20111214英语国家社会与文化复习提纲(2)

4. The Americans disobeyed the Intolerable Act passed by British Parliament and boycotted British trade.

The Declaration of Independence

1.mainly drafted by Thomas Jefferson and was adopted by the Congress on July 4, 1776, when the people of 13 English colonies in North America were

2.fighting for their freedom and independence from the British colonial rule. The document declared that all men were equal and that they were entitled to have some unalienable (不可剥夺的) rights such as life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness

3.It also explained the philosophy of governments: the powers of governments came from the consent of the governed and the purpose of governments was to secure the rights mentioned above. The theory of politics and the guiding principles of the American Revolution mainly came from John Locke(约翰·洛克)

Chapter 8 the Political System in the US and American Economy

two major political parties and presidents out of them: the Democratic Party, formed before 1800; the Republican Party, formed in the 1850s, by people in the states of the North and West.

America’s first constitution:the Articles of Confederation

The Congress of the United States is divided into two houses: the House of Representatives that comprises lawmakers who serve two-year terms and the Senate that comprises lawmakers who serve six-year terms.

the power of the American president--the executive power

Industrial Revolution in America (P83)：

The first factory in the United States

The best-known stock exchange is New York Stock Exchange, located in Wall Street area of New York City.

Chapter 9 American Literature

Washington Irving, largely credited as the first American Man of Letters, and the first to earn his living solely by his pen

James Fenimore Cooper, Leatherstocking Tales , featuring frontiersman Natty Bumppo.

Masterpiece：

Ralph Emerson and his Nature, As a lecturer and orator, Emerson—nicknamed the Concord Sage—became the leading voice of intellectual culture in the United States.

Nature： the Bible of New England

Edgar Alan Poe’s role in American literature, Nathanial Hawthorne and his the Scarlet Letter

Ernest Hemingway and his major works (P109)Spokesman of “the Lost Generation”（迷惘的一代）

Notable award(s)

1954

– 1953

Mark Twain and his The Gilded Age(The United States developed very quickly during the period between the Civil War and World War I. Mark Twain described the time as the Gilded Ages in which superficial prosperity covered tremendous poverty and suffering.)

The ten years between 1919 and 1929, usually called the “Roaring Twenties” or the “Jazz Age”, a time of carefree prosperity, isolation from the world’s problems, bewildering social changes and a feverish pursuit of pleasure.

The masterpiece of T.S. Eliot: The Waste Land

Toni Morrison won the Nobel Prize for literature in 1993, the first Afro-American writer to receive this honor.

Chapter 10 American Education

the ladder education system 1.Elementary schools 2.Secondary education 3.Colleges and Universities

What contributions did Puritans make to American education?

1. In 1634, they open a “Latin grammar” school, a school for those who wanted to prepare for college.

2. In 1636, Harvard College was founded for the training of religious ministers

3. In 1634 and 1638, the Puritans passed laws declaring that all property could be taxed for the common good, which included the support of schools.(清教徒制定的法律规定，所有的财产都要上税，用于支持公益项目，包括对学校的赞助

4. In 1642 and 1647, the Bay Colony passed laws requiring all parents to provide reading education for their children.

5. In less than 20 years, the Puritans introduced two practices that still influence American youth

The Servicemen’s Readjustment Act, or GI Bill of Rights

the development of American higher education (ppt)

Chapter 11 Social Movements of the 1960s

The civil rights movement, together with the youth’s anti-war movement, and women’s movement during the 1960s had been deeply rooted in US history.

The Civil Rights Movement：When? Why? How? What consequences/ influences?

Chapter 12 Foreign Relations of the United States

the Louisiana Purchase doubled America’s geographical space

the Monroe Doctrine (ppt)

Chapter 13 Canada

The capital city of Canada

French colonists first came and settled Canada.

Around the beginning of the 20th century, Chinese laborers came to Canada to build the Canadian Pacific Railroad.

Bilingualism

Apart from Paris, France, Montreal is regarded as the largest French-speaking city in the world, known as “Paris the Second”

Multiculturalism

Chapter 14 Australia

Australia’s practice of racial segregation

The gold rush

the massive post-war immigration program