英语概况课后习题答案
英语国家概况（1）（2）100问
1. "British history has been a history of invasion". Please illustrate this point with the examples from the text. How did each of the invasions influence English culture ?
2. What are some general characteristics of Scotland ?
3. Describe Wales' unification with Great Britain.
4. Are there any differences between England and Wales in terms of cultural tradition ?
5. Why is Northern Ireland, according to the author, so significant in the United Kingdom? What is the political problem there?
6. What are some of the factors in Irish and English history that affect the situation in Northern Ireland today?
7. Different parties and groups in the United Kingdom have different solutions to the political problem in Northern Ireland. Please sum up their different attitudes.
8. Has the author offered a solution to the political problem in Northern Ireland?
9. What is the oldest institution of government?
10. What is the name of the charter of liberty and political rights granted by King John in 1215?
11. Do you think Elizabethan Drama occupies a significant position in British literature? Who is the most important figure in Elizabethan Drama? What are some of his major works?
12. What do we call the group of important Parliamentarians?
13. Which party forms the government and who becomes Prime Minister?
14. What are some of the changes that have take place recently in the Chinese attitude towards sports? How do you account for these changes?
15. For how many years is a general election held once in the UK?
16. Who can stand for election as an MP?
17. What are the three major parties? Which party is the party that spent most time in power?
18. Which party does Tony Blair belong to?
19. When was the British economy dominant in the world?
20. By what time was the UK overtaken by other countries, such as the US and Germany?
21. Which country does it refer to as "the Jewel in the Crown"? When did it gain its independence?
22. What are some of the positive and negative effects of non-white immigrants on British society according to the author?
23. What is the general situation of racial relations in the UK?
24. Why is Geoffrey Chaucer, who wrote in Middle English, still read and studied today?
25. When was the term "parliament" first used officially?
26. The author says that "the media are central to British leisure culture", why does the author say so?
27. What are some of the characteristics of British newspaper culture? In what way is it different from the United States?
28. Is the British press free from the government control and censorship? What is the relationship between the British press and politics or business?
29. How does the BBC operate? How is it different from American broadcasting systems?
30. What are some of the features of Romantic Literature?
31. What is Modernism? Can you illustrate your points with specific b
ooks as examples?
32. What is Postmodernism? Can you illustrate your points with specific books as examples?
33. How has the Christian church influenced British sports? Please pick up some examples from the text.
34. What is the origin of football?
35. How is the violence of "football hooligans" related to the British history of football?
36. Why is cricket very English? Why does the author believe that cricket was associated with a set of English moral values?
37. Christmas is the biggest and best-loved British holiday? How do the British celebrate this holiday?
38. How do the British celebrate the Queen's Birthday? What is the origin of this holiday?
39. Bonfire Night is one truly English holiday. How and why do the English celebrate this holiday?
40. How do the Protestants and Catholics celebrate their own holidays in Northern Ireland? What traditions are behind their celebrations?
41. How is Hogmanay celebrated in Scotland? What other festivals are celebrated in Scotland?
42. Which are the two most important and famous universities in Britain?
43. What is the goal of education in the U.K.?
44. Is the British education system run by the state or the private sector?
45. Where do British universities receive their funds besides students tuition?
46. Why does the author say that "the way the living arrangements of a society as a whole are organized tells us something about that society"?
47. What are the four main types of home in Britain? How do they reflect the cost and status of homes? What are some of the major types of home in China?
48. How are people in the UK divided into different classes?
49. Is the class system similar with the United States?
50. What and how did the British empire end? How did the British react to this reality?
51. What are the foundations of Britain's foreign policy?
52. How is Britain's foreign policy made? Does the government's foreign policy represent the desires of British citizens?
53. Why does the author say that the decision to join the EC was and remains controversial in Britain?
54. Why does the author think that Britain has the "special relationship" with the United States? Does this relationship still exist?
55. What are some of the general characteristics of Australia in terms of land, people and culture?
56. Discuss the climate in Australia. What are some of the major differences between Australia and China in terms of the climate?
57. What are the six states of Australia? What are some of the major similarities or differences in terms of population, early settlement and economy in the six states?
58. Can you point out some main differences between the Australian government system and the British government system?
59. Discuss the Australian education system. What are some of the features in the system that are specifically Australian?
60. What are some of the distinct features of New Zealand's geography? Find ou
t similarities and differences in terms of geography between New Zealand and Australia.
61. What are some of the similarities between New Zealand and Britain in the government system?
62. How did modern development in Europe influence the settlement of North American colonies?
63. What was the unique American phenomenon ? How did it come into being? Do you think it still exists in today's American society?
64. In what way did Puritanism influence American culture?
65. What are the two political parties in the United States? Do you think they are fundamentally different?
66. What is the Bill of Rights? Do you think that it was necessary to write the Bill of Rights explicitly into the U.S. Constitution?
67. Why did the Articles of Confederation fail? Was it necessary to change the Articles of Confederation and write a new constitution for the new nation of the United States at the time?
68. What is a federal system? What are some of the major differences between a federal system and a confederation?
69. What are some of the major powers of each of the three branches of the U.S. government? How are the three branches supposed to check and balance each other?
70. It is known to all that buying and selling stocks is a risky business. Why do you think there are still so many people involved in it?
71. What promotes the diversity in American religion?
72. In what way do you think that religious freedom was a historical necessity in the United States?
73. What is the relationship between government and religion in America?
74. What are some of the features in religion that are particularly American? What are some of the major differences between American religion and religion in Europe?
75. What is the main theme in American literature according to the author? How does the author illustrate his point?
76. Why did Mark Twain win so many readers both at home and abroad?
77. What are the major characteristics of education in America?
78. What are some of the major themes in novels written by the "Lost Generation"?
79. What is the goal of education in the United States? Discuss the similarities and differences in Great Britain, the United States and China concerning the goals of education.
80. What does an American student learn?
81. What were the major social movements of the 1960s? And what was the historical background of the social movements of that decade?
82. The black political movement that began as a force for integration changed course in the mid-1960s and began to emphasize black uniqueness and even black separatism. What caused this transformation?
83. Draw analogies between the black revolution and the women's movement. What common assumptions do they share?
84. The author says that the United States was founded on the principle of human equality, but in practice the nation has fallen far short of that ideal. Illustrate this point with what you have learned from this book.
85. What does poverty mean in the United States ? Why is poverty a social problem in America?
86. Why does the author emphasize that the invention of one technology has to be supported by a number of related technologies which form a supporting system? Give examples.
87. When are the American football matches held?
88. Why did a musical form of black origin gain acceptance in all classes in America and spread throughout the country?
89. What are the contributions made by Louis Armstrong to the early jazz music?
90. Why Canada is regularly rated as having the best standard of living in the world?
91.What is the distinct feature in Canadian modern literature?
92. Discuss the similarities and differences in the government systems between the U.K. and Canada.
93. What are some of the characteristics of the Canadian party system?
94. What are some of the things that make Canada a unique and interesting country?
95. How do you understand "multiculturalism"?
96. Why do you think the author says that Canada has avoided the worst excesses of intolerance and prejudice?
97. What is the Canada's Place in the World Economy?
98. Do you think the Canadian government should subsidize the inefficient Canadian farmers or import foodstuff from neighbouring American states?
99. Why is the idea of survival thought of as the central symbol of Canadian literature? What does cultural survival mean in Canadian literature?
100. What are the major reasons for Canada's active role in international organizations? And how does Canada play its active role?
外国语学院：曾倩
英语国家概况（1）（2）问题库答案
1. British history has been a history of invasions. Before the first century AD Britain was made up of many tribal kingdoms of Celtic people: a powerful culture originating in central Europe. Then in 43AD Britain was invaded by the Roman empire, and England and Wales (though not Scotland or Ireland) became a part of the Roman empire for nearly 400 years.Two more groups of invaders were to come after the English: from the late 8th century on, raiders from Scandinavia, the ferocious Vikings, threatened Britain's shores….
2. Scotland is the second largest of the four nations, both in population and in geographical area. It is also the most confident of its own identity because alone amongst the non-English components of the UK it has previously spent a substantial period of history as a unified state independent of the UK. Thus it is not a big leap for the Scottish to imagine themselves independent again.
Physically, Scotland is the most rugged part of the UK, with areas of sparsely populated mountains and lakes in the north (The Highlands), and in the south (The Southern Uplands). Three-quarters of the population lives in the lowland zone which spans the country between these two highland areas. The largest city is Glasgow, in the west of this zone. Scotlan
d's capital city is Edinburgh, on the east coast forty miles away from Glasgow. It is renowned for its beauty, and dominated by its great castle on a high rock in the centre of the city. Both cities have ancient and internationally respected universities dating from the 15th century.
3. Wales was always under pressure from its English neighbours, particularly after the Norman conquest, when Norman barons set up castles and estates in Wales under the authority of the English Crown. Some brief campaigns are the only times in history when Wales has existed as a unified independent nation.
4.Yes, there are. The close long-standing relationship means that modern Wales lacks some of the outward signs of difference which Scotland possesses—its legal system and its education system are exactly the same as in England. Often official statistics are given for "England and Wales". However, Wales is different, and one of the key markers of that difference is the Welsh language—the old British Celtic tongue which is still in daily use.
5. Until 1921 the full name of the UK was "The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland", not only "Northern Ireland", because the whole island of Ireland was politically integrated with Great Britain, and had been since 1801, while Britain's domination of the Irish dated back centuries even before that date. But Irish desires for an independent Irish state were never lost, and one of the key issues in late nineteenth century British politics was a campaign in parliament for what was called "home-rule"—Irish political control of Irish affairs. The Home Rule Bill was finally passed in 1914, but the process was overtaken by the First World War and was suspended for the duration of the war.
6. Along with the political campaign for home-rule there were groups who followed a more direct method of pursuing Irish independence, engaging in guerilla or terrorist activities against British institutions and the British military forces. During the First World War and immediately after, this activity increased, sometimes brutally suppressed by British forces.
7. Margaret Thatcher's government did not give in to this demand for political status and 11 prisoners starved to death. This event revitalised the political campaign of Sinn Fein, the legal political party which supports the IRA's right to fight. Its leaders spoke of a twin campaign for union with Ireland, both political and military, which they called the policy of "The Bullet and the Ballot Box".
8. The problem lay in the "commitment to peaceful methods" aspect of the possible talks. Province-wide elections are planned under a complex formula to ensure a wide range of representation on the body which will carry out these talks, in an attempt to give them legitimacy. Without the participation of Sinn Fein and the IRA it is hard to see them succeeding. Northern Ireland is poised on the brink—a new peaceful future, or a return to the violence that has claime
d 3150 lives so far.
9. The oldest institution of government is the Monarchy (rule by the king).
10. It was a gang of feudal barons and the Church which opposed some of King John's (1199—1216) policies. This opposition was so powerful that the king finally granted them a charter of liberty and political rights, still known by its medieval Latin name of Magna Carta. Magna Carta placed some limits on the king's ability to abuse his royal power. This is still regarded as Britain's key expression of the rights of citizens against the Crown.
11. Shakespeare is the most important figure at that time. He excels in each kind. The tragedies include Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, and Macbeth. Among the comedies are The Taming of the Shrew, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Twelfth Night, and The Tempest. His history plays, based on English history, include Richard III, Richard II, Henry IV, and Henry V. Julius Caesar and Antony and Cleopatra are tragedies on classical themes.
12. The House of Commons.
13. The party that wins most votes in general election and the leader of this winning party would become Prime Minister.
14. They more and more like sports….
15. For five years.
16. Anyone who is eligible vote to can stand as an MP. It is necessary only to make a deposit of 500 pounds (a quite easily obtainable amount in the UK) which is lost if the candidate does not receive at least 5% of the vote.
17. There are three major national parties: The Conservative party and the Labour party are the two biggest, and any general election is really about which of those two is going to govern. But there is a third important party, the Liberal Democrats, who usually receive up to about 20% of the votes: not enough to form a government, but enough to have a big impact on which of the other two parties does so. The Conservative Party spent most time in power
18. Tony Blair belong to Labor Party.
19. By the 1880s the British economy was dominant in the world, producing one third of the world's manufactured goods, half its coal and iron, half its cotton.
20. But even by 1900 this was no longer the case, the UK having been overtaken by both the United States and Germany; and certainly from 1945 until the present, the story of the UK economy is usually thought of as one of decline.
21. India, popularly known as "The Jewel in the Crown" of the British Empire, gained its independence in 1947.
22. This has a number of consequences for British society, mainly positive, though with some indirect negative effects. On the positive side such immigrant groups bring their culture with them, which increases the variety and interest within British culture: for example, the UK, which used to have a bad reputation for food, now has a cuisine as varied as any, with Indian and Chinese restaurants in every community, as well as many other varieties in bigger cities. This variety in restaurant food has resulted in more experimentation at
home, so that shops now carry a much wider variety of goods to supply the demand, and there are many TV programmes and books devoted to all kinds of different cooking. The negative side of things lies largely in the attitude of some of their white neighbours.
23. While there is a growing ethnic minority middle-class, and many individual success stories, by most measures the immigrant population is worse-off economically speaking than the white population as a whole. Individuals from ethnic minorities are more likely to be unemployed; and they are under-represented in politics too, though there are now a number of black and Asian MPs. But there are also a number of small political parties in the UK with overtly racist policies.
24. With the Norman Conquest in 1066 Britain entered the Middle Ages (1066—1485), and the language of the royal court became French. So literature of that period was written in French or Latin. But one work from these times often studied today by middle school and college students is The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer (1343—1400). He was the first court poet to write in English.
25. The word "parliament" comes from the verb "to parley", that is, to discuss or talk. The term was first used officially in 1236 to describe the gathering of feudal barons and representatives from counties and towns which the king occasionally summoned if he wanted to raise money.
26. On an average day, 90 per cent of Britons over the age of 15 read a national or local paper. And in the evening, most Britons settle down to watch some television: 96 percent of the population watch TV at least once a week, making it Britain's most popular leisure activity. The third most popular pastime, after watching telly and reading newspapers, is listening to the radio, an activity in which 73 per cent of the population engages in on a weekly basis. It is obvious, then, that the media are central to British leisure culture.
27. British newspaper culture is unusual in the extent to which class and educational differences are reflected in the newspapers people read. In other developed countries like Japan and the United States, newspaper reading is a mainly middle-class habit, but in Britain the "lower classes" are also regular readers.
28. While officially speaking the British press is "free" from government control and censorship and can print what it likes, there are limits to what will appear in the daily paper.
29. The British Broadcasting Corporation - more familiarly known as the BBC or even "the Beeb" - is Britain's main public service broadcaster The BBC is funded by licence fees and viewers must buy a license each year for their TV set.
30. Roughly the first third of the 19th century makes up English literature's romantic period. Writers of romantic literature are more concerned with imagination and feeling than with the power of reason, which marked the 18th century. Perhaps the rather violent and ugly world about the
m drove 19th-century writers to a literary refuge.
31. Modernism in literature can be seen as a reaction against the nineteenth century forms discussed above, which can be thought of as assuming understanding between writer and reader, resulting in the simple communication of an agreed version of the "world". This approach to writing is known as "Realism." Instead, Modernist writers express the difficulty they see in understanding and communicating how the world works. Often, therefore, Modernist writing seems disorganized, hard to understand. It often portrays the action from the viewpoint of a single confused individual, rather than from the viewpoint of an all-knowing impersonal narrator outside the action….
32. Postmodernists can be thought of as abandoning that search. Meaning does not exist outside of the human head, likewise it does not exist inside a book, waiting to be discovered, instead it is made in the process of reading a book, or of making sense of the world….
33. Tennis was invented in Britain and it owes its origins, literally, to the Church. Church records indicate that by the mid-fifteenth century, people were making a game of bouncing a ball off the side of their local churches or cathedrals, first using the hand, and later a racquet. This was called "tenys". Such antics sometimes offended the clergy who complained that the dignity and tranquility of the church was shattered by such games, but they also illustrate how central the church was to community life.
34. There are legends that suggest that games like football and rugby actually derived from the "sport" of ancient warriors celebrating victory by kicking around the decapitated head of an enemy. There is a similar grisly tale told about origins of bowling: it is said that in ancient times, Scottish warriors rolled the skulls of their enemies along the grass for sport.
35. Today, violence is still associated with football. "Football hooligans", supporters of rival teams, sometimes clash before, during and after matches and occasionally run riot through the town, breaking windows and beating each other up. Some football fans paint their faces and sing or chant football songs and it is not too difficult to imagine their warrior-ancestors.
36. As generations of public school boys grew up to become the civil servants and rulers of the UK and its colonies, cricket became associated with a set of moral values, in particular the idea of "fair play" which characterised British government. Sir Ian Bancroft, a high level civil servant in the 1980s, remembered that when he began his career in Whitehall, one day his government minister was so angry that he threw the telephone at him. Sir Ian said he knew exactly how to respond: "having played cricket I was able to catch it and hand it back to him politely."
37. Yes. Nowadays, Christmas is celebrated by most Britons by exchanging gifts and Christmas cards, preparing holiday foods, and decorating homes and work
places with coloured lights, Christmas trees and ornaments.
38. One of Britain's most impressive and colourful festivals happens on the second Saturday in June when the Queen's Birthday is officially celebrated by "trooping the colour" around Buckingham Palace in London.
39. The English do not celebrate their famous writers or battles or patron saints, although they have all these things. However, one truly English holiday is Bonfire Night—sometimes called Guy Fawkes Night—celebrated in the early autumn.
40. Another festival which comes from the 17th century battles between Catholics and Protestants is the Protestant celebration of their victory at the Battle of the Boyne (12 July) in 1690. Northern Irish Catholics celebrate the birthday of the patron saint of Ireland, St Patrick, on March 17 each year.
41. While most British people welcome the coming of the New Year with parties, in Scotland, New Year's Eve called Hogmanay (31 December)—is the major winter celebration, and overshadows Christmas (called Yule in Scotland) which is a very quiet affair. How Hogmanay is celebrated varies throughout Scotland, but one widely practised custom is "first footing". There is a superstitious belief that the first person to cross the threshold of a household in the New Year can bring luck and prosperity: the appearance of a young, preferably dark haired and handsome man, is considered particularly lucky. First footers often bring a bottle of spirits, alcohol, a lump of coal or a peat as a gift and are given a "dram of whisky" as their reward.
42. Cambridge University and Oxford University.
43. The goal of British education is to socialize children.
44. The British education system run by the state.
45. In the UK, the amount of funding each university receives is based on its size, the number of students it teaches, and the research it conducts. So far, the UK has only one privately funded university, the University of Buckingham.
46. For individual members of any society the home they live in is of great importance in their lives. The way the living arrangements of a society as a whole are organized tells us something about that society—its standard of living, its social and familial structure, the distribution of wealth in a society—both in terms of geography and social hierarchy—and even something about that society's values and dreams.
47. There are, broadly speaking, four main types of home. The first kind are "flats" (or apartments), of varying size, often in modern multi-storey purpose-built buildings, though sometimes made by sub-dividing big old houses. Flats are often publicly owned. The second kind are "terraced" houses: that is, individual two-storey houses built joining on to each other at each side in a terrace or row. The second kind are "terraced" houses: that is, individual two-storey houses built joining on to each other at each side in a terrace or row; the fourth one is “detached.”
48. The Brit
ish people are divided into classes economically, culturally, educationally and etc.
49. What is distinctive about the British class-system, and which marks it as different from the American or Chinese social structure, is that it has also retained a hereditary aristocracy.
50. Two world wars had seriously influenced its empire position. The end of the great British empire was surprisingly rapid. In 1946, Jordan, in the Middle East, was granted independence. The following year, India and Pakistan followed suit. In 1948, Burma and Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) were granted independence and left the Commonwealth as well, refusing to recognise the British monarch as the head of their new states. Throughout the next few decades, the process of decolonisation continued as other territories and possessions received their independence or were returned to their rightful rulers.
51. The contemporary foreign policy of the UK is greatly influenced by its imperial history and also by its geopolitical traits. Perhaps the most important single factor which influences British policy-makers is its history.
52. The Prime Minister and Cabinet decide on the general direction of Britain's foreign policy. The main government department involved is of course the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO), but many other government ministries also play a part in formulating and executing the government's decisions.
53. The decision to join the EEC was very controversial; and today, Britain's participation in the European Union, as it is now called, remains controversial. At the centre of the controversy is the fact that it is not clear what the European Union(EU) is and what it will become. The UK has always been very interested in encouraging free trade between countries and is therefore very supportive of the EU as a free trade area.
However, the UK has always been less enthusiastic about giving up its national sovereignty (that is, its control over national decision-making) to a European government.
54. Another major factor which influences British foreign policy is its relationship with the United States. This was quite natural, as the two were closely allied during World War II, and continued to work together closely in the post war years because they shared many of the same worries about the Soviet Union. Even today, in many respects British and American policy-makers agree generally on, for example, how the global economy should be managed, how a warlike state should be dealt with, issues about arms control and so on.
55. Australia is the world's smallest continent and largest island, a relatively young nation established in an ancient land. Its development represents a triumph over remoteness and a harsh landscape…
56. Australia is the driest inhabited continent and its rainfall varies extremely geographically and seasonally. Mean annual rainfall is 465mm. Rainfall varies from less than 150mm over the centre of the continent to more than 2m
in parts of the tropics and western Tasmania. The average annual surface runoff, about 440km3, represents 12 per cent of total rainfall. Evaporation accounts for most of the rest.
57. Australia has six states: New South Wales (NSW), Victoria, Queensland, South Australia (SA), Western Australia (WA) and Tasmania. It also has three internal territories-the Northern Territory (NT), the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) and the Jervis Bay Territory-and seven external territories.
58. Broadly, the Australian federation has a three-tier system of government: the Australian Parliament (the legislature) and Government, responsible for all matters of national interest; six state governments and their legislatures, complementing the activities of the national government (plus the Australian Capital territory and the Northern Territory, which are similar to the states and largely self-governing); and about 900 local government bodies at the city, town, municipal and shire level.
59. Each state and territory of Australia has its own primary and secondary education system. Standards, however, are high and reasonably uniform. Within each state and territory system there are two main types of school-government and nongovernment schools. In government schools, attended by about two thirds of children, tuition is free. About three-quarters of the non-government schools are Catholic. Most non-government schools charge fees.
60. Situated in the southwest Pacific Ocean, New Zealand is a large, long group of islands, 1600 kilometres from north to south. There are two main landmasses, the North Island and the South Island, separated by Cook Strait. The third largest island, Stewart Island, is south of the South Island, and there are many smaller islands, including uninhabited isolated islands hundreds of kilometres offshore. Its nearest large neighbour-Australia—is almost 2 000 km away.
61. New Zealand's constitution is made up of parliamentary statutes (laws), judicial rulings (court decisions) and administrative practices. New Zealand has no written constitution. The Constitution Act 1986 defines the relationship between the legislative (Parliament), executive (Government departments and agencies) and judicial (the courts) roles of government.
New Zealand is an independent state, governed by a democratically elected parliament. The Head of State is the British monarch Queen Elizabeth II in her capacity as Queen of New Zealand, represented by a Governor-General. The Governor-General's agreement is required for an Act of Parliament to become law.
62. With the fast development of commerce and trade, the bourgeoisie became increasingly powerful in politics as well as in economy. They wanted to share power with feudal lords and in some countries such as England they wanted to have more power from the king so that they could have free development. The English Revolution was the result of this growth of capitalism.
63. He is an American, who leavi
ng behind him all his ancient prejudices and manners, receives new ones from the new mode of life he has embraced, the new government he obeys, and the new rank he holds.… Here individuals of all nations are melted into a new race of men, whose labors and posterity will one day cause great changes in the world.… The American is a new man, who acts upon new principles; he must therefore entertain new ideas, and form new opinions.…
64. New England also established another American tradition—a strain of often intolerant moralism. The Puritans believed that governments should enforce God's morality. They strictly punished drunks, adulterers, violators of the Sabbath and other religious believers different from themselves. Roger Williams, one of the Puritans who protested that the state should not interfere with religion, was driven out of Massachusetts. In 1635, he set up Rhode Island colony, which guaranteed religious freedom and the separation of church and state. The Puritans also have left rich cultural heritage to future Americans. The American values such as individualism, hard work, respect of education owe very much to the Puritan beliefs.
65. the United States has two major political parties. One is the Democratic Party, which evolved out of Thomas Jefferson's party, formed before 1800. The symbol of the party is the donkey. The other is the Republican Party, which was formed in the 1850s, by people in the states of the North and West, such as Abraham Lincoln, who wanted the government to prevent the expansion of slavery into new states then being admitted to the union. The symbol of the Republican Party is the elephant.
66. The Bill of Rights: the first 10 amendments, collectively known as the Bill of Rights, were added within two years of the adoption of the U.S. Constitution. These amendments remain intact today, as they were written two centuries ago. The first guarantees freedom of worship, speech and press, the right of peaceful assembly, and the right to petition the government to correct wrongs. The Bill of Rights and subsequent constitutional amendments guarantee the American people the fullest possible opportunity to enjoy fundamental human rights.
67. The Articles of Confederation failed because the states did not cooperate with the Congress or with each other. When the Congress needed money to pay the national army or to pay debts owed to France and other nations, some states refused to contribute. The Congress had been given no authority to force any state to do anything. It could not tax any citizen. Only the state in which a citizen lived could do that.
68. The Constitution set up a federal system with a strong central government. A federal system is one in which power is shared between a central authority and its constituent parts, with some rights reserved to each. The Constitution also called for the election of a national leader, or president. It provided that federal laws would be made only by a Con
gress made up of representatives elected by the people. It also provided for a national court system headed by a Supreme Court.
69. If Congress proposes a law that the president thinks is unwise, the president can veto it. That means the proposal does not become law. Congress can enact the law despite the president's views only if two-thirds of the members of both houses vote in favor of it.
If Congress passes a law which is then challenged in the courts as unconstitutional, the Supreme Court has the power to declare the law unconstitutional and therefore no longer in effect.
The president has the power to make treaties with other nations and to make all appointments to federal positions, including the position of Supreme Court justice. The Senate, however, must approve all treaties and confirm all appointments before they become official. In this way the Congress can prevent the president from making unwise appointments
70. In order to invest, individuals do not have to have a great deal of money: they can buy just a small portion of a business—called a share. The business of buying and selling shares in enterprises has become so big that offices have had to be set up where the selling of shares, or stock , can take place. These places, located in many cities in the United States and around the world, are called stock exchanges. The best-known is perhaps the New York Stock Exchange, located in the Wall Street area of New York City, the nation's largest city and a major business center.
71. Continuous immigration.
72. A few Americans were so influenced by the new science and new ideas of the Enlightenment in Europe that they became deists, believing that reason teaches that God exists but leaves man free to settle his own affairs. Many traditional Protestants and deists could agree, however, that, as The Declaration of Independence states, "all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights," and that "the laws of Nature and Nature's God" entitled them to form a new nation. Among the rights that the new nation guaranteed, as a political necessity in a religiously diverse society, was freedom of religion. The First Amendment insured that American government would not meddle in religious affairs or require any religious beliefs of its citizens.
73. In some ways, the government supports all religions. Religious groups do not pay taxes in the United States. But government does not pay ministers' salaries or require any belief—not even a belief in God—as a condition of holding public office. Oaths are administered, but those who, like Quakers, object to them, can make a solemn affirmation, or declaration, instead.
74. First of all, Americans with different religions live together under the same law. Secondly, the religious beliefs of Americans continue to be strong with social progress. Thirdly, in the United States every church is a completely independent organization, and conce
rned with its own finance and its own building.
75. The questing of the American people has indeed been a drama of many parts. In one way or another, however, it has always been a "pursuit of happiness". American literature is the continuous narrative of that pursuit.
76. Mark Twain was the first major American writer to be born away from the East Coast. He grew up in a small town on the banks of the Mississippi River and received only a basic public school education. He began working in a printer's shop when he was still a boy, and this experience led to a series of newspaper jobs in the Midwest and the West. Twain was a new voice, an original genius, a man of the people, and he quickly won readers.
77. Americans have a strong tendency to educate their children about major public concerns—problems such as environmental pollution, nuclear issues, neighborhood crime and drugs. Responding to public pressure, boards of education in different areas often add courses on various relevant issues to the elementary and secondary school curriculum.
78. The "Lost Generation" is a term used to describe the generation of young men and women who came to maturity in the 20s. Some of them fought in World War I. They became disgusted with war and disillusioned with the post-war society. They shared the same sense of dislocation, rootlessness and disillusionment.
79. The goal is—and has been since the early decades of the republic—to achieve universal literacy and to provide individuals with the knowledge and skills necessary to promote both their own individual welfare as well as that of the general public. Though this goal has not yet been fully achieved, it remains an ideal toward which the American educational system is directed. The progress which has been made is notable both for its scope and for the educational methods which have been developed in the process of achieving it.
80. American students pass through several levels of schooling—and thus, several curricula—on their way to a high school diploma. They attend: Elementary School, Secondary School, high school.
81. The Civil Rights Movement, Youth Anti-war Movement, Women’s Liberation movement and etc.
82. Although these segregation laws were illegal under the 14th Amendment to the United States Constitution, the US government would not declare the Southern laws unconstitutional until there were cases brought in federal courts. The civil rights movement began when black people spontaneously protested segregation laws and created organizations to make the protests successful. Long before the students in Greensboro, North Carolina began their sit-ins, there were many others who protested the segregation laws.
83. The women activities were most in the civil rights and anti-war movements before. They believed the male leaders of these movements were discriminating against women in the movement just like White’s discrimination against black men. They became known as th
e "women's liberation" group, or "women's lib", used radical tactics and received a great deal of bad publicity. This group found strong support among large numbers of young activists from other organizations.
84. For example, the racial discrimination, sex discrimination, class structure, etc.
85. Poverty in the United States does not simply mean that the poor do not live quite as well as other citizens. It means many old people eating dog and cat food to supplement their diets. It means malnutrition and deprivation for hundreds of thousands of children. It means greater susceptibility to disease, to alcoholism, to victimization by criminals, and to mental disorders. It often means unstable marriages, slum housing, illiteracy, ignorance, inadequate medical facilities, and shortened life expectancy. Poverty can mean low self-esteem, despair, and stunting of human potential.
86. A technology is a system of practices, often involving a physical device that accomplishes some result desired by some influential segments of society: government planners, military leaders, businessmen, or even a large proportion of citizen consumers.
87. The late summer (preseason), the fall (regular season), and the winter until late in January (post-season, or play off time ). All this culminates in the Super Bowl to decide the champion team for the year.
88. It is a uniquely American contribution to the arts. No other art form, painting, fiction, poetry, has had a distinctive American contribution as has jazz music. Composers around the world during the twentieth century found inspiration in early American jazz.
89. But Armstrong himself left Chicago in 1924 for New York with his new wife, Lil Hardin, to play with Fletcher Henderson's orchestra. Armstrong organized, with the help of his wife, several of his friends into the recording groups known as the Hot Five and the Hot Seven to make a justly Hot Five Dancing in the Roaring Twenties famous series of recordings for the Okeh Recording company. At this time, 1926, Armstrong also recorded his famous "scat singing", vocalizing nonsense syllables in tune with the music. Armstrong continued to play and record during the 1930's, both in America and in Europe. With the New Orleans revival in the late 1940's and with his motion picture appearances, particularly with the popular Bing Crosby, Armstrong once again shone brightly as America's foremost jazz musician.
90. It has a lively and rich culture, with many world famous actors, pop stars and writers. In annual "quality of life" surveys produced by the United Nation each year, Canada regularly is rated as having the best standard of living in the world because of its health care, education, clean environment, social welfare, and so on.
91. In Modern literature, Canadian nationhood was no longer in doubt from an outside perspective, but from the inside the nature of that nation and the strength of its institutions remained somewhat in question. Ethnic,
region and gender were the topics Canadian literature investigated in a process of self-analysis.
92. As a former British colony, Canada's system of government was based on the British system of parliamentary democracy. This is often referred to as “Westminster—style” democracy, named after the British House of Commons. Like other former colonies like New Zealand and Australia, many Canadian laws, political practices and customs were brought from the "Old Country" and adapted to the different conditions of the new country. At first glance, the similarity between British and Canadian political conditions are great; but when you look more closely, you can see important differences which have arisen from the experience of governing a huge but sparsely populated country.
93. Through most of the 20th century, federal political power has been held by either the Liberal Party or by the Progressive Conservatives. Since 1900, the Liberals have spent about 66 years in power, compared to the Conservative Party's record of about 30 years in government. With the system so dominated by these two parties, the party that was not in power always formed the official opposition to the government. But neither of these parties were popular throughout the whole country. The western provinces preferred more socialist—oriented policies and seldom elected a Liberal to represent them, so during the many years of Liberal government, they had very little influence on national policy, since only a handful of MPs belonged to the most powerful parties. Quebec experienced the same thing during periods of Conservative rule, since it seldom voted Conservative.
94. This introduction opens with one of the things that makes Canada distinctively different—a welcome to Canada in the two official languages of English and French. This is our first clue as to what makes Canada special. If people outside of Canada are a little bit confused about what Canada is, the same is also true for Canadians.
95. Officially, Canada refers to itself as "multicultural". This was an idea born during the debate on bilingualism and biculturalism in the 1960s when a Royal Commission was set up to examine relations between French and English Canada. Organized ethnic communities demanded that their heritages also be acknowledged. Politicians noted that one—third of Canadians were neither English nor French and thus invented the idea of a multicultural society within a bilingual framework and provided money to help different ethnic groups retain their identities.
96. As a prominent member of Canada's Ukrainian community remarked: There is no longer any excuse for anyone in this country to be ashamed of his cultural background. Canada is a multicultural society. The days of Anglo-Saxon dominance are gone.
97. One area of Canadian influence is the world economy. By actively building up a strong domestic economy, Canadian policy-makers succeeded in creating a wealthy country which
wields an amount of economic power in the international arena that is surprising for a country that is so small in terms of its population. Canada, along with the US, France, Italy, Great Britain, Germany and Japan, is a member of the Group of 7, the world's leading economies. Membership of the Group of 7 gives Canada significant prestige and influence in the international system.
98. In the past, agricultural exports have been very important to the Canadian economy: before World War I, 50 per cent of Canada's exports were agricultural; this fell to 40 per cent after World War II. But in recent years there has been a dramatic drop, and now they comprise less than 10 per cent of Canada's total exports. Furthermore, it has become cheaper in many cases to import foodstuffs rather than to produce such items domestically. For example, it makes more geographical sense for Easterners to buy their vegetables from neighbouring American states rather than shipping similar products from western Canada. The conclusion of the Free Trade Agreement also displaced inefficient Canadian farmers, who used to rely on government subsidies to remain productive.
99. The idea that there is such a thing as "American" or "British", or in this case, "Canadian" literature suggests another question: what makes this literature different from those other nations' literatures. a concern with "simple" survival in the face of hostile elements—a reflection of the dangerous natural world in which Canadians find themselves, with huge distances to cross to get help, endless forests to get lost in, hard winters to freeze in, wild animals to attack them. Just surviving in these conditions was a full—time job for Canadians, native or settler, prior to this century.
This idea can extend to concern with "cultural" survival in a variety of ways: the attempt to maintain a Canadian identity in the first place that does not disappear into a weak version of the old colonial power's (Britain's); the dogged persistence of native Canadian peoples to maintain their distinctive cultures against overwhelming European dominance; the assertive survival of a French-Canadian identity in Quebec after the English had conquered the French in Canada; the survival of any kind of overall Canadian identity while troubled by these internal differences, and while being flooded from outside by the culture of their huge neighbour to the south: the USA. In all these ways the Canadian identity is under threat and perhaps defined by that threat, so that "survival" may indeed be a useful idea with which to approach Canada and Canadian literature.
100. Because of its geography, Canada has sometimes been described as being "indefensible". As a result, Canada has had to find different ways of ensuring its security. Because of its military vulnerability, Canadian policy-makers have had a great interest in promoting peace and cooperation among nations. For this reason, Canada has always played an active ro
le in international organizations like the United Nations, the Commonwealth (the political grouping of former British colonies and dominions), and La Francophonie (an informal group of countries and regions with French as their mother tongue). It makes strong contributions to UN peacekeeping missions, works hard to resolve disputes between countries using diplomatic means, has a large development aid program, and is a major player in the world economy.