“The USA Today” Country and People

Let’s guess the words A very high building a skyscraper Different things put together A mixture To begin To rise

A person who settles questions brought before a court A judge A place where there is a mixing of people of different races and nationalities A melting pot Strong, powerful Mighty

Wild, open land covered mainly with grass Grassland Sandy country with little water and few plants A dessert A number of connected things A chain

A change to make a law better An amendment A person who lives in this or that city, state or country A citizen A person who is chosen to act in place of others A representative

A long round nose of an elephant A trunk A room or building in which law cases can be heard or judged A court An active help to get success A support

Представители народа People’s representatives Поддержка друзей The friend’s support Подчиняться правилам To obey the rules Школьный семестр A school term

Вносить поправки To make amendments Объявлять собрание открытым To declare the meeting open Принять законопроект To pass a bill Принимать решение To take/make a decision

Верховный суд The Supreme Court Судя по … Judging by Не имеет значения как No matter how Дупло в стволе дерева A hole in the trunk of the tree

Geography

The Geographical Outlook The USA is washed by the Pacific Ocean in the west, by the Atlantic Ocean in the east, by the Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of Mexico in the South. In the north are Great Lakes.

The Mississippi River The Mississippi travels through several states and becomes larger and more powerful, it brings water to farmlands. And it has been an important waterway since early times…

The Colorado River The Colorado River rises in the Rocky Mountains. The river formed the Great Canyon over millions of years. Slowly the river cut down through hard rock.

The Great Canyon Today the Canyon is one mile deep and 200 miles long. It’s interesting that there are different kinds of plants and animals on opposite sides of the canyon.

The Great Lakes The Great Lakes are a chain of freshwater lakes located in eastern North America on the Canada-United States border. Consisting of Lakes Superior, Michigan, Huron, Erie and Ontario. They form the largest group of water fresh lakes on Earth.

The “New World” Americans like to be modern. They like exciting, modern cities, new houses, new cars.

Texas Texas is a state geographically located in the south-central part of the United Stattes, which the Cences Bureau places in a sub-region of the US South designated West South Central. It is also known as the Lone Star State.

History Prior to European colonization, Texas was inhabited by Native American nations. Spain was the first European country to claim the territory of Texas. Starting in the 1820s, American and European immigrants began arriving in the area. Mexico declared its independence from Spain, and Texas declared its independence from Mexico on March 2, 1836. Following this date, Texas existed as the independent republic for nearly a decade. In 1845, it joined the United States as the 28th state.

Geography The geography of Texas spans a wide range of features and timelines. Texas is the southernmost part of the Great Plains, which ends in the south against the folded Sierra Madre Oriental of Mexico. It is in the south-central part of the United States of America. It is considered to form part of the U.S. South and also part of the U.S. Southwest.

Climate The large size of Texas and its location at the intersection of several climate zones gives the state highly variable weather. In general, though, it has the humid subtropical climate.

Political Outlook

The Constitution The Constitution is the highest law in the USA which describes the powers of the national government and the powers of the state government. After the War of Independence the states needed one strong national government.

The US Government The USA government is like a tree with a strong trunk and three branches. The trunk is the people. The first branch is the Congress, the second one is the President and the third one is the Supreme Court.

The Congress The Congress is the meeting of representatives from all states. They meet in the US Capitol in Washington D. C.

The Congress is divided into two parts: the Senate and the House of Representatives. Every state sends two people to the Senate. The number of senators doesn’t depend on the size of the state.

The President A person who wants to be the President must be born 35 or older, must be US citizen born in the USA and must have lived in the USA at least 14 years. Americans vote for the president in November every leap year.

The Supreme Court The Supreme Court has to make sure that the President and the Congress follow the Constitution. The Supreme Court consists of nine judges.

The Bill of Rights The first ten amendments are called the Bill of Rights. It guarantees to people of the US the most important rights and freedoms.

The first 10 amendments to the Constitution and their purpose Protections afforded fundamental rights and freedoms: Amendment 1: Freedom of religion, speech, press, and assembly; the right to petition the government. Amendment 2: Right to bear arms and maintain state militia (National Guard). Amendment 3: Troops may not be quartered in homes in peacetime.

Amendment 4: No unreasonable searches or seizures. Amendment 5: Grand jury indictment required to prosecute a person for a serious crime. No "double jeopardy" — being tried twice for the same offence. Forcing a person to testify against himself or herself prohibited. No loss of life, liberty or property without due process. Amendment 6: Right to speedy, public, impartial trial with defense counsel, and right to cross examine witnesses.

Amendment 7: Jury trials in civil suits where value exceeds 20 dollars. Amendment 8: No excessive bail or fines, no cruel and unusual punishments. Amendment 9: Unlisted rights are not necessarily denied. Amendment 10: Powers not delegated to the United States or denied to states are reserved to the states or to the people.

Grammar in active

When the reporting verb is in the past, the verb tenses change as follows: Present Simple Present Continuous Present Perfect Past Simple Future Past Simple Past Continuous Past Perfect Conditional

Time words and tenses can change as follows depending on the time reference: Tonight, today, this week/month/year/ That night… Now Then, at that time, at once Now that Since Yesterday, last night/week/month/year The day before, the previous… Tomorrow, next week/month/year The following day/the day after… Two days/months/years … ago Two days/months/years … before

There are no changes in the verb tenses in Reported speech when the direct sentences expresses a general truth or exact time in the past: He said the earth is a planet My friend said that they met on March 2

“The Colorado is the widest river in the USA”, he said … “I saw a real canoe”, she said … “Did you see the mighty Mississippi?” she asked him “Did you visit the desert in California?” Bill asked… “It’s hot at the South Pole,” he said … “Bill represented our class at the conference in the USA”, Ann said … “The people voted for Bush as the president”, Ted said … “How many days all in all did you spend travelling about the USA ” Gary asked her … “Do you know Garfield?” she asked me … “He is watching TV”, she said …