VẬN DỤNG KIẾN THỨC LIÊN MÔN ÐỂ GIẢI QUYẾT CÁC TÌNH HUỐNG THỰC TIỄN môn tiếng anh- tình huống tìm hiểu về đất nước Mĩ (Learn about the United States of America)

Flag of The United States of America 50 Stars = 50 States I.Geography: General characteristics The United States shares land borders with Canada to the north and Mexico to the south, and

SỞ GIÁO DỤC VÀ ÐÀO TẠO THÀNH PHỐ HÀ NỘI

TRÝỜNG THPT NGUYỄN GIA THIỀU

Ðịa chỉ: Số 27, ngõ 398, Ngọc Lâm, Long Biên, Hà Nội

Email: c3nguyengiathieu@hanoiedu.com

CUỘC THI VẬN DỤNG KIẾN THỨC LIÊN MÔN

ÐỂ GIẢI QUYẾT CÁC TÌNH HUỐNG THỰC TIỄN Tên tình huống: tìm hiểu về đất nước Mĩ (Learn about the United States of America)

Môn học chính được sử dụng để giải quyết tình huông:

Môn Tiếng Anh

Các môn học tích hợp:

Địa lý, lịch sử

Thông tin về học sinh (hoặc nhóm học sinh không quá 2 người)

1 Đỗ Trung Hiếu

2 Lương Anh Phương

The united states of America

Population: 307,212,123 (July 2009 estimate)

Capital: Washington D.C.

Area: 3,794,100 square miles (9,826,675 sq km)

Bordering Countries:Canada and Mexico

Coastline: 12,380 miles (19,924 km)

The United States of America is the third largest country in the world based on population and The United States also has the world's largest economy and is one

of the most influential nations in the world.

Flag of The United States of America

50 Stars = 50 States

I.Geography:

General characteristics

The United States shares land borders with Canada (to the north) and Mexico (to the south), and a territorial water border with Russia in the northwest, and two territorial water borders in the southeast between Florida and Cuba, and Florida and the Bahamas The contiguous forty-eight states are otherwise bounded by the Pacific Ocean on the west, the Atlantic Ocean on the east, and the Gulf of Mexico to the southeast Alaska borders the Pacific

Ocean to the south, the Bering Strait to the west, and the Arctic Ocean to the north, while Hawaii lies far to the southwest of the mainland in the Pacific Ocean

Forty-eight of the states are in the single region between Canada and Mexico; this group is

referred to, with varying precision and formality, as thecontinental or contiguous United

States, and as the Lower 48 Alaska, which is not included in the term contiguous United States, is at the northwestern end of North America, separated from the Lower 48 by

Canada

The State of Hawaii is an archipelago in the Pacific Ocean The capital city, Washington, District of Columbia, is a federal district located on land donated by the state of Maryland (Virginia had also donated land, but it was returned in 1847.) The United States also

has overseas territories with varying levels of independence and organization

Government of the United States

The U.S government is a representative democracy with two legislative bodies These bodies are the Senate and House of Representatives The Senate consists of 100 seats with two representatives from each of the 50 states The House of Representatives consists of

435 seats and are elected by the people from the 50 states The executive branch consists

of the President who is also the head of government and chief of state On November 4,

2008 Barack Obama was elected as the first African American U.S president

The U.S also has a judicial branch of government that is made up of the Supreme Court, the U.S Court of Appeals, U.S District Courts and State and County Courts The U.S is

comprised of 50 states and one district (Washington D.C.)

Economics and Land Use in the United States

The U.S has the largest and most technologically advanced economy in the world It mainly consists of the industrial and service sectors The main industries include petroleum, steel, motor vehicles, aerospace, telecommunications, chemicals, electronics, food processing, consumer goods, lumber and mining Agricultural production, though only a small part of the economy, includes: wheat, corn, other grains, fruits, vegetables, cotton, beef, pork, poultry, dairy products, fish and forest products

Geography and Climate of the United States

The U.S borders both the North Atlantic and North Pacific Oceans and is bordered by Canada and Mexico It is the third largest country in the world by area and has a varied topography The eastern regions consist of hills and low mountains while the central interior

is a vast plain (called the Great Plains region) and the west has high rugged mountain ranges (some of which are volcanic in the Pacific Northwest) Alaska also features rugged mountains as well as river valleys Hawaii's landscape varies but is dominated by volcanic topography

Like its topography, the climate of the U.S also varies depending on location It is

considered mostly temperate but is tropical in Hawaii and Florida, arctic in Alaska, semiarid

in the plains west of the Mississippi River and arid in the Great Basin of the southwest

Mount McKinley, Alaska, the highest point in North America at 6,168 m

The eastern United States has a varied topography A broad, flat coastal plain lines the Atlantic and Gulf shores from the Texas-Mexico border to New York City, and includes the Florida peninsula

The Great Plains lie west of the Mississippi River and east of the Rocky Mountains A large portion of the country's agricultural products are grown in the Great Plains.The Great Plains come to an abrupt end at the Rocky Mountains The Rocky Mountains form a large portion of the Western U.S., entering fromCanada and stretching nearly to Mexico The Rocky

Mountain region is the highest region of the United States by average elevation The Rocky Mountains generally contain fairly mild slopes and wider peaks compared to some of the other great mountain ranges The highest peaks of the Rockies are found in Colorado, the tallest peak being Mount Elbert at 14,440 ft (4,400 m) The Rocky Mountains contain some

of the most spectacular, and well known scenery in the world

West of the Rocky Mountains lies the Intermontane Plateaus (also known as

the Intermountain West), a large, arid desert lying between the Rockies and

the Cascades and Sierra Nevada ranges The large southern portion, known as the Great Basin, consists of salt flats, drainage basins, and many small north-south mountain ranges The Southwest is predominantly a low-lying desert region A portion known as the Colorado Plateau, centered around the Four Corners region, is considered to have some of the most spectacular scenery in the world It is accentuated in such national parks asGrand

Canyon, Arches, Mesa Verde National Park and Bryce Canyon, among others

The Grand Canyon from Moran Point The Grand Canyon is among the most famous

locations in the country

The Intermontane Plateaus come to an end at the Cascade Range and the Sierra Nevada The Cascades consist of largely intermittent, volcanic mountains, many rising prominently from the surrounding landscape The Sierra Nevada, further south, is a high, rugged, and dense mountain range It contains the highest point in the contiguous 48 states, Mount Whitney (14,505 ft or 4,421 m)[1] It is located at the boundary between California's Inyo and Tulare counties, just 84.6 mi or 136.2 km west-northwest of the lowest point in North

America at Badwater in Death Valley National Park, at 282 ft or 86 m below sea level

These areas contain some spectacular scenery as well, as evidenced by such national parks

as Yosemite and Mount Rainier West of the Cascades and Sierra Nevada is a series of valleys, such as the Central Valley in California and the Willamette Valley in Oregon Along the coast is a series of low mountain ranges known as the Pacific Coast Ranges Much of the Pacific Northwest coast is inhabited by some of the densest vegetation outside of

the Tropics, and also the tallest trees in the world (the Redwoods)

Alaska contains some of the most dramatic and untapped scenery in the country Tall, prominent mountain ranges rise up sharply from broad, flat tundra plains On the islands off the south and southwest coast are many volcanoes Hawaii, far to the south of Alaska in the

Pacific Ocean, is a chain of tropical, volcanic islands, popular as a tourist destination for many from East Asia and the mainland United States

The Atlantic coast of the United States is low, with minor exceptions The Appalachian Highland owes its oblique northeast-southwest trend to crustal deformations which in very early geological time gave a beginning to what later came to be the Appalachian mountain system This system had its climax of deformation so long ago (probably in Permian time) that it has since then been very generally reduced to moderate or low relief It owes its present day altitude either to renewed elevations along the earlier lines or to the survival of the most resistant rocks as residual mountains The oblique trend of this coast would be even more pronounced but for a comparatively modern crustal movement, causing a

depression in the northeast resulting in an encroachment of the sea upon the land

Additionally, the southeastern section has undergone an elevation resulting in the advance

of the land upon the sea

While the Atlantic coast is relatively low, the Pacific coast is, with few exceptions, hilly or mountainous This coast has been defined chiefly by geologically recent crustal

deformations, and hence still preserves a greater relief than that of the Atlantic The low Atlantic coast and the hilly or mountainous Pacific coast foreshadow the leading features in the distribution of mountains within the United States

The east coast Appalachian system, originally forest covered, is relatively low and narrow and is bordered on the southeast and south by an important coastal plain The Cordilleran system on the western side of the continent is lofty, broad and complicated having two branches, the Rocky Mountain System and the Pacific Mountain System In between these mountain systems lie the Intermontaine Plateaus Both the Columbia River and Colorado River rise far inland near the easternmost members of the Cordilleran system, and flow through plateaus and intermontaine basins to the ocean Heavy forests cover the northwest coast, but elsewhere trees are found only on the higher ranges below the Alpine region The intermontane valleys, plateaus and basins range from treeless to desert with the most arid region being in the southwest

Elevation extremes:

 Lowest point: Death Valley, Inyo County, California −282 ft (−86 m) below sea level

 Highest point: Mount McKinley, Denali Borough, Alaska +20,237 ft (6,168 m) above sea level

By 1640 England had founded 6 of the 13 colonies that would become the original United States In 1660, Charles II was crowned king of England Charles founded or took over six more colonies: New York (taken from the Dutch in 1664), New Jersey, Pennsylvania

(including what became Delaware), and North and South Carolina All were proprietary colonies—huge land grants to individuals or small groups who had been loyal to the king during the civil war

Charles II

These colonies shared other similarities as well None of them was well–funded; they could ill afford to import colonists from overseas Thus they tried to attract settlers from other colonies as much as from the Old World These colonies made it easy to own land, and they tended to grant religious toleration to all Christians The result (even though Pennsylvania began as a Quaker colony under the wealthy proprietor William Penn) was a more ethnically mixed and religiously pluralistic European

Colonial Society

The colonies over which the English were beginning to exercise control were growing

rapidly In 1700 approximately 250,000 Europeans and Africans were living in what would become the United States In 1775 there were approximately 2.5 million Much of the

increase was due to immigration: the forced migration of enslaved Africans, and the willing migration of English, Scots-Irish, and Germans

American Revolution

During the 18th century, tensions between the American colonies and the British

government began to arise as the American colonists were subject to British taxation but had no representation in the British Parliament

These tensions eventually led to the American Revolution which was fought from

1775-1781 On July 4, 1776, the colonies adopted the Declaration of Independence and following the American victory over the British in the war, the U.S was recognized as independent of England In 1788, the U.S Constitution was adopted and in 1789, the first president, George Washington, took office

Following its independence, the U.S grew rapidly and the Louisiana Purchase in 1803 nearly doubled the nation's size The early to mid-1800s also saw growth on the west coast as the California Gold Rush of 1848-1849 spurred western migration and

the Oregon Treaty of 1846 gave the U.S control of the Pacific Northwest

Despite its growth, the U.S also had severe racial tensions in the mid-1800s as African slaves were used as laborers in some states Tensions between the slave states and non-slave states led to the Civil War and eleven states declared their secession from the union and formed the Confederate States of America in 1860 The Civil War lasted from 1861-1865 when the Confederate States were defeated

The 20th Century

Following the Civil War, racial tensions remained through the 20th century Throughout the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the U.S continued to grow and remained neutral

at the beginning of World War I in 1914 It later joined the Allies in 1917

The 1920s were a time of economic growth in the U.S and the country began to grow into a world power In 1929 however the Great Depression began and the economy suffered until World War II The U.S also remained neutral during this war until Japan attackedPearl Harbor in 1941, at which time the U.S joined the Allies

US Soldier uniform in WW2 and Vietnam War

Following WWII, the U.S economy again began to improve The Cold War followed shortly thereafter as did the Korean War from 1950-1953 and the Vietnam War from 1964-1975 Following these wars, the U.S economy for the most part grew industrially and the nation became a world superpower concerned with its domestic affairs because public support waivered during previous wars

Wall Street – Symbol of The US Financial

III Culture:

The culture of the United States is primarily Western, but is influenced by African, Native

American, Asian, Polynesian, and Latin American cultures The United States of America has its own unique social and cultural characteristics such as dialect, music, arts, social habits, cuisine, and folklore The United States of America is an ethnically and

racially diverse country as a result of large-scale migration from many ethnically and racially different countries throughout its history as well as differing birth and death rates among natives, settlers, and immigrants

Architecture

Architecture in the United States is regionally diverse and has been shaped by many

external forces, not only English U.S architecture can therefore be said to be eclectic, something unsurprising in such a multicultural society In the absence of a single large-scale architectural influence from indigenous peoples such as those in Mexico or Peru,

generations of designers have incorporated influences from around the world Currently, the