1. Location and Geographic features
The United States is located in the central part of North America, except Alastka and Hawaii. The country is bordered by Canada on the north, Mexico and the Gulf Of Mexico on the south, the Atlantic Ocean on the east and the Pacific Ocean on the west. It is the fourth largest country in the world in size after Russia, Canada and China. The country includes 50 states and a federal district of Columbia. Alaska borders northwest Canada, and Hawaii lies in the central Pacific Ocean. Alaska is the largest in area and Rhode Island ,the smallest of all 50 states.
The United States can be divided into three distinct areas according to their geographical features: the eastern part, the western part and the Great Plains in between. The eastern part consists of highlands formed by Appalachian Range, with the average altitude of only 800 meters above sea level. . It holds one sixth of the continental American territory. The western part consists of high plateaus and mountains, which extend from Canada through the western part of the United States to Mexico and further south. This part holds one third of the country‘s territory on the continent. The Rocky Mountains are a spectacular scene on the western plateaus and it stretches from the Canada border in Montana and Idaho, through Wyoming, Utah and Colorado, into New Mexico with average altitude of over 3,000 meters above the sea level. Connected by rivers and canals, the five Great Lakes are open to navigation by large steamers and are linked to many inland industrial areas. The famous Niagara Fall is located on the U.S-Canadian border between Lake Eric and Lake Ontario. The Mississippi River is the longest river in North America. and is known as ―the father of waters‖ by natives. New England is refers to the region of six states. They are Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Vermont in te northeastern corner of the country. The Europeans made their first settlements here , so it\\s famous for having a long history. It‘s also famous for having some of the top-ranking universities and colleges, including Harvard, Yale and Massachusetts Institute of Technology. 2. Major cities
2.1 New York is the commercial and financial center of the United States. It includes three islands: Manhattan Island，Long Island and State Island at the mouth of Hudson River.
2.2 Washington is in the Washington D.C. It belongs to no state, and is governed directly by the federal government. The district was named the District of Columbia after Christopher Columbus. , and the city was named after George Washington, the first President of the United States. Washington is the headquarters of all the branches of the American federal system.
2.3 San Francisco is a center of oil-refining, chemicals, commerce, finance, and the shipping industry. The Golden Gate Bridge is a spectacular scene for visitors. Chinatown in San Francisco is the largest Chinese settlement in the United States.
2.4. Los Angels is the second largest city in America after New York. It is an important electric center and is known for the manufacture of tires, automobiles and aircrafts and it is also the center of atomic research. Hollywood in Los Angels is regarded as the heart of world‘s motion picture industrial. The world famous Disneyland here attracts millions of tourists every year.
2.5 Chicago, ―the Windy City ‖is the nation‘s third largest city. It serves as the main connection between the eastern coast cities and the West. The city is now regarded as a center of industry, with both heavy and light industries highly developed here. It is also a cultural center, with world‘s beast modern architecture of 110-story Sears Tower and the Art Institute of Chicago. Exercise：
Tell whether the following are true or false:
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1) The climate in the United States can be classified as temperate, with some mild subtropical and tropical zones.(+)
2) New York is the commercial and financial center of the United States, and it is composed of five boroughs including Manhattan, Brooklyn, the Bronx, Staten Island and the Queens. (+)
3) San Francisco is the second largest city after New York and the world famous Hollywood and Disneyland are located here. (-)
4) Half of the U.S population lives in the western metropolitan centers. (-)
The Blacks brought from Africa to America usually worked on plantations or farms in the north. (-)
5) During the 1830s and 1840s, many northern Europeans and Irish immigrants came to America. (+)Almost half of the immigrants coming to the United States in 1980s were Asians. (+)
6) Basic American cultural values are freedom, quality and desire to work hard for a higher standard of living. (+).
Choose the best choice to fill in the blanks: 1) The United Stats has ____ states on the continent.
A. 50 B. 49 C 48 D 35 ? 2) The state of ____ is the largest in area of all the states.
A. Alaska B. Hawaii C. Texas D. Florida 3) The largest river in the U.S is _____b_.
A the Missouri River B. the Mississippi River C. the Ohio River D. the Colorado River 4) Some of the world famous universities like Harvard, Yale and MIT are located _c_
A . in the South B. along the Pacific Coast C. in the New England D . in the Midwest 5) The largest minority in the United States is the _____.
A. Pacific Islanders B . Blacks C. Native Americans D. Asians
Lecture Six People and History
Question for discussion: 1)What was the cause of the American Civil War?
2) What were Nixon‘s well-known contributions during hes presidency?
1. People
The United States is the third populous nation in the world, ranking after China and India. According to the U.S Census Bureau, American population reached to 300million.with 55 million immigrants migrating to this country in the last four centuries. So America is ― not merely a nation but a nation of nations.‖ The Western Movement meant the destruction of the Native Americans, with only 10 million Indians left, and one third of them living on reservations. The majority of American people are descendants of the Europeans immigrants, who made up of 85% of the entire population. A group of Pilgrim fathers came from England in a boat of Mayflower in 1620, thus starting their origin of life in this new country. After that, about 8 million African slaves were brought to work on plantations or large farms of south. Today about 12% of Americans is black.
In 1965, the Immigration and Nationality Act Amendment gave an equal chance to all foreigners seeking entry to the United States. In 1980s, almost half of all immigrants were Asians. Among them Chinese Americans prove to be industrious, intelligent and doing fine today. All in
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all, the United Sates is called a ―melting pot‖, where various racial and ethnic groups were combined into one culture. A large number of immigrants with significantly different characteristics tended to be viewed as a threat to basic American values and the American way of life. These new immigrants feel lost in strange surroundings, cluster in close-knit communities, soon many cities have ethnic neighborhoods such as ―Chinatown‖. For them, assimilation is hard. 2. History
2.1 first Americans were Indians, who ere descendants of the Mongoloid people in Asian. About 20000 years ago, they travelled to North American continent through Bering Land Bridge. In1492, financed by the Spanish King and Queen, Christopher Columbus discovered America. Following his steps, Amerigo Vespucci , also under the Spanish flag. discovered south America. This newly found continent was later named after him and known as America.
The first successful England colony in North America was founded at Jamestown, Virginia, in 1607. In 1620, a group of puritans sailed for Virginia on a ship called Mayflower to escape religious persecution from the rules of the Church of England. By 1773, English settlers had occupied 13 colonies along the Atlantic coast.
Soon afterwards, England and its colonies were in conflict. England imposed new taxes partly in order to defray the cost of the Seven Years‘ War with French settlers in North America, esp. in Canada.
2.2 Independence War. On April 19, 1775, 700 British soldiers were sent to Concord to search for weapons and ―Rebellious‖ colonies. the American War of Independence was thus fired. In May 1775, the Second Continental Congress was held in Philadelphia and began to assume the functions of a national government. It founded the Continental Army and Navy under the command of George Washington. Thomas Jefferson drafted the Declaration of Independence, which was adopted by the Congress. It explained the philosophy behind the war, that men have natural right to ―Right, Liberty and pursuit of Happiness‖. and that any government may be dissolved when it fails to protect the rights of the people. Finally, in 1781, the American, with the help of French Navy, the Americans won a decisive victory at Yorktown. The Americans made formal peach and in 1783, they signed the Treaty of Paris and the United States of America won its independence. 2.3 The Civil War
In the south the land was abundant and suitable for farming, and the planters had to manage their plantations using black African slaves, who were regarded as the property of the planters. However, tine the north, there was a growing demand for labor to work in factories. So they supported the abolition of slavery. In 2852, Uncle Tom‘s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe was published and it converted many readers to the abolitionist cause. What‘s more the northerners demanded a law protecting tariffs and asked the government to finance the building of railways and roads. However, the Southerners were against it and advocated free trade so that they could purchase cheaper goods from foreigner countries. By the time Abraham Lincoln was elected President, the southerners states almost immediately began to secede from the Federal Union, and 11 southern states proclaimed themselves as independent nation, called the Confederate States Of America. In 1861, Abraham Lincoln took presidential oath of office. His first priority was to keep the United States as one country, freedom for black people was his second objective. Accordingly, on January1, 1863, he issued the Emancipation Proclamation, which granted freedom to all slaves In, June, a the Union army defeated the Confederate army led by General Robert . E. Lee. A week
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later, he surrendered to General Grant of the Union Army.
3. America in modern times
3.1 World War I :At the star of the war, President Wilson issued his proclamation of neutrality on behalf of the peoples. Later, it played an important role in turning the tide of the war. In January 1918, Wilson proposed his Fourteen Points as the basis for the peace negotiation. Here he defined a new world order of justice, peace and property, promoting freedom of seas, removal of trade barriers, among others. However, his attempt to secure the world was in essence an effort to establish the US a domination in the world.
However, after WWI, American saw the Great Depression break out. By 1933, the value of the stocks on the New York Stock Exchange was less than one fifth of what it had been at its peak in 1929. Business closed, factories shut down, banks failed and farm income fell by some 50%. 3.2 Franklin D Roosevelt was elected presidentin1932. In order to deal with the economic depression, he brought forward more than 70 acts to Congress, which was claaed Roosevelt‘s ―New Deal‖. In 1940, Japan had openly announced its ―new order‖ in an attempt to extend its control to the Pacific. In September, Japan joined the Rome-Berlin Axis and completed the foundation of the fascist military bloc. Fearing their victory would threaten by this Axis, Americans began offer supplies to aid the Allies in their fight against fascism to protect their own security and interest. In December of 1941, Japanese air raid on Pearl Harbor became the direct cause for America‘s entrance into the war. in June 1944, American and British forces landed on the beaches of Normandy, opening the long-delayed western front to attack the German. In 1945, Germany surrendered. On August 6 and 9, American airplanes dropped two atomic bombs on Hiroshima(广岛) and Nagasaki（长崎）. On August 14, Japan surrendered and the WWII ended. in Aril 1945, at the end of the war, a conference was called in San Francisco. 48 countries attended the conference, the United Nations was established.
3.3 The cold war . President Truman declared the ―Truman Doctrine‖, aiming at expanding American sphere of influence and to establish the U.S. hegemony in the postwar period, which marked the beginning of the Cold War. The Cold War was the most important political and diplomatic issue. It grew out of the disagreement between the former Soviet Union and the United States. In April 1949, the U.S. allied with other Western countries, forming the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. The Korean War started in June 1950, and ended in 1953 when the ceasefire agreement was signed.
The Vietnam War(1950-1975) was started under Eisenhower and was continued by John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson. By 1968, 500,000 American troops were fighting in Vietnam yet more American people opposed the war. Many American young men burnt their draft cards and just refused to go to Vietnam. In 1968, Richard M Nixon was elected President. In 1973, he brought the Vietnam war to a close. The war greatly weakened America and sharpened the country‘s internal contradiction. In terms of diplomacy, Nixon achieved two other diplomatic breakthrough: reestablishing U.S. relation with China and negotiating the First Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty with former Soviet Union. In 1972, he easily won the reelection . During this presidential campaign, however, the Watergate Scandal was revealed. Nixon became the only U.S President to resign from the office.
In 1980, Ronald Reagan was elected President. At 69, Reagan was the oldest person ever to become President in American history. Soon after taking office, Reagan presented to Congress a
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four-part economic program in which he called for reducings in income taxes and business taxes in order to encourage investment and proposed deep cuts in federal spending in every area except defense. With his support of the federal Reserve‘s tight money policy（联邦储备的紧缩政策）, inflation was finally brought under control and by 1983, a recovery was under way. Reagan overwhelmed the Democratic Party and won the 1984 election. President Reagan enjoyed unusually high popularity at the end of his second term for its longest peacetime prosperity without a recession or depression.
In 1988, the Republic nomination went to Vice-President George H. W Bush. Bush faced his greatest test when Iraqi President Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait. Bush rallied the United Nations, the U.S. people and Congress, sending 425,000 American troops to free Kuwait. They were joined by 118,000 troops from allied nations. Despite unprecedented popularity from this military and diplomatic triumph, Bush was unable to withstand discontent at home from a faltering economy. In 1992, he lost his bid for reelection to Democratic Bill Clinton. At age of 46, Clinton became one of the youngest Presidents in American history. Measures for economy recovery were taken, and developments began to take shape during his first term. His second term saw a vigorous economic development.
One of the major foreign policy goals Clinton gained in his first administration was an November 1993. Congress approved the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). The agreement called for the elimination of most import taxes among the United States., Canada and Mexico. In 1998, American politics entered a period of turmoil with the revelation that Clinton had an affair inside the White House with a young intern—Monica Lewinsky.
In the Presidential election of 2000, George W. Bush , son of the former President Bush, became the 43rd President of the United States. The theme of Bush‘s inaugural address was national unity. On September 11, 2001, the United States suffered the most devastating foreign attack . Middle Eastern terrorists hijacked four passenger airplanes to destroyed the twin towers of the World Trade. A third crashed in the western Pennsylvania countryside as passengers fought the hijackers. The U.S. launched a military operation in October 2001, against the Taliban regime, As a result, the Taliban regime was removed from power.
Lecture Seven Political Institutions P 156 Question for discussion: 1）What are the characteristics of the U.S. Constitution? 2) How is a President voted into office in America?
What is the difference between the Democrats and the Republicans in terms of political opinions? 1.Politics The united States is one of the youngest nations in the world and yet its written constitution is the world‘s oldest one in force. As a big and diverse nation, stable political institutions are extremely important and political stability, in turn, depends upon the allegiance of the people to the basic principles of governmental framework.. To understand American political institutions, one has to, first of all, understand the U.S. Constitution, for it is on the basis of the U.S. Constitution that these political institutions have been established. Since the ratification of the Constitution in 1788, six related but distinct principles can be well located and clearly stated. 1) Federalism: a principle of compromise between unitary and confederate political organizations. Under this principle, there is a division of power between a central and regional government. 2) A
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