Answer the questions about the reading

Out in the Pacific Ocean, 3700 kilometers from Los Angeles, are the islands of Hawaii, the 50 th state of the United States. This group of eight main islands has a land area of only 16,700 square kilometers stretched over 2500 kilometers of ocean. Hawaii became a state in 1959 and is smaller than 46 of the other states.

The first Hawaiians arrived from other Pacific islands sometime around 100 A.D. Their society developed for centuries without visitors from Europe, Asia, or Africa. Then all this changed. In 1778, Captain James Cook, the great English explorer, visited Hawaii. He put the islands on his maps of the Pacific. Ships searching for whales began stopping there for supplies.

In 1820, a small group of people from the eastern United States came to each the Hawaiian people about Christianity. They started farms to grow sugar and, later, pineapples. Soon there were not enough people to do all the farmwork, so the farm oweners brought in Asians – Chinese starting in 1852, Japanese in 1868, and Filipinos in 1906. Koreans, Portuguese, and Puerto Ricans also came. The people in each group worked hard, saved their money, and build homes.Some of them got better jobs or started their own small businesses. More people came from the U.S. mainland and from other Pacific islands. Hawaii became an island with traditions from several countries.

Today about 1.1 million people live in Hawaii, but only 10,000 are native Hawaiians. People from the various national groups have married each other, so today the groups are partly mixed. For example, a child might have a Chinese – Hawaiian mother and a Portuguese – Filipino father.

Hawaii has some special traditions. Hawaiians are very friendly and always welcome visitors. They give visitors leis. A lei is a long necklace made from beautiful fresh flowers from the Hawaiian islands. Men wear bright flowered shirts, and women often wear long flowered dresses. People celebrate traditional Chinese, Japanese, and Filipino holidays as well as the holidays from the United States. Hawaii is known as the Aloha State. Aloha mean both “hello” and “good-bye” in Hawaiian.It also means “I love you.”

Hawaiians earn most of their money from tourists who come from Japan and the mainland United States. So many people live in Hawaii now that there are residential areas where there used to be farms. Some of the big sugar and pineapple companies have moved to the Philippines, where they do not have pay workers as much money. The families of the first people who came from the U.S. mainland own most of the important banks and companies. Many Japanese are also buying or starting businesses in Hawaii.

Sometimes when people from many different countries, races, and traditions live together there are some problems. But in Hawaii, there are very few serious problems. In general, the people of Hawaii have learned to live together on those beautiful islands in peace.

Answer the questions about the reading.

1.Where is Hawaii?

2. Where did the first Hawaiians come from?

3. Why did ships begin stopping in Hawaii?

4. Why did the first people from the U.S mainland come to Hawaii?

5. Why do Hawaiians celebrate many traditional holidays?

6. What are some of Hawaii’s special traditions?

7. How do Hawaiians earn most of their money?

8. Why did some big sugar and pineapple companies move to the Philippines?

9. Who owns most of the big companies in Hawaii?

10. Are there serious problems among the different groups of people in Hawaii?