英语国家概况美国部分

英语国家概况美国部分

Chapter 14 Population, Race and Ethnic Groups
1. The first immigrants in American history came from England and Netherlands.
2. By the year 2050, the population is expected to climb to 383 million, a 50% increase.
3. About 77% of the population in the United States lived in more than 283 city areas in 1988.
4. Mobility (one the move) is the one of the characteristics of the American people.
5. The slave system was formally ended by Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation in 1863 and Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution in 1865.
6. The largest of the racial and ethnic minorities in the United States is the blacks who number about 12.1% of the population. The first blacks were brought to North America as slaves in 1619. 美国人口最多的少数民族是黑人，大约占总人口的12.1%，第一批黑人作为奴隶于1619年运抵北美。
7. A large number of blank people move out of the south to other areas during the period between 1920-1960.大批黑人离开南方涌向外地发生在1920-1960年间。
8. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 added protections（加强维护） for the right to vote, to use public facilities(公共设施) and to enjoy the same education as white people.
9. The Voting Rights Act of 1965 was meant to guarantee(保证) the blacks and others the right to vote.
10. Traditionally, the mainstream American were called WASPs, that is ,White Anglo-Saxon Protestants.传统上读，美国人的主流是祖先为英国新教徒的白人。

Chapter 15 American History I
1. Christopher Columbus an Italian navigator, supported by the Spanish queen discovered a New Continent. Amerigo Vespucci named America after him.
2. The "first Americans" were the Indians. The first English colony in the Americas was founded at Jamestown, Virginia, in 1607. Between 1607 and 1733 the British established 13 colonies along the east coast of North American. “最早的美国人”是印地安人，英国于1607年在美国建立了第一块殖民地，即在弗吉尼亚的詹姆斯，1607-1733年间，英国在北美洲的东海岸建立了十三个殖民地:Virginia，Maine，New Hampshire，Massachusetts，Connecticut，New York，Rhode Island，Maryland，North Carolina，South Carolina，New Jersey，Pennsylvania and Georgia.
3. In 1620, 201 of Pilgrims sailed to the New World in a ship called Mayflower. They arrived at Plymouth and built the Plymouth colony.1620年，有201名英国清教徒乘坐一名为”五月花号“的船到达了普利茅斯并建立了殖民地。
4. The Puritans wanted to purity the Church of England.
5. From 1630 to 1643, some 200 ships transported over 20000 Englishmen to the Massachusetts Bay colony. 约有200艘船把2万英国人抵马萨者萨弯殖民地。
6. The colonists were building a new way of life in the New World. There were a number of features which would play a role in forming the American character. They were :representative form of gove

rnment, rule of law, respect of individual rights, religious tolerance and a strong spirit of individual enterprise.殖民主义者新生活方式的这些特点在美国人性格形成中发挥了重要作用：建立代义制政府，法治，对个人权利的尊重，宗教上的宽容及强烈的个人进取心。
7. In September 1744, the First Continental Congress was held in Philadelphia which encouraged American to refuse to buy British goods.
8. The British soldiers arrived at Lexington, the War of Independence had begun.
9. The Second Continent Congress was held in Philadelphia.
10. The Declaration of Independence drafted by Thomas Jefferson of Virginia. The Declaration is a clear explanation of the political theory behind the revolution and this theory came from the British philosopher John Locke. 《独立宣言》是由托马斯?杰文逊起草的，它明确阐述了支撑这场革命的政治理论，这一理论来源于英国著名哲学家约翰?洛克。
11. On the Christmas Day of 1776, the Americans defeated the British troops at Trenton, New Jersey. Not long afterwards, the Americans troops defeated the British at Saratoga in Northern New York. This was a great turning point of the War of Independence, leading directly to an alliance between the U.S and France. 1766年的圣诞节，美军在新泽西的特伦顿挫败英军，这之后不久，美军在萨拉托加击败英军，史称“萨拉托加大捷”这次胜利被认为是北美独立战争的转折点，并直接导致美法联军的建立。
12. In September, 1783, the Treaty of Paris was signed, Britain recognized the independence of the U.S.1783年9月簦订《巴黎和约》，英正式承认美国独立。
13. The American War of Independence shows that, in a just war, a weak nation can defeat a strong one.
14. The Articles of Confederation provided for no king. But weaknesses: without someone to do the executive’s job, the other one is Congress has no power to raise taxes.
15. The Federalist Papers are regarded as the best explanation of the constitution as well as one of the most important works on political theory. <联邦文集》被认为是对美国宪法最好的解释，也是美国最重要的政治理论著作之一。
16. The first ten amendments to the U.S Constitution, which was called the Bill of Rights, adopted in 1791 which promise to protect individual's rights. 成为宪法的前十条修正案被称为《人权法案》。
17. The U.S. went to war with Britain in 1812, the last war fought between these two countries.英美最后一次交火是1812的英美战争。
18. During the 13 years of Indian wars after the War of Independence, the Americans forced England to give up the Old Northwest and they forced Spain to open the Mississippi river. Their crossing of the Mississippi helped persuade Napoleon to sell the Louisiana Territory to the U.S. In 1853,in the Gadsden Purchase another 30000 square miles of Mexican land wer

e added to the territory of the U.S. 在独战后十三的印第安战争中，美国人适使英国放弃了旧西北地区，使西班牙开放密西西比河，促使拿破伦把路易斯字那志给美国，在1853年的加兹登购买中，另外的3万平方米的墨西哥土地也为美国领土。
19 The expansionist movement produced a theory of “Manifest Destiny” by Democratic politician John L. O’ Sullivan.
20. Mexico was forced to agree to give California and New Mexico (now the states of Arizona, New Mexico, Utah, Nevada, Colorado and Wyoming) to the United States.
21. Farming remained the most important way of making a living in the south.
22. The twp famous leaders of black movement in the U.S in the 1830s were Garrison and Frederick Douglass.在19世纪30年代两位著名的黑人领袖为加里森和道格拉斯 .
23. Public feeling against slavery was increased by Harriet Beecher Stowe’s novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin.
24. The war broke out on April 12, 1861.
25. In the Civil war, Lincoln realized that he could win support for the Union at home and abroad by making the war a just war against slavery. So he issued the famous Emancipation Proclamation.美国内战期间，林肯发表了《解放奴隶宣言》
26. The Union army under the command of Ulysses S. Grant defeated the Confederate army at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, this victory was the turning point of the Civil War.北方联军在尤利西斯。格兰特的指挥下，在宾夕法尼亚的葛底斯堡击败了南方联盟军，葛底斯堡大捷是美国内战的转折点。
27. On November 19, 1863, Abraham Lincoln made a short speech on the occasion of dedicating the national cemetery at Gettysburg. He ended his speech with these memorable words: "That government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth. 1863年11月9日，林肯在葛底斯堡阵亡将士公墓落成仪式上发表了简短的演说，他以另人难忘的语言结束了演说“民有，民治，民享的政府永远不会从地球上消失。
28. A conference was held in Philadelphia in May 1787 to consider what should be done to make the Articles of Confederation adequate. All of the states except Rhode Island were represented at the Constitutional Convention. 1787年在费城召开的制宪会议上，除了罗得岛外，其他所有州都参加了，大家讨论如何使《联邦条款》能够满足需要。

Chapter 16 American History II
1. In 1908 Henry Ford began to mass-produce (大量生产)a car which was sold for $825.
2. The Muckrakers, s group of reform-minded journalists, made investigations and exposed various dark sides of the seemingly prosperous society.
3. The Progressive Movement, a movement demanding government regulation of the economy and social conditions, spread quickly with the support of large numbers of people across the country. It was not an organized campaign with clearly defined goals.
4. President Wilson

put forward his program of New Freedom.
5. The First World War, broke out in June 1914, was the result of fierce struggle between two imperialist power groups for colonies, markets and spheres of influence, and of an intense arms race. The United States pursued a policy of pro-Ally partiality.
6. When Germany was trying to get Mexico into the war against the United States, promising it the return of lost territory of Texas, New Mexico and Arizona, the US government declared was on Germany on April 6, 1917.
7. The Peace Conference was actually a conference of division of colonies of Germany, Austro-Hungary and the Ottoman Empire and the grabbing of as much as possible from the defeated nations. It was dominated by the Big Four (the US, Britain, France, and Italy).
8. During wartime, there was a demand in the country for patriotism and uniformity.
9. Ku Klux Klan (KKK) terrorized and attacked not only blacks, but also progressives, labour union organizers, Communist or socialist party members.
10. The first blow to the stock market came on October 24, 1929, called the black Thursday.
11. In the summer of 1932 a few hundred W. W. I veterans (ex-soldiers) came to Washington D.C. to demand full payment of bonuses promised by Congress in 1942.
12. In 1932, in the depth of depression, the American people chose Franklin D. Roosevelt as their next president who promised a “new deal” to get America out of the depression and to “save American democracy”.
13. The Second World War was the result of struggle between the great powers for control of the world and military expansion (军事扩张) of the countries of Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy and militarist Japan.
14. In the early 1930s, the American foreign policy was isolationist to keep the US out of the fighting that was going on in Europe and Asia.
15. The bombing of Pearl Harbour changed the whole situation. The nation was formally in was formally in war with the Axis powers.
16. The second conference was held in Yalta in February, built the United Nations.

Chapter 17 American History III
1. The containment policy (遏制政策) became the official policy towards the Soviet Union until 1989.
2. The US government would support any country which said it was fighting against Communism. This is the Truman Doctrine. 杜鲁门主义
3. The Marshall Plan was announced by Secretary of States George Marshall on June 5, 1947. In order to protect Western Europe from possible Soviet expansion, the US decided to offer Western European countries economic aid.
4. Between 1946 and 1961, more than 63.5 million babies were born in the U.S., making the baby-boom generation the largest by far in the nation’s history.
5. The policy of containment of Communism led the US into the war in Vietnam which turned out to be the longest war it fought (1950-1975). The story began with Vietnam’s independence in September 1945.
6. Richard Nixon, who was elected on a platform of ending the

Vietnam War, changed the strategy into “Vietnamization” of the war building up South Vietnam troops to replace American fighting force.
7. The Taiwan problem had been a key problem in US-China relations.
8. In December 1954, the US government signed a Mutual Defence Treaty with the Chiang Kaishek regime on Taiwan.
9. In February 1927, President Nixon visited China and met Chairman Mao Zedong and the two countries issued the Shanghai Communique. The visit ended 23 years of hostility and led to the establishment of diplomatic relations (外交关系) in January 1979.
10. Kennedy’s call for a New Frontier (新边疆) had inspired (鼓舞) many to work to wipe out (擦掉) poverty and end segregation (隔离) and voting rights abuses.
11. Johnson also started a War on Poverty. Because the gross national product had increased, Johnson decided to spend the extra money to wipe out poverty through education and job training.
12. As early as 1962, a group of radical students met in Port Huron, Michigan to form the Students for Democratic Society (SDS).
13. From the mid-seventies onwards, the US suffered from “stagflation”, that is, the occurrence of stagnation and inflation at the same time.
14. The New Right conservatism consists of two groups of people: the firm believers of Protestant religious teaching and the intellectuals.
15. It was this of conservatism that brought Ronald Reagan into the White House.


Chapter 18 The Economy
1. The US is by far the biggest industrial country in the world.
2. The American economy is characterized by a high degree of monopoly. 高度垄断。
3. The US share of world trade has declined in recent years. Currently US exports are about 15% of the world’s total.
4. The US imports about 13% of all world imports.
5. Canada is the largest single source of goods imported by the US.
6. The economic system of the US is principally privately owned. 私有制。

Chapter 19 Political Institutions
1. The Constitution of the US is the basic instrument of American government and the supreme law of the land.
2. The American Constitution is the oldest written constitution in the world.
3. The Constitution set up a federal system of government which has two layers of rule: central or federal government.
4. The government is divided into 3 branches: the legislative, the executive, and the judicial.
5. The Supreme Court is the highest court of the US and is the only organ which has the power to interpret the Constitution.
6. Political parties are the basis of the American political system.
7. America has a two-party system: the Democrats, the Republicans.
8. There have been four period in the history of political parties in America.

Chapter 20 Education
1. Formal education in the US consists of elementary, secondary and higher education. Elementary and secondary education, which forms public education, is free and compulsory.
2. Diversity is considered to be an outstanding characteri

stic of American education.
3. Higher education in the US began with the founding of Harvard College in 1636.
4. The system of higher education in the US has three principal functions: teaching, researching and public service.
5. In 1991, President issued “American 2000: An Education Strategy”.

Chapter 21 Literature, Architecture and Music
1. Washington Irving’s most famous book: The Sketch Book.
2. In 1836, Emerson published his famous book: Nature, which is the clearest statement of Transcendentalist ideas.
3. In The Scarlet Letter, Hawthorne considers the effect on an individual’s character of guilty conscience, of hypocrisy, and of hatred.
4. The Adventure of Huckleberry Finn (Mark Twain) tells a story about the US before the civil war, and the story takes place along the Mississippi River, on both sides of which there are unpopulated wilderness and a dense forest.
5. In Whitman’s masterpiece Leaves of Grass, he praised the ideas of equality and democracy and celebrated the dignity, the self-reliant spirit and the joy of the common man.
6. T. S. Eliot won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1946. Hemingway won in 1954.

Chapter 22 Holidays and Festival
1． By long custom, American nationally observed holidays include Christmas, Thanksgiving Day, Labor Day, Independence Day, New Year’s Day, Columbus Day, Washington’s birthday, Memorial Day and Veterans’ Day.以下节日是全国同庆的节日：圣诞节，感恩节，劳动节，独立纪念日，新年，哥伦布纪念日，华盛顿诞辰纪念日，阵亡将士纪念日和退伍军人节。
2．Easter Sunday, which comes from the ancient Norwegian festival of Spring sun, is the second of the two most important religious holidays for Christians. Egg rolling, the original Easter tradition by the colonists, is held on Easter Monday morning every year on the Whiter House Lawn. Of all the symbols, the egg and the hare are considered to represent fertility and new life.复活节源于古挪威的春天太阳节，是两上最重要的基督教节日中的第二个，滚彩蛋是殖民者最初的复活节传统，至今仍每年在白宫草坪举行，鸡蛋和野兔被认为是多产和新生活的象征，是复活节的象征物。
3．To celebrate Memorial Day, a great ceremony is always held at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Arlington National Cemetery near Washington D.C为庆祝阵亡纪念日，盛大仪式通常在华盛顿特区附近的阿灵顿国家公墓的无名将士墓前举行。
4．Independence Day is American’s most important patriotic holiday, the birthday of the nation. Now Independence Day is celebrated in all states. The army marks the occasion by firing a thirteen-gun salute every year. Many people bring their children to visit the birthplace of the country - Philadelphia.独立日纪念是美国最重要的爱国节日，也是国家的生日，军队每年都会鸣放13响礼炮来庆祝。家长们也往往带孩子们

去参观美国的诞生地-费城
5． Halloween(All Hallows’ Eve) is a nighttime children’s holiday. Children with curious masks go from house to house to frighten friends of neighbors and threaten them with: Trick or treat”. Since 1950, more and more children have asked for pennies for UNICEF to help children in other countries, for which the 1965 Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to American children.万圣节除夕是孩子们的节日衣晚，你想挨捉弄还是款待我们“是万圣节的孩子们常说的话，1965年，美国儿童获得诺贝尔和平奖。
6. Veterans' Day, which was called the Armistice Day before, originally celebrated the signing of the 1918 Armistice.退伍军人节，以前称作休战日，最初是为了纪念1918年第一次世界大战停战协议的签订。
7. Thanksgiving Day is a typical American holiday. The theme of Thanksgiving has always been peace and plenty, health and happiness. Thanksgiving Day is historical, national, and religious holiday that began with the Pilgrims. The first Thanksgiving Day was celebrated by the English settlers in Plymouth, Massachusetts on December 13,1621. On Thanksgiving day, people have such traditional food as roast turkey, pumpkin pie, apples, cranberry sauce, squash, etc.感恩节的主题一直是和平，丰收，健康和快乐，感恩节是由清教徒发起的，第一个感恩节是于1621年12月13日由居住在普利茅斯的英国移民庆祝的，烤火鸡，南瓜饼，越橘酱和南瓜是感恩节的传统食品。
8. Christmas Day, which celebrated the birth of Jesus Christ, is the biggest and the best-loved holiday in the United states, in many areas,, after the Thanksgiving Day is the biggest shopping day of the year-the first day of Christmas gift shopping.圣诞节是美国最大的，最受美国人喜欢的节日，在许多地区，感恩节后的第一个星期五是一年中最在的购物日---是购买圣诞节礼物的第一天。