(pages 126 – 129)

(pages 126–129)

A Vast, Scenic Land• Forty-eight states in the United States

are joined together inside a common boundary.

• The United States ranks as the fourth-largest country in the world.

• These states are said to be contiguous.

From Sea to Shining Sea4

• Only Russia, Canada, and China are larger.

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A Vast, Scenic Land (cont.)


• A broad lowland runs along the eastern and southeastern coasts of the United States.

• Boston, New York City, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Washington, D.C., all lie in the Atlantic Coastal Plain.

• These cities form an almost continuous line of settlement.

• The eastern lowlands are called the Atlantic Coastal Plain.

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• Geographers call this kind of huge urban area a megalopolis.

• The lowlands in the southeast border the Gulf of Mexico and are called the Gulf Coastal Plain.

• The Appalachian Mountains run along the western edge of the Atlantic Coastal Plain.

• These mountains are the oldest range in North America.




• West of the Appalachian Mountains are the vast Interior Plains.

• The eastern part of the Interior Plains is the Central Lowland area. The Great Lakes lie here.

• The western part of the Interior Plains is the Great Plains.

• These rich grasslands once provided food for millions of buffalo and the Native Americans who lived there.




• Today farmers grow grains and ranchers raise cattle here.

• West of the Great Plains rise the majestic Rocky Mountains—the longest mountain range in North America.

• The Continental Divide is a ridge that runs along these mountains and separates rivers that flow west toward the Pacific Ocean from those that flow east toward the Mississippi River.




• Near the Pacific coast are two other mountain ranges—the Cascade Range and the Sierra Nevada.

• Mountain ranges also cover parts of Alaska.

• Mt McKinley, the tallest mountain in North America, is located here.




• Some of the Hawaiian Islands have coral reefs, formed by the skeletons of small sea animals.

• These structures lie just above or just below the surface of the water.


(page 130)

A Variety of ClimatesFrom Sea to Shining Sea

4

• The United States has many different climates because it lies squarely in the middle latitude region—about 23½˚N to 60˚N latitude.

• The northeastern United States has a humid continental climate.

• Winters in the region are cold, and summers are hot and long.

• The southeastern states have a humid subtropical climate.


A Variety of Climates (cont.)


• Winters are milder than in the north, and summers are hot and humid.

• The Pacific coast from northern California up to Washington has a marine west coast climate.

• Temperatures are mild year-round, and winds from the Pacific bring plenty of rainfall.

• Southern California has a Mediterranean climate.

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• People in this area enjoy dry, warm summers and mild, rainy winters.

• Much of the western Great Plains has a dry, steppe climate.

• The Southwest has a hot, desert climate.

• People in Alaska experience the cold climates of high latitude regions.

• The southern tip of Florida is the only part of the contiguous United States with a tropical climate. (page 130)

A Variety of Climates (cont.)


(pages 131–132)

The World’s Economic Leader4

• In the United States, the free enterprise system allows individuals the right to run businesses and to make a profit with limited interference from the government.

• People are free to work in whatever job they wish.

An Economic Leader


The World’s Economic Leader (cont.)4

• The United States is rich in resources and has built the world’s largest economy—in terms of how much money is made from the sale of its goods and services.

• The United States exports more food than any other nation.

• Yet food makes up only about 2 percent of the value of all goods produced in the country.

An Economic Leader


The World’s Economic Leader (cont.)4

• Manufacturing makes up nearly one-fifth of the American economy.

• A business that provides services to people instead of producing goods is called a service industry.

• The largest part of the American economy is services.

An Economic Leader


(pages 133–135)

America’s Economic Regions• The Northeast region’s rocky soil and

steep hills are a challenge to the farmers.

• As a result, manufacturing, trade, and fishing are the heartbeat of this region.

• The area boasts plenty of deep-water ports and swiftly moving rivers, though.

• With rich soil on most of the Coastal Plains, agriculture flourishes in the Southern states.

4An Economic Leader


America’s Economic Regions (cont.)

• The traditional image of the South as an agricultural region is changing, however.

• New manufacturing centers and service industries have grown.

• As you tour the South, you see expanding cities, growing industries, and diverse populations.

4An Economic Leader



• The products of the Midwest feed people and animals all over the world.

• Many of the Midwest’s rivers are navigable, or wide and deep enough to allow the passage of ships.

• Dairy farms in the upper Midwest produce milk and cheese.

4

• The Midwest is called America’s “breadbasket” because it is covered with grain and soybean fields.

An Economic Leader



• With its dry climate, the Interior West region discourages farming.

• Large areas are used for raising cattle and sheep.

• Yet grasses thrive in much of the land, and where the land is irrigated, you find agriculture.

4

• As a result, many cities in the Midwest are major ports—even though they are far from an ocean.

An Economic Leader



• The fertile valleys of the Pacific region produce large amounts of food.

• Fishing and lumber are major industries as well.

4

• The discovery of gold and silver in the mountains and riverbeds drew settlers here more than 150 years ago.

An Economic Leader


(pages 135–136)

In the Twenty-First Century4

• Americans burn fossil fuels—coal, oil, and natural gas—to power their factories and run their cars.

• The pollution from the burning of fossil fuels combines with water vapor to produce acid rain.

• Acid rain damages the environment.

• Trash produced by the American way of life is placed in landfills, or areas where trash companies dump the waste they collect.

An Economic Leader


4

• As landfills grow higher and higher, many people are recycling.

• A strength of the American economy is the ability to develop new technology.

• Quality schools produce educated and creative people who help the country be a leader in many fields, such as medicine and computer technology.

In the Twenty-First Century (cont.)

An Economic Leader


4In the Twenty-First Century (cont.)

• The United States leads the world in the value of all its imports and exports.

• The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) was created to avoid barriers such as tariffs or quotas that would prevent goods from flowing freely between the United States, Canada, and Mexico.

• American leaders promote free trade, which means removing trade barriers.

An Economic Leader


(pages 145–149)

A Rich History4

• Experts believe that the first Americans came from Asia on a land bridge that connected Asia with present-day Alaska.

• Their descendants today are known as Native Americans.

• Around A.D. 1500, Europeans arrived in the Americas.

• Because of the abundance of raw materials, European countries set up colonies in the Americas.

The Americans


A Rich History (cont.)

The Americans4

• The British colonists soon began to see themselves as Americans.

• From 1775 to 1781, the Americans fought a war and won their independence from Great Britain.

• In 1787 a group of American leaders met to create a new national government. They wrote the document called the United States Constitution, the basis for all our laws.


The Americans4

• Our government is based upon the principle of democracy, or rule by the people.

• The United States has a representative democracy, in which voters choose leaders who make and enforce the laws.

• People elected by the voters of each state serve in state or national government.



The Americans4

• In this manner, the United States is a federal republic, or a government divided between national and state powers with a president who leads the national government.

• By the mid-1800s, the South had built an economy based on slave labor, an issue that divided the country.

• Several Southern states seceded, or withdrew from the national government, bringing about the Civil War in 1861.



The Americans4

• At the end of the war, the Southern states were brought back into the Union, and slavery was abolished.

• Following the Civil War, economic growth attracted another great wave of people from other countries.

• These people were immigrants, or people who move to a new country to make a permanent home.



The Americans4

• During the early 1900s, the United States became one of the leading economies in the world.

• The United States participated in the two World Wars.

• After World War II, some groups of Americans—women, African Americans, and Hispanic Americans—struggled for equality.



The Americans4

• After the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, Americans no longer felt as safe as they once had.

• The Department of Homeland Security was created.



(pages 149–150)

One Out of Many• About 292 million people live in the

United States, making it the third most populous country in the world.

• Because the United States is a nation of immigrants, it has a diverse population with various ethnic groups, including Europeans, African Americans, and Hispanics.

• The main language of the United States is English, but you can hear many different languages spoken on American streets.

The Americans4


One Out of Many (cont.)

• Religion has an important influence on American life, with about 80 percent of Americans saying they are religious.

• The most common religion is Christianity, with Judaism, Islam, Buddhism, and Hinduism also being practiced.

• At one time, our nation was made up entirely of rural, or countryside, areas.

• Now we are a nation of urban, or city, dwellers.

The Americans4


One Out of Many (cont.)

• Americans often move from cities to the suburbs, or smaller communities surrounding a larger city.

The Americans4


(pages 150–151)

The Americans4

American Culture • Many American artists and writers

captured their environments with their works.

• Winslow Homer painted the stormy waters of the North Atlantic.

• Georgia O’Keeffe painted the colorful deserts of the Southwest.

• A common theme in American literature focuses on the lives of the ethnic groups that settled here.


The Americans4

• For example, the poetry of Langston Hughes and the novels of Toni Morrison portray the triumphs and sorrows of African Americans.

American Culture (cont.)

• Many Americans spend leisure time at home, outdoors, and at spectator sports.

• A recreational activity of many Americans is to visit a national park, or an area set aside to protect wilderness and wildlife.


Documents

(pages 126 – 129)