This document discusses everyday life in America, focusing on sports, recreation, health, and technology. It covers how sports express American values like equality and hard work. It also notes that competition can be taken to an extreme, prioritizing money over loyalty. Americans enjoy active recreation for self-improvement and adventure. However, busy lifestyles and easy access to unhealthy food have led to high obesity rates. Television and the internet have significantly impacted relaxation and leisure time activities.
3. CONTENT :
1. Sports and American Values.
2. Competition Carried to an Extreme
3. Recreation: A Time for Self-Improvement.
4. Health and Fitness.
5. The Impact of Television.
6. The Impact of the Internet.
4. 1- SPORTS AND AMERICAN VALUES:
Sport plays a major role in Americans lifestyle.
Organized sports express the basic values of
Americans and attempt to strengthen them .
The most popular organized sports in the United
States are: Football, Basketball and Baseball.
Sport gives an equal chance to people of different
races and economic backgrounds to do the best
that they can.
The largest number of American football and
basketball players are African-Americans and about
one quarter of baseball players are Hispanics or
Latinos.
5. Americans believe that learning how to be the
winner in sport’s competitions is necessary to
compete in later life.
Hard work and physical courage are the important
elements of competitive ethic in organized sports.
Hard work = Hustle, Persistence, Never quitting.
Physical courage = Being tough, Having guts
Organized sports are part of traditional basic
American values.
6. 2- COMPETITION CARRIED TO AN
EXTREME?
Sports in the United States are glorified . But, there
are others who are especially critical of the power
of sports to corrupt when certain things are carried
to excess.
There is a long tradition of coaches like Harry
Edwards who is a professional football coach, he
has pointed out that : << The all-important
significance of winning is known, but likewise, there
is the consoling reward of the honorable defeat.
Indeed, the sweetness of winning is derived … from
the knowledge of having defeated a courageous
opponent who performed honorably.>>
Competition can turn into disorder violence.
7. We can see violence in American sports, especially
in Football.
In the South, boys start playing tackle football in
elementary schools, bringing the risks of
competitive pressure to nine- and ten-year-olds.
An other criticism of professional sports is that the
players and the team owners get too much money,
while fans have to pay more and more for tickets to
the games.
Now professional sports are more about money and
less about team loyalty. College football and
basketball programs are also affected by big
money.
To improve the player’s performance, sports
organization adopted the pressure to win which led
the players to use enhancing drugs.
8. The use of these drugs puts the health of the
athletes in danger and it is ethically wrong. It goes
against the American values of equality of
opportunity and fair competition.
9. 3- RECREATION: A TIME FOR SELF-
IMPROVEMENT.
Some Americans prefer recreation that requires a
high level of physical activity. This is true of the
most popular adult recreational sports: jogging or
running, tennis and skiing.
Physical fitness has become a way of life for many
by working out at sports club.
The high level of physical activity enjoyed by many
Americans at play has led to the observation that
Americans have difficulty relaxing, even in their
leisure time.
Interest and participation in cultural activities, which
improve people’s minds or skill are also popular.
10. The recreational interests of Americans also show a
continuing respect for the self-reliance, and
sometimes the adventure and danger, of frontier
life.
Not all Americans want to * rough it * while they are
on their adventure holidays, however. There are a
number of travelers in their forties of fifties who
want * soft adventure *
<< Frankly, it’s amazing to us to see baby boomers
seeking creature comforts >> Judi Wineland.
11. 4- HEALTH AND FITNESS.
The overall population is becoming overweight, due
to poor eating habits and a sedentary lifestyle.
Less than half of Americans exercise in their leisure
time.
After smoking, obesity was the number two
preventable cause of death by mid 2000s in the
United States.
For thirty years, the government encouraged
people to eat a diet high in carbohydrates and low
in fat, to avoid health risks such as heart disease
and certain type of cancer.
12. In the early 2000, high-protein, low carbohydrate
diets became popular.
Since 1994, the government has required uniform
labeling so that consumers can compare the
calories, fat and carbohydrates in the food they buy.
<< Let’s face it-if you’re having chips and dip as a
snack, fat-free potato chips and fat-free sour cream
just don’t taste as good as the real thing.>> said by
an American.
Experts say that it is a combination of social,
cultural and psychological factors that determine
how people eat.
Another factor is American’s love of fast food.
The final factor is the American’s busy lifestyle .
13. 5- THE IMPACT OF TELEVISION:
Most of American girls imitate the stars of movies
and TV shows .
The average of Americans family TV set is on about
six hours a day.
The more people watch TV, the less they are likely
to exercise.
Many parents think they can use help in monitoring
what their children see.
14. 6- THE IMPACT OF THE INTERNET:
Surfing on the net became the activity of spending
leisure time for Americans.
For safety, the internet should be regulated by the
federal government:
With
Against
Technology allows Americans the access to internet
just by using smart devices.
The internet affects the ability to relax
Robinson has organized work to live campaign with
national labor laws so that everyone would be
entitled to at least 3 weeks of vacation per year.