Dialogue 20: American Citizenship (sit-uh-zuhn) Exam:

Exercise 1: Practice the following dialogue out loud. Switch characters.

Exercise 2: Practice identifying the location of each state and city mentioned on a map of the United States.

Exercise 3: Lookup and research each person mentioned in the dialogue creating a bio on each.

Student:               Do you know the American flag’s colors and how many stars there are?

Professor:            Of course, there are 50 white stars which represent the 50 states in the union (yoon-yuhn) and the colors of the flag are red, white and blue. There are 7 red and 6 white stripes which represent the 13 original states.

Student:               Do you know who the Vice President is? I need to do a book report on him.

Professor:            Yes, Vice President Joseph Biden.

Student:               Who really elects the President of the United States? 

Professor:            It is a group called the Electoral (ih-lek-ter-uhl) College chosen by popular vote.

Student:               Do you what happens if space aliens were to dematerialize (dee-muh-teer-ee-uh-lahyz) the president?

Professor:            If the President dies in office and doesn’t get to serve his elected four years or gets dematerialized and completely disappears in a UFO, the Vice President takes over.

Student:               I heard in class about a document called The Constitution (kon-sti-too-shuhn) can you tell me what it does and can it ever be changed? 

Professor:            The Constitution is the law of the country on which America bases all its laws on. It has been changed with 27 amendments (uh-mend-muhntz).

Student:               Do you know how many branches there are in our government and who gets to make the laws?

Professor:            There are three branches in the government, the first is the legislative (lej-is-ley-tiv) comprised of Congress (kong-gris), the second is the Executive (the President) and the third is the Judiciary (joo-dish-ee-er-ee) (courts). Congress who makes the laws is elected by the people and is comprised of The Senate and the House of Representatives. There are 100 senators, they are elected for a six-year term. There are 435 representatives elected for a 2-year term.