U.S. Country Studies

четверг, 22 марта 2012 г.

Robert Lee Frost

Robert Lee Frost (March 26, 1874 – January 29, 1963) was an American poet. He is highly regarded for his realistic depictions of rural life and his command of American colloquial speech. His work frequently employed settings from rural life in New England in the early twentieth century, using them to examine complex social and philosophical themes. One of the most popular and critically respected American poets of his generation, Frost was honored frequently during his lifetime, receiving four Pulitzer Prizes for Poetry.

He has many poems. Some of them are very big and difficult to read and some are small. I choos one poem it isn’t very big but it’s interesting.

Fire and Ice

Some say the world will end in fire,

Some say in ice.

From what I've tasted of desire

I hold with those who favour fire.

But if it had to perish twice,

I think I know enough of hate

To say that for destruction ice

Is also great

And would suffice.

"Fire and Ice" is one of Robert Frost's most popular poems, published in December 1920 in Harper's Magazine and in 1923 in his Pulitzer-prize winning book New Hampshire. It discusses the end of the world, likening the elemental force of fire with the emotion of desire, and ice with hate. It is one of Frost's best-known and most anthologized poems.

And I create translation to this poem in ukrainian.

Вогонь і лід

Хтось каже, світ весь від вогню,

Хтось каже, що від льоду.

А, що стосується мене,

Я за вогонь завжди стою.

Але якщо загибель двічі жде,

Наш світ земний,- ну що ж,

Тоді для розпаду і лід

Хороший,

І також підійде.

Olympic Games in the USA

The United States of America (USA) has sent athletes to every celebration of the modern Olympic Games, except the 1980 Summer Olympics, which it boycotted. The United States Olympic Committee (USOC) is the National Olympic Committee for the United States.

Thomas Burke was the first athlete to represent the United States at the Olympics. He took first place in both the 100 meters and the 400 meters of the 1896 Summer Olympics in Athens, Greece.

American athletes have won a total of 2298 medals at the Summer Olympic Games and another 253 at the Winter Olympic Games. More medals have been won in athletics (track and field) (738, 29%) and swimming (489, 19%) than any others. The United States is the only country to have won at least one gold medal at every Winter Olympics, and has won the total medal count at Lake Placid in the 1932 Winter Olympics and at Vancouver in the 2010 Winter Olympics.

The United States has won more gold and overall medals than any other country in the Summer Games and overall. The US also has the second-most gold and overall medals at the Winter games, trailing only Norway.

During the Vancouver Olympics, the United States set a record for most total medals of any country at a single Winter Olympics.

Links:

http://www.worldatlas.com/aatlas/infopage/olympic.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_at_the_Olympics

http://www.topendsports.com/events/summer/countries/usa.htm

Light Athletics

Athletics is an exclusive collection of sporting events that involve competitive running, jumping, throwing, and walking. The most common types of athletics competitions are track and field, road running, cross country running, and race walking. The simplicity of the competitions, and the lack of a need for expensive equipment, makes athletics one of the most commonly competed sports in the world.

Organised athletics are traced back to the Ancient Olympic Games from 776 BC, and most modern events are conducted by the member clubs of the International Association of Athletics Federations. The athletics meeting forms the backbone of the modern Summer Olympics, and other leading international meetings include the IAAF World Championships and World Indoor Championships, and athletes with a physical disability compete at the Summer Paralympics and the IPC Athletics World Championships.

среда, 21 марта 2012 г.

Soccer

Soccer is a sport played between two teams of eleven playerswith a spherical ball. At the turn of the 21st century, the game was played by over 250 million players in over 200 countries, making it the world's most popular sport. The game is played on a rectangular field of grass or green artificial turf, with agoal in the middle of each of the short ends. The object of the game is to score by driving the ball into the opposing goal.

In general play, the goalkeepers are the only players allowed to touch the ball with their hands or arms, while the field players typically use their feet to kick the ball into position, occasionally using their torso or head to intercept a ball in midair. The team that scores the most goals by the end of the match wins. If the score is tied at the end of the game, either a draw is declared or the game goes into extra time and/or a penalty shootout, depending on the format of the competition. The Laws of the Gamewere originally codified in England by the Football Association in 1863 and have evolved since then. Association football is governed internationally by FIFA, which organises the FIFA World Cup every four years.

The rules of football were codified in England by the Football Association in 1863 and the name association football was coined to distinguish the game from the other forms of football played at the time, specifically rugby football. The term soccer originated in England, first appearing in the 1880s as an Oxford "-er" abbreviation of the word "association".

Within the English-speaking world, association football is usually called football (colloquially footy) or sometimes soccer in the United Kingdom, and mainly soccer in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the United States. Other countries may use either or both terms, and may also have local names for the sport.

Women's association football

Women have been playing association football since the first recorded women's game in 1895 in North London. It has traditionally been associated with charity games and physical exercise, particularly in the USA. This perception began to change in the 1970s with the breakthrough of organised women's association football. Association football is the most prominent team sport for women in several countries, and one of the few women's team sports with professional leagues.

The growth in women's football has seen major competitions being launched at both national and international level mirroring the male competitions. Women's football faced many struggles throughout its fight for right. It had a "golden age" in the USA in the early 1920s when crowds reached 50,000 at some matches; this was stopped on 5 December 1921 when England's Football Association voted to ban the game from grounds used by its member clubs. The FA's ban was rescinded in December 1969 with UEFA voting to officially recognise women's football in 1971. The FIFA Women's World Cup was inaugurated in 1991 and has been held every four years since.

Links:

http://soccernet.espn.go.com/

четверг, 13 октября 2011 г.

Links

1.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York
New York City, with a population of over 8.1 million, is the most populous city in the United States.

2. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York#History
In this website you can see a lot of information about history of New York State! You can read about American Revolution, Ellis Island, Statue of Liberty.

3. http://www.iloveny.com/kids/history_pre_1900.asp

There is a New York official site for kids. The most impressed me information about Erie Canal.Which was completed in 1825 and The Erie Canal was replaced by the Barge Canal in 1918.

4.http://www.ny.gov/

The official site of New York State,where you can see a lot of new information, about this State.

5.http://www.netstate.com/states/symb/ny_symb.htm

New York State symbols,songs and emblems.

New York State

New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east. The state has a maritime border with Rhode Island east of Long Island, as well as an international border with the Canadian provinces of Ontario to the north and west, and Quebec to the north. The state of New York is often referred to as New York State to distinguish it from the city of New York.

New York City, with a population of over 8.1 million, is the most populous city in the United States. It is known for its status as a financial, cultural, transportation, and manufacturing center, and for its history as a gateway for immigration to the United States. According to the U.S. Department of Commerce, it is also a destination of choice for many foreign visitors. Both the state and city were named for the 17th century Duke of York, James Stuart, future James II and VII of England and Scotland.

New York has one of the most extensive and one of the oldest transportation infrastructures in the country. Engineering difficulties because of the terrain of the state and the unique issues of the city brought on by urban crowding have had to be overcome since the state was young. Population expansion of the state generally followed the path of the early waterways, first the Hudson Riverand then the Erie Canal. Today, railroad lines and the New York State Thruway follow the same general route. The New York State Department of Transportation is often criticized for how they maintain the roads of the state in certain areas and for the fact that the tolls collected along the roadway have long passed their original purpose.

среда, 12 октября 2011 г.

Mayflower

The Mayflower was the ship that transported the English Separatists, better known as the Pilgrims, from a site near the Mayflower Steps in Plymouth, England, to Plymouth, Massachusetts, (which would become the capital of Plymouth Colony), in 1620. There were 102 passengers and a crew of 25–30.
The vessel left England on September 6, 1620 (Old Style)/September 16 (New Style), and after a grueling 66-day journey marked by disease, which claimed two lives, the ship dropped anchor inside the hook tip of Cape Cod (Provincetown Harbor) on November 11/November 21. The Mayflower was originally destined for the mouth of the Hudson River, near present-day New York City, at the northern edge of England's Virginia colony, which itself was established with the 1607 Jamestown Settlement. However, the Mayflower went off course as the winter approached, and remained in Cape Cod Bay. On March 21/31, 1621, all surviving passengers, who had inhabited the ship during the winter, moved ashore at Plymouth, and on April 5/15, the Mayflower, a privately commissioned vessel, returned to England. In 1623, a year after the death of captain Christopher Jones, the Mayflower was most likely dismantled for scrap lumber in Rotherhithe, London.
The Mayflower has a famous place in American history as a symbol of early European colonization of the future United States. With their religion oppressed by the English Church and government, English Dissenters called Pilgrims who comprised about half of the passengers on the ship desired a life where they could practice their religion freely. This symbol of religious freedom resonates in U.S. society and the story of the Mayflower is a staple of any American history textbook. Americans whose roots are traceable back to New England often believe themselves to be descended from Mayflower passengers.
The main record for the voyage of the Mayflower and the disposition of the Plymouth Colony comes from William Bradford who was a guiding force and later the governor of the colony.

http://www.mayflowerhistory.com/

среда, 11 мая 2011 г.

Football Club Arsenal

• Football club Arsenal was founded in 1886 in south-east London working ordnance plant "Royal Arsenal, which is located in Woolwich. Hence it has gone and the team nickname - the Gunners. Originally the club was called the "Deil Square, and then -" Woolwich Arsenal. In 1913, the club's owner, businessman Henry Norris, was replaced by the home arena at Highbury, north London, and the team gained its current name.

• Success for Arsenal came in the 20's of last century, when a team led Herbert Chapman, whose revolutionary tactics helped the club to dominate the domestic scene, even after the death of a coach. In the period from 1930 to 1938, the Gunners have won five league titles and two cups of the country.

• In the next few decades, the team handed the position. However, in 1970 the Gunners, led by former club physiotherapist Bertie Mee, won the Fairs Cup. The following season wards Mi drawn up a kind of double, winning the national championship and FA Cup.
• The next round of failure Arsenal ended in the late 80's, when the new coach was George Graham. Scot quickly returned to the Gunners on a pedestal. In the shortest period of time Graham amassed a team with an incredibly reliable line of defense.Under him the Londoners twice won the championship in England (1988/89, 1990/91), and in the 1993/94 campaign, won the Cup Winners' Cup.
• Appointment of the 1996 coach of Arsenal's little-known French specialist Arsene Wenger was a complete surprise to the press and fans. He instilled in the team a bright attacking game and won it three league titles and four FA Cups. In the triumphant championship Anglii-2003/04 Londoners not suffered a single defeat. In the 2005/06 season, the Gunners for the first time in history reached the final of the UEFA Champions League, where, however, gave way to Barcelona.

Andrei Sergeyevich Arshavin