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The usa (II)

Warm up Activities

1. Read the sentences and circle the correct item.

1. How many British colonies came together in America in 1776?

a) the fifteen; b) the thirteen; c) the eighteen.

2. The man who wrote the following “of the people, by the people, for the people” was

a) Jefferson; b) Washington; c) Lincoln.

3. The supreme law of the USA is

a) the Constitution; b) the Bill of Rights; c) the Articles of Confederation.

4. The ultimate power in the USA belongs to

a) the President; b) the people; c) the Supreme Court.

Reading

2. Read the article and translate it, using a dictionary. Decide what the underlined words are substitutes for. Choose the appropriate answer below. Then try to remember the words in bold.

The Constitution of the USA

The Constitution of the USA, the oldest still in force in the world, has been repeatedly amended to meet the changing needs of the nation, but it is still the “supreme law of the land”. All governments and governmental groups, federal, state, and local, must operate within 1) its guidelines. The ultimate power under the Constitution is not given to the President (the executive branch), or to the Supreme Court (the judicial branch). Nor does 2) it rest, as in many other countries, with a political group or party. It belongs to “We the People” in fact and in spirit.

In this way, Americans first took for themselves the liberties and rights that elsewhere were the privileges of an elite few. 3) They are stated in the first ten Constitution Amendments, known together as the Bill of Rights, and considered to be the fundamental rights of any American. Among these rights are the freedom of religion, speech, and the press, the right of peaceful assembly, and the right to petition the government to correct wrongs. Other rights guarded the citizens against unreasonable searches, arrests, and seizures of property, and established a system of justice guaranteeing legal procedures. 4) This included the right of trial by jury, 5) that is, being judged by one’s fellow citizens.

The great pride Americans have in their Constitution, their almost religious respect for it, comes from the knowledge that these ideals, freedoms, and rights were not given to 6) them by a small ruling class. Rather, there are seen as the natural “unalienable” rights of every American, which had been fought for and won. 7) They cannot be taken away by any government, court, official, or law.

The federal and state governments formed under the Constitution, therefore, were designed to serve the people and to carry out their majority wishes. One thing 8) they didn’t want their government to do is to rule them.

Americans expect their governments to serve them and tend to think of politicians and governmental officials as 9) their servants. This attitude remains very strong among Americans today.

1. its

a) the Constitution b) the nation

2. it

a) the judicial branch b) the power

3. they

a) the rights b) Americans

4. this

a) a system of justice b) legal procedures

5. that

a) trial by jury b) jury

6. them

a) the rights b) Americans

7. they

a) the rights b) Americans

8. they

a) the people b) the wishes

9. their

a) politicians and officials’ b) Americans’

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