Text "The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland"
материал по английскому языку (11 класс) по теме

The United States of America

   The USA is situated in the central part of the north American continent. Its western coast is washed by the Pacific Ocean and its eastern coast by the Atlantic Ocean. The area of the USA is over nine million square kilometers. The continental part of the USA consist of two highland regions and two lowland regions. The highland regions are the Appalachian Mountains in the east, and the Cordillera in the west. The highest peak in the Appalachian Mountains is 2,037 meters high. The highest peak of the Cordillera in the USA is 4,418 meters. Between the Cordillera and the Appalachian Mountains are the central lowlands, which are called the prairie, and the eastern lowlands, called the Mississippi valley. The main rivers of the USA are the Mississippi, which flows into the Gulf of Mexico, the Colorado and the Columbia, which flow into the Pacific Ocean, the Saint Lawrence River and the Hudson River, which flows into the Atlantic Ocean. The USA is very large country, so it has several different climatic regions. The coldest regions are in the north and north-east where much snow falls in winter. 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 region around the Great Lakes is known for its changeable weather. The population of the USA is more than 236 million people. Besides the people from Mexico, Indians and the South American countries, there are also people who have come to the USA from Europe and Asia. The capital of the USA is Washington in the district of Columbia (D.C.). The American capital has many famous monuments on its streets and squares. One of them is the Abraham Lincoln memorial. New York is the largest city and port in the USA. It is the financial and business center of the capitalist world. New York is a city of social contrasts. Boston is one of the first towns which were built on the Atlantic coast of America. It is an important port and a financial and cultural center. It has three universities. Chicago is one of the biggest industrial cities in the USA and the second largest after New York. Philadelphia, near the east coast, produces agricultural machines and locomotives. Light industry is highly developed here. Philadelphia is an important cultural center with many fine buildings and a university. Detroit, in the Great Lakes region, is a port and one of the biggest centers of the automobile industry. San Francisco, on the Pacific coast, is a big port and ship-building center. Los Angeles, in California, is an important center of many modern industries. Not far from Los Angeles is Hollywood, the center of the US film business. The USA is a highly developed industrial country, and its agriculture is highly mechanized. Coal is found in many parts of the country: in the Cordillera Mountains, in the state of Kansas, in the east near Birmingham and Pittsburgh. The state of Illinois is especially rich in coal. Iron is mined near the Great Lakes and in other areas. The USA has rich oil in California, Texas, Alaska and other regions. The heavy industries are for the most part in the Middle West, in the region of the Great Lakes, around Detroit and Chicago, in the north-eastern states and near Birmingham. The automobile industry and all kinds of machine-building are highly developed especially in and near Detroit, in California and in the areas of heavy industry. Ship-building is developed along the Atlantic coast and also in San Francisco and Seattle on the Pacific coast. The USA is a federal republic consisting of fifty states, each of which has its own government. The present constitution was proclaimed in 1787 in Philadelphia. The president, elected for four years, is head of the state and the government, and chooses the ministers. Congress consists of two houses, the House of Representatives and the Senate. Elections to the House of Representatives take place every two years. The House has 435 men. There are 100 senators(two from each state). They are elected to serve for a period of six years, but every two years elections to the Senate take place when one third of its men may be changed oAr re-elected. Election day is always in the month of November, on the first Tuesday after the first Monday. Americans who are not yet 25 years old have no rights to be elected to the House of Representatives, and those who are under 30 cannot be elected to the Senate. In the USA there are two main political parties, the Democratic Party and the Republican Party. The Democratic Party the older of the two, its history began back in the 1820s. The Republican Party was organized in the 1850s. The Republicans and Democrats defend the interests of monopoly capital and international politics.