美国概况6.ppt

Lecture 6 Tonight our topics are A. leisure and recreation and B. tourism and holidays in the United States. Nov. 7, 2010 Leisure Time What do Americans do with their non-working time, or non-school hours for children? While most non-working time is spent in commuting and the routine tasks of daily living, an average of 40 hours for American adults per week are spent on leisure activities. Such activities may vary from watching TV to participating in an athletic pursuit, from volunteer work to singing in the church chior. Team Sports Sports in the United States is an important part of American culture. The four most popular team sports are ones that developed in North America: baseball, American football, basketball, and ice hockey. Soccer (football) is less popular as a spectator sport in the United States than it is in many other countries, though it has wide amateur participation, particularly among youths. Team Sports The major leagues(联赛) of these sports, Major League Baseball (MLB), National Football League (NFL), National Basketball Association (NBA), National Hockey League (NHL) enjoy massive media exposure and are considered the preeminent competitions in their respective sports in the world. Sports and education Sports are particularly associated with education in the United States, with most high schools and universities having organized sports. College sports competitions play an important role in the American sporting culture. In many cases college athletics are more popular than professional sports. College sports In basketball and football, high school and particularly college sports are followed with enthusiasm equaling or exceeding that felt for professional sports; college football games can draw six-digit crowds, many prominent high school football teams have stadiums that seat tens of thousands of spectators, and the college basketball championship tournament played in March, known as March Madness, draws enormous attention. Amer