PopulationThe population is 285 million. 25% of Americansare under 18 years old. 12% are over 65. 75% arewhite. 18% of Americans speak another language(not English) at home.

GovernmentThe president, senators and representatives governthe USA from the capital, Washington. This is inthe district of Columbia between the states ofMaryland and Virginia.

CurrencyAmericans use dollars. There are 100 cents in one dollar. There is a one-dollar bill (a note) and a one-dollar coin. There are three other coins: the quarter (25 cents), the dime (10 cents) andthe nickel (5 cents).

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GeographyThe USA is a big country. It is 4,800 km from thePacific Ocean in the west to the Atlantic Ocean inthe east. From the north (the Canadian border) tothe south (the Mexican border) the distance is2,400 km.

Time The USA covers six time zones from New York toHawaii. Chicago is one hour behind New York;Denver is two hours behind New York; Los Angelesis three hours behind New York; Anchorage inAlaska is four hours behind New York; Honolulu inthe Hawaiian Islands is five hours behind New York.

ClimateThere are big differences in temperature across theUSA. The climate in Alaska in the north is arctic,but in the south in Florida it is tropical.

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The USA – some facts and figures

1 Quante cose sai sugli Stati Uniti? Fai questo rapido quiz.

2 T4.15 Ascolta e leggi il testo per controllare se hai ragione.

Quiz True False1 The Pacific Ocean is west of the USA. ■ ■2 Mexico is east of the USA. ■ ■3 75% of people in the USA are over 18 years old. ■ ■4 ‘Dime’ is another name for a dollar. ■ ■

USA

New York

New Orleans

Denver

Los Angeles

Las Vegas

San Francisco

Boston

PhiladelphiaWashington

The AtlanticThe

Pacific

Mexico

Canada

Chicago

Culture

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This city is on the edge of Lake Michigan.It’s famous for its modern architecture andit has one of the world’s tallest buildings –the Sears Tower.

3 T4.16 Ascolta e leggi. Sei capace di abbinarequeste città alle descrizioni?

Chicago New Orleans

San Francisco Boston

Los Angeles Philadelphia

Las Vegas New York

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Quante cose sai dell’Italia? Prendiappunti per ognuno di questi titoli.• Geografia • Governo• Clima • Valuta• Popolazione

Adesso pensa ad alcune città italiane escrivi dei dati che le riguardano. La classeriesce a indovinare di che città si tratta?

Portfolio

People call this city ‘The Big Apple’.You cansee the Empire State Building and the Statueof Liberty here.

This city is in the Nevada desert.The mainstreet is called ‘The Strip’.The Strip is 6 kmlong. It’s famous for its casinos. 37 millionpeople visit the city every year. Some hopeto win a lot of money.

This is Pennsylvania’s largest city.TheFounding Fathers (the first leaders of theindependent United States) wrote theDeclaration of Independence here. It wasthe first capital of the USA.

This city is in California. It’s the home ofHollywood and Disneyland.

This city is very old. It’s on the east coast on Massachusetts Bay. It’s a centre of historyand culture. It was an important place at thestart of the American Revolution.

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This city is on the west coast of the USA inCalifornia. It has 43 hills and the famousGolden Gate Bridge.

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A terrible hurricane destroyed this city in2005. It’s the home of Mardi Gras and it’s in a part of the USA called The Deep South.It’s on the Gulf of Mexico.

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Monuments and places of historic interest1 T4.17 Osserva le foto di alcuni monumenti americani. Cerca di dirne

il nome. Poi ascolta e leggi. Abbina le foto ai testi.

The Golden Gate BridgeThe Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco is 2.7 km long and itrises 227 m above the water. The Golden Gate Bridge is verystrong and can survive 165 km/h winds. This is because its legs go30 m down into the sea bed. 40 million vehicles cross it each year– that’s 118,000 a day. The original paint lasted 27 years, but nowworkmen paint the bridge all the time and it takes four years.Then they start again. It’s orange and it’s called the ‘golden’ gatebecause it crosses the Golden Gate– a channel of water betweenSan Francisco Bay and the Pacific Ocean.

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The Statue of LibertyThe Statue of Liberty was the first thing immigrants to the USAsaw when they arrived in New York. The statue is on New YorkHarbor*. The flame in the statue’s hand is a symbol of liberty and freedom and the rays on her crown represent the seven seasand the seven continents. The statue was a gift to the USA fromthe French in 1884. It celebrated 100 years of AmericanIndependence. The model for the woman was the sculptor’smother, Marie Bartholdi. The Statue is 93 m high and there are 354 steps to reach the top.

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Mount RushmoreMount Rushmore, in the Black Hills of South Dakota, is both a mountain and a monument. It is a monument to Americanhistory. The faces of four former presidents – George Washington,Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln and Theodore Roosevelt –are carved into the side of the mountain. The enormous faces inthe rock are 15–21 m high. The sculptor, Gutzon Borglum, startedwork with his team in 1927. He died before he finished, but hisson, Lincoln, continued his work. Around two million visitorsevery year go to see this famous and extraordinary monument.

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Culture

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2 Leggi queste frasi e abbinale a unmonumento del testo.

1 It is a statue of a woman. 2 It is 448 m high. 3 It’s in South Dakota.4 It is over 250 years old. 5 The official address is

1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. 6 It’s orange. 7 It cost $25 million. 8 It was a gift from the French.

3 Rispondi a queste domande.1 Where is the Statue of Liberty? 2 How many steps are there to the top? 3 How many people visit Mount Rushmore

every year? 4 Which presidents can you see at Mount

Rushmore? 5 What happens at Capitol Hill? 6 Where does the president of the USA live

and work? 7 How long does it take to paint the

Golden Gate Bridge? 8 Who opened the Empire State Building?

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Pensa all’Italia e rispondi a questedomande:• Quale pensi sia il monumento più

famoso d’Italia?

• Dove si trova?

• A quando risale?

• Che cosa sai sulla storia di questo monumento?

Prendi degli appunti su questomonumento e poi riferisci alla classe.Sono tutti d’accordo?

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The Empire State BuildingBefore the World Trade Center,** this building was the tallest in New York. It has 102 storeys.It’s 448 m high. The cost of the building wasnearly $25 million and it took over 3,500workers to build it. President Hoover opened itofficially in May, 1931. He pressed a button inWashington DC and this turned on the lights in the whole building.

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The White HouseThe White House is important because thepresident of the USA lives and works there. The official address is 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue,Washington DC. In 1800 John Adams becamethe first president to live there. The president worksin the famous Oval Office and he/she can agree to the new laws from Congress, or he / she canstop them. There are 132 rooms, 32 bathroomsand 6 floors. There is also a tennis court,swimming pool and cinema.

The CapitolWhen people in Washington DC talk about ‘the Hill’ they mean Capitol Hill, the home of the US Senate. It’s a beautiful, classical, whitebuilding with a dome and it’s over 250 years old.Congress meets there. Congress is the Americanparliament and it makes new laws and importantdecisions. There are two parts of Congress: theHouse of Representatives and the Senate. There are435 representatives and 100 senators and theyrepresent all the states of the USA.

*harbor (US) = harbour (UK)

**center (US) = centre (UK)

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The original sign, now famous across the world,was an advert for land for sale. It said ‘Hollywoodland’.

In these years, most films were in black and white,but a few were in colour. The first ‘talkies’ (films with sound) also appeared.

The big studios began to make blockbusters, with big stars, special effects and big soundtracks (music). They spent millions of dollars on these films.The most famous blockbuster of this period was Jaws. This was also the start of Stephen Spielberg’s amazing career. He was responsible for many famousfilms: ET, Jurassic Park, Back to the Future and many more.Star Wars was also a famous blockbuster of this period.

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Hollywood and the history of American cinema1 T4.18 Osserva la linea del tempo della storia del cinema americano.

Inserisci il testo mancante nella posizione corretta sulla linea del tempo. Poi ascolta e controlla le tue risposte.

1990s – today

1970s – 1980s

1950s – 1960s

1930s – 1940s

Late 1920s

Early 1920s

1908

1923

Culture

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2 Rispondi a queste domande.1 What was Hollywood’s original name? 2 Where is Hollywood? 3 Why was Hollywood the ideal place to

make films?4 What are ‘talkies’? 5 Which years were the Golden Age

of Hollywood? 6 How many Oscars did Walt Disney win? 7 Why did the cinema lose some of its

attraction in the 1950s?8 Which word describes films such as

Jaws and Star Wars?

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Rispondi a queste domande.• Che genere di film ti piace?• Qual è il tuo film preferito in

assoluto? Perché?• Chi è il tuo / a attore / attrice

preferito / a?

Pensa a un bel film che hai visto di recente. Prendi degli appuntisull’argomento del film. Di’ se ti èpiaciuto o no e perché. Poi riferisci le tue informazioni alla classe.

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These years were the Golden Age of Hollywood. New filmstudios, such as Warner Bros and Paramount, controlled actors’lives. Famous actors of this time were John Wayne, HumphreyBogart and Clark Gable. These were the years of spectacularmusicals.Walt Disney, one of the most famous directors of alltime, started making films. He won 39 Oscars and was famous forhis fantastic cartoons. He made his first cartoon film, Snow Whiteand the Seven Dwarfs, in 1937.

Now most of the film studios are outside Hollywood. There is anew trend in film-making, CGI (computer-generated images).This produces films with incredible special effects, like The Lordof the Rings, King Kong and Shrek.

The story of Hollywood began when people in New York realisedthat California was a good place for making films.The weather wasgood, there was a lot of beautiful scenery and land was cheap.

Universal Studios and United Artists were the first studios. Theymade the first films. The first films were silent and were oftencomedies. Charlie Chaplin was a famous actor at this time andmade many popular films, such as The Kid (1921).

The Golden Age came to an end when television becamepopular and the cinema lost its attraction. Other countriesstarted to have film studios, but Hollywood was still the centre of the film industry.

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Native Americans1 Rispondi a queste domande. Poi leggi il testo

per controllare se hai ragione.

1 Who were the first Americans? 2 Where did they come from? 3 What languages did they speak?

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1 The first Americans came from Asia. Theywalked across the Bering Strait thousands ofyears ago, when the strait was still land. Theywere hunters. These Native Americans were inlots of different groups, called tribes. The mostfamous tribes were the Sioux, the Apache, theCherokees, the Navajo, the Black Foot and theCheyenne, but there were about 150 tribes.Each tribe spoke a different language.

2 When the first Europeans arrived, the Native Americans helped them. At the firstThanksgiving meal, the Pilgrim Fatherscelebrated with the Native Americans. As moreEuropeans arrived, there was a fight for land.The new Europeans wanted more land and theytook it by force from the Native American tribes.The Europeans didn’t like the culture andtraditions of the Native Americans. They tried to destroy their way of life.

3 The tribes learnt to fight the white men withguns. One famous Apache chief was calledGeronimo. He fought against the US army inArizona. At the battle of Little Bighorn 2,000Sioux and Cheyenne warriors and their chief,Sitting Bull, killed General Custer and around230 of his soldiers. The final battle was in1890 at Wounded Knee, in South Dakota. USsoldiers killed around 200 Native Americanmen, women and children from the Sioux tribe.

4 Now there are about two million Native Americansin North America. They belong to 550 tribes andthey speak 150 Native American languages, butmany Native Americans speak English now. Aboutone million Native Americans live on reservations.There are still some special laws for NativeAmericans, for example, most Americans musthave a licence if they want to hunt or fish in thecountryside, but Native Americans can hunt andfish when and where they want.

Culture

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3 Conosci già molte parole degli indianid’America perché sono i nomi di statiamericani. Sei capace di dire dove si trovano in America?

Native American place namesiowa = this is the placemissouri = town of the large canoeskansas = people of the south winddakota = friendsmassachusetts = from the big hilloklahoma = red peoplemichigan = big lakeutah = people of the mountainsmississippi = father of waterswyoming = mountains and valleysconnecticut = next to the long river

4 Decidi se le affermazioni sono vere (T) o false (F).Correggi quelle false.

1 The Native Americans belonged to two tribes. 2 The Native Americans had immediate

problems with the Europeans. 3 The Europeans wanted more land so

they took this from the Native Americans.4 Geronimo was a famous US general.5 General Custer won the Battle of Little

Bighorn. 6 The Native Americans today only

speak English. 7 The Black Hills are important and special

to the Sioux people.8 Crazy Horse was the horse of a famous

Sioux warrior.

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Pensa a un paese che hai studiato o checonosci (ad esempio, l’Italia o l’Inghilterra).Informati sulle origini e sulle primepopolazioni che hanno vissuto lì. Prendidegli appunti secondo questi titoli:• Le origini dei primi abitanti• Le lingue che parlavano• Invasioni da parte di altre popolazioni

Scrivi un breve paragrafo (25–35 parole).Poi riferisci alla classe.

Portfolio5 The Black Hills in South Dakota are amysterious, holy place for the Sioux tribe. Now they are the site of the giant faces of fourAmerican presidents at Mount Rushmore. Butthere is a more exciting sculpture. It’s the CrazyHorse Memorial. This statue of the great Siouxwarrior, Crazy Horse, is not finished but it willbe the world’s largest statue. At the moment,only his face is complete – but that’s 27m tall!

2 T4.19 Rileggi il testo e inserisci i seguentititoli di paragrafo nel posto corretto. Poiascolta e controlla le tue risposte.

a Today b Originsc A monument to a Sioux warriord Conflict e Contact with the first Europeans

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Culture

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2 T4.20 Ascolta e leggi il testo. Poi rispondi alle domande.

The education system in the USA is not anational system. The states are responsible for schools. Most children begin withkindergarten at the age of five or six. In somestates you can leave school at 16. In othersyou have to go to school until you are 18.

85% of students go to public schools, whichare free. Students are at school from about8.30 a.m. to 3 p.m. Most schools have a longsummer break of about two and a half months.

Students go to elementary school for six years.They stay in a single classroom with oneteacher for the day, except for PhysicalEducation (PE), Music and Art. The mostimportant subjects are English and Maths.

Students go to middle school (or junior highschool) for three years. Each class has adifferent teacher. The main classes are Englishand Reading, Maths, Science, Social Scienceand Technology. They also have to do PE.

American students go to senior high school for four years and continue to do a lot ofdifferent subjects. To get a High SchoolDiploma the students have to do thesesubjects: English, Maths, Science, Social Science (History, Government and Economics)and PE. Other courses are electives (subjectsthat students can choose).

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Education in the United States

1 Quante cose sai del sistema scolastico americano? Abbina le didascalie alle foto(1 – 3). Ora ascolta e leggi il testo percontrollare le tue risposte.

Students have a big party after Graduation Day.

Cheerleading is a popular after-school activity.

Students can choose many electives.

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1 How long do students stay at middle school?

2 What are electives? 3 When do students start to do electives? 4 Which subjects must students do to get

a High School Diploma? 5 Which foreign languages are common at

high school? 6 What happens on Graduation Day?

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Pensa all’Italia. Rispondi a queste domande sulle scuole italiane:• Quanto dura la giornata scolastica?• A che età è possibile abbandonare la scuola?• Ci sono esami nazionali? A che età?• Gli studenti si specializzano a seconda delle materie? A che età?

Prendi degli appunti sulle risposte che hai dato e scrivi un breve paragrafo (25 – 35parole) sulle scuole italiane.

Portfolio

3 Osserva le informazioni sulle scuole americane. Completa la tabellacon informazioni sulle scuole italiane.

US schools Italian schools

Types of school Nursery (under 5)

(and age) Elementary (5–11)

Middle / Junior high (11–14)

Senior high (14–18)

Higher education College (18–22)

Graduate school (23+)

Common electives are:• Visual Arts (drawing, painting,

photography, film, etc.)

• Performing Arts (drama, orchestra, dance, etc.)

• Foreign Languages (French, German and Spanish are common. Latin, Japanese and Chinese are less common.)

• Athletics (which means various sports such as baseball,basketball and swimming)

• Computer Skills

• Shop (including technology, metalwork and car repair)

American students also do a lot of after-schoolactivities. Sports, bands and cheerleading areall very popular.

The High School Diploma is a very importantmoment in a student’s life. There is aceremony – Graduation Day – when studentsdress up in gowns and mortar boards (specialhats). After the ceremony, the students usuallyhave a big party – the High School Prom.

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The USA - some facts and figuresMonuments and places of historic interestHollywood and the history of American cinemaNative AmericansEducation in the United States