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AMERICAN
CULTURE
Knowing More About
America

KAUSHAL KISHORE
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Salient Points On America

The United States is a varied land – of

forests, deserts, mountains, high flat
lands and fertile plains.

A jet plane crosses the continental

United States from east to west in
about five to six hours.

KAUSHAL KISHORE
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TIME ZONE

KAUSHAL KISHORE
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Salient Points On America
……
The US has long been known as a “melting
pot”
because many of its people are
descendents of settlers who came from all
over the world.

The American people are always on the

move – from one part of the country to
another, from one city to another.

Today three out of four Americans live in

towns, cities or suburbs : over 57 million
live in rural areas.

KAUSHAL KISHORE
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Salient Points On
America……
New York City is America’s largest
city.
Each city has a downtown and
suburbs.

Downtown is where the largely

affluent and yuppie crowd stays. It is
more expensive than living in the
suburbs though the suburbs have
large bungalows.

KAUSHAL KISHORE
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Salient Points On
America……

New York City is America’s largest city.

Chicago is the second largest city, Los

Angeles is third, and Philadelphia is the
fourth largest.

KAUSHAL KISHORE
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Salient Points On America
……

The nations capital, Washington

D.C is seventeenth in population.
Specially planned and built as a
national capital, Washington was
laid out by a French architect in the
18th century.
A city of great beauty and a center
of world affairs, it is becoming a
leading cultural center.

KAUSHAL KISHORE
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Salient Points On America
……
Living Standards :

Americans spend money freely and make

purchases on credit when necessary to
buy things they want. Most pay off these
debts on a regular monthly basis.
The buying habits of Americans have
changed in recent years. Since World
War II, the demand for household goods
has slowed down. More money is being
spent on education, medical care,
services, travel and recreation while a
smaller percentage of income goes for
food, clothing and automobiles.

KAUSHAL KISHORE
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Salient Points On
America……
Living Standards :

The majority of Americans live in

apartments or individual houses that
have electric lights, central heating, hot
and cold running water and inside toilets.

Because of the general rise in family

incomes, factory workers, owners of small
businesses, school teachers and sales
personnel can be found in the same
suburban communities, in homes very
much alike.

KAUSHAL KISHORE
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Salient Points On America
……
Education :
Americans take great pride in their schools
and want their children to have the best
possible education.
Only one percent of the population cannot
read or write.
New methods of instruction that encourage
children to develop their creative abilities
are being devised and tested in schools.
Today, there is a strong emphasis on
science, mathematics and foreign languages
and an effort is being made to broaden the
students’ knowledge of other people and
cultures.

KAUSHAL KISHORE
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Salient Points On America
……
Education :

Today, about half of the young people

who graduate from secondary school
go to colleges or universities.

The Americans popularly refer to even

colleges as Schools. And instead of
class or division they call it Level or
Grade.

KAUSHAL KISHORE
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Salient Points On
America……
Youth :

Young people in America have a wide variety

of interests apart from their school
curriculum.

Schools offer a wide range of activities. Apart

from that most houses at least have a basket
ball court.

Also, most parks have tennis/squash/golf

facilities and taking-up a sport in US is very
easy.

Many young people hold part-time jobs after

school hours. Thousands earn money
delivering newspapers or being baby sitters.

KAUSHAL KISHORE
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Salient Points on America
……
Youth :

Majority of young Americans at the

age of 18 get a car to drive which
could be second hand.

The loan systems are very

comfortable for people to buy homes
and cars at an early age.

KAUSHAL KISHORE
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National Celebrations

Americans share three national holidays with many

countries: Easter Sunday, Christmas Day, and New
Year’s Day.

Easter, which falls on a spring Sunday that varies

from year to year, celebrates the Christian belief in
the resurrection of Jesus Christ. For Christians,
Easter is a day of religious services and a family
gathering. Many Americans follow old traditions of
coloring hard-boiled eggs and giving children
baskets of candy. On the next day, Easter Monday,
the president of United States holds an annual
Easter egg hunt on the White House lawn for young
children. KAUSHAL KISHORE
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National Celebrations ……

Christmas Day, December 25, is another Christian

holiday; it marks the birth of Christ. Decorating
houses and yards with lights, putting up Christmas
trees, giving gifts, and sending greeting cards have
become traditions even for many non-Christian
Americans.

New Year’s Day, of course, is January 1. The

celebration of this holiday begins the night before
when Americans gather to wish each other a happy
and prosperous new year.

KAUSHAL KISHORE
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Political Parties And Elections
……
Americans regularly exercise their democratic
rights by voting in elections and by participation in
political parties and election campaigns. Today,
there are two major political parties in the United
States, the Democratic and the Republican. The
Democratic Party evolved from the party of Thomas
Jefferson, formed before 1800. The Republican
Party was established in the 1850s by Abraham
Lincoln and others who opposed the expansion of
salary into new states then being admitted to the
Union.

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Political Parties And Elections
……

The Democratic Party is considered to be the

more conservative of the two. Democrats
generally believe that government has an
obligation to provide social and economic
programs for those who need them.

Republicans are not necessarily opposed to

such programs but
believe they are too costly to taxpayers.
Republicans put more
emphasis in the belief that a strong private
sector makes citizens less dependent on
government. KAUSHAL KISHORE
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The American Economic System

The United States declared its independence in the

year 1776, the same year that Scottish economist
Adam Smith wrote The Wealth Of Nations, a book
that has had an enormous influence on American
economic development. Like many other thinkers,
Smith believed that in a capitalist system people
are naturally selfish and are moved to engage in
manufacturing and trade in order to gain wealth
and power. Smith’s originality was to argue that
such activity is beneficial because it leads to
increased production and sharpens competition.

KAUSHAL KISHORE
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Political Parties And Elections ……

As a result, goods circulate more widely and at

lower prices, jobs are created, and wealth is
spread. Though people may act from the narrow
desire to enrich themselves, Smith argued, “an
invisible hand” guides them to enrich and improve
whole of society.

Most Americans believe that the rise of their nation

as a great economic power could not have occurred
under any other system except capitalism, also
known as free enterprise after a corollary to
Smith’s thinking: that government should interfere
in commerce as little as possible.
KAUSHAL KISHORE
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The Stock Market
Very early in American history, people saw
that they could make money by lending it to those
who wanted to start or expand a business. To this
day, small American entrepreneurs usually borrow
the money they need from friends, relatives, or
banks.
Larger businesses, however, are more likely to
acquire cash by selling stocks or bonds to
unrelated parties. These transactions usually take
place through a stock exchange, or stock market.
Europeans established the first stock exchange
in Antwerp, Belgium, in 1531. Brought to the
United States in 1792, the institution of the stock
market flourished, especially at the New York Stock
Exchange, located in the Wall Street area of New
KAUSHAL
York City, the nation’s financial hub. KISHORE
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Newspapers

The top five daily newspapers by circulation in

1995 were the Wall Street Journal(1,823,207),
USA Today (1,570,624), the New York
Times(1,170,869), the Los Angeles Times
(1,053,498), and the Washington Post (840,232).
The youngest of the top five, USA Today, was
launched as a national newspaper in 1982 after
exhaustive research by the Gannett chain. It
relies on bold graphic design, color photos, and
brief articles to capture an audience of urban
readers interested in news”bites” rather than
traditional, long stories.

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Magazines

Magazines on virtually any topic imaginable have

appeared, including Tennis, Trailer Life, and Model
Railroading, Other magazines have targeted
segments within their audience for special
attention. TV Guide, Time , and Newsweek, for
example, publish regional editions. Several
magazines are attempting to personalize the
contents of each issue according to an individual
reader’s interests.

KAUSHAL KISHORE
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Television: Beyond The Big
Three
Three privately owned networks that offered free
programming financed by commercials - NBC, CBS,
and ABC - controlled 90 percent of the TV market
from the 1950s to the 1970s. In the 1980s the rapid
spread of pay cable TV transmitted by satellite
undermined that privileged position. By 1994,
almost 60 percent of American households had
subscribed to cable TV, and non-network
programming was drawing more than 30 percent of
viewers. Among the new cable channels were
several that show movies 24 hours a day; Cable
News Network, the creation of Ted Turner, which
broadcasts news around the clock, and MTV, which
shows music videos.
KAUSHAL KISHORE
 Television: Beyond The Big Three
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In the meantime, a fourth major commercial
network, Fox, has come into being and challenged
the big three networks; several local TV stations
have switched their affiliation from one of the big
three to the newcomer. Two more national network
- WB and UPN - have also come along, and the
number of cable television channels continues to
expand.

There are 335 public television stations across the

United States, each of which is independent and
serves its community’s interests. But the stations
are united by such national entities as the Public
Broadcasting Service, which supplies programming.
KAUSHAL KISHORE
 STATE CAPITALS 26
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Alabama - Montgomery Louisiana - Baton Rouge
Alaska - Juneau Maine - Augusta
Arizona - Phoenix Maryland - Annapolis
Arkansas - Little Rock Massachusetts - Boston
California - Sacramento Michigan - Lansing
Colorado - Denver Minnesota - St. Paul
Florida - Tallahassee Mississippi - Jackson
Georgia - Atlanta Missouri - Jefferson City
Hawaii - Honolulu Montana - Helena
Idaho - Boise Nebraska - Lincoln
Illinois - Springfield Nevada - Carson City
Indiana - Indianapolis New Hampshire - Concord
Iowa - Des Moines New Jersey - Trenton
Kansas - Topeka New Mexico - Santa Fe
Kentucky - Frankfort New York - Albany

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STATE CAPITALS
New Carolina - Raleigh Tennessee - Nashville
North Dakota - Texas - Austin
Bismarck
Utah - Salt Lake City
Ohio - Columbus
Oklahoma - Oklahoma Vermont - Montpelier
City Virginia - Richmond
Oregon - Salem Washington -
Pennsylvania - Olympia
Harrisburg West Virginia -
Rhode Island - Charleston
Providence
Wisconsin - Madison
South Carolina -
Columbia Wyoming - Cheyenne
South Dakota - Pierre

KAUSHAL KISHORE