The United States Of
America
Skylor Ou Yang
Location
-The United States of America (U.S.) is located south of Canada and
North of Mexico, right between the North Pacific Ocean and the
North Atlantic Ocean .
-It consists the total area of 3,794,101 square miles, which 6.76% is
covered by water.
States in the U.S.
There are 50 states in the U.S.
They are: Alabama, Alaska,
Arizona, Arkansas, California,
Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware,
Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho,
Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas,
Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine,
Maryland, Massachusetts,
Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi,
Missouri, Montana, Nebraska,
Nevada, New Hampshire, New
Jersey, New Mexico, New York,
Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon,
Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South
and North Carolina, South and
North Dakota, Tennessee, Texas,
Utah, Vermont, Virginia,
Washington, West Virginia,
Wisconsin and Wyoming.
Government
The federal government of the United States is the national
government of the constitutional republic of fifty states that is
the United States of America. The federal government comprises
three distinct branches of government: a legislative, an executive
and a judiciary. These branches and their various powers are
delineated in the U.S. Constitution; the powers are specified in
greater detail in laws enacted by Congress.
The seat of government of the United States is in Washington, D.C.,
a geographical area that is not located within any state. This has
led to "Washington" commonly being used as a metonym for the
U.S. federal government.
Physical Features
Rivers:
- Mississippi River
Mountains:
-Rocky Mtns.
-Appalachian Mtns.
5 Great lakes:
-Lake Michigan
-Lake Superior
-Lake Ontario
-Lake Huron
-Lake Erie
The Great Salt Lake
The Great Salt Lake is the largest
U.S. lake located west of the
Mississippi River. Located in Salt
Lake City, the Great Salt Lake is
also the 4th largest terminal lake in
the world.
The Great Salt Lake has no fish. The
largest aquatic critters in the Great
Salt Lake of Utah are brine shrimp
and brine flies. The Great Salt Lake
of Utah has also earned its
reputation as one of the largest
migratory bird magnets in Western
North America. A Chilean Flamingo
by the name of Pink Floyd spends his
winters on the Great Salt lake of
Utah. He enjoys hanging out with the
gulls and swans, and dining on the
brine shrimp
Races
Whites
Native American
African American
Hispanic
Languages
The main language spoken in the U.S. is
American English. There are also languages
commonly spoken such as Spanish, German.
The native Americans has their own language
as well.
Appearance
The dressing style for Americans is
known for casual and comfort. Cloth
shops such as Forever 21, Aeropostale,
American Eagle and A&F, etc. The
average price of clothes in the U.S. are
usually cheaper comparing to clothes in
Europe and other Asian countries.
Education
Education in the United States is provided mainly by government,
with control and funding coming from three levels: federal, state,
and local. School attendance is mandatory and nearly universal at the
elementary and high school levels (often known outside the United
States as the primary and secondary levels).
Students have the options of having their education
held in public schools, private schools, or home school.
In most public and private schools, education is divided
into three levels: elementary school, junior high school
(also often called middle school), and high school. In
almost all schools at these levels, children are divided
by age groups into grades. Post-secondary education,
better known as "college" or "university" in the United
States, is generally governed separately from the
elementary and high school system.
Architecture
Federal Style- Massachussets
State House
Neo-Gothic Style- Woolworth
Building
Houses in Utah
Unlike Shanghai and the
other cities in Asia, most
people in Utah live in
condos. Condos normally
include a garage, a
basement, several rooms,
a front yard and a
backyard. Condos are
normally low, with 2 floors
and a basement. People
also put trampolines in the
backyard.
Climate
The United States includes a wide
variety of climate types due to its
large size, range of geographic
features, and non-contiguous
arrangement. In the contiguous
United States 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. The Great
Plains west of the 100th meridian
are semi-arid. Much of the Rocky
Mountains, the Sierra Nevada, and
the Cascade Range are alpine. The
climate is arid in the Great Basin,
desert in the
Southwest, Mediterranean in coast
al California, and oceanic in
coastal Oregon and Washington.
Climate of Utah
•
The climate of Utah is generally semiarid
to arid. Temperatures are favorable
along the Wasatch Front, where there
are relatively mild winters. At Salt Lake
City, the normal daily mean temperature
is 52°F (11°C), ranging from 28°F (–2°C)
in January to 78°F (26°C) in July. The
record high temperature, 117°F (47°C),
was set at St. George on 5 July 1985; the
record low temperature, –69°F (–56°C),
in Peter's Sink, on 1 February 1985. The
average annual precipitation varies from
less than 5 in (12.7 cm) in the west to
over 40 in (102 cm) in the mountains,
with Salt Lake City receiving 16.5 in (42
cm) per year during the period (1971–
2000). The annual snowfall is about 59
in (150 cm) and remains on the higher
mountains until late summer.
Summer vs. Winter in Utah
Influences on Human
Because of the physical features and climate of
Utah, people living in Utah enjoy doing sports.
People go hiking and camping on the mountains
throughout the year. People also enjoy skiing
down the mountain. There are also people who
would enter the desert and try to survive there.
Human Interaction- Cars
Under the influence of cars as a big
transportation, a useful invention- Drive Thrus
– appeared in fast food restaurants. Drive
Thrus allow drivers to purchase and pick up
food without the hassle of having to get outside
the car.
Technology
• 1784-Bifocals
Bifocals are eyeglasses whose corrective lenses contain
regions with two distinct optical powers. Benjamin
Franklin is credited with the invention of the first pair of
bifocals in the early 1760s, though according to
the Library Company of Philadelphia, the first indication
of Dr. Franklin wearing his double spectacles comes
from a political cartoon printed in 1764. Many
publications from that period onward refer to Dr.
Franklin's double spectacles, including his first
reference to them in a letter written in Paris, France on
August 21, 1784 that was addressed to his personal
friend, English philanthropist George Whatley.
1796-Cupcakes
A cupcake, fairy cake, patty cake or
cup cake is a small cake designed to
serve one person, frequently baked in a
small, thin paper or aluminum cup. As
with larger cakes, frosting and other
cake decorations, such as sprinkles, are
common on cupcakes. The earliest
reference of cupcakes can be traced as
far back as 1796, when a recipe
notation of "a cake to be baked in small
cups" was written in American
Cookery by Amelia Simms. However,
the first mentioning of the
term cupcake was in “Seventy-five
Receipts for Pastry, Cakes, and
Sweetmeats” in 1828 in Eliza
Leslie's Receipts cookbook.
1853-Potato Chips
Potato chips, also known as crisps in
British English, are thin slices of potato
that are deep fried or baked until crispy.
Potato chips serve as an appetizer, side
dish, or snack. The basic chips are
cooked and salted, and additional
varieties are manufactured using various
flavorings and ingredients including
seasonings, herbs, spices, cheeses, and
artificial additives. The original potato
chip recipe was invented by chef George
Crum at Moon's Lake House near
Saratoga Springs, New York, on August
24, 1853. Soon after potato chips are
invented, it attracted a great amount of
children and adults. It is now the most
popular snack throughout the U.S.
1861-Jelly Beans
Jelly beans are a small bean-shaped type of
confectionery with a hard candy shell and a
gummy interior which come in a wide variety of
flavors. The confection is primarily made of
sugar. The Turkish Delight, a Middle Eastern
candy made of soft jelly, covered in
confectioner's powder, with roots dating to
biblical days, was an early precursor to the jelly
bean that inspired its gummy interior. However
it is generally thought that jelly beans first
surfaced in 1861 when Boston confectioner and
inventor William Schrafft urged people to send
his jelly beans to soldiers during the American
Civil War. It is now one of the kids’ favorites .
1898- Candy Corn
Candy corn is a confection in the United
States and Canada, popular primarily in
autumn around Halloween, that mimics the
shape and coloration of corn kernels—a
broad yellow end, a tapered orange center,
and a pointed white tip. Candy corn is
made primarily from sugar, corn syrup,
artificial coloring and binders. It is generally
thought that George Renninger, an
employee of the Wunderlee Candy
Company, invented candy corn in the
1880s. However, the earliest references
credit the Goelitz Confectionery Company,
now known as the Jelly Belly Candy
Company, for introducing candy corn or
"chicken feed" to the American public in
1898.
1908- Candy Apples
Candy apples, also known as toffee apples outside of North
America, are whole apples covered in a hard sugar candy
coating. While the topping varies from place to place, they are
almost always served with a wooden stick of sorts in the middle
making them easier to eat. Toffee apples are a common treat at
autumn festivals in Western culture in the Northern Hemisphere,
such as Halloween and Guy Fawkes Night because these festivals
fall in the wake of the annual apple harvest. Dipping fruits into a
sugar syrup is an ancient tradition. However, the origin of the
red candy apple is attributed to Newark, New Jersey candymaker
who conceived the idea of dipping apples into a red cinnamon
candy mixture he had on hand. In addition, dipping apples in
hot caramel a 1950s American invention attributed to Kraft
salesman Dan Walker.
1914-Fortune Cookie
A fortune cookie is a crisp cookie usually made from
flour, sugar, vanilla, and oil with a "fortune" wrapped
inside. A "fortune" is a piece of paper with words of faux
wisdom or a vague prophecy. In the United States, it is
usually served with Chinese food in Chinese restaurants
as a dessert. The message inside may also include a list
of lucky numbers and a Chinese phrase with translation.
Contrary to belief, the fortune cookie associated as a
Chinese invention is a fallacy. In 1914, the JapaneseAmerican named Makoto Hagiwara of the Japanese Tea
Garden in San Francisco, California introduced the
fortune cookie and is thus recognized as its inventor.
1924-Cheeseburger
A cheeseburger is a hamburger with cheese added to
it. Traditionally the cheese is placed on top of the patty,
but the burger can include many variations in structure,
ingredients, and composition. The term itself is a
portmanteau of the words "cheese" and "hamburger."
The cheese is usually sliced, and then added to the
cooking hamburger patty shortly before the patty
finishes cooking which allows the cheese to melt. Lionel
C. Sternberger is believed to have invented the “cheese
hamburger” in the 1920s in the Northeast portion of Los
Angeles County. It is now sold in every fast food
restaurant throughout the world.
1927-Corndogs
The corn dog, pogo, dagwood dog, pluto pup or
corny dog is a hot dog coated in cornbread batter
and deep fried in hot oil, although some are baked.
Almost all corn dogs are served on wooden sticks,
though some early versions were stickless.
Although a contending topic as numerous claims of
the origins of the corn dog have surfaced, the
earliest reference to what resembles a corn dog
appeared in U.S. patent 1,706,491 filed in 1927 by
Stanley S. Jenkins and issued in 1929.
1928-Bubble Gum
Bubblegum is a type of
chewing gum especially designed
for blowing bubbles. Bubblegum
was invented by Frank Henry
Fleer in 1906, but was not
successful; the formulation of
Fleer's "Blibber-Blubber," was
too sticky. In 1928, Walter E.
Diemer invented a superior
formulation for bubble gum,
which he called " Double
Bubble."
1930-Chocolate Chip Cookies
A chocolate chip cookie is a drop cookie
which features chocolate chips as its
distinguishing ingredient. The traditional recipe
combines a dough composed of butter and both
brown and white sugar with semi-sweet
chocolate chips. Ruth Wakefield of Whitman,
Massachusetts invented chocolate chips and
chocolate chip cookies in 1930. Her new cookie
invention was called the "Toll House Cookie"
which used used broken-up bars of semi-sweet
chocolate.
Uno (card game)
Uno is a card game played
with a specially printed deck.
Using colored playing cards,
he game involves playing the
legal card with the highest
point value. This is a simple
way to minimize points held in
the hand at the end of the
round, but fails to account for
the utility of holding wilds and
draw fours near the end of the
game.
Electric Guitar
An electric guitar is a guitar using
pickups to convert its metal string
vibration into electricity. This is
amplified with an instrument
amplifier. The output is altered with
guitar effects such as reverb or
distortion. The earliest electric
guitar, known as a "frying pan", was
a hollow bodied acoustic instrument
with tungsten steel pickups
invented by George
Beauchamp and Adolph
Rickenbacker in 1931. The electric
guitar was a key instrument in the
development of musical styles that
emerged since the late 1940s, such
as Chicago blues, early rock and
roll, rockabilly, and 1960s blues
rock. Electric guitars are used in
almost every popular music genre.
1887-Gramophone Records
A gramophone record, commonly
known as a record, or a vinyl record, is
an analog sound storage medium
consisting of a flat disc with an
inscribed, modulated spiral groove. The
groove usually starts near the
periphery and ends near the center of
the disc. Ever since Thomas Edison
invented the phonograph in 1877, it
produced distorted sound because of
gravity's pressure on the playing
stylus. In response, Emile
Berliner invented a new medium for
recording and listening to sound in
1887 in the form of a horizontal disc,
originally known as the "platter."
1887-Slot machine
A slot machine is a casino gambling machine. Due to
the vast number of possible wins with the original poke
card based game, it proved practically impossible to
come up with a way to make a machine capable of
making an automatic pay-out for all possible winning
combinations. The first "one-armed bandit" was
invented in 1887 by Charles Fey of San Francisco,
California who devised a simple automatic mechanism
with three spinning reels containing a total of five
symbols – horseshoes, diamonds, spades, hearts and a
Liberty Bell, which also gave the machine its name.
1902-Teddy Bear
A teddy bear is a stuffed toy bear. They
are usually stuffed with soft cotton and
have smooth and soft fur. It is an enduring
form of a stuffed animal that has become a
collector's item. The first teddy bear was
invented in 1902 by Morris Michtom, owner
of a Brooklyn toy store, who was inspired
by Clifford Berryman's political
cartoon Drawing the Line in
Mississippi that depicted
President Theodore "Teddy" Roosevelt on
a hunting trip in Mississippi who spared the
life of a Louisiana black bear cub. Michtom
asked for and received President
Roosevelt’s permission to use his name for
the hand-sewn bears called "Teddy bears"
that he invented and his wife helped
1832-Morse Code
Morse code is a type of character
encoding that transmits telegraphic
information using rhythm. Morse code
uses a standardized sequence of short and
long elements to represent the letters,
numerals, punctuation, and special
characters of a given message. After many
years of development, an electrical
telegraph came to exclusively refer to a
signaling telegram, as an operator makes
and breaks an electrical contact with a
telegraph key, resulting in an audible
signal at the other end produced by a
telegraph sounder which is interpreted
and transcribed by an operator.
Baseball
As the United States' de facto national
sport and pastime, baseball is a bat-and-ball
sport played between two teams of nine
players each. Many historians attribute
baseball's origins to the English sports
of stoolball and rounders as well as to the
18th and 19th century North American sports
of Old Cat and Town ball, all early precursors
to baseball. However, the bat-and-ball sports
played in the United States, Europe, or
elsewhere in the world prior to 1845 did not
resemble the standard of modern day rules as
to which baseball has continuously used ever
since the mid-19th century. In
1845, Alexander Cartwright wrote the official
and codified set of regulated rules of baseball
formally known as the Knickerbocker Rules.
Cartwright's original 14 rules were somewhat
similar to but not identical to rounders.
1869- American Football
American football, known in the United States simply as
football, is a spectator sport known for combining
strategy with competitive physical play. The objective of
the game is to score points by advancing the ball into
the opposing team's end zone. The ball can be advanced
by carrying it (a running play) or by throwing it to a
teammate (a passing play). Points can be scored in a
variety of ways, including carrying the ball over the
opponent's goal line, catching a pass thrown over that
goal line, kicking the ball through the goal posts at the
opponent's end zone, or tackling an opposing ball carrier
within his end zone. The winner is the team with the
most points when the time expires.
1887-Softball
• As a bat-and-ball team sport, softball is
a variant of baseball. The difference
between the two sports is that softball
uses larger balls and requires a smaller
playing field. Beginning as an indoor
game in Chicago, softball was invented
in 1887 by George Hancock.
Racquetball
Racquetball is a racquet
sport played with a hollow rubber ball
in an indoor or outdoor court. Joe
Sobek is credited with inventing the
modern sport of racquetball in 1950
(the outdoor, one-wall game goes
back to at least 1910 in
N.Y.C.), adding a stringed racquet
to paddleball in order to increase
velocity and control. Unlike
most racquet sports, such
as tennis and badminton, there is no
net to hit the ball over, and
unlike squash no tin (out of bounds
area at the bottom of front wall) to
hit the ball above. Also, the court's
walls, floor, and ceiling are legal
playing surfaces, with the exception
of court-specific designated hinders
being out-of-bounds.
American Art
American art encompasses the history
of painting and visual art in the United States. In the late
eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, artists primarily
painted landscapes and portraits in a realistic style. A
parallel development taking shape in rural America was
the American craft movement, which began as a reaction to
the industrial revolution. Developments in modern art in
Europe came to America from exhibitions in New York City
such as the Armory Show in 1913. Previously American
Artists had based the majority of their work on Western
Painting and European Arts. After World War II, New York
replaced Paris as the center of the art world. Since then
many American Movements have shaped Modern and Post
Modern art. Art in the United States today covers a huge
range of styles.
Entertainment
During teenage years, teenagers (especially
boys) enjoy playing video games as their common
hobby. Video/ PSP/ X-box games such as Halo,
Call of Duty, Assassin’s creeds hold large
markets in the U.S. Friends would get together
on weekends and spend all night playing video
games.
Technology
The iPhone is a line of Internet and multimedia
enabled smartphones marketed by Apple
Inc. The first iPhone was unveiled by Steve Jobs,
then CEO of Apple, on January 9,
2007, and released on June 29,
2007.
Transportation- Ground
The transportation in
the U.S. is known for its
great amount of cars.
There are 250 million
registered cars in the
U.S, while there are 320
million people in the
U.S.
Transportation- Air
The Wright brothers, Wilbur and Orville
Wright of Dayton, Ohio, made the first powered
and sustained airplane flights under control of
the pilot in the Wright Flyer I on December 17,
1903 in Kitty Hawk, North Carolina.
The U.S. is a big country, therefore planes
are essential for travelers. U.S. has the most
frequent flyers among the world.
Media- Facebook
Facebook was created by a Harvard
undergraduate student in the U.S in 2004.
Nowadays it has become the most visited
website beside search engines. People post
statuses, images, videos and share things
they saw on website with whoever they
want on Facebook. Facebook created a way to
social online.
The creation of Google was a huge success.
With Google, people will no longer have to go
through databases on hard copies. All we need
to do is to type in the keyword, and then
Google will start looking for matches within a
very short period of time. You can search
databases, images, video, news, or even
receive and send mails with Google.
Religion
Affiliation
Percentage (%) of U.S.
population
Christian
78.5%
Evangelical Protestant
26.3%
Catholic
23.9%
Mainline Protestant
18.1%
Black Church
6.9%
Mormon
1.7%
Jehovah's Witness
0.7%
Eastern Orthodox
0.6%
Other Christian (e.g. Patriotic Christian)
0.3%
Unaffiliated
16.1%
Nothing in particular
12.1%
Agnostic
2.4%
Atheist
1.6%
Non-Christian religions
4.6%
Jewish
1.7%
Buddhist
0.7%
Muslim
0.6%
Hindu
0.4%
Other
1.2%
Don't know/refused answer
0.8%
• There are many
different religions in the
U.S.
• Most of the people are
Christians, while some
are unaffiliated, and
only few immigrants
belong to the NonChristian religions.
Regions
The U.S. is
commonly divided
into four regions:
The west region,
the Midwest region,
the Northeast
region, and the
South region.
Dialects
There are
four main
dialects in
the U.S,
Northern
dialect,
Southern
dialect,
Texan
dialect and
Western
dialect.
Self expressive values
The U.S. is quite a
diverse country. There are
many people there from
difference countries, with
different races, carrying
different cultures.
Therefore as a big society,
the U.S. consists a lot of
different cultures.