III. READING. Part 1

Read the text and make sure you know the translation of the highlighted words and phrases.

The USA. History and government

1. The United States of America (commonly called the United States, the U.S., the USA, America, and the States) is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its forty-eight contiguous states and Washington, D.C., the capital district, lie between the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans, bordered by Canada to the north and Mexico to the south. The state of Alaska is in the northwest of the continent, with Canada to the east and Russia to the west across the Bering Strait. The state of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific. The country also possesses several territories in the Pacific and Caribbean.

2. At 3.79 million square miles (9.83 million km²) and with over 309 million people (including an estimated 11.2 million illegal immigrants) the United States is the world's third or fourth largest nation by total area (land and water) and four global cities had populations over 2 million (New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, and Houston), ranking behind Russia and Canada and just above or below China. It is, by far, one of the world's most ethnically diverse (White – 63.7%, Black/African American - 12.3%, Hispanic/Latino (of any race) – 16.4%, Asian – 4.7%, other – 2.9%) and multicultural nations, the product of large-scale immigration from many countries. The largest cities are New York, Los Angeles and Chicago.

3. In 1492, Genoese explorer Christopher Columbus, under contract to the Spanish crown, reached several Caribbean islands, making first contact with the indigenous people. On April 2, 1513, Spanish conquistador Juan Ponce de León landed on what he called "La Florida"—the first documented European arrival on what would become the U.S. mainland. In 1507, German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller produced a world map on which he named the lands of the Western Hemisphere "America" after Italian explorer and cartographer Amerigo Vespucci.

4. Indigenous peoples descended from forebears who migrated from Asia have inhabited what is now the mainland United States for many thousands of years. This Native American population was greatly reduced by disease and warfare after European contact. The United States was founded by thirteen British colonies located along the Atlantic seaboard. On July 4, 1776, they issue d the Declaration of Independence, which proclaimed their right to self-determination and their establishment of a cooperative union. The rebellious states defeated the British Empire in the American Revolution, the first successful colonial war of independence. The current United States Constitution was adopted on September 17, 1787; its ratification the following year made the states part of a single republic with a stronger central government. The Bill of Rights, comprising ten constitutional amendments guaranteeing many fundamental civil rights and freedoms, was ratified in 1791.

5. The Spanish–American War and World War I confirmed the country's status as a military power. It emerged from World War II as the first country with nuclear weapon s and a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council. The end of the Cold War and the dissolution of the Soviet Union left the United States as the sole superpower. The country accounts for 41% of global military spending, and is a leading economic, political, and cultural force in the world.

6. The coastal plain of the Atlantic seaboard gives way further inland to deciduous forests and the rolling hills of the Piedmont. The United States, with its large size and geographic variety, includes most climate types. To the east of the 100th meridian, the climate ranges from humid continental in the north to humid subtropical in the south. Most of Alaska is subarctic or polar. Extreme weather is not uncommon—the states bordering the Gulf of Mexico are prone to hurricanes, and most of the world's tornadoes occur within the country, mainly in the Midwest's Tornado Alley. The greatest rivers of the USA are the Colorado and the Columbia flowing into the Pacific Ocean, the Mississippi with its tributaries the Missouri and the Ohio flowing into the Gulf of Mexico, and the St. Lawrence river and the Hudson river, which flow into the Atlantic Ocean.

7. The United States is home to more than 400 mammal, 750 bird, and 500 reptile and amphibian species. About 91,000 insect species have been described. There are fifty-eight national parks and hundreds of other federally managed parks, forests, and wilderness areas.

8. The United States is a federal union of fifty states. The states do not have the right to secede from the union. The federal government is composed of three branches:

· Legislative: The bicameral Congress, made up of the Senate and the House of Representatives, makes federal law, declares war, approves treaties, has the power of the purse, and has the power of impeachment, by which it can remove sitting members of the government. The House of Representatives has 435 voting members, each representing a congressional district for a two-year term. The Senate has 100 members with each state having two senators, elected at-large to six-year terms.

· Executive: The president is the commander-in-chief of the military, can veto legislative bills before they become law, and appoint s the members of the Cabinet (subject to Senate approval) and other officers, who administer and enforce federal laws and policies. The president serves a four-year term and may be elected to the office no more than twice. Home and workplace of the U.S. president is the White House. The winner of the 2008 presidential election, Democrat Barack Obama, is the 44th U.S. president.

· Judicial: The Supreme Court and lower federal courts, whose judges are appointed by the president with Senate approval, interpret laws and overturn those they find unconstitutional. The Supreme Court, led by the Chief Justice of the United States, has nine members, who serve for life.

9. The United States has operated under a two-party system for most of its history. Since the general election of 1856, the major parties have been the Democratic Party, founded in 1824, and the Republican Party, founded in 1854.

10. Within American political culture, the Republican Party is considered center-right or conservative and the Democratic Party is considered center-left or liberal.

11. The United States exercises global economic, political, and military influence. It is a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council and New York City host s the United Nations Headquarters.