Chapter1 Geographical Features and Natural Resources
1.In area, the United States is the 4th largest country in the world.
2.The Midwest in the US refers to the region around the Great Lakes and the upper Mississippi Valley.
3.The Backbone of North America refers to the Rocky Mountains
4.Death Valley is on the western edge of the Great Basin.
5.The Great Plains might have a dust storm in summer.
6.The western part of Washington State has the highest rainfall in the US.
7.The US primary suppliers of foreign oil are the following countries except Japan
8.The US largest open-pit copper-mining center is in Utah.
1. The United States is bordered on the north by Canada, on the south by Mexico and the Guff of Mexico, on the east by
the Atlantic Ocean, and on the west by the Pacific Ocean.
2. The large territory of the continental US is divided into three basic areas:
A. the Atlantic seacoast west to the Appalachians
B. the Mississippi River Basin
C. the Rockies west to the Pacific
3. The Middle Atlantic States are the most densely populated region in the US, where the land is flat and fertile.
4. The Central Valley of California is a highly productive area, which produced enormous amounts of fruits and vegetables.
5. Most production of oil and natural gas in the US comes from offshore areas of Louisiana and Texas, and from onshore
areas of Texas, Oklahoma and California. Her big consumption of energy now has made America insufficient in oil supply.
The US reliance of foreign oil has reminded consistently in the 40% ranges.
6. The United States has little trouble caused by the shortage of fresh water. Farmlands in the US making up about 12% of
the arable lands in the world, and they are among the richest and most productive.
Chapter 2 American Population
1.The over 3 million of early Americans in 1790 were mostly of British ancestry.
2.About 700,000 immigrants were legally received by the US each year during the 1980s.
3.The official racial segregation continued to be the law of the US until 1954.
4.American Indians now mainly live in the South.
5.The majority of American Hispanics are from the following countries except Spain.
6.The West now leads in percentage increase in population.
7.According to the 1994 US census, the second most populous state in the US is Taxes.
8.The trend in migration from cities to suburbs now prevailed in all regions except the South.
1.The United States is the third most populous nation in the world.
2.Prior to 1875 anyone from any country could enter the US freely and take up permanent residence there. Later the US
Congress passed laws restricting immigration on the basis of morality, race, and national origin. The 1952 Immigration and
Nationality Act reaffirmed national origin as the chief criterion for eligibility and established a preferential system for
skilled workers and for relatives of the US citizens. For many years the US restricted to total number of immigrants to
270,000 each year, although the real immigrants numbered much greater than the limit. The 1990 Immigration Act limits
the total number of immigrants to 700,000 from 1992 to 1995 and 675,000 thereafter.
3.The first blacks arrived in Jamestown in 1619 as indentured servants, but soon[ after 1619 they were brought to colonies
as slaves. The blacks were formally freed in 1863, but continued to suffer the institutionalized segregation for about a
century. Today many blacks still live in the South, some have entered the middle class, but one-third of all black families
still live below the poverty line.
4.The Chinese-Americans have proved to be industrious and intelligent. They are now viewed as a “model minority” in the
US. According to the 2010 US census, there were about 3.8 million Chinese-Americans living in the US. The figure was
more than twice what it was in 1990.
Chapter 3 Discovery and Colonization of the New World
1. The ancestors of the present American Indians came from Asia.
2. “The ambition for the vast lands” is not correct to explain the reasons for the sudden daring exploration of the
unknown in the mid-15th century.
3. On his voyage of 1492, Columbus expected to reach India.
4. Vasco da Gama discovered the route to India.
5. John Cabot was sent by the English King to explore the new way to the east. 6. New York was not founded first by the English.
7. The breadbasket colonies include the following ones except Virginia. (New York, Pennsylvania, Maryland)
8. The last one of the 13 colonies was Georgia, which was established in 1733.
1. In 1488 Bartholomew Diaz, sailing under the Portuguese flag, went to the Cape of Good Hope at the southern Africa. In
1492 Christopher Columbus, financed by rulers of Spain sailed west across the Atlantic Ocean and discovered the islands of
the Caribbean. He was convinced that he had found the continent of Asia.
2. The South Africa was discovered by Amerigo Vespucci who showed the land he arrived in was a new continent. Before
long the land was named America after his name.
3. Jamestown, the first permanent English settlement, was founded in 1607. In 1620, Pilgrims and others arrived in
Plymouth, Massachusetts. They drew up “Mayflower Compact”
4. By 1775, the 13 colonies in North America could be classified as the following three kinds. Specify how the governors
were chosen in each.
a. Royal: appointed by the English King
b. Proprietary: chosen by proprietors
c. Self-governing: elected by residents
5. Because the New England colonies were difficult of farming, they become a center for fishing and shipbuilding. The
middle colonies were known as the breadbasket, which produced wheat and potatoes as the major staple. The southern
colonies developed a plantation system. The main crop in the South was tobacco. Much later, cotton became important
crop.
Chapter 4 American Revolution
1. There was a great change in policy towards the 13 colonies after 1763.
2. The Stamp Act of 1765 first set a large scale of opposition in the colonies.
3. The Tea Act of 1773 was passed by the British Parliament in order to help the British East India Company.
4. The First Continental Congress was attended by the representatives from all the colonies except Georgia.
5. The first shot of the American War of Independence was fired in Lexington.
6. Thomas Paine’s Common Sense urged the American colonists to declare their in dependence.
7. The principal author of the Declaration of Independence was Thomas Jefferson.
8. The victory at Saratoga was considered as the turning point of the War of Independence.
1. During the colonial days the English ruling class did everything they could to control the development of the colonial
economy. The colonies in North America were supposed to complement and not compete with English industry.
2. Within the five years from 1763 to 1767 after the war with France, the British government adopted several measures to
extract more money from colonies. The Sugar Act of 1764 and the Stamp Act of 1765, for example, laid taxes on certain
imports and numerous articles in America to help pay for the costs of British government in the colonies.
3. The Sons of Liberty was formed in 1765 to organize the opposition to the Stamp Act. They favored to take violent action
to the stamp collectors.
4. The first Continental Congress was held in Philadelphia in Sep.1774. The majority of the representatives still favor to take
peaceful means to settle the quarrel with the British. They agreed to refuse to buy English goods, hoping in this way to
force the British government to give in to their demands. This united action could be called boycott.
5. The Declaration of Independence was signed on July 4, 1776. Karl Marx once called it “the first declaration of the rights
of the individual”.
6. The American War of Independence lasted 7 years. The fighting was actually ended in 1781, but the final treaty between
Britain and the United States was signed in Paris in 1783. The boundaries of the United States were fixed roughly from the
Atlantic Ocean to the Mississippi River on the west and from the Great Lakes on the north to Spanish Florida on the south.
The direct social change brought about by the American Revolution was the emancipation of slaves who fought against the
British.
Chapter 5 the Confederation and the Constitution
1. The confederation created in 1781 was a very loose union of states.
2. James Madison was called the Father of the US Constitution.
3. The Constitution was frames on the following ideals except that the new government should impose its authority on
the people through states.
4. Those who supported the Constitution and preferred a strong national government were called Federalists.
5. Nine States were needed to ratify the Constitution.
