Population (3295)

More than 250 million people live in the USA. Most of the people live in cities and towns.

The people of the United States are a mixture of many different nationalities. Every American schoolchild learns that the United States is the big "melting pot" of countries. In a melting pot, different metal's are melted together to make a new metal. The United States is like a melting pot for people. In the past, people from many different European countries came to the US and made one country out of many. Many Americans or their families had originally come from Great Britain. They spoke English. They dressed like the British. They practised the Protestant religion and followed many of the British customs. In one city you can find people whose parents, grandparents and great-grandparents came from China, Africa, South America, and Southeast Asia. As a result of prolonged immigration, now there are more than 25 million British Americans (nearly half of the population of Britain, about 23 million African Americans, 25 million German Americans and more Irish Americans than the whole population of Ireland, many people from the Middle East and the Far East. These different people brought to their new land a wonderful mixture of customs and traditions.

Now in the country there are 26.5 million black people. The life of most coloured people is very difficult in the USA because of race discrimination. Many other Americans live in poverty, too. They live in city slums and country shacks. They have little hope of a better future. There are millions who are not able to get a job.

Indians were the first Americans, they populated the whole of North and South America long before the continent was settled by white men.

The story of the North American Indians is a tragic one. It is one of the most terrible stories of genocide in modern history. The first white settlers in North America – mainly British – began to kill the Indians and drive them off their lands, and this policy was continued after the foundation of the USA. Indians fought for their lands, but they could do little to defend themselves. Because of this genocide which continues to this day though in different way, there are only about 1 million Indians in the USA now. They are the poorest part of American population and get the lowest rights. More than half of American Indians live in reservations situated in waterless districts of the south-western states where harvests are very poor. Unemployment in Indian reservations is up to 70 % and few of these Native Americans live up to the age of fifty. Every third Indian child dies less than six months after it is born. Indian children as a rule have little chance of getting education. Indians love their traditions and their national culture, but they are losing them or have already lost them because of racial oppression. Indians in many states are practically unable to take part in political activity. The federal government does not defend their rights and very often even helps those who wish to take lands from the Indians. Protests are growing among the Indians. The organisations they have established are fighting for full equality in all spheres of public and economic life.

In the 5^th or 6^th century daring Polynesian voyagers sailed to Hawaii across thousands of miles of the Pacific in their double canoes. They are believed to have been the island's first inhabitants. Today, about 900,000 people inhabit the island chain's land area of 16.7 thousand square kilometres. By origin, they are most closely related to the countries of Asia and the Pacific – chiefly Japan, the Philippines, China and Korea. Only about 1/6 of the inhabitants originated in Europe or the America.

Arctic Alaska has been the home of the Eskimos for countless centuries. It is believed that the Eskimos moved there from Mongolia or Siberia. The Eskimos and the American Indians of south-eastern Alaska are the state's earliest inhabitants.

Check your comprehension.

1. What is the population of the USA? 2. What is the USA often called “the melting pot”? 3. Where did many Americans come from? 4. Are there any black people in the USA? 5. Is the life of coloured people difficult in the USA? Why? 6. Who were the first inhabitants of the continent? 7. Are there many Indians in the USA now? Why? 8. What are the main problems faced by the Indians? 9. What is the origin of Hawaiian inhabitants? 10. Where did the first Eskimos move from?

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<== попередня сторінка	\|	наступна сторінка ==>
Chapter 7	\|	The Nation of Immigrants (2052)

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