The Government of the United States

The USA — the United States of America — is a federation of fifty states. Forty-eight of these states are in the same general area, between Canada in the north and Mexico in the south. The other two

states are geographically separate: Alaska is in the extreme north-west of the American continent, and Hawaii is in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. The federal capital is Washington, D.C., south of New York near the east coast.

Washington is the centre of federal government, but each state has its own capital and its own government. State governments have a large amount of power and independence: they make their own laws, and they're also responsible for education, for the state police force, for the prison system, for road-building and many other things.

Federal laws are made by Congress, which is the equivalent of the British Parliament. There are two "houses": the House of Representatives and the Senate. Each state sends representatives and senators to Congress. Elections to the House of Representatives are held every two years, while Senators are elected for a six-year period.

The President is elected separately, together with the Vice-President. They serve for a term of four years. The President chooses the people who will form the cabinet. These do not have to be elected members of Congress — they can be brought in from outside Congress — but the Senate must approve their appointment. Power is shared between the President and Congress, and if the President belongs to the minority party in Congress, it can cause problems.

There are two main political parties in the United States: the Democrats and the Republicans. The Democrats are slightly more to the left than the Republicans, but the differences between their policies are not usually very great.

The United States does not have a separate ceremonial Head of State.

General Comprehension

Read the article and mind the main peculiarities of American industry and agriculture.

American Economy

The United States is the leading economic power in the world. It is a fully developed industrial country with a very solid agricultural basis.

Industry. American industry is distributed unevenly. Originally most of the industrial enterprises were located in the eastern part of the country. But industry was spreading out as there was a tendency

to build factories far removed from the home plant and closer to natural resources and markets. Good transportation facilities and rapid communications systems made it possible for the main plants to keep in touch with branch factories.

Today the United States is an industrial country with various branches of heavy industry prevailing, namely, the mining, metallurgical, automobile and chemical industries as well as engineering. Many branches of light industry are also developed, among them are the textile, food and woodworking industries. The leading US exports are industrial machinery, electronic equipment, armaments, grain, oil products and chemicals.

New industries are created as new discoveries are made in physics, chemistry and other sciences. Atomic energy, for instance, has created a wide range of new industries. Electronics has become a major industry.

A great deal of attention is devoted to research and the number of scientists and engineers at the plants is steadily growing. Mechanization and automation did away with thousands of office jobs, intensified production and increased labour productivity.

Rapid development of communication means has facilitated cooperation and control but increased competition. Competition is a struggle for survival, victory being on the side of professionals. Special emphasis is being laid on management training. A great number of schools and colleges are training young people to become industrial leaders.

Agriculture. Agriculture serves as the foundation of American econo­mic life, accounting for a larger portion of the United States' GNP.

Until recently, most of the farmers in the Central Basin practiced "general farming", that is, the family produced as much of its own food as possible, and sold whatever remained to buy things it could not produce or make. Today, however, nearly all the farm families do "commercial farming": they raise products for sale and do not generally try to produce crops to be self-sufficient. This change from general farming to commercial farming represents a kind of agricultural revolution.

To make the fanners' work more productive, scientific methods of farming are employed. Scientists have bred new hybrid plants and animals which give more food. New ways have been found for

controlling harmful insects, for preserving food, for packaging, storing and marketing farm products.

Great progress has been made in using the land itself. Through improved methods of fertilization and conservation, farms are yielding more than ever before. In many areas, like the Great Plains, land once used inefficiently for grazing is now used to produce food.

But perhaps the most remarkable achievements have resulted from irrigation. West of the Mississippi River, about 18 million hectares, once thought useless, have been reclaimed through irrigation projects and supply water and power to many plants.

As a result of the growing use of up-to-date farm machinery and advances in the development of fertilizers and in the breeding of crops and animals, the average size of farms in the United States increased from 60 hectares in 1920 to 180 hectares in the 1990s. At the same time the number of farms was rapidly decreasing.

Some of the main crops grown in the USA are wheat, maize, cotton, tobacco and fruit. Cattle-breeding and pig raising make up an important part of America's agriculture.

9. Pronunciation

A. Underline the main stress in each word. Practise saying the
words.

Agriculture, transportation, automobile, engineering, mechanization, automation, productivity, fertilization, facilitate.

B. Circle the word in each line which has a different vowel
sound. Listen to the teacher and check your answers.

 

1) basis	range	rapid	major
2) serve	work	research	resource
3) deal	great	yield	increase
4) change	market	plant	branch
5) buy	raise	light	wide

Word Study

A. Find international words in the text and write them out. Learn
their correct pronunciation.

B. Give Russian equivalents to the following word combinations:

a solid agricultural basis; to be distributed unevenly; American industry was spreading out; home plant; good transportation facilities;

rapid communications systems; with various branches of industry prevailing; a wide range of new industries; a major industry; a great deal of attention; to intensify production; to increase labour productivity; to facilitate cooperation; to increase competition; to account for a larger portion of the United States' GNP; to produce crops to be self-sufficient; to employ scientific methods of farming; to breed new hybrid plants; to reclaim land through irrigation projects; advances in the development of fertilizers.

С Give English equivalents to the word combinations:

природные богатства; поддерживать связь с филиалами; до­бывающая промышленность; машиностроение; тяжелая про­мышленность; легкая промышленность; деревообрабатывающая промышленность; оружие / боеприпасы; неуклонно расти; сделать невостребованными тысячи канцелярских должностей; борьба за выживание; делать особый упор на; продавать все, что осталось; консервировать продукты; упаковывать, хранить и доставлять на рынок сельскохозяйственные продукты; снабжать водой и энерги­ей; современное сельскохозяйственное машинное оборудование; составлять важную часть американского сельского хозяйства; со­бирать самые большие урожаи.

D. Match the words from A with their opposites from B.

 

A	В
facilitate, competition, useless, professional, conserve, up-to-date, self-sufficient, even, removed, intensify, scientific	out-of-date, uneven, unscientific, destroy, close, weaken, dependent, hinder, useful, monopoly, amateur

E. Substitute the words and expressions in bold for those which were used in the text. If necessary, change their grammatical form.

 

self-sufficient	up-to-date	do awav with	employ
yield	facilitate	account for	lay emphasis on
raise	basis

1. A lot of the restrictions on imports have been put an end to. 2. We should pay greater attention to staff development. 3. Two methods can be used. 4. Their current economic prosperity rests on rather weak foundations. 5. Computers can be used to make

language learning easier. 6. Our factory has installed the most modern equipment. 7. Are farmers able to provide for themselves everything they need? 8. The land produced a good wheat crop. 9. She's been keeping sheep for over 40 years. 10. Imports from Japan constituted 40 % of the total.

F. Find words and expressions in the text with the following
meanings:

1) to improve an area of land so that it can be used; 2) to produce new plants or animals from existing ones, usually with particular qualities; 3) to put an animal in a place where it can eat grass; 4) to add a natural or chemical substance to soil in order to help plants grow; 5) the total value of all the goods and services that a country produces in a year; 6) valuable substances such as wood and oil that exist in a country's land and sea; 7) the ways in which a company encourages people to buy its products by deciding on price, type of customer, and advertising policy; 8) a unit for measuring an area of land, equal to 10,000 square metres; 9) a tall plant that produces yellow seeds that are cooked and eaten; 10) the management of land and water in ways that prevent it from being damaged or destroyed.

G. Make nouns from these verbs. Group the nouns according to
the way they are formed.

Distribute, locate, remove, communicate, equip, create, intensify, cooperate, control, compete, survive, struggle, emphasise, change, harm, fertilize, conserve, supply, advance, breed.

7 7. Grammar Focus

A. Give the three forms of the verbs:

build, make, keep, develop, create, become, devote, grow, lay, lie, train, serve, sell, buy, raise, breed, give, find, use, graze, supply.

B. Complete the sentences by using one of the words on the
left and combining it with one of the prepositions on the right.
Prepositions can be used more than once. If necessary, change the
form of the words on the left.

 

account	deal	devote	do	away	in	of
lay	make	close	removed	to	from	for
result	keep			on

1. The factory was built closer to the natural resource but too far

....... the home plant. 2. The hotel is.......... the centre of the town,

you can even walk downtown. 3. They moved away five years ago,

but we still.......... touch. 4. A great........... research has been done

already. 5. Few people are able to... themselves fully... their career.

6. Automation........ with thousands of office jobs. 7. The course...

emphasis... practical work. 8. Repeat purchases......... 73% of our

sales. 9. Recently negotiators have... considerable progress... the
talks. 10. These problems........ past errors.

C. Find sentences with the absolute participial construction in the
text "American Economy" and translate them.

D. Find the verbals in the text and state their functions.

Diving Deeper

A. Answer the questions.

1. How is American industry distributed? 2. What are the main branches of American industry? 3. As a result of what are new industries created? 4. How important is research in American economy? 5. What increased competition? 6. What role does the development of agriculture play in the economic situation of the country? 7. What two trends were there in the development of US fanning throughout its history? 8. What is done to make the farmers' work more productive? 9. How has farming changed over the last century? 10. What are the main branches of American agriculture?

B. Finish the sentences according to the text.

1. The distribution of American industry changed as....2. Various branches of both heavy industry and.... 3. The US exports.... 4. New discoveries made in different sciences facilitate.... 5. Many office workers lost their jobs as a result of.... 6. To survive in the harsh conditions of competition,.... 7. There was a kind of agricultural revolution when the farm families.... 8. Farms are yielding more than ever before because.... 9. The average size of farms in the United States increased as a result of.... 10. Important branches of American agriculture are....

Speaking

Prove the statements using the information from the text.

• American industry is distributed unevenly.

• A great deal of attention in American economy is devoted to research.

• The economy of the country has a very solid agricultural basis.

• A lot is being done to make the farmers' work more productive.

Role-Playing