III. Верны ли данные предложения? Исправьте неверные предложения.

1. The first American explorers of the Great Plains called it the "Great American Desert".

2. Oil is the most important natural resource in the Northern Plains.

3. The Dallas — Fort Worth metropolitan area is a major centre of the steel and food processing industries.

4. The main crops grown on the farms of the Rocky Mountains region are rice, sugar beets where there is no irrigation.

5. The major cities of the Rocky Mountains region are Phoenix, Denver and Houston.

6. Phoenix is famous for its mint where they make coined money.

7. Denver with about half a million people in the city and 1,6 million in the metropolitan area has an economy based on federal government service.

IV. Ответьте на вопросы:

1. Where is the region of the Plains situated?

2. Why is the region of the Plains called the "American breadbasket"?

3. Why is Iowa the leading state in the USA in corn production?

4. What are the main centres of oil production in the Southern Plains?

5. Does the state of Oklahoma have a serious problem with soil erosion? How is the problem solved?

6. Why are ranches in the Rocky Mountains region large?

7. Is the Powder River Basin of Wyoming rich in gold? If not, name the main mineral resource.

VII. Основные экономические регионы страны. Часть 6.

Прочтите текст G и выполните тестовые задания после текста.

Text g. The pacific

The Pacific region includes those states which are washed by the Pacific Ocean. They are Alaska, California, Hawaii, Oregon, and Washington.

Due to its location on the ocean, the region has important fisheries. California holds the first place in the country for its catch. The most important fish caught are anchovy, tuna, and mackerel. Alaska and Washington are the main suppliers of salmon and halibut. .Fishing in Hawaii is mainly for sport and recreation.

California also leads the Pacific states in farming. It is the country's leading grower of fruits and vegetables. Much of California's farming is done in the Central Valley. The farms in the valley produce cattle, dairy products, cotton, grapes, tomatoes, and citrus fruits.

In Oregon and Washington, the Cascade mountains divide the states into two different farming zones. In the dry eastern zone, wheat is grown, and cattle is raised. West of the Cascade Mountains, in Oregon's Willamette Valley, for example, regular rainfall and a mild climate allow good yields of such crops, as beans, pears, onions, and corn. In Washington, cherries and apples are major fruits. Both states are among the most important sources of timber in the United States.

Some large-scale commercial farms in Hawaii grow sugarcane and pineapples. However, both Alaska and Hawaii must import most of their food from the mainland states.

Tourism plays a very important role in the economy of Hawaii. Alaska, which in the past depended mainly on fishing and timber, now receives great profit from oil production. Production began in 1959, the year Alaska became a state. In 1968, oil was discovered in the North Slope of the Brooks Range near Prudhoe Bay. Today a pipeline takes oil pumped at Alaska's Prudhoe Bay in the north to the port of Valdez in the south for further shipment. Construction of the massive pipeline over thousands of kilometres of wilderness had been delayed because of serious concerns for the environment. Completion of the pipeline has helped increase Alaska's profits. Today the state has the highest profits per capita, or per head of the population of the state.

The fastest growing industries in the Pacific region are in electronics and technical products. A large number of companies making electronics parts are found in an area around the city of San Jose. This area is known as the Silicon Valley. It is named for the Silicon Chip, which is a basic part in modern electronics products.

Most of the region's large cities are ports. Los Angeles, the third largest city in the country, has a population of about 3 million people. There are some 7.5 million people in the Los An­geles metropolitan area. Los Angeles and neighbouring Long Beach have very good harbours which are well protected behind 15 kilometres of break water. Together with several fine airports they serve as the West Coast's major gateways for trade with the countries of the Pacific Ocean. The Los Angeles area is a giant centre of aircraft production, computers, communications equipment, motor cars, cosmetics. It is also a major region of space technology. Los Angeles's position as a world centre of finance and industry has also stimulated the development of such services as health care, accounting, education, law. However, Los Angeles is also known all over the world as the city of entertainment because of Hollywood, which is the world capital bf film production. In the 1940s, the peak years of movie making, Hollywood produced more than 400 films a year. Today TV is competing successfully with the traditional film industry, but Hollywood has also changed, producing quite a lot of films for American TV. Los Angeles is also a city of striking contrasts. There are many Hispanics, Asians, Blacks living here and these people in their majority have poorly paid jobs. Therefore social tension in many districts of Los Angeles is very high. It was no wonder that in 1992 there were mass riots in Los Angeles which shocked all America.

The other major city on the Pacific coast of the United States is San Francisco. It lies at the tip of land broken by the narrow channel of the Golden Gate. Through this Channel the tides of the Pacific pour into a great bay. The city has long been a centre of trade, finance, shipping, culture for more than three million people in the metropolitan bay area. Asian immigrants together with many waves of European settlers have made San Francisco a city of many nationalities and different cultures. Freight from ports all over the world is unloaded at a fine harbor, while long lines of freight trains bring into the city the fruit from the countryside. The transcontinental railroad connects San Francisco with the industrial and agricultural centres of the Midwest and the East, thus providing an interchange of goods and passengers. And at the city's airport, which is one of the largest in the United States, there are about 400,000 landings and takeoffs a year. Great streams of motor traffic cross the beautiful Golden Gate Bridge, which is 16 kilometres long, to the north shore.

In the first decade of the 20th century, this major city of the west was in ruin. In 1906 a great earthquake destroyed the city. But within three years, 20,000 new buildings were constructed, and in seven years, a new city had risen out of the ashes. Several years ago, another serious earthquake hit the city, but it did not cause much damage because the buildings were well protected against the forces of nature.

Тестовые задания