Опрос по лингвострановедению для 1 курса

Щелкните здесь для прохождения опроса

The beginning of the United States by Margarita Glinskaya

The size of the United States is practically the same as the whole of Europe.

At the begiёnning of the nineteenth century the biggest part of America was a wilderness and in the end of the century it already had forty-five of the present fifteen states. The urban population had grown from six to forty-four  million between the years 1860-1910. The speed with which America was settled is amazing. How did it all happened?

Between 1620 and 1630 the Founding Fathers (the Pilgrims and Puritans) settled on the northeast coast of North America. Both the Pilgrims and Puritans were part of the Protestant religious group and went to the New World from Great Britain to practice their religion freely. The religious options were strict and influenced every part of their lives: social, political and economic. They were honest, thrifty and believed in hard work and a good education for everyone. Success at work and making money were considered as a sign of God’s favor.

Soon after their arrival the Founding Fathers set up the first British colonies and started successful business: the fish, fur, salt and timber trades. Business and factories developed in and around Boston which soon became an important city and seaport.

At this time the life and economy of the South Atlantic area were agricultural. Towards the end of the 1800s the South became more industrial, in particular Texas with its cotton, cattle and oil industries.

After the American Revolution the thirteen English colonies became the first thirteen states of America.

In 1803 the Fort Dearborn, a US military fort, was built where the city of Chicago stands today. Soon Chicago became an important industrial city of the Midwest.

San Francisco by Gorbacheva Mariya

San Francisco... This city is surrounded on three sides by water and because of
this it has one more name - "The City by the Bay".

We can compare San Francisco with a beautiful bird phoenix. According to the
Greek mythology this bird climbed onto a pile of sticks and burned itself when
it grew old. And then a beautiful new phoenix appeared. And like this bird, San
Francisco has been destroyed plenty of times by fires and earthquakes, but each
time it can rise better and bigger and all of that because of its people. That’s why
the official seal of San Francisco is phoenix.

The history of San Francisco began with the event when in 1769 Spanish friars
begin to teach Christianity to the American Indians. They founded plenty of
missions all along the California coast. Then Don Gaspar discovered San Francisco
bay by chance. Then another Spanish explorer declared that this area was Spain’s
and built there a fort Presidio. There was a new settlement which called Yerba
Buena because of the sweet-smelling plants growing there. Yerba Buena was a
sleepy village until 1848 when California became America. Then Yerba Buena’s
name was changed to San Francisco.

This city would not have begun so popular if only one event had not happened:
the Gold Rush. It changed the future of this city. About 100 miles from San
Francisco gold field was discovered. Plenty of adventurous people with pans and
shovels started to look for gold. These people were called the “forty-niners”.
They travelled on horse, by sea or even on foot. This journey could take five to
eight months. Most of these people didn’t achieve success, but some of them did.
But the cleverest one opened there shops, hotels, banks for other people. One
German immigrant called Levi Strauss began to make strong blue trousers – jeans.
When the Gold Rush began San Francisco had a population of about 900 people,
but by the end of 1849 the population grew to 25 000!

Also the richest people began to build transcontinental railroads there. They
could connect California to the rest of the US.

So, that way San Francisco began strong and rich city .

by Gorbacheva Mariya