【精品】高级英语视听说教程book2听力文本
Book 2 Chapter 1 The Population
Today we’re going to talk about population in the United States. According to the most recent government census, the population is 281,421,906 people. Now this represents an increase of almost 33 million people since the 1990 census. A population of over 281 million makes the United States the third most populous country in the whole world. As you probably know, the People’s Republic of China is the most populous country in the world. But do you know which is the second mo st populous? Well, if you thought India, you were right. The fourth, fifth, and sixth most populous countries are Indonesia, Brazil, and Pakistan. Now let’s get back to the United States. Let’s look at the total U. S. population figure of 281 million in th ree different ways. The first way is by race and origin; the second is by geographical distribution, or by where people live; and the third way is by the age and sex of the population.
First of all, let’s take a look at the population by race and origin. T he latest U. S. census reports that 75.1 percent of the population is white, whereas 12.3 percent is black. Three percent are of Asian origin, and 1 percent is Native American. 2.4 percent of the population is a mixture of two or more races, and 5.5 percen t report themselves as “of some other race”. Let’s make sure your figures are right: OK, white, 75.1 percent; black, 12.3 percent; Asian, 3 percent; Native American, 1 percent; a mixture of two or more races, 2.4 percent; and of some other race, 5.5 percent. Hispanics, whose origins lie in Spanish-speaking countries, comprise whites, blacks, and Native Americans, so they are already included in the above figures. It is important to note that Hispanics make up 12.5 percent of the present U.S. population, however. Finally, the census tells us that 31 million people in the United States were born in another country. Of the 31 million foreign born, the largest part, 27.6 percent are from Mexico. The next largest group, from the Philippines, number 4.3 percent.
Another way of looking at the population is by geographical distribution. Do you have any idea which states are the five most populous in the United States? Well, I’ll help you out there. The five most populous states, with population figures, ar e California, with almost 34 million; New York, with 21 million; Texas, with 19 million; and Florida, with 16 million; and Illinois with 12.5 million people. Did you get all those figures down? Well, if not, I’ll give you a chance later to check your figure s. Well, t hen, let’s move on. All told, over half, or some 58 percent of the population, lives in the South and in the West of the Unit ed States. This figure, 58 percent, is surprising to many people. It is surprising because the East is more densely populated. Nevertheless, there are more people all together in the South and West. To understand this seeming contradiction, one need only consider the relatively larger size of many southern and western states, so although there are more people, they are distributed over a larger area. To finish up this section on geographical distribution, consider that more than three-quarters of the people live in metropolitan areas like Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, and Houston. That means that only 20 percent, or 2 out of 10 people, live in rural areas. An interesting side note is that some 3,800,000 U.S. citizens live abroad, that is, in foreign countries.
Before we finish today, I want to discuss the distribution of the U.S. population in terms of age and sex. Just for interest, would you say there are more men or more women in the United States? Well, according to the 2000 census, there are more women. In fact, there are more than five million more women than men in the U.S. population. If we consider that more males than females are born each year, how can this difference be explained? Well, for a variety of complicated reasons that we can’t go into here, there is a progressively higher death rate for males as they get older. This is seen in 2003 life expectancy figures: the life expectancy for women is 80.4 years whereas for men it is only 74.5 years. I don’t know how these life expectancy figures compare to those in your countries, but statistically women generally live longer than men worldwide. Now, to finish up, let’s look at the average age of the whole population. Overall, the average age of the population is increasing: from 33.1 years in 1990 to 35.3 years in 2000. The average age has been slowly, but steadily, increasing over the past several decades. This trend toward a higher average age can be explained by a decreasing birth rate and an increasing life expectancy for the population as a whole. Well, I’d like to investigate these two subjects further, but I see our time is up, so we’ll have to call it quits for today. Yo u may want to pursue the topic of the aging U.S. population further, so there are some suggestions at the end of the lesson to help you do so. Thank you.
Chapter Two Immigration: Past and Present
The act of immigrating, or coming to a new country to live, is certainly nothing new. Throughout history, people have immigrated, or moved to new countries, for many different reasons. Sometimes these reasons were economic or political. Other people moved because of natural disasters such as droughts or famines. And some people moved to escape religious or political
persecution.
No matter what the reason, most people do not want to leave their native land and do so only under great pressure of some sort, but a few people seem quite adventuresome and restless by nature and like to move a lot. It seems both kinds of people came to America to live. The subject of immigration is quite fascinating to most Americans, as they view themselves as a nation of immigrants. However, the early Britons who came to what is today the United States considered themselves “settlers”or “colonists,” rather than immigrants. These people did not exactly think they were moving to a new country but were merely settling new land for the “mother country.”There were also large numbers of Dutch, French, German, and Scotch-Irish settlers, as well as large numbers of blacks brought from Africa as slaves. At the time of independence from Britain in 1776, about 40 percent of people living in what is now the United States were non-British. The majority of people, however, spoke English, and the traditions that formed the basis of life were mainly British traditions. This period we have just been discussing is usually referred to as the Colonial Period. Today, we’re a little more interested in actual immigration after this period. Let’s first look at what is often called the Great Immigration, which began about 1830 and ended in 1930. Then let’s consider the reasons for this so-called Great Immigration and the reasons it ended. Finally, let’s talk about the immigration situation in the United States today,
As I said, we’ll begin our discussion today with the period of history called the Great Immigration, which lasted from approximately 1830 to 1930. It will be easier if we look at the Great Immigration in terms of three major stages, or time periods. The first stage was from approximate1y 1830 to 1860. Now, before this time, the number of immigrants coming to the United States was comparatively small, only about 10,000 a year. However, the rate began to climb in the 1830s when about 600,000 immigrants arrived. The rate continued to climb during the 1840s with a tota1 of 1,700,000 people arriving in that decade. The rate continued to climb, and during the 1850s 2,600,000 immigrants arrived. During this first stage of the Great Immigration, that is, between the years 1830 and 1860, the majority of immigrants came from Germany, Great Britain, and Ireland. Now let’s consider the second stage of the Great Immigration. The second stage was from l860 to 1890, during which time another 10,000,000 people arrived. Between l860 and 1890 the majority of immigrants continued to be from Germany, Ireland, and Great Britain. However, during the second stage, a smaller but significant number of immigrants came from the Scandinavian nations of Denmark, Norway and Sweden. The third stage of the Great Immigration, which lasted from 1890 to 1930, was the era of heaviest immigration. Between the years l890 and l930, almost 22 million immigrants arrived in the United States. Most of these new arrivals came from the Southern European countries of Greece, Italy, Portugal, and Spain and the Eastern European countries of Poland and Russia.
Now that we know something about the numbers and origins of immigrants who came to the States during the Great Immigration, let’s consider the reasons why most of these people immigrated to the United States. Why did such large numbers of Europeans leave their homes for life in an unknown country? It would be impossible to discuss all the complex political and economic reasons in any depth today, but we can touch on a few interesting facts that might help to clarify the situation for you. First of all, one of the most important reasons was that the population of Europe doubled between the years 1750 and 1850. At the same time that the population was growing so rapidly, the Industrial Revolution in Europe was causing widespread unemployment. The combination of increased population and the demand for land by industry also meant that farmland was becoming increasingly scarce in Europe. The scarcity of farmland in Europe meant that the abundance of available land in the growing country of the United States was a great attraction. During these years, the United States was an expanding country and it seemed that there was no end to land. In fact, in 1862, the government offered public land free to citizens and to immigrants who were planning to become citizens. In addition to available farmland, there were also plentiful jobs during these years of great economic growth. Other attractions were freedom from religious or political persecution. Some other groups also came to the United States as the direct results of natural disasters that left them in desperate situations. For example, the frequent failure of the potato crop in Ireland between the years 1845 and 1849 led to widespread starvation in that country, and people were driven to immigrate. Another factor that affected the number of immigrants coming to the United States was improved ocean transport beginning in the 1840s. At that time, ships large enough to carry large numbers of people began to make regular trips across the ocean. Now let’s summarize the reasons for the high rate of immigration to the United States during the years we discussed: f irst, the doubling of the population in Europe between 1750 and 1850; second, the unemployment caused by the Industrial Revolution; and third, the land scarcity in Europe, followed by religious and political persecution and natural disaster. These reasons combined
with improved transportation probably
account for the largest number of immigrants.
I would now like to talk briefly about the period of time following the Great Immigration and the reasons for the decline in the rate of immigration. Although immigration continues today, immigration numbers have never again reached the levels that we discussed previously. There are several reasons for this decline. This decline was in part due to various laws whose aim was to limit the number of immigrants coming from different parts of the world to the United States. The first such law that limited the number of immigrants coming from a certain part of the world was the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882. This law was followed by many other laws that also tried to limit the numbers of people immigrating from various countries or parts of the world. In addition to such laws, certainly economic and geopolitical events as important as the Great Depression starting in 1929 and World War II also contributed to the decline in immigration.
Let’s conclude our talk by discussing the current situation with respect to immigration, which is quite different from that in the past. To understand some of the changes, it’s important to note that in 1965strict quotas based on nationality were eliminated. Let’s see how different things are today from the past. As I noted, the greatest number of immigrants to the United States have historically been European. According to U.S. Census figures, in 1860, the percentage of immigrants that were European was 92 percent. But by 1960, the percentage of European immigrants had dropped to 74.5 percent, and by the year 2002, it had dropped to 14 percent! In 2002, 52.2 percent of immigrants came from Latin America, that is, from the Caribbean, Central America, and South America. Mexico is ordinarily considered part of North America, but the U.S. Census Bureau considers Mexico as a Central American country in terms of immigration statistics, and estimates that more than one-third of the total of all immigrants to the United States in 2002 came from Mexico or another Central American country. The next largest percentage, 25.5 percent, of immigrants came from Asia, mainly from the Philippines, China, and India.
Although immigration dropped sharply when the United States entered World War I and remained low throughout the Depression and World War II years, at the end of the l940s, immigration began to increase again and has, in general, risen steadily since then. It might surprise you to know that the actual number of immigrants coming yearly to the States in recent years is about the same as the numbers coming yearly between 1900 and 1910. Keep in mind, though, that the population of the United States is much larger now than at the turn of the century, so that while the yearly numbers may be similar, the percentage of the population that is foreign-born is considerably smaller today than it was a century ago.
It might be interesting to speculate on immigration in the future. Will the trend continue for non-Europeans to immigrate to the United States? The answer is probably yes for the foreseeable future. Do these non-European people come to the United States for the same reasons that Europeans came? Well, land is no longer plentiful and cheap. Industry no longer requires large numbers of unskilled workers. In fact, the government usually tries to restrict immigration to those people who already have the skills to be successful in U.S. society. Still, people come for politica1 and economic reasons and probably will continue to do so.
Chapter 3 Americans at Work
Whether you love it or hate it, work is a major part of most people’s lives everywhere in the world. Americans are no exception. Americans might complain about “blue Monday,” when they have to go back to work after the weekend, but most people put a lot of importance on their job, not only in terms of money but also in terms of identity. In fact, when Americans are introduced to a new person, they almost always ask each other, “What do you do?” They are asking, what is your job or profession. Today, however, we won’t look at work in terms of what work means socially or psychologically. Rather, we’re going to take a look at work in the United States today from two perspectives. First, we’ll take a historical look at work in America. We’ll do that by looking at how things changed for the American worker from the beginning to the end of the twentieth century, that is, from the year 1900 to the year 1999. Then we’ll look at how U.S. workers are doing today.
As we look at the changes over the last century, we’re going to use a lot of statistics to describe these changes. You will need to write down a lot of numbers in today’s lecture. First, let’s consider how the type of work people were involved in changed. At the beginning of the twentieth century, about 38 percent of the workforce was involved in agriculture; that is, they worked on a farm. By the end of the century, only 3 percent still worked on farms. There was also a large decrease in the number of people working in mining, manufacturing, and construction. The number of workers in mining, manufacturing, and construction went down from 31 percent to 19 percent.
While the number of people in these goods producing industries went down, the number of people in the service industries went
up. As you may know, a service industry is one that provides a service, rather than goods or products. A few examples
include transportation, tourism, banking, advertising, health care, and legal services. I’m sure you can think of more. The service industry workforce jumped from 31 percent of the workforce at the turn of the century to 78 percent in 1999.
Let’s recap the numbers: in 1900, 38 percent in agriculture; 31 percent in mining, manufacturing, and construction; and 31 percent in the service industries. That should add up to 100 percent. In 1999, 3 percent in agriculture; 19 percent in mining, manufacturing, and construction; and 78 percent in the service industries. Again, that should add up to 100 percent.
The labor force changed in other important ways. For example, child labor was not unusual at the beginning of the twentieth century. In 1900 there were 1, 750, 000 children aged ten to fifteen working full-time in the labor force. This was 6 percent of the labor force. Over the years, child labor laws became much stricter and by 1999, it was illegal for anyone under sixteen to work full-time in any of the fifty states. While the number of children in the workforce went down, the number of women went up dramatically. In 1900, only 19 percent of women were employed; in 1999, 60 percent of women were holding down jobs.
Let’s see what has happened to wages and salaries. All the numbers I will give you are in terms of 1999 dollars. Let me explain. In 1900 the average per capita income was $4,200 a year. That does not mean that the average worker in 1900 earned $4,200, a year, but that what he or she earned was equal to $4, 200 in 1999. That is, the amount of money the average worker earned in 1900 was worth the same as $4,200 in 1999. The average per capita income in 1999 was $33, 700. Not only did people earn a lot more money at the end of the century, they also received a lot more in benefits than at the beginning of the century. One of the important benefits most workers received later in the century was health insurance. Whereas wages and salaries rose over the century, the average workweek dropped. That is, workers, in general, did not work as long hours in 1999 as they did in 1900.
The last area that I’d like to give you a few statistics about is workplace safety. Most of us who go to work every day don’t think a lot about whether we are safe or not, but in 1900 it was a real concern for a lot of workers. There aren’t many statistics available, but the U.S. government does have statistics on two industries that will give you some idea of the differences today. In 1900 almost 1,500 workers were killed in coal-mining accidents; in 1999, the number was 35. 2,555 railroad workers were killed in 1900, compared to 56 in 1999.
People often tend to romanticize the past and talk about “the good old days,” but I think it’s fair to say that by the end of the twentieth century, U.S. workers in general made more money, they enjoyed more benefits, and their working conditions had improved greatly.
Now let’s turn our attention to the current situation for U.S. workers. The picture is not so rosy as the one drawn by comparing U.S. workers at the beginning and the end of the twentieth century. I’m going to focus on the current situation in terms of productivity, working hours, and wages and salaries.
First let’s consider the number of hours worked. According to a 2003 study released by the United Nations International Labor Organization, U.S. workers are the most productive in the world among industrialized nations, but they work longer hours than European workers to achieve this productivity. Europeans typically have four to six weeks of vacation a year, whereas the average American worker has only about two weeks. This study points out that the longer working hours in the United States is a rising trend, while the trend in other industrialized countries is the opposite.
Workers in some European countries actually outproduce American workers per hour of work. It has been suggested that this higher rate of productivity might be because European workers are less stressed than U.S. workers.
At any rate, there seems to be general agreement that U.S. productivity has greatly increased over the last thirty years. However, workers have not seen their wages rise at the same rate. A group of sociologists in their book Inequality by Design point out that there is a growing gap between rich Americans and everyone else in the United States. They write that between 1949 and 1974, increases in productivity were matched by increases in wages for workers in both manufacturing and the service industries, but since 1974, productivity increased 68 percent in manufacturing and 50 percent in services, but real wages stagnated. That is, wages moved up little or not at all. So, where does all the money generated by the increased productivity go then? According to the authors of this book, the money goes to the salaries for CEOs, to the stock market, and to corporate profits. Workers play a great role in increasing productivity, but no longer see their wages connected to increased productivity. In other words, CEO s’salaries, the stock market, and the corporate profits go up as work productivity goes up, but workers’ wages don’t.
What are the reasons why U.S. workers, who are the most productive in the world, have to work longer hours, have fewer vacation days, and see their wages
stagnate and not rising at the same rate as productivity? The answer to this question is complex and controversial, but there are two reasons most people who speak or write about these issues mention: The first is that labor unions in the United States have lost great power since the beginning of the 1980s, and the second is that the government has passed laws that favor the rich and weaken the rights of the workers.
I see our time is up. So, I’ll see you next time.
Chapter 4 Family in the United States
A hundred years ago, one heard the same kind of comments about the American family that one hears today --- in short, that the American family is disintegrating. Proof of this disintegration at the end of the nineteenth century included three points: the declining birth rate, a rising divorce rate, and evidence that women were not completely content with their domestic role. It’s a little surprising to me that the same claim about the family is being made today --- that it is disintegrating. And often the same points are mentioned as proof: declining birth rates, increasing divorce rates, and discontent of women with domestic roles. Now, in no way do I mean to imply that cultural, demographic, and economic conditions are the same now as they were 100 years ago. On the contrary, the very nature of the family has changed drastically in the last 50 years, not to mention the last 100 years. But I don’t think the average person’s concept of the family has changed very much over the years. A lot of people have on fixed idea of the family: a married couple where Mother stays home to care for the children and Father works. But this idea is challenged by what we see every day in U.S. society. To be sure, the family is a very sensitive barometer for what is happening in the society, the culture, and the economy of the United States. To make this point clearer, we’ll take a look at how the American family has changed in the last 50 years by looking at three different time periods: there are the mid-1940s to the mid-1960s; the mid-60s to the mid-80s; and finally the present. Sociologist Barbara Dafoe Whitehead labels these three periods: the period of traditional familism, the period of individualism, and the period of the new familism. I will try for each period to show how economic, demographic, and cultural elements interact and, in turn, affect the family.
Well, let’s proceed in chronological order and start with traditional familism. We’re talking here of the twenty years from the mid-1940s to the mid-1960s. This was the period after World War II, a period characterized by a very strong economy. This gave the United States a rising standard of living and a growing middle class. Demographically, the predominant configuration of the family from these years was the traditional one: a married couple with children. Some women worked, but divorce rates were low, and birth rates were high. I guess you could say that the country idealized the family in these years. And what I mean is, there was a commitment to the family from its members and a reverence for it from society. TV programs of the era depicted the family in the classical configuration: working father, housewife, and children. Culturally, three characteristics stand out in this period: conformity to social norms, greater male domination of the family than in the later periods, and clear-cut gender roles, that is, clear and separate roles for men and women at home and at work. Well, things changed quite a bit after this period.
Let’s move on to the second period, the period of individualism. This period is from the mid-1960s to the mid-1980s. Now, because individualism is so often mentioned in our discussion of U.S. culture and people, I should make a little detour here before we discuss it. Individualism brings to mind two other words: independence and self-reliance. Individualism conveys the idea that one should think and act for himself or herself, according to what one feels is right. Individualism is easily confused with egotism or selfishness, but in its best sense, it is much more. Individualism implies that one has the freedom to decide what is best rather than allowing that decision to be made by a group such as the community or society. Individualism does, of course, conflict with the concept of community, which implies that the group shares in making decisions. And this conflict between the individual and the community is one that comes up again and again in our lecture series about the United States. All right, let’s get back to our discussion about the family.
The second period, the period of individualism, saw three important social and political movements. Do you have any idea which movements I might be talking about? Keep in mind that these decades were characterized by a lack of conformity to social norms. Well, the movements have in mind are the sexual revolution, in which sex was clearly no longer reserved for marriage; the women’s liberation movement; and the movement against the war in Vietnam. All three movements---the sexual revolution, woman’s liberation, and the antiwar movement --- were typical of the nonconforming nature of these decades. Now, culturally, it is in this period where we see two important developments: one the idealization of one’s career and work and, two, the drive for self-expression and self-fulfillment. In this period, the feminist movement challenged traditional gender roles and male
domination of society. Women began to enter professions
previously closed to them like medicine, law, and management. Men, for their part, began at least to consider a more active role in raising their children.
These cultural changes occurred during a time of economic changes, too. This was a time of rapidly rising cost of living. Together, these forces changed the demographics of the family. The former picture of the family had only one configuration: a married couple with children where Mother stayed home. The new picture of the family had to include new configurations, like families in which the husband and wife both worked, families of single parents with children, and families of cohabiting couples with or without children. With more women pursuing careers and making money, there was less economic pressure for them to stay in an unsuitable marriage. Therefore, divorce rates doubled in a decade. Rising divorce rates and more financial independence for women made marriage a less attractive arrangement for many women. Consequently, the number of single-parent households tripled. Less conformity to social norms paved the way for cohabitation. So the number of unmarried couples living together in this period quadrupled. Can you see how economic, cultural, and demographic aspects of the society interact with each other? I hope so. Well, let’s continue with our agenda.
The third period, the new familism, is harder to see because we are living in this period now. And because we are constantly informed by the media about the deteriorating American family, it’s hard to get an objective view of the state of the family. I think that today most people applaud the social changes that came about in the second period of individualism. They are not willing to give up gender equality, the freedom to leave an unsuitable marriage, or the self-fulfillment of an interesting job. At the same time, most experts, if not most people, admit that children paid a high price for the social changes that took place in the second period. It was the children who spent long days in day care or after-school hours home alone while both parents worked. And it was the children who grew up with only one parent or with stepparents in many cases.
Some experts see changes occurring now in U.S. society, changes that affect the family. They see a continuing decline inn divorce rates since the 1980s but also a decline in birth rates after an initial increase in 1980s. The decline in divorce rates could be due to families’ better financial situations. Despite the decline in divorce, a quarter of U.S children today live with only one parent. The birth rate is probably declining because an increasing life span results in fewer women of childbearing age. A more encouraging reason is the reduction in unmarried teen pregnancies. Experts also report an attempt by people to balance work with family obligations, especially the care of children. They see the individualism of the middle period changing somewhat; the concern seems in many cases to be shifting from one’s career to one’s family, from individualism to the new familism. The most optimistic view of this third period would be that Americans have learned from past mistakes: they want to regain the commitment to family of the first period and keep the equality and fulfillment of the second period. It will not be easy to regain the commitment to the family of the first period. It will require changes in how society and the government look at the family. In families where bother parents work, one parent may try to work at home or work only part-time to have more time for the children. Places of work may offer more flexible working hours and on-site day care to allow more time for parents and children. For its part, the government could mandate parental leave, family allowances, and quality day-care centers. Parental leave and family allowances would allow parents to stay home to look after their newborn children. Quality day care would be adequately staffed by professionals who stay at their jobs and with the same children year after year.
None of these changes is guaranteed. But it seems clear that such changes or similar ones are necessary to ensure a healthier U.S. family in the future; and, a healthier family is needed to play the central role that family does in every society. I’ve gone over a lot here, but if you want to pursue the topic further, there are some references that the end of the lesson to help you do so.
Chapter 5
Lecture：Religion
Religion is a complex phenomenon in the United States and often misunderstood by foreigners. Part of this may be because the media, for example, television and films, are often the only ways that foreigners are exposed to American culture. These media, in general, ignore the role and importance of religion in America.
Driving through the countryside and passing through small towns in the United States, foreigners are often surprised by the number of churches in even a small town of two or three thousand people. That there are so many churches doesn’t seem so strange, perhaps, if we look at the history of the United States. Remember when talked about immigration to the United States? At that time, we pointed out that many people immigrated to escape persecution and to seek freedom to practice their religion.
Considering that people from many different countries and religious backgrounds immigrated to the United States, it should n’t be surprising to find a great number of different religious denominations. Even in a small town, there will usually be several churches representing different religious groups. Today I’d like to give you some facts and figures about religious groups in the United States, then compare the United States to other modernized nations, and, finally, say something about the importance of religion in America, particularly about the increasing role of religion in U.S. political life in recent years.
Estimating the number of people belonging to various religious groups in America can be a little difficult to do. First of all, the U.S. government cannot ask for information on religious affiliation on a mandatory basis in any official capacity, statistical information must be gathered from surveys of the population and from organizational reports, which might, for example, include the number of members belonging to a church, synagogue, or mosque. One survey done in 2002 shows that 76 percent of the total population identified themselves as Jewish and another 1 percent as Muslim. I should pint out that Protestants, who form the single largest religious groups, are found in more than 1,200 denominations.
Another study, called “The American Religious Identification Survey,”showed that the number of people identifying themselves as Christian dropped from 86 percent to 77 percent between 1990 and 2001. The total number of those identified themselves as Jewish declined a little, whereas the total number who identified themselves as Muslims doubled. Other smaller groups such as Buddhists and Hindus also increased their numbers. I don’t want to suggest that these are the only religious groups. Ok, so that’s enough facts and figures about various religious groups in the United States.
Now let’s look at two ways that religion in the United States differs from religion in other modernized nations. The first relates to the number of persons who claim membership in churches or some other religious organization. The second concerns the relationship of religion and government. Let’s consider the first way the United States differs from these other modernized nations. About 60 percent of Americans belong to a church or other modernized nations. This number is surprisingly high in comparison to other modernized nations. For example, the percentage of people who belong to a church or other religious organization is only 22 percent in Great Britain, 15 percent in Spain, 7 percent in Italy, and 4 percent in France. This is not to suggest, though, that religious values may not be important in these countries, but it does suggest how important belonging to a church or other religious organization is to Americans compared to Europeans. However, there is another somewhat contradictory difference that we should also consider. In many of these modernized, European nations, there is no clear separation of religion and government. When discussing religion in America, it’s important to remember that whereas freedom of worship is guaranteed by the First Amendment to the Constitution, this same amendment also establishes the separation of church and state. Therefore, although this amendment guarantees everyone the right to practice his or her religion, it also tends to keep religion out of the public schools, for example. Religion has been a matter of government, politics, and public education. Of course, religious beliefs and values have always influenced politics and education, but generally indirectly. To sum up, then, the importance of belonging to a church or religious organization seems greater to Americans than to Europeans, but at the same time, religion has no official role in the government as it has in some European countries and has largely been confined to the private side of people’s lives. However, there has been a recent trend leading to an increase in the influence of religion in politics. Finally, let’s take a closer look at this rather sudden rise in the influence of religion on American political life.
Although religion in America seemed to many people to be in decline during most of this country, in the 1970s, there was a religious revival that surprised many, especially those people in academia, the media, and government. This religious revival became known as the “rise of the religious right.”That is, the people involved in this religious revival were politically conservative, or to the right of the center. For a while it seemed that this rise in conservative religion would be largely confined to the private sphere of life. The religious right was generally opposed to abortion, but abortion was made legal by the Supreme Court anyway. The religious right generally favored prayer in schools, but the Supreme Court found that prayer in public schools was unconstitutional. The issues of abortion and prayer were felt by many to be matters of private concern, not serious political issues. However, these issues have become increasingly politicized, and because very politicized and has led to very bitter political debate and even acts of violence. The religious right has also put more and more pressure on politicians to put prayer back in the schools, even if this requires another amendment to the Constitution. This rise of the religious right can no longer e ignored by people in politics. However, whether this group will be able to influence political life fir a long time cannot be known. Perhaps this is a temporary phenomenon, and in time the religious right will become less important.
What the role and importance of religion will be in the future of American society cannot be known, of course. There are those who predict that Americans will become more like Europeans if economic prosperity continues, that is, more secular and less religious. Others fear that the rise in conservative religious beliefs may lead to a more authoritarian political atmosphere with less personal freedom for individuals. Because religious values have always been important in America in one way or another, it seems likely that religion will continue to play an important role in America well into the future.
By the way, the history of some religious minorities in the United States is particularly interesting and sheds some light on the tougher issues related to the government’s commitment to freedom of religion and the separation of church and state. Some of these better known groups are the Amish, the Mormons, and the Seventh-day Adventists. I don’t have time to go into them today, but for those of you who are interested, I suggest that you do some further investigation of these religious minorities.
Chapter 6 Birth，Marriage, and Death
Customs vary so much from country to country or culture that it’s often bewildering for a foreigner trying to understand the traditions and customs of a new country. Part of what makes it so difficult is that most of these customs are so ingrained in the culture that most local people accept them without ever thinking about them. Some of the reasons for the customs or traditions are historical and may have ever been forgotten by the people who still practice these customs. When pressed for an explanation of some of their customs, people will sometimes be quite surprised that anyone would question their customs. “Doesn’t everyone do it this way?” might be their response, yet some of the customs that seem so natural to the people in the country or culture may seems quite strange and inexplicable to people new to a country. In a country as large as the United States, with people from so many different parts of the world and different cultures, it can be even more bewildering. Many ethnic groups still practice customs and traditions brought by their ancestors from their countries, yet if we look at the country as a whole, its people as a whole, w e can find a kind of “general” culture with traditions that are often accepted or least adapted to fit the customs and traditions of each immigrant group as it becomes assimilated into the larger culture. Today let’s look at some widely accepted customs and traditions of most Americans concerning three of life’s most important events: birth, marriage, and death. Please keep in mind that these descriptions are very general and that society is changing quite rapidly in the United States and that people adapt and modify these customs to fit changing societal conditions and their own situations.
The birth of a baby is a momentous occasion in any family and is celebrated in some way or another. There are many traditions associated with this event. One of the most common ones is the baby shower, which is a nonreligious tradition observed by almost everyone in the society. A shower is given by a close friend or relative of the expectant mother shortly before the bay is due. In the past, showers were almost always arranged in secret so as to be complete surprise to the mother-to-be. The mother-to-be was usually invited to someone’s home on one pretex or another, where she was surprised by her female friends and relatives who had planned this special party for her. In recent years, the tradition has been modified, at least in some social circles, so that the shower is not always a surprise occasion, but one that the expectant mother know about ahead of time.
Whether the baby shower is a surprise or not, the mother-to-be is showered with gifts for the new baby by her friends and relatives. The gifts may be small ones or very expensive ones depending on the financial situation of the participants, but there is always a very emotional outpouring of good wishes for the expected baby and its parents. The gifts are always opened at the party, and everyone expresses great admiration for them. There’s always a lot of advice from experienced mothers and expressions of envy form those women who do not yet have children. This way, the expectant mother is reassured about the coming event and desirability of her situation. A few years ago, t was almost unheard of for men to participate in bay showers. However, as I mentioned earlier, society is changing rapidly and men’s particip ation at baby showers is becoming more common. That reminds me of another related change in society in the United States. In the past, when births manly took place at home, it was a strictly female event with men banished from the room where the baby was born. After women started going to hospitals to have their babies, men still never went into the delivery room and were expected to wait nervously in the waiting room for doctor to come and tell them the good news. Today this is changing for many modern couples. Often they attend classes together to prepare them for the birth of the baby, and many men are with their wives in the delivery room and “coach” them through the birth along with the doctors.
After a baby is born, many, if not most, people want to have a religious service for their baby within a few weeks of the baby’s birth, even if they are not very religious themselves. Friends and family will attend the service, which will be held in a
church or a synagogue (犹太教堂) . For Christians, this service is ordinarily called baptism.
There are many customs and traditions surrounding marriage and particularly the wedding activities themselves. Once again, it is very hard to generalize about these customs, as they vary so much among different people, but there are some customs that are quite generally observed. It is no longer necessary for a young man to ask permission of s girl’s father for her “hand”, and among modern couples a woman may actually be the first one to bring up the subject of marriage, but most young people still very much want their parents’ approval of the person they hope to marry. It is still traditional for young man to give his fiancée a diamond ring at the beginning of their engagement period. As for the actual wedding ceremony and related celebrations, traditionally it is the bride’s family who pays for these expenses. The wedding ceremony can be very simple one, with only a few family members and close friends present, or it can be very elaborate, with hundreds of people in attendance. The traditional reception that follows the ceremony can be as simple as cookies and punch in the church or as elaborate as a large sit-down dinner held at a local hotel with a dance and private orchestra following the dinner. Sometimes people are invited only to the wedding or only to the reception. At any rate, these events can usually be attended only by invitation. One very popular tradition associated with weddings is, once again, the shower that we mentioned in relation to birth. At this shower given before the wedding, the bride-to-be receives gifts to help her set up her new household, such as electrical appliances, sheets, towels, and pots and pans. In addition to shower gifts, wedding gifts are also expected from people who receive wedding invitations. Occasionally people choose not to have any religious service at their wedding and opt to get married in a civil ceremony in a government building. However, a civil ceremony is not necessary if a couple decides to get married in a religious ceremony. Priests, ministers, and rabbis are legally empowered to marry couples, and it is not necessary to have both a civil and a religious ceremony. By the way, th ere’s an interesting tradition associated with weddings that is rather hard to explain, but then many traditions are. It is said every bride at her wedding should be wearing or carrying “something old, something new, something borrowed, and something blue.” The bride will be checked at the last minute to be sure that she has one of these. There are some other customs similar to this one that are rather superstitious in nature. For example, people believe that it is bad luck for the groom to see the bride in her wedding dress before the ceremony. And immediately following the ceremony, as the couple leave the church, people at the ceremony will throw rice at them to signal fertility—that is, a hope that they will have many children. Some churches and other places where weddings are held have recently banned the throwing of rice as being hazardous to guests who can slip and fall on it. Some suggest throwing rose petals or some other substitute for the rice.
In addition to birth and marriage, every society has to deal with death. Once again, it is hard to generalize about the customs surrounding death. Each religious group has ways to help its members cope with the loss of a family member or friend. For most people, religious or not, there are many decisions to be made at the time of a death. One decision is whether to have a funeral held in a church or in a funeral home. Another decision is whether to have the body cremated or not. If the body is cremated, a memorial service is held rather than a funeral. If the body is not cremated, a decision must be made about whether to display the body or not at the funeral. A day or two before the funeral, it is also quite common to hold a wake at a funeral home where the body is displayed in its casket. At the wake the family receives those people who whish to express their sympathy to the bereaved.
At the funeral service it is customary for a religious leader to speak some words of comfort for the bereaved. In addition, a eulogy is usually given by someone close to the deceased person. Sometimes many people will speak about the good deeds of the person who has died. After the religious ceremony, the body is usually taken to a cemetery , where it will be buried after another brief religious service. Of course, most people learn of the death of someone they know from the person’s family, but notices of funeral services are also printed in the newspaper, and anyone who whishes to attend the service is expected to without a personal invitation from the family. People who knew the deceased casually, but who want to express their condolences, usually send a “sympathy” card to the family. It is traditional to send flowers to a funeral, but it is important to check with a florist to be sure to send the correct kind of flowers. It’s sometimes important to know what kind of clothes to wear to a wedding or a funeral. Traditionally the bride wears white, and quests at the wedding are free to wear whatever colors they like, except for women, who do not wear white. At a funeral, it used to be necessary to wear black to show grief, but today this custom is no longer observed.
As I said before, in a society so large and diverse as the United States, customs can vary greatly from area to area, among different social, ethnic, and even from generation to generation. I have tried to give you some idea of customs and traditions that are gene rally accepted, but, of course, it’s always wise to ask if you find yourself in a situation where you might be invited or
expected to participate on one of these events. When in doubt, ask.
Chapter 7 Multiculturalism
Foreigners from older cultures with traditions. dating back hundreds and hundreds of years sometimes react with surprise and skepticism when the topic of U.S. culture comes up. Commenting on the United States, they sometimes say things like “But the United States has no culture.” People in the United States find comments such as this one amusing at best, and sometimes downright infuriating. In a way, I understand why a foreigner might react skeptically to the United States, especially if the person comes from a more ethnically and racially homogeneous society. Or if the person comes from a society whose culture is reinforced by state institutions—government, church, and schools, for instance. It would be hard for this foreigner to understand a multiracial, ethnically diverse country like the United States, whose institutions do not strongly reinforce the culture. However, it seems na?ve or even perverse to deny the existence of a culture that has such great impact on other cultures, for better or worse. The clothes that Americans wear, the food they eat, the music, films, and books they produce, and even to some extent the religions they practice influence how many people in other countries live and think. One may easily disapprove of the influence that mass American culture has on the world, but one cannot objectively deny that influence.
In all fairness, I have to say that it’s understandable that foreigners have trouble identifying an American culture because not even the best minds in the country—writers, educators, and politicians—agree on the basic nature of U.S. culture. Now today I’ll try to contrast three ways that U.S. culture has been perceived over the years. Then perhaps you can decide which point of view seems the most logical to you. We’ll take a look at the older monoculturalist view; a newer, multiculturalist view; and finally a third view, which I’ll call the pluralistic view.
First in our discussion is the monoculturalist view of the United States as a melting pot. A melting pot, literally a pot in which metals like aluminum and copper are milted in order to blend them, is the traditional metaphor for the way the different groups of immigrants came together in the United States. Now, theoretically, the result of many nationalities blending together is one big unified common culture, an alloy of all the parts in it. In other words, the result is a combination of all the different parts, which have mixed together and are no longer recognizable as separate parts. However, many people today feel that the idea of one common U.S. culture is a myth and has always been a myth. To support their view, opponents point out that many groups, notably African, Asian, and Native Americans, have at times been excluded from participating fully in society through segregation and discrimination. Furthermore, a trademark of U.S. immigration has been that the most recently arrived group, whether Irish or Italian or Chinese or Jewish, typically faced strong discrimination from those already in the United States. We know that all these groups have made important contributions to culture, that is not the point. The point is, given the climate of discrimination at different times in the past (and even now), U.S. society does not assimilate new cultural input until much later—after the new immigrants are viewed with less prejudice. Let’s move on to another view of U.S. culture.
The second view of U.S. culture that we’ll look at today is the multiculturalist view. The multiculturalist view focuses on the many subcultures that make up the U.S. population—all the different ethnic and racial groups we talked about in a previous lecture. Now, each group brought its own distinct culture when it immigrated to the United States. The multiculturalist view does not see U.S. culture as a milting pot; rather, the metaphor that multiculturalists often employ is the patchwork quilt, a bedcover made of numerous pieces of differently-colored material. (Have you seen quilts like these on beds?) The metaphor of the patchwork quilt is appropriate in that the multiculturalists see the United States as a mosaic of separate, autonomous subcultures, each one distinct from the other. U.S. culture, in this view, is a sum of the distinct parts, with little or no mixing of subcultures. Opponents of this view, those who disagree with it (and there are many who do), say that the multiculturalist view ignores the characteristic mixing of groups, both ethnic and racial, that has been common in the United States. Americans of European background have always intermarried, many people are a combination of four or more ethnic backgrounds—and often of more backgrounds than they can keep track of. I do not want to imply that the United States has overcome its race problems—far from it. But recent census statistics give two indications of somewhat more mixing than previously. First, one in fifteen U.S. marriages is now interracial. An interracial marriage would be any combination of white, black, Asian, and Native American spouses. Admittedly, there are many more marriages between Asians or Native Americans and whites than between blacks and whites. Second, of the 1.6 million children who are adopted, 17percent make their families multiracial because of the adoption of local children of another race