The U.S. Landscape (2997)

Coastal Plain ['koustəl plein] – прибрежная равнина

Riо Grande ['ri:ou 'grжndi] – p. Рио-Гранде

Chesapeake Bay ['t∫i:zpi:k bei] – залив Чизпик

Piedmont falls [pjə'moŋ fo:lz] – водопады Пьемонта

Interior Plains [in'tiəriə pleinz] – равнины внутри страны

If we look at the map of the USA, we can see high mountains, rocky coasts, dry empty deserts, powerful rivers, wide plains, grasslands, lakes of all sizes, great forests, and sunny beaches. The great surface divisions of the United States are largely determined by the various mountain ranges that cross the country from north to south. The continental part of the USA consists of two highland regions and two lowland regions.

The interior lowlands are called the midland or the Midwest. It is the core, the heartland of the country.

Between the Rocky Mountains and the Appalachian Mountains are the central lowlands, which are called the prairie, and the eastern lowland, called the Mississippi Valley. The Mississippi River runs through the centre of this plain. The eastern sides of the great plain are bordered on the north by the Great Lakes, which are thought to contain about half the world’s total supply of fresh water. It is the greatest plain of the USA. The Mississippi River is the traditional dividing line between "East" and "West". But it is the Great Plains that symbolizes the beginning of the West to the Americans.

The lowland near the west coast is the Great Valley of California, lying between the Sierra Nevada and the Coast Ranges.

Just at the eastern and central United States are mostly lowland, much of the west is mountainous, the country is commonly rugged and picturesque there.

The highland regions are the Appalachian Mountains in the east and the Cordillera in the west. The highest peak in the Appalachian Mountains is 2.037 metres high. The highest peak of Cordillera in the USA is 4.418 metres high. The Cordillera is not a continuous chain, but an assemblage of ranges separated by large plateaus and basins. In fact the Cordillera is a great western mountain system consisting of a number of high ranges. Unlike the Cordillera, the Appalachian Mountains in the east are fairly low. It is the oldest mountain system in the USA. These mountains are with rounded contours and forested to the top. Four parallel mountain belts alternating with valleys of best soils in eastern North America made up the Appalachians. The series of western ranges, most of them paralleling the Pacific coast, are the Coast Ranges, the Sierra Nevada of California and the Cascade Range of Oregon and Washington and the Tehachapi Pass and San Bernardino Mountains. The highest mountains on the east are the Rocky Mountains, or the Rockies, the system of parallel mountain ranges, which stretch from Alaska down almost to the south of the country. For long, the Rockies cut off the Pacific seaboard of Canada and the USA from the rest of North America. In the early 19^th century they were visited only by bear, puma, deer, and other furbearing animals. Later, the discovery of gold, copper, coal, silver, lead, and iron, of the oil-fields in Wyoming, and of one of the largest phosphate areas in the world in Idaho led to the building of roads and railroads.

Within the Rocky Mountains there are many national parks where trees, plants, animals and birds are protected. Several great rivers rise in the Rocky Mountains, including the Colorado, the Columbia, the Rio Grande, and several of the great tributaries of the Mississippi.

The melting snows of the great summit areas and the rainfall of the windward eastern slopes of the mountains supply these rivers abundantly with water.

Between the Rockies and the Sierra Nevada Cascade Mountain barrier to the west, lies the Great Basin, a group of vast plateaus containing most of the desert areas of the country, in the south with deep canyons.

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