Презентація для учнів старших класів на тему "Подорож англомовними країнами.США"

United States of America

The United States is a country of central and northwest North America with coastlines on the Atlantic Ocean in the east and the Pacific Ocean in the west. It borders on Canada in the north; on Mexico in the south. In the south, the USA is washed by the Gulf of Mexico. It includes the non-contiguous states of Alaska and Hawaii and various island territories in the Caribbean Sea and Pacific Ocean. The USA occupies an area of 3,787,318 sq.km

The country may be divided into the following 5 main geographical divisions: 1. The Atlantic and Gulf Coastal Plain is low and generally flat near the shore. It rises gradually and becomes rolling as it reaches inland. Here the rivers drop from the older, harder, and higher rocks of the interior uplands to the softer and lower rocks of the plain. They create a series of falls and rapids. 2. The Appalachian Highland is made up of four belts which run from New England to Alabama.

3. The Interior Plain is the chief agricultural section which has a generally fertile soil, except in the highland areas. 4. The Cordilleran, or Western, Highland includes three separate subdivisions: The Rocky Mountains; The Cordilleran Highland, which is made up of high Colorado plateaus and the Grand Canyon; and The Sierra Nevada- Cascade range. 5. The Pacific Slope includes the Pacific valleys and the Coast Ranges.

Alaska is by far the largest state in the USA. It has almost all the volcanoes, as well as the 16 highest peaks in the country. The Alaskan wilderness attracts many tourists who love the outdoors. Huge forests cover about a third of the state. The southern coast is cut by hundred s of small bays. Wild animals include polar and grizzly bears, deer and mountain goats. The waters off Alaska’s shores are rich in salmon, halibut, and crab. The climate and soil allow farmers to grow barley, potatoes, and other hardy crops. Crops grow rapidly because the summer sun shines 20 hours a day. At Point Barrow in the Arctic, from May 10 to August 2, the sun never sets.

The USA has many thousands of streams. Some of these are mighty rivers which cross the state. Others are tiny streamlets. The Mississippi is one of the world’s great continental drainage rivers. Its waters are gathered from two-thirds of the United States, and together with its principal tributary, the Missouri, it flows almost 4000 miles. Two of the Mississippi’s branches, the Ohio River and the Missouri River, also rank among the most important rivers of the world.

The USA has thousands of lakes of all kinds and sizes. The Great Lakes make up the largest group of lakes in the country. Only Lake Michigan lies entirely inside the USA. Superior, Huron, Erie, and Ontario form a border between north-eastern United States and Canada. Another region of many lakes lies along the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic shore. The third group lies west of the Rocky Mountains. Some of these salty lakes are the great Salt Lake, in Utah, and the Salton Sea. Great bays cut deeply into parts of the U.S. coast line: Boston Bay, Cape God Bay, Long Island Sound, New York Bay, Chesapeake Bay, Albemarle Sound, and Pamlico Sound.

U.S. has many kinds of climates. The weather ranges from the warm, wet conditions of the Appalachian Highland to the desert conditions of some of the western states. It varies from almost winterless climates in southern Arizona and southern Florida to long, very cold winters in the Dakotas and Montana. The country’s rainfall also varies greatly from place to place. The north-western coast and the Gulf Coast receive large amounts of rain and have a humid climate. Most of the area between the Sierra Nevada and the southern coast of California on the west receives less than 20 inches of rainfall annually.

The U.S. has large reserves of all the more widely used minerals except tin. These minerals include coal, petroleum, nuclear fuels, natural gas, iron, copper, bauxite, lead, zinc, stone, and many others. The country produces enough of some minerals to supply all its needs and to ship to other countries as well. Tin, nickel, manganese, chrome, cobalt, industrial diamonds mica and asbestos are imported to the USA.

The USA has a highly developed motor-car industry which is concentrated in and around Detroit. Electric and electronic engineering, transport, communication, ship-building, textile industries are very powerful. Ship-building is developed along the Atlantic coast and in San Francisco. The textile industry is to be found in the north-east and in the south of the country. There are coal-mines in the Cordillera Mountains and the Kansas City region. Iron is mined near the Great Lakes. The rich oil fields are in California, Texas and some other regions.

The population is over 226 million. The U.S. was settled, built, and developed by generation of immigrants and their children. “Europe, and not England, is the parent country of America”. These words describe the settlers who came not only from Great Britain but from Spain, Portugal, France, Holland, Germany and Sweden; 2 million Jews moved here over the next 45 years. Today, African Americans constitute over 12% of the total U.S. population. The USA has welcomed more than 50 million immigrants at all.

Washington, D.C., is the capital of the USA and it serves as a headquarters of the federal government. Every year, millions of people visit Washington to see such important government buildings as the United States Capitol, White House, the Washington Monument, Lincoln Memorial, and other famous structures dedicated to American heroes of the past. Not far from the Capitol is the library of Congress, the largest library, which contains more than 13 million books, more than 19 million manuscripts, including the personal papers of the US presidents. Washington has large residential areas, including wealthy, middle-class, and poor sections. It has no large industrial areas. Washington was designed before it was built. President George Washington chose the city’s site in 1791 and hired Pierre Charles L’Enfant a French engineer, to draw up plans for the city. They named the city in honor of George Washington. The D.C. in the city’s name stands for District of Columbia.

More than 265 million people live in the USA and speak English. The USA has never had an official language, but English has always been the chief language spoken in the country. The immigrants generally spoke both English and their ethnic language. Spanish is the second most common language in the USA. The South-western United States was colonized by Spain in 1500s.Other languages spoken Include Chinese, Polish, Korean, Vietnamese, Portuguese, Japanese, Greek, Arabic, Russian, Ukrainian, French.

In USA education is offered at all levels from kindergarten to graduate school by both public and private institutions. Elementary and secondary education involves 12 years of schooling, which leads to a high school diploma. Education is free and compulsory in all states, however, from the age of 6 till 16 or 18.A elementary school the emphasis is placed on the basic skills (speaking, reading, writing and arithmetic).In the 9th grade they move on to high school of 2 types: with more curriculum, preparing students for admission to college or the other, offering primarily vocational education (training in a skill or trade). There are about 3000 colleges and universities,both private and public, they are all independent. During the first 2 years theyusually follow general courses in the arts or sciences and then choose a major.

The USA is a federal republic with a strong democratic tradition. The national government is divided into three branches: the legislative (the Congress, which consists of the House of Representatives and the Senate), the executive (headed by the President), and the judicial (the federal courts).The President is the highest official, vested with supreme executive authority. He is elected to a 4-year term and may be elected to only 2 successive terms. The President is commander-in-chief of the armed forces. The highest court is the Supreme Court.

The Great Seal of the U.S. is an American bald eagle. The American flag (The Stars and Stripes), which is red, white and blue, has stars and stripes. Each star represents a state. The 13 stripes symbolize the 13 original states. The flying of the American flag is widespread on the 4thof July (Independence Day), Memorial Day and other holidays. The National Anthem is “The Star-Spangled Banner”. The author of the American National Anthem was Francis Key, an American lawyer and poet.

The first American President was George Washington. He was elected in 1789 and served office for 8 years. He was a veteran of the French and Indian wars and a fierce fighter for America’s freedom. The British Government recognized the independence of USA. Since that time the13 American colonies have become free and independent states. Abraham Lincoln was one of the most respected of America’s Presidents. He served from1861 to 1865. His two priorities were o keep the United States one country and to put the end to slavery. He earned the respect of many people during the Civil War which broke out in 1861. In 1863 he issued the Emancipation Proclamation which granted freedom to all slaves. He was shot by the actor John Wilkes Booth.

Theodore Roosevelt was the youngest man ever to become President of the USA. He took office at the age of 42 and had been Vice President for only 6 months. Roosevelt became a national hero during the Spanish-American War in 1898. He fought for reforms that would benefit the American people. He tried to limit the power of great corporations. Roosevelt received the Nobel Peace Prize. Thomas Jefferson is the best remembered as the author of the Declaration of Independence. He designed the Virginia Capitol, the University of Virginia, and his own home, Monticello. His collection of more than 6400 books became a major part of the Library of Congress. Jefferson revised Virginia’s laws and founded its state university. He loved liberty in every form, and he worked for freedom of speech, press, religion, and other civil liberties. He strongly supported the addition of the bill of rights to the Constitution of the USA.

Charlie Chaplin was a creator of comedy. He has broken all records I making people laugh. No one was to set a whole world laughing as the little man with the bowler hat, the cane and overlarge shoes. Chaplin’s unhappy childhood in London slums influenced his development and the type of films he made. Chaplin himself emphasizes it in his memories. For Chaplin, his suffering youth gave him a world that he could transform with his imagination onto the movie screen. Thomas Edison was an American inventor of the phonograph and the electric lamp. Thomas Edison’s mother encouraged his interest in science. By the time he was 10 he had made his own laboratory. Edison set up his own company. One of his most important inventions was the world’s first machine for recording sounds, the phonograph. He invented the electric lamp. This discovery led to the invention of electronic valves and was the beginning of our modern electronics industry.

Henry Ford was an American manufacturer of early cars.At15 he became a learner in a machine shop, and in 1893 he built his first car, sold it and built two bigger ones. In 1903, he started the Ford Motor Company. He was selling a hundred cars a day. By1927, 15 million Model Ts had been made, and the Ford Motor Company was worth 700 million dollars. Bill Gates is an American founder of Microsoft and major figure in the computer world. He began writing computer programs at 13. While he was in Harvard University he developed BASIC, a simple and easy-to-use computer programming language. In 1975, Gates and his school friend Paul Allen founded the company Microsoft. By 1993 it has become the world’s largest computer-industry company, and Gates was very rich.

The major holidays in America are New Year’s Day on January 1, Easter in spring, Memorial Day on the 31st of May, Independence Day on the 4th of July, Labour Day on the 1st Monday of September, Halloween on October 31, Thanksgiving Day on the last Thursday in November, and Christmas on December 25. Because families more and more consist of intermarried faiths, some celebrate the holidays of more than one religion. American family traditions are often most evident on the big holidays, visiting parents and grandparents, having large meals in the mid-afternoon. Thanksgiving Day is celebrated only in the USA on the last Thursday in November. Turkey dinners with pumpkin pie are typical for Thanksgiving and sometimes for Christmas, when goose beef and ham, and all kinds of ethnic variations and additions are possible. Christmas is a most important religious Holy day for Christians who attend special church services to celebrate the birth of Jesus of Nazareth. Gifts are given to children, people also bake cookies or make candies for friends and neighbors. Most Americans send greeting cards and decorate a Christmas tree.

The 4th of July is the American nation’s birthday, it honors the day in 1776 when the declaration of Independence was adopted. Each city organizes its own ceremony—a parade, speech by public officials, outdoor stage shows, boat-races, evening fireworks displays. There are also baseball games, water-melon eating contests, folk dancing and lots of lively music. Memorial Day is observed on May 30th. It is also a day for honoring the memory of the armed forces killed in war. Memorial services or special programs in churches, schools or other public meeting places are held. Halloween is an occasion for children to get dressed up as witches, goblins, and ghosts and go “trick or treating”. People give the children candies. Candy also plays a large role in traditional Easter egg hunts, when children hunt after coloured eggs, chocolate bunny rabbits, and other candies their parents have hidden in the house and/or the yard. American families also have many everyday traditions, which are connected with mealtimes and bedtime. At meals some families say grace (a blessing) before a meal.

There is no typical American food, because Americans are of many nations and brought different cooking traditions. Many Americans try to keep their national meals at least in holidays. Hamburger, pancakes with maple syrup, pumpkin pie, hot dogs are American. They eat a lot of red meat, fish and poultry, potatoes and corn. Chinese restaurants are very popular because dishes are very tasty and unusual. Americans don’t like to spend time on cooking at home so they like snacks and “fast foods” very much. There is a “salad bar” in a fast food restaurant. It consists of many bowls filled with different salads, cut vegetables and fruits and sauce. You may put as much salad onto your plate as you like. If you don’t eat all your food, you may ask for a “doggie bag ”. The waiter will put your uneaten food in a paper or plastic bag and you can take it home. You shouldn’t do it at an expensive first class restaurant. Many restaurants post menus in the window, so you can see the prices before you enter.

The most popular kinds of professional sports are American football, baseball, basketball, boxing, rugby, hockey, horse and automobile racing. American football is quite unlike as in other countries. The players are dressed in plastic armour: helmets, face masks, bulky shoulder-and hip-padding, because the game is rough. Baseball is played throughout the spring and summer. Not only boys, high school and college teams play baseball, but it is played by grown men as amateurs and by professionals. Many Americans prefer it to football because it’s an indoor game and faster than football. In addition to road racing by sport cars, there is a good deal of car racing on oval tracks by a variety of vehicles. The most famous is the annual 500-mile race round the speedway at Indianapolis, Indiana.

The leader is a most important factor in the singing of spirituals. He sets the pitch and tempo, and often sings the verses. He sometimes must sing his refrain through several times before the group will join him. Many churches have spirituals which are led exclusively by special singers. Blues. The blues are the manifestation of Afro-American folk music in solo singing. Three-line stanza, consisting of statement, repetition, and “response”, is the classic verse form of the blues. Jazz. Louis Armstrong was one of the most famous and bestloved jazz musicians of all the time. He did a great deal to popularize this type of music, which was created by black Americans from African drumbeats, work songs, blues, spirituals, and especially the lively marchingband tunes so popular right after the Civil War. Spirituals. The largest number of Negro folk-songs collected thus far are spirituals.

After World War II American homes were invaded by a powerful new force: television. It focused on popular entertainment to provide large audiences to advertisers. TV production rapidly become concentrated in three major networks—CBS, NBS, ABC (the American Broadcasting Company). By the early 1800s, the USA had entered a period of swift technological progress that would mark the real beginning of “modern media”. The New York Times is the only one of many daily newspapers that have become significant shapers of public opinion. Among the most prominent are the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, the Boston Globe, the Christian Science Mirror. But the largest readerships were won by the magazines that catered for Americans’ increasing leisure time and appetite for consumer goods, such as Cosmopolitan, the Ladies Home Journal and the Saturday Evening Post.

Most Americans have a great deal of leisure time, and they spend it in a variety of ways. They enjoy trips to museums, beaches, parks, play-grounds, and zoos. They take weekend and vacation trips, eat at restaurants, go on picnics, and entertain friends at home. These and other activities contribute to the richness and diversity of American life. Sports rank as a leading American pastime. They enjoy watching such sports events as automobile races, baseball, basketball, and football games; participating in such sports as bicycle riding, boating, bowling, fishing, golf, hiking, hunting, running, skiing, softball, swimming, and tennis.

Motion pictures, plays, concerts, operas, and dance performances attract large audiences in the USA. Hobbies occupy much of the leisure time of many Americans. Large numbers of people enjoy raising flower or vegetable gardens or indoor plants. Other popular hobbies include stamp and coin collecting and photography. Since the mid-1900s, interest in such crafts hobbies as needlepoint, quilting, weaving, pottery making, and woodworking has increased sharply. Most Americans spent much time travelling, taking annual vacations, as well as occasional one-day excursions or weekend trips. Some people have vacation homes near lakes or seashores, in the mountains, or in other recreation areas. Others own motor homes or trailers, which provide comfortable living and sleeping quarters during trips. Some people enjoy camping in tents. Others prefer to stay in hotels or motels.

Americans are characterized by a very practical sense and optimism. Their recipe is simple: You have no money? No job? Don’t wait! You must find some way to achieve success! Americans see their country as a vast continent of unlimited possibilities, the land where everyone has a chance to become perfect and successful. Success means money. Another American obsession is being fit and healthy. They put a lot of effort to prevent illnesses: regularly see specialists, take vitamins, practice sports, and keep to a healthy, low-fat diet.What about the American model of family? A typical family consists of parents and two children, who become independent very early and they move out and live on their own. Americans are open and friendly.

“Hollywood’’ is the name of a Los Angeles district, it is also stands for American cinematography. It’s a part of American entertainment industry. The greatest event is the annual presentation of Oscar. Awards are given to the best actors, to the best actress, for the best script, for music. Another tradition is the ceremony of leaving one’s footprints or handprints on the pavement in front of the Chinese Theatre. Walt Disney was an American artist and film producer, who famous for its animated cartoons: Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck. In the 1950s and 1960s, Walt Disney began developing the family entertainment parks, Disneyland and Disney World. The first Disneyland was opened in southern California in 1955. The park is divided into six themes and there is so much to see and do in each that no one would attempt to see all of them in one visit.

People in the USA love food from all over the world—Mexican, Chinese, Greek. But there are also two great all-American successes: the hamburger and Coca-Cola. In 1937, the McDonalds brothers open a little drive-in restaurant in Pasadena, California. They serve hot dogs and milk shakes. Poor families eat at the restaurant for the first time. In 1960s, the McDonalds company opens hundreds of McDonalds restaurants all over the States.10 years later they opened them in Japan, Germany, and Australia. This company opens a new restaurant every 8 hours. There are more than 14000 restaurants in over 70 countries. The largest restaurant is in Beijing in the People’s Republic of China and the smallest in Ginza, Tokyo. They serve almost exactly the same food in every country. But in Italy they serve beer, in Norway the McLak (salmon burger), and in the Netherlands the Groenteburger (vegetarian)!