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. /snnməs/ (1) _______________ b. /fest/ (2) ______________________

c. /nfəməs/ (3) __________________ d. /kntrəv tl/ (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.