13 Colonies were then located in the east. Today this area is occupied by 16 states, and 34 other

states have been admitted to the union, one by one.

The names of the states are Maine, Massachusetts, Connecticut, (New York,/

Pennsylvania. New Jersey/ Maryland. Washington. Michigan. Ohio, Indiana, Wisconsin,

Kentucky, North and South Carolina. Virginia and West Virginia, Georgia. Tennessee. Iowa,

Nebraska, Texas, Idaho, Utah, Arkansas, California, etc.

Washington, in the District of Columbia, is the national capital. It is named in honor of George

Washington, the first US president. The District of Columbia, which was named for Christopher

Columbus, is 69 square miles in area; and it is not part of any state.

The United States covers an area of 9,363,400 square kilometres. Its population is more

than 250 million inhabitants. . Due to its geographical conditions, the U.S.A.. is a country of great differences and surprising similarities. The diversity of the U.S.A. stems from the fact that it is so large and has so many kinds of land, climate, and people. A traveller from almost any other country can find parts of the United States to remind him of home. He can find cool pine forests dotted with lakes, or . mountain peaks covered with snow. He can find meadows with brooks and trees, or sea cliffs, or wide grassy plains, or sandy beaches shining in the sun. There are most densely and most sparsely populated regions here.

The U.S.A. faces the Atlantic Ocean with deep fiords and rocky promontories of New England and the low sandy strands of New Jersey and Virginia. Nearly parallel with the coast the Appalachian Mountains run from Alabama north-eastward. There opens the Central Valley drained by the Mississippi River and the Great Lakes. ■■..

The Great Plains are like the flat top of a great table which is slightly tilted, so that they

keep rising to the west until they are stopped by the Rocky Mountains, "the backbone of the

continent".The Rockies are high, rough and irregular in shape.

One region was formed of material, which was washed down from the Rockies and pressed into rock. This is the high Colorado Plateau, in which the miledeep Grand Canyon of the Colorado River is cut. The high Columbia tableland lies to the north, and the majestic Sierra Nevada Range and the Cascade Mountains rise westward.

At the border of the Pacific Ocean are the Coast Ranges. These are relatively low mountains, broken at wide intervals by harbours.

Almost the whole western half of the United States lies in the "rain shadow" of mountains, which means that very little rain falls.

There are many rivers in the USA. The Mississipi is one of the world's great continental rivers. Together with the Missouri River (its chief western branch), it flows some 4,000 miles (6,400 km) from the Rocky Mountains to the Gulf of Mexico. This is one of the longest water courses known. The Mississippi has been called the "father of waters". It wanders along, appearing lazy and harmless. But people have had many bitter struggles with its floods. The Mississippi's principal eastern tributary is the Ohio.

The two great rivers of the Pacific side are the Colorado and the Columbia. The Colorado is in the south; the Columbia rises in Canada and drains the north. In the dry western country both rivers are important and necessary sources of life.

The Rio Grande, nearly 2,000 miles (3,200 km) long, is the foremost of the Southwest. It forms a natural boundary between Mexico and the United States; together, the two governments have built irrigation and flood control projects of mutual benefit.

The rivers of the Great Basin seem to go nowhere. This region is so dry that the air sucks up its rivers or they sink into the sands before they reach the sea. But after the sudden and rare desert storms, they are savage and dangerous.

The plant and animal life of the USA is diverse. The different original plant and animal life regions of the country correspond to the climatic conditions which present a great variety - from the tropical heat to the arctic cold, from deserts to fertile plains, enormous woodlands and lakes.

There are mans national parks in the USA where the nature is preserved in its original state. Being a highly developed industrial country, the United States has many large cities.The largest cities are New York. Chicago. San Francisco, Los Angeles. Houston. Philadelphia. Detroit, all of them with the population of more then one million inhabitants. Thirteen cities have over 500 people, and there are over one thousand smaller cities and towns.