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