Usa
The USA
GEOGRAPHY
The United States of America, in central North America, is the fourth largest country in the world and it has the third largest population – over 323 million. It is 2,575 kilometres from north to south and 4,830 kilometres from east to west. Because the country is so big, every state has different laws and traditions and there are four different time zones, so when it’s lunchtime in New York, it’s breakfast time in San Francisco.
There are many different climate zones in the USA – so there’s every sort of weather: it’s very hot and dry in the south west, freezing cold in the north east, arctic in Alaska, subtropical (hot and humid) in the southern states. The USA gets a lot of extreme weather. The hottest temperature on earth (56.7° C) was measured in Death Valley in 1913. Hurricanes are frequent in the south east and, in the south west, there’s an area called “tornado alley” where there were 26 tornadoes in one day in 2016.
The USA is a federation of fifty states plus the District of Columbia. Forty-eight states are on the mainland (= continente) and there is Alaska on the north west of Canada and the Hawaii Islands in the Pacific Ocean.
Washington DC. is the capital of the USA. When George Washington became the first president he chose an independent area on the east coast of the USA on the Potomac River for the new capital, named District of Columbia after Cristopher Columbus.
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The flag of the United States of America is called “The Stars and Stripes”. The thirteen stripes represent the thirteen original colonies and the fifty stars represent the fifty actual states. People in the USA are very proud of their flag, to them it is a symbol of freedom, solidarity and national unity. The colours of the flag are symbolic, too. Blue is for justice, red for courage and white for purity. At school the children say the Pledge of Allegiance and salute the flag with these words:
“I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all”.
A lot of people put flags in their windows to celebrate Independence Day on July 4th or to show patriotism, especially since the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center in New York on September 11th 2001.
There is even an American flag on the moon, because the first people to walk on there in 1969 were American astronauts: Neil Armstrong and Edwin Aldrin.
American English is the first language. It is like British English, but with a few differences in pronunciation, spelling and vocabulary.
Spanish is the second language.
The currency is the American Dollar (US $).
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