The USA is a federation of 50 states plus the district of Columbia, which is the city of Washington (Washington D.C.). Alaska in the north is separated from the rest of the USA by Canada, and the Hawaii islands by the Pacific Ocean. The U.S. currency is the U.S. dollar. It is a democratic state. The major political parties are The Democratic Party and The Republican Party.
The countryside in the USA is very varied. Central plains are bounded by the Rocky Mountains and the Coastal Mountains to west, the Appalachian Mountains to east and the lowlands around the Gulf of Mexico. The highest mountain in the USA is Mount McKinley in the Alaska Range, which is 6,194 m high. When we travel around America, we can see not only the snowy mountains in Alaska, but also hot deserts (for example Salt Lake Desert), valleys (Death Valley - 85 metres below the sea level) or deep canyons (such as the Grand Canyon).
The longest rivers are the Mississippi and the Missouri. It is the longest river system on the world after the Amazon and the Nile. This Mississippi Valley is one of the greatest fertile plains on the world and these plains are called prairies.
The border with Canada is in its central part made by the Great Lakes Region. Lakes Superior, Huron, Erie and Ontario share the USA with Canada. Lake Superior is the second largest lake in the world (after the Caspian Sea). The famous Niagara Falls are between the USA and Canada.
There are big variations in climate. The climate is arctic in Alaska, temperate in most of the states and subtropical in Florida and Hawaii. There are often natural disasters such as fires, floods, earthquakes and hurricanes.
There are many national parks in the USA, especially in the Rocky Mountains Region, with beautiful and preserved nature e.g. Yellowstone NP, Yosemite NP, Grand Canyon NP and so on. Yellowstone was the first national park on the world (founded in 1872). It is famous for its geysers of hot water, snow-covered mountains, lakes and forests.
Plains along the Mississippi and in the south-east are very fertile regions where many important agricultural products are grown. These are tobacco, maize, cotton, tropical fruits and others. Wheat is grown in the north of the USA. Cattle and pig breeding is also typical of the north.
The mineral resources in the USA are mainly oil and natural gas which are mined in Texas or in Alaska. But U.S. mining industry produces also coal, iron, uranium and gold.
Most of the U.S. industry is concentrated in big cities- especially in the north-east in Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Chicago and so on. Other big cities are Los Angeles or San Francisco on the west coast. Los Angeles is well-known for film studios in Hollywood and the residential district for rich people - Beverly Hills.
San Francisco is famous for its Golden Gate Bridge. Typical industries in the USA are steel production, car industry, electronics and information technologies.
The U.S. capital is Washington. It's not an industrial city and there are no skyscrapers there. But the town has the most important federal institutions, such as the White House where the president lives, The Capitol where is the Congress (the Senate and the House of Representatives) or the Pentagon, which is the Department of Defence.
neighbour soused temperate mírné (klima)
area rozloha disaster neštìstí, katastrofa
square kilometer ètvereèní kilometr flood povodeò
separate oddìlit earthquake zemìtøesení
rest of zbytek èeho preserved zachovalý
currency mìna maize kukuøice
countryside krajina cotton bavlna
plain rovina, planina cattle and pig breeding chov dobytka a prasat
bound lemovat mineral resources nerostné suroviny
lowland nížina oil ropa
The Gulf of Mexico Mexický záliv natural gas zemní plyn
desert pouš mine tìžit
valley údolí coal uhlí
fertile úrodný residential district obytná ètvr
border hranice; ohranièovat steel ocel
waterfalls vodopády skyscraper mrakodrap
defence obrana
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