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 ________, while population is mainly concentrated in __________________ like _________, ___________, and ___________, which most New Englanders recognize as _______________________. New Englanders are thought to be __________________, _______________, _________, _________, and ______ and ________________ to outsiders. Though people, living in the Atlantic Northeast far from the ____________, rely mostly ______________.

2) People from the Southeast region are (потомки) ____________ from ____________, _______ and ___________ colonists and immigrants, and black Africans who _________________________ on the plantations. The people in the highlands of __________________________ still ___________ their unique folk traditions that were _________________________ by their ___________________.

3) People from the Southwest belong to various cultures. They are ___________, _________ and __________. ___________ 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 ___________________ from _____________, ________________, the ____________________, eastern and southern _____________. Lots of black Americans migrated from the ___________ to the _____________.

5) The population of the West is made up chiefly of people who once came from ___________. There are also several large minority groups in the region. They are people of ___________, _________, and __________ origin. San Francisco in California is famous for its ________________.

6) The original inhabitants on Hawaii islands are _____________. Native population in Alaska is the _____________. 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 _____________ descended from the _____________________________________ of the region suggesting Puritanism and thrifty values.

During the ______________________ (1775—1783) ________________applied the term to any person from the rebellious colony (the United State).

Since the _______________ (1861—1865) Americans in the _____________________ employed the word Yankee in reference to Americans from the ________________________, especially ones who have migrated to the __________. A more polite term is Northerner.

Outside the United States, Yankee is slang for anyone from the _______________¹. The shortened form Yank is especially popular in ________________________ 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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