група 8 -А

Americans

The American character has some strongly-marked traits that  people  from other countries find very noticeable, sometimes admirable, sometimes puzzling, and sometimes bothersome. Theodore Roosevelt once told a reporter ‘The world will never love us. They may respect us, they might one day fear us, but they will never love us, for we have too much audacity’. Americans believe that, through effort and the endurance of suffering, life can be made better. Americans have a drive to work harder and become more successful.

The common thread that binds Americans stems from their individualism, self-reliance, independence, courage to take risks and readiness to challenge the impossible. Americans believe that no frontier was or is beyond them. Without exception, travelers to the United States found the most striking feature of the American character to be the obsession with business and wealth. The travelers cite this preoccupation with money as the reason for other “American” traits, such as their hurried manner, serious expression, and even their loose morals. American society seems to be much more informal than the  British  and, in some ways, is characterized by less social distinction. Students do not rise when a teacher enters the room. One does not always address a person by his title, such as “Major” or “General” or “Doctor” in the case of a holder of a Doctor of Philosophy degree. The re­spectful “Sir” is not always used in the northern and western parts of the country.

However, it is best to use a person’s title when first meeting him/her, and then allow the person to tell you how he/she wishes to be called.

They use first names when calling each other, slap on the back, joke and are much freer in their speech, which is slangier than the conventional  British  English. You will often hear the word “Hi” (a form of greeting among friends) used instead of the usual “Hello” and “Howdy” instead of “How do you do?”hose who don’t easily show these signs of friendship are called “snooty” or “snobbish.” In contrast,  people  who show such simple signs of friendship, particularly to their own economic and social inferiors, are praised as “regular guys,” or as “truly demo­cratic.” As a description of character, democratic is  generally used to signify that a per­son of high social or economic status acts in such a way that his or her inferiors are not reminded of their inferiority.

Yet, in spite of all the informality, Americans, even in the way they address each other, show consciousness of social distinction. For example, one is likely to use some­what more formal language when talking to superiors. While the informal “Hello” is an acceptable greeting from employee to employer, the employee is more apt to say “Hello, Mr. Ferguson,” while the employer may reply “Hello, Jim.” Southerners make a point of saying “Yes, sir,” or “Yes, Ma’am,” or “No, sir,” or “No, Ma’am,” when talking to an older person or a person in a position of authority. While this is a good form all over the United Stales, “Yes. Mr. Weston” or “No, Mrs. Baker” is somewhat more common in a similar situation in the North or West.

Certain other forms of politeness are observed on social occasions. Women may wear hats in church. in restaurants, and often when attending luncheons in public places and other public social functions except those that take place in the evening. Men who do wear hats ordinarily remove them in elevators, churches, restaurants, private homes, business offices — in fact, in most public situations when they wish to show respect. America is armed, brutal, and cruel. Her bedrooms, back alleys, and hotel kitchens, are stained with the blood of untold killings. A black man is dragged to his death from the back of a pickup truck in Texas. A gay man is crucified on a fence post in Wyoming. A school library in Colorado is transformed into a killing field. Gallows in Delaware, firing squads in Utah, electric chairs and lethal injections from California to Virginia are the weapons of official murderers. With constitutional sanction and cultural imperative, the gun spreads a primeval equality across a bloodied and lawless land.

But America is also an innocent, beautiful place where acts of generosity and compassion occur all the time. Volunteers spontaneously group to search for a missing child. The rescue of trapped miners focuses the aspirations of the nation for days. Communities reflexively unite to help the victims of disasters. The American instinct is to overwhelm tragedy with material kindness. But it’s the unnoticed gifts on which this American trait is honed; the cord of fire wood left mysteriously at the rear of the widower’s house at the edge of town, the path to the sidewalk that’s shoveled clear on a storm tossed winter morning, the groceries left on the back stoop every Friday. America is the place where the largest donation in the annual report is marked “Anonymous”.