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Để đáp ứngyêu cầu học tập môn Văn hoá Anh Mỹ theo chương trình đào tạo cử nhân tiếng Anh Tài chibhs kế toán của Học viện Tài chính, PART ONE ENGLISH CULTURE CHAPTER 1 OVERVIEW Reading 1 Country and pe.
PART ONE: ENGLISH CULTURE CHAPTER 1: OVERVIEW Reading 1: Country and people Geographically speaking Lying off the north-west coast of Europe, there are two large islands and several much smaller ones Collectively, they are known as the British Isles The largest island is called Great Britain The other large one is called Ireland Politically speaking In the British Isles there are two states One of these governs most the island of Ireland This state is usually called The Republic of Ireland It is also called ‘Eire’ (its Irish language name) Informally it is referred to as just ‘Ireland’ or ‘the Republic’ The other state has authority over the rest of the British Isles (the whole of Great Britain, the northeastern area of Ireland and most of the smaller islands) Its official name is The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland although it is usually known by a shorter name At the Eurovision Song Contest, at the United Nations and in the European Parliament, for instance, it is referred to as ‘the United Kingdom’ In everyday speech this is often shortened to ‘the UK’ In other contexts it is referred to as ‘Great Britain’ This, for example, is the name you hear when a gold medal winner steps onto the rostrum at the Olympic Games The stickers on cars (‘GB’) are another example of the use of this name In writing and speaking that is not especially formal or informal, the name ‘Britain’ is used The normal adjective, when talking about something to with the UK, is ‘British’ The four nations People often refer to Britain by another name They call it ‘England’ But this is not strictly correct, and it can make some people angry England is only one of the four nations of the British Isles (England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland) Their political unification was a gradual process that took several hundred years It was completed in 1800 when the Irish parliament was joined with the Parliament for England, Scotland and Wales in Westminster, so that the whole of the British Isles became a single state- the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland However, in 1922, most of Ireland became a separate state At one time the four nations were distinct from each other in almost ever aspect of life In the first place, they were different racially The people in Ireland, Wales and highland Scotland belonged to the Celtic race; those in England and lowland Scotland were mainly of Germanic origin This difference was reflected in the languages they spoke People in the Celtic areas spoke Celtic languages: Irish Gaelic, Scottish Gaelic and Welsh People in the Germanic areas spoke Germanic dialects (including the one which has developed into modern English) The nations also tended to have different economic, social and legal systems Today these differences have become blurred But they have not completely disappeared Although there is only one government for the whole of Britain, and people have the same passport regardless of where in Britain they live, some aspects of government are organized separately (and sometimes differently) in the four parts of the United Kingdom Moreover, Welsh, Scottish and Irish people feel their identity very strongly The dominance of England There is, perhaps, an excuse for people who use the word ‘England’ when they mean ‘Britain’ It cannot be denied that the dominant culture of Britain today is specifically English The system of politics that is used in all four nations today is of English origin and English id the main language of all four nations Many aspects of everyday life are organized according to English custom and practice But the political unification of Britain was not achieved by mutual agreement On the contrary, it happened because England was able to exert her economic and military power over the other three nations Today English domination can be detected in the way in which various aspects of British public life are described For example, the supply of money in Britain is controlled by the Bank of England (there is no such thing as a ‘Bank of Britain’) The present queen of the country is universally known as ‘Elizabeth the Second’, even though Scotland and Northern Ireland have never had an ‘Elizabeth the First’! (Elizabeth I of England and Wales ruled from 1553 to 1603.) The term ‘Anglo’ is also commonly used (The Angles were a Germanic tribe who settled in England in the fifth century The word ‘England’ is derived from their name.) For example, newspapers and the television news talk about ‘Anglo-American relations’ to refer to relations between the governments of Britain and the USA (and not just those between England and the USA) National loyalties When you are talking to people from Britain, it is safest to use ‘Britain’ when talking about where they live and ‘British’ as the adjective to describe their nationality This way you will be less likely to offend anyone It is, of course, not wrong to talk about ‘people in England’ if that is what you mean-people who live within the geographical boundaries of England After all, most British people live there (►Populations in 1995) But it should always be remembered that England does not make up the whole of the UK Populations in 1995 England 48.9 million Scotland 5.1 million Wales 2.9 million Northern Ireland UK total 1.6 million 58.6 million These figures are estimates provided by the Government Actuary’s Department of the UK, based on the 1991 Census It is expected that the total population of Britain will continue to rise by very small amounts until around the year 2025 There has been a long history of migration from Scotland, Wales and Ireland to England As a result there are millions of people who live in England but who would never describe themselves as English They may have lived in England all their lives, but as far as they are concerned they are Scottish or Welsh or Irish- even if, in the last case, they are citizens of Britain and not of Eire These people support the country of their parents or grandparents rather than England in sporting contests They would also, given the chance, play for that country rather than England If, for example, you had heard the members of the Republic of Ireland World Cup football team talking in 1994, you would have heard several different kinds of English accent and some Scottish accents, but only a few Irish accents Most of the players did not live in Ireland and were not brought up in Ireland Nevertheless, most of them would never have considered playing for any country other than Ireland! The same holds true for the further millions of British citizens whose family origins lie outside the British Isles altogether People of Caribbean or south Asian descent, for instance, not mind being described as ‘British’ (many are proud of it), but many of them would not like to be called ‘English’ And whenever the West Indian or Indian cricket team plays against England, it is certainly not England that they support! There is, in fact, a complicated division of loyalties among many people in Britain, and especially in England A black person whose family are from the Caribbean will passionately support the West Indies when they play cricket against England But the same person is quite happy to support England just as passionately in a sport such as football, which the West Indies not play A person whose family is from Ireland but who has always lived in England would want Ireland to beat England at football but would want England to beat (for example) Italy just as much This crossover of loyalties can work the other way as well English people not regard the Scottish, the Welsh or the Irish as ‘foreigners’ (or, at least, not as the same kind of foreigners as other foreigners!) An English commentator of a sporting event in which a Scottish, Irish or Welsh team is playing against a team from outside the British Isles tends to identify with that team as if it were English A wonderful example of double identity was heard on the BBC during the Eurovision Song Contest in 1992 The commentator for the BBC was Terry Wogan Mr Wogan is an Irishman who had become Britain’s most popular television talk-show host during the 1980s Towards the end of the program, with the voting for the songs nearly complete, it became clear that the contest (in which European countries compete to present the best new popular song) was going to be won by either Ireland or the United Kingdom Within a five-minute period, Mr Wogan could be heard using the pronouns ‘we’ and ‘us’ several times; sometimes he meant the UK and sometimes he meant Ireland! BRITISH CULTURE CHAPTER 1: OVERVIEW Reading 2: History Prehistory Two thousand years ago there was an Iron Age Celtic culture through-out the British Isles It seems that the Celts, who had been arriving from Europe from the eighth century BC onwards, intermingled with the peoples who were already there We know that religious sites that had been built long before the arrival of the Celts continued to be used in the Celtic period For people in Britain today, the chief significance of the prehistoric period (for which no written records exist) is its sense of my mystery This sense finds its focus most easily in the astonishing monumental architecture of this period, the remains of which exist throughout the country Wiltshire, in south-western England, has two spectacular, examples: Silbury Hill, the largest burial mound in Europe, and Stonehenge (►Stonehenge and Silbury Hill ) Such places have a special importance for anyone interested in the cultural and religious practices of prehistoric Britain We know very little about these practices, but there are some organizations today (for example, the Order of bards, Ovates and Druids- a small group of eccentric intellectuals and mystics) who base their beliefs on them Stonehenge Silbury Hill The Roman period (43-410) The Roman province of Britannia covered most of present day England and Wales The Romans imposed their own way of life and culture, making use of the existing Celtic aristocracy to govern and encouraging this ruling class to adopt Roman dress and the Roman language (Latin) They exerted an influence, without actually governing there, over only the southern part of Scotland It was during this time that a Celtic tribe called the Scots migrated from Ireland to Scotland, where they became allies of the Picts (another Celtic tribe and opponents of the Romans This division of the Celts into those who experienced direct Roman rule (the Britons in England and Wales) and those who did not (the Gaels in Ireland and Scotland) may help to explain the development of two distinct branches of the Celtic group of languages The remarkable thing about the Romans is that, despite their long occupation of Britain, they left very little behind To many other parts of Europe they bequeathed a system of law and administration which forms the basis of the modern system and a language which developed into the modern Romance family of languages In Britain, they left neither Moreover, most of their villas, baths and temples, their impressive network of roads, and the cities they founded, including Londinium (London), were soon destroyed or fell into disrepair Almost the only lasting reminder of their presence are place-names like Chester, Lancaster and Gloucester, which include variants of the Roman word castra (a military camp) The Germanic invasions (410-1066) One reason why Roman Britannia disappeared so quickly is probably that its influence was largely confined to the towns In the countryside, where most people lived, farming methods had remained unchanged and Celtic speech continued to be dominant The Roman occupation had been a matter of colonial control rather than large-scale settlement But, during the fifth century, a number of tribes from the north-western European mainland invaded and settled in large numbers Two of these tribes were the Angles and the Saxons These Anglo-Saxons soon had the south-east of the country in their grasp In the west of the country their advance was temporarily halted by an army of (Celtic) Britons under the command of the legendary King Arthur (►King Arthur) Nevertheless, by the end of the sixth century, they and their way of life predominated in nearly all of England and in parts of southern Scotland The Celtic Britons were either Saxonized or driven westwards, where their culture and language survived in south-west Scotland, Wales and Cornwall ►King Arthur King Arthur provides a wonderful example of the distortions of popular history In folklore and myth he is a great English hero, and he and his knights of the round table are regarded as the perfect example of medieval nobility and chivalry In fact, he lived long before medieval times and was a Romanized Celt trying to hold back the advances of the Anglo-Saxons- the very people who became ‘the English’ The Anglo-Saxons had little use for towns and cities But they had a great effect on the countryside, where they introduced new farming methods and founded the thousands of selfsufficient villages which formed the basis of English society for the next thousand or so years The Anglo-Saxons were pagan when they came to Britain Christianity spread throughout Britain from different directions during the sixth and seventh centuries It came directly from Rome when St Augustine arrived in 597 and established his headquarters at Canterbury in the south-east of England It had already been introduced into Scotland and northern England from Ireland, which had become Christian more than 150 years earlier Although Roman Christianity eventually took over the whole of the British Isles, the Celtic model persisted in Scotland and Ireland for several hundred years It was less centrally organized, and had less need for a strong monarchy to support it This partly explains why both secular and religious power in these two countries continued to be both more locally based and less secure than it was elsewhere in Britain throughout the medieval period Britain experienced another wave of Germanic invasions in the eighth century These invaders, known as Vikings, Norsemen or Danes, came from Scandinavia In the ninth century they conquered and settled the extreme north and west of Scotland, and also some coastal regions of Ireland Their conquest of England was halted when they were defeated by King Alfred of the Saxon kingdom of Wessex (►King Alfred) This resulted in an agreement which divided England between Wessex, in the south and west, and the ‘Danelaw’ in the north and east (►King Alfred) King Alfred King Alfred was not only an able warrior but also a dedicated scholar and a wise ruler He is known as ‘Alfred the Great’ – the only monarch in English history to be given this title He is also popularly known for the story of the burning of the cakes 10 freedom and self-reliance The goal of the American education system is to teach children how to learn and to help them reach their maximum potential The development of social and interpersonal skills may be considered as important as the development of intellectual skills To help students develop these other important skills, schools have added a large number of extracurricular activities (activities outside classroom studies) to daily life at school These activities are almost as important as the students’ class work For example, in making their decisions about which students to admit, colleges look for students who are “well-rounded.” Grades on high school courses and scores on tests like the SAT (Scholastic Aptitude Test) are very important, but so are the extracurricular activities It is by participating in these activities that students demonstrate their special talents, their level of maturity and responsibility, their leadership qualities, and their ability to get along with others Some Americans consider athletic, frequently called competitive sport, the most important of all extracurricular activities This is because many people believe it is important for young people, particularly young men, to learn how to compete successfully Team sports such as football, basketball, and baseball are important because they teach students the “winning spirit” At time, this athletic competition may be carried to such an extreme that some students and their parents may place more importance on the high school’s sports program than its academic offerings Student government is another extracurricular activity designed to develop competitive, political, and social skills in students The students choose a number of student government officers, who competes for the votes of their fellow students in school elections Although these officers have little power over the central decision of the school, the process of running for office and then taking responsibility for a number of students’ activities if elected is seen as good experience in developing their leadership and competitive skills, and helping them to be responsible citizens Athletics and student government are only of a variety of extracurricular activities found in American schools There are clubs and activities for almost every student interest-art, music, drama, debate, foreign languages, photography, volunteer work-all aimed at helping the student to become more successful in later life Many parents watch their children’s extracurricular 201 activities with as much interest and concern as they their children’s intellectual achievements in the classroom RACIAL EQUALITY AND EDUCATION _ The most significant departure from the ideal of equality of opportunity in education has occurred in the education of African-Americans As we saw in the previous chapter, after the Civil War in the 1860s, the southern states developed asocial and legal system that segregated the former black slaves from the white population in all public facilities, including schools Black people in the southern states were prohibited by law from attending schools with whites Blacks had separate schools, that were inferior to the white schools by almost any measure In a test case in 1896, the Supreme Court of the United States stated that racial segregation in public schools and other public facilities in the southern states did not violate the Constitution Equality of opportunities was such an important American value that the Supreme Court had to pretend that the separate black schools and other facilities were equal to those of whites, when everyone knew that they were not The Supreme Court invented what is called the separate but equal doctrine to justify racial segregation in public schools and other public facilities in the southern states One Supreme Court Justice strongly disagreed Justice John Marshall Harlan believed that the decision violated the nation’s highest law and its basic values “OUR Constitution is color-blind”, he said, “and neither knows nor tolerates classes among its citizens.” Fifty-eight years later a more modern Supreme Court agreed with Justice Harlan In a historic decision in 1954, it held that laws that forced black students to go to racially segregated schools violates the US Constitution because such schools could never be equal The opinion of the Court was that “to separate (black school children) from others…solely because of their race generates a feeling of inferiority…that may affect their hearts and minds in a way unlikely ever to be undone.” Although segregated schools were not legal after 1954, they continued to exist in the South until the passage of the Civil Tights bills of the mid-1960s In the late 1960s and 1970s, a series of court decisions forced the nation to take measures to integrate all of its schools, both North and 202 South In the North, there had been no legal segregation of schools However, in both the South and the North, the neighborhood schools reflected the makeup of the races who lived in the neighborhood Thus, the residential patterns were often the source of the problem, particularly in urban areas The public schools in the inner city were composed predominantly of AfricanAmerican students and often shared the neighborhood problems of high crime rates and other forms of social disorder These schools were clearly unequal to those in the predominantly white, middle-class neighborhoods in the suburbs For the next 20 years, Americans tried various methods to achieve racial balance in the public schools The most controversial method used to deal with unequal neighborhood schools was the busing of school children from their home neighborhoods to schools in more distant neighborhoods in order to achieve a greater mixture of black white children in all schools Black children from the inner city were bused to schools in predominantly white middle-class neighborhoods, and students living in the middle-class neighborhoods were bused into the poorer black neighborhood schools As a result, some children had to ride the bus for an hour each way, going to and from school Most students did not like it, and neither did their parents Many schools districts have now abandoned mandatory busing, and they allow children to attend the school in their own neighborhood, even of it is predominantly back or white Some school districts have established “magnet” schools in black neighborhoods to attract white children who want to participate in special programs offered only at the magnet school Three out of five American schools are still 90 percent white In schools where AfricanAmerican and other minorities are the majority, more than half the students come from lowincome homes, in contrast to one in 25 of the majority white schools There is no clear agreement among Americans as to whether or not busing has succeeded in increasing equal opportunity in the field of public education, although most would agree that equality is certainly a goal that should be pursued It is doubtful that American parents would have tolerated the amount of busing that has taken place if the ideal of equality of opportunity were not so strong in the American culture A new question dealing with racial and ethnic equality in education was brought to the Supreme Court in the late 1970s The question dealt with the admissions policies of professional schools, such as medical and law schools, which are attached to many of the nation’s universities Some 203 of these schools have attempted to more than treat all applicants equally Many have tried in recent years to make up for past discrimination against blacks and other minorities by setting aside a certain number of places specifically for applicants from these groups, taking affirmative action Schools set quotas for minimum numbers of minority students that must be admitted to their programs, even if that meant lowing somewhat the academic standards for admission of these students This could be seen as special treatment rather than equal opportunity However, many professional school administrators believed that because of discrimination against these groups in the past, equality now demanded that certain limited numbers of minority students be given some extra advantage in the selection of new professional students These minority quotas were challenged by a white student, Allen Bakke, who was denied admission to the medical school at the University of California at Davis, California He claimed that the medical school had admitted some non-white minority students less qualified than he The U.S Supreme Court in the famous Bakke Case of 1978 agreed that he had been denied an equal opportunity for admission In a rather complicated decision, the Court held that a professional school could not set aside a certain number of places to be filled only by minority students Such quotas were a denial of equal educational opportunity Professional schools, however, could give some extra consideration to non-white minority applicants, but the Court was forbidding them to carry this practice too far THE INCREASING RESPONSIBILITIES OF PUBLIC SCHOOLS _ Americans place the weight of many of their ideals, hopes, and problems on the nation’s public school system Some observers believe they have placed more responsibilities on the public schools than the schools can possibly handle For example, public schools are often expected to solve student problems that result from the weakening of family ties in the United States Rising divorce rates have resulted in an increasing number of children in the public schools who are raised by only one parent Studies have shown that these children are more likely to have problems at school than are children raised in families with two parents 204 ● Minority enrolments levels range from 70 percent to 96 percent in the nation’s 15 largest school systems ● One of four children live below the poverty level as childhood poverty has reached its highest level since the 1960s ● Fifteen percent are physically or mentally handicapped ● Fourteen percent are children of teenage mothers ● Fourteen percent are children of unmarried parents ● Ten percent have poorly educated, sometimes illiterate, parents ● Between one-quarter and one-third have no one at home after school ● Forty percent will live in broken homes (parents divorced) by the time they are 19 years old ● Twenty-five percent or more will not finish school The education of new immigrant children provides the public school system with some of its greatest challenges Many of the children come from countries where they have not had strong educational preparation, and their academic skills are below grade level Others have come from school systems with standards similar to or more advanced than the American schools, and their academic adjustment is much easier However, all these children must learn English This means that they are trying to learn new concepts at the same time that they are struggling to learn a new language Studies show that it takes five to seven years in order for them to be able to compete with English-speaking American children on an equal basic in classes where English is the language of instruction There are some bilingual programs in areas where there is a large concentration of one language group, particularly Spanish speakers However, in some school districts, there are children speaking anywhere from 50 to 115 different languages It is not uncommon for a teacher to have children speaking five or six different native languages in one classroom At a time when enormous new burdens are being placed on the public schools, the nation finds itself faced with new limits on its material abundance These limits have steadily reduced the amount of money available to the public schools as they try to deal with their rapidly growing problems THE STANDARDS MOVEMENT _ 205 Recently, international comparisons of education have revealed that, in general, American students not perform as well in math, science, and other subjects as students from many other developed countries Some believe this is because American standards for education may not be high enough Traditionally, local community school districts have had responsibility for determining school curricula and selecting textbooks, with only limited state or national supervision However, in the 1990s, both the states and the federal government have become more involved in determining school standards The federal government has set national goals for education that include standards for early childhood, elementary, secondary, and adult education Most major educational associations, such as national associations of teachers or science, or math, or language arts are also evaluating the current curricula and criteria for certification and developing new standards To ensure that standards are met, many states now require students to pass a series of examinations in such subjects as reading, writing, mathematics, and civics before they can graduate from high school There is also some discussion of national examinations, though that could be difficult to achieve, since Americans still believe in local control (and funding) of schools _ MULTICULTURAL EDUCATION _ The changing populations of students in American schools as brought some changes in what is taught in the schools as well Ethnic and racial minorities have criticized schools and textbooks for focusing too much on the literature and historical events of Anglo-Europeans or white males They believe that schools have almost ignored the contributions of African-Americans, Latinos, and Native Americans More seriously, some have charged that American history has been told from the perspective of Anglo-Europeans rather than exploring historical events from the various perspectives of those involved For example, the frontier movement west has been presented more from the perspective of descendants of white settlers than from the perspectives of the descendants of the Native Americans who were moved in the process During the 1990s, schools began to examine seriously their curricula and to try to incorporate more varied cultural information and perspectives into education These attempts to provide multicultural education have ranged from simply adding information and literature to the current textbooks and curricula to more sweeping attempts to transform the basic curriculum into one that is more reflective of the diversity of the students who will study it At the most basic level, 206 many schools celebrate African_American History Month or Hispanic Heritage Month, or they have international festivals that include dancing, singing, and foods from the nations from which the students have come Many schools have adopted (1) history or social studies textbooks that include more information about African-Americans, Hispanic-Americans, and other minorities, and (2) American literature texts that in include poetry and fiction written by Americans of all ethnic backgrounds In some collages, the traditional set of Western great books, sometimes called the canon, has been replaced by a much broader set of literary tests, reflecting the experiences and backgrounds of the students who will be reading them Not all Americans support multicultural education, however Some fear that replacing the Western civilization and literary traditions, which have been the basic of American education, with a much broader historical and literary discussion will result in fragmentation of American society Schools have traditionally been the place where students of all ethnic, religious, and racial backgrounds have learned “American” history, literature, and values With so many competing views of history or values in the school, some fear that it will be difficult for the country to remain “American” It is a serious question: Can a country as diverse as the United States have schools that reflect that diversity and still retain a core national identity and culture? 207 CHAPTER 6: HOLIDAYS IN THE USA Reading 1: Introductions People in every culture celebrate holidays Although the word “holiday” literally means “holy day,” most American holidays are not religious, but commemorative in nature and origin Because the nation is blessed with rich ethnic heritage it is possible to trace some of the American holidays to diverse cultural sources and traditions, but all holidays have taken on a distinctively American flavor In the United States, the word “holiday” is synonymous with “celebration!” In the strict sense, there are no federal (national) holidays in the United States Each of the 50 states has jurisdiction over its holidays In practice, however, most states observe the federal (“legal or public”) holidays, even though the President and Congress can legally designate holidays only for federal government employees Ten holidays per year are proclaimed by the federal government They are as follows: ● New Year’s Day (January 1) ● Martin Luther King Day (traditional – January 15; official – third Monday in January) ● Presidents’ Day (traditional – February 12 & February 22; official – third Monday in February) ● Memorial Day (traditional – May 30; official – last Monday in May) ● Independence Day (July 4) ● Labor Day (first Monday in September) ● Columbus Day (traditional – October 12; official – second Monday in October) ● Veterans’ Day (traditional – November 11; official – second Monday in November) ● Thanksgiving Day (fourth Thursday in November) ● Christmas Day (December 25) 208 In 1971, the dates of many federal holidays were officially moved to the nearest Monday by then – President Richard Nixon There are four holidays which are not necessarily celebrated on Mondays: Thanksgiving Day, New Year’s Day, Independence Day and Christmas Day When New Year’s Day, Independence Day, or Christmas Day falls on a Sunday, the next day is also a holiday When one of these holidays falls on a Saturday, the previous day is also a holiday Federal government offices, including the post office, are always closed on all federal government offices, including the post office, are always closed on all federal holidays Schools and businesses close on major holidays like Independence Day and Christmas Day but may not always be closed, for example, on Presidents’ Day or Veterans’ Day Federal holidays are observed according to the legislation of individual states The dates of these holidays, and others, are decided upon by each state government, not by the federal (national) government Each state can agree on the same DATE THAT THE President has proclaimed, such as Thanksgiving Day State legislation can also change the date of a holiday for its own special commemoration Waterloo, New York, for instance, always observes Memorial Day on May 30 rather than on the last Monday in May, as this was the original date on which Waterloo founded the commemoration Cities and towns can decide not to celebrate a federal legal holiday at all However, the majority of the states (and the cities and towns within them) usually choose the date or day celebrated by the rest of the nation There are other “legal” or “public” holidays which are observed at the state or local level The closing of local government offices and businesses will vary Whether citizens have the day of from work or not depends on local decisions Some “legal” or “public” holidays are specific only to an individual state For example, Nebraska always celebrates Arbor Day on April 22, the birthday of the originator of the holiday Since Arbor Day originated as a tree planning day, different states change the date depending on the best season for planting trees in their region: Hawaiians plant trees on the first Friday in November You can thumb through an ordinary calendar and discover many special days i.e “minor holidays” which are observed by a relatively small number of people or by a particular interest group For example, “Girl Scouts’ Birthday” (March 12), “Citizenship Day” (September 17), “United Nations Day” (October 24) would have limited observance “Hog Callers’ Day” would have even less Events involving famous Americans, living or dead, have a wider appeal Many Americans may have forgotten the exact date when President John F Kennedy was assassinated (November 22, 1963), but they remember exactly where they were and what they were doing when they first learned about his tragic death Other days 209 commemorate events which may be personally significant for one generation but have less relevance for another For example, Pearl Harbor Day (December 7) marks the day when Japanese Imperial Forces attacked Hawaii in 1941 and brought the US into World War II President Franklin D Roosevelt in his address to the nation referred to the attack as “a day that will live in infamy” Adults and children of the time have a personal recollection of the day The younger generations of today may know of the event from their history books only Other holidays such as “Groundhog Day” (February 2) are whimsically observed, at least in the media The day is associated with folklore which has grown up in rural America It is believed, by some, if the groundhog, or woodchuck comes out of its hole in the ground and sees its shadow on that day it will become frightened and jump back in This means there will be at least six more weeks of winter If it doesn’t see its shadow, it will not be afraid and spring will begin shortly Critics of the proliferation of holidays point an accusing finger at greeting card manufactures and other entrepreneurs The critics say that “Holiday X” is simply promoted to get people to buy their wares “Secretary’s Day” or “Grandparents Day” might fall into this category Obviously, no effort has been made to be comprehensive in treating all holidays that Americans would possibly celebrate Only “major” holidays, recognized if not celebrated by Americans in general, have been included here Each unit is introduced by a reading the passage about the background of the American holiday or celebration When relevant, a speech, song, or poem pertaining to the holiday follows There might be a special feature about the holiday, such as regional or religious factors which make the celebration different 210 Reading 2: ABRAHAM LINCOLN’S BIRTHDAY (February 12) (Of all the presidents in the history of the United State, Abraham Lincoln is probably the one that Americans remember the best and with deepest affection) Until 1971, both February 12 and February 22 were observed as federal public holidays to honor the birthdays of Abraham Lincoln (February 12) and George Washington (February 22) In 1971 President Richard Nixon proclaimed one single federal public holiday, the Presidents’ Day, to be observed on the third Monday of February, honoring all past president of the United States of America Of all the presidents in the history of the United States, Abraham Lincoln is probably the one that Americans remember the best and with deepest affection His childhood in the frontier of Indiana set the course for his character and motivation later in life He brought a new honesty and integrity to the White House He would always be remembered as “honest Abe.” Most of all, he is associated with the final abolition of slavery Lincoln became a virtual symbol of the American dream whereby an ordinary person from humble beginnings could reach the pinnacle of society as president of the country Abraham Lincoln was born on February 12, 1809, in Kentucky, and spent the first seven years of his life there They were difficult years in which Thomas Lincoln, Abe’s father tried to make a living as a carpenter and farmer The Lincolns moved from farm to farm around Kentucky, until 1816, when the family left to settle in Indiana The United States was still young, and the Midwest was a wild, unsettled frontier They stopped in the middle of a forest in Spencer County, Indiana Neighbors were few and far away, and the family lived in a three-sides shelter until Abe’s father cleared enough land and built a log cabin Abe and his sister helped with the heavy daily tasks that came with farming He cleared the woods for farmland with his father, 211 and became so skilled at splitting logs that neighbors settling into the Indiana territory paid him to split logs At the time, he confessed that he did not really like manual labor He wrote later that although he was very young, an axe was put into his hand, and he “was almost constantly handling that most useful instrument.” In his entire life, Abe was only able to go to school for a total of one year This lack of education only made him hungry for more knowledge His mother, Nancy Hanks Lincoln, influenced him in his quest for learning Although she was completely uneducated and could not read or write, she encouraged her children to study by themselves His beloved mother died when he was nine years old The family was greatly saddened, and for a while lived almost in squalor Two years later, however, Thomas Lincoln remarried Abe's stepmother was also instrumental in encouraging him to read He even traveled to neighboring farms and countries to borrow books He was often found reading next to a pile of logs that he should have been splitting When he was older, Abe noticed that people loved to listen to stories He began telling tall tales in the general store where he worked Customers came and stayed when they knew he was there, just to hear him talk The family moved once again, this time to Illinois He began working in a store in the new capital of Springfield His powers of speech soon helped him enter a new arena, that of politics and law In 1834 he was elected into the House of Representatives and began studying to become a lawyer In 1839, he met his future wife Mary Todd Coincidentally, she had been born in Kentucky, and her family had recently moved to Illinois They had a long and unstable courtship, because Abe was indecisive about marrying They finally exchanged their vows in Mary's home in November 1842 Abraham Lincoln began a long road to become the sixteenth president of the United States He practiced law all across the state for the next few years, traveling far on horseback to different counties In 1847 he was elected into Congress, but his opinions did not ensure him a long stay there He was vehemently against slavery and took stands on other controversial issues He was out elected for a second term, so he returned to his law practice A few years later, slavery became a stronger issue, and more people were willing to abolish it Lincoln joined the Republicans, a new political party that was opposed to slavery The Republicans nominated him for the US Senate in 1858, and in his acceptance speech, he stated: "A house divided against itself cannot stand This government cannot endure, permanently half slave and half-free I not expect the Union to be dissolved I not expect the house to fall but I expect it will cease to be divided" Abraham Lincoln's oratorical powers brought him to the attention of the nation He challenged the Democratic 212 nominee to the Senate to a series of debates Using the simple language that he used to communicate with people all his life, he defeated Douglas in the debates but lost to him in the election Nominated by the Republican Party in 1860 as its candidate for the Presidency of the United States, Lincoln won by a small margin But with his election, the country began the process of “dividing against itself” South Carolina had acceded from the Union before he was even inaugurated Other states followed to form the Confederate States of America The North and South were divided, and the Civil War began The war was not only over the abolition of slavery, but also the rights of individual states to make their own choices on other issues The bloody Battle of Gettysburg in Pennsylvania was the largest battle ever fought on American soil On November 19, 1863, at a ceremony to establish Gettysburg as a national monument, Lincoln delivered what was to become one of the finest orations in American history, the Gettysburg Address Yet just after he delivered it, there was polite applause, and reactions varied from indifference to disappointment Edward Everett, ex-governor of Massachusetts, was the main speaker, and his speech had lasted for almost two hours On his trip back to Washington, Lincoln himself said of his speech: "It was a flat failure I am distressed about it I ought to have prepared it with more care." But Edward Everett assured Lincoln saying: "I would he glad if I could flatter myself that I came near to the central idea of the occasion in two hours as you did in two minutes" THE GETTYSBURG ADDRESS November 19, 1863 Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal Now we are engaged in a great civil war testing whether that nation or any nation so conceived and so dedicated can bong endure We are met on a great battlefield of that war We have come to dedicate a portion of that field as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation may live It is altogether fitting and proper that we should this be in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate, we cannot consecrate, we cannot hallow this ground The brave men living and dead who struggled here have consecrated it far above our poor power to add or detract The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here but it never forget what they did It is for us the living rather to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced It is rather for us to be hare dedicated to the great task remaining before us that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause 213 for which they gave the last full measure of devotion that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain, that this nations under God shall have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people by the people for the people shall not perish from the earth Lincoln was elected to a second term in 1864 The South surrendered, and the Civil War ended on April 9, 1865 The difficult task of national reconstruction and reconciliation lay ahead, but Lincoln would not be the person to lead the country through this difficult period On April 14 Mr and Mrs Lincoln attended a play at the Ford's Theater in Washington, D.C A few minutes past ten o'clock, an actor who disagreed with Lincoln's opinions stepped into the Presidential box and shot the President He died the following morning American poet Walt Whitman, along with the rest of the country, mourned the death of Abraham Lincoln He wrote this poem in his honor 214 REFERENCES James O'Driscoll (1995) Britain, Oxford University Press A group of English Department Teachers, Foreign Language College-Hanoi National University (2005) An Introduction to American Studies Christopher Carwood, Guglielm Gardani and Edda Peris (1992) Aspects of Britain and the USA Oxford University Press David McDowall (2002) Britain in Close-up Nha Xuat ban tre A group of English Department Teachers, Hanoi University (2000) An Introduction to Cross culture Studies 215 ... supremacy over the monarchy in Britain Anger grew in the country at the way that the Stuart monarchs raised money, especially because they did not get the agreement of the House of Commons to so first... the monarch However, all these advantages are hypothetical It can not be proved that only a monarch can provide them Other modern democracies manage perfectly well without one The British 50 monarch... prehistoric period (for which no written records exist) is its sense of my mystery This sense finds its focus most easily in the astonishing monumental architecture of this period, the remains of which