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Внеаудиторная самостоятельная работа студента
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Внеаудиторная деятельность по данной дисциплине предполагает работу с повторением и закреплением пройденного материала. Здесь даются вопросы и задания для самостоятельной работы, а также содержатся дополнительные тексты для расширения культурологических знаний студентов. Затем приводятся вопросы для контроля понимания учебных фильмов.
1. The land of the USA
Main geographical regions of the USA. Big and small rivers and lakes, main mountains and their role in the life of the country. Weather and climate. General characteristics of the nature and physical relief. Natural resources and minerals. National parks and animal world.
1. Were the geographic conditions of the country beneficial for the building of a new nation?
2. What is the principle of the main division of states?
3. What is generally considered the dividing line between East and West?
4. What role do the Great Lakes play in the life of the Northeast region?
5. Where is the Golden state situated?
6. What can you tell about National Parks?
Plymouth
The Cape Cod peninsula, a gently curved half-circle shaped by wind and water, is a beloved vacation spot. In fact, the site of one of the first permanent European settlements in America was not even the Pilgrim’s original landfall of choice. They first scouted Provincetown, on November 13, 1620 – stopping to wash clothes – but, seeking a more protected harbour, chose Plymouth, in December 1620. Whether the colonists’ first steps into the New World were actually upon the great boulder on the shore is the stuff of legends, but the reality was a grim one: most of the settlers remained on the Mayflower until shelters could be built; before winter’s end half had died from the cold and disease. A visible reminder of the colonists’ determination and tenacity amid harsh conditions, Plymouth Rock is enshrined on the shore, canopied by a palatial granite portico. Nearby is Plymouth Plantation, a remarkable re-creation of the original Pilgrim village, where guides in period costumes offer a detailed look at such day-to-day Colonial activities as bred baking, sheep shearing, fish salting, and musket drills.
2. Pre-Columbian America and Indian Culture
American Indian Tribes and their languages. The relations with the white conquerors. Native American Art: jewelry, music, paintings, sand paintings, sculpture, poetry. Indian mythology.
1. Who lived in North America before the white people came?
2. What Indian tribes do you know?
3. What can you tell about Native-American’s Art?
4. What role did Indian Culture play in the development of USA Culture?
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5. What inventions we use now were made by Indians?
The Sioux Creation
In 1933 a Sioux Chief named Luther Standing Bear wrote down some of the ancient legends of his people. This one tells how the Sioux people began:
"Our legends tell us that it was hundreds and perhaps thousands of years ago that the first man sprang from the soil in the great plains. The story says that one morning long ago a lone man awoke, face to the sun, emerging from the soil. Only his head was visible, the rest of his body not yet being shaped. The man looked about, but saw no mountains no rivers, no forests. There was nothing but soft and quaking mud, for the earth itself was still young. Up and up the man drew himself until he freed his body from the clinging soil. At last he stood upon the earth, but it was not solid, and his first few steps were slow and uncertain. Bur the sun shone and the man kept his face turned toward it. In time the rays of the sun hardened the face of the earth and strengthened the man and he ran and leaped about, a free and joyous creature. From this man sprang the Dakota nation and, so far as we know, our people have been born and have died upon this plain; and no people have shared it with us until the coming of the European. So this land of the great plains is claimed by the Dakotas as their very own."
3.The First explorers of America
The first Europeans in North America. Christopher Columbus and the explorers from Spain, Portugal, France, Holland, and Britain.
1. Tell about the voyages of Christopher Columbus.
2. Who were the first explorers of America?
3. Why were there no Portuguese colonies in North America?
4. Who found Florida?
5. What is called “The Father of Waters” and who found it?
6. Explain the origin of the name Louisiana?
The captain and the princess
Captain John Smith was the most able of the original Jamestown settlers. An energetic 27- year-old soldier and explorer, he had already had a life full of action when he landed there in 1607. It was he who organized the first Jamestown colonists and forced them to work. If he had not done that the infant settlement would probably have collapsed.
When food supplies ran out Smith set off into the forests to buy corn from the Amerindians. On one of these expeditions he was taken prisoner. According to a story that he told later (which not everyone believed), the Amerindians were going to beat his brains out when Pocahontas, the twelve-year-old daughter of the chief, Powhatan, saved his life by shielding his body with her own. Pocahontas went on to play an important part in Virginia's survival, bringing food to the starving settlers. “She, next under God, " wrote Smith, "was instrument to preserve this colony from death, famine and utter confusion."
In 1609 Smith was badly injured in a gunpowder explosion and was sent back to England. Five years later, in 1614, Pocahontas married the tobacco planter John Rolfe. In 1616 she travelled to England with him and was presented at court to King James I. It was there that her portrait was painted. Pocahontas died of smallpox in 1617 while waiting to board a ship to carry her back to Virginia with her newborn son. When the son grew up he returned to Virginia. Many Virginians today claim to be descended from him and so from Pocahontas.
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4. The culture of the first colonies
The culture of the first European settlers. The Puritan influence on the cultural life of the colonies. The structure of the first towns. Different organization of the North and South farms. The first writings: histories (W. Bradford), religious papers, poetry (A. Bradstreet).
1. What do you know about the lost colony?
2. What was called green or common in the first American towns?
3. Can you explain the origin of the first colonies names?
4. What did American colonists write?
The Mayflower Compact
When the Pilgrims arrived on the coast of America they faced many dangers and difficulties. They did not want to put themselves to further danger by quarreling with one another. Before landing at Plymouth, therefore, they wrote out an agreement. In this document they agreed to work together for the good of all. The agreement was signed by all forty-one men on board the Mayflower. It became known as the Mayflower Compact. In the Compact the Plymouth settlers agreed to set up a government – a civil body politic” – to make "just and equal laws" for their new settlement. All of them, Pilgrims and Strangers alike, promised that they would obey these laws. In the difficult years which followed, the Mayflower Compact served the colonists well. It is remembered today as one of the first important documents in the history of democratic government in America.
5. The war of Independence and after-war culture
Forming of a new nation. The beginning of the War of Independence. The flowering of arts after the War of Independence. New literary forms: T. Pain, B. Franklin, P. Freneau. J. Barlow and the «Wits».
1. What was called Boston Tea Party?
2. Who wrote the Declaration of Independence?
3. Who were the 1st, 2nd, 3rd presidents?
4. What war was called the Second War for American Independence?
5. What was President Jackson famous for?
6. What was the main form of literature?
7. Who was America’s first important poet?
Trade laws and «sleeping dogs»
Until the 1760s most Americans seemed quite content to be ruled by Britain. An important reason for this was the presence of the French in North America. So long as France held Canada and Louisiana, the colonists felt that they needed the British navy and soldiers to protect them.
Another reason the colonists accepted British rule was that the British government rarely interfered in colonial affairs.
A century earlier the British Parliament had passed some laws called Navigation Acts. These listed certain products called "enumerated commodities" that the colonies were forbidden to export to any country except England. It was easy for the colonists to avoid obeying these laws. The long American coastline made smuggling easy.
The colonists did not care much either about import taxes, or duties, that they were supposed to pay on goods from abroad. The duties were light and carelessly collected. Few merchants bothered to pay them. And again, smuggling was easy. Ships could unload their cargoes on hundreds of lonely wharves without customs officers knowing.
When a British Prime Minister named Robert Walpole was asked why he did not do more to enforce the trade laws, he replied: "Let sleeping dogs lie." He knew the independent spirit of the British colonists in America and wanted no trouble with them. The trouble began when later British politicians forgot his advice and awoke the "sleeping dogs."
6. The beginning of Enlightenment and
American Romanticism (first half of XIX c.)
The first steps to a national literature. Classicism in architecture: T. Jefferson, P.S. Lanfan, J. Hoban. First steamboat and train, Cotton gin, conveyor, Morse Code. Arts: portrait painting – B. West, J. Copley, G. Stuart. Two periods of American Romanticism: early (1810-1830), late (1840-1850). The appearance of historical novel (J.F. Cooper), humor and satire in the books by W. Irving, poetry of W.C. Bryant. Civil War and realism in literature: abolitionists – L. Garrison, H.B. Stowe.
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1. What was the literary centre of the time?
2. Who was the first professional writer in America?
3. Who invented the first American Frontier hero and what was his name?
4. What novel brought Cooper success?
5. In what way did W. Irving influence American culture?
6. What state was called the Lone Star Republic and why?
7. Who were called «abolitionists»?
8. What were the main forms of painting?
9. Describe the inventions of the time.
William Lloyd Garrison and the abolitionists
Some Americans opposed to slavery were prepared to wait for it to come to an end gradually and by agreement with the slave owners. Others wanted to end it immediately and without compromises. The best known spokesman of the people in this, second group was a Boston writer named William Lloyd Garrison.
On January I, 1831 Garrison produced the first issue of The Liberator, a newspaper dedicated to the abolition of slavery. "On this subject I do not wish to think, or speak, or write with moderation," he wrote. "I will nor retreat a single inch - and I will be heard.”
Garrison meant what he said. He became well-known for the extreme way in which he expressed his views. He printed, and sometimes invented, sensational stories about how cruelly black slaves were treated. He attacked slave owners as evil monsters, about whom nothing good could be said.
Sometime, Garrison went too far even for his fellow northerners. In 1835 an angry mob showed its dislike of his opinions by parading him through the streets of Boston with a rope around his neck. But Garrison refused to be silenced. His bloodthirsty calls for action and sensational stories continued to offend both the supporters of slavery and those who wanted to bring it to an end peacefully. But they convinced many other people that slavery was evil and that it must be abolished at once - even if the only way to do this was by war.
7. Realism of the second half of XIX c.
The major inventions of the second half of XIX c. and their influence on culture. Literature: psychological insight into the character – H. James, appearance of new themes of «tragic America», «gold rush» in California in the books of F. Bret Harte. Lyrics of W. Whitman and E. Dickinson. «Boston Brahmins» and H. Longfellow. Development of short story: E.A. Poe, N. Hawthorne. The greatest American humorous writer M. Twain. «Old Masters» of American painting: Hudson River School, portrait realism – J. Whistler, J.S. Sargent, M. Cassat, naturalism – T. Eakins, W. Homer, marine painting – A. Ryder. The first purely American architect H. Richardson (Trinity Church in Boston, Albany City Hall). Invention of an elevator and building of skyscrapers, eclectics – R.M. Hunt. The longest suspension bridge in Brooklyn (J. Roebling). Music: organization of regional centres. South-west – Spanish influence, Carolina – French influence, Louisiana – Spanish and French, Pennsylvania – German and English. Negro music: spirituals, blues, work songs, ragtime. Theatre: a system of moving theatres. Musical comedy: minstrel show. Metropolitan Opera – the first opera theatre.
1. What was the most famous school in painting of that time?
2. What were the most important inventions of that time?
3. What can you tell about M. Twain?
4. What is «The Song of Hiawatha» based on?
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5. What was the new genre in literature?
6. What form did Whitman write in?
7. What are characteristic features of Dickinson poetic style?
8. What was the first opera theatre?
9. What were the most popular music styles?
10. What do you know about theatres of that time?
Joseph Glidden's barbed wire
In 1874 an Illinois farmer named Joseph Glidden patented an invention. He advertised it as "stronger than whiskey and cheaper than air." His invention provided prairie farmers with something that, in a land without trees, they desperately needed – a cheap and efficient fencing material. Glidden's invention was barbed wire.
Barbed wire consists of two strands of plain wire twisted around one another, with short, sharp wire spikes held between them. By 1890, 100 pounds of barbed wire was being sold for only $4. Prairie farmers bought tons of it to fence in their lands.
Barbed wire fences meant that prairie farmers could plant crops knowing that straying cattle would not trample and eat the growing plants. They could breed better animals knowing that stray bulls could not mate with their cows. They could mark off their boundaries to avoid quarrels with neighbors.
Glidden's invention changed the face of the Great Plains. By the end of the century thousands of miles of barbed wire fences had divided the open prairie into a patchwork of separate farms and fields.
8. Industrialization and culture (first half of XX c.)
Progress in economy and agriculture. First airplane and automobile. Invention of computer and transistor. First monopolies: A. Carnegie, D. Rokefeller, J.P. Morgan. Literature: humorous short story – O. Henry, romanticism in realism – J. London, critical realism – T. Dreiser, J. O’Hara, H. Miller, after-war criticism – Sh. Anderson, S. Lewis, social criticism of the Great Depression – J. Dos Passos, J. Steinbeck, the Harlem Renaissance, the Lost Generation – E. Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, development of novel – W. Faulkner, poetry – R. Frost, the rise of drama – E. O’Neill, L. Hellman, T. Wilder. Arts: acmeism, fauvism, cubism, surrealism – G. O’Keeffe, denial of academic painting, Ashcan school. Theatre: Broadway commercial theatres. The birth of cinema: Ch. Chaplin. Moving cartoons: W. Disney. Music: expressionism of I. Stravinsky, jazz – S. Joplin, D. Ellington, symphojazz of D. Gershwin, Dixieland, bluegrass, honky-tonk. Architecture: functionalism – L. Sullivan, F.L. Wright, M. Van der Roe, art deco – New York Chrysler building. Development of Ballet – S. Balanchin.
1. What were the main inventions of the time?
2. Who were the richest persons of America?
3. What were the main trends in literature?
4. Why were the writers of one literary movement defined as “lost generation”?
5. How many times did R. Frost win the Pulitzer Prize for poetry?
6. What was W. Faulkner’s favorite theme?
7. Where is much of Steinbeck’s fiction set?
8. Was drama popular at the time?
9. What were the main forms of painting?
10. Describe the new styles in architecture.
11. What was the difference between music of the XIX c. and XX?
Eli Whitney and the American system
Eli Whitney, the man who in vented the cotton gin, never made much money from it. Too many people copied his original machine without paying him anything.
In about 1800 Whitney began to make guns. Until this time these had always been made by skilled gun-makers. Each gun was individually made, entirely by one man and a part from one gun would not necessarily fit another. Whitney changed this. At a factory he opened in Newhaven, Connecticut, he began to use machines to make guns. His machines made individual parts for guns in separate operations and in large numbers. Most important of all, they made parts that were exactly alike, so that any part would fit any gun. This made it possible for guns to be put together in stages, with different workers each carrying our one particular task.
Whitney's way of working meant that guns could now be made by men without enough skill to make a complete gun. He had worked out the main ideas of a way of manufacturing that would later become known as the "American system." Later still this American system became known as "mass production." Mass production was a very important discovery. Without it the standard of living of today's United States, and that of the entire industrialized world, would not be possible.
9. American culture of the second half of XX c.
World War II - as a dividing line. War novels: Irwin Shaw, N. Mailer. Postwar novels: J. Cheever, J. Updike, J.D. Salinger. Drama: T. Williams, A. Miller, theatre of absurd – E. Albee. Science fiction: R. Bradbery, C. Symack, A. Clark. Painting: pop art, optical art, minimal art, Dada, abstract expressionism – M. Rothko, J. Pollock, graphics – R. Kent. Architecture: neo-pop school – M. Lapidus, J. Portman, leading architects – W. Harrison, I.M. Pei, H. Stubbins. Music: different forms of jazz – funky, cool, rhythm-and-blues, rock-and roll, underground, country, rock-opera, musicals – Oklahoma!, My Fair Lady. Theatres can be divided into three kinds: road companies, which bring hits to smaller cities, local stock companies (summer stock) and the theatre in New York.
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1. Why is World War II considered a dividing line?
2. What is the difference between the war novels and postwar novels?
3. What new genres in literature appeared?
4. What were the main forms in painting and architecture?
5. Can we say that the musical styles of the second half of XX c. developed from the earlier styles?
6. What kinds of theatre of the time do you know?
Kennedy's Peace Corps
In their rivalry with the Soviet Union, American governments knew that communism is often most attractive to the people of countries where food is short and life is hard. From the 1950s onwards, therefore, they spent millions of dollars on modernizing farms, constructing power station s and building roads in countries as far apart as Turkey and Colombia, Pakistan and Chile. The idea of this "foreign aid" was to give poor people all over the world better lives, partly out of a genuine desire to help them but partly also to win new friends and supporters for the United States.
Foreign aid did not always take the shape of food, machines or money. Sometimes human skills were sent, in the form of teachers and technical experts. Soon after John F. Kennedy became President he started a new scheme of this kind when he set up an organization called the Peace Corps.
The idea of the Peace Corps was to use the enthusiasm and the skills of young Americans to help the people of “underdeveloped” - that is poor nations to help themselves. All members of the Peace Corps were volunteers, who agreed to work for two years in the poor countries of Asia, Africa and Latin America. The Peace Corps achieved at least one thing - for a while it gavea human face to the bare financial statistics of American foreign aid.
10. Cultural peculiarities of New England states
Connecticut – lock, machine to make pins, sewing machine, M. Twain and H. Beecher-Stow houses, Yale University in New Haven, American Shakespeare Theatre.
Massachusetts – the first library, newspaper, public school, college. Harvard University, M. Institute of Technology in Cambridge. Boston – the oldest major city in the U.S.
New Hampshire – White Mountains, covered bridges, Stonehenge in North Salem, Cornish art colony.
Vermont – layers of marble. R. Kipling home in Battleboro.
Main – Longfellow house in Portland.
Rhode Island – spirit of independence.
1. How can you characterize New England states?
2. What can you say about the New England pronunciation?
3. What are the sources of the names of the states?
4. Is there anything similar in the New England states?
5. Why are these states so grouped?
Maple Sugar Festival
St. Albany, Vermont
To the connoisseur, Vermont’s tradition of making maple syrup compares to that of France in making wine. Both call for a mix of science and instinct, knowledge of nature’s timing that cannot be taught but only learned after many seasons in the fields.
When the daytime temperatures reach forty degrees while the nights are still in the twenties, it is generally regarded as the optimum time for opening the taps in the maple trees. The sap is then flowing at its best. The metal device, called a spile, siphons off the sap into buckets. It usually takes forty gallons of sap to produce one gallon of syrup.
The quality of the syrup depends on what happens in the sugar-house during the boiling process. Most consumers prefer a lighter amber-colored syrup, which is called a shallow boil, and that is the most difficult to time properly. Too light, and the taste is very thin. Too dark, and a touch of caramel creeps in. It takes a master’s touch, and most of Vermont’s sugar-makers undergo specialized training, sharpening their palates with taste while they are blindfolded. The state leads the nation in maple syrup production.
11. Cultural peculiarities of Mid-Atlantic states
Delaware – the first state to sign the Constitution.
Maryland – first passenger railway, telegraph message. Baltimore – a great port city. Washington D.C. Assateague ponies.
New Jersey – T. Edison’s inventions: electric light, the motion picture camera, phonograph. Princeton University.
New York – natural wonder - Niagara Falls. Five boroughs of New York: Manhattan, the Bronx, Queens, Brooklyn, Richmond, UN Headquarters.
Pennsylvania – first fire department, hospital, zoo. Philadelphia University, Orchestra, chocolate Hershey. F.L. Wright’s House in Ohiopile - Fallingwater.
1. Give general description of the Mid-Atlantic states.
2. Is there anything special about the pronunciation of these states?
3. Can you comment on the names of the states?
4. Describe the biggest cities of Mid-Atlantic states.
Lotus Blossom festival
Lilypons, Maryland
She was a greatest gate attraction of her time in Opera. French-born Lily Pons made her debut with New York’s Metropolitan Opera in 1931. Her name guaranteed a sellout. A small woman, barely five feet tall, she brought glamour and chic to opera at a time when it was dominated by large men and women. She even enjoyed a brief movie career in the 1930s, although her French accent made most of her dialogue incomprehensible. But the audience did not come to her to talk. They wanted to hear her voice.
At the height of her fame, the owner of 100-acre tract dedicated to raising pond lilies and ornamental fish decided to incorporate as a town. He called the place Lilypons. The soprano was honored and made frequent visits to the town named for her, being named mayor of the place in 1941. Miss Pons died in 1976, but Lilypons is still a going concern. This festival comes at the peak of the blooming season.
12. Cultural peculiarities of Midwest states
Arkansas – mineral springs. Land of opportunity, the only North American diamond mine. Ozark music and culture.
Iowa – king-size prairies, State Fair.
Illinois – the land of Lincoln. Chicago – the “City of the big shoulders”.
Michigan - the Big Three: Ford, General Motors, Chrysler. Painter G. Wood’s living place.
Indiana – Santa Claus post office. Indiana University in Bloomington, housing the Art Museum, designed by I.M. Pey and the sights in Columbus, created by the architect.
Missouri – the names of M. Twain, T.S. Elliot, T. Williams are connected with Missouri.
Ohio – the crossroads of growing America. Cincinnati – the Queen City of the West.
Wisconsin – summer home of F.L. Wright in Taliesin.
Minnesota – the origin of the population – Scandinavians and Germans. A farming state. St Paul – the birthplace of F. Scott Fitzgerald.
5. Give general description of the Midwest states.
6. Is there anything special about the pronunciation of these states?
7. Can you comment on the names of the states?
8. Describe the biggest cities of Midwest states.
Scott Joplin Ragtime Festival
Sedalia in Missouri was a rough and rollicking railroad town when a young black musician published a new tune, named in tribute to the local saloon in which he worked. “The Maple Leaf Rag” by Scott Joplin appeared in 1897 and it changed American music forever. The white audience went wild when they heard Joplin’s tune. Within six months, “Maple Leaf Rag” had sold an unprecedented 75,000 copies of sheet music and this dangerous sound was suddenly being heard on parlor pianos everywhere. It made Joplin enough money to move to St. Louis, where he continued to write rags. The style was the dominant force in popular music for the next twenty years.
Joplin, however, was a serious musician, who aspired to grand opera. But the public was unwilling to listen to symphonic compositions written by African Americans. He died in 1919, bitter, broke and obscure, in New York. His work was rediscovered decades after his death, however, and a heightened appreciation for his skills as a composer grew after new recordings of his music were made in the 1970s. Many of his rags were used as the score for the hit movie The Sting, which brought his work to a wider audience.
Sedalia never forgot the genius who once played piano here. Although the Maple Leaf Bar is long gone, the music written there lives on. This festival brings together some of the finest ragtime artists in the country and celebrates the legacy of Joplin.
13. Cultural peculiarities of Southeast states
Alabama – a monument to a Boll weevil. Azalea Festival in Mobile.
Florida – the oldest town in the U.S. – St Augustine. Disney World, Cape Canaveral.
Georgia – invention of cotton gin, formula of Coca-Cola. J.C. Harris’s home in Atlanta, Margaret Mitchell Room in Atlanta Public Library.
Louisiana – the land of «mosts» from frogs to fish. The birthplace of jazz, blues. Festival «Mardi Grass» in New Orleans.
Virginia and West Virginia – Pocahontas. Virginians - G. Washington, T. Jefferson, R. Lee, J. Madison. Arlington National Cemetery. Edgar Allan Poe Museum and Capitol in Richmond (designed by T. Jefferson).
Carolina ( North and South) – the «lost colony». Great Smoky Mountains. First power-driven airplane by Wright brothers. Charleston, the only American city founded by nobility.
Kentucky – the first American state west of the Appalachian Mountains. Mammoth Cave. A. Lincoln’s birthplace near Louisville.
Tennessee – Elvis Presley’s Graceland in Memphis. An Utopian colony in Rugby. Nashville – Music City USA, Vanderbilt University (architect K. Hall).
Mississippi – the land of farms. Oxford – the town of writers (W. Faulkner, J. Grisham, B. Hannah, L. Brown).
1. What is the difference between the South and the rest of America?
2. Describe the South states.
3. What is the biggest state of the east?
4. What is special about the agriculture of the South?
5. What influenced the culture of the South towns?
Mardi Gras
Mardi Gras already was established for a century in Mobile when a group of high-spirited youths from New Orleans returned home from a stay in France in 1820, determined to organize a celebration in their town. That was the seed that erupted into America’s most spectacular festival — the one that draws the biggest crowds, induces the wildest behavior, possesses the most colorful history, and summons up the most vivid example of carnival abandon on the continent. Not even Super Bowl tickets are as hard to come by as admittance to one of the masked balls of a major Mardi Gras krewe. A krewe is an organization, whose membership is secret, that exists to participate in Mardi Gras since 1857. But not until after the Civil War, in 1872, did the celebration assume anything like its present form. According to the story, that was the season that a Russian grand duke came to town, in romantic pursuit of actress Lydia Thompson.
New Orleans has always enjoyed a good love story, and the entire city was taken by this romantic tale. That year’s Mardi Gras was shaped to the love affair. Miss Thompson’s song was played throughout the festival, as all the krewes combined for the first time to plan a joint celebration.
14. Cultural peculiarities of Great Plains and Mountains states
Colorado – the Rocky Mountains - the Great Divide. Mesa Verde National Park. Denver – the Queen City of the Plains.
Oklahoma – sooner state. Oil boom in 1920. Prince Tower, built by F.L.Wright in Bartlesville.
Arizona – abundance of cacti, cowboys, Indians. Grand Canyon, Painted Desert, Petrified Forest. Arizona State University in Phoenix – one of the last works of F.L. Wright.
Texas – second largest state. Oil boom in 1901.
Dakota (North and South) – «Here is where the map should fold» J. Steinbeck wrote. Annual Dakota Cowboy Poetry Reading in Medora. The Mount Rushmore National Monument and the Crazy Horse Monument in the Black Hills.
New Mexico – the mixture of Spanish, Indian and American cultures. Santa Fe – the oldest capital city in the U.S. G. O’Keeffe Museum in Abiqiu.
Wyoming – the state of National Parks: Yellowstone, Grand Teton, Elk Refuge. The first pioneers: Bill Buffalo, J. Bridger.
Montana – here are homes of Gary Cooper (actor), J. Will (writer), Ch. Russell (painter), E. Knievel (sculptor). Glacier National Park. Ch. Russell Museum in Great Falls.
Idaho – Crystal Falls Cave, Lava Hot Springs. Boise’s Basques culture. Appaloosa horse.
Utah – Mormon state.
Nevada – one of the most thinly populated states. Las Vegas – adult Disneyland.
Kansas – the breadbasket of the nation.
1. What is the role of Great Planes and Mountains in the life of America?
2. Why did the Great Plains become America’s cattle country?
3. Where was gold found?
4. Describe the wonders of this region.
Corn Palace Festival
When the citizens of Mitchell in South Dakota inquired how much it would take to hire John Philip Sousa’s band to play for a week, his manager told them that they couldn’t afford it. They persisted. $7,000, Sousa’s representative wired back, thinking that would stop the nonsense. In 1904, that was more than most musicians made in a year. But Mitchell guaranteed that amount, even delivering it in cash to a dubious Sousa when he arrived by train.
The appearance of the renowned bandmaster, and the publicity he received for performing in this far-flung outpost for a solid week, elevated the Corn Palace Festival into a major American event. It had started in 1892 as a way for civic boosters to get Mitchell some publicity and show off the richness of its soil. The town was then and still remains at the center of the Midwest’s - most productive corn belt. The farms of eastern South Dakota pace the country in terms of productivity.
The festival worked so well that for a time a statewide movement tried to get the capital transferred here from Pierre. That plan fell short, but the Corn Palace kept getting bigger. It started out as a rather plain building that was easily adorned. But the present structure, a Moorish fantasy of domes and minarets, is covered with some three thousand bushels of corn and grass in the harvest season. Much of it is dyed and arranged to form designs, with each festival having a different theme. During the rest of the year, the Palace, which seats about 4,500 people, is used for civic and athletic functions.
15. Cultural peculiarities of Far west states and Hawaii
California – Death Valley, prehistoric fossils. Historical missions (San Juan Capistrano, Santa Cruz, Santa Clara de Asis, San Juan Bautista). Tournament of roses in Pasadena. Sequoia National Park. Homes of Jack London, F. Bret Harte, W. Saroyan, J. Steinbeck. The Valley of the Moon, Lake Tahoe, Yosemite National Park. San Francisco Golden Gate Bridge.
Washington – the only sate with a true American name. The Olympic Rain Forest.
Oregon – «Oregon Fever» of the XIX c. Rose Festival in Portland.
Alaska – a wild frontier, Midnight sun in the North. Earthquakes Park near Anchorage. Denali National Park and Mount McKinley. Whitehorse Rapids.
Hawaii – the only island state. Hawaii – giant volcanoes, Qahu – Pearl Harbor, Kanai – the Garden island, Lanai – pineapple plantation.
1. What was the last state joined to the USA?
2. Why is California called “Golden state”?
3. In what state can we see the Midnight Sun?
4. Where is the Rain Forest situated?
Tournament of Roses
New Year’s Eve may belong to Times Square in Manhattan. But there is no question where the focus of America settles on the first day of the year. With its floral parade and football game, the one that announcers love to describe as “the granddaddy of all bowl games,” sedate Pasadena in California is the symbol of another year’s beginning.
Although it sounds vaguely Spanish, Pasadena is actually an amalgam of the first syllables of four Chippewa words suggested by a missionary to that tribe. The words supposedly meant “Crown of the Valley”.
By 1890, however, the warm California sun had turned Pasadena’s residents on New Year’s Day to revel in the beauty of the climate by decorating some carriages with flowers and holding burro races. They had a good time and also sent pictures to the folks back home to show them what a paradise Pasadena was — the same achievement that television pulls off today.
Within five years, the Tournament of Roses had attained much of its present form, with numerous flower-bedecked floats and a Rose Queen. In 1902, they decided to add a football game. In the first Rose Bowl, Michigan came out to the West Coast and throttled Stanford, 49—0. That discouraged the Californians, and for the next fourteen years they limited it to a parade and a few chariot races. But the football games resumed in 1916 and, aside from one year during World War II when travel restrictions forced its removal to North Carolina, the Rose Bowl has been an intrinsic part of the festivities.
Вопросы к учебным фильмам
Washington
1. What political leader is speaking before the beginning of the film?
2. What embassies are situated in Washington?
3. What kind of restaurants can you find in Washington?
4. Name the newspapers sold in Washington.
5. When was the capital moved to Washington?
6. Is the traffic in Washington congested?
7. What portraits can we see in the White House?
8. Describe the parks of Washington.
9. What do you know about Lincoln Memorial?
Hawaii
1. What is the most active volcano now?
2. How did life appear on the Hawaiian Islands?
3. When did the Polynesians find Hawaii?
4. Are there any rain forests on Hawaii?
5. What plant exists only on Hawaii?
6. What was discovered at the bottom of the ocean?
7. What was the aim of the ecologists’ work on Hawaii?
8. Why is the film called «The Hidden Hawaii»?
Тематика эссе
Написание эссе учебным планом не предусмотрено.
Темы рефератов
1. American Indian Art
2. American Indian Mythology
3. French Architecture in French American Colonies
4. Spanish Architecture in Spanish Colonies
5. English and Dutch Architecture in the USA
6. American Arts in the first part of XIX c.
7. American Arts in the second part of XIX c.
8. American Arts in the first part of XX c.
9. American Arts in the second part of XX c.
10. American Theatre of the second part of XIX c.
11. American Theatre of XX c.
12. American Architecture of the first part of XIX c.
13. American Architecture of the second part of XIX c.
14. American Architecture of the first part of XX c.
15. American Architecture of the second part of XX c.
16. American Music of XIX c.
17. American Music of the first part of XX c.
18. American Ballet
19. American Opera
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