The United States Of America

The United States is truly a land of great variety. It has a lot of elements from all over the world. While European elements dominate, Asian, African and even South American cultures have made significant contributions to the chracter of what is the United States of America.
The United States of America consists of extractly 50 states and one small area, which is no part of any state - Washington, D.C., or District of Columbia. The USA is the fourth largest country in the world. The population of the US is approximately 250 millions people and it covers an area over 9,370,000 square km. The three largest cities are New York with over 16,000,000 people, Los Angeles with 11,500,000 and Chicago with nearly 8,000,000.
In the east of the USA is Appalachian Mountains, which are heavily forested. West from Appalachian Mountains are many kilometres of the vast area of the Mississippi River basin and Great Plains. Here can we see huge, flat fields of corn and soybeans, or perhaps cotton. In the west of the USA is Rocky Mountains and if we cross these mountains we will see Pacific Ocean.
The USA is divided in a few parts. One of them is Northeast or New England States. These states were formed as first states of the USA. These states are smaller than the rest of states. The South consists of states, which are in the south area of the USA. From Arkansas and Louisiana to Florida, from Kentucky to Florida, these states made The South. The Midwest, or Great Plains, is in the centre of the USA from North Dakota to Missouri. This area is also known as Breadbasket of the US because of heavily concentration of agriculture of all types here. The West is a vast region from Washington, Idaho and Montana south to California, Arizona and New Mexico, including Alaska and Hawaii. This area has a lot of national parks and mountains.
The longst river is The Mississippi River. The next longest river is the Rio Grande and Yukon in Alaska. The five Great Lakes in the USA are Lake Superior, Lake Huron, Lake Erie, Lake Michigan and Lake Ontario. Another important lake is in Utah, Great Salt Lake. Here will be the site of the 2002 Winter Olympics.
The USA is a republic with three major branches of power. The Executive Branch includes the president as the head of state who is elected to maximum of two four-year terms. The Legislative Branch is made up of Congress with its two divisions: the Senate with 100 members and the House of Representatives with 435 members. The Judicial Branch is made up of Supreme Court and other courts of law. Two main political parties dominate in the American politics: the Republican Party and the Democratic Party.
Each state can have own laws. For instance some of states have capital punishment and in US constitution isn't capital punishment. So there are many differences between constitution of the USA and then laws in states because each state can have own laws which can be different from other states laws.
The USA is heavily industrialised. The main industry of the USA is electronics, which is concentrate in the Silicon Valley in California. The other main industries are oil and gas industry, energetic, atom industry and space industry. Now the Americans cooperate with Russians in the space industry because they want to build a new space station.
In the USA is no typically lifestyle. It is varied as can possibly be. The life of banker in New York City is much different from the life of someone living in the mountains of Tennessee or the Arizona Desert. The USA contains not from large cities which each have their own character and history.
The American Universities are best-known all over the world. Famous universities are Harvard University, Yale University, Michigan Institute of Technology (MIT) and the other. These universities have prestige in all states in world. But each state own school system.