TEXT A: THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

The United States of America is the fourth largest country in the world after Russia, China and Canada. It is situated in the central part of the North American continent. It also includes Alaska and Hawaii. The total area is over nine million square kilometres. The population of the USA is about 250 million people. The USA borders on Canada in the north and Mexico in the south. Its western coast is washed by the Pacific Ocean and its eastern one - by the Atlantic Ocean.

The continental part of the USA consists of the highland regions and two lowland regions. The highland regions are the Appalachian mountains in the east and the Cordillera in the west. The Great Rocky mountains run north and south. Some of them form a divide between rivers that flow westward and those that flow towards the Atlantic or the Gulf of Mexico. The lowlands are situated between the Cordillera and the Appalachian mountains and are usually called the prairie. Eastern lowlands are called Mississippi valley.

The main rivers of the USA are the Mississippi – the world’s third longest river after the Nile and the Amazon, and the Hudson river. The Mississippi river which is of great historic and economic importance to the United States runs 5,969 km from Canada into the Gulf of Mexico. A canal south of Chicago joins one of the tributaries of the Mississippi to the five Great Lakes – making it the world’s largest inland water transportation route.

The territory of the USA lies in different climatic zones. The climate of Alaska is subarctic and that of the coast of the Gulf of Mexico is subtropical. But most of the USA is in the temperate zone.

The climate of the country is affected by the distance from the equator, mountainous land in the west as well as by two oceans. Year-long temperatures are lower in the northern and north-eastern states and higher temperatures are in the southern and western states. Along the western coast the climate is warm, because the land there is protected from the cold winds of the north by the great mountain range (the Rocky Mountains and is open to the influence of the warm winds of the Pacific Ocean). That’s why west coast winters are mild and rainy except in southern California, where they are mild but drier. In central and eastern regions the weather is very changeable in winter. It may rain in the morning and snow in the evening when the north wind begins blowing.

Summer temperatures also vary from region to region. In many places in southern Arizona and California the average daily temperature is above 40°C. The southern coasts of Alaska have moderate temperatures in both winter and summer. The climate in the southern part of the western coast is hot and dry, the soil is arid, the rainfall is low and irrigation must be provided against drought. In the northern section of the pacific coastline, along the coasts of the Atlantic Ocean and of the Gulf of Mexico, there is much rainfall.

The USA is rich in mineral resources. It has deposits of oil, gas, coal, iron, zinc, copper, gold, silver, etc. The USA is a highly developed country. It has very powerful industries, advanced technologies and science. The main branches of industry are coal-mining, metallurgy, shipbuilding, automobile, chemical, textile, aviation and electronics. The largest cities of the USA are New York, San Francisco, Washigton, Los Angeles, Chicago etc.

The United States is a federal union of 50 states, with the District of Columbia as the seat of the national government. The whole system of American government is based on the principles established in the Constitution and Bill of Rights. The Constitution divides the powers of the government into three branches – the executive, headed by the President; the legislative, which includes both houses of Congress (the Senate and the House of Representatives); and the judicial, which is headed by the Supreme Court. The head of the Senate is the Vice-President who is elected for 4 years. The head of the House of Representatives is the Speaker.

The Republican and Democratic Parties are the main parties in the USA.

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