美国文化知识竞赛参考资料（1）
Part Ⅰ Decide whether the following statements are true(T) or false(F)：
1. Christopher Columbus discovered America in 1492. ______.
2. By the early 1760s, the 13 English colonies in North America were ready
to separate themselves form Europe. ______.
3. George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, and Abraham Lincoln were regarde
d as the founding fathers of the United States of America. ______
4. When the War of Independence was over, the United States was one unifie
d nation as it is today. ______.
5. The agreement that set this plan of cooperation among different states after
6. 7. 8. 9.
10.
11.
12.
13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21. 22. 23.
the War of American Independence was called the Constitution of the United States. ______.
The US Constitution set up a federal system with a strong central government. ______.
The main duty of the Congress is to make laws, including those which levy taxes that pay for the work of the federal government. ______.
Under a Constitutional Amendment passed in 1951, a president can be elected to only one term. ______.
The president has the authority to appoint federal judges, and all such court appointments are subject to confirmation by the House of Representatives. ______.
The 10 very short paragraphs which guarantee freedom and individual rights and forbid interference with lives of individuals by the government are called the Bill of Rights. ______.
The idea of checks and balances as a way of restricting governmental power and preventing its abuse was first provided in the Federalist Papers. ______.
Today, the United States has two major political parties. One is the Democratic Party, formed before 1800. The other is the Republican Party, formed in the 1850s, by people in the states of the North and West. ______. Americans have to join a political party in order to vote or to be a candidate for public office. ______.
Alexander Hamilton was the third president of the United States. ______. The first factory in the United States was a cotton textile mill. ______. Many people objected to the idea of the corporation because it is less personal than sole proprietorship and partnership. ______.
The United States’ economy suffered severely from the two World Wars in the 20th century. ______.
Many people believe that the economic freedom of capitalism is crucial to America’s economic success. ______.
When people buy stocks, they become part owner of the company. ______. The stockholders make profits even when the company loses money. ______.
One reason for America’s affluence is that a lot of people have inherited wealth from their parents. ______.
Strong domestic demand is one factor contributing to America’s affluence. ______.
Many American leaders have extolled the virtues of farmers. ______.
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24. Critics of the affirmative action programs are of the opinion that this resul
ts in reverse discrimination. ______.
25. The Servicemen’s Readjustment Act, or GI Bill of Rights, gave veterans pr
iority in finding better jobs. ______.
26. American university students have always liked to get degrees that are aim
ed at preparing them specifically for certain professions. ______.
27. One of the things that decides whether all applicant can be accepted by a
college is his／her scores on the Scholastic Aptitude Tests. ______.
28. Larger universities are always better, and more desirable universities are al
ways more expensive. ______.
29. It takes at least fours years to get a bachelor’s degree from an institution
of higher learning in the US. ______.
30. Segregating blacks into separate schools was unconstitutional after the decis
ion of the Supreme Court in 1954. ______.
31. Harvard College was originally founded to train government officials. ____
__.
32. American foreign policy has been swinging between isolationism and interv
entionism since World War II. ______.
33. The Clinton Administration made international peace, economic prosperity a
34.
35. 36. 37.
38.
39. 40.
41. 42. 43. 44. 45. 46. 47. 48.
nd promotion of democracy --the three pillars of American foreign policy. ______.
The founding of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization(NATO)in 1949 and the Warsaw Pact in 1955 split the world into two military blocs. And the Cold War began. ______.
The United States had its first test of the hydrogen bomb in 1953 after the Soviet Union had its such test in 1952. ______.
Sputniks are man-made satellites made by the Soviet Union. ______.
When Ronald Reagan became president in 1982, he wanted to beat the Soviet Union in the space technology race and so he initiated the Star Wars project. ______.
In 1948 President Truman put forward the Truman Doctrine, which is generally regarded as the formal declaration of the implementation of the US containment foreign policy. ______.
After the Korean War, the United States made necessary adjustments and adopted a strategy of contraction. ______.
At the end of the Second World War, a concrete wall, separating East and West Berlin, was built which became the symbol of the Cold War. ______.
Super Bowl will decide the champion baseball team of the year in the United States. ______.
Spectators of American professional sports competitions are interested in eating and entertainment as much as in the game itself. ______.
Viewers go to stadiums to watch the matches because they can have a clearer view of what is happening. ______.
A football team scores 3 points for a touchdown. ______.
The most exciting moment in baseball game is a homerun. ______.
John Steinbeck’s stories were set in the New England area of the United States. ______.
Stanford University is located in the state of Massachusetts. ______.
Yellowstone National Park is the oldest national park in the United States.
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______.
49. The Grand Canyon National Park was established by President “Teddy” Ro
osevelt. ______.
50. In South Dakota, is the unusual artistic project at Mt. Rushmore, where en
ormous portraits of four US Presidents: George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, and F. D. Roosevelt, are sculpted on the mountain. ______.
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