The United States of America



The United States of America

Geography: The United States is situated in North America. It is surrounded by Canada to the north, Mexico and the Gulf of Mexico to the south, the Pacific Ocean to the west and the Atlantic Ocean to the east. It consists of 50 states – 48 between Canada and Mexico and two are outside this territory - Alaska in the north between Russia and Canada and Hawaii that is a group of islands in the Pacific Ocean. The USA is the third largest country in the world in size and also population (296 mil. people).

Capital: Washington D.C. was named after George Washington - the first US President, there are no factories, it is very clean city, no building can be higher than the Capitol (the seat of the Congress), there are no skyscrapers. The President’s residence is called The White House. Washington is the seat of the Federal Government. Many nation’s monuments (Lincoln Memorial, Washington Monument) and museums (The National Museum of Natural history) are located /lokeitid/ = nachází se here on The National Mall. Pentagon is the centre of military forces.

The National Mall is a large park area in the centre of the city.

The National Mall

with Washington

Monument

and

the Capitol

The Government: the president is the head of the state (Barack Obama) and with his Cabinet rules = řídí the country, there is no the prime minister in the USA (in European parliamentary democracies the head of Cabinet (that is the same as government) is the Prime Minister not the president. The president is elected every four years and can be elected twice. The Congress that consists =sestávat of the House of Representatives and Senate, makes the laws of the country. The two major political parties are the Democratic Party (Obama) and Republican Party.

The Capitol – seat of the Congress

White House

Flag: “The Star Spangled Banner” sometimes called “Stars and Stripes” has 50 stars, 1 for each state and 13 red and white stripes – represent 13 original states.

Currency: 1 US dollar ( = 100 cents), 1USD= about19crowns

Economy: the biggest in the world, rich in mineral resources: coal, copper, gold, iron, oil, petrol

agriculture: corn, soybeans, wheat, cotton, tobacco, fruit, vegetables

industries: car industry (The General Motors), electronics (Motorola), computers (Microsoft, Apple Macintosh, IBM, Intel), aeroplanes (Boeing), machinery (GE – 2nd largest company in the world), toys (Mattel)

Apple logo

People: The US is called the great melting pot (=tavící kotel) – because people living there are of all possible origins and races /reisiz/. The major ethnic groups are whites (82%), Afro-Americans, Hispanic, Asians and native Americans or Indians. The Chinese and Vietnamese are the largest Asian community (China Town can be found in every large American city). The total population is 296 million people.

Famous rivers: the Mississippi – is the largest river system in North America – flows to the Gulf of Mexico and is 4th longest river in the world, the Missouri, the Rio Grande /rio graend/ – on the border with Mexico, the Colorado, the Yukon in Alaska, the Hudson, the Niagara /naiagera/ (flowing from the Lake Erie /iri/ to the Lake Ontario) with the Niagara Falls

Famous lakes: the Great Lakes (Lake Superior, Lake Michigan, Lake Huron /hju:rn/, Lake Erie /iri/, Lake Ontario) on the US-Canadian borders

The Great Lakes

The Niagara Falls

Mountains: two main mountain ranges - the Rocky Mountains with the highest mountain: Mount McKinley in Alaska in the west and Appalachian /epelečien/ Mountains in the east. Great Plains (Velké prérie) are between the Rocky Mountains and the Mississippi River.

Beautiful countryside and many national parks, there are a lot of national parks in the USA, e.g. Yellowstone NP, Yosemite NP, Rocky Mountains NP, Grand Canyon NP, Mount McKinley NP.

Great Plains

The Appalachian

Mountains

The Rocky

Mountains

Mount McKinley

Interesting places:

New York City (samostatné téma!!!) is the largest city in the country called Big Apple. It is divided into 5 parts: Manhattan, Queens, Bronx, Brooklyn and Staten Island. The city was originally called New Amsterdam until it was captured by the British. NY is famous for its Manhattan skyline with its skyscrapers. The tallest skyscraper is now the Empire State Building. NY is famous for the Statue of Liberty, a gift from France and a symbol of freedom. Wall Street is the financial centre of the country. There are many ethnic areas in NY: Little Italy, Chinatown, and the Lower East Side, the traditional Jewish area. Greenwich Village is the home for many artists, writers and university students.

The largest park is Central Park. Carnegie Hall – place for concerts (Karel Gott), Madison Square Garden – sports arena in Manhattan, the home of New York Rangers.

The Empire State Building workers

Carnegie Hall

The Empire State Building

Madison Square Garden Manhattan Skyline

Los Angeles – the 2nd US largest city with famous film studious in Hollywood and Beverly Hills. Oscar Awards Ceremony is held in the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood.

L.A. Walk of Fame in Hollywood Boulevard

San Francisco – it is famous for its hills and trams = in San Francisco called Cable Cars and Golden Gate Bridge.

Golden Gate Bridge Cable Car in San Francisco

New Orleans is the city where jazz was born

Miami Florida

Miami Florida

The Mississippi in New Orleans

Florida is mainly a tourist area with long beaches. North of Miami is Cape Canaveral where spaceships are launched

Chicago lies on the banks of Lake Michigan, it is a windy city, famous for gangsters (Al Capone), smuggling of alcohol

Chicago with Sears Tower – the tallest The Grand Canyon in Arizona

skyscraper in North America (443m)

Climate: varies, from the Arctic climate in Alaska to the subtropical in Florida, it is different inland and on the coasts

Sport: is a important part of American culture. The most popular team sports are sports developed in North America: American football, basketball, baseball and ice hockey.

The most popular is Am. football – The National Football League NFL consists of 32 professional teams – 2 best teams meet at the Superbowl in January.

The 2nd popular sport is baseball – the best teams from Major League meet in the World Series Games

Basketball is very popular sport in winter – NBA contains 29 teams from US and Canadian cities. Hundreds of universities across the USA play college basketball.

Ice hockey - The National Hockey League (NHL) has 30 teams in major cities across the USA and Canada. Each team plays about 80 games between October and April. Playoff elimination games are held after the season and the two top teams play in the "Stanley Cup" championship.

The tickets for basketball, football and baseball matches are sold out in advance.

New York Yankees

Los Angeles Lakers

Chicago Black Hawks

Dallas Cowboys

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