美国介绍 英文

American Introduction

A reasons of the choices

United States is a superpower, whether in the military,

is also economically. And the United States position in the

world is so important.

American introduction-----politics

The United States consists of 50 states and

Washington D.C. The last two States to join the Union

were Alaska (49th) and Hawaii (50th). Both joined in 1959.

Washington DC is a federal district under the authority

of the U.S. Congress. Washington DC is represented in

Congress by an elected, non-voting Delegate to the House

of Representatives. Residents have been able to vote in

presidential elections since 1961.

Puerto Rico is a commonwealth associated with the

United States. Puerto Ricans are U.S. citizens. Puerto

Ricans do not vote in U.S. Presidential elections, but they

do elect a non-voting commissioner to the U.S. House of

Representatives.

U.S. Virgin Islands - St. John, St. Croix, and St.

Thomas is an unincorporated territory of the United States.

Administered by the Office of Insular Affairs, U.S

Department of the Interior Indigenous inhabitants are

U.S citizens, but do not vote in U.S. Presidential

elections.

Northern Mariana Islands is a commonwealth in

political union with the United States. Self-governing with

locally elected governor and legislature.

American Samoa is a unincorporated territory of the

United States. Administered by the Office of Insular Affairs,

U.S. Department of the Interior.

Other Dependent Areas of the United States: Baker

Island - Howland Island - Jarvis Island - Johnston Atoll -

Kingman Reef - Midway Islands - Navassa Island - Palmyra Atoll - Wake Island

Geography environment

Americans often speak of their country as one of

several large regions. These regions are cultural units

rather than governmental units - formed by history and

geography and shaped by the economics, literature and

folkways that all the parts of a region share.

What makes one region different from another? Within

several regions, language is used differently and there are

strong dialects. There are also differences in outlook and

attitude based on geography. A region's multicultural

heritage as well as distinct demographic characteristics

like age and occupation also make regions different and

special.

The United States is a varied land - of forests,

deserts, mountains, high flat lands and fertile plains. The

country lies mostly in the temperate zone but there is a

very wide range of climate variations. The continental

United States stretches 4,500 kilometers from the Atlantic

Ocean on the east to the Pacific Ocean on the west. It

borders Canada on the north and reaches south to Mexico

and the Gulf of Mexico. The United States covers a total

area of 9 million square kilometers (including Alaska and

Hawaii). Alaska is the largest in area of the 50 states, and

Texas is the second largest.

From the Appalachian Mountains in the East to the

Rocky Mountains in the West, the center of the country is

drained by the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers and their

branches. The Mississippi is one of the world's great rivers;

it was known to Native Americans as the "father of

waters." Water from the source of its main branch, the

Missouri River, flows about 6,400 kilometers from the

northern Rocky Mountains to the mouth of the Mississippi

in the Gulf of Mexico. On a topographic map of the United

States, the mountains look like jagged masses, the plains

like vast, open flat spaces, and the rivers like meandering threads. Today, highways, railways and transcontinental

aircraft crises-cross the land, making travel easy. But only

a few generations ago, the topographic features on the

map represented great dangers and difficulties.

Today's visitors, riding over a good road in the Cascade

Mountains in the west coast states of Oregon and

Washington, may see marks on the rocks made by ropes

where pioneer settlers painfully lowered their horses and

wagons down cliffs to reach the fertile river valley far

below. In the Sierra Nevada Mountains of California, the

main route now runs through a mountain pass which was

once too narrow for a wagon to go through. Pioneer

families reaching that pass had to take their wagons apart

piece by piece, carry them through, and then reassemble

them on the other side. In 1848, pioneers who crossed

the continent made the trip in 109 days - if they were

fortunate and strong. Today a New York family can drive

by car to San Francisco in less than a week.

The coastal plain of the Atlantic seaboard gives way

further inland to deciduous forests and the rolling hills of