Geography of the USA

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

17. The West. The Mountain  States. The West is a region of scenic beauty on a grand scale. In much of the West, the population is sparse and the federal government owns and manages millions of hectares of undeveloped land.  8 states: Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming.  Arizona. "arizonac", meaning "place of the small spring". Arizona was the 48th state to join the U.S. in 1912. It is rich in farm and mineral products and manufacturing is growing rapidly.  Vast irrigation systems have transformed the desert into rich farmland. The outstanding scenic feature is Grand Canyon, one of the seven wonders of the world. Colorado. from a Spanish word meaning "red" or "ruddy". Prospectors discovered gold in the middle of the last century, and the mining booms beginning in the late 1850s spurred Colorado's initial growth. The state's economy broadened when irrigated agriculture developed, and by the late 19th century livestock raising had become important. Early industry was based on the processing of minerals and agricultural products. In the second half of the 20th century the industrial and service sectors have expanded greatly. Denver is an important financial center. Camping, hiking, hunting and fishing. Idaho, the 43rd state, joined the U.S. in 1890. Logging as well as mining are big industries in the state. Best known for its potatoes. I. has a rugged landscape with some of the largest unspoiled natural areas in the country. Snow-capped mountain ranges, swirling white rapids, peaceful lakes and steep canyons. Montana. from the Latin word meaning "mountainous." M. was admitted into the Union as the 41st state in 1889. The state is the fourth largest state of the United States. Western Montana is a land of tall, rugged mountains; while eastern M is a land of broad plains. M experienced sudden development when gold was discovered in 1862. Agriculture: Cattle, wheat, barley, sugar beets, hay, hogs. Industry: Mining, lumber and wood products, food processing, tourism.  Nevada's from the Spanish word meaning "snow clad". A mountain region that includes semiarid grasslands and sandy deserts, and is the most arid (dry) state in the nation. . Large, luxurious casinos in Las Vegas, Lake Tahoe and Reno. Agriculture: Cattle, hay, dairy products, potatoes. Industry: Tourism, mining, machinery, printing and publishing, food processing, electric equipment. New Mexico is called the Land of Enchantment. The state has a large Hispanic population, as New Mexico was under Spanish control from the 16th century until about 1846. Part of the "Old West", New Mexico was a place known for cowboys and cattle drives. The landscape ranges from rose-colored deserts to snow-capped mountains. Utah from the Ute, meaning “people of the mountains,” an Indian tribe who lived there before the pioneers arrived. One of Utah's most interesting places to visit is Mormon Temple Square in Salt Lake City. Agriculture: Cattle, dairy products, hay, turkeys. Industry: Machinery, aerospace, mining, food processing, electric equipment, tourism. Wyoming gets its name from the Algonquin words for "land of vast plains." In 1890, Wyoming became the 44th state. The first state to elect a woman governor. Yellowstone National Park (the world's first national park). Active geysers, spectacular towering waterfalls, hot springs, deep canyons and excellent fishing. Agriculture: Cattle, sugar beets, sheep, hay, wheat. Industry: Mining, chemical products, lumber and wood products, printing and publishing, machinery, tourism.

 

 

 

 

18. The Pacific States. California. 5 states  Alaska, C, Hawaii, Oregon, Washington  C is on the West Coast of the US, along the Pac O. It is the most populous state. Its 4 largest cities: Los Angeles, San Diego, San Jose, San Francisco (considered to be the most beautiful). Is known for its varied geography, ethnically diverse population(White Am, White Hispanics, Black Am,Asian Am,Am Indian, mixed, Latino).Geography is rich, complex, and varied. In the middle lies the C Central Valley, the Sierra Nevada to the east, the Cascade Range in the north and the Tehachapi Mountains in the south. The Sierra Nevada include the highest peak in the contiguous 48 states, Mount Whitney. About 35% of the state's total surface area is covered by forests. C is famous for earthquakes. It is vulnerable to tsunamis, floods, droughts, Santa Ana winds, has sev volcanoes. It is the 3d-largest st by land. Along with C's prosperous agric industry, other industries include aerospace, petroleum, computer and information technology. C ranks among the 10 largest economies in the world, and were it a separate country it would be 34th among the most populous countries. Climate varies from Mediterranean to subarctic. The 2 most prominent rivers are the Sacramento River and the San Joaquin River. The official language has been English. C also has sev imp seaports (the Port of Los Angeles and the Port of Long Beach in Southern C). C is governed as a republic, with 3 branches of government: the executive branch consisting of the Governor of C and the other independently elected constitutional officers; the legislative branch consisting of the Assembly and Senate;and the judicial branch consisting of the Supreme Court of C and lower courts. The capital is Sacramento. C is divided into 58 counties.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

19. The Pac States(Oregon, Washington, Alaska, Hawaii)/ All have coastlines on the Pac. O. (and are the only that border that O). Additionally, Nevada and Arizona are sometimes incl. despite the fact that neither of these states actually border the Pac. This is primarily because of strong ties that each state has to neighboring California. Hawaii is on an archipelago in the central Pac. O. southwest of the continental US. Was admitted to the Union in 1959, as the 50th st. Its capital is located in its major city, Honolulu. At the southeastern end of the archipelago, the 8 "main islands". Hawaii is the largest, and is often called the "Big Island" to avoid confusion with the st as a whole. H is the only st of the US that: is not geograph. located in North Am; completely surrounded by water, continuously grows in area(due to active lava flows). The 1t recorded Europ. contact with the islands was in 1778 by Br. explorer James Cook. H has 2 official lang: Eng and Hawaiian. Washington is named after G. Washington, the 1t President of the US. Was carved out of the western part of W Territory and admitted to the Union in 1889. W is sometimes called W state or The state of W to distinguish it from the US capital. W's position on the Pac O and the harbors of Puget Sound give the state a leading role in maritime trade with Alaska, Canada. W is a land of contrasts. The deep forests of the Olympic Peninsula, such as the Hoh Rain Forest, are among the only temperate rainforests in the continental US, but the semi-desert east of the Cascade Range has few trees. Mount Rainier, the highest mountain in the state, is covered with more glacial ice than any other peak in the lower 48 states. W is a leading agric. st. Oregon joined the Union in 1859. The region was part of the O Territory that was created after Euro-Am settlement began in the 1840s. Salem is the capital, while the most populous city is Portland. The valley of the Willamette River in western O is the most densely populated and agriculturally productive region of the st. The origin of the name "Oregon" is unknown. According to Stewart, the name came from an engraver's error in a French map published in the early 1700s, on which the Ouisiconsink (Wisconsin) River was spelled "Ouaricon-sint", broken on 2 lines with the -sint below, so that there appeared a river named "Ouaricon". Alaska is the largest st, one of the wealthiest and most racially diverse. Was purchased from the Russian Empire in 1867 for $7.2 mln. The land went through sev. administer. changes before becoming the 49th state in 1959. The name "A" is derived from the Aleut "the mainland". A is larger than the combined area of the next 3 largest states(Texas, California, Montana). A's economy relies heavily on petroleum extraction. A's main export product (excluding oil and natural gas) is seafood, primarily salmon, cod, pollock and crab. Agricultural production is primarily for consumption within the state.

 

 

 

 

 

20. The largest metropolitan cities

New York is the most populous city in the United States (8.4 million- 2009), and the center of the New York metropolitan area, which is one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world.  New York exerts a powerful influence over global commerce, finance, media, culture, art, fashion, research, education, and entertainment. As host of the United Nations Headquarters, it is also an important center for international affairs. Located on a large natural harbor on the Atlantic coast of the Northeastern United States, the city consists of five boroughs: The Bronx, Brooklyn, Manhattan, Queens, and Staten Island. New York was founded as a commercial trading post by the Dutch in 1624. The settlement was called New Amsterdam until 1664 when the colony came under English control. New York served as the capital of the United States from 1785 until 1790. It has been the country's largest city since 1790. As many as 800 languages are spoken in New York City, making it the most linguistically diverse city in the world.

Los Angeles is the second most populous city in the United States with a population of 3.83 million on a land area of 498.3 square miles. Los Angeles is also the seat of Los Angeles County, the most populated and one of the most multicultural counties in the United States.    

Los Angeles was founded on September 4, 1781, by Spanish governor Felipe de Neve. It became a part of Mexico in 1821, following the Mexican War of Independence. In 1848, at the end of the Mexican–American War, Los Angeles and the rest of California were purchased as part of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, thereby becoming part of the United States.

Los Angeles is a world center of business, international trade, entertainment, culture, media, fashion, science, technology, and education. It is home to renowned institutions such as the University of Southern California and the University of California, Los Angeles and is one of the most substantial economic engines within the United States. Los Angeles has been ranked the fifth most powerful and influential city in the world. As the home base of Hollywood, it is known as the "Entertainment Capital of the World", leading the world in the creation of motion pictures, television production, video games, and recorded music. Los Angeles hosted the 1932 and 1984 Summer Olympics.

Chicago is the largest city in the state of Illinois. With over 2.8 million residents, it is the third most populous city in the USA.

Chicago was founded in 1833, near a portage between the Great Lakes and the Mississippi River watershed. Today, the city retains its status as a major hub, both for industry and infrastructure, with O'Hare International Airport being the second busiest airport in the world.

The city is a center for business and finance and is listed as one of the world's top ten Global Financial Centers. The World Cities Study Group at Loughborough University rated Chicago as an "alpha world city".

San Diego is the eighth-largest city in the United States and second-largest city in California, after Los Angeles, with a population of 1,376,173 (Jan 2010) within its administrative limits on a land area of 372.1 square miles (963.7 km2). It is located on the Pacific Ocean at the southernmost end of the west coast of the continental United States.

The city is also the county seat of San Diego County as well as the economic center of the San Diego–Carlsbad–San Marcos Metropolitan Area. San Diego's top four industries are manufacturing, defense, tourism, and agriculture. San Diego's economy is largely composed of agriculture, biotechnology, computer sciences, electronics manufacturing, financial and business services, ship repair, ship construction, software development, telecommunications, and tourism. The presence of the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) with the affiliated UCSD Medical Center promotes research in biotechnology. Tourism is a major industry owing to the city's climate, its beaches, and numerous tourist attractions such as Balboa Park, Belmont amusement park, San Diego Zoo, San Diego Wild Animal Park, and SeaWorld San Diego.

San Francisco is the fourth most populous city in California and the 12th most populous city in the United States, with a 2009 estimated population of 815,358. It is the financial, cultural, and transportation center of the San Francisco Bay Area.

Today, San Francisco is a popular international tourist destination, renowned for its chilly summer fog, steep rolling hills, eclectic mix of Victorian and modern architecture and its famous landmarks, including the Golden Gate Bridge, cable cars, and Chinatown. The city is also a principal banking and finance center, and the home to more than 30 international financial institutions, helping to make San Francisco eighteenth place in the world's top producing cities, ninth in the United States, and fifteenth place in the top twenty Global Financial Centers.

 

21. The American city.

By about 1918, half of the United States population lived in cities and metropolitan areas; by 1990, almost 80 percent lived in such places. Strong economic and social encourage favor concentration of the urban population. Large metropolitan markets for goods, services and jobs act as a magnet for further growth. In addition, as farming has become more mechanized over the last half century, increasing numbers of unneeded farm workers have gone to urban areas.

A city is a creation of the industrialization which produced much of the country's wealth and strength. It is best and most innovative in education, culture, and political and social thought. On the other hand, poverty, overcrowding, social conflict and criminal violence are also much more common in cities than in rural areas. Moreover, today a lot of American urban dwellers move to the suburbs in search of greater privacy, cleaner air and less social conflict.

Older distinctions between city and suburb, central business district and suburban shopping area are not very useful today. This is because these places are no longer relatively independent. The suburban rings around all central cities must be regarded as part of the urban structure. Central cities and their suburbs together form metropolitan regions and must be considered economic and social wholes. Highways have been constructed to make travel from city to suburb easier.

Many metropolitan areas have grown so large in recent decades that they have overlapped, and have begun to merge. This new urban network has been called "megalopolis" by French geographer Jean Guttmann. He identified the largest of these as occupying an area on the Atlantic seaboard from north of Boston, through New York, south to Washington, D.C.—"Bosnywash." This megalopolis contains more than one-sixth of the entire United States population.

An important source of urban population growth, especially since 1945, has been the migration to cities of black Americans and Hispanics. Many of these newcomers had been farm workers whose livelihood was lost through the mechanization of farms.

In 1965, a Department of Housing and Urban Development was created in the federal government to manage programs concerned with community development and housing needs. City administrators have tried in recent years to strengthen their abilities to organize the delivery of services. Mayors in many cities have been given wider powers to cope with the great number of the problems with which they are faced.

Urban planning and renewal with a central consideration for human well-being—an unaffordable luxury in the early stages of industrialization—have become the standard in America's post-industrial phase. For example, during the past two decades cities such as New York, Boston, Baltimore, Washington, D.C. and San Francisco have accomplished major "urban renewal" projects, rebuilding and renovating huge tracts of the central city area, and thus once again attracting businesses and more affluent groups to settle there.

22. Elementary and Secondary Education in the USA.

The first years of compulsory schooling are called elementary or primary school. Elementary education starts at the age of five or six, depending on the particular state and whether a kindergarten year is provided. Elementary school, which is almost always co-educational (mixed boys and girls), is usually attended from the age of 5 or 6 until 11, when students go on to a middle or junior high school. In some districts, students attend elementary school until 13 before attending a senior high school.

The elementary school curriculum varies with the organization and educational aims of individual schools and local communities. Promotion from one grade to the next is based on a pupil’s achievement of specified skills.

Elementary schools provide instruction in the fundamental skills of reading, writing and maths, as well as history and geography (taught together as social studies), crafts, music, science art and physical education. Foreign languages, which used to be taught at high schools only, are now being introduced during the last few years in elementary school in some areas. Elementary pupils are usually given homework, although in many schools few children complete it.

Secondary education is for children aged 12 to 18. Secondary school generally takes place in a high school, which is often divided into junior and senior high. Junior high is for those aged 12 to 14 and senior high - for students aged 15 to 17. Secondary education is also co-educational.

Secondary school students must take certain ‘core’  curriculum courses for a prescribed number of years or terms, as determined by each state. These generally include English, maths, general science, health, physical education and social studies (which may include American history and government, geography, world history and social problems). Students are tracked in some high schools for academic subjects, where the brightest students are put on a ‘fast track’. In addition to compulsory subjects, students choose ‘electives’ (optional subjects), which supply their future education and career plans.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

23. Higher education in the USA

Higher education in the United States refers to a variety of institutions of higher education in the United States. Strong research and funding have helped make American colleges and universities among the world's most prestigious, which is particularly attractive to international students, professors and researchers in the pursuit of academic excellence. Public universities, private universities, liberal arts colleges, and community colleges all have a significant role in higher education in the United States.

According to UNESCO the US has the second largest number of higher education institutions in the world. The US also has the highest number of higher education students in the world, about 4.75% of the total population.

The American university system is largely decentralized. Public universities are administered solely by the individual states.

Colleges and universities in the U.S. vary in terms of goals: some may emphasize a vocational, business, engineering, or technical curriculum while others may emphasize a liberal arts curriculum. Many combine some or all of them.

Two-year colleges usually offer the associate's degree such as an Associate of Arts. Four-year colleges (which usually have a larger number of students and offer a greater range of studies than two-year colleges) offer the bachelor's degree, such as the Bachelor of Arts or Bachelor of Science. Four-year institutions in the U.S. which emphasize the liberal arts are liberal arts colleges. These colleges traditionally emphasize interactive instruction (although research is still a component of these institutions).

Universities are research-oriented institutions which provide both undergraduate and graduate education. For historical reasons, some universities—such as Boston College, Dartmouth College, and The College of William & Mary—have retained the term "college," while some institutions granting few graduate degrees, such as Wesleyan University, use the term "university." Graduate programs grant a variety of master's degrees—such as the Master of Arts (M.A.), Master of Science (M.S.), Master of Business Administration (M.B.A.), or Master of Fine Arts (M.F.A.).

Some universities have professional schools, which are attended primarily by those who plan to be practitioners instead of academics (scholars/researchers). Examples include journalism school, business school, medical schools, law schools, veterinary schools, pharmacy schools, and dental schools.

Except for the United States service academies and staff colleges, the federal government does not directly regulate universities, although it can give federal grants to them. The majority of public universities are operated by the states and territories, usually as part of a state university system. Each state supports at least one state university and several support many more.

Many private universities also exist. Among these, some are secular while others are involved in religious education. Seminaries are private institutions for those preparing to become members of the clergy. Most private schools (like all public schools) are non-profit, although some are for-profit.

Most universities, public and private, have endowments. The largest endowment is that of Harvard University, at $29 billion.

The majority of both liberal arts colleges and public universities are coeducational; the number of women's colleges and men's colleges has decreased in past years and nearly all remaining single-sex institutions are private liberal arts colleges.

 

 

 

 

 

 

24. Black slavery. Civil Rights movement.

The history of blacks in North America began in August 1619 when a small Dutch warship sailed up the James River to the young English colony of Jamestown, Virginia. 20 Blacks landed from the Dutch ship were sold as slaves. Between 1640 and 1680 Virginia and other southern colonies drifted steadily towards the establishment of a system of slave labor. Native Americans found that British settlers, especially those in the southern colonies, purchased or captured Native Americans to use as forced labor in cultivating tobacco, rice, and indigo. Native Americans began selling war captives to whites rather than integrating them into their own societies. As the demand for labor in the West Indies grew with the cultivation of sugar cane, Europeans enslaved Native Americans for export to the "sugar islands." Scholars estimate tens of thousands of Native Americans may have been enslaved by the Europeans.

Throughout the 18th century an increasing number of people  in Britain and NA spoke out against slave trade. But the wealthy slave owners and slave traders had powerful friends in government and were able to defeat all attempts to end the slave trade. In 1865 when the civil war ended, Congress passed the 13th Amendment to the Constitution, which completely abolished slavery.

For a time many hoped that blacks and whites could live together in a state of equality and tolerance. But local laws and customs were used to deprive blacks of voting rights. However, institutionalized racism across the United States, especially in the South, was increasingly challenged by the growing Civil Rights movement. The activism of African American leaders Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King, Jr. led to the Montgomery Bus Boycott, which began the movement. For years African Americans would struggle with violence against them, but would achieve great steps towards equality with Supreme Court decisions, including Brown v. Board of Education and Loving v. Virginia, the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Voting Rights Act of 1965, and the Fair Housing Act of 1968, which ended the Jim Crow laws that legalized racial segregation between Whites and Blacks.

Martin Luther King, Jr., who had won the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts to achieve equality of the races, was killed in 1968. Following his death other leaders led the movement, most notably King's widow, Coretta Scott King, who was also active, like her husband, in the Opposition to the Vietnam War, and in the Women's Liberation Movement. Over the first nine months of 1967, 128 American cities suffered 164 riots. The late 1960s and early 1970s saw the strengthening of Black Power, however the decade would ultimately bring about positive strides toward integration.