Geographical position

After its 200th birthday the USA (“Land of opportunity”, “Melting Pot”, “God′s Country”) still holds the leading position in the western world. America still has its economic, political and military dominance over other countries.

The first people to live in North America came from Asia between 10,000 and 30,000 years ago. At that time North America and Asia were connected by a land bridge. Eventually North America became populated by many different tribes of people. By the time when in 1492 the New World was discovered by Columbus there were 900 thousand Indians living there.

The USA is situated in North America between 2 oceans: the Atlantic Ocean to the East and the Pacific Ocean to the West. The USA borders on Canada in the north and Mexico in the south. The total area is about 9,363,000 sq. km. which makes it the forth largest state in the world.

The USA consists of 50 states and the District of Columbia where the capital of the country, Washington, is situated. The states are Alabama, Alaska (“The Last Frontier”//последняя граница), Arkansas (“The Land of Opportunity”), California (“The Golden State”), Colorado, Florida (“The Sunshine State”), Hawaii (“The Aloha State”//гостеприимный штат), Indiana (“The Hoosier State” //штат-мужлан), Connecticut (“The Nutmeg State” //штат мускатного ореха), Delaware (“The Diamond State”), Georgia (“The Peach State”), Kentucky (“The Bluegrass State”), Montana (“The Treasure State”), New York (“The Empire State”), South Dakota (“The Coyote State”), Washington (“The Evergreen State”), etc.

Alaska (1,530,700 sq. km.) is America′s largest state. In 1959 Alaska became the 49^th state of the USA. It is called “the land of icebergs and polar bears”.

The population of the USA is 281, 4 million people (2000). The number of original Indians is 850 thousand people. Non-white persons are about 12% of the total. 75% of the population lives in big cities. The most populated cities are New York (8 million people) and Los Angeles (3,7million). The USA is often called “a melting pot” //котел, в котором переплавляются нации where economic and social pressures have forced non-speaking immigrants to drop their native tongue and habits. People of different nationalities live and work there: Frenchmen, Italians, Puerto Ricans, Jews, Swedes, Poles, Germans, Ukrainians, Russians, Chinese, Japanese, etc.

Half the territory of the USA is mountainous with the Appalachian Highland in the east and the Cordilleran Highland (including the Rocky Mountains and the Sierra Nevada) in the west. Between them there are vast valleys known as the Great Valley.

America′s largest rivers are the Mississippi (“father of waters”) with its tributary Missouri (6,4000 km), the Rio Grande (a natural boundary between Mexico and the USA), the Ohio, the Columbia and the Colorado (“a river of enormous fury ” – wild, restless and angry).

The USA is famous for its 5 Great Lakes: Lake Erie, Lake Ontario, Lake Huron, Lake Superior and the Michigan. The first four lakes are on the border with Canada and are the largest and deepest in the USA. There are also a lot of small lakes. For example, Minnesota is known as the land of 10,000 lakes.

The USA has several climatic regions: from the continental climate in New England to subtropical in Texas, Louisiana, Alabama, and Florida. The weather ranges from the warm, wet conditions of the Appalachian Highland to the desert conditions of the western states.

The USA is rich in mineral resources. It has major deposits of oil and gas in Texas and Alaska, coal in Virginia and Ohio, gold in Alaska and California, silver in Nevada, non-ferrous metals in Arkansas and Colorado.

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