美国英美概况练习

美国概况练习
I. Term explanation
1. The War of Independence
(1)After British parliament passed the Intolerable Acts, tensions were again created between colonists and British government.(2)On April 19,1775, the first shot was fired at Lexington and the American War of Independence began.(3) In May 1775, the Second Continental Congress met in Philadelphia and began to assume the functions of a national government. It founded a Continental Army and Navy under the command of George Washington and declared independence on July4,1776.(4) In 1781, British General Cornwallis surrendered at Y ork Town,Virginia and soon British government asked for peace.(5)The Treaty of Paris, signed in September 1783, recognized the independence of the United States.
2. Boston Tea Party
(1)In the years following the French and Indian War, British government enforced several acts which were bitterly opposed by colonists. (2)In order to ease tensions, British government removed all the new taxes except that on tea.(3)In 1773, a group of pariots responded to the tea tax by staging the Boston Tea Party: disguised as Indians, they boarded British merchant ships and tossed 342 crates of tea into Boston harbor.(4)British parliament then passed the “Intolerable Acts”, and in response to this the first Continental Congress was held in September1774.
3. the First Continental Congress
(1)In response to the “Intolerable Acts”, passed by British parliament, the first Continental Congress met in Philadelphia in September1774.(2)This was a meeting of colonial leaders. They urged Americans to disobey the Intolerable Acts and to boycott British trade.(3)After this, colonists began to organize militias and to collect and store weapons and ammunition.
4. The Declaration of Independence
(1) The Declaration of Independence, the first declaration of human rights, was mainly drafted by Thomas Jefferson and was adopted by the Congress on July 4,1776,when the people of 13 English colonies in North America were fighting for their freedom and independence from the British colonial rule, approached the problem of American independence from the angle of human rights. (2) Its principal point was to provide a legal basis for independence. It justified the forthcoming Revolution by defining the rights of man and the nature of government in relation to such rights. It declared that all men were equal and they were entitled to have some natural rights such as life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. The powers of the governments came from the consent of the governed and the purpose of governments was to secure the rights mentioned above. (3) The Declaration of Independence was a masterpiece of bourgeois political philosophy. (4) The Declaration of Independence helped the colonists to see that there were times when people had the right to revolt.
The new doctrine inspired mass fervor. More and more people came to believe that they were fighting for the just cause.
5. American Constitution
(1) The Constitution of the United States, which was adopted in 1787 and came into effect in 1789, is the first comparatively complete written constitution in the world. (2)It is the supreme law in the United States, and is the main expression of the American ideals.(3)It is a short document which embodies laws and principles for the form of the US government. It consists of a preamble, 7 articles and 29 amendments.
6. The Bill of Rights (USA)
(1)In 1791, the first ten amendments of American Constitution were made. This is the well-known “Bill of Rights”. (2)It secures a wide variety of freedoms for Americans, including the freedoms of religion, speech, press, peaceful assembly and freedom to bear arms, freedom against unreasonable search and seizure and so on.
(3)the amendments limit the powers of the national government in regard to the rights and liberties of individuals.
7. The New Deal
(1)To deal with the Depression, President Franklin Roosevelt rushed through Congress a great number of laws within the historic “Hundred Days”.(2) Some of the famous ones in this New Deal were the WPA (The Work Progress Administration), AAA(The Agricultural Adjustment Act), and the Social Security Act.(3)New Deal program did not end the Depression, but the economy improved as a result of this program of government intervention.
8. The Great Depression
(1) On October 24, 1929 —“Black Thursday”— a wave of panic selling of stocks swept the New Y ork Stock Exchange. Share and other security prices collapsed. (2) By 1932, thousand of banks and businesses had failed. Industrial production was cut in half. Farm inc ome had fallen b y more than half. Wages had decreased 60 percent. New investment was down 90 percent. As a result, one out of four workers was unemployed. (3) Franklin D. Roosevelt won the 1932 election and carried out the New Deal to improve the economy. (4) Full recovery from the Depression was brought about by the defense buildup prior to America’s entering the WWII.
II. Please answer the following questions briefly.
1. What are the four crown colonies during America colonization? (T extbook: Page 15
2.)
2. What are he four causes for the War of Independence in America? (T extbook: Page 158-160)
3. What are he four causes for American Civil War? (T extbook: Page 167-170)
4. What are the three important acts of Roosevelt’s New Deal? (T extbook: Page 187-188)
5. What are the five fundamental features of American political system? (T extbook: Page 209)
6. What are the five fundamental principles for American government established by American Constitution? (T extbook: Page 210)
7. What are the five constitutional roles of American president? (T extbook: Page 213)
8. What are the three important characteristics of American economic system? (T extbook: Page 228)。