Traditions and customs

The USA

The United States of America is the fourth largest country in the world (after Russia, Canada and China). It occupies the southern part of North America and stretches from the Pacific to the Atlantic Ocean. It also includes Alaska in the north and Hawaii in the Pacific Ocean. The total area of the country is about nine and a half million square kilometers. The USA borders on Canada in the north and on Mexico in the south. It also has a sea-border with Russia.

The USA is made up of 50 states and the District of Columbia, a special federal area where the capital of the country, Washington, is situated. The population of the country is about 250 million.

If we look at the map of the USA, we can see lowlands and mountains. The highest mountains are the Rocky Mountains, the Cordillera and the Sierra Nevada. The highest peak is Mount McKinley which is located in Alaska.

America’s largest rivers are the Mississippi, the Missouri, the Rio Grande and the Colombia. The Great Lakes on the border with Canada are the largest and deepest in the USA.

The climate of the country varies greatly. The coldest regions are in the north. The climate of Alaska is arctic. The climate of the central capital is continental. The south has a subtropical climate. Hot winds blowing from the Gulf of Mexico often bring typhoons. The climate along the Pacific coast is much warmer than that of the Atlantic coast.

The USA is a highly developed industrial country. It is the world’s leading producer of copper and oil and the world’s second producer of iron ore and coal. Among the most important manufacturing industries are aircraft, cars, textiles, radio and television sets, armaments, furniture and paper.

Though mainly European and African is origin, Americans are made up from nearly all races and nations, including Chinese and Native Americans.

The largest cities are: New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Philadelphia, Detroit, San-Francisco, Washington and others.

The United States is a federal union of 50 states, each of which has its own government. The seat of the central government is Washington, DC. According to the USA Constitution the powers of the government are divided into 3 branches: the executive, headed by the President, the legislative, exercised by the Congress, and the judicial. The Congress consists of the Senate and the House of Representatives.

There are two main political parties in the USA: the Republican and Democratic.

The Internet

Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that interchange data by packet switching. It is a “network of networks” that consists of millions of private and public, academic, business, and government networks of local of global scope. They are linked by copper wires, fiber-optic cables, wireless connections, and other technologies. The Internet carries various information resources and services, such as electronic mail, online chat, file transfer and file sharing, online gaming, and the inter-linked hypertext documents and other resources of the World Wide Web.

The complex communications infrastructure of the Internet consists of its hardware components and a system of software layers. They control various aspects of the architectures. While the hardware can often be used to support other software systems, it is the design and the rigorous standardization-process of the software architecture that characterizes the Internet.

The Internet is allowing greater flexibility is working hours and location, especially with the spread of unmetered high-speed connections and Web applications. The Internet can now be accessed virtually anywhere by numerous means. Mobile phones, data cards, handheld game consoles and cellular routers allow users to connect to the Internet from anywhere there is a cellular network supporting that device’s technology.

London

As well as being the capital of England, London is the capital of the United Kingdom.

London was founded by the Romans in 43 A.D and was called Londonium. In 61 A.D the town was burnt down and when it was rebuilt by the Romans it was surrounded by a wall. That area within the wall is now called the City of London. It is London’s commercial and business centre. It contains the Bank of England, the Stock Exchange and the head offices of numerous companies and corporations. Here is situated the Tower of London. The Tower was built by William the Conqueror who conquered England in 1066. He was crowned at Westminster Abbey. Now most of the government buildings are located there.

During the Tudor period London became an important economic and financial centre. The Londoners of the Elizabethan period built the first theatres. Nowadays the theatre land is stretched around Piccadilly Circus. Not far from it one can see the British Museum and the Covent Garden Opera House.

During the Victorian period London was one of the most important centers of the Industrial Revolution and the centre of the British Empire.

Today London is a great political centre, a great commercial centre, a paradise for theatre-goers and tourists, but it also a very quiet place with its parks and its ancient buildings, museums and libraries.

Washington

The beautiful city of Washington D.C. is the capital of the United States and the centre of its government. The capital was named after the first president George Washington and as founded in 1790. It is situated on the Potomac River in the District of Columbia. Washington is not the largest city in the USA. It has a popular only 900 000.

Washington D.C. has nothing characteristically American in it, as its conceptions is purely French. It has long wide avenues, gardens, beautiful parks and skyscrapers at all.

Washington is the residence of the President and the Congress of the USA. The White House is the Presidents’ residence, the Capitol – the seat of the American Congress. The largest and the tallest among the building is the Capitol with its great House of Representatives and Senate Chamber. There are no skyscrapers, because no other building must be taller than the Capitol. All American presidents except George Washington have lived in the White House. It was built in 1799.

Washington is a large scientific and cultural centre, where there are many research institutes, five universities, the National Academy of Science and the Library of Congress.

There is one more well-known building in Washington – Pentagon, the residence of the US Military department. It is situated in the suburbs to the south of the Potomac.

Traditions and customs

Every nation and every country has its own customs and traditions. In Britain tradition plat a more important part in the life of the people. Englishmen are proud of their traditions and carefully keep them up.

Many traditions are associated with sovereign, such as the Changing of the Guard at Buckingham Palace, Trooping the Color, the State Opening of Parliament.

You can also go into the House of Lords and see one more tradition. The Lord Chancellor uncomfortably seats on the edge of the enormous woolsacks.

It is well-known that Britain has been famous for its wool for centuries.

The English are known to be rather conservative. To this day an English family prefers a house with a fireplace and a garden to a flat in a modern house with central heating. Most English love gardens. The love flowers very much.

The English people like animals very much, too. Pet dogs, cats, horses, ducks, chickens, canaries and other friends of man have a much better life in Britain than anywhere else. In Britain they have special doh shops selling food, clothes and other things for dogs. In recent years the English began to show love for more “exotic” animals such as crocodiles, elephants, tigers, cobras, camels.

A new tradition has been born in Britain. Every year a large Number of ancient motorcars drive from London to Brighton, I some of these veteran cars look very funny.

In Britain there are thousands of old customs and traditions and many of them seem strange.

New York

New York is a city where all the languages of the world are spoken and where people live on the ground, travel under the ground and work in the sky.

New York makes a great impression on all visitors because of its many high buildings, its theatres, museums and hotels, its beautiful bridges, and its expensive shops with their fabulous prices.

New York is the largest city in the United States. Today there are more people living in the New York City than in Australia, Peru or Sweden.

For transportation New York depends mainly on buses, the subway, taxis and ferries. The buses are slow because of the crowded streets, whereas the subway train can go as fast as railroad trains, sometimes stopping only at the most important stations. We may go all day by the subway for the same fare, if we only change trains but do not go out of the stations.

New York moves vertically as well horizontally, taking its people by elevator to their offices on the fortieth, sixtieth and eightieth floor.

New York is the richest and the poorest, the most modern and the most old-fashioned of cities. It is the home of expensive hotels and cheap boarding houses, the home of symphonies and popular jazz, of cathedrals and night clubs: the home of the famous Metropolitan Opera and the Metropolitan Museum of Art: the home of most of the largest publishing houses of the United States and the biggest newspapers. On the Fifth Avenue there are many expensive stores of international fame, but around the corner one may find little shops where imitation diamonds and cheap souvenirs are sold.

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