The United States Of America

The United States Of America.

    The USA is one of the largest countries in the world. Due to its industrial and military potential as well as technology advance the USA play a key role in the international political life. The country lies in the Central part of the North American continent. Its total area is over nine million square kilometres. It is washed by the Pacific and Atlantic oceans. The population of the United States is nearly 250 million people and most of the people live in towns and cities.

    People of different nationalities live in the USA. The country is much talked about because of very high average personal income and the great number of rich people. California, one of the western states, is called "the millionaire state" because there are more than one million people with a personal fortune larger than one million US dollars. But it does not mean that the life of the most coloured people is quite easy. They still have to stand poverty and unemployment. The official language of the country is English, but there are a lot of two-language newspapers which dedicate one of their sections to Spanish-speaking Latin Americans emigrated to the USA.

    The capital of the country is' Washington. It was named after the first US President George -Washington. As the USA is a large country the climate vary a lot from one region to another. For example, the Pacific coast is an area of mild winters and warm, dry summers. The number of sunny days in California reaches 350 per year level. Eastern continental region is watered with rainfalls. The region around the Great Lakes has changeable weather. There are a lot of mountains in the USA. The highest peak if the Cordilliers is 4,418 metres. The main river of the country is Mississippi. Louisiana negroes call it mother river. There are many other great and beautiful rivers there: Colorado in the South and Columbia in the north-west. The are five Great Lakes between the USA and Canada and the most splendid of them is Ontario.

    The USA produces more than a half of the world's harvest of corn, wheat, cotton and tobacco. It is most remarkable due to the fact that only 4 per cent of the population involved in the agricultural sector. Main American cities are Washington, New York, Boston, Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Detroit and Philadelphia. Washington is the capital of the country, the seat of the two-chambered US Congress and the President residence. New York is the world's biggest business, financial and cultural centre. Boston is famous for its three best-known and prestigious universities. Chicago is one of the largest industrial cities of the USA. Detroit is the capital of motor-car production. There they manufacture Fords and Chevrolets. Hollywood, once a small city near Los Angeles became world's leading movie business centre. The USA has an Academy of Science that is internationally acknowledged. There are a lot of research institutes and laboratories, museums and libraries. Most famous is the US Congress Library where one can find nearly everything that was published anywhere in the world.

    The USA is rich in mineral resources such as aluminum, salt, zinc, copper, ciement, natural gas, gold and silver. Such industries as car-manufacturing, machine-building, automatic processing lines, telecommunications and computers are highly developed and allow the country to enjoy leading position in the world economy.

    Legally, the USA is a federal republic consisting of 50 states and federal district Columbia. Each of the states has its own governor, government and legislation. The president is the head of the state and the federal government. He is elected for four years. There are two main political parties in the USA: the Democratic Party ( since 1820s ) and the Republican Party ( since 1850s ). YMCA and other youth organizations play important role in political life since Vietnam war and hippies movement rise in late 1960s.