The Map of the USA

The United States of America (commonly referred to as the United States, the U.S., the USA, the States or America) is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district. The states differ very much in size, population and economic development. The flag of the USA is called “Stars and Stripes”. 50 stars=50 states; 13 stripes=13 original colonies.

The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its forty-eight contiguous states and Washington, D.C., the capital district, lie between the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans, bordered by Canada to the north and Mexico to the south. The largest state of Alaska is in the northwest of the continent, with Canada to its east and Russia to the west across the Bering Strait. The state of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific. The country also possesses several territories, or insular areas, scattered around the Caribbean and Pacific.

At 3.79 million square miles (9.83 million km²) and with more than 300 million people, the United States is the fourth largest country by total area.

The United States is one of the world's most ethnically diverse and multicultural nations, the product of large-scale immigration from many countries. These different people brought to their new land a wonderful mixture of customs and traditions. The Germans brought Christmas trees. The Irish brought St. Patrick’s celebrations, the Scots – Halloween.

The coastal plain of the Atlantic seaboard gives way further inland to deciduous forests and the rolling hills of the Piedmont. The Appalachian Mountains divide the eastern seaboard from the Great Lakes and the grasslands of the Midwest. The Great Lakes form the boundary between the USA and Canada. The largest of them is Lake Superior, which, as its name implies, is the highest above the sea level. Lake Michigan lies entirely on the US territory; to the east is Lake Huron, from the southern end of which the St. Clair River leads into Lake Erie. From Lake Erie the Niagara River

rushes over the famous Niagara Falls into Lake Ontario.

The Mississippi-Missouri River, the world's fourth longest river system, runs mainly north-south through the heart of the country. The flat, fertile prairie of the Great Plains stretches to the west, interrupted by a highland region in the southeast. The Rocky Mountains, at the western edge of the Great Plains, extend from the north to the south across the country, reaching altitudes higher than 14,000 feet (4,300 m) in Colorado. The Sierra Nevada and Cascade mountain ranges run close to the Pacific coast. At 20,320 feet (6,194 m), Alaska's Mount McKinley is the country's tallest peak. Active volcanoes are common throughout Alaska's Alexander and Aleutian Islands, and Hawaii consists of volcanic islands.

The U.S., with its large size and geographic variety, includes most climate types. To the east of the 100th meridian, the climate ranges from humid continental in the north to humid subtropical in the south. The southern tip of Florida is tropical, as is Hawaii. The Great Plains west of the 100th meridian are semi-arid. Much of the Western mountains are alpine. The climate is arid in the Great Basin, desert in the Southwest, Mediterranean in coastal California, and oceanic in coastal Oregon and Washington and southern Alaska. Most of Alaska is subarctic or polar. Extreme weather is not uncommon ‑ the states bordering the Gulf of Mexico are prone to hurricanes, and most of the world's tornadoes occur within the country, mainly in the Midwest's Tornado Alley.

The United States has a capitalist mixed economy, which is fueled by abundant natural resources, a well-developed infrastructure, and high productivity. According to the International Monetary Fund, the U.S. produces 25% world product. The U.S. is the largest importer of goods and third largest exporter. China, Mexico, Japan, and Germany are its top trading partners. The leading export commodity is electrical machinery, while vehicles constitute the leading import.

The U.S. is the third largest producer of oil in the world, as well as its largest importer. It is the world's number one producer of electrical and nuclear energy, as well as liquid natural gas, sulfur, phosphates, and salt. The U.S. is the world's top producer of corn and soybeans.

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 three 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), Hollywood (the centre of the US film business).

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