SUMMARY. 1. The United States of America is a federal republic on the continent of North America

1. The United States of America is a federal republic on the continent of North America. It has an area of 9,826,630 sq km and is the third largest country in the world after Russia and Canada.

2. The U.S.A. consists of 50 states and is divided into three distinct sections: the continental United States, Alaska, which is physically connected only to Canada, and the archipelago of Hawaii in the central Pacific Ocean. 48 states are contiguous and form the continental U.S. Their names are: Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin, Wyoming.

3. Washington, D.C. is the capital city and administrative district of the U.S.A. The population of the District of Columbia is more than 5 mln people.

4. The largest cities of the United States are New York City, Los Angeles, and Chicago.

5. The continental U.S. comprises eight distinct physiographic regions, they are the: Laurentian Highlands; Atlantic Plain; Appalachian Highlands; Interior Plains; Interior Highlands; Rocky Mountain System; Intermontane Plateaus; Pacific Mountain System.

6. Two enormous drainage systems dominate the U.S. landscape: the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence River and the Mississippi-Missouri rivers drainage areas.

7. The continental U.S. is subdivided into six major cultural regions groups. Those regions are: New England, Mid-Atlantic, South, Midwest, Southwest and Western states.

8. Geographers traditionally divided the 48 contiguous states of the United States into two broad patterns of continental climate: the humid East and the arid West.

9. The United States has substantial mineral deposits within its borders. It leads the world in the production of phosphate, an important ingredient in fertilizers, and ranks second in gold, silver, copper, lead, natural gas, and coal. Petroleum production is now the first in the world, surpassing Russia and Saudi Arabia.

10. As the U.S. economy developed, the nation’s natural environment changed. Environmental contamination in industrialized countries such as the United States can affect life conditions around the world.

11. Today, U.S. regional identities are not as clear as they once were, its regions converge gradually. Regional differences also make themselves felt in less tangible ways, such as attitudes and outlooks.

12. Each of the country’s four main regions — the Northeast, the South, the West, and the Midwest and Southwest treated together — maintains a degree of cultural identity. People within a region generally share common values, economic concerns, and a certain relationship to the land, and they usually identify to some extent with the history and traditions of their region.

13. The Northeast, comprising New England and the Mid-Atlantic states, has traditionally been at the helm of the nation’s economic and social progress.

14. The South is perhaps the most distinctive, colorful, and ‘native’ American region.

15. The West is a region of scenic beauty on a grand scale. It is marked by cultural diversity and competing interests. Westerners are united in their long-standing hostility toward Washington and Eastern federal bureaucrats.

16. The Midwest has long been regarded as typically American. The fertile farmland and abundant resources have allowed agriculture and industry to thrive and strengthen the Midwesterners’ conviction that people can make something of themselves if they seize opportunities.

17. The Southwest differs from the adjoining Midwest in weather (drier), population (less dense), and ethnicity (strong Spanish-American and Native-American components).

18. The Northeast, the South, the West, and the Midwest are becoming more alike due to the homogenizing influence of mass media and regional convergence towards national socioeconomic norms.

19. Nowadays, the Sunbelt is opposed to the Frostbelt.

20. The frontier is in the hearts and minds of Americans. It is not a fixed place but a moving zone, as well as a state of mind: the border between settlements and wilderness.

Дата добавления: 2014-11-16