You know that America is a county of immigrants. Learn some facts about the history of immigration. Translate the text and paraphrase the underlined phrases.

Study the information about the symbols of the USA. Listen to the sentences and show your red card if the statement is true and your blue card if it is false. Correct the wrong ones.

Put aside your lesson-plan: rely on your memory!

1. Before the American Revolution the British flag was the flag of the thirteen American colonies. +

2. The Great Union flag was the flag of England during the Revolutionary War. -

3. Some people say that Abraham Lincoln made the first American flag. -

4. The "Star-Spangled Banner" is а song about the Liberty Bell and the Statue of Liberty. -

5. The flag of the United States now has thirteen stars for the American colonies and fifty stripes for the fifty states. -

6. The Pledge of Allegiance is а promise of loyalty to the United States. +

7. George Washington wrote the Declaration of Independence. -

8. The document declared the separation and freedom of the thirteen colonies from England. +

9. The delegates of the thirteen original colonies signed the Declaration of Independence, and the Liberty Bell rang out in Philadelphia on July 4, 1776. +

10. The people of England gave the Statue of Liberty tо the United States as а symbol of the President. -

11. The Democratic donkey is the official emblem of the United States. -

12. The donkey, the elephant, and Uncle Sam originally appeared in political cartoons. +

Translate into Russian and practice back translation.

1^st round
The British flag was the flag of the thirteen American colonies before the American Revolution.
During the Revolutionary War, the red and white stripes were symbols of these colonies on the Great Union flag.
The first American flag had thirteen white stars in а field of blue.
In the War of 1812, the flag had fifteen stars and stripes.
Now the "Star-Spangled Banner" is the national anthem of the United States.
2^nd round First match the sentence parts: here are the answers.
The Liberty Bell is the symbol of	the Declaration of Independence.
The Statue of Liberty is the symbol of	freedom for immigrants tо the United States.
The American eagle is the symbol of	the United States on the Presidential flag and some coins.
The donkey and the elephant are symbols of	the two major political parties.
Uncle Sam is the symbol of	the U.S. government.

You know that America is a county of immigrants. Learn some facts about the history of immigration. Translate the text and paraphrase the underlined phrases.

There were about twenty-five million “native Americans” (Indians) living in North and South America. The English were the largest immigrant group that settled in North America. They were farmers, fishermen, and traders. By the time of the American Revolution, there were also many immigrants from Scotland, Ireland, France, Holland, Germany, Sweden, and Poland. Most of these settlers were Protestants. The Spanish settled mainly in the Southwest, especially California. They were managers, priests, and soldiers. American slave traders captured black Africans and forced them to work on plantations in the United States.

Before 1880, the USA welcomed immigrants from all countries. Because Americans were moving west, factories in the East needed new workers. Most of these immigrants came from northern and western Europe, so they looked like born Americans, and their cultures were similar. But then Americans began to worry about the influence and power of large groups of immigrants from cultures very different from their own. In the next century, the U.S. government passed many immigration acts. Before World War II, these laws limited immigration, especially from non-European nations. But after the war, new acts made it easier for refugees and immigrants to come to the United States.

5. Read the article “The Nation’s Most Strongly Defined Region” (be ready to translate it into good Russian) and the handout “Regions of the United States” (lesson 4 on geography) and complete the information below about characteristic features of people from different parts of the country. Reproduce one piece at a time.

1) Much of the Northeast remains rural, while population is mainly concentrated in cities near the coast like New York, Philadelphia, and Boston, which most New Englanders recognize as their regional capital. New Englanders are thought to be conscientious, hard-working, terse, frugal, and cold and inhospitable to outsiders. Though people, living in the Atlantic Northeast far from the urban core, rely mostly on themselves.

2) People from the Southeast region are (потомки) descendents from white English, Irish and Scottish colonists and immigrants, and black Africans who were brought in as slaves to work on the plantations. The people in the highlands of the southern Appalachians still preserve their unique folk traditions that were brought across the Atlantic by their colonial ancestors.

3) People from the Southwest belong to various cultures. They are European, Mexican and Indian. Spanish is spoken as a first or second language by many of the people of the region.

4) The Heartland of today’s America consists of people of different nationalities and countries. They are descendants of pioneer settlers from Germany, Great Britain, the Scandinavian countries, eastern and southern Europe. Lots of black Americans migrated from the South to the Midwest.

5) The population of the West is made up chiefly of people who once came from Europe. There are also several large minority groups in the region. They are people of Mexican, black, and Asian origin. San Francisco in California is famous for its "Chinatowns".

6) The original inhabitants on Hawaii islands are Polynesians. Native population in Alaska is the Eskimos. Native Americans, or American Indians¹, live in reservations² (special territories that were given to them by the state) mostly in the western United States.

_____________

¹ American Indian as a term for an aboriginal inhabitant of North America and parts of the Caribbean, is less offensive than Red Indian, but Native American is even more acceptable. Indian is an ethnically erroneous name which appears due to a mistaken identification of the area by European explorers in the 15th century and 16th century.

² The name " reservation " comes from the conception of the Indian tribes as independent sovereigns at the time the U.S. Constitution was ratified. Thus, the early peace treaties (often signed under force) in which Indian tribes surrendered large portions of land to the U.S. also designated parcels which the tribes, as sovereigns, "reserved" to themselves, and those parcels came to be called "reservations." The term remained in use even after the federal government began to forcibly relocate tribes to parcels of land to which they had no historical connection. At the present time, a slight majority of Native Americans and Alaska Natives live somewhere other than the reservations, often in big western cities such as Phoenix and Los Angeles.

6. The term Yankee (sometimes shortened to Yank) has several interrelated meanings, referring to people from the United States.

Study the information about the etymology and usage of the word “Yankee” paying attention how the meaning of the word has changed throughout the history and complete the summary:

The meaning of Yankee has varied over time.

In the 18th century, Yankee was most often used to refer to residents of New England descended from the original English settlers of the region suggesting Puritanism and thrifty values.

During the War for Independence (1775—1783) British people applied the term to any person from the rebellious colony (the United State).

Since the Civil War (1861—1865) Americans in the southern United States employed the word Yankee in reference to Americans from the northern United States, especially ones who have migrated to the South. A more polite term is Northerner.

Outside the United States, Yankee is slang for anyone from the United States ¹. The shortened form Yank is especially popular in English-speaking countries i.e. Britain, Australia, Canada, Ireland, and New Zealand, and may sometimes be considered offensive or disapproving.

_____________________

¹ Whereas within the US it refers to people originating in the northeastern US, or still more narrowly New England, where application of the term is largely restricted to descendants of the English settlers of the region.

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