VI Find the correct words for the crossword
Across:
1. Since this man, Obama became the first Democratic president.
2. Position, that Obama took In January 2003.
3. Obama defeat this man in the election to the Illinois Senate in 1998.)
4. He is the first ... American to hold the office.
5. Obama was elected to the Senate of this state in 1996.
- Obama is a graduate of ... University.
Down:
1. Obama was made a rising star of this party In the March 2004 primary election.
2. Barack’s Obama was from this country.
3. Obama was an early opponent of his administration's 2003 invasion of Iraq.
4. Obama’s religious views.
5. Barack Obama was born in this city.
6. The 44th and current President of the United States.
VII Speak about Barack Obama’s political activity.
The USA today
The USA is the world's foremost economic and military power, with global interests and an unmatched global reach. America's gross domestic product accounts for close to a quarter of the world total, and its military budget is reckoned to be almost as much as the rest of the world's defense spending put together.
The society or culture of the United States is a Western culture, and has been developing since long before the United States became a country with its own unique social and cultural characteristics such as dialect, music, arts, social habits, cuisine, folklore, etc. Today the United States of America is an ethnically and racially diverse country as result of large-scale immigration from many different countries throughout its history.
The United States has often been thought of as a melting pot, but recent developments tend towards cultural diversity, pluralism and the image of a salad bowl rather than a melting pot. The cultural affiliations an individual in the United States may have commonly depend on social class, political orientation and a multitude of demographic characteristics such as religious background, occupation and ethnic group membership. Though most Americans today identify themselves as middle class, American society and its culture are considerably more fragmented.
Social class, generally described as a combination of educational attainment, income and occupational prestige, is one of the greatest cultural influences in America. Nearly all cultural aspects of mundane interactions and consumer behavior in the US are guided by a person's location within the country's social structure. In the United States occupation is one of the prime factors of social class and is closely linked to an individual’s identity. The average work week in the US for those employed full-time was 42.9 hours long with 30% of the population working more than 40 hours a week. Overall Americans worked more than their counterparts in other developed post-industrial nations. While the average worker in Denmark enjoyed 30 days of vacation annually, the average American only had 16 annual vacation days. Americans generally hold working and being productive in high regard; being busy as and working extensively may also serve as the means to obtain esteem.
As the United States is a diverse nation, it is home to numerous organization and social groups and individuals may derive their group affiliated identity from a variety of sources. Many Americans, especially white-collar professionals belong to professional organizations such as the APA, ASA or ATFLC, although books like Bowling Alone indicate that Americans affiliate with these sorts of groups less often than they did in the 1950s and 1960s.
Today, Americans derive a great deal of their identity through their work and professional affiliation, especially among individuals higher on the economic ladder. Recently professional identification has led to many clerical and low-level employees giving their occupations new, more respectable titles, such as "Sanitation service engineer" instead of "Janitor".
Additionally many Americans belong to non-profit organizations and religious establishments and may volunteer their services to such organizations. The Rotary Club, the Knights of Columbus are examples of such non-profit and mostly volunteer run organizations.
Ethnicity plays another important role in providing some Americans with group identity, especially among those who recently immigrated. Many American cities are home to ethnic enclaves such as a Chinatown and Little Italies remain in some cities. Local patriotism may be also providing group identity. For example, a person may be particularly proud to be from California or New York City, and may display clothing from local sports team.
Political lobbies such as the AARP not only provide individuals with a sentiment of intra-group allegiance but also increase their political representation in the nation's political system. Combined, profession, ethnicity, religious, and other group affiliations have provided Americans with a multitude of options from which to derive their group based identity.
American culture is considered the most individualistic in the world. Americans are often fascinated by new technology and new gadgets. There are many within the United States that share the attitude that through technology, many of the evils in the society can be solved. Many of the new technological innovations in the modern world were either first invented in the United States or first widely adopted by Americans. Examples include: the light bulb, the airplane, the transistor, nuclear power, the personal computer, video games and online shopping, as well as the development of the Internet. By comparison with Japan, however, only a small fraction of electronic devices make it to sale in the US, and household items such as toilets are rarely festooned with remotes and electronic buttons as they are in some parts of Asia.
Automobiles play a great role in American culture, whether it is in the mundane lives of private individuals or in the areas of arts and entertainment. The rise of suburbs and the need for workers to commute to cities brought about the popularization of automobiles. In 2001, 90% of Americans drove to work in cars. Lower energy and land costs favor the production of relatively large, powerful cars. The culture in the 1950s and 1960s often catered to the automobile with motels and drive-in restaurants. Americans tend to view obtaining a driver's license as a rite of passage. Outside of a relative few urban areas, it is considered a necessity for most Americans to own and drive cars. New York City is the only locality in the United States where more than half of all households do not own a car.
The US has the most highly-developed mass media in the world. Its dramas, comedies, soap operas, animations, music videos and films have a global audience and are part of the staple fare of broadcasters worldwide. TV is America's most popular medium. ABC, CBS and NBC ruled the roost for decades until the mass take-up of cable and satellite and the arrival of the Fox network. Fox News is the dominant US cable news network. Mainstream TV is slick, fast-moving and awash with advertising. Ratings and advertising revenues spell life or death for individual shows. The switchover to digital took place in June 2009. There are around 10,000 commercial radio stations. In cities, there are services to satisfy almost every taste. News, sports and talk stations predominate on medium wave (AM), with music on FM. Subscription satellite radio offers hundreds of channels and has attracted millions of customers. Freedom of expression is guaranteed by the constitution, and some broadcast outlets give airtime to extreme hues of political - often right-wing - and religious thinking. The US is the home of the internet. Some 270 million Americans are online (InternetWorldStats.com, March 2011), comprising more than 78 per cent of the population. Seventy-four per cent of Americans use social networks and blogs, and 62 per cent are active on Facebook.
Hollywood is an American tradition. From the era of classic silent films, to the action packed CGI thrillers of the 21st century, movies have always captured Americans’ hearts. During times of war, social unrest, or economic upheaval, movies have helped people make it through. They can provide necessary social commentary, the ability to laugh, cry, and sometimes just forget. Alfred Hitchcock even once said: “The only way to get rid of my fears is to make films about them.”
By the early 1920`s, Hollywood was already becoming world famous, producing movies that are now considered classic films. Soon after, Hollywood began to be known as the home of famous actors, and the center for the film industry. It has carried that stigma through the years. Even today, Hollywood is still world-renowned for its celebrities, and glitzy inhabitants. People line up in droves outside movie theatres to catch the latest Hollywood Blockbuster, hoping it becomes the newest classic film. Every year thousands of people move there hoping to make it big and realize their greatest dreams. Since the beginning of the film industry people everywhere have fallen in love with classic movies, teaching us how to live and love. Film has become an American art form, with Hollywood at its epic center. The aura surrounding Hollywood and the film industry continues to grow in lore every year. As long as Hollywood produces classic films, people will still watch and love them.
The movie industry is as American, as apple pie, baseball, and democracy.
Americans love sports of all kinds. Many people play sports in their free time, and many go to games or watch them on TV. Since the late nineteenth century, baseball is regarded as the national sport. The first American baseball match was in 1839 in New York. To play baseball you need two teams of nine players. Americans start playing baseball young. There are «leagues» which children of eight can join. The top players become big stars and earn a lot of money every year. Football, basketball, and ice hockey are the country's three other leading professional team sports. College football and basketball also attract large audiences. Football is now by several measures the most popular spectator sport in the United States. Like international football teams, American teams have eleven players. The field looks different and even the ball is a different shape. American football is very different game.
Boxing and horse racing were once the most watched individual sports, but they have been eclipsed by golf and auto racing, particularly NASCAR. Soccer, though not a leading professional sport in the country, is played widely at the youth and amateur levels. Tennis and many outdoor sports are also popular.
Music is the heartbeat of American social and cultural identity. The music industry of the United States consists of a number of entities. There are major record companies, who are collectively represented by the Recording Industry Association of America, (RIAA), radio stations, and even community orchestras and local bands. The music industry generates about 40 billion dollars annually, 12 billion of which come from America.
Radio stations take charge of broadcasting popular music. Each station has a category of songs to be played, also known as a format, which is often different from the standard genre classifications. Many stations are locally owned and operated, and offer a wide assortment of music on their playlists, while others, operated by a larger corporate entity, stick to a small, repetitive playlist. Commercial music sales are tracked by Billboard Magazine-who compiles lists of sales for various fields of music.
The Grammy Awards, formally known as the Gramophone Awards, are held annually usually sometime in February. The Grammys are considered as an equivalent to an Oscar in the Film industry. There are currently 108 categories, and 30 musical genres which are voted on by members of the Recording Academy as opposed to votes based on popularity with some other award shows. An album must be released by November 1st in order to be considered for that year's award ceremony. The ceremony has been aired on CBS since 1973; however, ABC aired the show for its first two years. Many bands have received multiple Grammys, such as U2 with 22, and the Beatles with 13. There are still several bands, such as Motley Crue, and Guns 'N Roses, and Queen that have yet to receive a Grammy.
The American Music Awards (AMA's) launched in 1973, created by Dick Clark, for ABC to provide some competition for CBS and the Grammys. The AMA's are based on a poll of music buyers. The awards do not currently have a Best Album/Single category. A Favorite Artist of the Year award was instituted in 1996, and given to Garth Brooks. Brooks in turn, made a short speech simply stating he did not deserve the award, and the award was discontinued. From its debut until 2003, the AMA's have been held in mid-late January, but were moved to November to slow competition with other major awards shows.
The music industry also includes many people who are professional musicians, which do not actually record their music, like night club DJ's, wedding and lounge singers, and orchestras. The American Federation of Musicians-founded in 1896, is the country's largest labor union for professional musicians, though only 15% of the membership roster holds steady music employment.
The impact of music on society has leaded to music becoming an integral part of the nation's education system, being taught in most of the schools all around the country. Music classes are often times mandatory at the elementary school level and elective courses in the later years. High schools offer choral courses, as well as band for learning about instrumentation. Other programs, such as the drama program, and the sports program, often incorporate music in their plays, and in games, with the marching band at football games, for instance. Music is offered as a field of study at many of America's universities.
America still remains the dream, today. Asians from the Pacific Rim and Hispanics from the southern Americas are among those seeking what their predecessors wanted - the promise of prosperity and freedom which remains one of the defining hallmarks of "the American dream".
I. Answer the following questions:
1.Why is the USA the world's foremost economic and military power?
2.Why is the United States of America an ethnically and racially diverse country today?
3.Why is the USA compared to a salad bowl rather than a melting pot today?
4.How is social class generally described in the USA?
5.What kinds of organizations and social groups are there in the USA?by?
6.Which innovations in the modern world were either first invented in the United States or first widely adopted by Americans?
7.What brought about the popularization of automobiles in America?
8.What is the only locality in the United States where more than half of all households do not own a car?
9.How can you prove that the US has the most highly-developed mass media in the world?
10.How many commercial radio stations are there in America?
11.What per cent of the American population are online?
12.Why is Hollywood so famous?
13.What did Alfred Hitchcock once say about films?
14.What four items are considered to be “the most American” ones?
15.What kind of sports was regarded as the national one since the late 19th century?
16.Where and when did the first match take place?
17.What are the other three leading professional team sports?
18.How many billions does American music industry make in a year?
19.When is the Gramophone Awards or Grammy usually held?
20.Why and when was the American Music Awards (AMA's) launched?
21.Does America still remain the dream? Why?
I. Complete the following sentences:
1. America's gross domestic product accounts……….
2. Today the United States of America is an ethnically and racially diverse country as result… (Overall Americans worked ……
3. While the average worker in Denmark……
4. Many American cities ……
5. American culture ………
6. Automobiles play……
7. The switchover to digital…….
8. By the early 1920`s, Hollywood …….
9. Boxing and horse racing ………
10. The Grammys are considered………
III. State whether the following statements are true or false. Correct the false ones.
1. The USA is the world's foremost economic and military power, without global interests.
2. America is an ethnically and racially diverse country as result of large-scale immigration from many different countries.
3. American society and its culture are perfect.
4. The average work week in the US for those employed full-time was 42.9 hours long with 30% of the population working more than 40 hours a week.
5. Automobiles play a great role in American culture, whether it is in the mundane lives of private individuals or in the areas of arts and entertainment.
6. New York City is the only locality in the United States where even everybody has his own car.
7. Movies don’t let people to live their full life.
8. Hollywood is still world-renowned for its celebrities, and glitzy inhabitants.
9. Music is offered as a field of study at many of America's universities.
10. America isn’t a country, where the dreams can become true.