Guess the meaning of the following words.
Congress; Senate; impeachment; veto; administer; interpret; two-party system; Democratic Party; Republican Party; political culture; conservative; liberal; academic program; popular culture; African-American music; folk; blues; popular genres; jazz; baseball; national sport; volleyball; skateboarding; snowboarding; cheerleading; surfing; medal
13. Readand translate the following text.
Part 2. The USA.Government and Social life
1. The United States is the world's oldest surviving federation. It is a federal union of fifty states. The states do not have the right to secede from the union. The federal government is composed of three branches.
Legislative: The bicameral Congress, made up of the Senate and the House of Representatives, makes federal law, declares war, approves treaties, has the power of the purse, and has the power of impeachment, by which it can remove sitting members of the government.
Executive: The president is the commander-in-chief of the military, can veto legislative bills before they become law, and appoints the members of the Cabinet (subject to Senate approval) and other officers, who administer and enforce federal laws and policies. The president serves a four-year term and may be elected to the office no more than twice. Home and workplace of the U.S. president is the White House. The winner of the 2008 presidential election, Democrat Barack Obama, is the 44th U.S. president.
Judicial: The Supreme Court and lower federal courts, whose judges are appointed by the president with Senate approval, interpret laws and overturn those they find unconstitutional.
2. The United States has operated under a two-party system for most of its history. Since the general election of 1856, the major parties have been the Democratic Party, founded in 1824, and the Republican Party, founded in 1854. Within American political culture, the Republican Party is considered center-right, or conservative, and the Democratic Party is considered center-left, or liberal.
3. English is the de facto national language although there is no official language at the federal level. Spanish, spoken by 12% of the population at home, is the second most common and the most widely taught second language.
4. The United States has many competitive private and public institutions of higher education. According to prominent international rankings, 13 or 15 American colleges and universities are ranked among the top 20 in the world (according to world university ranking in 2011 Harvard University is #2, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is #3, Yale University is #4, etc.). There are also local community colleges with generally more open admission policies, shorter academic programs, and lower tuition. Of Americans twenty-five and older, 84.6% graduated from high school, 52.6% attended some college, 27.2% earned a bachelor's degree, and 9.6% earned graduate degrees. The basic literacy rate is approximately 99%.
5. American popular culture goes out to many places in the world. It has a large influence on most of the world, especially the Western world. American music is heard all over the world, and American movies and television shows can be seen in most countries.
American music is deeply influenced by African-American music, making it different from European music. Elements from folk such as the blues were changed into popular genres with big audiences. Jazz was invented by people like Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington in the early 20th century. Country music started in the 1920s, and rhythm and blues in the 1940s.
6. Baseball has been regarded as the national sport since the late 19th century, while American football is now the most popular spectator sport. Basketball, volleyball, skateboarding, snowboarding, and cheerleading are American inventions. Lacrosse and surfing arose from Native American and Native Hawaiian activities that predate Western contact. Eight Olympic Games have taken place in the United States. The United States has won 2,301 medals at the Summer Olympic Games, more than any other country, and 253 in the Winter Olympic Games, the second most.
7. The United States exercises global economic, political, and military influence. It is a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council and New York City hosts the United Nations Headquarters.