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The United States of America
is the fourth largest country in the world, after Russia, Canada and China. It occupies the southern part of North America, and includes Alaska.
The USA is made up of 50 states, and the District of Columbia, a special federal area where the capitol of the country is situated.
If we look at the map of the USA, we can see lowlands and mountains. The highest mountains are the Rocky Mountains and the Sierra Nevada. The highest peak is Mount McKinley which is located in Alaska. The United States is a land of rivers and lakes. The largest and deepest lakes in the USA are the five Great Lakes on the border with Canada. America’s largest rivers are the Mississippi, the Missouri, the Rio Grande and the Columbia. The Mississippi is the word’s third longest river after the Nile and the Amazon. The climate of the country varies greatly. The climate of Alaska is arctic. The climate of the central part is continental. The south has subtropical climate.
The history of the country is rather long. Christopher Columbus sailed from Spain across the Atlantic Ocean. Instead of reaching India as he had expected he landed on an island off a continent unknown to Europeans, but he thought that he was in India.
In the southern states white farmers used black slaves to work on their huge plantations. When slavery was stopped in the North the southern states left the Union and formed the Confederacy. Civil war between the North and the South started. The Union won and the slavery was abolished all over the USA.
Nowadays, the USA is highly developed industrial country.
There are many important cities in the USA, for example New York, one of the largest cities in the world, a great seaport and financial center, Chicago near the Great Lakes, one of the biggest industrial cities in the USA, and the second largest after New York. Boston is one of the first cities which were built on the Atlantic coast of America. Now it is a big cultural centre with three universities. Los Angeles is a centre of modern industries and show business. Other big and important cities of the USA are Philadelphia, Dallas, San Francisco, Detroit, Washington and so on.
Washington
D.C.
is the capitol of US. It is situated in the District of Columbia and is like no other city in America. it’s the world’s largest one-industry city. And that industry is government. The White House, where the US president lives and works, the Capitol, the home of the US congress, and the Supreme Court, are all in Washington. The city was so named in memory of George Washington, the first president of the USA, known for the active participation in the war with Britain. A special district was created for the city – the District of Columbia. The city was laid out according to be a capitol. Washington is one of the most magnificent and unusual cities in the USA. In the centre of it rises the huge dome of the Capitol
– a big white dome standing in a circle of pillars. It’s rather easy to get lost in this huge building, full of paintings and statues.
Not far from the Capitol is the library of Congress
, the largest in US. It contains more than 13 million books, more than 19 million manuscripts, including the personal papers of the American presidents.
The official residence of the USA president is White House. It has 132 rooms, among them the Oval Office where the president works. The White House used to be a president residence since it first occupied by President John Adams in 1800.
One can hardly find a park, a square or an open area in Washington without a monument or a memorial, the Jefferson Memorial
was built in honor of Thomas Jefferson, the author of the Declaration of Independence and the third president of the USA. Inside his statue, and his writings are inscribed on the walls. The Lincoln Memorial
reminds everybody of Abraham Lincoln, the sixteenth American president who’s noted for the slavery destruction. There’s a statue of Abraham Lincoln inside the memorial. At the National Air and Space Museum
visitors can see the history of flight from the first airplane to the Apollo spaceship. The National Gallery of Art
, a large museum of painting, sculpture and other arts is also situated in the capitol.
From the beginning of the twentieth century the USA became the world’s leading country. Thousands of tourists visit Washington every day. People from all parts of the US come to see their capitol, and also people all over the world. Washington greets tourists with the Cherry Blossom festival every spring. The pink and white blossoms of the Japanese cherry these near the Washington Monument create a magnificent delicate picture, and you are to visit Washington just to see it, and then all beauties of other cities will seem to you gloomy.
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