美国社会与文化英文笔记全版本.doc

Why America? 1. 美国在当今世界有极大的影响力，美国文化影响全球、影响中国。 2. 美国社会制度与文化价值很有特点，有的地方是值得我们学习的，有的地方必须批判。 第一讲 美国地理与历史概况 美国的地理特征:得天独厚，但又充满挑战 （一）优势 1、位置 分离主义者（Separatists）的隐居之地，犹如世外桃源。 世界主义者（Cosmopolitans）的世界通衢。 2、气候适宜； 3、幅员广阔； 4、资源丰富 (二) 劣势 1、新格兰（New England）：（1）Storm；（2）Stony soil 2、南方（Virginia and the Carolinas）：“dismal swamps” 3、内地（The Interior） 4、大平原与太平洋沿岸（The Great Plains and the Pacific Basins） （1）干旱（drought） (2)Earthquake.The Northridge earthquake occurred on January 17, 1994 at 4:31 AM Pacific Standard Time in Reseda, a neighborhood in the city of Los Angeles, California. The earthquake had a "strong" moment magnitude of 6.7, but the ground acceleration was the highest ever instrumentally recorded in an urban area in North America. Seventy-two people died as a result of the earthquake with more than 12,000 injured. In addition, the earthquake caused an estimated $12.5 billion in damage, making it one of the costliest natural disasters in U.S. history. (3) 洪水（Flooding） (4) 森林大火（Wildfires）The Yellowstone fires of 1988 together formed the largest wildfire in the recorded history of Yellowstone National Park, United States. Starting as many smaller individual fires, the flames spread quickly out of control with increasing winds and drought and combined into one large conflagration, which burned for several months. The fires almost destroyed two major visitor destinations and, on September 8, 1988, the entire park was closed to all non emergency personnel for the first time in its history. Only the arrival of cool and moist weather in the late fall brought the fires to an end. A total of 793,880 acres (3,213 km2), or roughly 36 percent of the park was affected by the wildfires. （二）五大地区 1. The Industrialized Northeast and North-Central Region (1) Scope As defined by the U.S. Census Bureau, it covers nine states: Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. The Northeast is the richest region of the United States, i