VII. Suppose you are a guide. Speak about the most interesting places of London.

LESSON 4 THE UNITED STATES

OF AMERICA

Grammar: Indefinite Tenses (Active and Passive)

PRE-TEXT EXERCISES

I. Read the geographical names and pay attention to the use of the definite article

before some of them:

The Pacific Ocean, the Atlantic Ocean, the Gulf Stream, Mexico, the Rio Grande, the Great Lakes, the Hawaiian Islands, Alaska, the Great Rocky mountains, the Gulf of Mexico, the Appalachian mountains, the Cordillera, the Mississippi, the Hudson River, the Missouri, the Yukon, the Columbia, the Grand Canyon, Chicago, Philadelphia.

2. Read and try to understand without a dictionary:

Central, parallel, line, territory, continental, region, system, canal, religious, immigrants, metals, minerals, basic, energy, to concentrate, communication, federation, fixed.

Text A THE UNITED STATES

of America

The United States of America is one of the largest, powerful and highly developed countries in the world. The USA is situated in the central part of the North American Continent. Its western coast is washed by the Pacific Ocean and eastern one by the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf Stream. The USA is separated from Canada in the north by the 49th parallel and the Great Lakes, and from Mexico in the south by a line following the Rio Grande River and continuing across the highlands to the Pacific Ocean.

The total area of the United States is over 9 million square kilometres. The USA consists of three separate parts. They are the Hawaiian Islands, situated in the central part of the Pacific Ocean, Alaska, separated by the Canadian territory, and the rest major part of the USA.

The Great Rocky mountains run north and south. Some of them form a divide between rivers that flow westward and those that flow towards the Atlantic or the Gulf of Mexico. The continental part of the USA consists of the highland regions and the two lowland regions. The highland regions are the Appalachian mountains in the east and the Cordillera in the west. The lowlands are situated between the Cordillera and the Appalachian mountains and are usually called the prairie. Eastern lowlands are called Mississippi valley.

The main rivers of the United States are the Mississippi , one of the longest rivers in the world, and the Hudson river. The Mississippi and the Missouri River and their branches form a 19.000-kilometre system of waterways that are connected to the Great Lakes in the north by a canal. There are other important rivers in the USA such as the Yukon in Alaska, the Rio Grande, the Columbia, the Colorado which flows through the magnificent Grand Canyon, carved through the ages by the river's waters.

The population of the USA is about 250 million people. Attracted by the reports of great economic opportunities and religious and political freedom, immigrants, from many countries went to the USA which was populated by native Indian. And nowadays all of them make the American people.

The Nation's capital, Washington, is the seventeenth in population city, the largest being New York - 7 mln. Chicago - 3 mln, Los Angeles - about 3 mln, Philadelphia - 1.7 mln.

The United States is rich in most of the metals and minerals needed to supply its basic industries. It possesses large quantities of coal, oil and gas , which satisfy all branches of economy with energy. The USA has a highly developed motor-car industry which is concentrated in and around Detroit. Electric end electronic engineering, transport, communication, ship building, textile industry are very powerful there. In the United States there are plenty of fertile soil. So 47 per cent of the land area is farmland. Fishing is very important in the national economy. Half of the fish caught is used for food, the other half is converted into fish meal for animals and fish oil for industry use.

The USA is a federation of states. It consists of 50 states and the district of Columbia. America elects a President as Head of State every leap year , on a fixed November day. America's President is the head of his political party. The USA has two main political parties: Democrates and Republicans. The US Congress consists of two chambers: the House of Representatives and the Senate. America has a Congress election every two years.