Places of interest in the usa

Las Vegas is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Nevada. Las Vegas is an internationally renowned major resort city known primarily for gambling, shopping, and fine dining. The city bills itself as The Entertainment Capital of the World, and is famous for its consolidated casino–hotels and associated entertainment. A growing retirement and family city, Las Vegas is the 31st-most populous city in the United States, with a population at the 2010 census of 583,756.
Places of interest in the USA
Not far from the Empire State Building there is an interesting architectural complex - Rockefeller Centre. It is a city-within-a-city. It was begun during the Great Depression of the 1930s by John Rockefeller and was built according to one general plan. Rockefeller Centre consists of 19 skyscrapers. It houses all kinds of offices, enterprises, banks, theatres, music halls, restaurants, shops, etc. All parts of the complex are linked by underground passageways.

New York is often called the cultural capital of the USA. There are more than 800 museums in New York. One of the best known is the Metropolitan Museum of Art. It is the largest art museum in the United States. Its magnificent collection of European and American paintings contains works of many of the greatest masters of art world. The second best known is the Museum of Modern Art. The Guggenheim Museum of Modern Art contains an impressive collection of modern artists ranging from impressionists to abstractionists. The unusual circular building of the museum was designed by F.L. Wright.

No other city in the world offers as many theatres as New York where there is a daily choice of almost two hundred productions. You can see the newest plays and shows on Broadway. But away from the bright lights of Broadway are many smaller theatres.

The Metropolitan Opera at Lincoln Centre is known throughout the music world. International stars sing here from September until April. The Carnegie Hall is the city's most popular concert hall.

New York is famous for its festivals and special events: summer jazz, one-act play marathons, international film series, and musical celebrations from the classical to the avant-garde.

People who come to New York by sea are greeted by the Statue of Liberty. It has become a symbol of the city and an expression of freedom to people all over the world. The statue shows liberty as a proud woman draped in the graceful folds of a loose robe. In her uplifted right hand, she holds a glowing torch. She wears a crown with seven spikes that stand for the light of liberty shining on the seven seas and seven continents. In her left arm, she holds a tablet with the date of the Declaration of Independence. A chain that represents tyranny lies broken at her feet.

The Statue of Liberty was France's gift to America. It was designed by the French sculptor Bartholdi and presented to the USA in 1886. The Lady in the Harbour stands 151 feet tall, weighs nearly 225 tons and has a 35-foot waist. In 1986 she underwent a face-lift in honour of her 100th birthday.

There is a museum in the base of the statue devoted to the history of immigration to the United States.

The United States of America is the fourth largest country in the world (after Russia, Canada and China). It occupies the southern part of North America and stretches from the Pacific to the Atlantic Ocean. It also includes Alaska in the north and Hawaii in the Pacific Ocean. The total area of the country is about nine and a half million square kilometres. The USA borders on Can­ada in the north and on Mexico in the south. It also has a seaboarder with Russia.
The USA is made up of 50 states and the District of Columbia, a special federal area where the capital of the country, Washington, is situated. The population of the country is about 250 million.
If we look at the map of the USA, we can see lowlands and mountains. The highest mountains are the Rocky Mountains, the Cordillera and the Sierra Nevada. The high­est peak is Mount McKinley, which is located in Alaska.
America's largest rivers are the Mississippi, the Mis­souri, the Rio Grande and the Columbia. The Great Lakes on the border with Canada are the largest and deepest in the USA.
The climate of the country varies greatly. The coldest regions are in the north. The climate of Alaska is arctic. The climate of the central part is continental. The south has 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 USA is a highly developed industrial country. It is the world's leading producer of copper and oil and the world's second producer of iron ore and coal. Among the most important manufacturing industries are aircraft, cars, textiles, radio and television sets, armaments, furniture and paper.
Though mainly European and African in origin, Ameri­cans are made up from nearly all races and nations, in­cluding Chinese and native Americans.

The largest cities are New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Philadelphia, Detroit, San Francisco and others.

The United States is a federal union of 50 states, each of which has its own government. The seat of the central (federal) government is Washington, DC. According to the US Constitution the powers of the government are divided into 3 branches: the executive, headed by the President, the legislative, exercised by the Congress, and the juridi­cal. The Congress consists of the Senate and the House of Representatives. There are two main political parties in the USA: the Republican and the Democratic.
American Symbols
The American flag is often called “The Stars and Stripes”, it is also called "Old Glory". It represents the growth of the na­tion. It has 13 horizontal stripes, 7 red and 6 white which stand for the original 18 states. In the top left hand corner there are 50 white stars on a blue background: one star for each state. The national anthem of the United States is “The Star Span­gled Banner". The words written during the Anglo-American war of 1812-1814 and set to the music of an old song. Every state has its own flag, its own emblem and its own anthem too.
The eagle became the national emblem of the country in 1782. It has an olive branch (a symbol of peace) and arrows (a symbol of strength). You can see the eagle on the back of a dollar bill.
The Statue of Liberty is the symbol of American democracy. It stands on Liberty Island in New York. It one of the first things people see when they arrive in New York by sea. This National Monument was a present form France to the USA. France gave the statue to America in 1884 as a symbol of friendship. Liberty carries the torch of freedom - in her right hand. In her left hand she is holding a tablet with the inscription "July 4,1776" - American Independence Day.
The US Congress

The Congress of the United States is composed of two houses: Senate and the House of Representatives. The Senate presents the states and the House represents the population according to its distribution among the states. Each state is guaranted at least one representative in the House. The remainder are apportioned among the states according to their population. The Senate of US is composed one of the hundred members – two being elected from each state. Senators are chosen for six years, one-third retiring or seeking is re-elected every two years. Two senators from the same state never finish their terms at the same time, one of them is called "Senior Senator" and the other - "Junior Senator".

The presiding officer of the senate is the Vice-President of the United States, The Vice-President is not a member of the chamber over which he presides and he sometimes is not a member of the party in power.
The work of the US Congress is done mostly in different committees. The mostly important Rules, Appropriation Foreign Relations, Finance, Armed Services.
In the House of Representatives the most important are Rules, Appropriation, Ways and Means, Judiciary, Agriculture.
The chairmen of the standing committees are considered the real rules of the Senate and the House.
what are americans fond of?
Americans are very fond of sport. The most popular sports in the USA are football, which is played from April to October , baseball, played from September to December, basketball, played from October to April and ice hockey, played in most nor then cities from October to March.
American football derives from the English game of rugby. It started at Harvard University in the 1870's. It is a game for two teams of eleven men on the field. The object of the game is to have the control of the ball and to score points by carrying it across the goal-line.

Baseball is a team game derived from the English game of cricket. It is played with a bat and ball by two teams of nine players each, on a field with four bases. Baseball is the national game in the USA and it is very popular in Canada too.

Basketball is a game which nowadays is popular all over the world. It was invented in 1891. During the ’20s the first US league championship was organized. In the ’70s American Championship was divided into two leagues: the ABA (American Basketball Association), which does not exist any longer and which played with a blue, red and white ball and the NBA (National Basketball Association).
There are more activities which Americans take part in such as golf, swimming, tennis, aerobics, wrestling, etc.
The capital of the usa
The beautiful city of Washington D.C. is the capital of the United States and the centre of its government. The capital was named after the first president George Washington and was founded in 1790. It is situated on the Potomac River in the District of Columbia. Washington is not the largest city in the USA. It has a population only 900000.
Washington D.C. has nothing characteristically American in it, as its conception is purely French. It has long wide avenues, gardens, beautiful parks and no skyscrapers at all. Washington is the residence of the President and the Congress of the USA. The White House is the President’s residence, the Capitol – the seat of the American Congress. The largest and the tallest among the buildings is the Capitol with its great House of Representatives and Senate Chamber. There are no skyscrapers because no other building must be taller than the Capitol. All american presidents except George Washington (the White House was not yet built in his time) have lived in the White House. It was built in 1799.

Washington is a large scientific and cultural centre, where there are many research institutes, five universities, the National Academy of Science and the Library of Congress.

There is one more well-known building in Washington – Pentagon, the residence of the US Military department. It is situated in the suburbs to the south of the Potomac.
places of sightseeing
The Pentagon is a building in Arlington, Virginia, near Washington, D.C. It has the offices of the U.S. Department of Defense. The Department of Defense includes the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, and Coast Guard.
The word pentagon comes from the Greek penta , which means “five”. A pentagon is a figure with five sides. The Pentagon has five rings. The rings are inside each other. Each ring has five sides. How tall do you think the Pentagon is? The answer is easy. Each ring is five stories tall.
The Pentagon is the largest office building in the world. It has seventeen miles of halls. People can get lost in the Pentagon. So the walls on each floor are a different color (brown, green, red, gray, and blue). This helps people to know where they are. There are also many maps in the halls.
The Pentagon is so big that it is like a city. Almost 30,000 people work there. The Pentagon has its own doc­tors, dentists, and nurses. It has its own banks and stores. It has a post office, a fire department, and a police depart­ment. It also has an important center for communications. This center guards the country. It is hundreds of feet under the ground. The Pentagon even has its own radio and TV stations.
New York
New York is one of the largest cities in the world and the biggest seaport. It's the financial capital of the country. It’s the business centre of the United States. The city is situated in New York State, at the mouth of the Hudson river. It’s population is over eight million. In early times the New York area was populated by Indians. It is here in Wall street many business offices, banks and world famous New York stock exchange are situated.
New York is an industrial and cultural centre of the country. The most important branches of industry are those producing vehicles, glass, chemicals. New York is also a great cultural centre. It has many museums, art galleries, theatres, ballet. There are two world-famous streets in New York – Broadway and Fifth Avenue. Broadway is the centre of the theatres and night life. Fifth Avenue is the great shopping, hotel and club avenue.
The Empire State Building is at Fifth Avenue. It's a 102-storeyed building, was built in 1931. The Metropolitan Museum of Art is at Fifth Avenue. It includes hundreds of world famous masterpieces and attracts many visitors.
The Statue of Liberty is the symbol of American democracy. It stands on Liberty Island in New York port. Liberty.
Today New York City is informally called “The Big Apple”, The origin of this name is unknown , but it is popular all over the world.
BEVERLY HILLS
Most visitors to Los Angeles, California want to go and see Beverly Hills. This is where you find the homes of the movie stars. But Beverly Hills is not Los Angeles. It is h small city next to Los Angeles.