Lesson49 This is the USA
The United States of America — the richest and one of the biggest countriesin the world — has several names. People call it "the United states", "theStates", "America", or just "the USA" or "the US".
There are fifty states in the USA (including Hawaii) with a population ofover 200 million. There is no "American climate" or "American countryside".
Every part of the country is different, from Alaska in the north, coveredwith snow and ice, to tropical Florida in the south.
Who are the Americans? Where did they come from? Why did so many people goacross the sea to the New World?
The American Indians were the first people to live in this vast land. Theyhad a fascinating ancient culture, and a rich tradition of language andcustoms. When Christopher Columbus arrived, in 1492, there were probablyabout 1,500,000 Indians in North America. Then, the immigrants came. By theearly nineteenth century, the immigrant population was more than 17 million.
Most came from Europe, but there were also many from the Middle East and theFar East, as well as millions of Africans, caught in the terrible slavetrade.
Immigration continued. In 1907 alone, one and a quarter million peoplearrived. By 1914, the population was 92 million. Now there are more than 25million British Americans (nearly half the population of Britain), about 23million African Americans, 25 million German Americans and more IrishAmericans than the whole population of Ireland.
tropical 热带(地区)的
immigrant 移民
这就是美国
美利坚合众国是世界上最为富有的国家和国土面积最大的国家之一，它拥有好几个名称。人们称之为“美利坚合众国”、“美国”、“USA”或“US”。
美国有五十个州（包括夏威夷），两亿多人口。没有什么“美国式气候”或“美国式乡村”，因为从北端冰雪覆盖的阿拉斯加，到南端炎热潮湿的佛罗里达，美国的每一个地方都不一样。
美国人什么样的人？他们从哪里来？为什么那么多的人漂洋过海来到这个新大陆？
美洲印第安人是这片广阔大陆上的最早居民。他们有令人着迷的古老文明和积淀深厚的语言及习俗的传统。克里斯托夫•哥伦布一四九二年到达北美时，那里大约有一百五十万印第安人。然后，有移民来到北美。十九世纪早期，移民人口已超过一千七百万，他们大多来自欧洲，也有许多来自中东和远东，还有罪恶的奴隶贸易带来的几百万非洲黑人。
移民潮持续着，仅一九零七年一年，就涌入一百二十五万人。到一九一四年，美国人口达到了九千两百万。现在，超过两千五百万的美国人是英国移民后代（几乎是英国人口的一半），非洲裔美国人大约两千三百万，德裔美国人两千五百万，还有数量超过爱尔兰总人口的爱尔兰裔美国人。 |