USA

5. THE USA, AMERICAN CITIES

• LOCATION, BORDERS

  • North America – between Canada and Mexico

  • Alaska – northwest corner of North America – borders with Canada

  • consists of 50 states

• GEOGRAPHY (climate, landscape)

  • area - 2,959,064 square miles (7,663,940.6 km2) – the world third or fourth largest state; the largest state – Alaska

  • the longest river system – Mississippi-Missouri (the forth longest in the world)

  • important mountains – Sierra Nevada (California); Rocky Mountains (Colorado); Cordillera (Alaska) – the highest mountain (Denali – Mount McKinley)

  • Yellowstone National Park (Wyoming, Montana, Idaho) – the first national park in the world

  • climate – many climate types – from arctic and subarctic (Alaska), humid continental (the north of US), humid subtropical (the south of US), alpine climate (Western mountains), to tropical (Florida, Hawaii, Caribbean); common hurricanes and tornados

• POLITICAL SYSTEM

  • federation, representative democracy

  • president – Donald Trump

  • currency – USD

• SPOKEN LANGUAGES MINORITIES

  • English – 82%

  • Spanish – 10%

  • Chinese – 1%

  • no official language at the federal level; states have official languages (only English/English and other language – Spanish, French…)

• CITIES

  • capital city – Washington

  • the biggest city – New York

  • another big and important cities – Los Angeles, Chicago, Houston, Phoenix, Philadelphia

• PLACES OF INTEREST

  • Monument Mount Rushmore (South Dakota)

    • sculptured portraits of four US presidents (George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, Theodor Roosevelt) in Mount Rushmore

  • Grand Canyon (Arizona)

    • one of the oldest national park in US

    • the river Colorado flows through the Canyon

  • National park Sequoia (California)

    • in Sierra Nevada

    • national park protecting sequoias (the biggest one – 11 meters wide and 82 meters high)

  • San Francisco (California)

    • considered as a one of the most beautiful cities in the world

    • Golden Gate

  • Niagara Falls (New York)

  • Everglades National Park (Florida)

    • extensive wetlands, specific fauna and flora

    • registered at UNESCO heritage site

  • Fishlake National Forest (Utah)

    • forest where all the trees have the same genetic code

    • trees grow from one huge root system

    • 80 thousand years old

  • National Park Yosemite (California)

    • the third oldest park on the planet

    • Yosemite valley – Yosemite waterfall – the highest waterfall in North America (739 meters)