Pocahontas was the daughter of a powerful Indian chief, Chief Powhatan.

She was born in Virginia at the end of the 16th century, and died before she was twenty. She was a
symbol of peace and unity between the English settlers in Jamestown and the Native Americans.
Legend has it that English settler John Smith was captured by the Powhatan Indians. They were
about to kill him when Pocahontas, at the time only ten years old, asked that he be saved. When
relations between the settlers and the Indians were difficult, Pocahontas helped both sides. She
was a good friend of the English, providing food and gifts. However, when the two sides were at
war, the settlers held Pocahontas hostage. During this time she converted to Christianity and
learned English. In 1614, she was married to John Rolfe, an English man! In her short
lifetime, Pocahontas always strove for peace, even at the most difficult times, making her a true
heroine.

Basketball is played all over the world, but nowadays its true home is in the U.S.!

Basketball players can earn millions of dollars for their sport. They are true superstars, watched
and adored by millions of sports fans. The major teams compete in the NBA (National Basketball
Association), and the best players, such as Michael Jordan, compete in the yearly All-Star Game.
This is where a team representing the East Coast meets a team representing the West Coast!
Basketball's beginnings were quite humble. In 1891, Dr. James Naismith, a Canadian professor,
decided to create a game that relied not just on strength but on skill, too. Using old peach baskets
as hoops, the objective was to throw a ball into the hoop to score points. Gradually, he created
rules, and basketball was born! From very basic beginnings, basketball has become a glamorous
sport that Americans truly love!

Jazz is perhaps the United States' most celebrated contribution to music.

Each year, the world's finest jazz musicians, such as Wynton Marsalis, can be found at the New
Orleans Jazz Festival. The ten-day-long festival, which takes place in May, is internationally
renowned, and represents a yearly return to the birthplace of jazz. Legend has it that in 1891,
Buddy Bolden, a barber from New Orleans, Louisiana, played the first notes of jazz on his trumpet
while at work. He had unwittingly created a whole new kind of music. Combining early blues,
gospel and tribal drums, African Americans made jazz their own. In the 1920s, Louis Armstrong
took jazz to new heights with 'Dixieland,' one of the many branches of jazz. Many people,
however, consider Miles Davis' 'Kind of Blue,' released in 1960, to be the finest jazz album of all
time. Jazz musicians today continue to entertain and amaze audiences across the world with a
genre of music that will never forget its roots.
Who can imagine San Francisco, California, without the Golden Gate Bridge?

However, this famous bridge was once considered to be too dangerous to build. The Golden Gate
is on the edge of the Pacific Ocean, and the wind, fog and ocean currents in the area made the
building conditions particularly difficult. Building began in 1933 and ended in 1937. Sadly, eleven
men died while building the bridge. The elegant structure is one of the longest suspension bridges
in the world. It is supported by two main steel cables. The bridge even contains enough steel wire
to encircle the equator three times. The steel is painted a distinctive orange color, chosen by
architect Irving F. Morrow to match the natural surroundings. The Golden Gate Bridge has become
the symbol of its home city. The bridge has also been named one of the 'Seven Wonders of the
Modern World' by the American Society of Civil Engineers.

Fast food means exactly what it says: it is food that arrives fast!

When you go to a fast-food restaurant, you will be dazzled by the speedy service. You will be met
with a smile and a friendly 'Have a nice day!' This could be in any country in the world now, but
the fast-food phenomenon originated back in the U.S. The first fast-food restaurants opened in the
1950s. Designed to provide people with an alternative to traditional restaurants, they quickly
became popular. One of the first snacks was the burger which was simply a slice of meat in a bun.
Later versions of the burger include cheeseburgers and even vegetarian burgers! Other popular
snacks include hot dogs and donuts. Americans spend $5 billion a year on fast food, and visit fast-
food restaurants once every three days, on average! Fast food really has become a way of life.

In Silicon Valley, apricot and prune orchards have been replaced by computer and Internet
technology companies.

Silicon Valley, otherwise known as the Santa Clara Valley, is in California. Prunes and apricots are
not as common as they once were, because this valley has been taken over by companies creating
computer hardware and Internet technology. There are over three thousand high-tech companies
in Silicon Valley, many of which are very new! One of the oldest companies in Silicon Valley was
started in 1939. William Hewlett and David Packard were students at the nearby Stanford
University. Their professor, Fred Terman, encouraged them to start their own business. The
resulting company, Hewlett-Packard, now employs over 100,000 people across the world, and is
one of Silicon Valley's many success stories! While the soil in Silicon Valley may be good for
growing fruit, today it is the companies in the valley that are bearing fruit!

The Baby Boom was a population phenomenon that started in 1946.

After World War II, the American population increased at an unprecedented rate. In the period
between 1946 and 1964, 76 million children were born, compared to 50 million during the twenty
previous years. Several factors influenced the Baby Boom. Wartime conditions and economic
difficulties ended, so more people married. Economic prosperity in the '50s and '60s enabled many
couples to have more children, and with government policy encouraging family strength, the time
was ripe for a population explosion. The effects of the Baby Boom were noticeable almost
immediately, especially in education. As there were more children, schools became overcrowded,
and later on, higher education had to expand. The 'Baby Boomers' created youth culture, giving
the world hippies and punks. At the start of the 21st century, 'Baby Boomers' represented nearly a
third of the American population, and could proudly claim to have greatly influenced American
culture.

English is the native language of over 350 million people around the world.

The English language has diverse origins. It belongs to the Germanic set of languages and has also
been influenced by Scandinavian and Latin languages, notably French. Today, English is the official
language in over fifty countries all over the globe. As the former British Empire grew, so did the
number of people speaking the English language. Even after gaining independence from Great
Britain in 1940, India chose to keep British English for administrative, political, educational and
business purposes. Additionally, British English is used purely for business and administration in
many other countries, such as Papua New Guinea or Nigeria. In recent years, due to the strength
of the American economy, English has become the worlds international language. Surprisingly,
English was only adopted as the Federal language of the United States in 2001, previously having
been the official language in just twenty-six states. All over the world, from Australia to Zimbabwe,
English dominates the linguistic map.