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THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

The USA is one of the largest countries in the world. It is situated in the central part of the North American continent. The area of the USA is over nine million square kilometers. It stretches from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, from Canada in the north, to Mexico in the south. The most northern part of the USA is Alaska, the largest state, separated from the rest of the country by Canada.

The population of the United States is about 300 million people, most of the people live in cities. People of different nationalities live in the USA. The official language of the country is English.

The continental part of the USA consists of four physical geographical parts: two highlands and two lowland regions. The highland regions are the Appalachian Mountains in the east, and the Cordillera and the Rocky Mountains in the west. Between the Rocky Mountains and the Appalachian Mountains there are the central lowlands, called the prairie, and the eastern lowlands, called the Mississippi valley. The five Great Lakes, between the USA and Canada include Lake Superior, Lake Michigan, Lake Huron, Lake Erie and Lake Ontario.

As the USA is a large country, the climate is different in different regions. For example, the Pacific coast is a region of mild winters and warm, dry summers, but the eastern continental region is watered with rainfall. The region around the Great Lakes has changeable weather.

There are many mountains in the USA. For example, the highest peaks of the Cordillera in the USA are 6,193 and 4,418 meters. The main river of the country is the Mississippi. But there are many other great rivers in the USA: the Colorado in the south and the Columbia in the northwest.

There are many big cities in the country. They are Washington (the capital of the country), New York (the city of contrasts, financial and business centre of the USA), Boston (there are many colleges and universities in it), Chicago (one of the biggest industrial cities in the USA), San Francisco, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Detroit (one of the biggest centers of the automobile industry) and others.

The USA has an Academy of Sciences. There are many scientific institutions, museums, libraries, theatres and other interesting places in the country.

The USA is a highly developed industrial country. The USA is rich in natural and mineral resources such as aluminum, salt, zinc, copper, coal, natural gas, gold, silver and others. Such industries as machine-building, shipbuilding are highly developed in the country.

American agriculture produces a lot of food products: grain, fruit, vegetables and others. The USA produces more than 50 per cent of the world's corn, wheat, cotton and tobacco.

The USA has a federalist system. This means that there are individual fifty states, each of these states has its own government, and there is a federal, or national, government. Within the national government, power is divided among three branches: legislative, executive and judicial. The legislative branch is exercised by Congress, which has two chambers: the House of Representatives and the Senate.

The president of the country is the head of the executive branch. He is elected for four years.

The capital of the country is Washington. It was named in honor of the first President, George Washington.

Exercise 4. Answer the following comprehension questions.

1. Where is the USA situated?

2. What territory does the USA occupy?

3. What is the population of the USA?

4. What is the capital of the USA?

5. What does the continental part of the USA consist of?

6. Where do the five Great Lakes lie?

7. What climate does the USA have?

8. What are the mountains of the USA?

9. What are the main rivers in the USA?

10. What are the biggest cities of the USA?

11. What are the natural and mineral resources of the country?

12. What branches of industry are mostly developed in the USA?

13. What do the farmers produce in the USA?

14. What is the political system of the USA?

Exercise 5. Read the following statements and say if they are true or false.

Use the following expressions:

- You are quite right… - I am afraid, you are wrong…

- I think so too… - Sorry, but you are mistaken…

- I fully agree with…. - I can’t agree…

- Exactly… - On the contrary…

- That’s right… - I think you are not right…

1. The USA is not a large country.
2. The USA occupies the whole continent of North America.
3. The continental part of the USA is divided into two parts.
4. The Five Great Lakes lie in the north of the country.
5. The climate of the USA is diverse.
6. The mountains are not so high in the USA.
7. There are many rivers in the USA.
8. There are few big cities in the USA.
9. The USA is not so rich in natural and mineral resources.
10. Industry of the USA is highly developed, it has many branches.
11. Farmers of the USA produce not so many products.
12. The USA has a federalist system.

Exercise 6. Make up the plan of the text, dividing it into logical parts and entitling each of them.

Exercise 7. Retell the text according to your plan.

Exercise 8. Read the text and answer the questions:

How many stripes are there on the American flag?

What do you think the stars stand for?

“The Stars and the Stripes”

The “Stars and the Stripes” is the popular name for the flag of the United States. Every country has its own flag. In 1776, the 13 colonies declared their independence. The USA was born. George Washington was the general of the American Army.

There is a story that he asked Betsy Ross to make the flag. She used 3 colors: red, white, blue. The color red was for courage, white was for liberty, blue was for justice. She sewed 13 red and white stripes and 13 white stars in a circle on a blue square. The 13 stars and stripes stood for the number of states at the beginning of the United States. On June 14, 1777, Congress voted this flag to be the national one.

Later, new states joined the United States. This was the problem for the flag. In 1818, Congress made another law about the flag. The 13 stripes stayed the same, but for each new state there was a new star. Today, there are fifty stars on the flag. Hawaii was the last star in 1959.

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