The United States of America
The USA is the most powerful and highly developed country of the world. It is situated in the central part of the North American continent. Its western coast is washed by the Pacific Ocean and its eastern coast is washed by the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico.
The USA is separated from Canada in the north by the 49th parallel and the Great Lakes, and from Mexico in the south by a line following the Rio Grande River and continuing across the highlands to the Pacific Ocean. The total area of the USA is over 9 million square kilometres.
The continental part of the USA consists of the highland regions and two lowland regions. The highland regions are the Appalachia mountains in the east and the Cordillera in the west.
Between the Cordillera and the Appalachian Mountains are the central lowlands which are called the prairie, and eastern lowlands called the Mississippi valley.
The principal rivers of the USA are the Mississippi, the longest river in the world (7,330 km) and the Hudson river. The climate of the USA differs greatly from one part of the country to another. The coldest climate is in the northern part, where there is heavy snow in winter and the temperature may go down to 40 degrees below zero. The south has a subtropical climate, with temperature as high as 49 degrees in summer.
The population of the United States of America is about 250 million people, who are called Americans. Most of the people live in towns and the population of the countryside is becoming smaller and smaller.
For many decades the USA has been the place where lots of people sought refuge from persecution for political or religious beliefs. That's why in America there are representatives of practically all racial and national groups. There are about 25 million Negroes in the country and a little over half a million Indians.
The capital of the USA is Washington. It is situated in the District of Columbia. Washington is a beautiful administrative city with practically no industry. The USA is a highly developed industrial state. Its agriculture is also highly mechanized. There are coal-mines in the Cordillera Mountains, in the Kansas City region. Iron is mined near the Great Lakes. The USA has rich oil-fields in California, Texas and some other regions. It occupies one of the first places among the countries of the world for production of coal, iron and oil.
The USA has a highly developed motor-ear industry. It would be no exaggeration to say that cars have become the symbol of American way of life. The vehicles produced at such companies as Ford and the General Motors are known world-wide. The motor-car industry is concentrated in and around Detroit. Ship-building is developed along the Atlantic coast and in San Francisco. The textile industry is to be found in the north-east and in the south of the country.
The USA has a highly developed railway system. It also has the best network of roads in the world. They are called highways.
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The USA is a federal country of 50 states and the District of Columbia. The political life of the country has always been dominated by the two major parties: the Democratic party and the Republican party. At an election time they contest presidency and the majority of seats in the Congress. The Congress is the highest legislative body of the country. It consists of two chambers the House of Representatives and the Senate. The President, elected by the whole nation for four years, is head of the state and the Government.
Nowadays USA
Nowadays USA is world's third-largest country by size (after Russia and Canada) and by population (after China and India). The total territory of the USA is 9,630,000 sq km. It is about half the size of Russia or lightly larger than China or Brazil. The USA has borders with Canada, Mexico and Russian Federation. The lowest point is Death Valley 86 m and the highest one is Mount McKinley 6,194 m.
By July 2002, the population of the USA was about 280,565,000. The largest US river is the Mississippi River.
It is a multicultural and multinational country. As to religion there are 56% of Protestants, 28% of Catholics and 2% of Jews. Ethnic groups include white 77%, black 13%, Asian 4.5%.
It is a federal republic with strong democratic traditions. The capital of the US is Washington, DC. The country includes 50 states and 1 district plus dependent areas as: Puerto Rico, Virgin Islands, American Samoa, Guam, etc.
Independence Day is celebrated on 4 July (from Great Britain). Constitution Day is 17 September, which was approved in 1787. The chief of state is President George W. Bush (since 20 January 2001) and Vice President Richard B. Cheney (since 20 January 2001).
There are three political parties in the USA. They are Democratic Party, Green Party and Republican Party. Do you know that among American people, the Democratic Party is associated with mother (mom) and Republican Party is associated with dad (father)? It is a very interesting fact. The currency of the USA is US dollar.
Education
The interplay of local, state, and national programs and policies is particularly evident in the field of education. Historically, education has been considered the province of the state and local governments.
Of the more than 3,000 colleges and universities, the academies of the armed services are among the few federal institutions. (The federal government also administers, among others, the College of the Virgin Islands.) For years, however, the federal government has been involved in education at all levels, beginning in 1862 with the grant of public lands to the states for the purpose of establishing colleges of agricultural and mechanical arts.
Additionally, the federal government supports school lunch programs, administers Indian education, makes research grants to universities, underwrites loans to college students, and finances education for veterans.
Whether the government should also give assistance to private and religious schools has been widely debated. The Supreme Court has ruled that direct assistance to religious schools is barred by the First Amendment to the Constitution, which states that "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion" although this has not been extended to the use of textbooks and so-called supplementary educational centres.
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Although responsibility for elementary education still rests primarily with local government, it is increasingly affected by state and national policies. The 1964 Civil Rights Act, for example, required federal agencies to discontinue financial aid to school districts that are not racially integrated.
Trends in education have been toward being more responsive to the needs of a complex society: preschool programs; classes in the community; summer and night schools; and increased facilities for exceptional children. Such programs, however, have been only partially successful.
Traditional American Food
Americans eat a lot. They have three meals a day: breakfast, lunch and dinner.
Most of Americans don't eat home but prefer to go to restaurants. They can choose from many kind of restaurants. There is a great number of ethnic restaurants in the United States. Italian, Chinese and Mexican food is very popular. An American institution is the fast food restaurant, which is very convenient but not very healthy.
However there are some principles of American cuisine (if we may call it so). Americans drink a lot of juices and soda, eat a lot of meat, fruits and vegetables, not much bread. In the morning Americans have cereal or scrambled eggs, milk or orange juice.
Chicken or fish, fried potatoes, vegetable salads, and desert: this is the most common menu for lunch. Dinner is probably the most important meal of the day, some people have family dinner, when all members of family have to be there.
For dinner Americans usually have meat, fried or baked potatoes with ketchup or sour cream, corn, peas, sometimes macaroni and cheese or spaghetti; ice-cream, fruit or cake may be for dessert.
Turkey, ham and apple pie are traditional for Christmas and Thanksgiving Day dinners.
The Constitution
The American Constitution is based on the doctrine of the separation of powers between the executive, legislative, and judiciary.
The respective government institutions the Presidency, Congress, and the Courts were given limited and specific powers; and a series of checks, whereby each branch of government has certain authority over the others to make sure these powers were not abused.
Government power was limited by means of a dual system of government, in which the federal government was only given the powers and responsibilities to deal with problems facing the nation as a whole (foreign affairs, trade, control of the army and navy, etc).
The remaining responsibilities and duties of government were reserved to the individual state governments.
Article V allowed for amendments to be made to the Constitution (once passed by a two-thirds majority in both houses of Congress and then ratified by the legislatures of three-fourths of the states).
The Constitution ratified by all thirteen states in 1791 already contained ten amendments, collectively known as the Bill of Rights (the freedoms of religion, speech, and the press, etc), to protect the citizens against possible tyranny by the federal government.
So far only twenty-six amendments have been made to the Constitution.
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