The United States of America - History 2
From Nixon to Bush.
The U.S.A. has had 43 presidents in its history so far, starting with George Washington (1789-1797) to the present day president George W. Bush (2001-present). The following is a look at some of the later presidents and their achievements.
1.
Richard Nixon was born __(1)__ California and became a lawyer after
graduation. He fought as a navy commander in the Pacific in WWII,
upon __(2)__ return to the U.S.A. he entered politics. Nixon's
presidential career (1969-1974) is remembered for finally ending the
war in Vietnam and improving relations with the U.S.S.R. and China.
Nixon, however, will always __(3)__ synonymous with the Watergate
Scandal (1972), a robbery of political documents from the democratic
party headquarters, which led to his resignation in 1974.
2.
George Bush was born in 1924 in Massachussets. He joined the navy as
a pilot and flew in combat missions during WWII. __(4)__ graduation
from Yale, Bush joined a Texan oil company. He then entered politics
and was elected president in 1988. Bush faced a dramatically
changing world. __(5)__ cold war __(6)__ ended after 40 years, the
Berlin wall fell and the U.S.S.R. ceased to exist. Bush was
responsible for sending U.S. troops into Panama to arrest General
Noriega and he also ordered troops to repel Iraqi forces from Kuwait
during the first Gulf War in 1991.
3.
Bill Clinton's presidency (1994-2001) __(7)__ remembered as a time
of national security, economic growth, falling crime rates and low
inflation. The U.S. prospered under his leadership. His foreign
policies included dispatching peace keeping troops to Bosnia,
creating more open international trade and fighting the drugs
trafficking across the globe. He is also remembered, however, for
__(8)__ infamous affair with a white house intern, Monica Lewinski.
4
.George W. Bush came to power in 2001 following a highly
controversial election campaign that __(9)__ disgraced by
accusations of vote rigging in Florida. After graduation and a brief
navy career he followed his father into the oil business and
eventually politics. President Bush is known for his aggressive
foreign policy following the Al-Qaeda terrorist attacks on __(10)__
Twin Towers in New York (2001). Since this atrocity he has led
invasions of Afghanistan (2001-?) and Iraq (2003-?) and divided
world opinion with the 'War on Terror'.
Comprension, Grammar, Phonemes and Vocabulary
1. Match the names on the left below with the descriptions on the right.
a. Monica Lewinski 1. Invaded by Iraq (1990) liberated (1991)
b. Watergate 2. European country divided by war (90's)
c. Noriega 3. Site of American military failiure (1965-72)
d. Bosnia 4. Panamanian general arrested by US (1989)
e. Florida 5. Destroyed by Al-Qaeda (2001)
f. Kuwait 6. Both Bushes worked for companies there
g. Vietnam 7. Bush senior graduated from this University
h. Texas 8. Scandal that led to Nixon stepping down
i. The Twin Towers 9. State were vote rigging allegedly took place
j. Yale 10. Clinton's lover
2. Find words in the text above that match the definitions below (the number of the paragraph is given in brackets).
a. associated (1) ________________ (adj) b. 'robo' (1) ____________________ (n)
c. stepping down (1) ________________(n) d. 'empresa' (2) _________________ (n)
e. 'crecimiento' (3) _________________(n) e. lived well (3) _________________ (v)
f. sending (3) ____________________(n) f. cheating (4) ______________ (n)
3. Match the phonetic script below to words from the text above.
a. /snnməs/ (1) _______________ b. /fest/ (2) ______________________
c. /nfəməs/ (3) __________________ d. /kntrəv tl/ (4) _________________
4. Complete the texts with one grammatical word (pronoun, article, preposition or auxiliary verb) in each of the ten gaps.
1. 2.
3. 4.
5. 6.
7. 8.
9. 10.