The origin of the word america for a while after the first

Тема урока  «The United  States of America»

Цели урока:

1. Обобщить лингвострановедческий материал по указанной теме. Углубить и расширить знания по теме.
2. Совершенствовать умения и навыки практического владения английским языком по данной теме по всем видам речевой деятельности: аудированию, говорению, чтению и письму.
3. Повысить интерес к изучению иностранного языка.
4. Развитие учебно-интеллектуальных умений и навыков (анализ, систематизация, логика), развития памяти, внимания.
5. Формировать положительное отношение к стране изучаемого языка (США).

Оснащение урока:

1. Карта США с изображением 50 штатов.
2. Физическая карта США.
3. Рисунок, на котором изображен флаг США.
4. Плакат о президентах США.
5. Плакат “The United States of America”.
6. Картинки с достопримечательностями США.
7. Листы с текстом “The USA Quiz” для каждого ученика.
8. Карточки, на которых написаны названия достопримечательностей США (Disneyland, the White House, the Statue of Liberty, “The Pencil”, Congress, Harlem, Hollywood, the Empire State Building).
9. Два листа с заданием “United States Wordsearch”.
10. Листы с грамматическим тестом для каждого ученика.

План урока

1. Сообщение темы и целей урока учащимся, знакомство с условиями и заданиями урока – конкурса, подведением его итогов. Представление команд.
2. Разминка: обеим командам задается по три вопроса о Соединенных Штатах Америки.
3. Аудирование текста “The Origin of the Word “America””, устный контроль его понимания.
4. Сообщения каждой из команд о традициях, символах США и проверка понимания через перевод на русском языке.
5. Короткие рассказы учащихся о достопримечательностях США.
6. Игра “Guess who it was.” (учащиеся читают разрезанный на части текст об одном из американских президентов – Вашингтоне или Линкольне. Ученики  читают  текст в логической последовательности и называют фамилию президента).
7. Выполнение теста (The USA Quiz).
8. Конкурс на лучшего чтеца стихотворения американского поэта или лучшего исполнения песни.
9. Выполнение задания “United States Wordsearch” (нахождение командами за ограниченное время как можно больше штатов).
10. Выполнение грамматического теста.
11. Подведение итогов урока, объявление команды – победительницы, вручение призов и выставление оценок.

Ход урока

1. Teacher: Dear boys and girls! I am very glad to see you at our lesson today because we have an unusual lesson-a competition. You will show our guests your knowledge of the United States of America because our lesson is devoted to this country. We’ll speak about the sights, the traditions, the presidents and interesting facts.

There are two teams at the lesson.

I hope the competition will be interesting.

I have lots of red and blue stars here.

For a good answer you’ll get a red star.

For a good answer you’ll get a blue star.

At the end of the competition you’ll count all the stars that you’ll receive.

The winner will be the team with the biggest member of the red stars.

Let’s start our competition and introduce our teams to each other and our guests.

Teacher: What is the name of your team? (обращаясь к первой команде)

Pupil 1: Our team is “The Eagles”.

Teacher: What is your name? (обращаясь ко второй команде)

Pupil 2: The name of our team is “The Cowboys”.

1. Teacher: The first task is the following: answer the questions about geographical position of the United States.

Use the maps from the Activity Book. (обеим командам задается по три вопроса. За правильный ответ команда получает красную звездочку; если в ответе была грамматическая ошибка, команда получает синюю звездочку).

1. What oceans is the USA washed by?

(The USA is washed by the, Atlantic Ocean and by the Pacific Ocean)

1. What is the longest river in the USA?

(The longest river in the USA is the Mississippi river).

1. What is the highest mountain peak in the USA?

(The highest mountain peak in the USA is Mount McKinley).

1. How many time zones is the continental part of the USA divided into?

(The continental part of the USA divided into 4 time zones).

1. Name the fine Great Lakes, please.

(They are Lakes Huron, Erie, Ontario, Michigan, Superior).

1. What is America’s largest state?

(The largest state is Alaska).

1. Teacher: I see, you know the mane facts about the USA. The second task is listening to the story “What’s the Origin of the Word America”? Listen to the story attentively and say why America is named like this. The following worlds will help you to understand the contents of the story:

• a merchant                                              торговец, купец
• an adventurer                                         искатель приключений
• an explorer                                              путешественник
• to claim                                                    заявлять, утверждать

(Слова заранее написаны на доске)

The Origin of the Word “America”

For a while after the first voyage of Columbus in 1492, America was called the “New World”. Later, however it was decided by mapmakers in Europe to name the new World after a man named Amerigo Vespucci. He was an Italian merchant and adventurer who made three trips to the New World. Columbus became the first explorer to reach the mainland of South America in 1498, but Amerigo Vespucci soon wrote a book in which he claimed to have gone there in 1497. This was not true but people did not know for many years that Amerigo Vespucci was lying.

Teacher: Answer the question “Why America is named like this?”

Pupil: America was named after Amerigo Vespucci. He was an Italian merchant and adventurer. He made 3 trips to the New World after Columbus. But he claimed in his book that he was the first explorer of America. People did not know for many years that Amerigo Vespucci was lying.

1. Teacher: You know America is often called “a melting pot” because people from all over the world have mixed together to create modern American society. Of course, the Americans are very proud of their tradition, customs, habits, symbols.

The following task is to tell the rival team about any American tradition or symbol. The rival team should listen to the story very attentively and retell it in Russian. If the team understands the story well, it will get a red star. If the team fails to understand some of the details, it will get a blue star.

(Это задание каждая команда готовила дома – заранее выбрали один из рассказов о США)

Pupil (из команды “The Eagles”):

I’d like to tell you about one American tradition – Homecoming.

American schools have many different ceremonies. One of these ceremonies is called “Homecoming”.

At many high schools and universities there is a parade and a big football game once a year. This ceremony is held every fall especially in small towns. Students who graduated from the school like to return for Homecoming to see their old friends and teacher again.

Homecoming is a week-long celebration for all graduates and current students of the high school or college. At this ceremony the homecoming queen rides in the parade and opens the sport event-usually a football game. It the parade cheerleaders and football players walk together. The school band plays loud music for their fans and team. The parade is full of the school colours.

 (Команда – соперница на русском языке передает содержание рассказа. За полное понимание рассказа – красная звездочка, за неполное понимание и неточности – синяя звездочка)

Pupil 2 (из команды “The Cowboys”):

The American flag is the emblem of the United States. In 1776 the flag had thirteen red and white stripes and thirteen stars in a circle on a blue field. There was one star and one stripe for each state.

Then Congress added new stars and stripes to the flag; but the flag did not look right.

Now the flag does not have a stripe for each state. It just has one for each of the thirteen original states. There are fifty stars, one for each of the fifty states.

(Вторая команда передает содержание рассказа на русском языке)

1. Teacher: The fourth task is to explain the meaning of the word written on the card in English. You know, America has a lot of different places of interest. It is famous for its monuments, well-known buildings and other sights. Each team must take four cards. Read these words and explain their meanings.

Каждой команде дается по 4 карточки, на них написаны следующие слова: Disneyland, the White House, the Statue of Liberty, “The Pencil”, Congress, Harlem, Hollywood, the Empire State Building.

 Команды объясняют значение этих слов по очереди (примерные ответы)

Disneyland  is a large amusement park for children in Southern California created by the American film producer Walt Disney in 1955.

The White House is the official home of the President of the USA where he works and lives.

The Statue of Liberty is the symbol of freedom in America. It is a bronze figure (almost 46 meters high) of a woman holding up a torch, on Liberty Island in New York Harbor which is a gift from the French government sent to America in 1884.

“The Pencil” is the name of the tall column in Washington, D.C., that is the Washington Monument built in honour of the first President of the USA.

Congress – is the parliament of the USA which has its seat in the Capitol.

Harlem is considered to be the poorest district in New York where mainly Afro – Americans live.

Hollywood is associated with the US film industry. It is situated not far from Los Angeles. It is the world – famous center of films.

The Empire State Building is one of the tallest buildings in the world (381 meters high) in New York City. It is a skyscraper.

1. Teacher: Well done, thank you. The following task for you is “Guess who it was!” You should put the passages of the story in the right order, read them aloud and tell me what American President this story is about.

(Каждой команде дается по одному экземпляру разрезанного на части текста. Это тексты о широко известных президентах США – Д. Вашингтоне и А. Линкольне. За правильное чтение в логической последовательности и название фамилии президента команды получают красные звездочки. Если есть ошибки – синие звездочки.)

Who was it?

George Washington

He was born when most of America was still a wilderness. The British had 13 colonies on the eastern coast. In 1776 war broke out between the colonies and their mother country, because the colonies wanted independence. He was the learder of the American army.

After 7 years of fighting the British gave up the war and the colonies became an independent country with the name of the USA.

He was made President and his name was given to the capital of the young nation.

Abraham Lincoln

He was born in a big log – cabin. He was the son of very poor parents, but he worked his way up and finally became President in 1860.

At that time there was a trouble between the Northern and Southern states. The Northern believed that slavery was wrong and that no one should be allowed to keep slaves. The Southerners said they could not grow cotton and tobacco without slaves.

When he became President, the Southerners declared that they would leave the Union and form their own government. The terrible Civil war broke out – it lasted 4 years. This President saved the Union and gave freedom to all American slaves.

1. Teacher: The following task for each pupil in the teams is to do “the American Quiz”. It has 10 questions. There are 3 answers to each question, but only one is correct. You should find the correct answers. I’ll give you 3 minutes to do it.

Well the time is over. Let’s check up on your answers. You can see the keys on the blackboard. Raise your hands who has no mistakes. I am going to give you red stars. Who has one or two mistakes? – The blue stars are for you.

Keys: 1-b        5-c        9-c

2-c        6-b        10 -b

3-c        7-a

4-a        8-b

“The USA Quiz”

(Answer these questions about the United States of America. Put a + next to the correct answer.)

1. Where does the President of the United States live and work?

1. In Congress
2. In The White House
3. In The Pentagon

1. Which is the biggest state in the USA?

1. Texas
2. California
3. Alaska

1. How many States are there in the USA?

1. 48
2. 52
3. 50

1. Who was the first president of the USA?

1. George Washington
2. Abraham Lincoln
3. Ulysses Grant

1. In which city is Hollywood?

1. New York
2. San Francisco
3. Los Angeles

1. Why do the Americans celebrate the 4-th of July?

1. The first moon landing
2. Declaration of Independence
3. The end of the American Civil War

1. What is the nickname of New York?

1. Big Apple
2. Big City
3. Big Jack

1. By whom was the first American car made?

1. By Smith
2. By Ford
3. By Ivanov

1. On what holiday do children say “Trick or treat! Money or eat!”?

1. On Christmas
2. On New Year
3. On Halloween

1. Who is the head of state in the USA?

1. The British Monarch
2. The President
3. The Prime Minister

1. Teacher: America is famous for its poets, writers, singers. Your hometask was to prepare a poem or a song by American authors. The team “The Cowboys” is the first Let’s listen to the poem.

Pupil: The poem “The Arrow and the Song”

        by Henry Longfellow

I shot an arrow into the air –

It fell to earth, I knew not where

For so swiftly it flew, the sight

Could not follow it in its flight.

                                                            I breathed a song into the air –

                                                            It fell to earth, I knew not where;

                                                            For who has sight so keen and strong

                                                            That it can follow the flight of a song?

Long, long afterward, in an oak

I found the arrow, still unbroken;

And the song, from beginning to end,

I found again in the heart of a friend.

Teacher: Thank you. The team “The Eagles”, it’s your turn, please.

Pupil: The song “America the beautiful” (It is the national anthem of the USA)

O beautiful for spacious skies

For amber waves of grain,

For purple mountains majesties

Above the fruited plain.

America, America, God shed his grace on thee,

And crown thy good with brotherhood,

From sea to shining sea.

                                                            O beautiful for patriot dream,

                                                            That sees beyond the years,

                                                            thine alabaster cities gleam

                                                            Undimmed by human tears.

                                                            America, America, God shed his grace on thee,

                                                            And crown thy good with brotherhood,

                                                            From sea to shining sea.

O beautiful for pilgrim feet,

Whose stern impassioned street,

A thoroughfare for freedom beat,

Across the wilderness.

America, America, God mend thine every flaw

Confirm thy soul in self – control,

Thy liberty in law.

1. Teacher: Thank you. And now you have the last task. It is not difficult. You are to find as many as possible American states on this map. You have got 3 minutes.

Teacher: Your time is over. How many states have you found “The Eagles”? (команда называет количество найденных ею штатов).

What about you “The Cowboys”? (команда называет количество найденных ею штатов).

Teacher: Well, the red star is for this team and the blue star is for you (называет команду).

1. Teacher: We have got a few minutes. Do this grammar test. (Тест прилагается к уроку. Каждый ученик индивидуально выполняет тест).

Let’s check your answers. The keys are on the blackboard.

Keys:

1-a        7-a        13-c

2-b        8-b        14-b

3-a        9-c

4-c        10-c

5-c        11-a

6-c        12-c

1. Teacher: Our competition is over. Let’s add up the score of the game. Who has more red stars: “The Cowboys” or the “The Eagles”? The team “The Eagles” is the winner. These medals are for you. The excellent marks and medals are for you. The team “The Cowboys” has also worked well. Your marks: Suleiman, Rita – “5”, Valya, Kolya – “4”.

Thank you for your work. The lesson is over.

Grammar test.

(choose the right answer)

1. There was nobody at home, ____________?

1. Was there
2. Were there
3. Wasn’t there

1. He will translate the text if he ________ a dictionary at hand.

1. Will have
2. Has
3. Would have

1. My friend is interested ________ architecture.

1. In
2. About
3. For

1. I don’t know _______________________________.

1. Where is your umbrella
2. Your umbrella where is
3. Where your umbrella is

1. When I entered the room, she __________ on the sofa.

1. Lay
2. Is lying
3. Was lying

1. We are going for a walk. Who ____________ go with us?

1. Is wanting
2. Does want
3. Wants to

1. I can’t make the TV ______________.

1. Work
2. To work
3. Working

1. Can you come ______________ next time?

1. More early
2. Earlier
3. The earlier

1. John asked ________________________.

1. Whether I was there before
2. Had I been there before
3. If I had been there before

1. We _______________ from him since he left for the USA.

1. Didn’t hear
2. Hadn’t heard
3. Haven’t heard

1. This film ___________________.

1. Is much spoken about
2. Is speaking much about
3. Speaks much about

1. My room ____________________ one in our flat.

1. The comfortablest
2. More comfortable
3. The most comfortable

1. If I were you, I ______________a house in the country.

1. Bought
2. Will buy
3. Would buy

1. ______________ USA is the fourth largest country in the world after _______ Russia, Canada and ___________ Republic of China.

1. A, the, the, a
2. The, —, the, —
3. —, the, —, —

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The naming of the Americas, or America, occurred shortly after Christopher Columbus’s first voyage to the Americas in 1492. It is generally accepted that the name derives from Amerigo Vespucci, the Italian explorer, who explored the new continents in the following years on behalf of Spain and Portugal. However, some have suggested other explanations, including being named after the Amerrisque mountain range in Nicaragua, or after Richard Amerike, a merchant from Bristol, England.

Usage[edit]

In modern English, North and South America are generally considered separate continents, and taken together are called the Americas in the plural, parallel to similar situations such as the Carolinas and the Dakotas. When conceived as a unitary continent, the form is generally the continent of America in the singular. However, without a clarifying context, singular America in English commonly refers to the United States of America.^[1]

Historically, in the English-speaking world, the term America used to refer to a single continent until the 1950s (as in Van Loon’s Geography of 1937): According to historians Kären Wigen and Martin W. Lewis,^[2]

While it might seem surprising to find North and South America still joined into a single continent in a book published in the United States in 1937, such a notion remained fairly common until World War II. It cannot be coincidental that this idea served American geopolitical designs at the time, which sought both Western Hemispheric domination and disengagement from the «Old World» continents of Europe, Asia, and Africa. By the 1950s, however, virtually all American geographers had come to insist that the visually distinct landmasses of North and South America deserved separate designations.

This shift did not seem to happen in most other cultural hemispheres on Earth, such as Romance-speaking (including France, Belgium, Luxembourg, Italy, Portugal, Spain, Romania, Switzerland, and the postcolonial Romance-speaking countries of Latin America and Africa), Germanic (but excluding English) speaking (including Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Belgium, The Netherlands, Luxembourg, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Iceland, and the Faroe Islands), Baltic-Slavic languages (including Czechia, Slovakia, Poland, Ukraine, Belarus, Lithuania, Latvia, Russia, Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Montenegro, Bulgaria) and elsewhere, where America is still considered a continent encompassing the North America and South America subcontinents,^[3][4] as well as Central America.^{[5][6][7][8][9][10]}

Earliest use of name[edit]

The earliest known use of the name America dates to April 25, 1507, when it was applied to what is now known as South America.^[11] It appears on a small globe map with twelve time zones, together with the largest wall map made to date, both created by the German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller in Saint-Dié-des-Vosges in France.^[12] These were the first maps to show the Americas as a land mass separate from Asia. An accompanying book, Cosmographiae Introductio, anonymous but apparently written by Waldseemüller’s collaborator Matthias Ringmann,^[13] states, «I do not see what right any one would have to object to calling this part [that is, the South American mainland], after Americus who discovered it and who is a man of intelligence, Amerigen, that is, the Land of Americus, or America: since both Europa and Asia got their names from women». America is also inscribed on the Paris Green Globe (or Globe vert) which has been attributed to Waldseemüller and dated to 1506–07: as well as the single name inscribed on the northern and southern parts of the New World, the continent also bears the inscription: America ab inuentore nuncupata (America, named after its discoverer).^[14]

Mercator on his map called North America «America or New India» (America sive India Nova).^[15]

Amerigo Vespucci[edit]

Americus Vesputius was the Latinized version of the Italian explorer Amerigo Vespucci’s name, the forename being an old Italianization (compare modern Italian Enrico) of Medieval Latin Emericus (see Saint Emeric of Hungary), from the Old High German name Emmerich, which may have been a merger of several Germanic names – Amalric, Ermanaric and Old High German Haimirich, from Proto-Germanic *amala- (‘vigor, bravery’), *ermuna- (‘great; whole’) or *haima- (‘home’) + *rīk- (‘ruler’) (compare *Haimarīks).^{[16][better source needed]}

Amerigo Vespucci (March 9, 1454 – February 22, 1512) was an Italian explorer, financier, navigator and cartographer who may have been the first to assert that the West Indies and corresponding mainland were not part of Asia’s eastern outskirts as initially conjectured from Columbus’s voyages, but instead constituted an entirely separate landmass hitherto unknown to the Europeans.^[17][18]

Vespucci was apparently unaware of the use of his name to refer to the new landmass, as Waldseemüller’s maps did not reach Spain until a few years after his death.^[13] Ringmann may have been misled into crediting Vespucci by the widely published Soderini Letter, a sensationalized version of one of Vespucci’s actual letters reporting on the mapping of the South American coast, which glamorized his discoveries and implied that he had recognized that South America was a continent separate from Asia.^[19] Spain officially refused to accept the name America for two centuries, saying that Columbus should get credit, and Waldseemüller’s later maps, after Ringmann’s death, did not include it; in 1513 he labelled it «Terra Incognita» with a note about Columbus’s discovery of the land.^[20]

Following Waldseemüller, the Swiss scholar Heinrich Glarean included the name America in a 1528 work of geography published in Basel. There, four years later, the German scholar Simon Grinaeus published a map, which Hans Holbein and Sebastian Münster (who had made sketches of Waldseemüller’s 1507 map) contributed to; this labelled the continent America Terra Nova (America, the New Land). In 1534, Joachim von Watt labelled it simply America.^[20] Gerardus Mercator applied the names North and South America on his influential 1538 world map; by this point, the naming was irrevocable.^[20] Acceptance may have been aided by the «natural poetic counterpart» that the name America made with Asia, Africa, and Europa.^[13]

Named after a Nicaraguan mountain range[edit]

In 1874, Thomas Belt published the indigenous name of the Amerrisque Mountains in present-day Nicaragua.^[21] The next year, Jules Marcou suggested a derivation of the continent’s name from this mountain range.^[22] Marcou corresponded with Augustus Le Plongeon, who wrote: «The name AMERICA or AMERRIQUE in the Mayan language means, a country of perpetually strong wind, or the Land of the Wind, and … the [suffixes] can mean … a spirit that breathes, life itself.»^[23]

In this view, native speakers shared this indigenous word with Columbus and members of his crew, and Columbus made landfall in the vicinity of these mountains on his fourth voyage.^[22][23] The name America then spread via oral means throughout Europe relatively quickly even reaching Waldseemüller, who was preparing a map of newly reported lands for publication in 1507.^[23] Waldseemüller’s work in the area of denomination takes on a different aspect in this view. Jonathan Cohen of Stony Brook University writes:

The baptismal passage in the Cosmographiae Introductio has commonly been read as argument, in which the author said that he was naming the newly discovered continent in honor of Vespucci and saw no reason for objections. But, as etymologist Joy Rea has suggested, it could also be read as an explanation, in which he indicates that he has heard the New World was called America, and the only explanation lay in Vespucci’s name.^[23]

Among the reasons which proponents give in adopting this theory include the recognition of, in Cohen’s words, «the simple fact that place names usually originate informally in the spoken word and first circulate that way, not in the printed word».^[23][24] In addition, Waldseemüller not only is exonerated from the charge of having arrogated to himself the privilege of naming lands, which privilege was reserved to monarchs and explorers, but also is freed from the charge of violating the long-established and virtually inviolable ancient European tradition of using only the first name of royal individuals as opposed to the last name of commoners (such as Vespucci) in bestowing names to lands.^[22]

Richard Amerike[edit]

Bristol antiquarian Alfred Hudd suggested in 1908 that the name was derived from the surname «Amerike» or «ap Meryk» and was used on early British maps that have since been lost. Richard ap Meryk, anglicised to Richard Amerike (or Ameryk) (c. 1445–1503) was a wealthy Anglo-Welsh merchant, royal customs officer and sheriff of Bristol.^[25] According to some historians, he was the principal owner of the Matthew, the ship sailed by John Cabot during his voyage of exploration to North America in 1497.^[25] The idea that Richard Amerike was a ‘principal supporter’ of Cabot has gained popular currency in the 21st century.^[25] There is no known evidence to support this.^{[citation needed]} Similarly, and contrary to a recent tradition that names Amerike as principal owner and main funder of the Matthew, Cabot’s ship of 1497,^[25] academic enquiry does not connect Amerike with the ship. Her ownership at that date remains uncertain.^[26] Macdonald asserts that the caravel was specifically built for the Atlantic crossing.^[27]

Hudd proposed his theory in a paper which was read at the 21 May 1908 meeting of the Clifton Antiquarian Club, and which appeared in Volume 7 of the club’s Proceedings. In «Richard Ameryk and the name America,» Hudd discussed the 1497 discovery of North America by John Cabot, an Italian who had sailed on behalf of England. Upon his return to England after his first (1497) and second (1498–1499) voyages, Cabot received two pension payments from Henry VII. Of the two customs officials at the Port of Bristol who were responsible for delivering the money to Cabot, the more senior was Richard Ameryk (High Sheriff of Bristol in 1503).^[23][28] Hudd postulated that Cabot named the land that he had discovered after Ameryk, from whom he received the pension conferred by the king.^[29] He stated that Cabot had a reputation for being free with gifts to his friends, such that his expression of gratitude to the official would not be unexpected. Hudd also thought it unlikely that America would have been named after Vespucci’s given name rather than his family name. Hudd used a quote from a late 15th-century manuscript (a calendar of Bristol events), the original of which had been lost in an 1860 Bristol fire, that indicated the name America was already known in Bristol in 1497.^[23][30]

This year (1497), on St. John the Baptist’s day (June 24th), the land of America was found by the merchants of Bristow, in a ship of Bristowe called the ‘Mathew,’ the which said ship departed from the port of Bristowe the 2nd of May and came home again the 6th August following.^[30]

Hudd reasoned that the scholars of the 1507 Cosmographiae Introductio, unfamiliar with Richard Ameryk, assumed that the name America, which he claimed had been in use for ten years, was based on Amerigo Vespucci and, therefore, mistakenly transferred the honour from Ameryk to Vespucci.^[23][30] While Hudd’s speculation has found support from some authors, there is no strong evidence to substantiate his theory that Cabot named America after Richard Ameryk.^[23][25][31]

Moreover, because Amerike’s coat of arms was similar to the flag later adopted by the independent United States, a legend grew that the North American continent had been named for him rather than for Amerigo Vespucci.^[25] It is not widely accepted — the origin is usually attributed to the flag of the British East India Company.

Native naming of the continent[edit]

In 1977, the World Council of Indigenous Peoples (Consejo Mundial de Pueblos Indígenas) proposed using the term Abya Yala instead of «America» when referring to the continent. There are also names in other indigenous languages such as Ixachitlan and Runa Pacha. Some scholars have adopted the term as an objection to colonialism.^[32]

References[edit]

Bibliography[edit]

• The Columbus Myth: Did Men of Bristol Reach America before Columbus? Ian Wilson (1974; reprint 1991: ISBN 0-671-71167-9)
• Terra Incognita: The True Story of How America Got Its Name, Rodney Broome (US 2001: ISBN 0-944638-22-8)
• Amerike: The Briton America Is Named After, Rodney Broome (UK 2002: ISBN 0-7509-2909-X)

External links[edit]

• «The man who inspired America?», BBC Features, 29 April 2002
• Jonathan Cohen, «It’s All in a Name», Bristol Times
• «Bristol Voyages», Heritage
• «Correcting One of History’s Mistakes…Maybe», Peninsula Pulse, 12 September 2013

Published October 13, 2013

American place names can sound pretty confusing even to native English speakers. From Philadelphia (Greek for “loving brother”) to Chicago (Algonquian Fox for “place of the wild onion”), the map of America is an etymological hodge-podge. For a clear example, take three adjacent states in New England. Vermont is an inverted, rough translation of the French for “green mountain,” mont vert. Massachusetts is derived from the name of the Native American people who lived in the area, the Algonquian Massachusett. The word meant “at the large hill.” New Hampshire comes from a county in southern England. And why do we call a turkey turkey? Learn about the history of nation’s favorite bird, the turkey, here.

But what about America itself?

Why aren’t the continents of North and South America called “Columbusia” after Christopher Columbus? The word America comes from a lesser-known navigator and explorer, Amerigo Vespucci. Who made the decision? A cartographer.

Like Columbus, Vespucci traveled to the New World (first in 1499 and again in 1502). Unlike Columbus, Vespucci wrote about it. Vespucci’s accounts of his travels were published between 1502 and 1504 and were widely read in Europe. Columbus was also hindered because he thought he had discovered another route to Asia; he didn’t realize America was a whole new continent. Vespucci, however, realized that America was not contiguous with Asia. He was also the first to call it the New World, or Novus Mundus in Latin.

With the discovery of this “New World,” maps were being redrawn all the time. No one really knew what land was where or how big it was. Because of this confusion, maps from the 1500s are incredibly inaccurate and contradictory. (They also often feature drawings of mythical sea creatures.)

From Amerigo to America

In 1507, a German cartographer named Martin Waldseemüller was drawing a map of the world—a very serious map. He called it the Universalis Cosmographia, or Universal Cosmography. Comprised of 12 wooden panels, it was eight feet wide and four-and-a-half feet tall. He based his drawings of the New World on Vespucci’s published travelogues. All countries were seen as feminine (like her lady Liberty today), so Waldseemüller used a feminine, Latinized form of Amerigo to name the new continents “America.” Cartographers tended to copy one another’s choices, so Columbus was left off the map. The rest is history.

Today, an original of Waldseemüller’s map is permanently on display at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C.

I. Перепишите следующие предложения. Определите по грамматиче­ским признакам какой частью речи являются слова, оформленные оконча­нием -s и какую функцию это окончание выполняет, т. е. служит ли оно:
а) показателем 3-го лица единственного числа глагола в Present In­definite;
б) признаком множественного числа имени существительного;
в) показателем притяжательного падежа существительного.
Переведите предложения на русский язык.
1. Ann spends her holidays at her grandparents’ place in the country.
2. There are a lot of museums in Moscow.
3. Peter often stays at his friend’s house when he comes to London.

II. Письменно задайте все виды вопросов к предложению (общий, специальный (что? как много? где? в какой стране?), а также альтернатив­ный и разделительный.

There are a lot of places of interest in our country.

III. Перепишите следующие предложения, вставляя необходимую форму глагола (Present Indefinite или Present Continuous). Подчеркните Ва­ши вставки.
1. Не (write) a letter to his friend now.
2. Tom usually (play) football but today he is playing (play) tennis.
3. What language they (speak) in Holland?
4. The professor (speak) five foreign languages. Right now he (speak) Dutch.
5. My friend always (tell) me truth, but I see that she (tell) a lie now.

IV. Перепишите следующие предложения, вставляя little, a little, few, a few, many и much. Подчеркните Ваши вставки.
1. There is (мало) salt in the soup.
2. There are no matches in the box. — «No, you are wrong. There are (несколько).
3. He speaks English (немного), but he wants to know it very well.
4. I know (мало) French words, and I cannot read books in French.

V. Используя обороты: There is / There are/It is — дополните предложе­ния. Подчеркните Ваши вставки.
1. _ always much snow in this country in winter.
2. _ snowing hard.
3. _ too much sugar in my tea. _ too sweet, I can’t drink it.
4. Don’t buy this jacket. _ very dark and doesn’t suit you.
5. Let’s go out! _ getting dark.

VI. Прочитайте, перепишите и письменно переведите текст.
Oxbridge
Oxford and Cambridge are the oldest universities in Great Britain. They are called Oxbridge to denote an elitist education.
Only rich people send their children to these universities. The main charac­teristic feature of these universities is the tutorial (that means the individual tui­tion).
The normal length of the degree course is three years, after which the stu­dents take the degree of Bachelor of Arts. Some courses may be a year or two longer.
Oxford and Cambridge universities consist of a number of colleges, each self-governing and independent.
The University is merely an administrative body, which organizes lectures, arranges examinations, grants degrees. Each college has its name. Most colleges have their own dining-hall, library and chapel.
The University has laboratories and research institutes and other educa­tional facilities. All the lectures are organized by the University. In every college there are students majoring in different subjects, but each student follows his own course of study.
VII. Ответьте письменно на вопросы по тексту:
1. What does «Oxbridge» mean?

2. What makes these universities quite different from any other?

3. How long is the course of study?

What is the function of the University?

VIII. Переведите письменно текст.
The Origin of the Word ‘America’
For a while after the first voyage of Columbus in 1492, America became famous as the ‘New World’. Later, map-makers in Europe decided to name the New World after a man named Amerigo Vespucci. He was an Italian merchant and adventurer who made three trips to the New World. Columbus became the first explorer to reach the mainland of South America in 1498, but Amerigo Vespucci soon wrote a book in which he claimed that he had gone there in 1497. This was not true, but people did not know for many years that Amerigo Vespucci was lying. So, «Amerigo» gave rise to «America», and we know the continent by that name. Gradually the word America began to denote not only the New World, but the USA as well. The word gave rise to numerous deriva­tives such as «Amerindians» to distinguish them from the natives of India, «Americans» to denote the citizens of the USA.

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