The United States of America

If you look at the map you'll see that the USA lies on the southern half of North America, with additional territory in Alaska and Hawaii. The west of the country is dominated by the chain of the Rocky Mountains. The Central Plain including the Great Plains extends towards the Appalachians Mountains in the east.

The continental part of the USA consists of two highland regions and two lowland regions. The highland regions are the Appalachian Mountains in the east, and the Cordillera in the west. Between the Cordillera and the Appalachian Mountains are the central lowlands which are called the prairie, and the eastern lowlands called the Mississippi valley.

The main rivers of the USA are the Mississippi which flows into the Gulf of Mexico, the Colorado and the Columbia, which flows into the Pacific Ocean, the Saint Lawrence River and the Hudson River, which flows into the Atlantic Ocean. The five Great Lakes, between the USA and Canada, are joined together by short rivers or canals, and the Saint Lawrence River joins them to the Atlantic Ocean. In the west of the USA there is another lake called the Great Salt Lake.

The USA is a very large country, so it has several different climatic regions. The coldest regions are in the north and north- east where much snow falls in winter. The south has a subtropical climate. Hot winds blowing from the Gulf of Mexico often bring typhoons. The climate along the Pacific coast is much warmer than that of the Atlantic coast. The region around the Great Lakes is known for its changeable weather.

The USA is the world's leading economic power, and has a highly productive agricultural system with soya, wheat and maize as the main crops as well as intensive pig and cattle farming. The USA has the world's second largest mineral resources: especially fuels and uranium, and its most active manufacturing industry, both traditional and modern.