英語閱讀中的美國文化

『壹』 美國文化介紹英語版

我知道一個電影，律政俏佳人1，很好的美國味道電影，英文版的

『貳』 英語論文——有關美國文化

The politics of protest Pierre Bourdieu has become a leading figure in the radical movements that have swept France in the last few years. He talked to Kevin Ovenden about anti-capitalism and resistance The Weight of the World was recently published in Britain. It describes through interviews in the early 1990s the 'social suffering of contemporary society'. Why is life getting harder for most people? There are similarities between what has happened to people's lives in France and in Britain. The main issue, of course, is neo-liberalism and what I call the retreat of the state. The state has abandoned a lot of areas that it was involved in, such as healthcare, ecation, and social provision. When we concted this study it was only beginning. Now it is far worse. So for example, in France neo-liberal philosophy has become embedded in all the social practices and policies of the state. It has become internalised in the minds of the political establishment. The minister of ecation who was recently forced out of office, Claude All, was very similar to the one you have in Britain. He introced into ecation so called 'tough policies'--a drive for efficiency and proctivity. Instead of looking very carefully at how ecation works, the neo-liberals opt for a very simple solution. They create competition between schools and between the directors of schools, who have to compete for budgets and for students. This competition is fake--it is artificially constructed. It does not arise spontaneously from the way the ecation system works. The ecation system was not perfect. I was very critical of it. But instead of correcting it and providing the means to better it, they destroy it by introcing this capitalistic vision of ecation. One could say the same about healthcare. I recently read a record of a meeting between a group of professors of medicine who are traditionally very conservative. They went to meet prime minister Jospin. He did not receive them. A technocrat met them instead. The transcript of the discussion is terrible. The people say, 'Look, I never demonstrated or participated in any strike or protest movement. But for the first time I am forced to speak out on behalf of my patients.' One gave an example of a 73 year old woman who had cancer, but her medicine was too expensive for the hospital's budget. Another said that his hospital does not have the money to pay anaesthetists, so there are no anaesthetists at night. He asked the technocrat, 'Would you send your wife to such a hospital?' He replies, 'That's a personal question which I will not answer.' We are seeing a blind and chaotic response to the problems of public institutions. We have had a very hierarchical system in healthcare for many years. But after 1968 younger people tried to change it. They tried to make the system more collective and introce the idea of working as part of a team. Now that is being destroyed because they work under the threat of cuts and demands for greater proctivity. Centre-left parties are in government across most of Europe. They are presiding over these neo-liberal policies. Do you see anything new in the way social democratic parties are governing?

『叄』 用英語寫學習了美國文化概要的感受

漢語原文....

『肆』 考研英語的英語閱讀好多都以美國的政治經濟文化為背景,請去過美國...

美國的國策而語

『伍』 英語介紹美國的文化

The culture of the United States is a Western culture, and has been developing since long before the United States became a country. Its chief early influence was British culture, e to colonial ties with the British that spread the English language, legal system and other cultural inheritances. Other important influences came from other parts of Europe, especially countries from which large numbers immigrated such as Ireland, Germany, Poland, and Italy; the Native American peoples; Africa, especially the western part, from which came the ancestors of most African Americans; and young groups of immigrants. American culture also has shared influence on the cultures of its neighbors in the New World.

The United States has traditionally been known as a melting pot, but recent academic opinion is tending towards cultural diversity, pluralism and the image of a salad bowl rather than a melting pot.[1][2] Due to the extent of American culture there are many integrated but unique subcultures within the United States. The cultural affiliations an indivial in the United States may have commonly depend on social class, political orientation and a multitude of demographic characteristics such as race, ethnicity, sex and sexual orientation.[3] The strongest influences on American culture came from northern European cultures, most prominently from Germany, Ireland and England.[2] There are great regional and subcultural differences, making American culture mostly heterogeneous.[3]

Further information: Cultural history of the United States

What is culture?
Main article: Culture

Current political division in the US is an indicator of the vast degree to which American culture varies from across the nation.
While an overwhelming majority of Americans claim religious affiliation, those who do not constitute more than 10% in most states. In Blue states 20%+ of respondents did not claim religious affiliation; 15%+ in green states; 10%+ in orange states and less than 10% in red states.[4]Culture whether in the United States or general consist of beliefs and values learned through the socialization process as well as material artifacts.[5][6] American society features a very diverse culture that features numerous sub-cultures ranging from the Orthodox Jewish community in New York, to Chinatowns in many major cities to agnostic professionals residing in urban lofts. Yet even in the United States, certain cultural norms and values such as a belief in the virtue of honesty are generally shared by nearly all groups and cultures. Culture guides the social interactions between members of society and influences the personal beliefs and values that shape a person's perception of their environment.[3]

「 "Culture is the learned set of beliefs, values, norms and material goods shared by group members... Culture consists of everything we learn in groups ring the life course-from infancy to old age." - William E. Thompson & Joseph Hickey, Society in Focus, 2005.
」

Culture does not remain stagnant, it evolves. Culture changes with advances and changes in public opinion, technology, geopolitics, and science. The female beauty ideal presents itself as an excellent example. Before the turn of the 20th century the beauty ideal for women in the United States and most other western nations included someone who was somewhat overweight or plump. Today, American culture has changes alongside most other western cultures. The modern female beauty ideal in the late 20th century and early 21st century was a thin, tall woman with a somewhat athletic look. The relatively recent change in American culture concerning beauty among females is indicative of the manner in which culture and with it the manner in which person's perceive the world around them changes.[3]

Variations
Variations in the majority traditions occur e to class, racial, ethnic, religious, regional and other groups of people. Cultural differences in the various regions of the United States are explored in New England, Mid-Atlantic States, Southern United States, Midwestern United States, Southwest United States, Western United States and Pacific Northwestern United States pages. The western coast of the continental US consisting of California, Oregon, and the state of Washington is also sometimes referred to as the Left Coast, indicating its political orientation and tendency towards liberal norms, folkways and values. Strong cultural differences have a long history in the US with the southern slave society in the antebellum period serving as a prime example. Economic and social tensions between the Northern and Southern states were so severe that they eventually caused the South to declare itself an independent nation, the Confederate States of America; thus provoking the American civil war.[7]

Examples of the great variations in norms, values and beliefs found across the United States can be found in the legal policies of some states. The state of California for example has passed environmental reforms and regulations rivaling those of Western Europe. With recent legislation California has become the only part of the United States with mandatory caps on greenhouse gas emission.[8] Policy regarding human sexuality further indicated tremendous differences across the nation. In early 2003, 14 US states had sodomy laws, before the Supreme court declared them unconstitutional in Lawrence v. Texas.[9] Roughly one year later the Massachusetts allowed couples to obtain same-sex matrimony licenses.[10] As laws represent a society's most profound and strictly held social norms and mores, great variations in laws reflect cultural variations as well.[3]

Body contact and personal expression

The personal proximities generally utilized by Americans according to Edward T. Hall.In terms of body contact and personal space the United States shows considerable similarities to northern and central European regions, such as Germany, the Benelux, Scandinavia and the United Kingdom. The main difference is, however, that Americans like to keep more open space in between themselves and their conversation partners (roughly 4 feet compared to 2 to 3 feet in Europe).[11] Greeting rituals tend to be the same in these regions and in the United States, consisting of minimal body contact which often remains confined to a simple handshake. In the 1966 Anthropolgist Edward Hall identified four different zones of personal space Americans like to keep around them:[3][12][11]

Intimate distance: extends roughly 18 inches (45.7 cm) from the indivial and is reserved for family, pets and very close friends. Displays of affection and comforting are commonly concted within this space. The only strangers an indivial typically tolerates within his or her intimate space are health care professionals.
Personal distance: extends 4 to 5 feet (1.2 - 1.5 meters) is reserved for friends and acquaintances. A handshake will typically place strangers at least 2 to 4 feet apart, preserving the personal distance.
Social distance: extends from about 4 to 12 feet (1.2 - 3.7 meters) and is used for formal, business and other impersonal interactions such as meeting a client.
Public Space: extends more than 12 feet (3.7 meters) and is not guarded. Secret Service agents will commonly attempt to ensure 12 feet of open space around dignitaries and high ranking officials.
The toleration for body expression that deviates from the mainstream such as complete body tattoos or nudism is strongly linked to the sub-culture and location in which an indivial may find him or herself. Generally speaking the United States tends to be less tolerant towards nudity than Western Europe, even in more tolerant areas such as California. As stated above the tolerance shown for personal expression such as cross-dressing, piercing, etc... varies greatly with location and sub-culture and may completely appropriate in one venue while being taboo in another.[3] As a result a form of expression or behavior that might be completely acceptable in San Francisco's Castro District, might be offensive in a Wichita suburb. In early 2003 for example, the city of San Francisco and later the city of Portland allowed same-sex couples to express their mutual affection through the act of legally recognized marriage.[13][14] As these marriages deviated too far from the majority sentiment at the time, however, the issuing of gay marriage licenses was stopped through court order. These events in early 2003 illustrate the great differences in what is acceptable in different parts of the United States.

Social class

Class in the US, featuring occupational descriptions by Thompson & Hickey as well as US Census Bureau data pertaining to personal income and ecational attainment for those age 25 or older.
CNN 2004 election poll.[15]Main article: Social structure of the United States
Further information: American middle class and American upper class
Social class is the perhaps greatest cultural influence on persons in the United States.[3] Nearly all cultural aspects of mundane interactions and consumer behavior in the US are guided by a person's location within the country's social structure. While American society is commonly divided into three or five socio-economic classes, there may be many more distinct groups that could be identified as constituting social classes.[16][17] Social class is generally described as a combination of ecational attainment, income and occupational prestige. There are, however, no clearly defined class boundaries and the nature of any class limits remains arbitrary.[18]

『陸』 關於英語閱讀方面的美國常用背景知識介紹包括常見人物故事介紹的

如果抄你是中學生為了考試而看，我覺得沒有必要浪費時間。那個挺專業的，沒有必要看。如果是大學生，時間較充裕，那我推薦你看看《歐美概況》《歐美文化入門》這些書，專業書籍，雖然不是面面俱到，但是一般的歐美文化 歷史 政治都有。祝你有耐心看下去。

『柒』 求英語+美國文化的書推薦

推薦 The New Yorker， 不過難度較大，但確實是了解美國文化的很好途徑

『捌』 英語短文 關於中國和美國文化差異的 簡單點的 大概可以說2分鍾的 急用啊

American's do not put much value on ecation and the students just want to get by and get out of school. American students are disrespectful to their teachers and elders and think they know it all. American's in general are self-centered and are interested in only themselves and not others. They are the "me" generation.

On the other hand, Chinese are more family oriented and respect their elders and teachers much more than the Americans. Americans are driven by sex and money motives. Chinese are more interested in getting a good ecation, finding a good job and being successful even if the money isn't as much.

Most Americans are overweight and obese whereas the Chinese take better care of their bodies and tend to be more slim than the Americans.

Americans all want their own car and do not like to use mass transit systems to get around. Bus service between cities is almost non-existent and train service is very poor.

Americans waste natural resources such as water, electricity, gasoline. Chinese are more careful to conserve water, electricity and other natural resources.

Americans have more opportunities to travel to other countries e to their wealth and freedom to visit other places.

Americans used to be closer to their family and would eat meals together and do things as a family. Today, American families are not as close, and do not spend much time together sharing their lives with each other. Meals are often fast food away from the home, parents are too busy with their careers to look after their children and teach them to be good citizens. Children are often abandoned to others to look after them or left alone after school while their parents are working. Grandparents in american families are not always present to help raise and teach the children.

『玖』 求一篇介紹美國文化的英語文章！要用！急急！

Jazz And The Essence of America

Considering how jazz is transcribed in Chinese (jueshi), you may be misledsintosassuming that it is an aristocratic cultural form. Nothing could be further from the truth. It originated among black Americans at the end of the 19th century, at a time when they occupied the very bottom of the American social heap.

So how has something that was created by a once downtrodden and despised minority acquired a central place in today's American culture? Mr Darrell A Jenks, director of the American Center for Ecational Exchange, and also a drummer in the jazz band Window, analyses the phenomenon for us here. Jazz: the soul of America
爵士樂與美國精髓

說到美國的爵士樂(jazz)，你可能從它的中文譯名而推斷為那是屬於貴族的音樂。殊不知恰恰相反，它源於19世紀末的美國黑人，那時他們處於社會的最底層。

然而，來自當年被奴役受歧視的黑人的音樂如今卻進入到了美國文化的主流地位，原因何在呢？美國駐華使館教育交流中心主任(也是《天窗》爵士樂隊的鼓手)金大友先生為我們分析了這一現象。

Perhaps the essence of America is that you could never get two Americans to agree on just what that might be. After thinking about it for a while, we might chuckle and say, "Hmm, seems like being American is a bit more complicated than we thought." Certainly things like indivialism, success (the "American Dream"), innovation and tolerance stand out. But these things come together because of our ability to work with one another and find common purpose no matter how diverse we might be.

Some, like African-American writer Ralph Ellison, be-lieve that jazz captures the essence of America. For good reason,for in jazz all of the characteristics I mentioned above come together. The solos are a celebration of indivial brilliance that can't take place without thesgroupsefforts of the rhythm section. Beyond that, though, jazz has a connection to the essence of America in a much more fundamental way. It is an expression of the African roots of American culture, a musical medium that exemplifies the culture of the Africans whose culture came to dominate much of what is American.
說起美國的精髓，恐怕你找不到哪兩個美國人有著相同的看法。在對這個問題考慮一會兒之後，我們可能會笑起來並且說：「嗯，看來身為美國人比我們當初想的要復雜一點兒。」當然了，強調個性，獲取成功(即「美國夢」)，創新以及包容是美國人突出的方面。但這些特點集中在美國人身上是因為我們有彼此協作的能力，而無論我們彼此會怎麼不同，我們都可以找到共同的目標。

有些人，例如美國黑人作家拉爾夫-埃里森，認為爵士樂抓住了美國的精髓，這么說是很有道理的，因為我上面提到的美國人的種種特徵在爵士樂中都體現了出來。爵士樂中的獨奏是對個人才氣的頌揚，但若沒有整個樂隊的節奏伴奏，個人才氣也無法展現。然而，除此之外，爵士樂還在更基本的方面與美國的精髓有著聯系，它表現出美國文化植根於非洲，通過音樂媒介證明了非洲人的文化已經支配了美國人的文化。

That's right, in many respects America's roots are in Africa. Read Ralph Ellison's perceptive description of the transformation of separate African and European cultures at the hands of the slaves:

"...the dancing of those slaves who, looking through the windows of a plantation manor house from the yard, im-itated the steps so gravely performed by the masters within and then added to them their own special flair,burlesquing the white folks and then going on to force the stepssintosa choreography uniquely their own. The whites, looking out at the activity in the yard, thought that they were being flat-tered by imitation and were amused by the incongruity of tattered blacks dancing courtly steps, while missing com-pletely the fact that before their eyes a European cultural form was becoming Americanized, undergoing a metamor-phosis through the mocking activity of a people partially sprung from Africa." (Ralph Ellison, Living with Music, pp 83-4).
的確，在很多方面，美國的根是在非洲。請讀一下拉爾夫-埃里森關於非洲與歐洲各自不同的文化在當年奴隸手中加以改變時所做的敏銳描述：

那些在院子里跳舞的奴隸們，透過庄園房子的窗戶，模仿著裡面主人們的莊重舞步，然後就把他們自己獨特的舞蹈才華加進去，以滑稽的動作諷刺白人，之後他們繼續將這些舞步加到他們獨有的舞蹈中。那些白人，看著窗外院子里的黑人，覺得被模仿是受到了恭維，那些衣衫襤褸的黑人跳著不協調的宮廷舞步讓他們感到好笑。此時，他們完全沒有看到這樣一個事實：就在他們眼前，一種歐洲的文化形式已經美國化了，它正通過來自非洲的一個民族所進行的嘲笑白人的活動而經歷著質變(節選自拉爾夫-埃里森的《與音樂共生》第83-84頁)。

Jazz brought together elements from Africa and Europe, fusing themsintosa new culture, an expression unique to the Americas.
而爵士樂則是把來自非洲與歐洲的音樂成分交融到一起，形成了一種新的文化，一種美洲所獨有的表現形式。
Out of this fusion came an idea that we Americans be-lieve central to our identity: tolerance. Both cultures repre-sented in Ellison's passage eventually came to realize each other's value. Americans acknowledge that in diversity is our strength. We learn every day that other cultures and peoples may make valuable contributions to our way of life. Jazz music is the embodiment of this ideal, combining elements from African and European culturesintosa distinctly American music.

Jazz reflects two contradictory facets of American life. On the one hand it is a team effort,swheresevery musician is completely immersed in what thesgroupsdoes together, lis-tening to each of the other players and building on their contributions to create a musical whole. On the other hand, the band features a soloist who is an indivial at the extreme, a genius like Charlie Parker who explores musical territoryswheresno one has ever gone before. In the same sense, American life is also a combination of teamwork and indivialism, a combination of indivial brilliance with the ability to work with others.
源於這種融合而產生的一個觀念就是包容，我們美國人認為這是我們特徵的核心。在埃里森所寫的片斷中提到的兩種文化最終都實現了各自的價值。美國人承認多樣化是力量所在；我們每天都在獲悉，其他文化、其他民族，都可能對我們的生活方式做出貢獻。爵士樂是這種觀念的化身，它把非洲和歐洲文化的內容結合到一起，成為了獨特的美國音樂。

爵士樂反映了美國生活相互對立的兩個方面，一方面爵士樂是集體行為，每一名樂手都完全沉浸到整個樂隊的演奏中，細心聆聽著其他樂手的演奏，並以每個樂手的演奏為基礎而創造出整體音樂；另一方面，一個樂隊又以獨奏手為特色，他是極具個性的，是像查理斯-帕克那樣的天才，他開創了前人從未涉足的音樂領域。在同樣的意義上，美國人的生活是團隊與個體的結合，是個人才氣與和他人合作的能力的結合。

We hope that many Chinese friends can bring their own unique contributions to our music, adding their own culture to our American heritage. As Ralph Ellison said of the US, "We have the Bill of Rights, the Constitution, and we have jazz."
我們希望眾多的中國朋友能夠將其獨特之處帶進我們的音樂，把他們的文化加入到我們美國人的文化遺產中，正如拉爾夫-埃里森說到美國時，「我們有民權法案和憲法，我們還有爵士樂。」 北京青年報

『拾』 求一英語短文 介紹美國文化

South America broke off from the west of the supercontinent Gondwanaland around 135 million years ago (Ma), forming its own continent.[4] Starting around 15 Ma, the collision of the Caribbean Plate and the Pacific Plate resulted in the emergence of a series of volcanoes along the border that created a number of islands. The gaps in the archipelago of Central America filled in with material eroded off North America and South America, plus new land created by continued volcanism. By 3 Ma, the continents of North America and South America were linked by the Isthmus of Panama, thereby forming the single landmass of the Americas.[5]