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Lesson 2 Who Are America‟s Hispanics ?The answers may surprise youBy Michael Barone1. As you walk around the Cisco Brothers, furniture factory in South Central Los Angeles, you‟d hardly guess that Francisco Pinedo is the boss. Short and slight[1], wearing jeans and speaking rapid-fire[2] Spanish to his workers, he seems younger than his 35 years. Pinedo came to the United States in 1976 from Jalisco, Mexico, a 13-year-old boy who spoke no English. He dropped out of the 1 1th grade to work for a furniture manufacturer to support his family. Later he and his wife, Alba, borrowed everything they could to buy a one-bedroom, no-windows house for $36,000.2. Today the Pinedos own Cisco Brothers which employs 115 and last year sold more than $9 million worth o f furniture to stores around the world. “Being American offers you almost every opportunity,” says Pinedo, who speaks English fluently and has applied for U.S. citizenship.3. His is one of the success stories written by what the Census Bureau[3] calls Hispanics: people of Latin American or Spanish origin. Whether recent immigrants or descendants of people who lived in the Southwest before the Pilgrims[4] came to America, they are all members of one of this country‟s most important ethnic groups—and one of the least understood. Consider these facts:4. The Census Bureau estimates that there are 28 million Hispanics in the United states today, ap¬proximately one in ten of us. That number is projected to reach 53 million in the year 2020, or one in six Americans. Most of that growth will not be because of immigration, legal or illegal, but will come from the natural increase among Hispanics already here.5. Like Fransisco Pinedo, most Hispanics come from humble backgrounds —many from unthinkable poverty. But the large majority are not poor or on welfare. Indeed, Hispanic men havea higher labor-force participation rate than the national average.6. Some Hispanics speak only Spanish —but the overwhelming majority growing up in the United States see English as their primary language.7. In recent years the public spotlight on America‟s Hispanics has often focused on drug crime, urban poverty and illegal immigration. But beyond these publicized problems are millions of ordinary, and many extraordinary, people. Who are they — and what will be their impact on the nation‟s future?8. The Ninth of 12 Children, Danny Villanueva grew up in California and Arizona border towns. His father was a minister and a supporter of Cesar Chavez‟s United Farm Workers. His diminutive[5] mother insisted that her sons raise themselves through athletics. After every game, win or lose, she would ask, “Did you give it all you had?[6]“9. Villanueva was, by his own description, “short, fat and slow—but nobody outworked me.” He became the kicker for the Los Angeles Rams[7], then helped found the Spanish-language Univision television network[8]. Today he is head of the nation‟s first Hispanic investment fund[9], its high-rise offices overlooking the mansions of Beverly Hills[10].10. Family ti es, like the strong partnership between Villanueva‟ s parents that gave him a future, re¬main important to today‟ s young Hispanics. Many of the men working in Francisco Pinedo‟ s factory, for instance, are about the same age as the characters on TV‟s “Seinfeld” or “Friends.” [11] But instead of hanging out[12] with contemporaries, most are married with children.11. According to the most recent statistics, 37 percent of Hispanic households are composed of two parents raising minor[13] children—as compared with 25 percent of non-Hispanic Americans. Divorce is significantly less common among Hispanics than among non-Hispanics.12. Sleepless in El Paso. As a boy, Cesar Viramontes crossed the Mexican border to El Paso, Texas, knowing no English. He dropped out of high school to work in a laundry. Then he and his wife saved enough money to buy a laundromat[14] When the fashion for prewashed[15] jeans started, the Viramontes family got into the business. Closing the laundromat at 10 p.m., they‟ d set the machines spinning with jeans from local manufacturers. Then they‟ d clean out the blue water and lint[16] before customers arrived at 7 a.m. All for 15 cents a pair.13. When did they rest? “We didn‟t,” says Cesar Viramonters. “You can sleep when you‟re 60.” Today the family owns International Garment Processors, which employs more than 750 workers at two large plants just outside El Paso. The company processes 50,000 garments a day for Levi Strauss[17] and other makers, and grosses [18] more than $30 million a year.14. America‟s Hispanics are known as hard workers. “Latinos[19] have a strong work ethic[20] and strong loyalty to employers,” says Jose de Jesus Legaspi, a real-estate developer who came to Los Angeles from Mexico as a teen-ager. Their attitude, he says, is: “I‟m asked to do this job, and 1 go and do it. If I need more money, I‟ll get an extra job.”15. Statistics back up Legaspi‟ s opinion: the percentage of Hispanic men in the labor force in 1996 was 80 percent, well above the U.S. average of 67 percent. And many are entrepreneurs: the number of Hispanic-owned businesses rose to 863,000 in 1992, with receipts of $77 billion.16. All Together Now. In 1994 (the last figures available)[21], Hispanic income per person was only 57 percent of the national average—reflecting low earnings by immigrants with little English and few marketable skills. But often several people in each family work, so average Hispanic household income was 73 percent of the U.S. average.17. This is one way immigrants work themselves up to the middle class. Mexican-born Elena Lomeli is a top assistant to Laurie Gates, a pottery designer whose work appears in leading department stores. Arriving here in 1969 at age 13 and knowing no English, Lomeli baby-sat and did housekeeping. Today sh e helps transform Gates‟ s designs into finished products. “I surprise myself every day by what we do here,” she says.18. The Language Crisis. When Miami lawyer Nicolas Gutierrez, Jr., was interviewed on Span¬ish-language television, his Cuban-born family called him later to “correct what 1 got wrong,”[22] he says. Although he grew up hearing Spanish at home, he spoke English in school, college and law school—and speaks it today in his business and personal life.19. Today, in many workplaces and with family and friends, Spanish is usually the choice for Hispanic immigrants. As a result, many critics of immigration worry that Hispanic America will become a separate, Spanish-language community.20. It‟s an old controversy, one that also raged early this cent ury when Italian, Polish and Jewish immigrants did not learn English. But the second generation did. And the experience of Nick Gutierrez and many others is reason to believe that things are no different today.21. Indeed, more than three-quarters of U.S.-born Hispanics have a solid command of English[23]. And in a 1996 poll conducted for the Center for Equal Opportunity, 51 percent of Hispanic parents said that learning to read, write and speak English was the most important goal of their children‟ s education; only 11 percent said the same of Spanish.22. Unfortunately, public schools—the great entryway to American success for the children ofearlier immigrants—have not served Hispanic students well. Part of the problem: the “experimental” bilingual educat ion programs started a generation ago. Technically voluntary[24], these programs enlist many Hispanic children regardless of parents‟ wishes. States such as California and Illinois can keep pupils in bilingual classes for five years. The effect is to hold back children from learning the English that they need and their parents desire.23. And because many Hispanic students are thus ill-prepared when they get to college, bilingual programs have even found a foothold there. Herman Badillo, a former New York City Congressman of Puerto Rican descent, spoke to one student from Hostos Community College, a bilingual branch of the City University of New York. The woman had failed a required English-proficiency test twice. “She couldn …t speak fluent English, and she‟d majored in gerontology and gotten a job in a nursing home,” Badillo said. “If she‟s working with elderly people who don‟t speak Spanish, it will be a calamity.”24. Clearly, reform of bilingual education programs is long overdue[25].25. Citizens Who Vote. Eighty years ago it was said that Italian immigrants would never be ab¬sorbed into mainstream society. Yet in time they became unequivocally American. Today, writes cultural critic John Leo[26], ” Hispanics are blending into the general population at l east as fast as earlier white ethnic groups did.”26. In the past two years Hispanics have become U.S. citizens at a record pace[27]. Already the largest ethnic minority, they will in time be the largest voting bloc—maybe even the majority—in several of our largest metropolitan areas. And competition for Hispanic votes is becoming as politically crucial as past battles for immigrants‟ votes.27. Texas and California, the nation‟s two largest states, with the two largest Hispanic populations, have already de veloped very different Hispanic politics. Hispanics in Texas‟ s Congressional delegation, for example, include a conservative Republican as well as both conservative and liberal Democrats. In California—with 54 electoral votes, 20 percent of those needed to win the Presidency—Hispanic voters tend to favor government-spending programs[28] and activism, positions that usually help liberal Democrats. But they are also likely to support capital punishment[29] and oppose abortion, views that help Republicans.28. In any event, the GOP[30] could pay a high price if it is perceived as engaging in immigrant-bashing[31]. In 1994, for example, one in four Hispanics voted for California‟s Proposition 187[32], which barred state aid to illegal immigrants. But many resented Republican Governor Pete Wilson‟ s ads for the measure, which they thought labeled all Hispanics as lazy. Two years later the Republicans‟ share of the Hispanic vote sharply declined.29. Whatever they may be in the future, Hispanic preferences and priorities are likely to strongly influence the direction of our politics and government. But it will be American politics.30. Consider Texas Congressman Silvestre Reyes. Growing up in a small Texas town, he learned English at school, served in Vietnam and then got a job with the Border Patrol[33]. In 1993 he devised Operation Hold the Line[34], which stationed agents at the border along the Rio Grande and vastly reduced the flow of illegal immigrants. In 1996 he was elected to Congress.31. A reporter once a sked him, “How do you guys celebrate independence day?”32. “With fireworks and a picnic,” Reyes replied.33. The writer was surprised. “I had no idea you celebrated the 16th of September [Mexico's independence day] that way,” he said.34. Reyes explained: “I‟m talking about the Fourth of July.”From Reader‟s Digest, January, 1998V. Analysis of Content1. Hispanics may refer to____________.A. Americans of Latin American or Spanish originB. recent immigrants to America from South AmericaC. descendants of people who lived in the Southwest before the Pilgrims came to AmericaD. immigrants from Spain2. From the article, we know that ___________A. the number of Hispanics will reach 53 million in 2020 because of increasing immigrationB. most Hispanics are poor and on welfareC. the employment rate of Hispanic men is higher than the national averageD. the Hispanics see Spanish as their primary language3. Which of the following statement is wrong ?A. Family ties remain important to today‟ s you ng Hispanics.B. All Hispanic men are likely to hang out with their contemporaries.C. Divorce among Hispanics is not so common as among non-Hispanics.D. Hispanic families are relatively stable.4. What‟s the effect of the “experimental” bilingual edu cation programs to Hispanic children?A. They can speak both Spanish and English fluently.B. It holds back children from learning the English that they need and their parents desire.C. It has well prepared Hispanic students.D. It helps the children to learn English.5. In 1996 the Republicans‟ share of the Hispanic vote sharply declined because___________A. Hispanics in California are against the Republicans‟ platformB. Hispanics in California are for liberal Democrats‟ platformC. California‟s Proposition 187 is unreasonableD. the Republican Governor Pete Wilson had bashed HispanicsVI. Questions on the Article1. Why does the author say one would hardly guess that Francisco Pinedo is the boss?2. In recent years, what have been the publicized problems with Hispanics?3. Can you tell how Cesar Viramontes succeeded in his business?4. Will Hispanic America become a separate, Spanish language community as many critics worry?5. Why is the competition for Hispanic votes becoming as politically crucial as past batties for immigrants‟ votes?VII. Topics for Discussion1. How do you interpret Pinedos‟ words “Being American offers you almost every opportunity”?2. Is bilingual education necessary for Hispanics?。
Lesson 2 Uncle Sam’s islandsDotted across the Caribbean and the Pacific -- and indeed the American mainland -- are the islands of an empire on which the dollar never sets1. AMERICA does not like to think it has colonies, and many of those who live in them wince at the very word. It is seldom used, except in Puerto Rico by people who want their island to be independent, whether from the United States or as part of it. Official language speaks of commonwealths or territories. But facts are facts. Military conquest and strategic need over the past 100 years or so have left America a modest, yet far-flung empire of islands. Most have governments and flags of their own, but none is free. And though they are sovereign territory of the United States, and use its currency, neither are they part of it. They have no direct say in its political process. Colonies they are.2. Their citizens are a diverse bunch: Caribbean blacks, Latin Americans, Pacific islanders, mainland expatriates, in all a little under 4m people. They live on more than 4,000 square miles of land: from east to west, the United States Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, Palmyra, American Samoa, Johnston Atoll, the Midway Islands, Wake Island, the Northern Mariana Islands, Guam. Here and there lie uninhabited outposts: guano-covered Navassa in the Caribbean, Kingman Reef and Jarvis, Howland and Baker Islands in the Pacific. The sun sets but briefly on this American empire, of which most Americans know little.3. As empires go, this is a democratic one. The “big five” colonies -- Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, Guam, Samoa and the Northern Marianas -- have locally elected governors and legislators, like those of a fully fledged state. But they are not autonomous. To varying degrees, each possession answers to a branch of the federal government in Washington, DC, and is subject to American laws. All depend on the United States for their economic well-being. Yet none has a direct hand in the mother country’s decisions, even when they apply to its own inhabitants. For these, though mostly citizens of the United States (bar some “American nationals”in Samoa), cannot vote for its president. All they elect to Washington is, for each territory, a non-voting delegate to the House of Representatives; the Northern Marianas, by their own choice, do not even do that.Contented colonials4. Arguing over what relations with America should be is consequently something ofa national sport in its territories. In general, there is no great clamour for radical change, just a call for more autonomy and for the occasional exemption from some especially inappropriate American law. Except in Puerto Rico, progress to full statehood is accepted as an unrealistic aim. Independence movements, wherethey exist at all, find little local support. Puerto Rico’s main pro-independence party gets only about 6% of the vote in elections for governor, though its leader, Mr Ruben Berrios Martinez, is one of the island’s most dynamic politicians.5. Resentment against Washington’s occasional high-handedness is more than offset by the benefits it provides. And it gives more than it takes. Uncle Sam, doubtless mindful of what happened to George III, does not claim federal income tax from residents of the territories, thus allowing the local authorities to claim the revenue. In some cases Washington provides grants for these local governments. Yet the colonials can claim many of the personal benefits on offer to taxpaying citizens in the 50 states.6. Harder to put figures on, but no less palpable, is the economic benefit of being American. Virgin Islanders thrive on tourism from the mainland United States. Puerto Rico has recently had a higher annual growth rate than the mainland, thanks in part to investment in the island by American companies attracted to it by its combination of tax breaks and political stability. It is unlikely that independence would have brought any of America’s possessions to their present economic level. The Virgin Islands’GNP per head ($ 9,750 in 1986) is four times that of independent Antigua and Barbuda nearby.7. The rights of American citizenship include the right to live and work on the mainland. More than 2m Puerto Ricans live in the United States proper, notably in New York. So, mainly in Hawaii, California and Washington state, do around 85,000 Samoans -- more than twice the population of American Samoa itself.8. Here, not least for the use of Americans, is a brief gazetteer of their empire. Populous Puerto Rico18989. The “shining star of the Caribbean” has, on the face of it, the least excuse for beinga colony. Surrounded by former European colonies now independent, Puerto Rico is the fourth largest island in the Caribbean, with a population of some 3.3m and a 1987 GNP of $ 18 1/2 billion. Columbus landed here in 1493, and for 400 years it was a colony of Spain. Its history is evident throughout the island, from the splendid Spanish-colonial governor’s mansion, La Forteleza, in San Juan, to the shanties in the mountains. English is an official language, but in practice comes a distant second behind the other one, Spanish.10. Yet Puerto Rico is American, and generally proud of it. It became an American colony in 1898 after the Spanish-American war. Its people became American citizens in 1917, and the territory was given ”commonwealth”status in 1952. Since then it has seen a vigorous but ometimes debilitating debate over the next step: whether tostick with this ill-defined, quasi-autonomous status, to become a full state or to go independent. Were it to become the 51st of the United States, Puerto Rico would rank 51st in wealth: its income per head is only two-thirds that of Mississippi, America’s poorest state today.11. But Puerto Rico is not likely to become either a full state or independent in the near future. Though President Bush is in favour of statehood, when the islanders vote again on their future status, possibly in 1991, they will most probably choose to stay much as they are. The proposal for “enhanced commonwealth” status is likely to get most votes, quite possibly an overall majority. The vote for statehood will be significant, but would have to be well above 50% for Washington seriously to consider accepting the idea. The backers of independence will do well to reach double figures.12. In politics, this division dominates everything. The arguments for statehood and independence alike are admirably democratic and emotional; those for continued commonwealth status -- backed by the current governor, Mr Rafael Hernandez Colon, and a majority of the island’s legislators -- are persuasively economic.13. At present, Puerto Rico does very nicely out of American tax law, in particular Section 936, which allows American companies, already exempt from American tax on business done there, to transfer profits back to their mainland headquarters without incurring tax. The island’s government credits these breaks with it $ 9 billion a year of manufacturing output and recent growth rates as high as 5%. With unemployment near 19%, that growth is not something lightly to be put at risk.14. To protect its tax breaks from budgetcutters in Washington, Puerto Rico has developed its own version of President Reagan’s Caribbean Basin initiative. It lends money to other Caribbean countries for development and helps American companies to set up twin plants in those countries and in Puerto Rico. Fomento, the island’s impressive development agency, says that this local initiative has already created some 10,000 jobs in 11 Caribbean countries. By these means Puerto Rico sells itself to Washington as a kind of half-way house between America and the Caribbean. It is an ironic role-reversal: a colony coming to the aid of independent but poorer neighbours.Various Virgins191715. Step out of the airport terminal and you will swiftly see that the United States Virgin Islands are not like anywhere in America: your taxi is driving on the left. The Danes, from whom the United States bought the islands in 1917 for $ 25m, to protect the Panama Canal from German submarines, drive on the right themselves, but succumbed to the influence of the British Caribbean. That tradition lives on,even thought the cars obeying it are American one, build the wrong way round.16. A mile, at the nearest point, from the sleepy British Virgin Islands, the territory consists of about 50 small islands and three larger ones, at the northernmost sweep of the Lesser Antilles. The bigger islands -- St Thomas, St Croix and St John -- are home to about 106,000 people, 80% of them black and manifestly West Indian black. Two-thirds of St John is a breathtakingly lovely national park; St Thomas and St Croix, also beautiful, are daiquiri fuelled, yacht-clogged playgrounds for wealth Americans.17. The islands have next to no natural resources beyond their beauty and climate. But these are enough: more than 1.7m visitors come each year, many on cruise ships. They spend about $ 620m -- half of the islands’ $ 1.25 billion gross territorial product. When they are not sailing, swimming or sunning, the visitors are shopping. This is a duty-free zone, and mainland residents can take up to $ 800-worth of tax-free souvenirs home with them from the jewellery bazaars of Charlotte Amalie, Christiansted and Frederiksted. There is another industry: making watch movements, $ 5m-worth of which were exported in 1987. But the big employers, with 31% of the labour force, are the federal and local governments.18.A few rich mainlanders live on the islands; one-third of the other inhabitants live below the official poverty line. The cost of living (like the crime rate) is high. Yet the citizens of this American colony are much better off than most independent Caribbean citizens.19. And they know it. In November, when they vote on the territory’s status they will probably opt for continued ties with America, albeit with the usual request for more autonomy. Independence will be on the ballot, and the islands’governor, Mr Alexander Farrelly, says Washington may be surprised by the support it attracts. The federal government is seen as meddling too much in island affairs. It is a fair bet, however, that the resentment will be held in check by a reasonable fear that not so many wealthy Americans would visit the islands were they not safely part of the American family.Sleepy Samoa1900-190420. Across the Pacific, the citizens of America’s only sizable possession in the southern hemisphere are in no hurry for change. The last look American Samoa took at relations with the mother country was conducted by a “Second Temporary Future Political Status Commission”. It reported, in 1979, that the way ahead was to take another look in 10-15 years’ time.21. American Samoans are equally relaxed in their approach to democracy. It took intheir approach to democracy. It took three plebiscites to get them to agree that the territory should have an elected governor. Their legislature’s upper house is appointed by village elders. Traditional garb is the norm, even among the most westernised Samoans. Existence is dominated by “Fa’a Samoa” a concept that literally means the Samoan way of life but that can be more usefully translated as that which mystifies outsiders.22. The result is that American Samoa is the least assimilated of all the United States’colonies, and possibly the poorest -- facts which, by and large, do not much bother its inhabitants. The colony’s government is the largest employer, with 38% of the officially recorded labour force, followed by two tuna canneries with 37%. Estimated income per head is only $ 1,850 -- which is still 3 1/2 time that of independent Western Samoa, 80 miles to the west.23. The colony consists of seven islands, 1,600 miles north-east of New Zealand, witha population of 38,000, most of whom live on the main island of Tutuila. By arrangement with Britain and Germany, the United States took the islands -- sorry, had them ceded by local chiefs -- between 1900 and 1904. Until 1951 they were run by the American navy, which liked the harbour at Pago Pago and originally used it as a coaling station. In 1925 Congress gave American Samoa its own colony, annexing tiny Swain’s Island 180 miles to the north-west. The 27 or so Swain’s Islanders send a delegate to the American Samoan legislature. Non-voting, of course.Grumbling Guam189824. The largest and most southerly island of the Marian archipelago, Guam is the most populous American possession in the Pacific, with about 130,000 people crowded on to its 210 square miles. A bit over 40% of them are native Chamorros, the rest Filipinos, other Asians and mainland Americans. Guam, once a Spanish colony, bills itself as the place “where America’s day begins”. In fact, it doesn’t: tiny Wake Island, just to the west of the international date line sees the dawn a good hour earlier. Guam’s sense of its place in the imperial sun is equally uncertain.25. Guamanians are proud to be American, and have little interest in becoming independent. But they are not content either with their current relations with the United States, which resemble those of the Virgin Islands. Among the issues that rankle is Guam’s inclusion in the protectionist Jones act, which requires that American ships be used between American ports. To islanders who live 3,700 miles west of Hawaii this seems inappropriate, for all its sixteenth-century Spanish imperial precedents.26. In 1987 the islanders voted to ask the federal government to give their territory more autonomy and make it a commonwealth much like Puerto Rico. A bill to thateffect has been introduced in Congress. But it is unlikely to make speedy headway, in part because the Guamanians ignored Washington’s instructions to negotiate the matter first and vote later.27. Guam did well, economically, out of the Vietnam war. It has not done so well since. Today it tries to sell itself as a Pacific base for American companies, but with little success. The territorial and federal governments employ 45% of the workforce, and the economy is based on military spending (about $ 680m in 1987, including the pay of some 9,000 military personnel). Tourism, however, is prospering: around 1/2m people, most of them Japanese, visited the island in 1987. Their needs have set off a construction boom. And the economy may be looking up more generally: a recent analysis from the Bank of Hawaii suggests that Guam is heading for a new phase of growth.Much-disputed Marianas194728. Few Americans have ever heard of the Northern Mariana Islands. Plenty of Japanese have. Of 230,000 tourists in 1987, most came from Japan. There are many more today: the 16-island archipelago offers the nearest sun-drenched beaches to Tokyo, 1,400 miles to the north.29. The Northern Marianas have had a long colonial history. The Spanish held them for 300 years until Germany took over in 1898 (when Guam was split off to become American). After the first world war the League of Nations entrusted the islands to Japan, which in turn lost them after fierce fighting in the second world war; one of them, Saipan, is home to Suicide Cliff, where thousands of Japanese soldiers and civilians killed themselves in 1945. The islands then became an American trust territory.30. Most of America’s Pacific trust territories have by now gone their own way into independence (under America’s wing, of course). The Northern Marianas, in contrast, asked to join America’s empire, being accepted by Congress as a commonwealth in 1976. They got a good deal. Their covenant grants them various exemptions from American legislation, notably the Jones act and laws on immigration and minimum wages. Washington also gives the islands about $ 33m a year for development, for running the government and so on.31. Just what the island’s status means is less clear. Talk to an American official and he will tell you that they are very much like other American territories. Talk to one of the 21,000 islanders and he will speak of “internal sovereignty”, as if they were all bu independent.32. The gross island product in 1988 was almost $ 450m, more than five times -- inreal terms -- what it was in the late 1970s. Japanese investment is growing; seven of the islands’eight hotels are Japanese-owned. There is also a nascent clothing industry. One potential problem is the reliance on foreign labour; a third of the islands’inhabitants, including most private-sector employees, are from elsewhere.Democracy, DC179033. Beyond the “big five’, America’s empire consists of a variety of sparsely populated outcrops, most of which are military bases. Wake is run by the air force; the Midway Islands and Kingman Reef by the navy; Johnston Atoll by the Defence Nuclear Agency. Palmyra, 1,000 miles south of Hawaii, is privately owned.34. Two other dots on the map deserve mention. Palau, in the Pacific, is the sole remaining trust territory handed to America by the United Nations. It will become independent -- in “free association” with America -- when 75% of its people agree to America’s terms, which, in several votes, they have so far refused to do.35. And then there is the District of Columbia. The home of America’s federal administration and legislature enjoys only slightly greater democratic rights than do Uncle Sam’s other possessions. Its 620,000 residents murder each other with much greater freedom than, say the backward Samoans, and can even vote for the federal president (and pay federal taxes). But they still have only a non-voting delegate in Congress. Whenever the district gets uppity, as over abortion, or has other problems, such as its drug wars, Congress gets imperial and flexes its muscles.The Economist May 6, 1989ExercisesAnalysis of the content1. What the author means by “Sleepy” Samoa is that _____.A. Samoans like to sleepB. Samoans always look as if they want to sleepC. Samoans feel no hurry for changeD. Samoa is a tranquil place2. Which of the following islands has the longest history as a colony?A. Puerto RicoB. GuamC. the Northern MarianasD. American Samoa3. From the article we know that America’s poorest state is _____.A. AlaskaB. MississippiC. LouisianaD. Idaho4. Which of the following islands has the strongest sentiment for independence?A. Puerto RicoB. American SamoaC. GuamD. the Virgin Islands5. The author’s overall attitude towards the US policies concerning the islands is_____.A. highly criticalB. unkownC. rather positiveD. objectiveQuestions on the article1.What rights and benefits do the people on those islands enjoy according to thearticle?2.What difference exists between the US Virgin Islands and American in traffic?3.What kind of economy brings the Virgin Islands the greatest benefit?4.Of the island colonies, which one is the least assimilated?5.Which island is the place where America’s day begins?6.Give a brief account of the colonial history of the Northern Marianas.7.To whom are the Northern Marianas more familiar, Americans or Japanese?Why?8.What additional political rights do the people in the District of Columbia have? Topics for discussion1.Is it beneficial for those islands to remain under American’s control?2.Is America’s empire of islands a democratic one?。
