Geographical Position of the United States of America

The United States of America is the fourth largest country in the world after Russia, China and Canada. It occupies the southern part of North America and stretches from the Pacific to the Atlantic Ocean. It also includes Alaska in the north and Hawaii in the Pacific Ocean. The total area of the country is about nine and a half million square kilometers. Alaska is the largest of America’s states and it is 400 times the size of Rhode Island which is the smallest. The country is so large that a coast-to-coast trip by plane will take five and a half hours, by train three days and by car from five to six days. The USA borders on Canada in the north and on Mexico in the south. The south-eastern coast of the country is washed by the Gulf of Mexico and the US also has coasts on the Arctic, Pacific and Atlantic Oceans.

The USA is made up of 50 states and the District of Columbia where the capital of the country, Washington, is situated. The population of the country is about 250 million people. Some states are more densely populated than the others, for example, Alaska has half of the Rhode Island’s population. More citizens of the USA live in rural areas. It is not surprising that most of the people of the USA live in the eastern half of the country. It is the East Coast the first settlers from Europe came to when they crossed the Atlantic. They were attracted by its fertile lands.

As America expanded westward, so did its farmers and ranchers. Today American farmers plant spring wheat on the cold western plains, raise corn and wheat in the Midwest, and rice in the damp heat of Louisiana. Florida and California are famous for their vegetable and fruit production, and the cool, rainy northwest states are known for apples, berries and vegetables.

The land varies from heavy forests covering 2,104 million hectares, to barren deserts, from high-peaked mountains (the highest peak is Mount McKinley in Alaska) to deep canyons (Death Valley in California is 1,064 meters below sea level). The highest mountains in the USA are the Cordilleras that run the length of the west coast and include the Rocky Mountains and the Sierra Nevada.

America’s largest rivers are the Mississippi with its tributary Missouri, the Rio Grande, the Ohio and the Columbia. The Mississippi River system runs 5,969 km from Canada into the Gulf of Mexico and is the world’s third longest river after the Nile and the Amazon. The USA is famous for its five Great Lakes: Lake Erie, Lake Ontario, Lake Huron, Lake Superior and the Michigan. The first four lakes are on the border with Canada and are the largest and deepest in the USA.

The USA is rich in mineral resources; their wealth provides a solid base for American industry. It has major deposits of oil and gas in Texas and Alaska, coal in Virginia and Ohio, gold in Alaska and California, silver in Nevada, non-ferrous metals in Arkansas and Colorado.

The largest cities of the USA are New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago, Philadelphia, Detroit and some others.

1. Where is the USA situated?

2. How many states does the USA include?

3. What is the largest state of the USA?

4. What countries does the USA border on?

5. Do most people in the USA live in towns or in villages?

6. What states are famous for their farming?

7. What are the highest mountains in the USA?

8. Where are the four of Great Lakes situated?

9. What mineral resources is the USA rich in?

10. Is New York one of the largest cities of the USA?

Vocabulary and Speech Exercises

Date: 2015-12-17; view: 2122