5. Make up the questions to these answers.

1. In the eighteenth century

2. The French and Indian War.

3. Seven years.

4. Britain did.

5. All of Canada and all of North America east of the Mississippi River

6. To get a compensation for the expenses Britain had made during the war.

7. But they did object.

8. On July 2, 1776.

9. George Washington.

10. On 4^th July, 1776.

11. Natural right to “Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness”.

12. In the Treaty of Paris

6. Answer these questions. Check your answers with the text.

1. What was the outcome of the Seven Years’ War?

2. What do they call this war in the USA?

3. For a long time colonists did not object to British rule, did they?

4. What angered the colonists?

5. When did the war of Independence break out?

6. When was the Declaration of Independence issued?

7. How long did the War of Independence last?

8. What was the outcome of the war?

7. Translate into English.

В середине XVIII века Франция заявила права на Канаду. Французские исследователи первыми совершили путешествия по этим землям, но большая часть этих территорий не была населена европейцами, и они оставались неисследованными. Французские поселения имелись в основном на юго-востоке Канады. Это притязание встревожило Британское правительство, которое считало Северную Америку частью Британской империи. Британские колонисты уже заселили большую часть восточного побережья, создавая фермы и поселения в долине реки Огайо. Этот конфликт перерос в войну, которая продолжалась семь лет, до 1763 г. Франция потерпела поражение и потеряла всю Канаду. Когда французы оставили Канаду, американские колонисты почувствовали, что больше не нуждаются в британских солдатах и боевых кораблях. Кроме того, Британское правительство ввело новые налоги и пошлины. Колонисты были против, особенно жители Новой Англии. Война за независимость началась, которая продолжалась более шести лет. Первые выстрелы раздались в апреле 1775 г. около Бостона. 4 июля 1776 г. Континентальный Конгресс принял Декларацию независимости, в которой колонии впервые были названы Соединенными Штатами Америки. Итогом войны стало признание Британией своих бывших колонии независимым государством.

8. Points for discussion. (Summarize the text according to the following suggestions).

1. The main cause of the French and Indian War.

2. The outcome of the war.

3. The main causes of the conflict between Britain and its North American colonies.

4. The significance of the Declaration of Independence.

5. The war coming to an end.

6. The Treaty of Paris (1783).

Pre-reading questions

Do you think the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States were written simultaneously?

Do you happen to remember when the Constitution of the United States was written and ratified?

Do you think the Indians and the Negroes were granted the same rights as the whites?

A new nation (I)

The Treaty of Paris had recognized the United States as an independent nation. But it was not one nation as it is today. In 1783 most Americans felt more loyalty to their own state than to the new United States. Each individual American state had its own government and behaved very much like an independent country. It made its own laws and its own decisions about how to run its affairs. The first big problem that faced the new United States was how to join together these sometimes quarrelsome little countries into one united nation.

In February 1787, Congress asked each state to send delegates to a meeting or «convention» to talk about some changes in the government and in the country. The smallest state, Rhode Island, refused, but the other twelve agreed. The meeting became known as the Constitutional Convention. It began in May I787, and fifty-five men attended. They chose George Washington to lead their discussions.

They set out the plan for this government in a document called the Constitution of the United States. The Constitution still left the individual state governments with a wide range of powers. But it made the federal government much stronger than before. It gave it the power to collect taxes, to organize armed forces, to make treaties with foreign countries and to control trade of all kinds.

Many Americans had fear. This was that the federal government might try to weaken the power of the states to run their own individual affairs. To remove this danger the Constitution said exactly what powers the federal government should have and what powers should be reserved for the states. It said that the states were allowed to run their internal affairs as they wished, provided that they kept to the rules of the Constitution.

The Constitution went into effect in March 1789. But it was still not really complete. In 1791 ten amendments were made to it. Together these tell amendments are called the Bill of Rights. The reason for the Bill of Rights was that the original Constitution had said nothing about the rights and freedoms of individual citizens. The Bill of Rights promised all Americans freedom of religion, a free press, free speech, the right to carry arms, the right to a fair trial by jury, and protection against cruel and unusual punishments.