up a list of words that can be joined under the
headline “Prohibition”.
Prohibition: Crusade for Abstinence
During its 13-year span, the 18th Amendment to the Consti¬
tution stood as a monument to the grim crusade for abstinence,
which, from modest American beginnings in the mid-19th century,
had slowly gathered force until in 1920 it became the law of the land.
Touted by the Anti-Saloon League of America and other
reform groups as a near panacea for just about everything that
ailed the US — crime, .marital discord, poverty, unemployment,
child labor — the Prohibition Amendment was passed by Congress
in 1917. “They out it over on us while the boys were away at war”,
its enemies said.
The required 36 states had ratified the amendiftent by January
16, 1919, and it went into effect a year later. Besides, Congress
in October 1919 passed a special Act, which set up the^machinery
for enforcing national Prohibition. Under the terms of this Act,
Federal agents were empowered to raid speakeasies, smash barrels
of the then illegal liquor, and search for the bootleggers who
trafficked it in.
86
Today the 1920s are often remembered with amused nostalgia
as the heyday of peephole speakeasies, bathtub gin, and colourful
bootleggers. On the darker side were the innumerable painful deaths,
blindnesses inflicted by poisonous brews, the; rise of organized crime
and gangsterism as the underworld took charge of providing the citizenry
with illegal booze, and the inadequacy of the undermanned and
frequently corrupt enforcement agencies.
Federal agents were empowered to smash	illegal	liquor
In 1929 President Herbert Hoover appointed a commission
to investigate how well the Prohibition law was being enforced.
Columnist Franklin P. Adams summed up the commission’s report
in the following jingle:
Prohibition is an awful flop,
We like it.
It can’t stop what it’s meant to stop.
We like it.
87

It’s left a trail of graft and slime,
It don’t prohibit worth a dime,
It’s filled our land with vice and crime.
Nevertheless, we’re for it.
By the 1930s the people had had enough of this unenforceable
law. The 21st Amendment, repealing the 18th, was speedily passed
by Congress and ratified by the States in 1933. Alcoholic beverages
returned legally to American life, subject only to the jurisdiction of
individual States, all of which had abandoned statewide prohibition
by 1966.
The collapse of this attempt to impose abstinence on the
American people demonstrated the difficulty of controlling moral
conduct by law in the face of popular opposition.
Notes and Commentary
the Anti-Saloon League ['aenti sa'lum 'li:g] of America — одна из
многочисленных организаций в США, выступавших за закры¬
тие питейных заведений — салунов, баров, таверн
the Prohibition Amendment [,proui'bifn a'mendmant] — поправка о
«сухом законе»
speakeasy ['spi:'ki:zi:]— подпольный магазин по продаже спирт¬
ных напитков или подпольное питейное заведение во время
«сухого закона»
Assignment
Discussion
1. From the text select the statements which best express its
main idea. Give your reasons.
2. Make up a plan of the text. Discuss its points with your
fellow-students.
3. How do you understand the poem?
4. Render Franklin P. Adams’ verse into an ordinary prose
report of the Presidential Commission. Present it in written
form.
88
Ш Read the text.
The Great Depression and the New Deal
The 1920s were a decade of conservatism and insecurely
founded prosperity, in which tariffs were brought to their highest
ever levels and taxes were drastically reduced. This remarkably rise
in living Standards, which caused the decade to be called the Roaring
Twenties, ended suddenly in October 1929 with the Wall Street
crash — the result of a long period of over-production by the nation’s
factories and farms, and speculative mania among the middle and
wealthy Classes. This crash marked the beginning of the worst
depression in American history, commonly referred to as the Great
Depression.
The period was full of contrasts. There was widespread fear
following the Russian Revolution that communists would overthrow
the government (the Red Scare), which led to the persecution of all
left-wing groups. There was briefly mass support (four million members
in 1925) for the Ku Klux Klan, which, in addition to blacks, now
attacked Catholics, Jews and all those not born in America. Besides,
restrictions were imposed on immigration, not only with regard to
the number but also the countries of origin. Moreover, this was the
period of prohibition by the Eighteenth Amendment (1919) to
manufacture, transport or sell intoxicating liquors (when it ended in
1933, only eight states stayed “dry”).
Franklin D. Roosevelt blamed the Depression on basic faults
in the American economy and promised a “new deal” for the
“forgotten man”. He won the 1932 presidential election with an
unprecedented majority and set about remedying the worsening
situation with his New Deal in 1933.
This was the first administration to introduce government
planning into the economy. Over the next two years millions of the
unemployed were given jobs in public works projects, and emergency
relief was provided for others in order to create greater internal
demand for American products. Numerous measures were also taken
to help the farmers, as a result of which their incomes more than
doubled between 1932 and 1939.
The Second New Deal (1935-1939) aimed at providing security
against unemployment, illness and old age, to prevent the terrible
hardships of the Depression being repeated.
89

Notes and Commentary
the Red Scare ['red 'skea] — «красный психоз»
the Ku Юих fflan (KKK) ['kju: 'klxks 'klsen] — Ку-Клукс-Клан;
расистская организация, основной целью которой было уста¬
новление превосходства белого человека на всей территории
США
the New Deal — новая экономическая политика, новый поли¬
тический курс президента Франклина Делано Рузвельта по вы¬
ходу из кризиса («великой депрессии»)
Vocabulary
insecurely
ненадежно, непрочно
drastically
значительно, намного
to refer to
ссылаться
persecution
гонение, преследование
restriction
ограничение
intoxicating
алкогольный
liquor
напиток
to set about
начинать
to remedy
лечить; изменять к лучшему
relief
пособие по безработице
Assignment
"S. Comprehension
1. Define the topic sentence of Paragraph 1 and Paragraph 2.
2.	Make up questions about the main facts of the text.
Answer these questions in detail.
$ Discussion
1. What is your understanding of the Great Depression and
the New Deal?
2. Speak about the persecution of all left-wing groups at that
period. Use additional sources of information.
90
3.	Enlarge upon the way the Roosevelt Administration differed
from all previous administrations.
Revision Assignment
11 Tell your friend everything you know about different stages
in the historical development of the United States. Give
a detailed analysis of one of the stages which you consider
to be the most interesting and important.
2.	The period of two wars — World War II and “the Cold
War” — has deliberately been excluded from the book
because one can find quite a lot of information about it in
different sources. Use those documents and prepare a 10-
minute report on any of the wars.
3 . Expand on the idea according to which “one of the secrets
of the US Constitution’s longevity lies in the flexible
ambiguity its authors built into it”.
4. Speak about the Constitution of the Russian Federation.
5. Compare the Bill of Rights with the Constitution of Russia.
Are there any freedoms which are similar (or v6ry much
alike) in both texts? Speak about them.

Unit IV
THE SYSTEM OF GOVERNMENT
Ш Read the text.
Separation of Powers
The American Constitution is based on the doctrine of the separation
of powers between the executive, legislative and judiciary. The respective
government institutions — the Presidency, Congress, and the Supreme
Court and other federal courts — were given limited and specific powers.
A series of checks and balances, whereby each branch of government has
certain authority over the others, were also included to make sure these
powers were not abused. Government power was further limited by
means of a dual system of government, in which the federal government
was only given the powers and responsibilities to deal with problems facing
the nation as a whole (foreign affairs, trade, control of thte army and
navy, etc.). The remaining responsibilities and duties of government
were reserved to the individual State governments.
92
The System of Checks
Executive Branch
President
May check the Judicial Branch by
Granting pardons to those who are convicted offederal
crimes
May check Congress by
Vetoing bills passed by Congress
Sending messages to Congress
Appealing to the people
Legislative Branch
Congress
May check the President by
Impeaching the President
Overriding a veto
Refusing to approve presidential appointments
Approving or failing to approve treaties
May check the Judicial Branch by
Impeaching judges
Changing the number of justices on the Supreme Court
Proposing an amendment to the Constitution if the
Supreme Court finds a law unconstitutional
The Judicial Branch
Supreme Court
May check the President by
Interpreting laws and, treaties
Ruling that laws and executive acts are unconstitutional
May check Congress by
Interpreting laws and treaties
Declaring laws unconstitutional
Vocabulary	'
system of government	система государственного уп¬
равления
(the) executive	исполнительная власть
93

(the) legislative
(the) judiciary
(the) Presidency
checks and balances
branch (of government)
authority
to abuse
to grant pardons (to)
to be convicted (of)
to override a veto
appointment
justice
to rule (that)
to interpret
законодательная власть
судебная власть
президентство, институт пре¬
зидентства
принцип взаимозависимости и
взаимоограничения законо¬
дательной, исполнительной
и судебной власти
ветвь власти, власть
власть
злоупотреблять (властью)
помиловать
быть осужденным, быть при¬
знанным виновным
преодолеть вето
назначение (на должность)
судья
постановлять
толковать, объяснять
Assignment
^ Comprehension
1. Say what topic, touched upon in the text, is missing here.
a) The basis of the American Constitution.
b) A dual system of government.
2. Draw lines between different branches of government to
show their interdependence.
Discussion
Speak about the system of checks and balances and the way you
understand it.
ы Read the text and select information about:
1) the President and his role, duties and responsibilities;
94
2) the Cabinet;
3) the Vice President.
The White House
The President (any natural-born citizen over 34) is elected
for a term of four years and can only be re-elected for out more
term (according to the Twenty Second Amendment, adopted after
Franklin D. Roosevelt’s four successive terms).
The President was originally intended to be little more than a
ceremonial Head of State, as well as Commander-in-Chief of the
armed forces, but the Federal Government’s increasing involvement
in the Nation’s economic life and its prominent role in international
affairs, where secrecy and speed are often essential, has increased the
importance of the Presidency over Congress.
The President now proposes a full legislative program to
Congress, although the President, the Cabinet and staff are not,
and cannot be, members of Congress. This means that the various
bills must be introduced into the House of Representatives or Senate
by their members. The President is consequently completely powerless
when faced by an uncooperative Congress. Given also the difficulties
in ensuring that the laws passed are effectively implemented by the
federal bureaucracy, it has been said that the President’s only real
power is the power to persuade.
The President is assisted by the members of the Cabinet who
administer 11 major departments: State, Defense, Justice, Treasury,
Commerce, Labor, Health, Education and Welfare, Housing and
Urban Development, Interior, Agriculture and Transportation.
Though they rank as the President’s chief advisers, in recent decades
members of President’s administration have generally more influence
on him.
The role of the Vice President is not very well defined by the
Constitution, which gives him or her no other task than presiding
over the debates in the Senate, where he may only vote in the
case of a tie. Yet the Vice President takes over from the President
in case of death, resignation, or sickness, which has already
happened on eight occasions. To try and attract able men to this
otherwise unimportant, mainly ceremonial post, Vice Presidents
have recently been given more important tasks, especially in foreign
affairs.	,
95

The residence of the Administration is the White House.
Inaugurations of Presidents and Vice Presidents take place on
January 20 of every year following a national election. These
ceremonies are held on a platform erected over the great steps on the
East front of the Capitol Building. The oath of office is administered
by the Chief Justice of the United States.
Notes and Commentary
the Capitol (Building) — здание Капитолия в Вашингтоне, мес¬
то заседаний Конгресса США
Vocabulary
the White House
to intend
Commander-in-Chief
involvement
(the) Cabinet
to ensure
uncooperative
to implement
bureaucracy
to persuade
State (Department)
Defense
Justice
Treasury
Commerce
Labor
Health •
Education and Welfare
перен. правительство США, пре¬
зидентская власть; Белый
дом (резиденция президента
США)
намереваться
главнокомандующий
вовлечение, занятие, занятость
кабинет министров
обеспечивать, гарантировать
не склонный к сотрудничеству
выполнять, внедрять
бюрократия, государственные
чиновники
убеждать, склонять (к)
Госдепартамент
министерство обороны
министерство юстиции
министерство финансов
министерство торговли
министерство труда^ занятос¬
ти ■	\	'	.
министерство здравоохранения
министерство образования и
социального обеспечения
96
Housing and Urban Development
Interior
Agriculture and Transportation
Vice President
to preside (over)
tie
to take (over from)
resignation
inauguration
to erect
(the) oath of office
to administer
(the) Chief Justice
министерство жилищного стро¬
ительства и городского раз¬
вития
министерство внутренних дел
министерство сельского хозяй¬
ства и транспорта
вице-президент
председательствовать
зд. равное количество голосов
принимать (должность от), брать
на себя (обязанности)
отставка
торжественное вступление в
должность
сооружать, воздвигать
присяга при вступлении в дол¬
жность
отправлять (обряды), управлять
председатель Верховного суда
США
Assignment
Ф Discussion
В' Enlarge upon the phrase: “...the President’s real power is the
{ power to persuade”.
Ш Look through the text and give a description of each component of
the legislative. Make use of the active vocabulary.
The Legislative Branch
The symbol of government is the white marble dome of the
Capitol which dominates the city of Washington, D. C. The building
has grown with the country: although George Washington laid the
cornerstone in 1793, the dome was not finished until 1863, and
?—1870
97

many changes have since been made. Home to both House and
Senate, the Capitol was once hailed as “the center and heart of
America”.
Congress
The legislative branch of national government, Congress,
consists of two houses — the Senate and the House of Representatives,
each with a different role, different powers arid a different electoral
procedure.
The two branches of Congress are responsible for enacting the
nation’s laws. Though these days most major bills originate in the
White House, all must be approved, disapproved, or amended by
both Houses, and no measure becomes law until it has been passed
by a majority in each House. The President may then sign or veto
the bill, but a two-thirds vote in each House can override a veto.
Although Congress can legislate, its most important task has
become that of scrutinizing the policies and actions of the executive,
and upholding the interests of States and districts. Indeed, since
Representatives and Senators depend on the voters in their various
States or constituencies for re-election, they tend to satisfy the
particular interests of constituents and special groups rather than
tackle the problems of the nation as a whole. Congress also controls
the nation’s finances and its permanent specialist staff helps Congress
to consider and change the budget presented each year by the
President.
The House of Representatives
The House of Representatives is the dynamic institution of the
federal government. The States are represented on a population
basis and are divided into congressional districts or constituencies of
roughly equal size (around 520,000 people). There are currently 435
members, who are elected every two years. All States must by law
adopt the system of single-member constituencies with a simple
majority vote. Vacancies arising from death, resignation, etc., are
filled by by-elections.
The chairmen of the House of Representatives, the Speaker,
is elected by the House and has important responsibilities, giving
him considerable influence over the President. Moreover, should
the President and Vice President die before the end of their terms,
it is the Speaker who becomes President.
98
The Senate
The Senate is the conservative counterweight to the more
populist House of Representatives. Each State has two senators who,
since 1913 (the Seventeenth Amendment) have been chosen directly
by the electorate in the way decided by the state legislature in each
state. Senators are elected every six years, but the elections are
Staggered so that one-third of the Senate is elected every twb years.
A vacancy caused by death or resignation is filled until the next
congressional elections by the nomination of the State Governor.
There are currently 100 senators. The Senate has the special privilege
of unlimited debate to safeguard the rights of minorities, but this can
enable a small group of Senators to prevent the passage of a bill
(filibustering).
Vocabulary
marble
dome
to lay the cornerstone
to hail
(the) House of Representatives
electoral procedure
to enact
to pass by a majority
to vote
to legislate
to scrutinize
to uphold (the interests)
constituency
re-election
to tackle (a problem)
congressional district
мраморный
купол
заложить первый камень (осно¬
вание)
провозглашать
палата представителей (
палата Конгресса США)
система (процедура) выборов
принимать, вводить в действие
принимать большинством голо¬
сов
голосовать
заниматься законотворчеством,
издавать законы
тщательно изучать, рассматри¬
вать, исследовать
поддерживать (интересы)
избирательный округ, избира¬
тели
перевыборы
решать (проблему)
избирательный участок по вы¬
борам в Конгресс
99

roughly
currently
single-member
with a simple majority vote
by-elections
counterweight
(the) electorate
legislature
to stagger
nomination
to safeguard
minority
to filibuster
приблизительно
в настоящее время
одномандатный
простым большинством голо¬
сов
промежуточные выборы
противовес
электорат, избиратели
законодательный орган, зако¬
нодательная власть
распределять, располагать (в
определенном порядке)
назначение (на должность), вы¬
ставление (кандидата на вы¬
борах)
защищать, охранять
(национальное) меньшинство
устраивать обструкцию в зако¬
нодательном органе, затяги¬
вать обсуждение законопро¬
екта
Ш Read the text. Draw a chart showing the hierarchy of the US Federal
Judiciary system and the interdependence of all types of courts
mentioned in the text. Characterize each kind of court and give a
detailed description of its functions.
Federal Judiciary
The Supreme Court stands at the apex of the Nation’s Federal
Judiciary system and hears cases on appeal from lower courts — the
Federal District Courts and the US Courts of Appeals.
There are eight Associate Justices and the Chief Justice in the
Supreme Court, and Congress may alter this number. 'All these
High Court judges are nominated for fife by the President after
being approved by the Senate.
Though the primary function of the Supreme Court is to decide
matters of law, rather than fact, the High Court’s power to declare
100
acts of the President, Congress, State legislatures, and city councils
unconstitutional can drastically alter the nation’s practices, as when
the Supreme Court branded school segregation unconstitutional in
1954. So, although not explicitly given the power to decide whether
the actions of the branches of government violate the Constitution,
this is the important role that the Supreme Court has developed in
the legal system.	*
In the federal system there are 90 District Courts (presided
over by a district judge), which hear criminal cases involving breaches
of federal law and civil cases on federal matters (disputes between
States, non-payment of federal taxes, etc.).
Appeals can be made to the United States Court of Appeals,
where an appeal is heard by three judges, although in very important
cases all nine appeal judges sit together. In the vast majority of
cases this court’s decision is final and sets a precedent for future
cases, although this precedent is not always binding on the Supreme
Court.
Vocabulary
apex
case on appeal
Federal District Court
Court of Appeal
Associate Justice
city council
to brand
explicitly
to violate
legal
District Court
criminal case
civil case
tax
вершина, верхушка
апелляция, дело по обжалова¬
нию (судебного решения или
приговора)
первая инстанция Федерально¬
го суда по гражданским де¬
лам
апелляционный суд (по граж¬
данским делам)
судья (член Верховного суда)
муниципалитет
заклеймить
открыто, ясно, точно
нарушать
юридический
окружной суд
уголовное дело
гражданское дело
налог
101

to set a precedent
binding
создать прецедент
обязывающий, обязательный
щ Look through the following extracts and:
1) select information which is new to you;
2) draw a parallel between federal and local administration.
Local Administration
■' V 1 /	%
State Government
There is very little in the Constitution about State government —
the Tenth Amendment (1791) merely says that those powers not specially
delegated to the federal government are reserved for States. While the
fifty State constitutions differ widely, they all include the separation of
powers and a system of checks and balances, and share the underlying
American belief that government should be kept to a minimum.
Each State has a Governor, a Legislature and a State Judiciary.
This means that each State parallels the governmental forms of the
Federal system.
The Governor is elected directly in a state-wide election. All
the states except Nebraska have bicameral legislatures, normally
called the Senate and House of Representatives.
The judicial systems of the States vary greatly in structure and
procedures. Generally speaking, however, at the lowest level there
are Courts, which deal with the majority of civil and criminal cases.
Appeals go to the District Court of Appeals, while the State Supreme
Court has the same role as the United States Supreme Court in the
federal system.
All States have the right to levy taxes; and many services —
such as education, health, welfare, and police — are supported
either entirely or in large measure by State, rather than Federal,
funds. The sovereignty of State governments has, however, been
steadily eroded. Functions such as education, unemployment relief,
public works, and the like — once considered entirely within State
jurisdiction — are now matters of Federal concern as well.
County and City Governments
These governments are solely the creations of the States, and
102
the powers of such jurisdictions vary greatly from one State to the
next. In Connecticut, for example, there are no county governments,
while next door in New York, some counties, such as Nassau, have
significant powers of taxation.
The same is true for city governments, all of which derive their
powers from the States. In some States the power of city governments
to tax, to educate, and to operate broad-scale social services is great,
while in other States the cities are virtually impotent in many areas.
But, as befits American system, the balance can always be shifted.
Nassau ['naeso:J
Geographical Names
г. Нассау
Vocabulary
State government
underlying
governor
state-wide election
bicameral
to levy (taxes)
entirely
sovereignty
steadily
to erode
unemployment relief
concern
county
to derive
to operate
social services
impotent
to befit
to shift
система управления в штатах,
правительство штата
лежащий в основе, основной
губернатор
выборы, которые проводятся
во всем nrrafe
состоящий из двух палат
взимать (налоги)
всецело, совершенно
суверенитет, независимость
постоянно
нарушать; перен. подрывать
пособие по безработице
забота
округ
получать
осуществлять, управлять
меры по социальному обеспе¬
чению
бессильный
годиться, подходить, позволять
сдвигать(ся), перемещать(ся)
103

Revision Assignment
1. Summarize everything you have learned about the system
of government in the USA (in written form).
2. Consult special sources of information to find out:
1) if the Russian Constitution is based on the doctrine of
the separation of powers (and if it is, speak in detail
about the executive, legislative and judiciary);
2) whether or not there is any system of checks and balances
in Russian government.
3. List some similarities and differences between the US system
of government and that of this country.
Unit V
ELECTIONS AND POLITICAL PARTIES
Ш Read the text.
Presidential Election
Presidential candidates are selected by their respective party’s
national conventions in the summer of each election year. The delegates
attending that convention are associated with a particular candidate
and are normally chosen either at State conventions of party members
(the caucus system) or at State primary elections held in the months
preceding presidential elections. In a closed primary only registered
party members can vote, while in an open primary any voter can
participate (obviously voting in only one party’s primary election).
The President is elected on the first Tuesday after the first Monday
in November of a leap year and takes office at noon on January 20.
The President is not elected directly, but by an Electoral
College. The electors who actually choose the President are now
105

completely pledged in advance to one person and their names have
almost entirely disappeared from the ballot papers to be replaced by
the names of the candidates themselves. The candidates who win the
most votes within a State receive all its Electoral College votes
(equal to the number of senators and representatives from that State),
no matter how small the majority.
Each US State is free to determine its own electoral laws,
subject to certain limitations imposed by the Constitution, national
legislation and the Supreme Court. This has enabled many states,
particularly in the South, to prevent blacks and different minorities
from voting by such means as poll taxes and literacy tests. After the
1965 Voting Act (giving federal government officials the job of
registering voters in States where literacy tests are used) and the
abolition of poll taxes (24th Amendment), black voters are now
proportionally only 10 % fewer than white voters,
Notes and Commentary
the caucus system — система проведения секретных совещаний
партийных лидеров в целях достижения договоренности о кан¬
дидатах, заключения компромиссов и т. д.
primary (elections) — предварительные выборы, голосование
(сторонников какой-либо партии) для выставления кандидат
тов на выборах
closed primary — закрытые предварительные выборы с провер¬
кой права голосующих на участие в них
open primary — открытые предварительные выборы
Electoral College —, коллегия выборщиков на президентских вы¬
борах
Vocabulary
convention	съезд партии
leap year	високосный год jjr
to take office	приступать к исполнению обя¬
занностей
elector	зд. избиратель, член	коллегии
выборщиков
106
to be pledged (to)
ballot paper
to be subject (to)
to impose
poll tax
literacy test
. Voting Act
abolition
выступать за, быть привержен¬
цем
избирательный бюллетень
подчиненный, подвластный,
подлежащий
налагать, предписывать, навя¬
зывать	V*
подушный налог
образовательный ценз
закон о выборах
отмена, упразднение
Assignment
Is. Comprehension
1.	Using the information from the text, say whether the
following statements are true or not.
1)	The President in the United States is elected directly.
!	2) Those who attend their party’s national convention
are thought to support a particular person.
3) The President is elected every 5 years.
4) Electoral laws are common to all the 50 States.
5) There are almost as many black voters nowadays as
white voters.
2.	Make up questions about the text and answer them.
^ Discussion
1.	Speak about Presidential elections in the US. Make use
both of the text and the information given in the Notes
and Commentary.
2.	Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of the US elec¬
toral system.
Ш Scan the following text. Divide it into logically connected parts and
give them titles. Tell your friend everything you know about the
political parties in the USA.
107

Political Parties
Political parties or “factions” were not mentioned in the original
Constitution. Differences over the role of the federal government
led to the first national parties — the Federalists and the Republicans.
Since then two major parties have dominated political life. The
Democratic Party has existed in one form or another since the
beginning of the 1800s and has been opposed in successive eras by the
Federalist, Whig and Republican parties. The Republican Party was
founded in 1854 and was originally the anti-slavery party.
There is little ideological difference between the Democratic
and Republican parties, as both parties defend the free-enterprise
capitalist system, accepted by almost all Americans as the basis of
American society. The Democrats, unlike the Republicans, fend to
favor some Government intervention, but both parties have liberal
and conservative wings, and in Congress the liberal and conservative
wings of the two parties often side with each other against the other
wing. It is broadly possible to say that poor people vote for the
Democrats and wealthy people for the Republicans. American politics
are the politics of pragmatism and a party will always alter its platform
to try and catch the mood of the nation, the middle ground.
On the same day as the electors vote for the President, they
also vote for Senators, members of the House of Representatives,
State governors and a host of minor officials. It was once common
for people to vote the straight ticket, whereby a single cross against
the party label on the ballot paper means a vote for every one of the
party’s candidates from the President downwards, but this is now
rare. This explains why there have been a succession of Republican
Presidents and Democrat majorities in Congress.
Revision Assignment
1. Say, what makes Presidential elections in the US similar
to or different from Presidential elections in Russia.
2. Compare the political parties in the US with those.Jn this
country. Begin with making up a list of differences and
similarities. Use the list as a prompt when speakiitg.
\
Unit VI
OUTSTANDING PRESIDENTS
ffl Read the text.
The American Presidency
More than two hundred years have passed since Geoige Washington
left his home at Mount Vernon, Viiginia, to travel to New York City to
be sworn in as President of the United States. The ceremony took place
April 30,1789, on the balcony of Federal Hall, with the oath administered
by Robert Livingston, Chancellor of the State of New York.
According to a contemporary news report, the event was
“animated and moving beyond description”, with throngs of spectators
filling the streets below, as well as the windows and rooftops of
neighbouring buildings. Washington took the oath, said observers,
with “devout fervency”, after which Chancellor Livingston turned
toward the assembled crowd and called out: “Long live George
Washington, President of the United States!”
109

It was one of those electric moments in history when an idea
is transformed into reality. Until that ceremony, the American
Presidency had been only a concept developed by the new Nation’s
Founding Fathers at the Constitutional Convention that'was held in
Philadelphia in the summer of 1787. It remained to George
Washington to define the role of the Chief Executive of the new
Nation, not simply in legal but also in symbolic terms.
From the modern perspective, this task might not seem to be
so difficult. Article II of the Constitution spelled out the President’s
powers and responsibilities; but beyond that, the concept of the
Presidency was so vague that, even as Washington took the oath of
office, a debate raged as to what he ought to be called.
There were traditionalists in Congress who thought the President
should be addressed as “His Elective Majesty”. Others argued in
favor of “His Elective Highness”. Yet others felt that the only
proper way to refer to the Chief Executive was as “His Highness,
the President of the United States and Protector of the Rights of the
Same”.
Fortunately, these suggestions were all rejected and it was
decided that Washington should be called simply “President of the
United States”. It was a straightforward manner of address that
met President Washington’s approval, though in other areas of
protocol he felt it important to stress the unique nature of his
office.
In 1789 the United States was not long removed from operating
under the Articles of Confederation — a document that reflected
the strongly held view that the sovereignty of States ought not to be
diminished by a national government. Thus, when President
Washington visited Massachusetts, the Governor, John Hancock,
felt it appropriate to invite the President to call on him. Washington
replied in a formal note: “The President of the United States presents
his best respects to the Governor, and has the honor to inform him
that he shall be at home till 2 o’clock”.
Looking back, this seems to be a minor matter of protocol.
Yet Washington was establishing an important principle — that the
Presidency was the single office in the land embodying the hopes
and aspirations not simply of some but of citizens of the United
States. There were many governors, but there was only one
President.
In such ways — in matters of substance as well as of protocol —
110
George Washington helped to define the office of President of the
United States. It was a task that has been taken on by each of his
successors, in turn. Every man taking the oath, Washington took in
New York more than 200 years ago, has understood, as historian
Bruce Catton wrote, that “he was acting for something much bigger”
than personal ambition. He was acting for the Presidency^
Notes and Commentary
Mount Vernon ['maunt 'vainan] — Маунт Вернон, название поме¬
стья Джорджа Вашингтона, представлявшее собой живописное
место на берегу реки Потомак
Chancellor — председатель «суда справедливости», «канцлерского
суда» в некоторых штатах США
Vocabulary
to be sworn in
moving
throng
to take the oath (of office)
devout
fervency
vague
Majesty
Highness
Protector of the Rights of
the Same
straightforward
to diminish
appropriate
to call (on)
office
to embody
быть приведенным к присяге
вызывающий волнение, трога¬
тельный
толпа
давать присягу при вступлении
в должность
благоговейный, искренний
горячность, пыл
неопределенный, смутный, не¬
ясный
величество (титул)
высочество (титул)
зд. защитник прав США
честный, прямой, открытый
уменьшать, унижать
подходящий, соответствующий
заходить (к кому-либо)
зд. государственный пост
воплощать, олицетворять, за¬
ключать в себе
111

substance
in turn
суть, сущность, содержание
по очереди
Assignment
Ж Comprehension
Answer the following questions.
. 1) When did George Washington take the oath of office?
2) How was the ceremony described in contemporary news¬
papers?
3) Why was that event called an “electric” moment in
history?
4) What was the Chief Executive of the new Nation called?
5) What principle was Washington the first to establish?
6) How did Washington help to define the office of
President when visiting the States?
fk Discussion
1. Why, do you think, George Washington was acting for
the Presidency? Say, whether you consider it important
or not. Give your reasons.
2. Explain the way you understand the notion of “the
American Presidency”.
ffl Read the text.
George Washington: First President
(1789-1797)
On April 30, 1789, George Washington, standing on the
balcony of Federal Hall on Wall Street in New York, took hi»'path
of office as the first President of the United States. “As the first of
every thing in our situation will serve to establish a precedent’”, he
wrote in one of the letters, “it is devoutly wished on my part, that
these precedents may be fixed on true principles”.
112
Bom in 1732 into a Virginia planter family, he learned the
morals, manners, and body of knowledge requisite for an 18th-
century Virginia gentleman.
He pursued two intertwined interests: military arts and western
expansion. At the age of 16 he began his military career. In 1755 he
escaped injury although four bullets ripped his coat and two horses
were shot from under him.
From 1759 to the outbreak of the American Revolution,
Washington managed his lands around Mount Vernon. Married
to a widow, Martha Dandridge Custis, he devoted himself to a
busy and happy life. But like his fellow planters, Washington
felt himself exploited by British merchants and hampered by
British regulations. As the quarrel with the mother country
grew acute, he moderately but firmly voiced his resistance to the
restrictions.
When the Second Continental Congress assembled in
Philadelphia in May 1775, Washington, one of the Virginia
delegates, was elected Commander-in-Chief of the Continental
[Army. On July 3, 1775, at Cambridge, Massachusetts, he took
command of his ill-trained troops and embarked upon a war that
was to last six grueling years.
He realized early that the best strategy was to harass the British.
|;He reported to Congress, “We should on all Occasions avoid a
general Action, or put anything to the Risque, unless compelled by
a necessity, into which we ought never to be drawn”. Ensuing
battles saw him fall back slowly, then strike unexpectedly. Finally in
1781, with the aid of French allies, he forced the surrender of the
British troops at Yorktown.
L Washington longed to retire to his fields at Mount Vernon.
But he soon realized that the Nation under its Articles of Confederation
was not functioning well, so he became a prime mover in the steps
leading to the Constitutional Convention at Philadelphia in 1787.
When the new Constitution was ratified, the Electoral College
unanimously elected Washington President.
He did not infringe upon the policy-making powers that he felt
the Constitution gave Congress. But the determination of foreign
policy became predominantly a Presidential concern. At the time of
a major war between France and England, Washington refused to
accept entirely the recommendations of either his Secretary of State
Thomas Jefferson, who was pro-French, or his Secretary of the
113
8--Ц1870

Treasury Alexander Hamilton, who was pro-British. Rather, he
insisted upon a neutral course until the United States could grow
stronger.
George Washington set a pattern for all
Presidents to follow
To his disappointment, two parties were developing by the end
of his first term. Wearied of politics, feeling old, he retired at the
end of his second. In his Farewell Address, he urged his countrymen
to forswear excessive party spirit and geographical distinctions. In
foreign affairs, he warned against long-term alliances.
Washington enjoyed less than three years of retirement at Mount
Vernon, for he died of a throat infection on December 14, 1799.
For months the Nation mourned him.
114
George Washington’s integrity set a pattern for all other
Presidents to follow.
Notes and Commentary
Federal Hall - здание федерального собрания в Нькг-Йорке на
Уолл-стрит
Wall Street — Уолл-стрит, улица в центре Нью-Йорка, на ко¬
торой располагаются основные финансовые учреждения США;
в переносном смысле употребляется для обозначения власти
денег и большого бизнеса
Vocabulary
intertwined
зд. взаимосвязанный, взаимо¬
зависимый
to rip
пробивать, вонзаться, проникать
to hamper
мешать, затруднять, тормозить
acute
сильный, острый, резкий
resistance
сопротивление
to embark (upon)
вступать
grueling
изнурительный
to put to the risque (risk)
подвергать риску
to compel
вынуждать
ensuing
следующие друг за другом
to fall back
зд. отступать
aid
помощь, помощник
ally
союзник
surrender
сдача, капитуляция
to infringe (upon)
вмешиваться, нарушать
Secretary of the Treasury
министр финансов
Farewell Address
прощальная речь президента по
истечении срока полномочий
to urge
убеждать, настаивать
to forswear
^ отрекаться
alliance
союз
to mourn
горевать, оплакивать
integrity
честность, неподкупность
115
8*

Assignment
Та. Comprehension
In the text, find facts to prove that:
1) George Washington was interested both in military
•	arts and politics.
2) he did not want to be involved in any military operation
and was for resolving all the problems by peaceful means.
3) his dream was a united Nation.
4) he was admired by almost all his people.
$ Discussion
1. Compare this text with the previous one. Say what
information in the second text is new and what information
is simply an enlargement of the ideas of the previous text.
2. How can you account for Washington’s disappointment at
the fact that political parties were beginning to develop by
the end of his term?
3. Why do you think Washington warned against long-term
alliances? Is there any danger in such alliances?
Ш Look through the text. List the turning points of Thomas Jefferson’s
life. Make use of the material of Unit III.
Thomas Jefferson: Third President
(1801-1809)
In 1800, Thomas Jefferson wrote in a private letter, “I have
sworn upon the altar of God eternal hostility against every form of
tyranny over the mind of man”. These words, now inscribed in the
memorial to Jefferson in Washington, D. С., might be called the
heart of his political and social thinking. His opposition to,tyranny in
all its forms was repeatedly voiced. In the Declaration of Independence
it appears in his famous phrase “that all Men are created equal, that
they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights,
that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness”.
116
This powerful advocate of liberty was bom in 1743 in Albemarle
County, Virginia, inheriting from his father, a planter, some 5000
acres of land, and from his mother, a high social standing. He
studied at the College of William and Mary, then read law. In 1772
he married Martha Wayles Skelton, a widow, and took her fo live
in his partly constructed mountain-top home, Mount Vernon.
Freckled and sandy-haired, rather tall and awkward, Jefferson
was eloquent as a correspondent, but he was no public speaker. He
used to contribute his pen rather than his voice to the patriot cause.
As the “silent member” of the Continental Congress, Jefferson was
chosen by his colleagues to draft the Declaration of Independence.
At the age of 33, he was younger than many of his fellow delegates,
but they readily put their trust in his ability to draft this important
document, which expressed their resolve to form a new Nation.
In years following, Jefferson labored to make the words of the
Declaration a reality in Virginia. Most notably, he wrote a bill
establishing religious freedom, enacted in 1786.
Jefferson was Secretary of State in President Washington’s
; Cabinet, but his sympathy for the French Revolution led him into
,• conflict with Alexander Hamilton. So, in 1793 he resigned.
Sharp political conflict in the country developed, and two
■separate parties, the Federalists and the Democratic-Republicans,
began to form. Jefferson gradually assumed leadership of the
Republicans, who sympathized with the revolutionary cause in
I France. Attacking Federalist policies, he opposed a strong centralized
| Government and championed the rights of States.
In 1796 Jefferson became Vice President and in 1801 he assumed
I the Presidency. By that time the crisis in France had passed. Jefferson
I slashed Army and Navy expenditures, cut the budget, eliminated
| the tax on whisky so unpopular in the West, yet reduced the national
| debt by a third. He also sent a naval squadron to Fight the pirates
harassing American commerce in the Mediterranean. Further,
I although the Constitution made no provision for the acquisition of
| new land, Jefferson suppressed his qualms over constitutionality when
he had the opportunity to acquire the immense Louisiana Territory
I from Napoleon in 1803.
During Jefferson’s second term, he was increasingly preoccupied
I with keeping the Nation from involvement in the Napoleonic wars,
I though both England and France interfered with the neutral rights
I of American merchant men.
117

Jefferson retired to Monticello to ponder such projects as his
grand designs for the University of Virginia. A French nobleman
observed that he had placed his house and his mind “on an elevated
situation, from which he might contemplate the universe”.
Thomas Jefferson died on July 4, 1826.
Notes and Commentary
Albemarle County ['aelba'mcd 'kaunti] — округ Албемарл в штате
Виргиния
College of William and Mary — в настоящее время государствен¬
ный Университет Уильяма и Мэри в Уильямсбурге (штат Вир¬
гиния); основан в 1693 году
Monticello [,monti'tfelou] — дом Джефферсона в Виргинии, где
он с успехом применил свои изобретения. Он, в частности,
заменил деревянные части плуга на железные; сконструировал
вращающийся стул, лифт для подачи блюд е одного этажа на
другой и т. д.
Dll Read the text.
Abraham Lincoln: Sixteenth President
(1861-1865)
Abraham Lincoln warned the South in his Inaugural Address:
“In	your hands, my dissatisfied fellow countrymen, and not in
is the momentous issue of civil war. The government will not assail
you... You have no oath registered in Heaven to destroy the
government, while I shall have the most solemn one to, ‘preserve,
protect, and defend’ it”.
Lincoln thought secession illegal, and was willing to use force
to defend Federal law and the Union. When Confederate batteries
fired on Fort Sumter and forced its surrender, he called од the States
for 75000 volunteers. Four more slave States joined the Confederacy
but four remained within the Union. The Civil War had began.
Abhorring war, Abraham Lincoln accepted it as the only means to
save the Nation.
118
Abraham Lincoln hated war but accepted it
as the only means to save the nation
The son of a Kentucky frontiersman, Lincoln had to struggle
for a living and for learning. Five months before receiving his
party’s nomination for President, he sketched his life:
“I was born on February 12, 1809, in Hardin County,
Kentucky. My parents were both born in Virginia, of undistinguished
families — second families, perhaps I should say. My mother, who
died in my tenth year, was of a family of the name of Hanks ... My
father ... removed from Kentucky to ... Indiana, in my eighth
year. ... It was a wild region, with many bears and other wild
animals still in the woods. There I grew up. ... Of course when I
came of age I did not know much. Still somehow, I could read,
write, and cipher ... but that was all”.
Lincoln made extraordinary efforts to attain knowledge while
working on a farm, splitting rails for fences, and keeping store at
New Salem, Illinois. He was a captain in the Black Hawk War,
119

spent eight years in the Illinois legislature, and rode the circuit of
courts for many years. His law partner said of him, “His ambition
was a little engine that knew no rest”.
He married Mary Todd, and they had four boys, only one of
whom lived to maturity.	/
In 1858 Lincoln ran for Senator. He lost the election, but in
debating with his rival he gained a national reputation that won him
the Republican nomination for President in 1860.
As President, he built the Republican Party into a strong
national organization. Further, he rallied most of the northern
Democrats to the Union cause.
On January 1, 1863, he issued the Emancipation Proclamation
that declared forever free those slaves within the Confederacy.
Lincoln never let the world forget that the Civil War involved
an even larger issue. This he stated most movingly in dedicating the
military cemetery at Gettysburg: "... we here highly resolve that these
dead shall not have died in vain; that this nation, under God, shall
have a new birth of freedom; and that government of the people, by
the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth”.
Lincoln won re-election in 1864, as Union military triumphs
heralded an end to the war. In his planning for peace, the President
was flexible and generous, encouraging southerners to lay down their
arms and join speedily in reunion.
The spirit that guided him was clearly that of his Second
Inaugural Address, now inscribed on one wall of the Lincoln Memorial
in Washington, D. С.:
“With malice toward none; with charity for all; with firmness
in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish
the work we are in; to bind up the nation’s wounds. ...”
On Good Friday, April 14, 1865, Lincoln was assassinated at
Ford’s Theater in Washington by John Wilkes Booth, an actor, who
somehow thought he was helping the South. The opposite was the
result, for with Lincoln’s death, the possibility of peace with
magnanimity died.
Notes and Commentary
Fort Sumter — Форт Самтер, одна из двух застав на территории
Конфедерации, объявивших себя сторонниками федералистов;
120
командовал заставой майор Роберт Андерсон, который из-за
отсутствия боеприпасов вынужден был капитулировать
Black Hawk War — война с одним из отрядов индейцев под
предводительством вождя по имени Черный Ястреб (Black Hawk),
который впоследствии умер в резервации
the Lincoln Memorial — мемориальный комплекс на реке Пото¬
мак в г. Вашингтоне, посвященный Аврааму Линкольну
John Wilkes Booth ['бзэп 'wilks Ъи:0] — Бут Джон Уилкс (1838
1865), актер, смертельно ранивший Линкольна во время теат¬
рального представления
Geographical Names
Kentucky [ken'uki]	Кентукки
Hardin County ['ha:dm 'kauntij	округ Хардин
Illinois [/ili'noi]	Иллинойс
Vocabulary
Inaugural Address
momentous
to assail
solemn
to abhor
frontiersmen
nomination
to come of age
to cipher
to split rails
to ride the circuit of courts
engine
maturity
to run (for)
речь президента США при вступ¬
лении в должность
важный
нападать (первым)
торжественный
питать отвращение
ист. переселенцы, колонис¬
ты, заселявшие запад США
выдвижение кандидата на пост
достичь совершеннолетия
считать; производить математи¬
ческие действия
заготавливать дощечки (для ог¬
рады)
руководить выездной сессией
суда
двигатель
зрелый возраст
баллотироваться на пост
121

rival
to rally someone to the Union
cause
to dedicate
in vain
to perish
to herald
to lay down one’s arms
to inscribe
malice
to strive (on)
to bind (up)
to assassinate
magnanimity
соперник
привлечь на сторону федерали¬
стов
зд. открывать
напрасно, тщетно
погибать, умирать
возвещать, предвещать
сложить оружие
начертать
злоба, преступное намерение
добиваться, стараться
перевязывать, забинтовывать
убивать
великодушие
Assignment
"Js, Comprehension
Write an outline of the text.
fk Discussion
1. Say how you understand Lincoln’s First Inaugural Address.
2. Can you apply the Gettysburg Address to any nation in the
world? Yes or no, give a detailed explanation of your
point of view.
3. Comment on the Second Inaugural Address. Say if it
differs from the First one.
Ш *Scan the text.
Franklin D. Roosevelt: Thirty-Second President
(1933-1945)
Assuming the Presidency at the depth of the Great Depression,
Franklin Delano Roosevelt helped the American people to regain
122
faith in themselves. He brought hope as he promised prompt, vigorous
. action, and asserted in his Inaugural Address, “the only thing we
ft have to fear is fear itself’.
Born in 1882 at Hyde Park, New York — now a national
■ historic site — he attended Harvard University and Columbia Law
■. School. On St. Patrick’s Day, 1905, he married Eleanor Roosevelt.
Following the example of his fifth cousin, President Theodore
f Roosevelt, whom he greatly admired, Franklin D. Roosevelt entered
1 public service through politics, but as a Democrat. He won election
I.	to the New York Senate in 1910, and he was the Democratic nominee
■ for Vice President in 1920.
In the summer of 1921, when he was 39, disaster hit — he
■ was stricken with poliomyelitis. Demonstrating indomitable courage,
E he fought to regain the use of his legs, particularly through swimming.
■ At the 1924 Democratic Convention he dramatically appeared on
ft crutches. In 1928 Roosevelt became Governor of New York.
He was elected President in November 1932, to the first of
I four terms. By March there were 13 million unemployed, and almost
I every bank was closed. In his first “hundred days”, he proposed, and
ft Congress enacted, a sweeping program to bring recovery to business
I and agriculture, relief to the unemployed and to those in danger of
I losing farms and homes, and reform, especially through the
■ establishment of the Tennessee Valley- Authority.
By 1935 the Nation had achieved some measure of recovery,
I but businessmen and bankers were turning more and more against
I Roosevelt’s New Deal program. They feared his experiments, were
I, appalled because he had taken the Nation off the gold standard and
ft allowed deficits in the budget, and disliked the concessions to labor,
ft Roosevelt responded with a new program of reform: Social Security,
I heavier taxes on the wealthy, new controls over banks and public
К utilities, and an enormous work relief program for the unemployed.
In 1936 he was re-elected by a top-heavy margin. Feeling he
1: was armed with a popular mandate, he sought legislation to enlarge
i the Supreme Court, which had been invalidating key New Deal
| measures. Roosevelt lost the Supreme Court battle, but a revolution
I'in constitutional law took place. Thereafter the Government could
| legally regulate the economy.
Roosevelt had pledged the United States to the “good neighbour”
I policy. He also sought through neutrality legislation to keep the
I United States out of the war in Europe. But when the Japanese
123

attacked Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, Roosevelt directed
organization of the Nation’s manpower and resources for global war.
Feeling that the future peace of the world would depend upon
relations between the United States and Russia, he devoted much
thought to the planning of a United Nations, in which, he hoped,
international difficulties could be settled.
As the war drew to a close, Roosevelt’s health deteriorated,
and on April 12, 1945, while at Warm Springs, Georgia, he died of
a cerebral hemorrhage.
Notes and Commentary
the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) — во время Великой Де¬
прессии план реорганизации сельского хозяйства посредством
строительства гидросооружений, заводов по производству удоб¬
рений и т. п.
Assignment
$ Discussion
1. From the text select information which was new to you.
2. Say what information (either new or old) was of special
interest to you. Why?
3. Using‘both the text and any other source of information,
expand on the biography of Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
Ш Before reading the text, look at the title and guess what kind of
information you expect to find in it. Then read the text and say if you
were a success in making a prognosis.
John Fitzgerald Kennedy: Thirty-Fifth President »,,
(1961-1963)
On November 22, 1963, when he was hardly past his first
thousand days in office, John F. Kennedy was killed by an assassin’s
124
bullets as his motorcade wound through Dallas, Texas. Kennedy
was the youngest man elected President; he was the youngest to
die.
IV’v-
V.
John F. Kennedy: the youngest man
elected President, the youngest to die
in office
Of Irish descent, he was born in Brookline, Massachusetts,
on May 29, 1917. Graduating from Harvard in 1940, he entered
the Navy. In 1940, when his PT boat was rammed and sunk by a
Japanese destroyer, Kennedy, despite grave injuries, led the survivors
through perilous waters to safety.
Back from the war, he became a Democratic Congressman from
the Boston area, advancing in 1953 to the Senate. He married Jacqueline
Bouvier on September 12, 1953. In 1955, while recuperating from a
back operation, he wrote “Profiles in Courage”, which won the Pulitzer
Prize in history.
In 1961 John F. Kennedy became the first Roman Catholic
President. His Inaugural Address offered the memorable injunction:
125

“Ask not what your country can do for you — ask what you can do for
your country”.
As President, he set out to redeem his campaign pledge to get
America moving again. His economic programs launched the country
on its longest sustained expansion since World War II; before his
death, he laid plans for a massive assault on persisting pockets of
privation and poverty.
Responding to ever more urgent demands, he took vigorous
action in the cause of equal rights, calling for new civil rights
legislation. He wished America to resume its old mission as the first
nation dedicated to the revolution of human rights. His vision of
America extended to the quality of the national culture and the
central role of the arts in a vital society.
Kennedy did a lot to solve the Cuban crisis during which the
world trembled on the brink of nuclear war. He realized that both
sides had a vital interest in stopping the spread of nuclear weapons
and slowing the arms race. The months after the Cuban crisis showed
significant progress toward the goal of “a world of law and free
choice, banishing the world of war”. This progress led to the test
ban treaty of 1963.
John F. Kennedy’s administration thus saw the beginning of
new hope for both the equal rights of Americans and the peace of the
world.
Assignment
2s, Comprehension
1. Make up a list of topical vocabulary.
2. Ask 6 questions about the text and answer them.
3. Find the sentence or the phrase which could be the
epigraph to the text.
Discussion
1. Which of the actions of the Kennedy Administration do
you consider to be very important and why?
2. Say whether, in your opinion, John F. Kennedy was an
unusual President or just an ordinary one.
126
Revision Assignment
1.	Comment on the famous Jefferson’s phrase, which opens
the Constitution, “that all Men are created equal, that
they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable
Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit
of Happiness”.
2.	Does the notion of “acting for the Presidency’^ exist in
Russia? And if it does, how does it manifest itself?
3.	Do you think that any President should place his mind “on
an elevated situation, from which he might contemplate
the universe”?
4.	Using your background knowledge and different sources,
speak about any politician whom you consider to be an
outstanding one.

Unit VII
RELIGION
Ш Read the text.
Churches
In matters of religion the United States has long been one of
the most pluralistic of nations. The lack of a national religion resulted
in religious freedom being explicitly recognized in the Bill if Rights
attached to the original Constitution.
One of the reasons for which many of the first immigrants left
their own countries was to escape religious persecution. From earliest
times religion has offered strength and solace to Americans of many
faiths. It has also been a factor in shaping the Nation’s history.
Centuries ago the global rivalry between Catholicism and Protestantism
helped to spur exploration and colonization of the New World.
Britain’s chronic need for new settlers to people her empire encouraged
her to allow her American Colonies a wide measure of religious
freedom. That policy, in turn, established America as a likely
sanctuary for dissenters from many lands. These immigrants brought
with them their own particular brands of different religions.
America became a safer haven for believers and non-believers
alike when the Constitution and the Bill of Rights made freedom of
conscience a matter of right rather than privilege for the first time
in history.	*
The variety of religions increased at the end of the 19th and
beginning of the 20th centuries with the massive influx of immigrants
from central and southern Europe. Succeeding decades saw old
churches altered and many influential new ones born. And most of
these churches involved themselves in causes ranging from temperance
and foreign missions to slavery.
Overwhelmingly Protestant at first, America became increasingly
pluralistic after the Civil War as successive waves of immigration brought
more believers of the Roman Catholic, Jewish, and Eastern Orthodox
persuasions. The majority of the population, however, belong to one
of the 1,000 of Protestant Churches. Nearly a quarter of the present
population are Catholic and there are also about 6 million Jews.
With new religious concepts proliferating, a common phe¬
nomenon in the United States has become the rise of new Churches
or sects, such as the Mormons, Jehovah’s Witnesses and Christian
Scientists. By the end of the 20th century there were more than
250 established cults, sects, and denominations. To what can this
extraordinary richness be attributed? Some faiths — like Anglicanism
and Catholicism — outwardly changed relatively little for many
years. Others — like Quakerism — were greatly altered by life in the
New World. Still others arrived with the 19th century immigrant
tide or were “made in America”.
In America there used to be many preachers traveling around
the nation with their bibles. There are very few of them now, as
most preachers make use of television to preach their message.
Notes and Commentary
Quakerism ['kweikarizm] — квакерство; «квакеры» (их еще назы¬
вали «обществом друзей») представляли собой религиозную
секту, основанную Джорджем Фоксом в 1648—50 годах на прин¬
ципах пацифизма
129
В—1870

Vocabulary
faith
Catholicism
Protestantism
to spur
sanctuary
dissenter
haven
freedom of conscience
influx
temperance
Jewish
Orthodox
persuasion
to proliferate
Mormons
Jehovah’s Witnesses
Christian Scientists
denomination
Anglicanism
религия
католицизм
протестантизм, протестант¬
ство
ускорять, подстегивать
убежище, прибежище
сектант
убежище
свобода совести
наплыв
воздержание от спиртных на¬
питков
иудейский, еврейский
православный
убеждение
расти, распространяться
мормоны
свидетели Иеговы
последователи этического уче¬
ния и религиозной органи¬
зации «христианская наука»
вероисповедание
англиканизм
Assignment
"25. Comprehension
1.	In the text find sentences or paragraphs to prove that:
1) America has always been a shelter for many people
oppressed in their native countries for their religious
beliefs;
2) the USA is not a country whose population only belongs
to one Church.
2.	Ask several questions about the main facts of the text.
3.	Compress the text to 6-7 sentences. Write down the
summary.
130
$ Discussion
1. - Explain why, in your opinion, there are so many Churches
and sects in the US now.
2. Speak about the role of religion in the United States. Use
your background knowledge.
Ш Look through the text and:
1) select information which is new to you;
2) describe the evolution of the Black Church;
3) comment on the phrase: “...the blacks are still too often ‘last hired
and first fired’”.
The Black Church
Religion has had a special place in the history of black America.
Colonial slaves were often baptized, but little effort was made at true
conversion until the 1730s and 1740s.
Separate black churches were forbidden on most plantations
for fear they would foment rebellion. Slaves usually sat apart in
their owners’ churches, where, as one ex-slave recalled, they were
/told by the priest to do “what your master tells you to do”. But
plantation slaves often met to worship in secret, led by forceful slave
preachers. Some of them gave hope to their listeners, assuring them
that God would end slavery. Not all of them spoke about patience,
however. Many black preachers were at the head of insurrections.
As the first American social body controlled by blacks, the
. church was usually the most important Negro institution in the
. community: it promoted education, offered aid to the poor, and
provided hope for the future and sanctuary from white hostility.
Venerated by their flocks, black ministers were community
leaders. They acted as spiritual shepherds, mediated disputes, and
^served as spokesmen in dealing with whites. Such modem black
politicians and civil rights leaders as Dr. Martin Luther King, Andrew
Young and many others were solidly rooted in that tradition.
The 20th century migration of the Negro poof from the rural
: South to Northern Cities spawned new forms of black religion. By
1970 there were well over 35 all-black denominations, claiming
131

nearly 10 million adherents, plus many smaller, less formally
organized sects.
The black churches have reflected the needs of their people.
In an America in which blacks are still all too often “last hired and
first fired”, religion remains a strong force for strength and unity.
Revision Assignment
Give a short lecture on the Russian Orthodox Church. Touch
upon its historical role at different stages of the development of
the Russian State.
Unit VIII
THE MEDIA
Ш Read the text.
The Press
Although there are two American news services operating
worldwide — the Associated Press (AP) and United Press International
(UPI) — the tremendous size of the nation, the variety of time zones,
and the general preoccupation with mainly local issues make it difficult
for national daily newspapers to exist. “The New York Times”, with a
circulation of 900,000, is perhaps the most influential daily newspaper,
followed by “The Washington Post” and “The Los Angeles Times”.
“The Christian Science Monitor” has become known for its in-depth
analysis of major news developments. An attempt has been made to
introduce the “popular” “US Today” on a nationwide basis; and “The
Wall Street Journal”, broadened from a strictly financial paper to one
with general news interest, comes close to being a national newspaper.
133

All large American cities have at least one newspaper and,
although mainly concerned with local affairs, they are also read in
other States.
Periodicals exist for virtually every type of interest, some with
just a tiny circulation, others like “The Time” with a circulation
worldwide of more than 6 million copies. More than 50 of the
leading magazines produce over one million copies of each issue.
New periodicals keep appearing. There has been a great growth
in suburban newspapers, which siphon readers from the big-city
press. Most successful of these has been New York’s “Newsday”.
Founded in 1940, it is today one of the country’s leading evening
papers.
In a single month some 9000 different magazines appear in
the United States. Americans all across the country buy millions of
copies of these periodicals, which treat every imaginable subject in
the range of human thought and endeavor. There are publications
for farmers, apartment dwellers, cooks, weight lifters, and antique
collectors, among many others. Men and women of every age group,
adolescents, and children can all find magazines specifically aimed
at them. Sports of every variety and special interests in every
conceivable field are covered.
Although individual magazines come and go, the magazine
business continues to be the most zestful, competitive, and
imaginative of all publishing endeavors, and there are no signs that
the public appetite for its products is about to diminish.
More and more the Nation seems to be getting its news from
radio and television. But it is the newspapers and magazines that
have the time and the space for the most careful interpretation of the
news. The newspapers ih the United States continue to deal most
effectively with local news and to relate the national news to the
locality. Despite persistent warnings of its imminent doom, the age
of print is far from over.
Notes and Commentary
the Associated Press (AP), the United Press International (UPI) —
названия информационных агентств, которые при переводе пе¬
редаются транслитерацией: Ассошиэйтед Пресс, Юнайтед Пресс
Интернэшнл
134
“The New York Times”, “The Washington Post”, etc. — «Нью-
Йорк Таймс», «Вашингтон Пост» и др.; названия иностранных
газет и журналов обычно не переводятся, а передаются в транс¬
литерации
Vocabulary	**
центральная ежедневная газе¬
та
тираж
глубокий, всесторонний
малоформатная, бульварная
периодическое издание, журнал
экземпляр
переманить
попытка, усилие
антиквар, собиратель древнос¬
тей
молодежь
мыслимый, постижимый
с «изюминкой», пикантный,
острый
неминуемый, грозящий
гибель, рок
Assignment
'S. Comprehension
1.	Arrange the questions according to the logical order of the
text. Answer these questions.
1) What do the newspapers in the US continue to deal
with?
2) What problems are covered by periodicals?
3) Why is it difficult for national newspapers to survive?
4) How many magazines appear in the US every month?
5) Are local newspapers only read in the State where they
are published?
national daily (newspaper)
circulation
in-depth
popular
periodical
copy
to siphon
endeavor
antique collector
adolescent
conceivable
zestful
imminent
doom
135

.13’ Discussion
1. Do you agree with the author’s point of view that “the age
of print is far from over”?
2. Tell your friend everything you know about newspapers in
the US.
3. Compare newspapers in the US with those in this country.
Ш Read the text.
The Power of the Press
On September 25, 1690, news-hungry Bostonians, who had
to wait months for papers from Britain, bought the first copies of the
American Colonies’ first newspaper. It was a small four-page journal
with one blank page on which readers could fill in their own news.
The paper was fairly sensational for its day, with reports of
smallpox and fevers, a suicide, Indian raids, and a scandalous story
about the King of France.
That first issue was also the last because the printer, Benjamin
Harris, had not obtained the license required by law. More than a
decade passed before Americans saw another native newspaper.
The press in the United States has followed a smoother path
since 1690. Relations between press and government have not always
been the most cordial, for the press has traditionally tended to be its
determined — but loyal — adversary. Since 1791 the First Amendment
to the Constitution has guaranteed freedom of the written word from
action of the Federal Government, a guarantee that has been tested
and consistently upheld through the years.
The Media indeed have uncovered and made public many
secrets the government would have preferred to keep secret (such as
the Watergate scandal), leading to constant tension between journalists
and government officials. Some people say that the media — and
television in particular — have become so influential that in effect
they are the political process, shaping public opinion.
The power of the press has not always been used for noble
purposes. From the very beginning there have been examples of
sensationalism, inaccuracy, and, occasionally, slander. But for
136
the most part the story of the press is one of responsibility, for the
press, whether in its staid journals, glossy ladies’ magazines, or
television documentaries, has on the whole dealt responsibly with
the freedom guaranteed it by the Constitution and has fulfilled its
primary duty: to inform the public of the truth.
Notes and Commentary
the Watergate scandal — Уотергейт, скандал, разразившийся после
президентской избирательной кампании 1972 года. Расследова¬
ния журналистов выявили, что ответственные лица в штабе
Республиканской партии по переизбранию президента Ричарда
Никсона на второй срок занимались подслушиванием телефон¬
ных переговоров, ведущихся в штабе Демократической партии
в гостинице «Уотергейт». Ввиду грозящего импичмента Ник¬
сон вынужден был 8 августа 1974 года подать в отставку с поста
президента.
Assignment
Comprehension
1. Make up a list of topical vocabulary.
2. Say whether the following statements are true or not.
1) Benjamin Harris has been publishing the first American
newspaper for 10 years.
2) Government and press have always been on friendly
terms.
3) The press has sometimes cheated the public playing
into the hands of the government or corrupted people.
13’ Discussion
1. Name the main issues touched upon in the text. Enlarge
upon one of them.
2. Do you agree or disagree with the author who says that
the power of the press has not always been used for noble
purposes. Can you give any examples?
КГ	137

Ш Look through the text and:
1) pick out the facts you did not know before;
2) convey the gist of the text in the form of a thesis;
3) discuss the advantages and disadvantages of radio and television;
4) speak about the problem of censorship on radio and television;
give your “pros” and “cons”.
Radio and Television
Although both radio and television are geared more to
entertaining than to informing, they have become increasingly
concerned with the news. Certain radio stations are devoted entirely
to news and opinion, with spot announcements, editorials, and in-
depth reports.
There is no national radio station in the United States, but
every large city has dozens of independent stations, which range
from twenty four hours a day news to rock and classical music.
The first commercial radio station took to the airwaves in 1920.
At the beginning of 1922 there were 30 stations in operation; by the
following year, more than 500. The creation of the first two multi¬
station networks, the National Broadcasting Company (NBC) in
1926 and the Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS) the following
year, turned broadcasting into a coherent medium. In 1930 more
than 12 million US families had radios; 20 years later 40 million
families — nearly 92 per cent of the American people — were avid
listeners.
The earliest entertainers performed free, grateful for the
publicity; the manufacturers of radio equipment paid for most
programming. Then the idea of financing programs with advertising
began to emerge and soon proved profitable beyond the wildest dreams:
by 1929 the Ford Motor Company was paying $1000 a minute for
prime time (the popular evening hours), and the price was climbing.
For better or for worse, Americans in every corner of the
continent are simultaneously laughing at the same jokes, listening to
the same news, cheering the same teams, and dancing to the same
music. Radio also affected the economy by introducing new products
to millions of potential customers. President Roosevelt mastered the
mediunt and used his “fireside chats” to help restore the nation’s
confidence in its own future.
The National Broadcasting Company started experimental
138
television broadcasts in New York City in 1930, but it was not after
the World War II that television truly developed.
The first publicly available sets had round screens ranging in
size from 5 to 9 inches, and viewers had to sit up close to see. The
first commercial appeared in the summer of 1941.
In 1946—47 broadcasters and set manufacturers renewed their
efforts to get full-scale TV broadcasting underway. In 1947 there
were just 14000 sets in use. By 1949 there were nearly 1 million; by
1955 — nearly 30 million; and by 1960 — 60 million. Colour and
ever-large screens added to TV’s mass appeal, and by the 1990s more
than 96 per Cent of all American households had one or more sets.
In 1946 there were 6 television stations in the United states; in
1973 there were 927 and now there are about 1000 commercial
television stations. More than 600 of these are affiliated with the big
private national television networks, ABC, NBS and CBS, which
show their programs at the same time throughout the nation during
prime time (the hours in which most people watch television, usually
7.30 p.m. to 11 p. m.). The rest are either independent or in
smaller networks. An increasing number of Americans also subscribe
to cable television stations.
Television, along with the other media, reflects the popular
mood of the day, but no amount of print coverage can match the
immediacy and thrill of certain television reporting. Via satellite,
television can bring the world live coverage of any event, even the
unforgettable landing of the United States’ historic men on the Moon.
Television publicity value has become enormous. Televised
congressional hearings have made national heroes of previously obscure
Representatives and Senators. Street gangs hold press conferences
for the television cameras.
Public television, funded by Government grants and private
donations, does not only provide a select blend of entertainment and
information. Thanks to such programs as “Sesame Street” and “Electric
Company”, it has also helped teach a whole generation to read.
Like print journalism, broadcast journalism has generated its
share of controversy. Television stations have come under attack
from local minority groups for ignoring their interests; congressional
committees have investigated television programs. Unlike newspapers
and magazines, however, radio and television stations in the United
States act under the implied restrictions of a Government license,
granted by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).
139

The FCC, while it cannot censor program content, has the
power to review a station’s operations to determine if it is acting in
the public interest and can suspend the license if it decides the station
is not. There is always the possibility that threats of suspension may
be used in attempts to intimidate stations. Fortunately the electronic
media have in general followed in the tradition of public responsibility
set by newspapers and magazines.
Revision Assignment
1. Speak about the power of the press in Russia.
2. Comment on the statement according to which the primary
duty of the press is “to inform the public of the truth”.
3. State the problems which so far remained uncovered but
which are closely connected with mass media.
Unit IX
THE WELFARE STATE
03 Read the text.
Industry
The United State is the world’s greatest economic power in
terms of both Gross National Product and per capita GNP, with
■its exports accounting for more than 10 % of all world trade.
Although the importance of industrial production is falling and
that of services growing (as in most of Western Europe), the United
States remains the world’s greatest maker of industrial goods and
around 20 million Americans are still employed in manufacturing.
The industrial heart of the nation is the Midwest around the
Great Lakes, especially in the region stretching from southern Michigan
through Northern Ohio and into the Pittsburgh area of Pennsylvania.
Another important industrial region is the Northeast, which
is the home of the major computer manufacturers. Service industries
141

are also very important in this region and New York is the country’s
banking and insurance capital.
The nation’s fastest growing region, however, is the Southeast,
where the chemical industry and high-technology industries are now
catching up with the traditional textile industry as many firms exploit
the warm climate and low labor costs.
Geographical Names
г.ГГ иттсбур г (штат Пенсиль¬
вания)
Vocabulary
на душу населения
промышленное производство
сфера услуг
страховой
догнать
стоимость рабочей силы
Assignment
Comprehension
1. Name the main trend in the present development of the
USA.
2. Explain why the Northeast has become an important
industrial region.
3. Make the following ideas complete.
1) The area around the Great Lakes is ... .
2) The Southeast is at the moment the fastest developing
region because ... .
f}’ Discussion
Using the text and other sources of information, speak about
one of the industries of the United States.
Pittsburgh ['pitsbaig]
per capita
industrial production
service (industries)
insurance
to catch up (with)
labor cost
142
ffl Read the text. Consult the dictionary to look up the words, referring to
agriculture, and explain what they mean: “harvested cropland; permanent
pasture land; com; wheat; livestock; dairy farming; cattle farming”.
Agriculture
47 per cent of the land area of the United States is* farmland,
of which 152 million hectares are harvested cropland and 560 million
hectares are permanent pasture land. And yet, only 6.2 million
people live on the Nation’s farms and today farmers make up a little
more than 2 per cent of the American population.
Farming village in Virginia
The Midwest is the most important agricultural region in the
I United States (though California is the number one state in terms
of the value of its agricultural products) and alone produces almost
I, twice as much as the American people can consume. Corn and
wheat are the main crops here, and livestock and dairy farming are
valso carried out on a large scale.
Although the South is still important for traditional crops, such
as tobacco, com and cotton, there is now far greater variety, while
I, Texas is.the nation’s leading producer of cattle, sheep, cotton and rice.
143

The West is important for cattle and wheat farming in the
Great Plains area, and for fruit in the fertile valleys of the States that
border the Pacific.
Assignment
Ф Discussion
Account for the fact that though today farmers make up a
little more than 2 per cent of the American population they
produce several times as much as the American people can
consume.
Ш Before reading the text, look at the title and define the problems
raised in the text. Then read the text and say if you were right in
guessing its content.
Food for Thought
The American farmer’s success is one of the less publicized
wonders of the 20th century. By the mid-1970s a single farmer
could grow enough food to feed himself, 45 other Americans, and 8
foreigners. Agriculture is one of the biggest and most basic productive
enterprises. It feeds the Nation and supplies raw materials to most
industries. In a single year farmers in the United States grow crops
valued at some $25 billion.
The ever intensifying production has exacted its price. In an
attempt to stabilize farm income, the US Government has paid
farmers billions of dollars in the past decade. Spokesmen for the
consumers have charged farmers and the food-processing industry
with sacrificing nutrition and taste in their efforts to mass-produce
meat, poultry, fruit, vegetables, and grain products.
Much of the machinery on US farms is automated,^computers
determine what cows eat. Such technology costs money. In 1940
American farmers invested about $52 billion in land, livestock,
buildings, and equipment. By the 1990s the amount had climbed to
more than $400 billion, even though farms had dropped in number
144
from 6 million to fewer than 3 million. Many people had to sell their
small family farms because they could not find the necessary capital to
run them. Nevertheless, about 95 percent of US farms are still family
owned, although nowadays they tend to be large and are often
incorporated. Meanwhile, true corporation farms, supervised by boards
of directors and professional managers, are increasing in number.
Intensive farming methods are being implemented everywhere,
farmers are experimenting with new crops. This is necessary if the
US population, expected to grow in the next century, is to be fed.
It is anticipated that the number of American farms will be cut in
half, to about 1.5 million, while the amount of cultivated land will
remain about the same. Farm output, however, will probably double.
Some agriculturists envision a future where weather will be
made to order, robots will operate the farm machinery, millions of
identical cattle will be produced as clones from a single superior
“parent”, and crops will grow lush and green under a pollution-free
sky. It is a fairy tale, but the truth is that the amazing productivity
of American farmers has ensured that much of the world will have
enough to eat for the next 20 or 30 years.
Vocabulary
(промышленное) предприятие
взыскивать, требовать
представитель
предвидеть, предчувствовать
производительность
предвидеть
биол. клон
сочный, буйный (о раститель¬
ности)
Assignment
1Эч Comprehension
1.	Find the phrases: “to mass produce meat”, “one of the
less publicized wonders”, “farm output”, “such technology
145
10—1870
enterprise
to exact
spokesman
to anticipate
output
to envision
clone
lush

costs money”, “family owned”, “a pollution-free sky”
and present them in the situations from the text.
2.	Make up a plan of the text.
Discussion
1. Discuss the points of your plan.
2. Why, do you think, the text is called “Food for Thought”?
Revision Assignment
Prepare a report about the trends in Russian industry and
agriculture.
Unit X
WORK AND MONEY
Ш Read the text.
Trade Unions
The first important national organization of workers was “The
Knights of Labor”, founded as a secret union in 1869. Its main aim
was to win shorter hours, higher wages and satisfactory working
conditions. Although it had nearly a million members by 1886, its
mixture of all different types of workers prevented it from being
effective. This led to the creation of the American Federation of
Labor (A.F.L.), which was a federation of separate, quite
autonomous, craft unions. The growing dispute over whether to
organize the unions according to crafts or trades, or on an industrial
basis (i.e. incorporating all the workers in a given industry) led to
the creation of an independent federation — the Congress of Industrial
Organizations (C.I.O.) — in 1938. With the continual increase in
10*
147

mass production and unskilled workers, the A.F.L. also began to
organize itself on an industrial basis instead of according to craft.
The two organizations then merged in 1955 to found a new federation:
the A.F.L.-C.I.O.
Unions have never been able to achieve the same levels of
membership as in most Western countries. The political power of
the giant corporations and the non-interference policy of the
government have frequently resulted in restrictive laws being made by
Congress and individual States against unions, especially in periods
t when numerous strikes occurred.
Vocabulary
«Рыцари труда»
более короткий рабочий день
более высокая заработная пла¬
та
Американская федерация труда
цеховой профсоюз
ремесло
профессия, ремесло
Конгресс производственных
профсоюзов
неквалифицированный
политика невмешательства
часто, многократно
иметь место, случаться, проис¬
ходить
Assignment
t&. Comprehension
1. Arrange the following statements according to the order
they are given in the text.
1) American unions have never been as numerous as West
European ones.
148
“The Knights of Labor”
shorter hours
higher wages
the American Federation
of Labor
craft union
craft
trade
the Congress of Industrial
Organizations
unskilled
non-interference policy
frequently
to occur
2) The first trade union was founded in the US at the end
of the 19th century.
3) Some of the actions of trade unions were prohibited by
legislature.
4) Different reasons led to the reorganization of unions.
2. Ask questions about the main facts of the text.
b Discussion
1. Comment on the comparative weakness of American trade
unions.
2. Use additional source of information and speak about the
present state of trade unions in the US.
Dll Read the text.
Wall Street
Wall Street itself is a short street in Lower Manhattan, New
York City, which takes its name from the town wall built in 1653
across Manhattan Island to protect the Dutch colonists of New
Amsterdam from both the Native American Indians and the English.
Symbolically, however, “Wall Street” means the financial center of
the United States (just as the “City” of London is the financial
Center of the United Kingdom) because of the concentration of
business institutions in the area: stock-brokerage companies, banks,
trusts, insurance Corporations, commodity exchanges (coffee, cotton,
metal, com) and, of course, the New York Stock Exchange.
The Exchange — sometimes called “the nation’s market
place” — was founded on May 17, 1792, when Alexander Hamilton,
the first US Secretary of the Treasury, decided to issue government
bonds to consolidate and refund the debts incurred during the War
for American Independence; a “market place” for the selling and
buying of these bonds became necessary.
The Exchange deals only in “listed” stocks, i.e. stocks which
are on the official trading list of the Exchange. In order to be listed,
a company must have at least 2,000 stockholders, with at least 1
million shares distributed among them, and an annual turnover of at
149

least $2.5 million. In 1998, there were more than 2,500 listed
stocks.
Notes and Commentary
Lower Manhattan ['lous maen'haetan] — Нижний Манхэттен, часть
острова Манхэттен и района Нью-Йорка с тем же названием;
всемирно знаменит благодаря таким известным улицам и дос¬
топримечательностям, как Эмпайр Стейт Билдинг, Уолл-стрит,
Бродвей, музей Метрополитен, Колумбийский университет,
Таймс Сквер и др.
Vocabulary
учреждение, организация
брокерская фирма
товарная биржа
фондовая биржа
облигация
возмещать
влезть в долги, наделать долгов
«зарегистрированная» акция
акционер
годовой, ежегодный
оборот
Assignment
^ Comprehension
Supply answers to the following questions.
1) Where does the name of the street come from?
2) What is situated in Wall Street?
3) When did Wall Street begin gaining popularity?
Ф Discussion
Give a detailed description of the financial “heart” of the USA.
150
institution
stock-brokerage company
commodity exchange
stock exchange
bond
to refund the debts
to incur (debts)
“listed” stock
stockholder
annual
turnover
Revision Assignment
1. Give a comparative analysis of the financial center of
New York and London.
2. Describe financial institutions in Russia.

Unit XI
TRANSPORT
Ш Read the text.
Communications and Transport
The vast network of rivers and lakes in the eastern part of the
United States has been of great importance to the economic
development of the nation. The Mississippi and its tributaries are all
easily navigable and the five Great Lakes, four of which are shared
with Canada, are linked to this system by a series of canals. These
waterways, together with pipelines and railways, are important for
the transport of bulk freight.
There is now a vast railway network extending over almost the
entire country. Railway transport has been largely replaced by air
transport for long-distance passenger travel, as there is5 a highly
developed network of airline services connecting most towns of
importance (and it costs less to travel by air than by train even on
152
comparatively short journeys). Railways are still important for the
carriage of certain types of freight, however.
Cars and trucks are the most important means of transport for
both passengers and goods, and an interstate highway system has
been built which provides a route to nearly every major city. On
many of these roads a toll has to be paid and the top speed limit
anywhere is 55 miles per hour.
Vocabulary
series	система, ряд
bulk freight	объемистый груз
toll	пошлина
Assignment
'S- Comprehension
Name the leading means of transport in the US and characterize
them.
Ш Discussion
Dwell on the advantages and disadvantages of different means
of transport.
Ы Read the text.
From the History of Travel
Americans are a restless people, always on the move and
eager to get where they are going as quickly and conveniently as
possible. It was not until well after the Revolution, however, with
the need for opening up the lands to the West, that the Nation
began to develop an integrated system for transporting people and
goods.
153

For most of the first century of settlement, westward travel
was limited to the winding Indian trails, which in a few places were
widened to make primitive roads. Only the venturesome hunters and
trappers pushed into the heavily forested mountains.
On the water it was a different story; the rivers, inlets, and
bays provided the easiest and safest means of transportation. Farmers
floated their produce — wheat, corn, salted pork, logs, cotton,
and tobacco — downriver to market on flatboats and rafts. Small
boats and log canoes carried people to church and on visits to neighbours
or to market. Many New Englanders gave up cultivating their
rocky lands and turned to the sea in sturdy fishing boats to harvest
the haddock and cod. Merchants, traders, and passengers traveled
between Boston, New York, and Baltimore by boat.
Land travel increased slowly in the early 1700s. A horseback
trip from New Yorkto Boston tookat least 7 days. As more Indian
trails were widened into rough dirt roads, vehicles began to appear.
By the mid-1700s four- and six-horse carriages with coachmen were
common among the prosperous Virginia planters.
The concept of using Federal funds to build interregional roads
was established in 1806 under President Jefferson, and the so called
National Road, which eventually linked Maryland with Illinois,;
was began in 1811. The transcontinental railroad, finished in 1869,
linked the two oceans and unified the continent. So, by the late
1890s, it was already possible to travel from the Atlantic Coast to the
Pacific Coast by rail.
Although Americans did not invent that mechanical marvel,
the automobile, they made it their own by finding ways to build it,
improve it, mass-produce it, and sell it. Speed and movement soon
became national obsessions.
The Wright brothers made their historic flight at Kitty Hawk,
North Carolina, some 5 years before Henry Ford built his first “Model
T” in 1908, but it took World Wars I and II to accelerate, the evolution
of the airplane.
When all the technical challenges of travel on and around the
Earth had been met, a new breed of traveler shot for the Moon,
and made it. Since the first Apollo Moon landing on July 20, 1969,
Americans have sent men to the Moon five times. And scientists,
no l<5hger earth-bound, have lived and worked for weeks aboard
American Skylabs orbiting high above the Earth.
But though time and distance have been conquered, solutions
154
to the more difficult problems of safe, clean, comfortable travel still
lie ahead.
Notes and Commentary
the Wright [rait] brothers — братья Уилбур и Орвил Райт, пионе¬
ры авиадши
Kitty Hawk ['kiti Ъэ:к] — Кити Хок, небольшой город в Север¬
ной Каролине, недалеко от которого братья Райт 17 декабря
1903 года испытали свой первый летательный аппарат. Этот
первый полет длился 12 секунд, аппарат пролетел 200 футов.
Первый самолет, появившийся на вооружении у армии США,
был самолет братьев Райт, купленный военными в 1909 году.
Henry Ford ['henn 'fo:d] — Форд Генри (1863-1947), крупней¬
ший промышленник, производитель автомобилей марки «Форд»
Geographical Names
Baltimore [bo:ltimo:]	г.	Балтимор
Vocabulary
winding	изгиб, поворот
venturesome	бесстрашный, безрассудно храб¬
рый, дерзкий, смелый
trapper	охотник, ставящий капканы;
траппер
inlet	залив, бухточка
to float	переплавлять, перевозить (во¬
дой)
log	бревно
flatboat	плоскодонная лодка
raft	плот, паром
sturdy	крепкий, сильный, стойкий,
твердый
haddock	пикша (рыба)
cod	треска
155

carnage
coachman
obsession
to accelerate
challenge
breed
to shoot (for)
to make it
earth-bound
экипаж
возница, кучер
наваждение
ускорять
вызов
порода, поколение
мчаться, нестись
осуществить
связанный с землей
Assignment
"йа. Comprehension
К Divide the text into logically connected parts and entitle
them.
2.	Present the history of travel in chronological order.
fk Discussion
1. What was the reason for the increase of land travel at the
beginning of the 18th century?
2. Why, do you think, speed and movement have become
national obsessions?
3. What do you know about Moon travel?
m *Look through the text and define the idea which the author wanted
to convey.
Wheels for All Mankind
In many ways the tale of Henry Ford and the product associated
with his name is a microcosm of American economic, history — a
story of trial and error, of innovation and ultimate success.
A farmer with a penchant for mechanical things, the young
Ford quit school at 17, began building small steam engines, and
drove his first bicycle-wheeled, engine-driven device in 1896.
156
It was a primitive affair, much simpler than cars already on
the roads in Europe, and it was not until 1901 that the stubborn
tinker, after several false starts, got enough financial support to start
the Henry Ford Automobile Company. Financial disputes arose and
Ford left. Two years later, with new backers, he established the
Ford Motor Company. (When in 1919 Ford bought all outstanding
shares, original investors reaped heavy rewards; a share*that cost
$100 was then worth $260000.)
Ford was convinced that he could produce a good car at a
reasonable price, and on October 1, 1908, he realized his dream
with the unveiling of the Ford Model T. This was a straightforward,
sturdy machine made of the best metals young Henry could obtain
and propelled by a single 4-cylinder, 22-horsepower, 167-cubic-
ineh engine. As early as 1913, his company was able to produce an
astonishing 1000 Ts per day.
The T was an instant success and within months was outselling
other American cars combined. What is more, Ford made good his
pledge to reduce the T’s price. From $850 in 1909, the price dropped
steadily to $260 for some models by 1924. By then, however,
other manufacturers’ inexpensive cars with better methods of changing
gears and more speed were outperforming the T on America’s improved
roads.
Recognizing this, Ford and his engineers went to work, and
in late 1927- they were ready with the company’s second
breakthrough — the Model A. The car caught America’s imagination,
and like its predecessor, the Model T, was an instant success. There
was nothing revolutionary about the engine, but the car’s classical
good looks and sturdiness endeared it to millions. Today the Model
A Restorers Club has thousands of members, who proudly drive their
prizes.
So in the 1920s, the car people called a “baby Lincoln” took
America by storm. Some 4,5 million Model A’s were built in 5
years, and even the most expensive version sold for under $600.
But times were changing. The Detroit manufacturers realized
that the mass market was not only growing but would buy a wide
variety of cars. This trend was encouraged by General Motors, which
began to make annual model changes, supported by intensive
advertising campaigns. The Detroit design syndrome was soon
established. Each year the new models had to be sufficiently different
from the ones before, to set them clearly apart (so that one’s
157

neighbours would be sure to know that a car was new); yet it could
not be so drastically changed as to put it out of character with
previous models.
Today the Big Three — General Motors, Ford, and Chrysler —
manufacture many different products. But the automotive industry
owes an enduring debt to a mechanical genius named Henry Ford,
the man who first put Americans on wheels.
Revision Assignment
Keeping in mind the structure of the texts of the Unit, prepare
a report on the history of travel in Russia. Pay special attention
to space travel.
Unit XII
ARTS AND SCIENCE
ГП Read the text.
The Smithsonian:
a Treasure-Filled Institution
Every year millions of Americans and foreigners visit the
Nation’s Capital, and many of them pass fascinating hours there
viewing such historic treasures as the Wright brothers’ first airplane,
Alexander Graham Bell’s prototype telephone,; and a wealth of
American and foreign art at various museums scattered around the
city.
Few of these visitors realize that they are guests of the
Smithsonian Institution, one of the world’s most far-reaching
societies of scholars and scientists, with interests in such diverse
fields as astrophysics and music, painting and ethnology, drama
and zoology.
159

A vast complex of museums and galleries, laboratories and halls
of learning, research centers and editorial offices, the Smithsonian
Institution, though centerd in Washington, also maintains a variety
of facilities throughout the Nation and the world. But to the general
public the Smithsonian is best known for its exhibition halls in the
Nation’s Capital. These include, among others, the National Gallery
of Art, the Museum of Natural History, the National Museum of
American History, the Air and Space Museum, the Museum of
History and Technology.
Supported in part by public funding and in part by private
donations, the Smithsonian was established in 1846, thanks to a
bequest of $508000 from a British scientist, James Smithson, for
“an establishment for the increase and diffusion of knowledge among
men”.
The Smithsonian’s headquarters in Washington
In becoming one of the world’s foremost institutes of research
and enlightenment, and establishing its public displays, the
Smithsonian has more than carried out its benefactor’s charge.
160
Notes and Commentary
the Smithsonian [smiO'sounjan] (Institution) — Смитсоновский
Центр Науки и искусств; состоит из ряда научно-исследователь¬
ских учреждений и множества всемирно известных музеев
Alexander Graham Bell [.aelig'zcrnda 'graem 'bel] — Белл Александр
Грэм (1847—1922), знаменитый американский изобретатель и
рационализатор
Vocabulary
bequest
facilities
(the) National Gallery of Art
(the) Museum of Natural
History
(the) National Museum of
American History
(the) Air and Space Museum
(the) Museum of History and
Technology
donation
diffusion	ч.
foremost
enlightenment
to carry out
benefactor
charge
завещанное наследство
возможности, оборудование
Национальная художественная
галерея
Национальный музей естествен¬
ной истории
Национальный музей истории
Америки
Музей воздухоплавания и аст¬
ронавтики
Музей истории и техники
дар, пожертвование
распространение
передовой, выдающийся
просвещение
выполнять, осуществлять
благотворитель, благодетель,
меценат .
предписание, поручение
Assignment
Is, Comprehension
1. Arrange the passages in chronological order.
2. Name the institutions referring to art.
161
11—1870

3.	Use the words “bequest”, “benefactor”, and “enlightenment”
in the situations from the text.
$ Discussion
1. Why did the author call the Smithsonian “a treasure-
filled institution”?
2. What, in your opinion, makes the Smithsonian one of
the world’s most far-reaching societies of scholars and
scientists?
Ш Read the text.
The National Gallery of Art:
History of Construction
On March 17, 1941, the National Gallery of Art was dedicated
to the nation. Located in the heart of the nation’s capital, the
building was designed by architect John Russell Pope to implement
a dream long held by its donor, the financier and art collector
Andrew W. Mellon. In many ways the building was the result of the
plans and ideals of those two men, yet it was also influenced by the
ideas of its time, by its location on the Mall, and by a tradition of
grand art museum buildings.
The architectural concept of the public art museum originated
in Europe, where, in the first half of the nineteenth century,
grand buildings in a classical style were built to house national art
collections in spacious and beautiful surroundings. After the Civil
War many wealthy Americans, including Andrew Mellon, visited
Europe and brought back with them a vision inspired by those
museums.
By the 1920s Washington had several distinguished art museums.
However, Andrew Mellon realized soon after coming to Washington
that none of those museums was of the type exemplified by the
national collections of Europe or the grand art museums) such as
existed in New York, Boston, and Chicago. He began to plan for
such an institution in the nation’s capital quietly and without public
notice. Mellon had started to collect paintings early in life, and as
162
he planned for a National Gallery of Art, he brought together a
superb collection of art to serve as the nucleus of a great national
collection.
Andrew Mellon selected John Russell Pope to design the building
of the National Gallery of Art. The proposal came as early as 1935,
and the architect set out to create a building that woujd be
monumental yet practical, classical in appearance yet thoroughly
modern in structure and as comfortable as possible for visitors and
staff alike.
Andrew Mellon and John Russell Pope both died in August
1937 within twenty-four hours of each other. The overall plan and
■exterior design for the National Gallery had been finalized by them,
but the layout and decoration of the interior spaces was left to Pope’s
successors.
Construction of the National Gallery of Art was completed
before the end of 1940. The new museum was opened on March 17,
1941. On behalf of the people of the United States of America,
^President Franklin D. Roosevelt accepted the completed building
and the collection which Andrew W. Mellon promised to the nation
in 1937.
Andrew Mellon had believed that the gallery he established
should bear not his name but the nation’s, and that its collections
■ should grow through gifts of art from private citizens. Thus the
museum was named the National Gallery of Art, and it holds, in
addition to Mellon’s paintings and sculpture, great collections of
many other generous donators. Private gifts of art of the highest
quality, installed in the elegant classical building designed by John
Russell Pope, have made the National Gallery of Art the grand
national museum which Andrew Mellon envisioned.
The building is one of the largest marble structures in the
world, measuring 785 feet in length and containing more than 100,000
square feet of exhibition space.
Notes and Commentary
John Russell Pope ['d3on 'rxsl'poup] — Поуп Джон Рассел (1874—
1937), знаменитый американский архитектор
Andrew Mellon ['aendru:'melon] — Меллон Эндрю Уильям (1855—
1937), государственный деятель, меценат
1.63
11

Assignment
"Si Comprehension
1. Make up a list of words connected with architecture and
art.
2. Ask 5-6 questions about the text covering the main points.
3. Answer these questions.
4. Give a brief summary of the text. Present it in written form.
tjK Discussion
1. Name the main function of the text (informative, evalu¬
ative, persuasive, etc.). Give your reasons.
2. Have you read any other article on the problem? Can you
add anything else to what has been mentioned in the text?
ED Look through the text and compare it with the previous one. Point
out common elements (ideas, problems, etc.) which unite both texts.
John Russel Pope
By 1929, when he accepted Andrew Mellon’s invitation to
work on the Federal Triangle project, John Russell Pope was one of
America’s most famous architects. He had graduated from Columbia
College (later Columbia University) in New York in 1894 and had
received fellowships for study at the American Academy in Rome
and for travel in Italy and Greece, where he was able to examine the
remains of antiquity and the Italian Renaissance. He then studied
architecture in Paris for two years, graduating in 1900.
Pope developed a successful architectural practice in the United
States, designing elegant residences, university campuses, churches,
mausoleums, and other monuments. His work in Washington
included many outstanding projects among which is the National
Gallery of Art, the National Archives and the Jefferson Memorial.
Pope also became well known as a museum architect. He had
designed the Baltimore Museum of Art and new galleries or additions
for the British Museum and the Tate Gallery in London, as well as
У	164
the American Museum of Natural History and the Metropolitan
Museum of Art in New York.
Pope was an eclectic designer, able to work in a range of
historic styles as the occasion required. Yet like many architects of
his generation, he was convinced that the architecture of ancient
Greece and Rome was the best possible expression of the American
national ideal of democracy and humanism, and his monumental
designs were nearly always classical.
Notes and Commentary
the Federal Triangle [trai'aengl] project — проект по реконструк¬
ции центральной части столицы США города Вашингтона; в
1901 году получил название «План Макмиллана» (по имени
сенатора, возглавившего комитет по осуществлению проекта).
Целью плана было создание комплекса государственных учреж¬
дений в центре Вашингтона на территории, напоминающей
треугольник.
Columbia College, Columbia University — Колумбийский универ¬
ситет в Нью-Йорке; частный; основан в 1754 году
the National Archives ['aikaivz] — Национальный государствен¬
ный архив США
the Jefferson Memorial — мемориальный комплекс на реке По¬
томак в Вашингтоне, посвященный третьему президенту США
Томасу Джефферсону
the British Museum — Британский музей в Лондоне, знамени¬
тая сокровищница истории цивилизации. Среди экспонатов му¬
зея — Россетский камень, благодаря которому удалось расшиф¬
ровать древнеегипетские иероглифы, элементы храма Парфе¬
нон в Афинах и др.
the Tate [teit] (Gallery) — национальная художественная галерея
Тейт в Лондоне, названная в честь сахаропромышленника сэра
Генри Тейта, который подарил нации свою коллекцию картин
и выделил деньги на строительство специальной художествен¬
ной галереи для работ английских художников
the Metropolitan [, metre'politn] Museum of Art — национальный
художественный музей Метрополитен в Нью-Йорке, одна из
| самых знаменитых и богатых галерей мира, содержащая произ-
I ведения великих художников и скульпторов
165

ш Read the text.
The National Gallery of Art
The National Gallery of Art was created for the people of the
United States of America by a joint resolution of Congress.
The Board of Trustees consists of four public servants and five
private citizens. Under the policies set by the Board, the Gallery
acquires and maintains a collection of paintings, sculpture, and the
graphic arts, representative of the best in the artistic heritage of
America and Europe. Supported in its daily operations by federal
funds, the Gallery is entirely dependent on the generosity of private
citizens for the works of art in its collections.
The paintings and sculpture given by the founder, Andrew W.
Mellon, including works by the greatest masters from the 13th through
the 19th centuries, have formed a nucleus of high quality around
which the collections have grown. Mr. Mellon’s hope that the
newly created National Gallery would attract gifts from other collectors
was soon realized in the form of major donations from Samuel and
Rush Kress, Chester Dale, Edgar William and many others, as
well as individual donations from hundreds of additional donors.
As the Gallery expands its interests into 20th_century art, the
Collectors Committee, an advisory group of private citizens, has provided
funds for the acquisition of paintings and sculpture of our time.
The collections of the National Gallery of Art are so rich that
it is absolutely impossible to enlist all the painters and sculptors,
among whom are Leonardo da Vinci, Rembrandt, Monet, Degas,
Picasso, Dali, Moore.
Notes and Commentary
Leonardo da Vinci [,lei3'na:dou da 'vint/i] — Леонардо да Винчи
(1452—1519), флорентийский художник
Rembrandt van Rijn ['rembrasnt van /rijn] — Рембрандт ван Рейн
(1606—1669), голландский художник
Monet, Claude [mou'na: 'kb:d] — Моне Клод (1840—1926), фран¬
цузский художник-импрессионист
Degas, Edgar [da'ga: 'edga] — Дега Эдгар (1834—1917), француз¬
ский художник-импрессионист
166
Picasso, Pablo [pi'kccsou 'pcrblou] — Пикассо Пабло (1881—1973),
художник и скульптор, родившийся в Испании; основополож¬
ник кубизма
Dali, Salvador [dcu'li: 'saslvada:] — Дали Сальвадор (1904—1989),
испанский художник, основоположник сюрреализма
Moore, Henry ['mu:(r)'henri] — Мур Генри (1898—1986), англий¬
ский скудьптор	••
Vocabulary
the Board of Trustees
public servant
to acquire
heritage
nucleus
the Collectors Committee
совет попечителей
государственный служащий
приобретать
наследие, наследство
основа, ядро, центр
комитет по сбору средств для
приобретения новых экспо¬
натов
Assignment
Comprehension
Make the following ideas complete.
1) The National Gallery greatly depends on ... .
2) ... has formed the basis of the Gallery’s collection.
3) There is, a special group of people called ... and dealing
with ... .
'б' Discussion
Using the material of all the preceding texts, give a short
lecture on the National Gallery of Art in Washington.
fTl Read the text. Pick out the facts concerning:
1) the kind of artifacts exhibited in the museum;
2) the Star Spangled Banner.
167

The National Museum of American History
Like the National Gallery of Art, the National Museum of
American History is part of the Smithsonian Institution and is devoted
to the exhibition, care and study of artifacts that reflect the experience
of the American people. These artifacts are collections of objects
with which Americans developed and sustained their civilization.
Among the objects on view in the National Museum of American
History are national treasures such as the original Star Spangled
Banner; scientific instruments, inventions (like Morse’s telegraph
and early Edison’s light bulbs), implements of everyday life (from
spinning wheels to steam locomotives); stamps and coins; musical
instruments; and selected gowns of American First Ladies. Together
they illustrate America’s cultural, scientific, technological and political
history.
The Museum also offers a variety of scholarly and public programs
which interpret American history.
One of the most famous artifacts is, by no means, the Star
Spangled Banner. A special exposition tells the visitors the story of
the banner. In 1813 the War Department engaged Mrs. Mary
Pickersgill of Baltimore to make a garrison flag for Fort McHenry.
The flag bore fifteen stars and stripes symbolic of all the states of the
union.
Fort McHenry was at that time a military installation guarding
the approach to Baltimore by sea. On the night of September 13,
1814, the British bombarded the fort. Nothing seemed to have
survived in the attack but, as the dawn of the 14th broke, everybody
saw the American flag flying over the fort. It meant that the fort’s
commander, Major George Armistead, and his troops had withstood
the attack.
Francis Scott Key, a lawyer of Georgetown, saw that beautiful
sight. Inspired, he wrote a poem under the title “The Defense of
Fort McHenry”. Set to the tune of a well-known song, Key’s verse
soon became a popular patriotic song. In 1931, an Act of Congress
declared “The Star Spangled Banner” as the national anthem of the
USA.
The flag stayed in the Armistead family through the 1800s. In
1818, the Congress set the flag’s final design; thirteen stripes would
represent the original States, and the number of stars would grow as
other States joined the union.
168
In 1907, the Star Spangled Banner came to the museum.
This flag is still available to visitors — and will continue to serve as an
important reminder of American national heritage.
Assignment
fL	Discussion
Dwell on the fascinating story of the American National Flag
and National Anthem.
ffl Look through the text and explain:
1) why the story is called like this.
2) what the aim of the exhibition is and what task is assigned to it by
those who have staged this display.
3) what you, personally, think about the Great Migration (when
discussing the problem, make use of the material of the text “The
Involuntary Immigrants” of Unit II).
The Great Migration
The National Museum of American History has staged a special
exhibition devoted to the Great Migration.
After 1900 about 70 per cent of the Nation’s Negro citizens
moved to urban areas, almost half of them to cities outside the
South. Though that mass movement set the scene for modern life
in most American cities today, it remains one of the twentieth-
century America’s least studied and most poorly understood historical
events.
The exhibition interprets the complexities and effects of the
Great Migration by focusing on the migrants themselves. Through
them, the exhibition illustrates the individual experiences that
together fueled this mass movement: the lives of Afro-Americans
in the South, the hopes and expectations that prompted the decision
to move north, and the difficulties migrants faced in a new
environment.
The exhibition also examines closely the new technologies
169

and culture that the migrants found in the North, the adjustments
they had to make to their new surroundings, and the ways in
which the populations of Northern cities had to adjust to them.
The exhibition illustrates these changes and adaptations through
the display of a tenant farmhouse from southern Maryland, a
recreation of a row house from Philadelphia, and, more than 400
artifacts and documents.
By re-creating the environments ip which the migrants lived,
the exhibition offers an opportunity to understand the significance
and difficulty of the migrants’ decision to leave family, home and
friends. Although the Great Migration was of tremendous national
importance, it was first and foremost a movement of people, the
result of hundreds of thousands of individual decisions to leave an old
life behind in search of a brighter future.
The Great Migration was a movement within America, yet it
paralleled the immigration experiences of other ethnic groups. Both
migrants and immigrants carried their hopes and dreams, along
with their cardboard suitcases and cloth bundles, into an uncertain
existence. So the exhibition shows the uniqueness of the Afro-
American experience and yet echoes the immigration experience of
all peoples.
ffi Scan the text. Recollect if you have visited any museum which was
like the one mentioned below. Describe that visit using the vocabulary
of the text.
The National Air and Space Museum
The Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum, opened
in 1976, offers its visitors a dazzling array of flying machines and
aircraft never before assembled in one place. An average of 9 million
people visit the Museum each year.
Twenty-three exhibit areas house artifacts from the Wright
brothers’ original 1903 Flyer to a touchable moon rock and a Skylab
Orbital Workshop which visitors may enter.
Also included are dozens of airplanes and spacecraft, missiles
and rockets, engines, propellers, models, uniforms, instruments,
flight equipment, medals and insignia. These items document most
170
of the major achievements — both historical and technological — of
air and space flight.
The Smithsonian’s interest in aeronautics dates back to its early
years. In 1861, the first Secretary of the Smithsonian, Joseph Henry,
recommended to President Lincoln that balloonist Thaddeus Lowe
be permitted to demonstrate the potential of the balloon for military
observation.	„
The third Secretary of the Smithsonian, Samuel P. Langley,
constructed and tested a number of heavier-than-air craft from
1.887—1903. Two of those unmanned models succeeded in flying
under steam power over the Potomac River for more than a half-
mile.
Interest in rocket research was prompted by Charles Abbot,
later the fifth Secretary of the Institution, when he supported the
early work of the American rocket pioneer Robert H. Goddard.
Goddard was one of the first to recognize the potential of the rocket
for propelling vehicles through space.
The Building of the National Air ajnd Space Museum is 680
feet (280 m) long and 90 feet (27.7 m) tall. The exterior is
constructed of Tennessee marble of a pinkish hue.
Almost all the aircraft and spacecraft displayed were actually
flown or were used as backup vehicles.
Ш Read the text.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
One of the most famous attractions in New York City is the
Metropolitan Museum of Art.
The Museum founded in 1870 by a group of civic leaders,
financiers, industrialists, and art collectors, moved to its present
location in Central Park in 1880.
Today the Metropolitan is the largest museum of art in the
Western Hemisphere. It occupies 1.4 million square feet, extending
from 80th to 84th Streets on Fifth Avenue. Its collections include
more than two million works of art from prehistoric through modern
times and from all areas of the world'
The collections are divided into eighteen curatorial departments.
171

In each department curators acquire, preserve and exhibit works of
art for both the permanent collections and special exhibitions.
The Museum’s holdings in European art are unparalleled outside
Europe. In addition to one of the world’s great collections of European
paintings, the Metropolitan has outstanding collections of Medieval
art and architecture, and of prints, photographs, drawings, costumes,
musical instruments, sculpture, and decorative arts from the
Renaissance through the 20th century.
The Museum’s collection of American art, exhibited in the
American Wing, is the most comprehensive in the world.
Contemporary American art became a particular concern of the
Metropolitan Museum when in 1906 and 1911 George A. Hearn
donated funds specifically designed for the acquisition of paintings by
living American artists. Although the income from these funds has
diminished, they have been the basis upon which the Museum’s
collection of modern American paintings has been formed.
In 1946 Gertrude Stein, the American writer, who was a
resident of France, bequeathed to the Metropolitan her portrait
by Pablo Picasso, who had been represented in the Museum’s
collections since 1923. Stein perceived that since its founding in
1870, four years before she was born, the Metropolitan had been
as involved with the art of its own time as with the art of the past.
She wanted her portrait to be viewed within the context of the
history of world art and in a gallery of national stature in New
York City.
The Metropolitan’s collections of Asian art are extensive,
and its Islamic collection is the largest in existence. The wing in
the south end of the building houses an impressive collection of
African and Oceanic art as well as that from Native North and
South America.
The educational function of the Museum is implicit itt every
facet of the Museum’s endeavors. The Metropolitan’s monthly
“Calendar” provides a handy index to the many ongoing programs
and activities.
Notes and Commentary
80th to 84th Streets on Fifth Avenue — почти все улицы Нью-
Йорка, располагающиеся в Манхэттене, пронумерованы
172
George A. Hearn ['630:63 ei Ъэ:п] — Херн Джордж А., меценат
Gertrude Stein ['go:tru:d 'stain] — Стайн Гертруда (1874—1946),
известная американская писательница, долгое время прожив¬
шая в Европе
Vocabulary
curatorial department.
from prehistoric through
; modem times
holdings
unparalleled
Medieval
( the Renaissance
comprehensive
,to bequeath
[stature
I Asian
Islamic
I Oceanic
facet
| handy index
ongoing
отдел музея (	ответ
за который несет определен¬
ный хранитель)
от доисторических времен до
наших дней
коллекция
непревзойденный, беспример¬
ный
средневековый
Ренессанс, эпоха Возрождения
всесторонний, исчерпываю¬
щий
завещать, даровать
значимость, рост
азиатский
исламский
относящийся к Океании
грань, сфера, область
удобный указатель
продолжающийся, непрерыв¬
ный
Assignment
Comprehension
Supply answers to the following questions.
1) When was the Metropolitan Museum founded?
2) Where is it situated?
3) What became the nucleus of the Museum’s collections?
4) How can you describe the Museum’s holdings?
173

Ф Discussion
1. Using the material of the text and some additional sources
of information, tell your friend everything you know about
the Metropolitan Museum.
2. Speak about any art gallery in Russia.
Ш Look through the text and:
1) use the following words and phrases in the situations from the
text: “the golden age”, “to capture the public’s imagination”, “the
Hudson River school”, “wilderness”, “nature’s changing moods”,
“to pigeonhole”, “absolute fidelity”;
2) name other American painters, present facts from their life and
creative activity.
Painters of a Virgin Land
The 19th century was the golden age of landscape painting in
America. Inspired by the nature descriptions of different writers,
Americans began to look at their native scenery with a new sense of
pride. In the mid-1800s a whole new generation of artists emerged
and captured the public’s imagination .with reverent portrayals of the
American landscape. The group came to be known as the Hudson
River school, although its members ranged far beyond New York
State’s Hudson Valley in their search for subject matter. Their
romantic renderings of the American scene are honored now as the
first wholly indigenous movement in the history of American art.
The landscape tradition continued to the end of the century.
Many artists furthered the development of the Hudson River school.
But others evolved quite different styles. Many of them painted huge
theatrical canvases of awesome mountains and wilderness. George
Inness, on the other hand, transmuted the Hudson River tradition
into a highly individual style, imbuing intimate pastoral scenes with
the lyrical beauty of his personal response.
He was a poetic interpreter of nature’s changing Imoods and
found his inspiration in the fields and meadows near his homes in
New Jersey and Massachusetts. His paintings reveal his preoccupation
with atmospheric effects. In all his works he sought to achieve the
174
objective of arousing in the viewer emotions similar to those he
himself felt while contemplating the scene.
The results of his sensitive work include some of the finest
landscapes ever painted by an American.
In the closing decades of the 19th century America produced
several artists who snared the greatest prize of all — immortality.
One of them, Winslow Homer, is impossible to pigeonhole. He
painted genre scenes of rural and resort life. He portrayed hunters
and fishermen; he dashed off sparkling water colours. In his later
years he turned to the Maine coast, creating potent images of the
sea. But whatever his subject, he executed his powerful compositions
with absolute fidelity to the facts.
Winslow Homer in his latest years concentrated on depicting the changing
moods of the sea
Notes and Commentary
George Inness [^30^3 'mis] — Иннесс Джордж (1825-1894), из¬
вестный американский пейзажист
Winslow Homer ['winslou 'houmo] — Хомер Уинслоу (1836—1910),
'знаменитый американский художник; особенно известны его
акварели
175

Geographical Names
Maine [mem]	Мэн	{штат)
ш Before reading the text, turn to the title and the subtitles and say
what kind of information you expect to find in the articles below.
Then read the text and compare the given information with what you
have guessed.
American Genius
Benjamin Franklin
Franklin was easily the foremost American scientist of his day,
and his ingenuity was immensely wide ranging. He was a printer,
publisher, writer, statesman, and scientist. He was also a gifted
inventor. Here are some of his inventions.
Having established by observation and logic, and then by a
practical kite test, that lightning is atmospheric electricity, he went
on to invent the lightning rod, to this day a building’s best protection
against thunderbolts.
Franklin also originated much of the vocabulary of electricity,
including such terms as “battery”, “condenser”, “charge”, “discharge”,
“positive”, “negative”.
Americans had previously relied on the open fireplace, which
sent most of the heat up the chimney, or the German stove, which
made breathing uncomfortable by constantly reheating the air.
Franklin pulled the stove away from the wall to increase its heating
efficiency and gave it a flue that lost less heat and also served as a
simple radiator.
His restless mind fixed on problems large and small. It is to
Franklin that we are indebted for the grocer’s claw, the mechanical
hand attached to a pole used for reaching items stored on high shelves.
At the age of 83, under the spur of his own nearsightedness,
Franklin invented the bifocal. The top half of each jens was for
distance viewing, the bottom half for reading.
Samuel F. B. Morse
Morse gave up a successful career as a portrait painter to
176
pursue his interest in telegraphy and gained more fame and wealth
than he could have imagined as a painter. Before his invention of
the unique dot-dash code that bears his name and the remarkable
electromagnetic system that he assembled to transmit the message,
the exact location of a fast-moving train was not known, and this
lack of exactitude was often fatal.
Morse had completed a model of his system, irttluding the
code, by 1853. The telegraph was not patented until 1844 and not
put to practical use on the railroad until 1851. Although it immediately
proved to be the best available method on communicating between
railway stations to determine whether or not a given train had
arrived at that point or had already left, established practices die¬
hard, and the telegraph system was not universally adopted for full
20 years after its first use.
The sewing machine
The sewing machine was the creation of many minds. Walter
Hunt, probably the 1800s most prolific inventor, was one of the first
to create a device that could sew. He built his machine in about
1833, but thinking it would deprive seamstresses of their work, he
withheld it from the market.
Elias Howe had no such compunction; he patented his sewing
machine in 1846 and spent years fighting to maintain the exclusive
rights for his invention.
Among his opponents was the machinist and promotional genius
Isaac M. Singer, who had built a machine with several marked
improvements.
In prolonged litigation over patent rights, Howe emerged the
victor in 1854. Two years later Howe, Singer, and two more
competitors agreed to pool the best sewing machine patents and
share the royalties. This reasonable approach proved to be a good
idea: Singer and Howe both became millionaires.
“India rubber”
Charles Goodyear was obsessed with gum elastic, or “India
rubber’’. It its natural state, the material was too soft for practical
use in hot weather and too hard when it was cold. Goodyear was
determined to stabilize it by some curing process, and he had a blind
faith that he would hit on something if he kept trying every method
me could think of As it turned out, the process that made rubber a
177
12—1870

useful servant of man was discovered by accident. After patenting his
process of vulcanization in 1844, Goodyear advocated rubber for
almost every use including clothing, tobacco pouches, and bathtubs.
He died in 1860, and was, therefore, not destined to see its universal
use in automobile tires.
Thomas Elva Edison
Edison once remarked that genius is “one per cent inspiration
and ninety nine per cent perspiration”. Certainly neither inspiration
nor industry were lacking in this prolific inventor, who was granted
a total of 1097 patents — an all-time record.
Thomas E. Edison was born in Milan, Ohio, in 1847. He
had but a few years of formal schooling, but his mother taught him
at home, and he early developed an interest in science. He took his
first job as a railroad newsboy and “candy butcher”, and then became
an itinerant telegrapher, an occupation that started him on the road
to developing his amazing potentialities for electrical innovation.
His first commercially successful invention was an improved
stock ticker, used by speculators in gold and securities. He used the
$40000 he got for this — a small fortune for a 23-year-old — to
open a factory in Newark, New Jersey. There he made telegraph
instruments and stock tickers, and methodically set about turning
out further inventions.
In 1876 Edison moved from Newark to Menlo Park, New
Jersey, where he established his “invention factory”, the first industrial
research laboratory. A torrent of discoveries and inventions was Soon
pouring from his fertile brain. Edison’s invention, in 1877, of a
“talking machine” that could record, store, and reproduce human
speech or music was revolutionary. His only discovery in pure science
came in 1883: it was the Edison effect. He patented this discovery in
1884 but did not investigate it further. Other scientists used it to
develop the electronics industry, particularly radio and television.
Edison’s character was not a simple one, he was not always
successful. But the urge to experiment and improve never lagged.
When he died at 84, many people dimmed their lights in honor of the
wizard who had extended their days with the incandescent light bulb.
Alexander Graham Bell
It is hard to imagine that until a century ago the world had to
get along without the telephone. Its inventor, Alexander Graham
178
Bell, was born in Scotland in 1847 and came to the United States at
the age of 24. In 1873 he became professor of vocal physiology at
Boston University. For several years he had been experimenting
with transmitting the human voice. On March 10, 1876, he called
over his transmitter: “Mr. Watson, come here, I want you”. His
assistant raced from the laboratory to Bell’s bedroom, shouting that
he had heard every word clearly.
By the turn of the century more than 1,5 million telephones
were in use across the country. Its impact on business and industry
was explosive.
Bell became a wealthy man, but money had never been his
goal. He plunged into other projects, building, devising, and
inventing something all his life.
Revision Assignment
1. Enlarge upon the problem: “Museums, Man and Society”.
In the form of a thesis, write down 6—8 sentences. Use
your notes when answering.
2. Speak on the topic: “Science and technology in Russia”.
12*

Unit XIII
EDUCATING THE NATION
DU Read the text.
American School System
Education is not mentioned in the Constitution, nor is there
any federal department of education, so the matter is left to individual
States. Education is free and compulsory in all States, however,
from the age of 6 till 16 or 18. So, most American children go to
State schools. In the USA these are called public schools. There are
also some private schools, which are usually supported by religious
organizations.
At 6 years of age children begin the first year of elementary
school, which is called “Grade 1” or “First Grade” (the second
year is “Grade 2”, etc.). At elementary school the emphasis is
placed on the basic skills — speaking, reading, writing and arithmetic,
though the general principle throughout the American school system
180
is that children should be helped and encouraged to develop their
own particular interests.
Children move on to high school in the seventh grade,
where they continue until the twelfth grade. There are two basic
types of high school: one with a more academi6 curriculum,
preparing students for admission to college, and the other offering
primarily vocational education (training in a skill trade).
The local school board decides which courses are compulsory.
There is great freedom of choice, however, and an important
figure in high schools is the guidance counselor, who advises the
students on what courses to take on the basis of their career
choices.
There are no national exams, although some schools and States
have their own exams. Generally examination is given by continuous
assessment, which means that teachers assess children throughout
the year on how well they do in tests, classroom discussions and
written and oral work.
In order to receive the high school diploma necessary in most
States to get into college, students must accumulate a minimum
number of credits, which are awarded for the successful completion of
each one- or half-year course. Students hoping to be admitted to the
more famous universities require far more than the minimum number
of credits and must also have good grades (the mark given on the basis
of a course work and a written examination). Some colleges and
universities require the students to take the SAT (Scholastic Aptitude
Test).
Extra-curricular activity (such as playing for one of the school’s
sports teams) is also very important in the American school system
and is taken into consideration by colleges and employers. ,
Vocabulary
compulsory
curriculum
vocational
school board
guidance counselor
обязательный
программа, учебный план, курс
обучения
профессиональный
отдел образования
консультант по выбору профес¬
сии
181

assessment	оценка уровня знаний
credit	балл; зачет
to award	давать, присуждать, награж¬
дать
grade	отметка, оценка
(the) Scholastic Aptitude Test проверка способности (учаще-
(SAT)	гося	с	целью определения
целесообразности соответ¬
ствующего курса обучения)
extra-curricular	внеклассная, внеаудиторная,
общественная
Assignment
2s. Comprehension
Arrange the following questions according to the order of the
text and answer them.
1) What is the role of the guidance counselor?
2) What skills are acquired at elementary school?
3) Are there any national exams at schools?
4) What are State schools called?
5) What is the activity performed after classes called?
6) How many basic types of high school are there in the
US?
7) What is vocational education?
8) Who has the right to attend American schools?
9) What is necessary in most States to get into college?
10) Are there any private schools in the US?
tk Discussion
1.j With your fellow-students, discuss the advantages (and
disadvantages, if any) of American secondary education.
2. Compare Russian and American school systems.,Point
out similarities and differences.
3. Dwell on extra-curricular activity and its role in Russian
school system.
182
171 Look through the text.
Public Education: Historical Review
The history of education in the United States has certain
peculiarities which are closely connected with the specific conditions
of life in the New World and the history of the American society.
The early Colonies and different politics of education for the
first white settlers who came to North America from Europe in the
17th century brought with them the educational ideas of the time
most typical of the countries they represented. In Virginia and South
Carolina, for example, education was entirely private. The children
of the rich either had tutors or were sent to Europe for schooling.
Many of the children of poor parents had no education at all. In
Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and New York many of the schools were
set up and controlled by the church.
In Massachusetts, which was much more developed at that
time, three educational principles were laid down: 1) the right of the
State or Colony to require that its citizens be educated; 2) the right
of the State to compel the local governmental divisions, such as
towns and cities, to establish schools; and 3) the right of the local
government to support these schools by taxation.
At the very beginning, school buildings were often rough shacks.
They were poorly equipped with a few benches, a stove, and rarely
enough textbooks. Discipline was harsh, and corporal punishment
was frequent.
The program of studies consisted largely of reading, writing,
basic arithmetic, and Bible lessons. Since each community was
responsible for solving its own educational problems, there was no
attempt to find a common standard of excellence. Even the
Constitution of the United States, ratified in 1789, contained no
direct mention of education.
The schools of the early 1800s were not very different from
those of the pre-revolutionary period. Some historians consider that
they actually deteriorated in the three or four decades following the
American Revolution, for the new country turned its attention to
the development of its land, cities, and political institutions.
And yet, in attempt to generate interest in education, a
number of communities continued founding schools. Some classes
were opened to children for secular instruction and a number of
183

schools for poor children which were a forerunner of the public
schools in several major cities. Some States tax-supported schools
and urged their spread.
The purpose of the public or “common” schools was to teach
the pupils the skills of reading, writing, and arithmetic. No particular
religion was to be taught.
By the mid-19th century, the desire for free public education
was widespread. But the States could not find enough means for its
financial support. It was during those years that communities began
to support the schools within their boundaries. The States finally
required local school districts to tax themselves for that purpose
through the “real property” tax. This tax originated as financial support
for public schools, and remains today the major financial resource
for the public school system in the United States though it can no
longer carry the entire burden.
Towards the second part of the 19th century compulsory
attendance laws came into effect* starting with Massachusetts in
1852. Now in most States the minimum age at which a pupil may
leave school is sixteen; in five States seventeen; and in four States
eighteen.
As has already been mentioned, education remains primarily
a function of the States. Each State has a board of education,
usually 3 to 9 members, serving mostly without pay. They are either
elected by the public or appointed by the Governor. The board has
an executive officer, usually called a State school superintendent or
commissioner. In some cases he is elected; in others he is appointed
by the board.
In theory, responsibility for operating the public education
system is local. Schools are under the jurisdiction of local school
board, composed of citizens elected by residents of the school district.
In fact, however, much local control has been superseded. State
laws determine the length of the school year, the way in which
teachers will be certified, and many of the courses which must be
taught.
Though the Federal Government has no powers at all in the
field of education, from time to time Congress passes different Acts
which help to “assist in the expansion and improvement of educational
programs to meet critical national needs”; Such Acts provide money
for science, mathematics, and language instruction; for the purchase
of laboratory equipment.
184
Assignment
"Js. Comprehension
Make up a list of words which can be joined under the headline
“Education”. Give reasons for your choice.
'S’ Discussion
1. Describe the development of education from the 17th
through the 19th centuries.
2. State the role of the Church.
3. Comment on the three principles of education laid down
in Massachusetts.
4. Express your attitude towards corporal punishment.
5. Tell the story of the “real property” tax.
6. Say how the public education system operates nowadays.
iPTi Read the text.
Higher Education
There are about 3,000 colleges and universities, both private
and public, in the United States. Students have to pay to go to both
private and State universities. Private universities are generally smaller
but very expensive, which means that the tuition fees are extremely
high. State colleges and universities are not that expensive, the
tuition fees are usually lower, and if the students are State residents,
they pay much less.
Every young person who enters a higher educational insti¬
tution can get financial assistance. If a student is offered a loan,
he should repay it (with interest) after he has left the college.
Needy students are awarded grants which they do not have to repay.
Scholarships are given when a student is doing exceptionally well
at school.
American universities and colleges are usually built as a separate
complex, called “campus”, with teaching blocks, libraries,
dormitories, and many other facilities grouped together on one site,
185

often on the outskirts of the city. Some universities are comprised of
many campuses. The University of California, for example, has 9
campuses, the biggest being Berkeley (founded in 1868), San Francisco
(1873), Los Angeles (1919), Santa Barbara (1944), Santa Cruz
(1965).
All the universities are independent, offering their own choice
of studies, setting their own admission standards and deciding which
students meet those standards. The greater the prestige of the
university, the higher the credits and grades required.
The terms “college” and “university” are often used inter¬
changeably, as “college” is used to refer to all undergraduate education;
and the four-year undergraduate program, leading to a bachelor’s
degree, can be followed at either college or university. Universities
tend to be larger than colleges and also have graduate schools where
students can receive post-graduate education. Advanced or graduate
university degrees include law and medicine.
Most college and university undergraduate courses last for four
years. During the first two years students usually follow general courses
in the arts or sciences and then choose a major — the subject or area
of studies in which they concentrate. The other subjects are called
minors. Credits (with grades) are awarded for the successful completion
of each course. These credits are often transferable, so students who
have not done well in high school can choose a junior college (or
community college), which offers a two-year “transfer” program,
preparing students for degree-granting institutions. Community colleges
also offer two-year courses of a vocational nature, leading to technical
and semi-professional occupations, such as journalism.
There are no final examinations at colleges and universities,
and students receive a degree if they have collected enough credits in
a particular subject. The traditional degree which crowns the
undergraduate course is that of a Bachelor of Arts (B. A.) or a
Bachelor of Science (B. S.). The lower level of graduate school is
for obtaining the Master’s Degree (M. A. or M. S.), and the upper
level is for the degree of Ph.D.
Notes and Commentary
The Berkeley ['ba:kli], San Francisco, Los Angeles, Santa Barbara
['saenta Ъа:Ьэгэ], Santa Cruz ['sasnta 'kru:z] campuses — Беркли,
186
Сан-Франциско, Лос-Анджелес, Санта-Барбара, Санта-Крус,
крупнейшие из девяти университетских городков Калифор¬
нийского университета, расположенные в одноименных го¬
родах
Vocabulary
tuition fee
loan
interest
to repay
needy
grant
scholarship
dormitory (dorm)
bachelor’s degree
graduate school
the arts
the science(s)
major
“transfer” program
Bachelor of Arts (B. A.)
Bachelor of Science (B. S.)
Master’s Degree
(M. A. or M. S)
Ph. D. (Doctor of Philosophy)
плата за обучение
заем
зд. процент (с суммы, взятой
взаймы)
возмещать, возвращать
нуждающийся
субсидия, дотация
стипендия
студенческое общежитие
степень бакалавра
аспирантура
гуманитарные науки
естественные науки
предмет специализации
подготовительный курс
степень бакалавра гуманитар¬
ных наук
степень бакалавра естественных
наук
степень магистра наук (
тарных или естественных)
степень доктора наук («докто¬
ра философии»)
Assignment
Comprehension
Agree or disagree with the following statements.
1) The system of university education in the US is
centralized.

2) There is no difference between private and State
universities.
3) A University course usually lasts for four years.
4) One can obtain a bachelor’s degree at any college or
University.
5) There are special advanced University degrees.
6) Any University has only one campus.
7) There are no colleges which offer “transfer” programs.
8) М. A., M. S. and Ph. D. are research degrees.
$ Discussion
1. Enlarge upon different types of colleges and Universities
in the US.
2. Speak about the structure of American graduate school.
3. Comparing American and Russian Universities, pay
special attention to the entrance standards and admission
policies.
Ш Scan the text and:
1) give a review of University education in its historical development;
2) using the text and your background knowledge, describe one of
the American Universities.
World Famous
The most famous American higher educational institutions
that were already in operation during the early period came into
being through the religious zeal and philanthropy of their founders.
Higher education began in the United States long time ago,
when the Puritan leaders of the settlement called the Massachusetts
Bay Colony founded in 1636 Harvard College (Massachusetts).
Established by John Harvard, English clergyman, this college was
to turn into the most famous of the American University.
The College of William and Mary (Virginia, 1693) was the
second institution of higher education founded in the Colonies. In
1701 Connecticut Puritans established Yale College (Connecticut).
All these Colonial colleges which were gradually turned into
188
Universities with classical education established a balance between
the Humanities and Science. Their aim was to train men for service
in church and civil state.
By the 1770s several more colleges had been opened: University
of Pennsylvania (Pennsylvania, 1740), Princeton University (New
Jersey, 1746), Washington and Lee University (Virginia, 1749),
Columbia University (New York, 1754), Brown University^Rhode
Island, 1764), Rutgers College (New Jersey, 1766), Dartmouth
College (New Hampshire, 1769).
Though the colleges in the first half of the 19th century were
numerous and widely scattered over the settled area, their enroll¬
ments were comparatively small. Since 1870s the colleges have
developed enormously. Their resources have multiplied, the
number of their students has increased by leaps and bounds, the
program of studies has broadened and deepened, the standards
have been raised, and the efficiency of the instruction has greatly
increased. Rigidly prescribed courses of study have given way to
elective courses.
In the course of time, when research centers and experiment
Stations were attached to the Universities, these institutions turned
into the strongholds of science and higher education. They developed
a unique, typically American structure unlike any other existing
University system in the world.
Notes and Commentary
Harvard ['hccvad] University (Massachusetts, 1636), College of
William and Mary (Virginia, 1693), Yale [jeil] University
(Connecticut, 1701), University of Pennsylvania (Pennsylvania;
1740), Princeton t'prinst9n]University (New Jersey, 1746),
Washington and Lee University (Virginia, 1749), Cplumbia
University (New York, 1754), Brown University (Rhode Island
['roud 'aibnd], 1764), Rutgers College (New Jersey, 1766),
Dartmouth ['dcutmaG] College (New Hampshire, 1769)— Гар¬
вард, Колледж Уильяма и Мэри, Йельский университет,
университет Пенсильвании, Принстон, университет Вашин¬
гтона и Ли, Колумбийский университет, университет Брау¬
на, Рутгерский колледж, Дартмутский колледж (все перечис¬
ленные университеты — частные)
189

Revision Assignment
In your notebooks, draw a scheme of the American system
of higher education. Use the scheme when presenting
the report on the subject.
Compare the Russian and American systems of school and
university education. Wherever possible, give a historic
review.
Unit XIV
SPORTS, LEISURE AND ENTERTAINMENT
Ш Read the text.
Sports
Considering America’s infatuation with sports and recreation
today, it is hard to imagine how few games Americans’ early ancestors
had for play.
Baseball, generally recognized as the national pastime, did
not begin to gain a sizable following until the 1840s and for many
years was widely regarded as a game for the idle rich.
The Civil War helped to democratize the game, as Union
Army recruits took to baseball and taught it to fellow soldiers and to
their captors in prison camps in the South.
Soon after the war the first professional clubs were formed,
and thereafter baseball occupied an unchallenged position as the
Nation’s No. 1 sport until the late 1940s.
191

Football in the early 1900s was essentially a college game and
even then was criticized for its brutality. Boxing developed slowly,
hampered by legal bans and public disapproval. Golf and tennis were
dismissed as recreations for the wealthy. Eventually, all these sports
attained great popularity.
Bicycling became the rage in the 1890s, but interest diminished
as the automobile took over. Basketball, a latecomer, was widely
accepted by players and the public.
Never again is one decade likely to see so many exceptional
athletes in such a variety of sports as the 1920s produced. The
10-year span has rightly been called the Golden Age of Sports.
There were outstanding performers not only in the major sports but
in polo, in billiards and pool, in automobile and motorboat racing,
in ice-hockey and figure skating, in yachting, in rowing, and in
6-day bicycle racing. New sports were introduced. The mad, amazing,
delightful decade kicked off the greatest expansion in sports and
recreation America had ever known.
After World War II there were unprecedented opportunities
for the enjoyment of leisure. Shorter workweeks, higher pay,
and longer vacations encouraged travel and sightseeing. A growing
interest in physical fitness sent people into the open. They learned
to play golf, tennis, handball, and volleyball. They bowled,
skied, skated, and went camping, fishing, hunting, boating,
hiking, jogging, bicycling, and swimming. When they were not
out on the roads, waterways, beaches, or playing fields, they
crowded into baseball parks, football stadiums, basketball and
hockey arenas, and racetracks as spectators, and literally millions
sat before their TV sets to watch highly paid athletic superstars
perform.
The remarkable diversity of the American people is nowhere
more dramatically illustrated than in the variety of sports they so
enthusiastically pursue.
Vocabulary
infatuation (with)	слепое увлечение
recreation	•	отдых, развлечение^
pastime	приятное времяпрепровожде¬
ние, игра, развлечение
192
to take to
пристраститься, проявлять ин¬
терес, заинтересоваться
captor
захвативший в плен
ban
запрет
to take over
победить; перегнать, обогнать
rage
зд. увлечение, мода
span
промежуток (времени)*
racing
гонки
yachting
парусный спорт
rowing
гребля
into the open
на открытый воздух, на при¬
роду
to bowl
играть в шары, в кегли
to go hiking
ходить в походы
literally
буквально
dramatically
зд. ярко
to pursue
зд. заниматься
Assignment
"is, Comprehension
Make the ideas complete.
1) Though basketball was a late-comer, everybody ... .
2) The 1920s can be called ... .
3) After World War II people began going in for ... .
4) ... can be seen in the variety of sports.
5) Early American ancestors only had ... .
6) ... began as a college game.
$ Discussion
Explain the meaning of the following.
1) A growing interest in physical fitness sent people into
the open.
2) The remarkable diversity of the American people is
nowhere more dramatically illustrated than in the variety
of sports they so enthusiastically pursue.
193
,13—1870

ш Look through the text. Find facts to prove that Alexander Cartwright
was a sport genius.
Alexander Joy Cartwright and the Great American Game
Much of the credit for the present-day game of baseball belongs to
Alexander Joy Cartwright. As a member of the New York Knicker¬
bocker Baseball Club, young Cartwright took it upon himself in 1845 to
standardize a game that had evolved from the old English sport of rounders.
It was no easy task. One version of baseball was played in
Boston, another in Philadelphia, still another in New York. There
was no agreement as to the number of men in a team, how long a
game should last, or the rules of play. Even the shape and dimensions
of the playing fields varied.
Cartwright was by profession a draftsman and a surveyor, and
he made good use of his talents when he designed a baseball field as
he thought it should be. His “baseball square” — later called a
diamond — turned out to be so right for the game that it is still used
today, basically unaltered, in all ball parks and sandlots.
Even more astonishing is the fact that most of the rules that
Cartwright set down more than 125 years ago remain unchanged.
The Cartwright-style diamond was laid out on the cricket grounds
of the Elysian Fields in Hoboken, New Jersey, just across the Hudson
River from New York City. There, on June 19, 1846, the first
modem game of baseball was played. The players and umpire wore
their own clothes; the Knickerbockers first wore uniforms in 1849.
Alexander Cartwright did not participate as a player in the
historic event of 1846. Instead he acted as the game’s umpire,
enforcing his own rules. In this role he may have been responsible
for yet another baseball first when he fined one of the players for
swearing. The fine amounted to 6 cents.
HID Read the text.
Father of Modem Football
Walter Camp has been called the most influential figure in
American football, and with good reason. No other person did so
194
much to revolutionize the Rugby-type game of the middle 1800s and
turn it into the truly American sport it is today.
Born in New Britain, Connecticut, on April 7, 1859, Walter
Camp was a natural athlete. His ability was recognized when he
entered Yale and was quickly selected for a halfback position on the
football team.
In those days a college football team consisted of 15* players—
8 forwards, 4 halfbacks, and 3 fullbacks. It was a wild sport with
few rules and little or no strategy: this turned college football from a
kicking and running game into a brutal battering contest and caused
public outrage at the resulting toll in death and injuries.
After playing the game for a while, Camp began to envision
ways of making football more scientific and the play controllable.
He made suggestions to the rules committee, and they were for the
most part accepted. Among the suggestions were recommendations
that there be 11 players to a side, and that “the man who receives
the ball from the snapback ... be called the quarterback”. The creation
of the position of quarterback was perhaps Camp’s most significant
innovation. Another dramatic change, at Camp’s suggestion, was
to allow tackling below the waist.
Camp excelled in other sports besides football. He was
outstanding in baseball, track and swimming. After graduating he
studied medicine for 2 years, then entered business. But he never
allowed his career to interfere with his close ties to Yale. He remained
active at his alma mater for many years as general director of athletics
and advisory football coach. He also served in the Intercollegiate
Football Rules Committee for 48 years.
Although the early All-American teams, beginning in 1889;
were picked by Caspar Whitney, the selections were later made by
Walter Camp (a custom he continued throughout his life). He died
in New York on March 14, 1925.
Vocabulary
полузащитник
защитник
передача с центра поля назад
на игрока
четвертьзащитник
195
13»
halfback
fullback
snapback
quarterback

to excel
track(-and-field athletics)
intercollegiate
превосходить
легкая атлетика
межуниверситетский
Assignment
"23k Comprehension
Make up a plan of the text.
Ф Discussion
1. Why is the text called: “Father of Modern Football”?
2. Recollect the facts from the history of Russian football.
3. Speak about an outstanding Russian football coach or/and
player.
Ш Read the title first and predict what the text is about. Scan the text
and say if you were a success in guessing the content of it through the
title.
Made in the USA
Of all the major sports played in the United States, the
only purely indigenous game is basketball. It was invented in
1891 by Canadian-born James Naismith, who taught physical
education in Springfield, Massachusetts, at the International
Training School (now Springfield College). Using a soccer ball
and two peach baskets, he designed an indoor, no-contact sport
to keep his students out of mischief during the winter and to fill
the winter gap between the football season in autumn and baseball
in spring.
The game was an instant success with the Springfiel&ftudents.
Shortly thereafter it began to be played in training schools gym¬
nasiums across the country; Enthusiasm for basketball soon spread
to schools and colleges in the United States and Canada. The
game was also introduced in many countries throughout the world
196
by graduates of the International Training School in Springfield.
Its growth was rapid. Soon the United States was laced with
basketball leagues, and the players ranged from grammar school
to college age. By 1939 the rules of basketball had been printed in
as many as 30 languages, and the game was played in more than
75 countries.
The game was made an official part of Olympic competition in
1936, in Germany, when basketball teams from 22 countries partici¬
pated. Dr. Naismith was present at the official ceremony honoring
his game.
Professional basketball, originally tried in the 1890s, failed to
capture the public imagination until the 1920s. With the founding
of the National Basketball Association (NBA) in 1949, basketball
became one of America’s big three professional team sports. The
game’s coverage was substantially increased in 1967 when a rival
league, the American Basketball Association (ABA), came into
existence.
Dr. Naismith witnessed the phenomenal growth of his game
from a minor indoor recreation to a major American and international
sport. He remained at Springfield until 1895, then moved to Denver,
Colorado. Three years later Naismith was on the move again, this
time to Lawrence, Kansas, where he became the ever-enthusiastic
director of physical education at the University of Kansas. He died in
Lawrence on November 28, 1939.
Nowadays millions of spectators pass through the turnstiles
each year to attend high school, college, and professional basketball
games, while millions more watch the action on their television
screens — a far cry from the days of Dr. Naismith with his peach-
basket goals and soccer ball.
ГП Read the text.
Entertainment for All
The United States in its short history has contributed in
remarkable variety to the entertainment of humankind. Black-face
minstrels, glamorous motion picture stars, hard-riding cowboy heroes,
glittering musical comedies, breathtaking circuses, and spectacular
197

television shows — all are exuberant expressions of the innovative
genius of American show business.
The daytime radio serials, or soap operas (so called because
they were often sponsored by soap companies), now adapted to
television, were created here and, for better or worse, have captured
an audience of millions.
Popular entertainment was a latecomer to America because
the piety and hardship of colonial days delayed its growth. A few
wandering players could be seen among settlers during the Colonies’
first century, and throughout the 1700s many Americans regarded
playgoing as an indulgence in sinful worldliness. By the 1800s,
however, the high spirits of a fast-growing Nation were finding a
natural outlet in the theater.
America has originated many distinctive variations of show
business and has breathed new life into older forms as well. Since
the 19th century, US entertainment merchants have excelled at
razzle-dazzle. They made turn-of-the-century theater big business,
mapped transcontinental vaudeville paths, transformed the movies
from a peepshow noyelty into a global industry, and, by creating
national radio and television networks, brought much of the world
into the American living room. Not only have these triumphs been
accompanied by unprecedented commercial success, but since 1900
they have won international acclaim for American performers,
playwrights, and film-makers.
Vocabulary
black-face minstrels	исполнители	негритянских
мелодий, песен, шуток
и т. п., загримированные
неграми
обильный, роскошный
благочестие, набожность
потворство, потакание (сво¬
им желаниям)^
грешный
суетность, поглощенность
земными интересами
отдушина, выход
exuberant
piety
indulgence
sinful
worldliness
outlet
198
воротилы шоу-бизнеса, торгов¬
цы развлечениями
суматоха, кутерьма
зд. новизна впечатлений от по¬
сещения варьете
шумное одобрение
Assignment
"2s. Comprehension
Ask questions about the main facts of the text and answer
them.
Discussion
1. Draw a picture of the historical development of American
show business.
2. Do you agree with the author in describing American
show business as innovative and great? Give your reasons.
3. Why did the author call the article: “Entertainment for
All”?
Ш ■"Scan the text and pick out the facts you did not know before.
Comment on these facts.
The Early Days
Struggling to survive in a harsh wilderness, colonial pioneers
had little time for entertainment. Cities and towns were too small
and the distances between them too great to provide a steady theater¬
going audience. Besides, plays, games, lotteries, music, dancing,
and all other secular “divertisements” were forbidden by grim and
pious Puritans as the Devil’s work. The Puritans’ disapproval of the
boisterous English theaters of Shakespeare’s day had even been passed
down to later generations.
Beginning with the early 1700s, bands of strolling English
entertainment merchants
razzle-dazzle
peepshow novelty
acclaim
199

players appeared in the plays of Shakespeare and other play¬
wrights, performing in candlelit taverns, coffee-houses, and in
halls that were hastily built just outside the city limits to avoid
prosecution.
America slowly developed her own performers, who worked
hard to achieve a distinctively national style.
Theater-going in America before the Civil War was a lively,
sometimes dangerous undertaking. Only a handful of fashionable,
bigrcity theaters could boast well-dressed, well-behaved audiences.
Most theaters were cold in winter, stifling in summer. Men in
muddy boots sprawled across the seats, spitting tobacco juice. Heroes
were cheered in mid-speech. Villains were hissed and sometimes
pelted with rotten fruit. Stage action often had to be stopped until
fist-fights in the audience subsided. Rats scuttled past the people’s
feet scratching for food. Cheap balcony seats were filled with thugs.
Fire was always a danger.
And yet, the American theater survived and prospered.
American actors received international attention, though many
Americans still regarded the stage with suspicion. This attitude
persisted for decades. When the actor John Wilkes Booth assassinated
President Abraham Lincoln at a performance in 1865, one clergyman
sermonized that “the theater is one of the last places to which a
good man should go”.
The growth of 19th century cities gave birth to new forms of
entertainment, and vaudeville was among them. The first vaudeville
theater was opened in 1861 on New York City’s Broadway, promising
a “straight, clean variety show” for the whole family. The show was
an instant hit and soon had hundreds of imitators. Vaudeville became
a national industry after 1900.
In 1919 the New York City Theater Guild was formed, aimed
at bringing serious contemporary drama to Broadway. The
organization had a profound effect on the development of the
American stage. In addition to introducing new techniques of staging,
acting and directing, the Guild encouraged a new generation of
playwrights to examine American life.
The Theater Guild was also instrumental in molding,pusical
comedy. More folksy than the operetta, and unlike the variety revue
because it adheres to a plot, musical comedy has become America’s
most distinctive contribution to world theater. The melodic tunes
and memorable lyrics written by George and Ira Gershwin, and
200
their peers were destined to be hummed, whistled, and sung the
world around.
Notes and Commentary
Broadway ['bro:dwei] — Бродвей; слово употребляется в двух зна¬
чениях— прямом и переносном: 1) улица в Нью-Йорке, про¬
тянувшаяся с севера на юг через весь Манхэттен; всемирно
известна как театральный и культурный центр; 2) индустрия
развлечений в Нью-Йорке
the New York City Theater Guild — гильдия театральных деятелей
Нью-Йорка
ffl "“Look through the text.
Film Industry
The first American 2-minute movies were shown as bonus
attractions in vaudeville houses until the early 1900s, when thousands
of small theaters devoted solely to films, and called nickelodeons
because they charged a nickel, opened across the country,
In 1903 “The Great Train Robbery” — the first American film
to spin a coherent story — was made. Though this primitive horse
opera lasted only about 8 minutes and seems embarrassingly crude to
the modern eye, it would be hard to exaggerate its impact on
contemporary audiences.
Despite clergymen who denounced films as “wholly vicious”,
the urban poor flocked to the movies in unprecedented numbers.
Movies were cheap and lively, and even recent immigrants who
were unable to read the English dialogue found it easy to follow the
stories because of the broad pantomime.
Within a few years the center of motion picture production
had shifted to Hollywood, California, and shrewd entrepreneurs
such as Louis B. Mayer and Samuel Goldwyn had built the movies
into a national industry that grossed even more than any other
expert agriculture, steel, and transportation.
By 1925 motion pictures were more a necessity than a luxury
201

for many Americans. More than 130 million people went to the
movies each week. There were 20000 motion picture theaters, some
seating 7000 persons..
Only sound was lacking to make a reality of everybody’s dream
of “true talking pictures”. From the first, audiences had come to
expect musical accompaniment for the movies, either played on a
house piano or an organ, or, in the more posh movie palaces,
performed by a live orchestra. By 1923 it was possible to record sound
on film, and later musical scores were added to feature films, and
newsreels began to crackle with authentic sounds. The first full-length
talkie, Warner Brothers’ “The Jazz Singer”; appeared in 1927.
The first sound cartoon was introduced to the public in 1928.
It was Walt Disney’s best creation “Mickey Mouse”.
In the 1930s Americans turned in unprecedented numbers to
the movie screens for escape from their daily woes. Several new film
genres delighted audiences and helped ensure Hollywood’s preeminence
in world movie making. Those included frothy, large-cast musicals
(of which the best loved were the nine that paired dancers Fred
Astaire and Ginger Rogers); gangster and detective films that made
heroes of professional tough guys; and a host of brilliant comedies.
Much of the prestige and profit of movies depended both on
great actors and the genius of the directors.
Production costs tripled between 1941 and 1961, and the
postwar development of television seemed to signal the end of the
old Hollywood. But it did not happen. Hollywood’s days of glory are
not over: American movie-makers of a new generation remain among
the world’s most innovative directors, and the Nation’s interest in
films is reviving.
The most sought-after award in the movie business is the Oscar,
annually presented since 1929 by the Academy of Motion Picture
Arts and Sciences. Five nominees in each of some 25 categories are
picked by their fellow craftsmen. Winners are chosen by secret ballot
cast by the Academy’s more than 2800 members.
Assignment
Ф Discussion
1.	Say what problems are tackled in the text.
202
2. Divide the text into several passages according to the
problems discussed. Give your reasons for such a division.
3. Which part of the text were you especially interested in
and why?
4. Prove that nothing can “knock down” American film
industry.
1ПП Look through the text.
The World in Your Home
For all the importance of movies in shaping modem culture,
the impact of radio has been just as great. For the first time free
entertainment reached into the average American parlour for nothing
but the cost of the set. An early radio might have come to $100, and
the minimum price of sets has since steadily fallen.
Morning and afternoon entertainment programs were devoted
to the housewife. During the 1930s some 50 soap operas chronicled
the daily woes of a host of characters. The longest running daytime
serial was “The Romance of Helen Trent”, broadcast five times a
week from October 1933 through June 1960.
Late afternoons were for children, who put aside their
homework to follow the exploits of different heroes.
Evenings offered more varied fare: news commentators, dance
bands, programs of classical and semi-classical music, comedies.
The skilled radio dramatists’ power to persuade was awesome.
In 1938 Herbert G. Wells’ “War of the Worlds” was broadcast.
Thousands of listeners panicked and fled from their homes, fully
convinced that Martians had actually landed and were laying New
Jersey to waste.
In many ways the story of television’s phenomenal growth
parallels that of radio. Development was interrupted by global war.
And once full-scale telecasting was underway, its enormous popularity
meant drastic change — in some cases, near disaster — for older
forms of entertainment. The rest of the entertainment world was in
panic. By 1951 movie theaters had experienced a 20 to 40 per cent
drop in attendance. Theater owners tried desperately to hold on to
their audiences by slashing ticket prices and giving away free sets of
203

china, as they had done in the Depression years. Hundreds of theaters
were forced to close their doors.
Sports crowds dwindled. Other areas of economy felt TV’s
impact during peak viewing hours. Radio networks, too, watched
helplessly as longtime listeners abandoned their radios to watch
television. They finally managed to survive by concentrating on
programming for special audiences, such as teenagers, ethnic groups,
and lovers of classical, jazz, or country music.
At the same time, many prospered thanks to television. Tavern
owners were the first to realize the potential of the medium. Their
business boomed during televised sporting events.
Television has proved its ability not only to educate, uplift,
and inform, but also to entertain. It has brought brilliant drama,
superb music, sharp satire, and incisive documentaries to countless
millions of viewers.
Thanks to television, American entertainers have appeared in
every major country and are well known all over the world.
Assignment
"Sk Comprehension
1. Make up a list of the words that can be joined under the
headline “Television”.
2. Using the text as a basis, finish the TV outline:
Morning entertainment program
9.30 a. m. Serial “The Romance of Helen Trent”
Ф Discussion
1. Comment on the last two passages of the text. Say whether
you agree with the author or not. Give your reasons.
2. Tell the story of television’s phenomenal growth as a
means of entertainment.
3. With your friends, discuss the place TV “occupies” in the
life of young people.
4. Speak on the topic: “Russian television: its past, present
and future”.
204
Revision Assignment
1. Give your point of view on the role of different means in
entertaining people.
2. Speak about the kind of entertainment which you consider
to be universal, i.e. which is good for everyone.
3. With your fellow-students, discuss that kind of sports,
leisure and entertainment which can be labeled “ Made in
Russia”.

Unit XV
MUSIC AND LITERATURE
Ш Read the text.
America’s Music
Considering the forbidding aspect of their new land, it is not
surprising that the music of the early settlers was essentially prayer set
to song. The first music published in the Colonies appeared in the
1698 edition of the Bay Psalm Book.
In the early 1700$ the well-to-do imported manuscripts of
music from Europe to play for dancing and concerts. In the early
1800s more people had time and money for the pursuit of culture,
and the music of European courts and concert halls tyas widely heard,
especially in the cities.
By the mid-1800s European romantic melodies were the favorite
music. Into this “sea” of romanticism sailed American first great
songwriter, Stephen Foster, who became famous in the 1850s for
206
“My Old Kentucky Home” and other ‘‘plantation songs”, as he
called them. America, at last, was beginning to find a voice of its
own, and Foster’s melodies were sung in the minstrel shows popular
in his day.
With the wave of German immigration in the mid- 19th
century came many trained musicians who — as performers,
composers, and teachers — spread an enthusiasm for» romanticism
and for that romantic instrument, the piano. The already growing
piano business increased tremendously. One of the chief manu¬
facturers was Henry Steinweg, a German immigrant, who changed
his name to Steinway. By 1860 there were 22000 pianos in
America.
The Civil War brought martial music, and this music, in its
turn, accelerated the development of the bright sound of the brass
band, which — with Sunday concerts in the park — became one of
America’s most popular musical institutions for the next half century.
Enthusiasm for martial ensembles spread so rapidly that by the turn
of the century more than 20000 amateur and professional brass bands
were giving regular concerts in towns and villages throughout the
country.
At the turn of the 20th century the music most widely
representative of this country was gaining a fast-growing audience.
This appealing new freewheeling sound was called jazz. Rooted in
the field hollers and work songs of the plantations, levees, turpentine
camps, and prisons, early jazz and the blues had haunting echoes of
an American past. This music, in all its cultural and ethnic
permutations, has perhaps done as much to create understanding
and respect among all races as any other single force in American
history.
The popular song, that tuneful product of Tin Pan Alley, and
country Western music are two other American creations that have
struck responsive chords around the world.
Until the early 1900s most classical music and most of the
Conductors and soloists came from Europe. Then a few American
musicians, such as Charles Iv6s and Henry Cowell, began to create
new sounds in their own way inspiring interest in contemporary
music. Encouraged by outstanding schools of music, this interest
has made the United States a leader in musical experimentation and
innovation. Classical music composed in the US today is as American
as folk music and jazz.
207

Notes and Commentary
the Bay Psalm [scum] Book — книга псалмов, изданная в одной
из первых колоний Массачусетс Бей
Henry Steinway ['henn'stainwei] — Стейнвей Генри, крупней¬
ший производитель роялей и пианино; инструменты фирмы
«Стейнвей» и в настоящее время пользуются огромной попу¬
лярностью и считаются одними из лучших в мире
Charles Ives ['t/alz 'aivz], Henry Cowell ['henri 'kauol] — Айвз
Чарльз Эдвард (1871—1954), Кауэлл Генри, одни из первых
американских композиторов и музыкантов, получивших миро¬
вое признание.
Geographical Names
Tin Pan Alley ['tin 'paen 'aeli] Тин Пэн Элли (название мест¬
ности)
Vocabulary
prayer
the well-to-do
court
martial
brass band
ensemble
by the turn
amateur
at the turn
freewheeling
holler
levee
turpentine camp
blues
haunting
permutation
tuneful
молитва
зажиточные, состоятельные
двор (короля)
военный
духовой оркестр
оркестр, ансамбль
к концу
любительский
в начале
свободный, не скованный
громкий крик, вопль
дамба
рабочие отряды по производству
скипидара из древесины
блюз
навязчивый
трансформация, изменение
мелодичный
208
chord
conductor
струна
дирижер
Assignment
2s. Comprehension
Answer the questions and arrange them according to the logic
of the text.
1) What was the influence exerted on American culture by
German immigration?
2) What was the music of the first settlers like?
3) What change did the Civil War bring to America’s music?
4) How is the music of European courts connected with
America’s music?
5) Which of the composers has made the US one of the
leading countries in musical innovation?
6) What was the worldwide impact of the popular song
and country music?
7) How was America beginning to find a voice of its own?
8) When and why did jazz appear? How deep was it rooted
in America’s life?
Discussion
1. Dwell on those purely American creations called “jazz”,
“popular and country Western music”.
2. Do you agree with the author that several composers have
made the US a “Number one country” in musical
experimentation and innovation?
3. Speak about American music in its historical development.
Ы Look through the text and explain the origin of spirituals.
The Church and Music
In colonial times, when the majority of the population was
Protestant, most serious music was in the form of hymns because the
209
14 1870 ,

Puritans always put religion first, even in their music. Although
they did enjoy such entertainment as folk songs outside the church,
most of the music in their lives was in the form of the psalms they
sang at services.
Meanwhile, Negro slaves were allowed some religious expression
and much of their music came out of their hymns. So black churches
were developing their own gospel songs, blending African rhythms
with religious texts.
More and more religious verses were sung to popular melodies,
patriotic airs, and dance tunes. Such were the hymns sung at camp
meetings in the late 1800s and early 1900s in isolated areas where
there were no churches.
Those meetings, which went on for 4 or 5 days, featured
rousing evangelical preaching, praying, and singing. The songs were
revival hymns — simple, folklike, repetitious pieces that were often
called spiritual songs and, later, spirituals. Negro religious songs,
which blended African musical traditions with Christian themes,
became known as spirituals, too, because of their similar use of
repetition.
Notes and Commentary
hymn [him] — церковный гимн, религиозная песня, восхвале¬
ние Всевышнего или благодарение ему (необходимо отличать от
Государственного гимна — anthem ['эепвэт])
ш ♦Through the title, guess what the text is about. Then scan the text
and say:
1) if it contains any information you did not know before;
2) if it is connected with any preceding text.
Purely American Creations
After the Civil War, as black musicians began to рщу European
instruments previously unavailable to them, Negroes cfeated many
minstrel songs and transported the minstrel style to the piano.
Negro talent, influenced by minstrel sounds applied to European-
210
style melodies, ultimately produced a new form called ragtime.
The term probably derived from the ragged, uneven sound of this
syncopated piano music, which mixed Afro-Caribbean dance rhythms
With the accents of the quadrille, the polka, the schottische, and
the march.
Ragtime faded during World War I but won a new audience in
the 1960s and 1970s television shows and in personal appearances.
Along with ragtime, another new kind of music, also played
mostly by blacks, was gradually taking shape. It was not yet
called jazz in the mid-1890s when musicians were playing it at
outdoor dances. Indoors the new sound was heard on piano.
Bands played music derived from African melodies and rhythms
mixed with hymns, blues, quadrilles, funeral marches, ragtime,
and even operatic arias. The rough-hewn, self-taught approach
of onetime slaves or descendants of slaves blowing brass instruments
and woodwinds was leavened by the technical precision and pure,
warm tones of “Creoles of Color”, many of whom were trained
musicians.
The exciting effect of “singing horns”, so called because the
instrumentalists tried to reproduce the slurs and blue intonations of
black singing, was not lost on white musicians. But when they
tried to copy it, the emphasis shifted from the relaxed, blue tonality
that came so naturally to the black musicians to a more staccato
style of stricter tempo. This created the basis for the line of jazz
still known as Dixieland, named after Tom Brown’s Band from
Dixieland, which, in 1915, was the first white band to take the
music north to Chicago.
“Jass”, a slang word, was applied to this new music by
disgruntled musicians who could neither play nor understand it. But
this connotation was soon lost.
Jazz became so popular that it became established in the national
consciousness. The word “jazz” was so firmly planted in the public
mind that the decade of the 1920s was known as the Jazz Age. Louis
Armstrong and Edward Kennedy “Duke” Ellington have become
jazz classics.
While jazz, the first distinctively American music to emerge
in that country, was winning adherents and acceptance, the
ballads, broadsides, jigs, reels, and sacred songs that had come
to America with English, Scottish, and Irish settlers were evolving
their own American forms. Abandoned by the culture-minded
14*
211

Eastern cities early in the 19th century, this music was nurtured
in rural mountain areas of the Southeastern States. There it
remained for a century, virtually unchanged except for slight
colouration from contact with black music. Then, like jazz, it
was spread beyond its narrow boundaries, first by the phonograph,
and then by radio.
Country music has made an important contribution to a new
phenomenon called rock’n’roll.
While country music was being recorded in the 1920s, 1930s,
and early 1940s specifically for its regional audiences, black
performers were making the so called race records for Negro
audiences in the big Northern cities as well as throughout the
South. Those records featured black singers of country blues and
little instrumental groups often called jump bands. After World
War II the blues singers began to move from the rural South to
Northern cities, primarily Chicago, where they joined forces with
the instrumental groups.
By the time they had come together, the race designation
had fallen into disfavor $ and this black music was broadly identified
as rhythm and blues. In 1954 one of the white country groups
made a rhythm and blues disk of “Rock Around the Clock”.
White listeners became aware of the excitement and validity this
music could generate. The way was opened for another white
performer, Elvis Presley, to project the essence of the black music,
which became known as rock’n’roll. Presley’s performing style
stirred so much anger in the adult world that teenagers made him
a symbol of their beliefs, and rock’n’roll became a musical
expression of rebellion.
Notes and Commentary
color — здесь и далее в названиях сохранена орфография амери¬
канского варианта английского языка
Dixie ['diksi:], Dixieland [,diksi:'laend] — Дикси, Диксилэнд,
южные штаты США, в основном те, которые образовали Кон¬
федерацию; слово происходит от имени Диксон. Диксон и Мей¬
сон были землевладельцами с Юга, которые первыми- в XVIII
веке провели на географической карте границу, отделяющую
рабовладельческие штаты от остальной части страны; впервые в
212
искаженном варианте слово появилось в 1859 году в песне “Dixie”
Даниэля Эммета.
1X11 Look through the text.
A Fresh Spirit in Literature
America’s earliest literature flowed from the quill pens of
European explorers, and the wonder and promise it told of proved a
powerful lure to prospective settlers. The Puritans, whose represen¬
tatives colonized Massachusetts and whose influence was felt in other
Colonies, valued the written word primarily as a tool for religious
instruction. While they tolerated it as a medium for secular
enlightenment, they thoroughly condemned its use for frivolous
entertainment. Despite limitations they set on writing, the Puritans,
as well as other colonists, placed a high value on education and laid
an enduring foundation for literature.
By the time of the Revolution such native offerings as Benjamin
Franklin’s “Poor Richard’s Almanack” had helped to establish a
sense of national identity among the colonists. In the Revolutionary
epoch, fiery pamphleteers proved that literature could be highly
effective in moving men to action.
In the early and mid-1800s Washington Irving, James Fenimore
Cooper, and a remarkable group of New Englanders gave voice to
a fresh new culture that was no longer intellectually dependent on
Europe.
After the Civil War Bret Harte’s colourful naturalism and
Mark Twain’s native humour and delightful story-telling made indelible
impressions on US letters. Henry James’s novels were internationally
recognized at the time the country was becoming a world power.
Such post-World War I authors as Earnest Hemingway and T. S. Eliot
gained world-wide recognition, as did William Faulkner and John
Steinbeck in the 1930s. Eugene O’Neill’s searching plays raised
American drama to the level of literature and paved the way for the
internationally known dramatists Arthur Miller and Tennessee
Williams.
No more vivid record of the sum of a people’s experience can
be found than in their national literature. America’s writers have
213

given the world living documents of all that has gone into the
making of the greatest country in history, and the saga is still being
written.
Notes and Commentary
Washington Irving ['wofnjten 'avin], Janies Fenimore Cooper ['d3eimz
'fenima: 'кшрэ], Bret Harte ['bret 'ha:t], Mark Twain ['ma:k 'twein],
Henry James ['henri'djeimz], Earnest Hemingway [ ornist hemingwei],
T. S. Eliot ['eliat], William Faulkner ['wiliam 'forkna], John Steinbeck
['dpn'stainbek], Eugene O’Neill ['ju:d3irt ou'ni:l], Arthur Miller ['абэ
'mils], Tennessee Williams [,tena'si: 'wiljamzj — знаменитые амери¬
канские писатели, известные российскому читателю; Элиот То¬
мас Стернс — автор стихов, положенных в основу самого попу¬
лярного мюзикла «Кошки»
Assignment
"Js. Comprehension
1. Make up a list of topical vocabulary.
2. From the text select the statements which best express its
main idea.
fk Discussion
1. Continue the list of American writers, naming other
authors you know. Describe the life and creative activity
of one of the writers in detail.
2. Say if you agree with the statement of the author of the
text: “America’s writers have given the world living
documents of all that has gone into the making of the
greatest country in history, and the saga is still being
written”. Can you apply the same words to Russian writers?
Give examples.
3. Speak about your favorite Russian writer: poet, novelist
or playwright.
214
Ш Scan the text.
A Man of the River
The Mississippi River cuts a strong, wide swath through the
heartland of America. In the flow of the Mississippi’s waters, many
see a symbol of freedom, a reflection of the strength ofi-the American
character. Among the millions who have drawn inspiration from the
mighty river was Samuel Langhome Clemens, better known to the
world as Mark Twain.
Sam Clemens was raised in Hannibal, Missouri, a small town
on the Mississippi. In 1847, when he was 12 years old, his father
died. The boy quit school and started working for a printer. Stimulated
by the material he was handling, he soon began writing stories of his
own and later became a journalist.
From 1857 to 1861 Clemens worked as a riverboat pilot.
Judging from his later writings, his years on the Mississippi were the
happiest of his life. The observations he made on the river nourished
much of his later work, and the people he knew there helped to
form his concepts of humanity and the world.
The Mississippi inspired the best writings of Mark Twain
In 1861 Clemens went to Nevada Territory. There — after
unsuccessful attempts at prospecting — he returned to journalism and
215

short-story writing. It was at that time that he adopted the pen name
Mark Twain, a riverman’s term for 2 fathoms deep.
In 1867 Mark Twain left America to tour Europe and the Holy
Land, sending back humorous travel sketches. On his return to the
United Sates he settled in the Northeast, married, and spent the rest
of his life writing, lecturing, and traveling. He died in 1910.
Mark Twain is generally recognized as America’s greatest
humorist. He was also a shrewd chronicler of his times and a fine
novelist. His “Life on the Mississippi” is a magnificent study of
what it was like on the river before and after the Civil War. “The
Adventures of Tom Sawyer” is one of the most entertaining boys’
books ever written. But “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” is
Twain’s masterpiece. On the surface, it is a book for juveniles, but
ultimately it is a penetrating look at the human estate and the decaying
civilization of the South. It is a uniquely American work — the first
major novel written in an idiom that is wholly American. Another
great novelist, Earnest Hemingway, felt that all modem American
literature stemmed from this one book by Mark Twain.
Mark Twain’s works stand today as landmarks of wit and wisdom
and as reminders of the vitality and earthiness of the young American
heartland.
Notes and Commentary
2 fathoms ['faeGam] deep — глубиной в две морские сажени; эта
мера длины, равная 1 м 83 см или 6 футам, применяется, пре¬
имущественно, для измерения глубины воды в реках, озерах и
т. п.
the Holy Land ['houli] — святые места, земля обетованная (Па¬
лестина)
“Life on the Mississippi”; “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer” [’soya];
“The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” ['hxklban 'fin] — «Жизнь на
Миссисипи»; «Приключения Тома Сойера»; «Приключения Гекль-
бери Финна» — названия лучших произведений Марка Твена
Geographical Names
Hannibal ['hsenibal]	г.	Ганнибал
216
Assignment
Discussion
1. Explain the title of the text.
2. Do you agree that all modem American literature begins
with “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn”? Yes or no,
give your reasons.
3. To the above description of Mark Twain and his works,
add some new details you have got from different sources
of information.
Revision Assignment
1.	Comment on the statement: “No more vivid record of the
sum of a people’s experience can be found than in their
national literature”.
2.	Think of any kind of music or literature genre that could
be called a purely Russian creation.
3.	Describe the role of music and literature in your life.

Unit XVI
CITIES AND TOWNS
1X1 Read the text.
Demographic Changes
The 1990 Census showed that some important demographic
changes were taking place. Here are some results of the Census.
Re-ranking cities
) Census
1980 Census
1. New York City
(1)
2. Los Angeles
(3)
3. Chicago
(2)
4. Houston
(5)
5. Philadelphia
(4)
6. San Diego
(8)
218
7.	Dallas	(7)
8.	Phoenix	(9)
9.	Detroit	(6)
10. San Antonio	(11)
The trend is clear. New York City remained the nation’s
largest— about 7 million, but the Census said it lost almost 40,000
residents.
Among the USA’s next biggest — Los Angeles, Chicago,
Houston and Philadelphia — only the Sun Belt cities grew.
The USA’s fastest growing city in the top 50 was Fresno,
California, a farm town turned high tech. It grew by 61 % and has
more than 350,000 residents.
The Census figures show that the once sleeping giants of the
South and West are the new power cities now. These figures also
confirm the shift of the USA’s money from the North and East. And
they underscore the importance of Sun Belt cities seldom heard from
20 years ago, handing them more federal dollars, a larger voice in
Washington and — even more than before — the power to sway
presidential elections.
Notes and Commentary
(the) Sun Belt — южные штаты с более мягким климатом и с
большим количеством солнечных дней в году (ср. “the Frost
Belt” — северные штаты)
Geographical Names
San Diego ['saen di'eigou]
Fresno ['freznou]
г. Сан-Диего
г. Фрезно
Vocabulary
census
to re-rank
перепись (населения)
изменять классификацию, по¬
рядок следования
219

to grow by
to underscore
to sway
вырасти на
подчеркивать, выделять
иметь влияние на, управлять
Assignment
^ Comprehension
Answer the questions.
1) What did the 1990 Census reveal?
2) What city has remained the largest in the US?
3) Why did Fresno, California, grow by 61 %?
4) What was the reason of the Sun Belt cities sudden
growth?
& Discussion
' Expand upon the reasons which led to the re-ranking of definite
cities.
ш Read the text.
The City of Washington
The city of Washington was designed in the late eighteenth
century. It is со-extensive with the District of Columbia. When
George Washington was elected President of the United States,
there was no permanent capital to house the government. Since
members of Congress could not agree as to where the capital should
be located, it was decided to choose a special place for the new
capital. The State of Maryland agreed to allot a wild and marshy
area on the Potomac River. The region was called the District of
Columbia, after Christopher Columbus, and the capital was called
Washington, after George Washington.
Work on the new capital began in 1791. The man who designed
the city was Major Pierre-Charles L’Enfant. His grand geometric
plan envisioned stately buildings as the city’s core and a grassy,
220
park-like mall with uninterrupted vistas west from the Capitol Building
to the Potomac River.
Yet, even by the turn of the twentieth century, Washington
showed little of the grandeur of this vision. In the crowded area
north of the Mall, factories and mills rubbed shoulders with stores,
hotels, restaurants, and row houses. The Mall itself had been broken
i into segments and landscaped with winding carriage roads and varied
plantings that destroyed its symmetry. For a time the Mall was also
a transportation center, with railroad tracks crossing at Sixth Street
that created an eyesore and safety hazard.
In 1901, as citizens sought to beautify urban areas throughout
the United States, the Senate Park Commission (commonly known
as the McMillan Commission after its chairman, Senator James
McMillan) developed an influential new plan for Washington. This
plan aimed to return the city to the formality envisioned in the late
eighteenth century and to invest it with a grandeur reflecting the
nation’s new sense of wealth and stature.
The Mall was to become a wide, formal lawn flanked by rows
of trees, against a backdrop of classical buildings, many with domes.
[ At the foot of Capitol Hill, a “Union Square” was to be built with
[ mounted statues of Civil War generals Grant, Sherman, and
' Sheridan, facing down the Mall.
The McMillam Commission had anticipated the need for a
[ complex of government office building, and with the government’s
I growth during World War I, the need was urgent by the 1920s. It
[' was the financier and art collector Andrew Mellon (1855—1937)
I who soon became deeply involved in the city’s architecture. As
: Secretary of Treasury , he was responsible for the realization of the so
i called Federal Triangular Project. The core of the project was to
; reconstruct the large triangular area north of the Mall between
I Constitution and Pennsylvania Avenues, from Sixth to Fifteenth
I Street and to build offices for the government.
To ensure that the project would reflect the dignity and
I importance of the Federal Government, Mellon established a “Board
I, of Architectural Consultants”, which ultimately included John Russell
I Pope, one of America’s most prominent architects. Pope’s contribution
I to the Federal Triangular Project was enormous. Thanks to Pope’s
I plan, Washington today is among the most beautiful cities in the
I world.
221

Notes and Commentary
Pierre-Charles L’Enfant ['pjer 'Jarl tan'fam] — Ланфан Пьер Шарль,
майор, французский инженер и архитектор, сын известного
французского художника; принимал участие в Американской
революции; талантливый человек с непоколебимой волей и силь¬
ным характером. Ввиду нежелания внести изменения в план
строительства новой столицы, чтобы уменьшить финансовые
затраты, Ланфан был отстранен от работы; начались долгие
годы тяжбы Ланфана с правительством, которое так и не опла¬
тило его труд.
Capitol Hill	t-rКапитолийский холм (по аналогии с одноимен¬
ным в Древнем Риме), на котором располагается здание Капи¬
толия — парламента США
Sherman, William ['Jaman'wiliam]; Sheridan, Philip Henry ['Jeridan
'filip 'henri] — Шерман Уильям, Шеридан Филип Генри, ко¬
мандующие Союзными войсками; участники важнейших битв
и походов. Знаменитый марш-бросок войск под командовани¬
ем Шермана из Атланты через центральную Джорджию к Ат¬
лантическому побережью разделил войска конфедератов над¬
вое и способствовал их поражению.
Geographical Names
the Potomac River [pou'toumaek] p. Потомак
Vocabulary
to allot	отводить, предоставлять
marshy	болотистый
mall	аллея, усаженная деревьями
vista	перспектива, вид
grandeur	величие, великолепие
to rub shoulders	тесниться, толпиться, нахо¬
диться в непосредственной
близости
row houses	дома, выстроившиеся в ряд;
цепочка домов
222
eyesore
safety hazard
stature
flanked by
against a backdrop
оскорбительное для глаза, урод¬
ство
угроза безопасности
зд. достоинство
обсаженный, обрамленный
на заднем плане
Assignment
"S. Comprehension
Enumerate the problems dealt with in this text.
fk Discussion
1. Choose any period in the development of Washington and
speak about it in detail. Make use of the information from
additional sources.
2. Consult the map and say which of the projects of the
McMillam Commission has been realized.
3. Does the development of Washington remind you of the
growth of any Russian town or city? Give examples and
present the facts.
Ш Look through the extracts. Using the information they contain, yourN
background knowledge and the map, act as a guide around
Washington. Add some other places of interest to yotir sightseeing
tour: the Mall and Constitution Avenue; the major museums of the
Smithsonian Institution; the Pentagon; the Treasury Building, etc.
Seeing the Sights of Washington
The Capitol
Located on Capitol Hill, the seat of American legislature
dominates the City of Washington. Through the halls of this
magnificent structure have passed the leading figures in American
history.
223

The Capitol is the tallest edifice in Washington: no other
building is allowed to be taller than the Capitol. It stands 88 feet
above the level of the Potomac River and covers approximately 4
acres. Its length from north to south is 751 feet 4 inches; its width,
including approaches, is 350 feet; and its height above the base line
on the east front to the top of the Statue of Freedom is 287 feet 5
inches.
Construction of the US Capitol began in 1793. The original
plan for the building was drawn by Dr. William Thornton. President
John Adams addressed the first joint session of Congress in the Senate
Chamber on November 22, 1800.
All interiors of the building were burned by the British in
1814. The Capitol was reoccupied in 1819. The present Senate and
House wings were begun in 1851, but the building was not finished
until 1867. Since then, numerous changes have been made.
The Washington National Monument
The Washington National Monument is a tapering shaft or
obelisk of white marble, 555 feet five and one-eighth inches high.
In 1833 the Washington National Monument Society was
organized “for the purpose of erecting a great National Memorial to
Washington”. Fifteen years later the cornerstone was laid.
After many difficulties and delays, the building was opened to
the public in 1888. An elevator takes visitors to the 500-foot level.
Return is by elevator as well but if one wishes, he can walk down the
898 steps, from which the 190 memorial stones donated by local,
State, and foreign governments can be seen.
The Lincoln Memorial
In 1867, two years after Abraham Lincoln’s death, Congress
organized the Lincoln Memorial Association to plan a monument to
his memory.
Work finally started on February 12, 1914. Henry Bacon was
the architect, and Daniel Chester French sculpted the great marble
statue of Lincoln.
Carved on the walls are Lincoln’s Qettysburg and Second
Inaugural Addresses.
The Jefferson Memorial
Thomas Jefferson, besides being President of the United States,
224
was also a gifted amateur architect, political thinker, and founder
of the University of Virginia. This memorial, dedicated on April
13, 1943, the 200th anniversary of Jefferson’s birth, was designed by
the architectural firm of John Russell Pope in the simple classical
style admired by Jefferson.
Inside the memorial is a 19-foot bronze statue of Jefferson
sculpted by Rudulph Evans, Excerpts from four <jf Jefferson’s writings
are carved on the interior walls.
. Surrounding the Memorial are cherry trees that the City of
Tokyo presented to the City of Washington in 1912.
The Arlington National Cemetery
Arlington National Cemetery was established on June 15,
1864, on land originally the estate of George Washington.
Prominent among the many memorials in this national cemetery
is the Tomb of the Unknowns, and among the unknown dead are
2,111 who died on the battlefields in the Civil War.
Many famous Americans were buried here. On November
25, 1963, Arlington Cemetery became the burial ground of John
Fitzgerald Kennedy, President of the United States.
The Vietnam Veterans Memorial
The polished black granite walls are inscribed with the names
of more than 58,000 men and women who gave their lives or remain
missing in the Vietnam War.
Names of the service men and women are inscribed “in the
order they were taken from us”. Alphabetical directories at the
memorial help visitors find specific names by panel and line
number.
A flag-staff and bronze statue of three servicemen stand at the
entrance plaza.
Notes and Commentary
the Gettysburg Address — речь, произнесенная Линкольном
19 ноября 1863 года при открытии военного мемориального
кладбища в Геттисбурге (Южная Пенсильвания) на том ме¬
сте, где произошла одна из решающих битв Гражданской
войны
225
15—1870

CO Before reading the text, say what you know about New York City.
Then scan the text and using the map, the notes and the information
from the text itself:
1) speak about the place of interest you would like to visit if you were
in New York City; explain why you have chosen the very sight;
2) ask your friend what, to his mind, is especially worth seeing in
New York;
3) say why New York City is called a “Big Apple”;
4) prove the author’s words that New York is the largest metropolis
in the US, the city of exceptional beauty and grandeur, a world
cultural, trade, financial and industrial center.
New York
New York, N. Y., is the post office designation of the largest
metropolis in the United States. Officially it is the City of New
York, and popularly it is called New York City.
The City of New York is situated at the mouth of the Hudson
River, sometimes called the North River. The five boroughs comprising
the city are: Manhattan, on the Manhattan Island between the Hudson
and East Rivers; the Bronx, on the southernmost part of the mainland;
Queens and Brooklyn, on Long Island, separated from Manhattan by
East River; and Richmond on Staten Island in New York Bay.
The City credits Verrazano as first viewing in 1524 the place,
where New York now stands. Henry Hudson found Manhattan on
September 11, 1609. The first houses were built in lower Manhattan
in 1613. On May 6, 1626, Peter Minuit, director general of New
Netherland, as the Dutch called the colony, paid the Indians 60
guilders for Manhattan, commonly translated as $24, actually $39.
When the settlement had around 200 people, it was named New
Amsterdam.
In 1653 they erected a wall to protect their settlement from
which Wall Street takes its name.
On September 8,1664, British troops occupied New Amsterdam
without resistance, overthrew the Dutch government, and called
the place New York. Seven years later the Dutch recaptured the
city and called it New Orange, but in 1674 the city was in the hands
of the British again who returned the name New York.
The City of New York has always been in the center of political
events. It witnessed the American Revolution; the Declaration of
226
Independence was read to the American troops here on July 9,
1776, in the presence of George Washington. It was here on April
30, 1789, that Washington took the oath of office on the balcony of
Federal Hall.'
A view of New York
Thanks to its geographical position and historical past, New
York has grown into a big financial, commercial, and industrial
center with the heart in the Borough of Manhattan. America’s
business and culture are in Manhattan. The Empire State Building,
the World Trade Center, Times Square, Rockefeller Center, Central
Park, Harlem, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Broadway — all these
world famous sights are in Manhattan. What unites them is probably
a small street, only a few blocks long, which is the financial center
of the whole United States — Wall Street. It provides the nation
with centralized credit and banking facilities. It is a sales place for
securities; it is also one of the biggest money capitals of the world.
Economic and financial power of the United States is concentrated
in the buildings of Wall Street; in the Stock Exchange, one of the
world’s greatest; in the banks, among them the oldest in the city,
the Bank of New York, founded in 1784.
227

Notes and Commentary
the Bronx [bronks] — Бронкс, район Нью-Йорка к северу от
Манхэттена; здесь располагается всемирно известный зоопарк и
ботанический сад
Queens [kwi:nz] — Квинс, район Нью-Йорка на острове Лонг-
Айленд; здесь расположены два крупнейших аэропорта: между¬
народный аэррпорт имени Джона Ф. Кеннеди и аэропорт Ла
Гардиа
Brooklyn ['bru:klin] — Бруклин, самый большой и густонаселен¬
ный район Нью-Йорка к югу от Манхэттена на острове Лонг-
Айленд
Richmond ['ntjmand] — Ричмонд, район Нью-Йорка, располо¬
женный на острове Стейтн-Айленд (Staten ['steitn] Island)
Verrazano [,vera:'tsa:nou] — Верадзано, итальянский мореплава¬
тель; находился на военной службе у короля Франции
Minuit, Peter ['minjuit 'pita] — Миньюит Петер (1580-1638),
голландец, губернатор Нью-Нидерландов
the Empire ['етраю] State Building — этот 104-этажный небоск¬
реб был в Нью-Йорке самым высоким зданием до постройки
Международного центра торговли
the World Trade Center — Международный центр торговли; по¬
строен в 1971—1973 гг.; в здании располагается около 400 фирм
и офисов компаний
Times Square — площадь в центральном Манхэттене между 43-й
и 47-й улицами
Rockefeller ['roka'fela] Center — частный центр бизнеса и развле¬
чений; в 15-ти высотных зданиях располагаются такие всемирно
известные корпорации, как NBC (the National Broadcasting
Company), ABC (the American Broadcasting Company), амери¬
канские и иностранные информационные агентства. Та часть
комплекса зданий, где располагаются радио- и телевизионные
студии, называется Radio City.
Central Park — огромный парк в северном Манхэттене между
59-й и 110-й улицами и между 5-й и 8-й авеню длиной в 2,5
мили и шириной в 0,5 мили
Harlem ['hatam] — Гарлем, район Манхэттена, где, в основ¬
ном, проживают пуэрториканцы, итальянцы и негритянское
население
228
Revision Assignment
1. Write a composition: “The cities and towns Americans
are proud of’.
2. Prepare several reports on Moscow. In the reports you are
supposed to touch upon:
1) geographical situation.	>*
2) Moscow’s past and present.
3) higher educational institutions.
4) museums, art galleries and other cultural institutions.
5) the role of Moscow as the largest metropolis in Russia.
3. Write an essay: “The place I adore”.

Unit XVII
THE SYMBOLS
CO Read the text.
The Statue of Liberty
Ever since 1886, when her great torch was lifted into place 305
feet above Liberty Island in New York Harbor, the colossal statue of
“Liberty Enlightening the World” has symbolized America for millions
of eager newcomers. Many wept as they neared the American shore,
recalling all they had left behind and apprehensive about what they might
find in the new land. But with their first glimpse of the statue, one
Italian immigrant recalled, they were “steadied ... by the concreteness of
the symbol of America’s freedom, and they dried their tears,”.
The statue was the work of Alsatian sculptor Frederic Auguste
Bartholdi and was intended to commemorate both a Century of
amity between France and the United States and the concept of
political freedom shared by the two nations.
230
The book that Liberty holds in her left hand symbolizes the
Declaration of Independence. The main figure is attached to an iron
framework designed by Gustave Eiffel, builder of France’s Eiffel
Tower.
The statue was paid for by French contributors; American
schoolchildren participated in a nationwide drive to raise funds for the
pedestal. On a tablet within are inscribed the last five lines of a
sonnet, “The New Colossus”, by Emma Lazarus, herself ah immigrant:
Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore,
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!
Notes and Commentary
Alsatian [ael'seijon] — зд. уроженец Эльзаса
Frederic Auguste Bartholdi [,fredo'nk o:'gu:st btc'0oldi:] — Бартольди
Фредерик Огюст, известный французский скульптор
Gustave Eiffel [gus'tcuv 'aifl] — Эйфель Гюстав (1832—1923), зна¬
менитый французский инженер-строитель
Emma Lazarus ['етэ 'lsezores] — Лазарус Эмма, известная аме¬
риканская поэтесса
Vocabulary
to weep
apprehensive
to steady
concreteness
to commemorate
amity
tablet
to huddle
to yearn
wretched
плакать
опасающийся, озабоченный
делаться стойким
твердость, непоколебимость
устраивать в память, в честь,
ознаменовывать
дружба
дощечка с надписью
жаться, тесниться, толпиться
стремиться
несчастный
231

refuse	отбросы (зд. отвергнутые об¬
ществом, никому не нужные
люди)
teeming	переполненный, изобилующий,
^ многолюдный
tempest-tossed	изнуренные, раскиданные штор¬
мом
Assignment
ЗЭч Comprehension
1. Present the following words and phrases in the situations
from the text: “eager newcomers”, “to commemorate”,
“the concreteness of the symbol”, “to pay for”.
2. Ask 4~5 questions about the text and answer them.
Ф Discussion
1. Give your interpretation of the sonnet.
2. Say if any lines (phrases) of the sonnet are logically
connected with the text.
m Read the text. Consult the dictionary to make up a list of topical
vocabulary.
The White House
The White House, the official residence of the President,
stands in tree-shaded grounds (18 acres) on the south side of
Pennsylvania Avenue. The main building has 6 floors, with the
East Terrace leading to the East Wing, a 3-story building used for
offices and as an entrance for official events. The West Terrace
contains offices and leads to the Executive Office.
The White House was designed by James Hoban, an Irish-born
architect. President Washington chose the site which was included in
the plan of the Federal City prepared by Major Pierre L’Enfant.
232
The cornerstone of the Executive Mansion, as it was originally
I known, was laid on October 13, 1792, 300 years after the landing of
I Columbus. President Washington was not present and never lived in
I the house. It was John Adams, the second President (1797—1801),
I who arrived in the new Capital City to take up his residence in the
I White House. On his second evening in its damp, unfinished rooms,
I he wrote to his wife, “Before I end my letter, I pray Heaven to be^ow
I the best of Blessings on this House and all that shall hereafter inhabit
' it. May none but honest and wise Men ever rule under this roof’.
The President’s home was the earliest of all government buildings
in the District of Columbia. Compared to the huge, glittering palaces
used by European and Asian rulers at the time it was built, the White
House is a simple, almost unpretentious dwelling place.
On August 24, 1814, during Madison’s administration (1809—
1817)j the British troops entered Washington and set fire to the
White House. By December 1817, James Hoban had completed
- rebuilding the Executive Mansion, and President Monroe (1817—
1825) moved in.
The British were indirectly responsible for the name “White
House”, Since the marks of the fire were clearly seen on the sandstone
walls, they had to be obliterated by being painted white. But the
house remained the “Executive Mansion” until the administration of
Theodore Roosevelt (1901—1909), when the words “White House”
appeared and the term became official.
In 1947 President Truman (1945—1953) had a second-floor
porch built into the south portico. In 1948 he asked Congress to
authorize complete rebuilding because the White House was unsafe.
Reconstruction cost $5,761,000. The interior was completely
removed. New underpinning 24 feet deep was placed under the
outside walls and steel frame was built to support the interior. All
original trim and metal work were preserved.
Assignment
I?” Discussion
1.	Say if the phrase “The White House” is used in its direct
meaning (i.e. to denote a building). Prove your point of
view with the help of the text.
233

2.	What else can “The White House” mean? Refer to the
text with the same title from Unit IV.
Ш *Scan the text and:
1) compare it with the text “The National Museum of American
History (Unit XII); point out identical features (facts, ideas) in both
texts and note what distinguished them;
2) give your interpretation of “The Pledge to the Flag”; with your
fellow-students discuss the way everybody understands it.
To the Stars and Stripes
Old Glory, that proud symbol of America, is the product of a
rather haphazard series of events.
After England and Scotland were united in 1603 through the
accession to the English throne of James I, the Cross of St. George
was superimposed on the Scottish Cross of St. Andrew to form the
British Union. The Meteor flag, flown even today by British
merchant ships (with Ireland’s Cross of St. Patrick added to it), was
equally familiar to the colonists, who striped its solid red field to
form their Grand Union flag.
So, a precursor of today’s flag was the Grand Union flag,
which George Washington presented to the Colonial Army on New
Year’s Day 1776. It still incorporated the British Union flag because
the colonists, although they had already fought at Lexington and
Concord, had not yet decided to break away entirely from the mother
country. No one knows who the designer was.
On June 14, 1777, after independence, the Continental
Congress decreed retention of the stripes but replacement of Britain’s
flag with a “new constellation” of stars symbolizing the united
Colonies. The designer of the 1777 flag is also unknown. The only
authority for the story that Betsy Ross made it was Betsy’s grandson,
who first told it in 1870.
The new flag was flown mainly by ships, for identification; it
was seldom used on land. But whether on land or sea, its stars —
arranged in various ways — were as likely to be blue on white as white
on blue and to have eight points as five. Often blue stripes were
mingled with the red and white, and in some flags the stripes were
234
vertical. Only the three colours were constant. In 1782 Congress
proclaimed that the red stood for hardiness and courage, the white for
purity and innocence, and the blue for justice, vigilance, and
perseverance.
By 1795two more stars and stripes had been added, representing
the 14th and 15th States. In 1818 Congress returned the number of
stripes to 13, for the original Colonies, but it set no pattern foMhe
stars. From then on a new star was added for each new state — on
the Fourth of July following the State’s accession. The last such
Independence Day celebration was in 1960, after Hawaii had become
the 50th State.
One popular motif was a single large star outlined by small
stars, but the row arrangement became more common and in 1912
was made official.
The Pledge Flag
I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States
of America and to the Republic for which it stands,
one Nation under God, indivisible,
with liberty and justice for all.
03 Look through the text.
The Library of Congress: Services to the Nation
The Library of Congress is the Nation’s library. Its services
extend not only to Members and committees of the Congress, but to
the executive and judicial branches of government, to libraries
throughout the Nation and the world, and to the scholars and
researchers and artists and scientists who use its resources. This was
not always the case. When President John Adams signed the bill that
provided for the removal of the seat of government to the new capital
city of Washington in 1800, he created a reference library for Congress
only. The bill provided, among other items, $5000 “for the purchase
of such books as may be necessary for the use of Congress — and for
putting up a suitable apartment for containing them therein ...”.
The first books were ordered from England and shipped across
the Atlantic in 11 hair trunks and a map case. The library was
235

housed in the new Capitol, until August 1814, at which time British
troops invaded Washington, and when they put the torch to the
Capitol Building, the small Library was lost.
Within a month former President Thomas Jefferson, living in
retirement at Monticello, offered as a replacement his personal library,
accumulated over a span of 50 years. When in France, Jefferson had
spent many afternoons at bookstalls, “turning over every book with
my own hands, putting by everything which related to America, and
indeed whatever was rare and valuable in every science”. His library
was considered one of the finest in the United States.
In offering the library to Congress Jefferson wrote, “I do not
know that it contains any branch of science which Congress would
wish to exclude from their collection; there is, in fact, no subject to
which a Member of Congress may not have occasion to refer”.
After considerable debate Congress in January 1815 accepted
Jefferson’s offer, appropriating $23950 for the collection of 6487
books. Thus the foundation was laid for a great national library.
The Library of Congress complex on Capitol Hill includes three
buildings. The Thomas Jefferson Building, executed in Italian
Renaissance style, is the oldest of these. Heralded as the largest
library structure in the world when it was completed in 1897, it is
elaborately decorated with splendid sculpture, murals, and mosaics
created by 50 American artists. The Main Reading Room houses a
collection of 45000 reference books and desks for 250 readers. The
adjacent Computer Catalogue Center provides public access to the
Library’s automated catalogue files through computer terminals.
The simply designed, dignified John Adams Building, faced
with white Georgia marble, was opened in 1939. Bas-relief sculptures
on its large bronze doors represent 12 historic figures credited with
giving the art of writing to their people.
The white marble James Madison Memorial Building, dedicated
on April 24, 1980, more than doubled the Library’s available Capitol
Hill space. Eight reading rooms, offices, and storage areas for the
Library’s special-format collections number over 70 million items.
Collections of the whole Library include more than 86 million
items covering virtually every subject in formats that vary, from papyrus
to optical disk. These materials stretch along 535 miles of shelves
and are being acquired at a rate of 10 items a minute. The Library
has 26 million books in 60 languages and more than 36 million
manuscripts, among them such treasures of American history and
236
culture as the papers of Presidents, notable families, writers, artists,
and scientists.
The Library has the world’s largest and most comprehensive
cartographic collection — almost 4 million maps and atlases, dating
back to the middle of the 14th century — and a 7-million-piece
music collection that includes not only paper material, but also
Stradivarius instruments.	*
The Library’s 10 million prints and photographs provide a
visual record of people, places, and events in the United States and
in many foreign countries. Approximately 75000 serial titles are
received annually; 1200 newspapers are held in the Library’s
permanent collections, with some dating back to the 17th century.
There are also 80000 motion picture titles;' 50000 television
broadcasts, 3500001 radio transcriptions.
Assignment
2s. Comprehension
1. Make the following ideas complete.
1) The Library of Congress belongs to ... .	:	'
2) ... set fire to the building of the Library in ...	.
3) When in Europe, Jefferson was looking for ...	.
4) In 1897 the Library was considered to be ... .
2.	Make up a list of the departments of the Library of Congress.
3.	Draw an outline of the text.
bDiscussion
1.	Using the outline drawn, speak about the history of creation
of one of the most famous libraries in the world — the
Library of Congress.
2.	Say what the Library of Congress is like today.
3.	Describe the State Library of Russia. Try to cover the
following problems:
a) history of creation;
b) buildings and facilities;
c) collections;
d) services to the nation;
237

e) scholarly resources;
f) services to libraries;
g) cultural programs;
h) visitor information.
fTl Before reading the text, define the notion of a cowboy as you understand
it. Use your background knowledge enriched through watching films,
reading American novels and romantic stories. Then read the text and
say if your point of view coincides with that of the author’s.
The Cowboy: a Most Misinterpreted Hero
Unlike the glamorous figures of legend and fiction, real
cowpokes of the 1870s and 1880s were usually hardy young men who
labored long hours, often under wretched conditions, for little pay,
in a bone-jarring, dangerous occupation.
One of the riskiest and most strenuous jobs began with the
autumn or spring roundup. The cowboys brought the longhorns in
from their breeding grounds on the Texas range, counted them, and
burned a mark on the calves born during the year. Examples of the
brands appear on the map, which also shows the four major trails
over which the cattle were herded north from Texas to railhead
towns such as Cheyenne, Abilene, or Kansas City. From there
they were shipped to stock-yards.
The herds the cowboys drove to shipping centers might number
several thousand and stretch out almost as far as the eye could see.
The trails were a gauntlet of hazards for men and beast alike—
Indians, swirling rivers, snow, drought. The drive was an endurance
test that meant dusty weeks in the saddle with very little sleep and
“bacon and beans most every day”.
Turn-of-the-century dime novels and, later, Hollywood movies
and television made the cowboy probably the most misrepresented
and misunderstood worker of all time. Cowboys themselves fed the
mythology. A mayor of Dodge City, the cowboy’s,capital, remarked
that they “delight in appearing rougher than they are”. And still,
there were cases when cowboys indulged in one of their pastimes —
“cleaning the city”. They behaved badly, shooting in the air, joking
and shouting profane greetings to fellow cowboys, who behaved the
238
same way. A merchant in Abilene described his town in 1871 as a
“seething, roaring, flaming hell”; and in Dodge City, 25 men were
said to be killed during the town’s first year.
Some cowboys were sturdy and dependable; others were
cowardly, dishonest, and cruel to their animal wards. Their bosses
often treated them with contempt. The $100 that a cowhand earned
for driving 1000 cattle for 3 months might be spent in one spree on
the gambling, the rot-gut whisky, and bad company awaiting them
in the cow towns at the end of the trail. Nonetheless, the cowboys
labors supplied the growing Nation with beef and helped settle one
of America’s last frontiers.
Geographical Names
Cheyenne [fai'en], [fa'aen]	г.	Шайен
Hollywood movies and television made the cowboy the
most popular hero of all times
239

г. Абилин
г. Канзас-Сити
г. Додж-Сити
ш Search the text for the most important facts denoting the turning
points in the history of a skyscraper. If necessary, use a dictionary.
The Race for the Sky
The most revolutionary development in 19,h-centuiy architecture —
the skyscraper — has sometimes been called the American solution. It
was not the invention of any single person. It simply evolved in response
to changing circumstances. Cities were growing at an alarming rate.
Businesses were becoming big businesses that needed ever laiger buildings
to house their administrative staffs. New inventions—the telephone,
the typewriter, the electric light, and, most important, the elevator —
contributed to the efficiency of accommodating more people in laiger
structures.
But as more and more companies sought building sites in the
larger cities, real estate prices skyrocketed, forcing builders to build
up instead of out. So while New York City, for example, had few
buildings of more than 5 floors in 1865, its skyline boasted several
structures reaching 9 and 10 stories just a decade later.
The breakthrough came in Chicago in the 1880s. In the building
boom that followed the fire of 1871, a group of architects now known
as the Chicago school began experimenting with new techniques.
Their greatest discovery was that iron beams could be joined to form a
building’s entire framework With this “metal cage” construction,
the iron or, later, the steel skeleton held the building up.
The progress from the first efforts of the Chicago architects to
the sleek new skyscrapers of today was steady but slow. Better glass,
improved concrete, and other technological advances all played a
role in enabling architects to design taller and taller buildings. The
result is universally acknowledged as a fitting symbpl of American
vigor and ingenuity — impressive urban skylines of elegant towers
reaching ever higher.
The most influential of Chicago architects was Louis H.
Sullivan. A restless genius who formulated a highly personal and
Abilene ['asbilkn]
Kansas ['ksenzas] City
Dodge [dod3] City
240
purely American style. He was a pioneer of the modern movement
in his profession and established a secure reputation as one of the
most creative minds in the history of American architecture.
If a structure must be tall, it should be made to look tall — a
principle that was brilliantly realized in Sullivan’s Wainwright Building
in St. Louis, considered by some to be America’s first successful skyscraper.
Although it no longer seems like a skyscraper, Sullivan’s
Wainwright Building towered its neighbours in 1891. The buildings
that followed grew taller but returned to the older historical style.
For example, the Woolworth Building is lavishly Gothic. The
depressed economy of the 1930s required a more austere style and
also halted the race for the tallest building — a title held by the
Chrysler Building very briefly until completion of the Empire State
Building, which reigned supreme for the next 40 years.
In the 1940s and 1950s tall buildings became common, but
they were usually no more than about 60 stories high.
Technology makes mile-high structures possible, but the
advantages are questionable.
Notes and Commentary
Loius H. Sullivan ['lu(:)i eitf 'sxlwsn] — Салливан Луи Генри, из¬
вестный американский архитектор
(the) Wainwright [ weinrait] Building, the Woolworth ['wulwa:0]
Building, the Chrysler ['kraizb] Building, the Empire ['empaia] State
Building — названия небоскребов в порядке возрастания этаж¬
ности
Geographical Names
St. Louis [seint'lu:is]	г. Сент-Луис
Assignment
Discussion
1.	Speak about any American skyscraper in detail.
241
16—1870

2.	In various reference books find information about the
skyscrapers in Moscow. Prepare a talk about them. Point
out some special architectural features of the Moscow
skyscrapers. Compare the latter with those in the picture.
Reveal similarities and differences.
Revision Assignment
1. Turn to all the texts of this Unit again. Give a summary.
Present it in written form.
2. Think of anything that can be called “a symbol of Russia”.
Unit XVIII
TRADITIONS AND WAYS
Ш Look through the text and:
1) convey its gist in the form of a thesis;
2) select information which is new to you;
3) explain the origin of the food and drink you like most of all;
4) think of any life situation in which you will be able to use the
information you have learnt from this text.
American Food and Drink
Hot Dogs
Tad Dorgan, a sports cartoonist, gave the frankfurter its
nickname in 1906. Munching on a frank at a baseball game, he
concluded that it resembled a dachshund’s body and put that whimsy
into a drawing, which he captioned “Hot dog!”.
Sausages go all the way back to ancient Babylon, but the hot
dog was brought to the US shortly before the Civil War by a real
243

Frankfurter — Charles Feltman, a native of Frankfurt, Germany,
who opened a stand in New York and sold grilled sausages on warmed
rolls — first for a dime apiece, later, a nickel.
The frank appealed to busy Americans, who — as ah early 19th-
century comment put it — tend to live by the maxim of “gobble,
gulp and go”. Nowadays Americans consume more than 12 billion
frankfurters a year.
Hamburgers
Modern hamburgers on a bun were first served at the St.
Louis Fair in 1904, but Americans really began eating them in
quantity in the 1920s, when the White Castle snack bar chain featured
a small, Square patty at a very low price. Chopped beef, tasty and
easily prepared, quickly caught on as family fare, and today hamburger
stands, drive-ins» and burger chains offer Americans their favorite
hot sandwich at every turn.
The history of the hamburger dates back to medieval Europe.
A Tartar dish of shredded raw beef seasoned with salt and onion juice
was brought from Russia to Germany by early German sailors. The
lightly broiled German chopped-beef cake, with pickles and
pumpernickel on the side, was introduced to America in the early
1800s by German immigrants in the Midwest.
Doughnuts
It was the early Dutch settlers and the Pennsylvania Germans
who introduced the yeasty, deep-fried doughnut to America. To the
Dutch it was a festive food, eaten for breakfast on Shrove Sunday.
Legend has it that the doughnut got its hole in 1847 when
Hanson Gregory, a lad later to become a sea captain, complained
to his mother that her fried cakes were raw in the center and poked
holes in the next batch before they were cooked.
During World War I, when the Salvation Army served them
to the troops, doughnuts really took off as popular fare. Since then,
coffee and doughnuts have become a national institution. Stores sell
them plain, sugared, frosted, honey-dipped, or jam-filled.
Apple Pie
At its best, with a savory filling and crisp, light-brown crust,
apple pie has long been a favorite on American tables.
Apples and apple^'seeds were among the precious supplies the
244
early colonists brought to the New World. The first large apple
orchards were planted near Boston by William Blaxton in the 1600s.
When he moved to Rhode Island in 1635, he developed the tart
Rhode Island Greening, still considered one of America’s finest apple
pies.
As the fruit became abundant, many settlers ate apple pie at
^very meal. Garnished with a chunk of cheese, it was a* favorite
colonial breakfast dish. By the 18th century apple pie had become so
popular that Yale College in New Haven served it every night at
supper for more than 100 years.
America’s love affair with apple pie has remained constant.
Today’s housewives, pressed for time, can shortcut the tradition by
buying the pastry ready-made at bakeries and supermarkets. Many
variations on the good old original are available, but the classical
apple pie, irresistible when topped with a slice of rat-trap cheese or
slathered with vanilla ice cream, is still America’s favorite.
Potato Chips
George Crumb, an American Indian who was the chef at
Moon’s Lake House in Saratoga Springs, New York, in the mid-
19th century, was irked when a finicky dinner guest kept sending
back his French fried potatoes, complaining they were too thick. In
exasperation, Crumb shaved the potatoes into tissue-thin slices and
deep-fried them in oil. He had a dishful of crisp “Saratoga chips”
presented to the guest, who was delighted with the new treat.
Potato chips became the specialty of Moon’s Lake House and,
later, America’s crunchiest between-meals snack.
Coca-Cola
America’s best known soft drink was first concocted by an
Atlanta pharmacist in 1886. The syrup was cooked up by John S.
Pemberton from extracts of coca leaves and the kola nut. He then
organized the Pemberton Chemical Company, and Coca-Cola syrup
mixed with plain water was sold in a local drug-store for 5 cents a
glass.
Sales were slow until in 1887 a prosperous Atlanta druggist;
Asa G. Candler, bought the Coca-Cola formula — then as now a
carefully guarded secret — and added carbonated water to the syrup
instead of plain water.
Advertisements stressing the words “delicious” and “refreshing”
245

and carrying coupons for free Coca-Cola added to the increase in
consumption. A system of independent local bottling companies was
developed, and the flared bottle; familiar worldwide and said to
resemble the hobble skirt, was designed in 1916.
In 1919 the company was sold out for $25 million to a group
headed by Ernest Woodruff. Under his son, Robert W. Woodruff,
Coca-Cola rapidly expanded its market. By the mid-1970s more than
150 million Cokes a day were sold in countries all over the world.
Today Coca-Cola has to compete with many other soft drinks,
but it is still one of the symbols of the United States.
Ш Scan the extracts and explain the origin of one of the holidays.
Special Celebrations
Thanksgiving Day
Thanksgiving Day is an annual holiday observed on the fourth
Thursday of November and dating back to the beginning of the 17th
century.
This day was first celebrated in 1621 by those Englishmen
who founded New England’s first Colony at Plymouth in 1620.
They were Protestants and when in England wanted to restore the
Anglican Church to “its primitive order, liberty and beauty”. Their
zeal was met with royal persecution and banishment, so they had
to leave their motherland. After an unhappy decade in Holland,
those Pilgrims, aboard the “Mayflower”, resolved to sail for America
where the power of the Anglican Church could not reach them.
During their first winter, over half of the settlers died of
starvation and epidemics, but in spring the courageous survivors
continued their struggle for life, cultivating the rocky soil and
planting Indian seed com. The harvest in autumn was rich beyond
expectations. The Governor, William Bradford, proclaimed “a
day of Thanksgiving unto the Lord so we might after a more special
manner, rejoice after we had gathered the fruits of our labors^,
The settlers had turkey and different fruit for their feast.
After the first celebration, this holiday was observed irregularly
and differed from region to region. A national Thanksgiving Day
came only after the Thirteen Colonies had been united.
246
Since Lincoln’s time it has become the custom for the President
of the United States to proclaim annually the fourth Thursday of
November as Thanksgiving Day, and for the Governors of the States
to issue proclamations for their respective States.
The Thanksgiving Day decorations follow a traditional pattern:
there are always ears of Indian corn, apples, oranges, chestnuts,
walnuts, dried leaves, berries, and a lot of bunches of flowers. The
core of Thanksgiving dinner is the traditional roast turkey and pumpkin
pie.
Halloween
Unlike many other holidays, Halloween has a very rich past.
It dates back to the Druid festival of Samhain, Lord of the Dead and
Prince of the Darkness. He, according to Celtic belief, gathered up
the souls of all those who had died during the year to present them
to Druid Heaven on October 31. The Sun god was present at the
holiday and received thanks for the year’s harvest.
The Druids called on supernatural forces to calm down the evil
spirits, hence the tradition of masquerading and the symbols of
Halloween — ghosts, witches, skeletons, black cats, devils, and
bonfires. The custom of telling ghost stories on Halloween also comes
from the Druids.
As Christianity replaced the pagan religions, the church made
November 1 a special day to honor all saints (all hallows) and
called it All Hallows’ Day. The evening before , October 31, became
All Hallows’ Even — later shortened to Halloween. According to
the pagan belief, all evil spirits gather on All Hallows’ Eve to oppose
the church and mock the All Saints celebration.
Halloween was not widely celebrated in America until
immigrants from Ireland and Scotland arrived in 1840s. Today
Halloween is mainly a children’s holiday. Children wear ghost
costumes, false faces, carry jack-o-lanterns made of pumpkins. In
the evening of October 31, when it becomes dark, they go from
door to door, ring the bell and shout: “Trick or Treat?” If the
children do not get any treat— chocolates, candy, fruit, small
coins — they are ready to play tricks.
While some youngsters are out playing pranks or collecting
their booty, others are gathered for a party, enjoying themselves,
telling ghost stories, popping corn, or playing different games. And
there is always a candle burning inside a hollow pumpkin.
247

Assignment
Discussion
1. Express your point of view as to why the above holidays
have been chosen out of the numerous holidays Americans
celebrate.
2. Give a talk in class about some other holidays celebrated
in the US: Independence Day, Washington’s Birthday,
Abraham Lincoln’s Birthday, Columbus Day, Memorial
Day, Martin Luther King’s Birthday, Christmas, New
Year’s Day, Easter, etc.
Revision Assignment
1. Among many traditions in the US is a tradition to keep
pets at home. Comment on the statement which appeared
in one of the newspapers some time ago: “Going to the
cats. Dogs are still the USA’s No. 1 pet, but cats are
gaining as dog ownership declines”.
2. Say if the US is an unusual country as far as its customs
and traditions are concerned. Give your reasons.
3. Speak about various traditions and ways in Russia.
Unit XIX
AMERICANS ABOUT AMERICA
PJ Scan the extracts containing the viewpoints of outstanding American
leaders.
1 I look forward to a great future for America, a future in
which our country will match its military strength with our moral
restraint, its wealth with our wisdom, its power with our purpose.
I look forward to an America which will not be afraid of grace and
beauty, which will protect the beauty of our natural environment,
which will preserve the great old American houses and squares and
parks of our national past, and which will build handsome and
balanced cities for our future. ... And I look forward to an America
which commands respect throughout the world not only for its strength
but for its civilization as well.
John F. Kennedy
Speech, Amherst, Massachusetts,
October 26, 1963
249

2	Our objective must be so to manage the physical use of the
land that we will not only maintain soil fertility but will hand on
to the next generation a country with better productive power
and a greater permanency of land use than the one we inherited
from the previous generation. The opportunity is as vast as is the
danger.
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Message to Congress,
January 30, 1936
3	The will of the people is the only legitimate foundation of any
government, and to protect its free expression should be our first
object.
Thomas Jefferson
First Inaugural
March 4, 1801
4	The arts cannot thrive except where men are free to be themselves
and	to be in charge of the discipline of their own energies and
ardors. The conditions for democracy and for art are one and the
same. What we call liberty in politics results in freedom of the arts.
There can be no vitality in the works gathered in a museum unless
there exists the right of spontaneous life in the society in which the
arts are nourished. ...Nourish the conditions of a free life and you
nourish the arts too.
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Speech, New York City
May 10, 1939
5 With this faith we will be able to work together, to pray
together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up
for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day. This
will be the day when all of God’s children will be able to sing with
new meaning — “my country ‘tis (it is) of thee (you); sweet land
of liberty; of thee I sing; land where my fathers died, land of the
pilgrim’s pride; from every mountain side, let freedom ripg” —
and if America is to be a great nation, this must become true.
Martin Luther King
Speech, Lincoln Memorial
August 28, 1963
250
6 Property is the fruit of labor; property is desirable; is a positive
good in the world. That some should be rich shows that Others may
become rich, and hence is just encouragement to industry and
enterprise. Let not him who is houseless pull down the house of
another, but let him work diligently and build one for himself, thus
by example assuring that his own shall be safe from violence when
built.	*
Abraham Lincoln
Remarks, Washington, D. C.
March 2, 1864
Assignment
t!? Discussion
1. To which Unit of the book can each viewpoint be attributed?
Explain your choice.
2. What, do you think, each of the outstanding Americans
has done to match his words with his deeds? Use the
material of the Units.
Revision Assignment
1. Speak about any famous Russian (tsar, tsarina, politician,
scientist, scholar, writer, poet, etc.) whom you consider
to be really great and whose contribution to the development
(political, industrial, cultural, etc.) of Russia was enormous,
in your opinion.
2. Act as a guide taking a group of your fellow-students
around the United States. From the book, revise those
texts which, in your opinion, will help you to be well
informed of the sights you are going to visit.

Содержание
Предисловие ........	      ^	...	3
Unit I
THE LAND
Thp Country  	   :	/ 5
Rivers	7		 	 	 	 	 9
Weather and Climate  	      1	_ ц
Natural Resources 	    |					I ........... 12
National Parks ...	;	  |	13
The Northeast: Massachusetts	          17
The Sputh: Florida					\	     Я	,_ 19
The Southwest: Texas	:	..7.....	 21
The Central Northwest: Colorado  	    .........	.	.......... ......	22
The Southwest: Arizona„..........     jf   	...........,...^23
The Far West: California					♦.  				Jjj	24
Unit II
THE PEOPLE
The Society						 ^ 3Q
The Story of the People: the Saga of Migration 	            33
Ellis Island: Gateway to America  	         35
The Involuntary Immigrants    	            .......	40
Afro-American Migration (1915-1940)    .^............................43
Tlie Search for Equality  	        .	45
Г* Unit III
HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
Pre-Colonial America  	      49
How It AH Started 	  52
The Making of a People.......	......^										 .....54
Britain and the Colonies	57
The Declaration: History of Creation	       ...............	60
Another Mystery,	  .fy	лк:!S'	63
Struggle for Independence  	.	     1	........66
The US Constitution  	        ...:w.	|f	68
Human Liberties Shared by All 	  ........,,.v	.%...,	  ......*...72
19th-Century Expansion 	     .....L.	.	 74
The Trail of Tears	          76
The Civil War(1861-1865)  	  „...	.	ZZIZZZZZZZZIZI79
The Rush for Wealth  			 			fj|jjM,g2
252
84
Industrialization	  •	  *	„
Prohibition: Crusade for Abstinence			I -	|
The Great Depression and the New Deal 			..	         «	89
Unit IV
THE SYSTEM OF GOVERNMENT
■ V>:	'	'	'"'""'''92	■
, Separation of Powers  	         *
The White House  					— 	...........
The Legislative Branch  	          *
Federal Judiciary  										—.
Local Administration		-	.....i.-.	.......	. . W
Unit V
ELECTIONS AND POLITICAL PARTIES
Presidential Election  			V.................. E
Political Parties
Unit VI
OUTSTANDING PRESIDENTS
109
The American Presidency
George Washington: First President (1789—1797)	  112
Thomas Jefferson: Third President (1801-1809)  	     116
Abraham Lincoln: Sixteenth President (1861-1865)			Ж
Franklin D. Roosevelt: Thirty-Second President (1933-1945)	Щ
John Fitzgerald Kennedy: Thirty-Fifth President (1961-1963)	•	124
Unit VII
RELIGION
I Churches 		...................	..	    J28
The Black Church    					&  	  ...r.......	  131
Unit VIII
THE MEDIA
133
The Press	    —	*
The Power of the Press —	.	................	        36
Radio and Television  	     ••••	..............	    138
Unit IX
ТЙЕ WELFARE STATE
Industry  	            !	...141
253

Agriculture  	    ;	   143
Food for Thought 	                144
Unit X
WORK AND MONEY
Trade Unions  	        147
Wall Street.... 	                  149
Unit XI
TRANSPORT
Communications and Transport  	..;	     152
From the History of Travel  	          153
Wheels for All Mankind 	            156
Unit XII
ARTS AND SCIENCE
The Smithsonian: a Treasure-Filled Institution 	 159
The National Gallery of Art: History of Construction  	  162
John Russel Pope	        ffifc			  164
The National Gallery of Art  	            166
The National Museum of American History  	        168
The Great Migration  	         169
The National Air and Space Museum 	        170
The Metropolitan Museum of Art	  ..............................	....171
Painters of a Virgin Land 	       f74
American Genius Llffl |	   176
Unit XIII
EDUCATING THE NATION
American School System  	     180
Public Education: Historical Review  	    ...л	    183
Higher Education  	               ....185
World Famous 	              188
Unit XIV
SPORTS, LEISURE AND ENTERTAINMENT
Sports  	      щ	191
Alexander Joy Cartwright and the Great American Game  	194
Father of Modem Football	   194
Made in the USA  	    196
254
Entertainment for All      			..	     197
The Early Days  	       .	199
Film Industry  	|			    w	201
The World in Your Home  	  203
Unit XV
MUSIC AND LITERATURE	^
America’s Music	    206
The Church and Music  	          209
Purely American Creations  	        210
A Fresh Spirit in Literature	|  		...r,....r....r.., 	1	213
A Man of the River 	      .	215
Unit XVI
CITIES AND TOWNS
Demographic Changes	     218
The City of Washington	      220
Seeing the Sights of Washington	      223
New York 	               226
Unit XVII
THE SYMBOLS
The Statue of Liberty 	... 							230
The White House  	             232
To the Stars and Stripes  	           234
The Library of Congress: Services to the Nation	      235
The Cowboy: a Most Misinterpreted Hero 	      238
The Race for the Sky 	            240
Unit XVIII
TRADITIONS AND WAYS
American Food and Drink  	          243
Special Celebrations 	         246
Unit XIX
AMERICANS ABOUT AMERICA
***
249

По вопросам оптовых закупок обращаться
к эксклюзивному дистрибьютору
издательства «Айрис-пресс» ООО «Рольф».
Тел./факс: 785-29-25, 956-16-84,
e-mail: rolf@airis.ru
Адрес: Москва, пр. Мира, 106
Наш сайт: ww.airis.ru
Вы можете приобрести наши книги
с II00 до 1730, кроме субботы, воскресения
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и развивающей литературы.
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Людмила Ахтемовна Халилова
США: ИСТОРИЯ И СОВРЕМЕННОСТЬ
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Редактор: Т. Е. Львова
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Технический редактор: С. С. Коломеец
Компьютерная верстка: Г. В. Доронина
Корректоры: Б. Б. Кузнецова, 3. А. Тихонова
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ЛР № 064657 от 27.06.96 г.
ООО «Рольф» г. Москва, пр. Мира, 106,
тел. (095)956-16-84.
Отпечатано в полном соответствии
с качеством предоставленных диапозитивов
в ОАО «Можайский полиграфический комбинат».
143200, г. Можайск, ул. Мира, 93.

Книга для чтения на английском языке
даст старшеклассникам,	Н
студентам и преподавателям
представление о прошлом
и настоящем Соединенных
Штатов Америки.
География, история освоения
новых земель, собственно
история США, политическая система
и выборы, религия,
средства массовой информации,	ННш^ННННВ^И^Н
экономика, образование	\|^В^^^НВ^ЯН№^Я
и культура—вот неполный список тем,	^НИЗ^НН|
которые освещают тексты пособия.
Лучше освоить содержание
текстов помогут	^н^ВЖш|НрННЯ№1ы
комментарии, словарь и упражнения.