Text C: the USA – the country of diversity

Capital: Washington, D.C.

Form of government: Republic.

Physical features: The longest river – Missouri; the largest lake – Michigan; the largest island – Hawaii.

Flag: Adopted on June 14, 1777.

Motto: In God We Trust.

National anthem: “The Star-spangled Banner.”

Bird: Bald Eagle.

Flower: Rose.

O beautiful for spacious skies,

For amber waves of grain,

For purple mountain majesties

Above the fruited plain!

The United States of America, the USA in short, is the third largest country in the world in population, and it is the fourth largest country in area.

The USA is a federal state. It includes 50 states and the District of Columbia. The Congress is the highest legislative body in the country. It consists of two chambers: the House of Representatives and the Senate. President is the head of the state and the Government.

The United States is the greatest industrial nation in the world. Its mineral and agricultural resources are tremendous. It's the world's largest producer of electrical and nuclear energy.

The USA is a country of great differences. The country is blessed with a wealth of natural beauty. A traveller from almost any part of the world will find in the USA an area that can match anything he will meet at home. To imagine it well, read some lines about its rivers.

The Mississippi is one of the world’s great rivers (6,400 kilometers); it was known to American Indians as the “father of waters.” Other important rivers are the Yukon in Alaska, the Rio Grande, the Columbia, which rises in western Canada and continues in the United States for about 1,900 kilometers west of the Rocky Mountains; and the Colorado, which begins in the Rocky Mountains. For 342 of its kilometers the Colorado flows through the magnificent Grand Canyon, carved through the ages by the river's waters. Other well-known rivers include the Hudson, which meets the Atlantic Ocean at New York City; the Potomac, bordering the national capital at Washington; and the Ohio, which flows west from the Appalachian Mountains to meet the Mississippi.

One can speak much about the USA, a new state on the map of the world. More than two-hundred history of it is rich in excitement and drama: the transformation of an untamed land into a mighty industrial power; the growth of a basically English colony into a complex multiethnic society. There have been moments of triumph and sadness, but throughout there also has been remarkable faithfulness to the democratic ideals proclaimed at the moment of the nation’s birth.