The United States of America has more than 1,500 universities, colleges and other institutions of higher learning.
Almost all institutions of higher learning in the USA use the German system of designation for academic degrees. Common postgraduate degrees are master's degrees or Ph.D.s, or specialized professional degrees such as a J.D. for a lawyer, an MBA for a businessperson, a Pharm. D. for a pharmacist or an M.D. for a physician.
As with the lower level public education system, there is no national public university system in the United States; each state has its own public university system. There are also many privately run colleges, universities, and trade schools, some of them religiously affiliated. State university tuition ranges from nearly free on up, but is generally significantly lower than at private schools, and is often lower for state residents than for out-of-state students.
The most prestigious private universities of the United States are the eight Ivy League schools. There are also a set of public schools known as the Public Ivies. All around the country, there are also many other colleges and universities, both public and private and of a variety of sizes, whose names carry prestige.
The US government provides some federal grants for higher education to many families. Most universities offer scholarships and need-based aid; however, many students assume some of the cost of their own education through work and loans.
Note: Ivy Leaque , 1865 ., , , - (ivy , )
Idiomatic English
Idioms, proverbs, sayings, similes and other specific features make speech very colourful. As with all idiomatic expressions, they are useful and enjoyable to know and understand, but should be used with care. English learners are usually recommended to keep idiomatic expressions as part of their receptive vocabulary.
Idioms are fixed expressions with meanings that are usually not clear or obvious. The individual words often give no help in deciding the meaning. For example, the expression to feel under the weather, which means to feel unwell', is a typical idiom. The words do not tell us the meaning, but the context usually helps.
As to proverbs, speakers tend to use some to comment on a situation, often at the end of a true story someone has told, or in response to some event.
Similes are less colourful than proverbs and in many cases they express a certain sort of advice in a peculiar way, e.g.:
Never say no.
If you do not know what to do, do nothing.
Don't ask me questions and I won't tell you lies.
Similes are usually informal, colloquial and often humorous phrases. Similes are usually used to make some emotional or funny comparisons.
e.g. The bed was as hard as iron and I couldn't sleep.
If you see the phrase as dead as a doornail, you don't need to know what a doornail is, the whole phrase simply means totally dead. Creating a picture in your mind can often help you remember the simile:
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as blind as a bat
as thin as a rake
as strong as an ox
as quiet as a mouse
Some can be remembered as pairs of opposites:
e.g. as heavy as lead as white as snow
as light as a feather as black as night
as sober as a judge as drunk as a lord
Some can be remembered by sound pattern:
e.g. as brown as a berry as good as gold as cool as a cucumber
American English
English in the USA differs considerably from British English. Pronunciation is the most striking difference but there are also a number of differences in vocabulary and spelling as well as slight differences in Grammar. On the whole, British people are exposed to a lot of American English on TV, in films and so on and so they will usually understand most American vocabulary.
American spelling is usually simpler. For example, British English words ending in -re and -our, end in -er and -or in American English. theatre/theater, colour/color
The American spelling usually tries to correspond more closely to pronunciation.
Here are some common US words with their British equivalents:
| Am. English | Br. English | Am.English Br.English | ||
| gasoline | petrol | apartment flat | ||
| truck | lorry | closet wardrobe | ||
| baggage | luggage | yard garden | ||
| vacation | holiday | cookie biscuit | ||
| cab | taxi | candies sweets | ||
| freeway | motorway | panti-hose tights | ||
| line | queue | drapes curtains | ||
| blow-out | puncture | faucet tap | ||
| trunk | boot | eraser rubber | ||
| fall | autumn | semester term | ||
| Here are some words and phrases which can cause confusion be- | ||||
| cause they mean something different in each language: | ||||
| words | for an American | for an Englishman | ||
| bill | banknote | check (in a restaurant...) | ||
| the first floor | the ground floor | the second floor | ||
| pants | trousers | underpants | ||
| potato chips | potato crisps | french fries | ||
| purse | handbag | wallet | ||
| subway | underground railway | underpass | ||
Other Englishes
US or American English is not the only special variety of English. Each area of the English-speaking world has developed its own special characteristics. This is usually a matter of vocabulary and pronunciation.
Australian English is particularly interesting for its rich store of highly colloquial words and expressions. Australian colloquialisms often involve shortening a word, e.g. beaut, short for beautiful, means great. Sometimes the ending is added, e.g. smoko, from smoking, means a tea or coffee break. Because of the current popularity of Australian TV programmes and films, some of such words are now being used by British people too.
Indian English, on the other hand, is characterised by sounding more formal than British English It has retained in everyday usage words that are found more in the classics of nineteenth century literature than in contemporary English.
Black English is the term used to refer to the English which originated in the Caribbean islands and has now spread to many parts of the UK, Canada and the USA. Listed below are some words which are characteristic of Black English but are also now used in other varities of English:
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dreadlocks Rastafarian hairstyle
chick girl
jam improvise
dig understand
square dull
Culture
The word culture, from the Latin colo, -ere, with its root meaning 'to cultivate', generally refers to patterns of human activity and the symbolic structures that give such activity significance. Different definitions of culture reflect different theoretical bases for understanding, or criteria for evaluating, human activity.
In 1871 Sir Edward B. Tylor wrote that 'culture or civilization, taken in its wide ethnographic sense, is that complex whole which includes knowledge, belief, art, morals, law, custom, and any other capabilities and habits acquired by man as a member of society.' While a 2002 document from the United Nations agency UNESCO states that 'culture is the set of distinctive spiritual, material, intellectual and emotional features of society or a social group, and that it encompasses, in addition to art and literature, lifestyles, ways of living together, value systems, traditions and beliefs.'
In 1952 Alfred Kroeber and Clyde Kluckhohn compiled a list of more than two hundred different definitions of 'culture' in their book Culture: A Critical Review of Concepts and Definitions.
The two definitions stated above, as well as many others, offer a 'laundry list' of things or objects that culture comprises:
Language
The Arts (Literature, Theatre, Music, Broadcasting, Visual Art,
Architecture) Religion Food Education Sociological issues (Housing, Living Arrangements)
Sport
National costume
Naming convention
Cultural studies are now developing throughout the world. Most scholars see culture as a complex web of shifting patterns that link people in different locales and that link social formations of different scales. According to this view, any group can construct its own cultural identity.
Family life in Britain
A 'typical' British family used to consist of mother, father and two children, but in recent years there have been many changes in family life. Some of these have been caused by new laws and others are the result of changes in the society. For example, since the law made it easier to get a divorce, the number of divorces has increased. In fact one marriage in every three now ends in divorce. This means that there are a lot of one-parent families. Society is now more tolerant than it used to be of unmarried people, unmarried couples and single parents. As a result of these changes in the pattern of people's lives, there are many households which consist of only one person or one adult and children.
You might think that marriage and the family are not so popular as they once were. However, the majority of divorced people marry again, and they sometimes take responsibility for a second family.
Members of a family grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins keep in touch, but they see less of each other than they used to. This is because people often move away from their home town to work, and so the family becomes scattered. Christmas is the traditional season for reunions. Although the family group is smaller nowadays than it used to be, relatives often travel many miles in order to spend the holiday together.
In general, each generation is keen to become independent of parents in establishing its own family unit, and this fact can lead to social as well as geographical differences within the larger family group.
Relationships within the family are different now. Parents treat their children more as equals than they used to, and children have more freedom to make their own decisions. The father is more involved with bringing up children, often because the mother goes out to work. Increased leisure facilities and more money mean that there are greater opportunities for the individual to take part in activities outside the home. Although the family holiday is still an important part of family life, many children have holidays away from their parents, often with a school party or other organized group.
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