A Background to modern America

This is a culturally-relevant reader about some of the most important people, events and places that have helped make the United States what they are today - in all their diversity.

Structured thematically, this collection of texts provides useful cultural background to complement and enhance the language content of many TEFL and ESOL courses.

With is 22 units accompanied by exercises to test and develop key language skills, in particular reading and listening, this book is a valuable reader for students preparing TOEFL, Cambridge C1, IELTS or other advanced English language certification exams. It also provides informative and accessible reading for anyone in the USA or worldwide, native speaker or advanced learner of English, wanting to discover some of the background to modern America.

The USA is a country that fascinates people throughout the world, particularly younger generations. It is a country that many want to know more about, many want to visit, and where many would love to study. It is a country we see almost daily on our television screens, on our computers, on our phones, on billboards in magazines or in adverts, a country that is rarely out of the news - be it good news or bad news - from one day to the next.

More than any other country, the USA has crafted for itself a reputation for freedom, democracy and openness. Hailed since the nineteenth century as the "melting pot of nations", and more recently as the leader of the free world and the champion of diversity and civil rights, it has an image like that of no other country on Earth. But how accurate is the image, how did it come about?

Rather than provide direct answers to these two questions, this book is a collection of tableaux in advanced-level English, illustrating the mix that is modern America, key people, places, lifestyles and events that have helped make the United States what they are today - in all their diversity.

The balanced collection of twenty-two connected but self-contained texts constitutes an overall and rounded narrative that has been carefully written for the specific needs of students of English in schools and colleges around the world, including in the United States.