USA - Júlia Feliu and Helena SánchezVIDEO:TRANSCRIPTION:
GEOGRAPHY
The United States is a country in the Western Hemisphere. It consists of fifty contiguous states in North America Alaska and Hawaii. There are several United States territories in the Pacific and Caribbean. The capital is Washington which is a federal district. The United States is the world's third largest country, after Russia and China.
The most popular states are Washington, New York, Florida, California, Montana, Texas, New Jersey, Utah, Pennsylvania…
The climate is temperate in most areas, subtropical in the Deep South, tropical in Hawaii and southern Florida, polar in Alaska, semiarid in the Great Plains west of the 100th meridian, Mediterranean in coastal California and arid in the Great Basin.
HISTORY
Christopher Columbus was the first European to land in the territory of what is now the United States when he arrived in Puerto Rico in 1493. The subsequent arrival of settlers from Europe began the colonial history of the United States.
The American Revolution escalated into all-out war. The new nation declared independence in July 1776 as the United States of America.
The resulting Constitution of the United States ratified in 1788 created a federal government, based on the ideology of republicanism, equal rights, and civic duty.
Unit States of America declared the War of 1812 against Britain, then America won the independence.
After the First World War, the crash of 1929 started the worldwide Great Depression, which was long and severe for Unit States; but the united nations helped them.
POLITICS
The United States is a presidential, federal republic, in which the President of the United States Congress, and judiciary share powers reserved to the national government. Federal and state elections generally take place within a two-party system, although this is not enshrined in law.
Two parties, the Democratic Party and the Republican Party, have dominated American politics since the American Civil War, although other parties have also existed.
Some of the most known presidents of the United States are George Washington who is the first president, Abraham Lincoln, Kennedy, Bush..
Now the president of USA is Barack Obama, he is the first African American president. The inauguration of Barack Obama as the 44th President, took place on the 20th of January of 2009 ( two thousand and nine).
The president, as most of you know, lives in the White House.
Social studies
There is a population of about 308.743.486 (three hundred and eight million seven hundred and forty-three thousand four hundred and eighty-six) residents on the USA.
Religion
Here you've got the religion percentages.
Christianity: (78.5%)
Unaffiliated, including atheist or agnostic (16.1%)
Judaism (1.7%)
Buddhist (0.7%)
Islam (0.6%)
Hinduism (0.4%)
Other (1.2%)
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FESTIVALS
- Outhouse races --> it’s on January
Mackinaw City actually celebrates the outhouse races every year. It's a very funny festival to see and also to participate.
The rules require each racing outhouse to contain a toilet seat and a toilet paper dispenser.
- Giant Omelette Festival --> It’s a festival celebrated in Louisiana in November.
The Omelette Festival is a free event with many activities, such as the cooking of a giant omelette, an antique car show, an art show and musical entertainment.
- The Academy Awards, or the Oscars, are the film prizes award every year on February. They are presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize excellence of professionals in the film industry.
- Hot August Nights:
Every year, Reno, situated in Nevada, celebrate the biggest and best of the classic car shows in the country. It's celebrated during the first 10 days of August.
DIALECTS AND ACCENTS --> DIFFERENCES ABOUT AMERICAN AND BRITISH ENGLISH.
AmE --> American English
BrE --> means British English
Words with different meanings:
-In AmE the word pissed means being annoyed, where as in BrE it refers to being drunk.
- The word "football" in BrE refers to Association football, also known as soccer. In AmE, "football" means American football.
Little changes
- In some words there are changes of one or two letters:
BrE--> colour theatre honour
AmE--> color theater honor
The same meaning with different words:
BrE AmE
biscuit cookie
bill invoice
car park parking lot
lorry truck
cupboard closet
storm tempest
Equivalence idioms:
A number of English idioms that have essentially the same meaning show lexical differences between the British and the American version, for example :
UK USA
touch wood knock on wood (= toquem fusta)
haven't got a clue don't have a clue or have no clue ( changes in the form you structure this phrase)
a new lease of life a new lease on lif (changes on the preposition)
storm in a teacup tempest in a teapot ( they use different words that mean the same thing )
MUSIC AND FLIMS
There are a lot of singers from USA but we’ve selected the ones we thought that you will know:
Bruce Springsteen: He’s from New Jersey.
The Black Eyed Peas: Is a group that formed in Los Angeles.
Madonna: She’s born in Michigan.
Also a lot of films were made in United States like pretty woman, American pie, gangs of New York and some TV series like sex and the city, gossip girl , OC ( Orange Country), Baywatch...
FOOD AND DRINK
Characteristic dishes such as apple pie, fried chicken, pizza, hamburgers, and hot dogs derive from the recipes of various immigrants. French fries, Mexican dishes such as burritos and tacos, and pasta dishes freely adapted from Italian sources are widely consumed.
Frequent dining at fast food outlets is associated with what health officials call the American "obesity epidemic." Highly sweetened soft drinks are widely popular.
-hot dogs--> is a moist sausage. It may be garnished with mustard, ketchup, onion, mayonnaise, relish, cheese...
- Apple pie --> An apple pie is a fruit pie (or tart) in which the principal filling ingredient is apples.
- Mashed potatoes --> is one way of serving potatoes. It is made by mashing freshly boiled, or sometimes baked, potatoes with a ricer, fork or potato masher.
- Coke --> is a carbonated soft drink sold in stores, restaurants, and vending machines internationally.
THINGS TO VISIT
New York City: New York is the most populous city in the United States, and the center of the New York metropolitan area, which is one of the most populous urban areas in the world. Here you should visit Central Park, Time’s Square, the Empire state, etc.
Colorado: It was abandoned hundreds of years ago, it’s a great place to check out, just a bit of ancient ruins right here in your own backyard.
-Grand Canyon: The Grand Canyon speaks history and engulfs your soul, it’s so beautiful and worth any effort it may take to see it.
Mackinac Island: On Mackinac Island there are no cars, as soon as you get off the boat you get a horse or a bicycle. There are many places to visit on the island like Old fort Mackinac. There are many sights and activities for the whole family on this island.
Florida: If you go with the family, we recommend you to go to Walt Disney World, is an amusement park related to the films from Disney like Mickey Mouse, Cinderella, The Lion King...
Miami: The most visited in this city are the famous beaches where all the tourists go on summer. If you go here surely you will understand them because an important part of the population speaks Latino Spanish.
MY REFLECTION:
Our oral presentation was about the United States, a country where we want to go.
We didn’t use resources, because we though that with this topic it was impossible, but then we saw other presentations where other pupils used for example the typical clothes of the country that they did. But in our presentation there were a lot of images about everything that we explained.
We last long, and I think that we go faster than we thought.
In this presentation I watched at my paper in a lot of occasions, but also I was looking at the audience. My friend, Julia, who was doing the oral presentation with me, was very good: she didn’t read anything and she spook very well. I was lucky to her.
Our information was very good and organized because we started for the history, and then we explained other things that were more visual. We searched a lot of information about the United States and I think that it improved our presentation, because also it is important.
Maybe we didn’t said all the word’s pronunciation good, but you have to understand it, in the oral presentations we are nervous. I think that we used some linking words and connectors, and it’s a thing that make easy the comprehension of our information.
amazing and completely fantastic.
