《美国文化背景》（美）玛丽安娜·卡尼·戴特斯曼，（美）乔安·|(epub+azw3+mobi+pdf)电子书下载

图书名称：《美国文化背景》

【作　者】（美）玛丽安娜·卡尼·戴特斯曼，（美）乔安·

【页 数】 471

【出版社】 北京联合出版公司 , 2019.08

【ISBN号】978-7-5596-3241-8

【价 格】118.00

【分 类】英语－教材；美国－概况－汉、英

【参考文献】 （美）玛丽安娜·卡尼·戴特斯曼，（美）乔安·. 美国文化背景. 北京联合出版公司, 2019.08.

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图书目录：

《美国文化背景》内容提要：

本书是介绍美国社会与文化的教科书，阐述了美国社会价值观的形成发展历史，以及传统价值观对于美国社会商业、政府、教育、娱乐和家庭等方方面面的影响。第四版延续了以价值观为主的视角，同时也增加了许多新信息与新设计，包括增强了批判性思维的训练，阅读技能的培养，补充了诸如国家债务、枪支暴力、移民改革等许多新的数据和信息等。本书语言为中高级至高级英语级别，配有参考译文、教师指导和练习答案。读者在了解美国社会与文化生活知识的同时，也可以提升自己的英语水平。

《美国文化背景》内容试读

CHAPTER

INTRODUCTION:UNDERSTANDING THE CULTUREOF THE UNITED STATES

Culture hides much more than it reveals,and strangely enough what it hides,it hidesmost effectively from its own participants.Years of study have convinced me that thereal job is not to understand foreign culture but to understand our own.

Eaward T.Hall (1914-2009)

How can you define the culture of a diverse country like the United States,andwhat does it mean to be an American?

Introduction:Understanding the Culture of the United States 1

BEFORE YOU READ

Preview Vocabulary

A.Every chapter of American Ways contains many words from the Academic

Word List (AWL).*Notice the AWL words in italics as you work with apartner to discuss the following questions.

1.If a country has great ethnic diversity,would you expect to find manypeople who speak different languages and have different customs?

2.Could planning a visit to another country motivate someone to learn aforeign language?

3.Should immigrants be required to learn the language of their new countrybefore they become citizens?

4.How could you learn about the customs and traditions for a holiday inanother country?

5.If there are more people in the United States who speak English than

Spanish,which is the dominant language in the United States?

6.Is the climate of a country a significant factor in the daily lives of thepeople?Why?

B.There are five AWL words in the quotation by Edward T.Hall at the beginningof the chapter.Read the quotation and find the words with the followingmeanings.Write each word next to its meaning.

1.made someone think that something is true

2.shows something that was hidden

3.ideas,beliefs,and customs

4.work

5.people who are taking part in an activity

See page 306 for an explanation of the AWL and how to use it.Some of these words are key tounderstanding the chapter reading.

2 Chapter 1

Preview Content

A.Before you read the chapter,think about what you know about the"culture"of a country.Work with a partner and answer the questions.

1.What is the culture of a country?If someone asked you to describe yourcountry's culture,which of these would you mention?

beliefs

government

cities

history

climate

holidays

customs

houses

dance

literature

food

music

geography

Anything else?

2.Do you agree with the quotation by Edward T.Hall?Do people really notunderstand their own culture?What aspects of a country's culture are thehardest to understand?

B.Look at the pictures,charts,and graphs in this chapter,and read the headings.

Then predict three topics you think this chapter will discuss.

2

3

Introduction:Understanding the Culture of the United States 3

LIFE IN THE UNITED STATES

1People are naturally curious about each

on the North American continent when

other.and when we meet people from

the first European settlers arrived,all

different countries,we want to know many

Americans came from other countries-or

things:

their ancestors did.(Incidentally,'some

What is life like in their country?

Native Americans are still members of

What kind of houses do they live in?

separate and distinct Indian nations,each

What kind of food do they eat?

with its own language,culture,traditions,and even government.)In the 1500s,

。What are their customs?

Spain established settlements in Florida,

2 If we visit another country,we can observe

California,and the Southwest,and France

the people and how they live,and we can

claimed large territories in the center of

answer some of these questions.But the

the North American continent.But from

most interesting questions are often the

the 1600s to the birth of the United States

hardest to answer:

in 1776,most immigrants to the colonies

What do the people believe in?

that would form the United States were

What do they value most?

from northern Europe,and the majority

·What motivates them?

were from England.It was these peoplewho shaped the values and traditions that

Why do they behave the way they do?

became the dominant,traditional culture

3In trying to answer these questions about

of the United States.

Americans,we must remember twothings:(1)the immense size of the United

A Nation of Immigrants

States and(2)its great ethnic diversity.It

5 In 1815,the population of the United

is difficult to comprehend the size of the

States was 8.4 million.Over the next 100

country until you try to travel from one

years,the country took in about 35 million

city to another.If you got in a car in New

immigrants,with the greatest numbers

York and drove to Los Angeles,stopping

coming in the late 1800s and the early

only to get gas,eat,and sleep,it would

1900s.Many of these new immigrants

take you four or five days.It takes two full

were not from northern Europe.In 1882,

days to drive from New York to Florida.

40,000 Chinese arrived,and between 1900

On a typical winter day,it might be raining

and 1907 there were more than 30,000

in Washington,D.C.,and snowing in New

Japanese immigrants.But by far the

York and Chicago,while in Los Angeles

largest numbers of the new immigrants

and Miami it is warm enough to swim.It

were from central,eastern,and southern

is not difficult to imagine how different

Europe.The new immigrants brought

daily life might be in such different

different languages and different cultures

climates,or how lifestyles could vary in

to the United States,but gradually most

cities and towns so far apart.

of them assimilated?to the dominant

The other significant factor influencing

American culture they found here.

American life-ethnic diversity-is

6 In 1908,a year when a million new

probably even more important.Aside from

immigrants arrived in the United States,

the Native Americans who were living

Israel Zangwill wrote in a play,

incidentally:by the way

assimilated:became part of a county or group and were accepted by other people in it

4*Chapter 1

America is God's Crucible,3 the great

United States.

Melting-Pot where all the races of

9Immigration laws began to change in

Europe are melting and re-forming...

Germans and Frenchmen,Irishmen and

1965 and the yearly totals began to rise

Englishmen,Jews and Russians-into

again-from about 300,000 per year in

the Crucible with you all!God is making

the 1960s to more than one million per

the American!

year in the 1990s.By the end of thecentury,the United States was admitting

7Since Zangwill first used the term melting

more immigrants than all the other

pot to describe the United States,the

industrialized countries combined.In

concept has been debated.In Chapter 8

addition to legal immigration,estimates

we consider this issue in more detail,and

were that illegal immigration was adding

trace the history of African Americans as

more than half a million more people

well.Two things are certain:The dominant

per year.Changes in the laws that were

American culture has survived,and it has

intended to help family reunifications

more or less successfully absorbed vast

resulted in large numbers of non-

numbers of immigrants at various points

Europeans arriving,thus creating another

in its history.It has also been changed

group of new immigrants.By the late

over time by all the immigrant groups who

1900s,90 percent of all immigrants

have settled here.

were coming from Latin America,the

8

If we look at the immigration patterns

Caribbean,and Asia.

of the 1900s,we see that the greatest

10 In the twenty-first century,the numbers of

numbers came at the beginning and at

new immigrants have begun to approach

the end of the century.During the first

the percentages of the early twentieth

two decades of the twentieth century,

century.Between 1990 and 2010,the

there were as many as one million new

number of foreign-born living in the

immigrants per year,so that by the 1910

United States almost doubled from 20

census,almost 15 percent of all Americans

million to 40 million,with about one-

had been born in another country.In

third arriving since 2000.These new

1921,however,the country began to limit

immigrants accounted for about one-third

immigration,and the Immigration Act of

of the total growth in population and have

1924 virtually closed the door.The total

had an enormous impact on our country.

number of immigrants admitted per year

By the year 2010,about 13 percent of all

dropped from as many as one million

Americans were foreign born.Twelve

to only 150,000.A quota system was

states and the nation's capital had even

established that specified the number of

higher percentages of foreign-born

immigrants that could come from each

residents:

country.It heavily favored immigrants

California,27 percent

from northern and western Europe andseverely limited everyone else.This

New York and New Jersey,each over

system remained in effect until 1965,with

21 percent

several exceptions allowing groups of

Florida and Nevada,each over 19

refugees from countries such as Hungary,

percent

Cuba,Vietnam,and Cambodia into the

3 crucible:a container in which substances are heated to a very high levelreunifications:the joining of the parts of something together again

Introduction:Understanding the Culture of the United States5

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