英美文化部分名词解释
The Cold War （冷战）
By the end of WWⅡ, the United States, which had not suffered as much as other allied countries, becau the strongest country in the world. As the posssor of atomic tombs and much of the world’s gold rerve and industrial production in its hand, the policy-makers of the US wanted a world order dominated by the US, a world market free and open to American goods and rvices. In pursuing this goal, the US encountered determined resistance from the Soviet Union. Gradually the two wartime allies fell apart and the Cold War began.
Mrs. Thatcher （撤切尔主义）
Thatcherism referred to the policies put forward by Margaret Thatcher, the first woman prime minister in England in 1979. The main contents of her policies included the return to private ownership of state-owned industries, the u of monetarist policies to control inf
lation, the weakening of trade unions the strengthening of the role of market forces in the economy, and an emphasis on law and order. To some extent her program was successful and she led one of the most remarkable periods in the British economy.
Service industries （服务业）
They are industries that ll a rvice rather than make a product，which now dominate the economy. Service industries range from banking to telecommunications to the provision of meals in restaurants. As more and more people are employed in rvice industries in the US, it is sometimes said the US has moved into a “post-industrial era”.
Regionalism (地方主义)
As pioneers ttled new territories in the West, writers now focud on the differences between the various regions of the United States rather than on a single vision of the expanding country.
Stock （股票）
When starting or expanding business, corporations need to borrow money. They may issue stocks for people to buy. When people buy stock, they become part owner of the company. If the company makes a profit, they receive a share of it. Likewi, if the company los money, the stockholders will not make a profit or the value of their shares will drop—they lo money. Therefore buying stock is a risk.
Three Faiths in the US （三大信仰）
By the 1950s, the three faiths model of American religion had developed. Americans were considered to come in three basic varieties: Protestant, Catholic and Jewish. In terms of numbers, the Protestants are the strongest, the Catholics are next to the Protestants and Jewish are the smallest among
the three groups.
The Civil Rights Movement （公民权利运动）
It’s one of the most important of all social movement in the 1960s U.S. history. Rosa Park’
s spontaneous action in 1955 was believed to be the true beginning of the civil rights movement. The black students’ sit-in at a department lunch counter in North Carolina touched off the nationwide civil rights movement. During the first half of the decade, civil rights organizations like SNCC (the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, CORE (the Congress of Racial Equality), and SCLC (the Southern Christian Leadership Conference) struggled for racial integration by providing leadership, tactics, network and the people. In the latter half of the decade, some black organizations changed their nonviolent tactics, and emphasized on more radical means to end discrimination and raid the lf image of the blacks. The civil rights movement produced such great leaders as Martin Luther King, Jr., and Malcolm X, who inspired a generation of both blacks and whites to devote their lives to fighting for racial equality in the U.S.
The containment policy （压制政策）
The US put into effect the containment policy in the late 1940s. By containment, the US meant that it would u whatever means, including military force, to prevent the Soviet U
nion from breaking out of its sphere of influence. In order to contain communism, the US fought two was in Asia: the Korean War and the Vietnam War.
The “Lost Generation” (迷惘的一代)
In the aftermath of World War I, many novelists produced a literature of disillusionment. Some lived abroad. They were known as the “Lost Gener ation”. The two most reprentative writers of the “Lost Generation” were Hemingway and Fitzgerald.
Transcendentalists（超验主义者）
In his book Nature, Ralph Waldo Emerson claimed that by studying and responding to nature individuals could reach a higher spiritual state without formal religion. A circle of intellectuals who were discontented with the New England establishment gathered around Emerson. They accepted Emerson’s theories about spiritual transcendence. They are known as Transcendentalists. The “Beat Generation”（跨掉的一代）
The “Beat Generation” was made up of a group of young writers in the 1950s bad in Sa
n Francisco. The name referred simultaneously to the rhythm of Jazz music, to their n that society was worn out, to the interest in new forms of experience, through drugs, alcohol or Eastern mysticism. Alan Ginsburg’s Howl t for them a tone of social protest.
Greensboro Sit-in (格林斯博罗静坐)
On February 1, 1960, 4 freshmen from a black college in Greensboro, North Carolina, sat down at a department lunch counter and ordered coffee. When refud, they continued to sit at the counter, openly defying the gregation law prevailing in the state. The next day, more students joined them. Thus began the civil rights movement, which spread from the south to th e north. Later, this quiet “sit-in” became the major nonviolent direct action tactics to be ud by black civil rights activists.
