THE USA

1. THE USA Presentation subject: WORK: AKHMEDOVA SELIMAT FORM: 8 A

2. About the country The United States of America — the state in North America. The area - 9 518 900 km ² (the fourth place in the world across the territory). The population - more than 309 million people (the third place). The capital — the city of Washington. The United States border on Canada, Mexico, Russia. Are washed by the Pacific Ocean, the Atlantic Ocean. Administrative division: 50 states and the federal District of Columbia, also are under supervision of the USA a number of island territories. The USA were formed in 1776 at association of thirteen British colonies which declared the independence. Economy: now the world's largest ($14,2 trillion). The USA possess powerful armed forces, including the largest navy, take constant place in the UN Security Council, the founder state of North Atlantic alliance. The USA have the nuclear potential, the second for cumulative power, on Earth.

3. GEOGRAPHY The main territory of the USA (called continental states) is located on the North American continent and stretches from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the West. In the south of the USA border on Mexico, in the north — on Canada. Besides, 2 more staff are a part of the USA. In the extreme northwest of the continent there is the State of Alaska which is also adjoining on Canada. In the Pacific Ocean there is the State of Hawaii. The border with Russia passes through the Bering Strait. The USA also possess a number of islands in the Caribbean Sea (for example, Puerto Rico) and in the Pacific Ocean (American Samoa, Miduey, Guam, etc.). In the territory of the USA some large physiographic regions are allocated.

4. RELIEF In the east along the coast of the Atlantic Ocean the Appalachinsky mountain system was stretched. To the West and the South from it the surface is leveled, forming low areas on which the largest rivers of the USA flow. Further to the West the district passes into the extensive plains and prairies called the Great Plains which precede mountainous areas of the Cordilleras. Ridges occupy all western part of the country and quite sharply break to the coast of the Pacific Ocean. The most part of Alaska is occupied by the northern Cordilleras ridges. The Hawaiian archipelago is a series of volcanic islands up to 4205 m high.

5. Rivers and lakes The drain of the rivers from the territory of the USA is carried out to basins of three oceans — Silent, Atlantic and Arctic. The main watershed (between Silent and Atlantic oceans) passes across east part of the Cordilleras, and only the small part of the territory of northern states and Alaska belongs to the basin of the Arctic Ocean. The point of a meeting of three watersheds is located on the mountain of Tripl-Divayd-Pik. Security with water resources of different parts of the country is uneven — height of a layer of an annual drain in states Washington and Oregon makes 60 — 120 cm, and on internal plateaus and a plateau to 10 cm. Large lakes are located in the north of the country — the Great Lakes. Drainless salty lakes, smaller by the size, are in decreases of the Big Pool. Internal water resources are widely used in industrial and municipal water supply, an irrigation, hydropower and navigation. The most part of a river drain of the USA belongs to the basin of the Gulf of Mexico of the Atlantic Ocean. The largest river system is formed by the river Mississippi (length of 3757 km, an annual drain of 180 km ³) and its uncountable inflows, the largest of which — Missouri (length of 4127 km), Arkansas (2364 km) and Ohio (1579 km).

6. Great Lakes The drain of the rivers from the territory of the USA is carried out to basins of three oceans — Silent, Atlantic and Arctic. The main watershed (between Silent and Atlantic oceans) passes across east part of the Cordilleras, and only the small part of the territory of northern states and Alaska belongs to the basin of the Arctic Ocean. The point of a meeting of three watersheds is located on the mountain of Tripl-Divayd-Pik. Security with water resources of different parts of the country is uneven — height of a layer of an annual drain in states Washington and Oregon makes 60 — 120 cm, and on internal plateaus and a plateau to 10 cm. Large lakes are located in the north of the country — the Great Lakes. Drainless salty lakes, smaller by the size, are in decreases of the Big Pool. Internal water resources are widely used in industrial and municipal water supply, an irrigation, hydropower and navigation. The most part of a river drain of the USA belongs to the basin of the Gulf of Mexico of the Atlantic Ocean. The largest river system is formed by the river Mississippi (length of 3757 km, an annual drain of 180 km ³) and its uncountable inflows, the largest of which — Missouri (length of 4127 km), Arkansas (2364 km) and Ohio (1579 km). .

7. Niagara Falls Niagara Falls — the general name of three falls on the Niagara River separating the American state New York from the Canadian province of Ontario. The Niagara falls — it is the Horseshoe falls sometimes in addition called by the Canadian falls, the American falls and the Veil falls. Though the height difference is also not really great, falls are very wide, and on the volume of the water passing through it Niagara Falls — the most powerful in North America. Height of falls makes 53 meters. The bottom of the American falls covers a heap of stones, because of what its visible height — only 21 meters. Width of the American falls — 323 meter, the Horseshoe falls — 792 meters. The volume of the falling water reaches 5700 and more m ³ / page.

8. CLIMATE As the country is located in the big territory, in it practically all climatic zones are presented. The most part of the USA is located in a zone of a temperate climate, the subtropical climate to the south prevails, Hawaii and the southern part of Florida lie in a zone of tropics, and the North of Alaska belongs to polar regions. The Great Plains to the West from the 100th meridian carry to semi-deserts, the Big Pool and areas round it have arid, and coastal areas of California — the Mediterranean climate. The climate type in borders of one belt can significantly change depending on a relief, proximity of the ocean and other factors. The main component of climate of the USA is the high-rise jet current — the powerful streams of air bringing moisture from the North of the Pacific region. The winds sated with moisture from the Pacific Ocean actively irrigate the west bank of the USA. Frequent tornadoes are known feature of climate of North America, the USA overtakes any other country by quantity of tornadoes. Hurricanes often meet in the USA. East coast, the islands of Hawaii and especially southern states of the USA adjoining on the Gulf of Mexico are most subject to these elements.

9. FLOOR Slopes of the Cordilleras are covered with dense coniferous forests, the Appalachians — the woods from broad-leaved breeds; prairies almost didn't remain. In the north of Alaska the tundra vegetation is widespread. The woods cover about 30% of the territory of the country, vegetation of Alaska mainly tundra with mosses and lichens, however in the south of staff the coniferous and mixed woods grow. In the north "continental" part of the USA the dense mixed woods grow: fir-tree, pine, oak, ash-tree, birch, sikomor. Further to the south, the woods becomes less, however there are such plants as a magnolia and rubber-bearing plants, and on the coast of the Gulf of Mexico the mangrove woods grow. In the west of the country semi-droughty and droughty regions mainly with grass and desert vegetation begin. In such regions the yucca, various bushes, and in Mojave Desert - "the cactaceous woods" are most widespread. In higher places the pine and a ponderosa grow. In California it is very widespread чаппарель, and also numerous fruit trees (generally citrus). In Sierra-Nevada the woods of a huge sequoia grow. In the north of east coast there are coniferous and mixed woods: fir-tree, cedar, pine, larch.

10. FAUNA The fauna is presented also according to climatic zones: in the north it is a cape ground squirrel, a bear, a deer and an elk, in the rivers there is a lot of trout, on the coast of Alaska walruses and seals. The grizzly bear, a deer, a fox, a wolf, a skunk, a badger, a squirrel and a large number of small birds live in the woods of the East of the United States. On the coast of the Gulf of Mexico it is possible to meet such exotic birds as a pelican, a flamingo, a green halcyon. Here alligators and some types of venomous snakes are found. On the Great Plains tens of thousands of bisons lived in due time, however now them remained very little and, generally in national parks. In mountainous areas of the West of the USA it is possible to meet such large animals as an elk, a deer, вилорог, a mountain goat, a brown bear, a wolf, толсторог. Reptiles (among them a rattlesnake) and small mammals, for example, a sumchaty rat live in desert regions mainly.

11. MINERALS Subsoil of the USA is rich with stocks of various natural minerals, including — stone and brown coal, iron and manganese ore. The Cordilleras, the Colorado Plateau, the Great Plains and Gulf Coastal Plain possess fields of copper, zinc, lead, silver, chromite, vanadic, tungsten, molybdenic, titanic, polymetallic, uranium, mercury ores, gold, sulfur, phosphates and other chemical raw materials.

12. State system by the constitution are carried out by states of the USA. In the constitution of the USA the principle of division of the authorities is underlain: the federal government consists of the legislative, executive and judicial authorities operating independently from each other. The supreme body of legislature — the two-chamber Congress of the USA: the lower house — the House of Representatives; the upper house — the Senate. The supreme body of executive power — the U.S. President. The president — the head of state, the commander-in-chief of armed forces. There is the vice-president's post. The supreme body of judicial authority — the U.S. Supreme Court. The main political parties — republican and the democratic. There is a set of smaller parties.

13. Economy of the USA The largest economy of the world. It is a lot of natural resources, including energy and raw materials. Hi-tech production. Scientific researches are developed. The services sector, the competitive industry is well developed. The multinational companies like "Ford", "General Motors" and Exxon. Leading producer of the software. Good system of the higher education, especially in the field of high technologies. The American firms prosper thanks to a wide circulation of the American culture in the world. The world's largest exporter of goods. Political stability, qualified personnel. Recently there is a decrease in number of workplaces in industrial production. Globalization, leakage of workplaces to the countries with cheap labor (in 1945 nearly 50% of world production were the share of the USA; in the 1990th — 25%). Fierce competition in the field of technologies with the countries of East Asia and the European Union. The external debt exceeds 14 trillion US dollars.

14. SETLLING Indian tribes occupied the territory of the USA about 10 thousand years ago, and their descendants remained the prevailing ethnic component until the end of the XVII century. Modern inhabitants — descendants rather recent (the XVII—XX centuries) immigrants from Europe (mainly Western) and Africa. It should be noted that full authority only the children of immigrants who were born in the USA acquire to be called as Americans. In the country clear split into foreigners and natives between whom there is a considerable cultural and language distance remains. However, internal division is limited to this distinction. Americans of the USA — the diverse, heterogeneous nation with conflict racial structure. The evropeoidny race — natives of the United Kingdom, Germany, Ireland and other European countries is dominating in every respect and regions (except State of Hawaii) now. Further the Afro-Americans, Latin Americans, Asians, Indians and other of which over a third of the population is the share are allocated.

15. Languages of the USA The native language, most widespread in the USA — English. To them as the native language, 215,4 million people from 293 million Americans (73,5%) own. Spanish is native for 28 million residents of the USA (10,7%). Further follow: French (1 606 790), Chinese (1 499 635), German (1 382 615), Turkish (about 1 172 615), Tagalog (1 224 240), Vietnamese (1 009 625), Italian (1 008 370) and Korean (894 065). Russian holds the 11th place on number of carriers in the USA — over 700 thousand (0,24%). The largest number of the Russian-speaking lives in the State of New York (218 765 people, or 30,98% of all native speakers of Russian), the most smaller — in the State of Wyoming (170 people, or 0,02%). The highest specific weight of the Russian-speaking — on Alaska — about 3% in a varying degree understand Russian, and about 8,5% of inhabitants profess Orthodoxy. It is a consequence of former accessory of the territory of the state of Russia. In the State of Hawaii English and the Hawaiian language have the status of the official. Some island territories also provide official recognition to languages of aboriginals, along with English.

16. RElIGION December 15, 1791 proclaims separation of church from the state which was understood by founding fathers as a ban on establishment of the state religion, like that took place in Great Britain. According to the research conducted in 2002 by Pew Global Attitudes Project, the USA — only of the developed countries where most of the population was told that the religion plays "very important role" in their life. The American government doesn't conduct official statistics on religion. According to the World book of the facts of CIA for 2007, 51,3% of the population of the USA consider themselves as Protestants, 23,9% — Catholics, 12,1% don't belong to any faith, 1,7% — Mormons, 1,6% — members of other Christian faith, 1,7% — Jews, 0,7% — Buddhists, 0,6% — Muslims, 2,5% — another or aren't specified, 4% — atheists.

17. Administrative division The state consists of 50 states which are equal subjects of federation, the capital federal District of Columbia and dependent territories. Each staff has the constitution, the legislative, executive and judicial authorities. The majority of names of states come from names of Indian tribes and names of kings of England and France. The states share on districts — smaller administrative units, it is less than staff and not less than the city. In total 3 141 districts are. Powers of administration of districts and relationship with municipal authorities of the settlements located in their territory strongly differ from staff to staff. Local life of settlements municipalities operate. The special status for not incorporated territories is established.

18. Вашингтон Many cities applied for a role of the capital of the new state after the American revolution. Therefore in 1790 the decision to build the new city near the river Potomac was made. The capital called Washington in honor of the first president, George Washington. The first architect who planned and I designed the city, there was Frenchman Pierre Lanfan. Washington — the capital of the USA since 1800. Washington as the certain city was abolished as a result of administrative reform of 1873 therefore the capital of the USA officially carries the name District of Columbia. According to the Constitution of the USA and the Law on the residence, the District of Columbia has the special status as the capital of a federal state. The area — 0,2 thousand km ². Population: Within the federal district of 602 thousand inhabitants (2010). With suburbs (in states Maryland and Virginia) — 5,4 million inhabitants (2010).