AMERICAN ENTERTAINMENT 1 Long V Nguyen, PhD University of Danang College of Foreign Languages

Sports: Baseball  Baseball is America’s national sport, played mainly by men. It developed in the mid 19th century from the British games of rounders and cricket. Baseball  Many Americans play baseball for fun because players do not have to be strong like football players or tall like basketball players.play baseball for fun  Baseball has entered the national culture in other ways. It is the subject of an old popular song, Take Me Out to the Ballgame, novels such as Shoeless Joe (1982) which became the film Field of Dreams (1989), and other films like The Pride of the Yankees (1942) and The Babe (1992). Baseball caps and shirts are fashionable in many countries.  Terms: pitcher, batter, catcher, umpire, to throw someone a curve, to take a rain check Terms 2 College of Foreign Languages - UDN

Sports: Football S  American football, not to be confused with the football called soccer, is the American national sport. American football  The method of scoring in American football is the same as in rugby.  American football has a reputation for being a brutal and dangerous game.  The football coach is a very important member of the college staff - more important than the professors, some say!  The Americans are addicted to crazes. When they take something up, they do so wholeheartedly, and often the rest of the world follows their lead. Jogging is an example of this. The Americans now have another craze, a game which most other countries call ‘football,’ but which they call soccer. Soccer is spreading like wildfire through all the States and gaining in popularity on baseball. 3 College of Foreign Languages - UDN

Music: Jazz  Jazz is one of the greatest forms of music originating in the US. The names of its stars, who are mostly African Americans, are known around the world. Jazz  Jazz was begun in the South by African Americans. Many of its rhythms came from the work songs and spirituals (= religious songs) of black slaves.  In the 1920s many African Americans moved north, taking jazz with them, and Chicago and New York became centres for the music. 4 College of Foreign Languages - UDN

Music: Pop  In 1956, a young man from the south of the United States made a record called Heartbreak Hotel. The young man was Elvis Presley.Heartbreak Hotel  ‘Pop’ is popular music: the music of the people. There has always been popular music, but pop was born around the time that Elvis began singing - more than forty years ago.  The sixties: Some people call the sixties a golden time for pop. The 1960s was a time when many young people believed that sex and drugs and rock music (the kind of music which came straight from the rock and roll and rhythm and blues of the fifties) would give love and peace to the world.  Pop today - and tomorrow: Today, pop is everywhere. It is in the street, in the big shops, at the airport. Today pop is big business Michael Jackson.Michael Jackson  People spend 35 billion dollars on records every year. Today you can get pop from your computer.  Today you can get pop through your computer on the Internet. And next time you go dancing, not just the music, but the pictures on the walls, moving in time with the music, could come from computers. 5 College of Foreign Languages - UDN