Answer the questions

1. What continent is the USA located in?

2. How many states does the country split to?

3. What countries did American settlers come from?

4. What kind of foundations were created to preserve wild nature of the USA?

5. What national documents define the USA as country?

6. Does the Constitution ensure the rights of the people of the United States?

7. Does each state agree to allow the federal government to have certain powers or not?

8. What is the president's primary job description according to the US Constitution?

9. What type of economy does America have?

10. How many terms can each American president serve?

Education in the United States Basic vocabulary

pursuit	стремління
excellence	вищість, первага
average	середній
roughly	приблизно, грубо
public universitу	державний університет
private university	приватний університет
liberal arts	гуманітарні науки
significant	значний, суттєвий
to support	підтримувати
to run	керувати
tuition fee	плата за навчання
to emphasize	надавати особливого значення
curriculum	навчальний план
practitioner	практик, професіонал
to vouch for	ручатися за
to be perceived	сприйматися
to be admitted to	бути прийнятим в
ACT (American College Testing)	тест для абітурієнтів
SAT (Scholastic Assessment Test)	відбірковий тест для абітурієнтів
GPA (Great Point Average)	середній бал

Higher education in the United States refers to a variety of institutions of higher education in the United States. Strong research and funding have helped make American colleges and universities among the world's most prestigious, which is particularly attractive to international students, professors and researchers in the pursuit of academic excellence. According to UNESCO the US has the second largest number of higher education institutions in the world, with a total of 5.758, an average of more than 115 per state. The US also has the highest number of higher education students in the world (roughly 4.75 % of the total population). Public universities, private universities, liberal arts colleges all have a significant role in higher education in the United States. State colleges or universities are supported and run by the State Government, each U.S. state operates at least one state university and several state colleges. Private colleges or universities are privately owned/operated institutes, where tuition fee is usually higher than the state government schools. Normally private colleges and universities are smaller in size.

The American university system, like the primary and secondary education system, is largely decentralized, in large part because the Tenth Amendment to the United States Constitution reserves all powers not granted to the federal government or explicitly denied to the U.S. states "for the States respectively, or to the people." Such a degree of autonomy in higher education is rare.

Colleges and universities in the U.S. vary in terms of goals: some may emphasize a vocational, business, engineering, or technical curriculum while others may emphasize a liberal arts curriculum. Many combine some or all of the above.

Some universities have professional schools, which are attended primarily by those who plan to be practitioners instead of academics (scholars/researchers). Examples include journalism school, business school, medical schools, law schools, veterinary schools, and dental schools.

American universities have developed independent accreditation organizations to vouch for the quality of the degrees they offer. The accreditation agencies rate universities and colleges on criteria such as academic quality – the quality of their libraries, the publishing records of their faculty, and the degrees which their faculty hold. Nonaccredited institutions are perceived as lacking in quality and rigor, and may be termed diploma mills.

There is no limit to the number of colleges or universities to which a student may apply, though an application must be submitted for each. With a few exceptions, most undergraduate colleges and universities maintain the policy that students are to be admitted to (or rejected from) the entire college, not to a particular department or major (this is unlike college admissions in many European countries, as well as graduate admissions). The five major parts of admission are ACT/SAT scores, GPA, College Application, Essay, and Letters of Recommen-dation^]. Not all colleges require essays or letters of recomendation, though they are often proven to increase chances of acceptance.

Classroom structure is usually fairly informal. Sometimes students and teachers call each other by their first names. A professor may not lecture formally, but instead may begin the class with a talk and then open up the topic for discussion by the class.