Семинары по Страноведению США

Seminar 1

The United States of America.

1. Geography. The Physical Background.

2. Climate and Weather.

3. Economic Regions. Natural Resources.

4. Vegetation and Fauna.

1.Be ready to answer the following questions:

  -What are the coordinates of the country?

–How many and what oceans is the country washed by?

–What countries does the US border on?

–What geographical parts does the territory of the USA consist of? Name them.

–What is the total area of the USA?

–What regions does the continental part of the USA consist of?

–What is the highest peak in the Appalachian Mountains?

      –What is the highest point of the Sierra Nevada?

–Name the most impressive volcanoes of Hawaii.

-What is the highest  peak of the USA? Where is it situated?

– What are prairies?

– What is the lowest point of the country? Where is it situated?

– What role do the Great Lakes play in the economic life of the USA?

- What is the longest river of the USA?

– What do the Columbia and the Colorado Rivers serve as? 

Be ready to show on the map of the USA:

the Gulf of Mexico           the Great Lakes               Mauna Loa

Alaska                               the Niagara Falls             Mauna Kea

Hawaii                               Great Salt Lake               Mt McKinley

The Appalachian Mtns      the Mississippi River      Death Valley

The Rocky Mtns                the Missouri River          the Yukon River

The Sierra Nevada             the Ohio River                the Rio Grande

Mt Mitchell                        the Columbia River        the Red River

Mt Whitney                        the Colorado River         the Arkansas River

The St Lawrence River

2. Speak about the climate and weather. Be ready to answer the following:

-Why does the climate of the USA differ from one part of the country to another?

–Is the temperature warmer on the Atlantic or on the Pacific coast? Why?

–Where were the lowest and the highest temperatures observed?

-What can you say about the weather around  the Great Lakes?

-What are the climatic conditions of the continental part of the USA modified by?

-What types of storms typical of the USA do you know?

–In what parts of the country is the rainfall the greatest? Show them on the map.

–        What type of climate does the USA have on the whole?

     3. Speak about  the economic regions of the USA.

        What are the main industrial and agricultural regions of the USA? Show them on the map.             What states are particularly rich in different mineral resources?

     4. Vegetation and Fauna.

        Speak about different types of plants growing in the USA.

        Speak about animals and birds widely distributed in the USA.

Seminar 2.

The Discovery and Exploration of America by Europeans.

Identify: Leif Ericsson, Christopher Columbus, Amerigo Vespucci, Juan Ponce de Leon, Hernando Cortes, Francisco Vasques de Coronado, Giovanni de Verrazano, Jacques Cartier, Robert Chevalier de La Salle, Henry Hudson.

Locate: the Bahamas, St. Augustine, Santa Fe.

1. Speak about Native Americans:

-When did the first humans arrive in North America? How did it happen?

–Why did Native Americans develop so many different styles of life?

–What Indian civilizations were first encountered by Europeans? Describe some features of   these civilizations.

-Describe some features of the most advanced groups of North American Indians.

–When did the earliest contacts of Europeans and Americans take place?

2. Speak about the European exploration of America:

-Explain what changes in Europe helped to bring about the voyages of discovery.

–Name some of the things Europeans wanted from the East.

–What reasons did Europeans have for exploration?

–What is ‘’the Northwest Passage’’? Why did explorers want to find it?

–Why did Columbus call the islands he had discovered ‘’the Indies’’?

–Why was the new continent called America?

3. Speak about the first contacts between  Europeans and Native Americans:

-In what way did the Indians contribute toward helping the white men settle in North America?

–What did Europeans bring with them?

–Why was much of the contact with Europeans harmful for Native Americans?

–Why could the small armies of Spanish conquistadors defeat the Aztecs and the Incas?

4. Speak about the Spanish, French and Dutch expansion in North America:

-Who was the first European to set foot on what is now the United States?

–Who explored the area of present day Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, Oklahoma and Kansas?

–Locate the first European settlement in what is now the United States.

–What were the explorers sent out by France and Holland looking for?

–In what way did Robert de La Salle contribute to the exploration of North America?

–When and under what circumstances did the Dutch set up their first settlement?

Seminar 3.

The British Colonization of North America.

Identify or explain: John Cabot, Sir Francis Drake, Sir Humphrey Gilbert, Sir Walter  Raleigh, John White, John Smith, Lord De La Warr, John Rolfe, William Bradford, Miles Standish, the Starving Time, Roger Williams, William Penn, the House of Burgesses

Locate: Roanoke Island, Plymouth, Cape Cod, Cheasapeake Bay, Providence.

1. Speak about the first English expeditions to the New World:

-Why did England want colonies in the New World?

- Speak about the expedition of 1585. How did false advertising and rumors affect the settlement of the English Colonies?

- Speak about the lost colony.

2. Speak about the Jamestown colony:

-What was a joint-stock company? Why was it used?

–What group of people came to Virginia in May 1607?

–What major problems did the Jamestown settlers face in the early years?

–What made Virginia a prosperous colony?

–What significant events happened in Virginia in 1619?

3. Speak about Plymouth plantation and other colonies:

-Explain the difference between Separatists, Puritans, Pilgrims.

–What was the Mayflower Compact? Why was it important?

–Why did puritans make successful settlers? –How was Rhode Island founded?

–What other colonies were offshoots from Massachusetts Bay?

4. Speak about the methods the colonies used to attract laborers:

-What is indentured servitude? Who were indentured servants?

- Speak about frontiersmen.

–Why did slavery become the most popular method of attracting laborers, especially in the South?

 Slavery in the USA. The Civil War (1861-1865).

Identify: Harriet Tubman, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Frederick Douglass, Abraham Lincoln, Robert E. Lee, William Sherman, John Wilkes Booth, U. S. Grant, Winfield Scott, John Brown, Jefferson Davis, William Lloyd Garrison.

What important events took place in the USA in 1619, 1793, 1820, 1850, 1854, 1857, 1859, 12 April 1861, 1 January 1863, April 1865?

Answer the following questions to remember the sequence of events.

1. What was the US government policy concerning slavery?
2. What did the Compromise of 1820 consist of? (Map)
3. What acts did the Compromise of 1850 consist of? (Map)
4. What was the Southern way of life in the middle of the 19-th century?
5. What was becoming the Northern way of life?
6. What events greatly changed the attitude of Northerners to slavery?
7. What caused fighting in Kansas?
8. What kind of people formed the new Republican Party?
9. What was the Court decision of the Dred Scott Case?
10. What was the political meaning of the case/
11. What was the attitude of Americans to John Brown? Why?
12. Who won the Presidential elections of 1860?
13. Was Lincoln an abolitionist or a free soiler?
14. What made South Carolina declare its independence from the USA?
15. What was Lincoln’s attitude to Southerners’ breaking the union?
16. Where and when did the fighting start?
17. How many states joined the Confederacy?
18. What were those states? (Map)
19. What were the first battlers of the Civil War in Virginia? Who won them?
20. What was the Anaconda Plan?
21. Name the most important battlers of the Civil War (Antietam Creek, Gettysburg, Vicksburg). What was the significance of each?
22. What was the Emancipation Proclamation about?
23. What was the political significance of the Proclamation?
24. What did General Sherman want to break by his cruel actions?
25. What Christmas gift did General Sherman make President Lincoln in 1864?
26. Where and when did the Civil War end?
27. What were the results of the war?
28. What was the saddest ending to the war?

Questions for discussion:

Now I would like to offer you a few questions to know your point of view.

1. Why was President Lincoln against splitting the union?

2. Was it wise of Lincoln to let the Confederates begin fighting? Why?

3. What was most unfair about the position of black slaves?

4. Do you agree that it was the right of American citizens to own slaves?

5. What could have kept the USA from fighting? Give reasons.

6. What could have happened if the South had won?

Role play: North / South (each side tries to prove that it will win and gives good reasons for their opinion)

Seminar 6.

The Structure of Federal Government.

Complete the sentences:

-The Constitution is…..

-The highest court of the USA must…..

-The chief duty of Congress is…..

-The President must 1.

                                 2.

                                 3.

-To approve a proposed amendment….

Be ready to speak about:

1. The US Congress – the legislature(bicameral composition, election qualifications of the members, the powers of the whole Congress)
2. The powers of the Senate.
3. The powers of the House of Representatives.
4. How a bill becomes a law.
5. The executive branch of the Federal government (President).
6. The executive branch of the Federal government (Vice-President, the Cabinet).
7. The judicial branch of the Federal government ( history, the basis provided by the Constitution, structure, jurisdiction).
8. The courts of general jurisdiction: The Supreme Court, Courts of Appeals, District Courts).
9. The courts of special jurisdiction, state courts.
10. The rights of citizens (Constitutional amendments)

Seminar 7.

 The Population of the USA.

1.      Where did the citizens of the USA live at first? Where has the population moved since 1776? Why?

2.      What was the population of the USA at the end o the War of Independence? People of what stock formed the majority and the minority of the population?

3.      Why was the USA called "the melting pot” of many nations? What does the term "the salad bowl” suggest? People from what countries immigrated into the USA? What were the reasons for their immigration?

4.      What was the attitude of American Congress to immigration at the end of the 19-th and the beginning of the 20-th century? When did the restrictions begin to change? What did president Kennedy say about immigrants?

5.      What is the influence of immigrants on the American way of life and traditions?

6.      How often do they hold censuses of the population? What is the main aim of these censuses? What is the population of the USA nowadays?

7.      What are the country’s minorities? Which is the biggest one? What is the distribution of African Americans in the country?

8.      What is the average density of the population in the USA? What states have the highest density of population? What are their characteristic features?

9.      What states have the lowest density of population? What is characteristic of them?

10.  What states have the largest and the smallest population?

11.  What kind of nation is the USA? How many people in the USA are urban dwellers? What is an important fact about urban migration?

12.  What are metropolitan centers? What are the biggest cities of the USA? What states are these cities situated in? Show them on the map. What are the most characteristic features and the leading occupations in these cities?