Topics general information about the usa

The United States of America was formed by emigrants in 1382. The USA consists of 50 states. Washington, the capital of the United States is situated on the Potomac River in the District of Columbia. The district is a piece of land which doesn't belong to any state but to all the states. All these states are sovereign. The USA occupies a large territory and is situated in the central and southern part of North America. The USA is washed by the Atlantic Ocean in the east and by the Pacific Ocean in the west. In the north, the USA borders on Canada and in the south - on Mexico.

The USA is divided into three areas: Eastern area is a highland, central area is a plain and Western area is mountains including the Rocky Mountains and the Sierra Nevada. There are great lakes in the northern part of the USA. There are: Huron, Michigan, Ontario and Erie. They are connected by fast rivers. Mississippi together with its tributary Missouri is the longest river in the world. . The world’s most famous waterfall called Niagara Fall is also located in the country. Mountains range across the country from north to south and don't protect it against cold air from the north and the warm one from the south. The USA has a continental climate.

The USA is a highly developed industrial country. Large deposits of oil, coal, iron ore and other minerals are the solid base for the development of Americans industry. Heavy industry, which includes such branches as the mining, metallurgical, engineering, chemical, aircraft and automobile, prevails in the USA. The country has also well-developed light and food industries. Both animal breeding and farming are very important for the economy of the USA.

Under the Constitution, the federal government is divided into three branches. The Congress is vested with the legislative power and made up of two houses: the Senate and the House of Representatives. There are 435 members in the House of Representatives and 100 senators. Each state elects two members to the Senate.

The executive branch is headed by the President, who proposes bills to Congress, serves as commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces. The President is chosen in nation-wide elections every 4 years. The second person in the executive branch is vice President. The elected vice President belongs to the same political party as the President.

The judicial branch consists of Federal District Courts, 11 Federal Courts and the Supreme Court. Federal judges are appointed by the President. Federal courts decide cases involving federal law, conflicts between citizens of different states. Constitution is the most important document in the USA. It has been amended 26 times. The Bill of Rights guarantees individual liberties: freedom of speech, religion and so on.

Usa history, customs and traditions.

Many peoples have contributed to the development of the United States of America, a vast nation that arose from scattering British colonial outposts in the New World.

The first humans to inhabit the North American continent were migrants from northeast Asia who established settlements in North America as early as 8000 BC and possibly much earlier. Vikings explored the North American mainland in the 10th and 11th centuries and settled there briefly. Of more lasting importance, however, was the first voyage (1492-93) of Christopher Columbus, which started the age of great European exploration of the Western Hemisphere.

Various European states (Spain, France, England, the Netherlands, Portugal included) and their trading companies sent out expeditions to explore the New World during the century and a half that followed. At the beginning of the 17^th century European colonies were founded on the territory of the modern USA. In 1620 first colonist landed at Plymouth Rock. They came from England on board the “Mayflower”. Most of them were puritans or former Anglicans who were called pilgrims.

On July 4, 1776, the Continental Congress declared the united colonies to be independent of Great Britain. The new state was called the United Sates of America and July 4 became its national holiday. George Washington was elected the first president of the new republic.

Every nation has different customs and traditions, its own way of life. Americans like to move away, to change homes and jobs. They prefer sociability. A national Thanksgiving Day is perhaps the only holiday spent by the Americans at home. Table decorations follow a traditional pattern – a harvest of Indian corn, apples, oranges, walnuts and grapes. The centrepiece is the traditional roast turkey.

Still another American tradition concerns Halloween. Its origin dates back hundreds of years to the Druid festival. The Druid New Year began on November 1, marking the beginning of winter and the reign of the Lord of Death. The custom of telling ghost stories on Halloween comes from the Druids. On this occasion children usually wear ghost costumes or false faces. They also carve out r eyes in pumpkins and put burning candles inside them to make them visible from far away.

US holidays

The population of the United States is made up of people of very many nationalities. Their predecessors came to America from different countries, and they brought their native celebrations with them. They all became Americans, but they kept many traditions of those countries they had come from. That is why the number of holidays in different states of America is different. But the most important holidays are marked throughout the United States.

One of the greatest holidays is Independence Day. It was on July 4, 1776, that the Declaration of Independence was signed, proclaiming independence of thirteen British colonies from Great Britain. July 4 has become the greatest holiday since. Cities and towns are decorated with flags on that day, there are parades in some places, but most people just go on picnics to the countryside.

Another great holiday is New Year Day. People see the old year off and the New Year in. Most people stay up all night, even children. At midnight they go outside and shout "Happy New Year!" Some people set off fireworks and blow automobile horns which are heard everywhere. Everybody exchanges presents and good wishes. Offices, factories, banks and stores do not work on this day.

Christmas is a religious holiday which symbolizes the birth of Jesus Christ. By this day people set fur trees in their houses and decorate them with toys and candies. Children wait for Santa Claus who comes to every house. Before going to bed, they leave their shoes to find presents in them next morning. Christmas is considered to be a family holiday, so most people prefer to celebrate it at home with their relatives.

Thanksgiving Day is kind of a religious holiday too. It falls on the fourth Thursday in November. On this day people thank God for his goodness; besides, the day marks the end of the harvest season on farms. There is a long-standing tradition to fry a large turkey for a festive meal on this day. Thanksgiving has been celebrated since the first harvest festival in America in the autumn of 1621.

St' Valentine's Day, February 14th, is sweethearts' day when people, who are in love, express their affection for each other in merry ways. The cards may be different but the message is the same: "Will you be my Valentine?"

Halloween means ""holly evening". It is celebrated on the 31st of October and is connected with witches and ghosts. At parties people dress up in strange costumes and pretend to be witches. They cut horrible faces in potatoes and pumpkins and put candles inside to shine through the eyes. People may play different games such as trying to eat an apple from a bucket of water without using their hands. Children dressed in white sheets knock on doors at Halloween and ask if you like trick or treat. If you give them something nice - a treat - they go away. But if you don't they play a trick on you, such as making a lot of noise or piling floor on your front doorstep.

FAMOUS PEOPLE OF COMPUTER SCIENCE

Computer science boasts of a lot of branches and a lot of eminent persons in each branch. So it is really difficult to choose only a few people. Looking for the “most famous” and “most eminent” scientists, I came across the web site page with the title “Famous Computer Scientists. Who shall we put on the postage stamps?” There was a voting organized at this site. Visitors voted for the person worth to their mind being the most prominent in the history of computer science. So, there are the “top 5” of computer men of science:

Alan Mathison Turing, (June 23^rd, 1912 – June 7^th, 1954), was an English mathematician, logician, and cryptographer. Turing is often considered to be the father of modern computer science.

With the Turing test, Turing made a significant and characteristically provocative contribution to the debate regarding artificial intelligence: whether it will ever be possible to say that a machine is conscious and can think. He provided an influential formalization of the concept of the algorithm and computation with the Turing machine, formulating the now widely accepted "Turing" version of the Church–Turing thesis, namely that any practical computing model has either the equivalent or a subset of the capabilities of a Turing machine.

John von Neumann (Neumann János) (December 28^th, 1903 – February 8^th, 1957) was a Hungarian-born mathematician and polymath who made contributions to quantum physics, functional analysis, set theory, economics, computer science, topology, numerical analysis, hydrodynamics (of explosions), statistics and many other mathematical fields as one of world history's outstanding mathematicians. Most notably, von Neumann was a pioneer of the modern digital computer and the application of operator theory to quantum mechanics (von Neumann algebra), a member of the Manhattan Project and the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton, and creator of game theory and the concept of cellular automata.

Donald Ervin Knuth, (born January 10^th, 1938) is a renowned computer scientist and professor emeritus at Stanford University. Knuth is best known as the author of the multi-volume The Art of Computer Programming, one of the most highly respected references in the computer science field. He practically created the field of rigorous analysis of algorithms, and made many seminal contributions to several branches of theoretical computer science. He also pioneered the concept of literate programming.

Edsger Wybe Dijkstra (Rotterdam, May 11th, 1930 – Nuenen, August 6^th, 2002) was a Dutch computer scientist. He received the 1972 A.M. Turing Award for fundamental contributions in the area of programming languages, and was the Schlumberger Centennial Chair of Computer Sciences at The University of Texas from 1984 until his death in 2002.

Dijkstra was known for his essays on programming; he was the first to make the claim that programming is so inherently difficult and complex that programmers need to harness every trick and abstraction possible in hopes of managing the complexity of it successfully.

Charles Babbage (26^th December 1791 – 18^th October 1871) was an English mathematician, analytical philosopher, mechanical engineer and (proto-) computer scientist who originated the idea of a programmable computer. Parts of his uncompleted mechanisms are on display in the London Science Museum. In 1991, working from Babbage's original plans, a difference engine was completed, and functioned perfectly. It was built to tolerances achievable in the 19th century, indicating that Babbage's machine would have worked. Nine years later, the Science Museum completed the printer which Babbage had designed for the difference engine; it featured astonishing complexity for a 19th century device.

Among Ukrainian scientists whose contributions to the field of computing are highly assessed we should mention first of all Victor Glushkov who was the founder of information technology in the Soviet Union (and specifically in Ukraine), and one of the founders of Cybernetics.

He contributed much to the theory of automata. He and his followers (Kapitonova, Letichevskiy and others) successfully applied that theory to enhance construction of computers. His book "Synthesis of Digital Automata" became well known. For that work he was awarded the Lenin State Prize in 1964 and was elected as a Member of the Academy of Science of USSR.

He greatly influenced many other fields of theoretical computer science (including the theory of programming and artificial intelligence). He published nearly 800 works.