Chapter One: Understanding the Culture of the United States
1. Who established the dominant American culture?
Immigrants, most immigrants were from northern Europe, and the majority were from England. Their values and traditions became the dominant, traditional culture of the United States.
Chapter Two: Traditional American Values and Beliefs
2. What are the six traditional American values and beliefs?
Individual freedom and self-reliance，equality of opportunity and competition，material wealth and hard work。

Chapter Three: The American Religious Heritage
3. What is the most important heritage of Protestantism in the United States?
Self-improvement（p54）。

Material success，hard work。

Self-discipline。

Volunteerism and humanitarianism（人道主义）
Chapter Three: The American Religious Heritage
4. What is the “Protestant work ethic” according to our textbook?
The belief in hard work and self-discipline in pursuit of material gain and other goals is often referred to as …the Protestant work ethic‟.(p55 13)
Chapter Four: The Frontier Heritage
5. What does "frontier" refer to in American history?
American macho heroes. Inventiveness and the can-do spirit.
Chapter Four: The Frontier Heritage
6. What are the two new values derived from the American frontier?
Inventiveness and the can-do spirit. (p77)
Chapter Four: The Frontier Heritage
7. Why did the sale of guns rise after 9/11?
How Americans reacted to 911 reveals another legacy of the frontier: Americans‟ willingness to take the law into their own hands to protect themselves and their families. This tendency usually appears when Americans believe the police cannot adequately protect them.
Chapter Six: The World of American Business
8. Which values are reinforced(加强) in the American business?
Individual freedom, equality of opportunity, and hard work.
Chapter Seven: Government and Politics in the United States
9. What are the three branches of the American government? What are their powers respectively?(p142)
Congress is the legislative or lawmaking branch of the government.
The president, or chief executive, heads the executive branch, which has responsibility to carry out the laws.
The Supreme Court and lower national courts make up the judicial branch. The judicial branch settles disputes about the exact meaning of the law through court cases.
Chapter Nine: Education in the United States
10. Could you explain the sentence “American universities look for well-rounded students when they admit”?(p195)
Grades in high school courses and scores on tests like the sat are very important, but so are the students‟extracurricular activities. It is by participating in these activities that students demonstrate their special talents, their level of maturity and responsibility, their leadership qualities, and their ability to get along with others.。