USA

the United States (US or U.S.) and America, is a

federal constitutional republic consisting of fifty states and a federal district.[1] 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.

USA

simply referred to as the American flag, consists of thirteen

equal horizontal stripes of red (top and bottom) alternating with white, with a blue rectangle in the canton (referred to specifically as the "union") bearing fifty small, white, five-pointed stars arranged in nine offset horizontal rows of six stars (top and bottom) alternating with rows of five stars. The 50 stars on the flag represent the 50 states of the United States of America and the 13 stripes represent the thirteen British colonies that declared independence from the Kingdom of Great Britain and became the first states in the Union.[1] Nicknames for the flag include the "Stars and Stripes", "Old Glory",[2] and "The Star-Spangled Banner."

Flag of USA

late 19th century, while American football is now by several

measures the most popular spectator sport.[313] Basketball and ice hockey are the country's next two leading professional team sports. These four major sports, when played professionally, each occupy a season at different, but overlapping, times of the year. College football and basketball attract large audiences. Boxing and horse racing were once the most watched individual sports,[314] but they have been eclipsed by golf and auto racing, particularly NASCAR. While soccer is much less popular in the United States than many other nations (where it is called football), it is played widely at the youth and amateur levels. Tennis and many outdoor sports are popular as well.
While most major U.S. sports have evolved out of European practices, basketball, volleyball, skateboarding, snowboarding, and cheerleading are American inventions, which have become popular in other countries. Lacrosse and surfing arose from Native American and Native Hawaiian activities that predate Western contact. Eight Olympic Games have taken place in the United States. The United States has won 2,301 medals at the Summer Olympic Games, more than any other country,[315] and 253 in the Winter Olympic Games, the second most by 2006.[316]

Sports.

countries. Wheat is the primary cereal grain. Traditional American cuisine

uses indigenous ingredients, such as turkey, venison, potatoes, sweet potatoes, corn, squash, and maple syrup, which were consumed by Native Americans and early European settlers.
Slow-cooked pork and beef barbecue, crab cakes, potato chips, and chocolate chip cookies are distinctively American foods. Soul food, developed by African slaves, is popular around the South and among many African Americans elsewhere. Syncretic cuisines such as Louisiana creole, Cajun, and Tex-Mex are regionally important.
Characteristic dishes such as apple pie, fried chicken, pizza, hamburgers, and hot dogs derive from the recipes of various immigrants. French fries, Mexican dishes such as burritos and tacos, and pasta dishes freely adapted from Italian sources are widely consumed.[309] Americans generally prefer coffee to tea. Marketing by U.S. industries is largely responsible for making orange juice and milk ubiquitous breakfast beverages.[310]
The American fast food industry, the world's largest, pioneered the drive-through format in the 1930s. Fast food consumption has sparked health concerns. During the 1980s and 1990s, Americans' caloric intake rose 24%;[309] frequent dining at fast food outlets is associated with what public health officials call the American "obesity epidemic".[311] Highly sweetened soft drinks are widely popular, and sugared beverages account for nine percent of American caloric intake.[312]

Food

wide variety of ethnic groups, traditions, and values.[7][287] Aside from

the now small Native American and Native Hawaiian populations, nearly all Americans or their ancestors immigrated within the past five centuries.[288] Mainstream American culture is a Western culture largely derived from the traditions of European immigrants with influences from many other sources, such as traditions brought by slaves from Africa.[7][289] More recent immigration from Asia and especially Latin America has added to a cultural mix that has been described as both a homogenizing melting pot, and a heterogeneous salad bowl in which immigrants and their descendants retain distinctive cultural characteristics.[7]
American culture is considered the most individualistic in the world.[290] The American Dream, or the perception that Americans enjoy high social mobility, plays a key role in attracting immigrants.[291] While the mainstream culture holds that the United States is a classless society,[292] scholars identify significant differences between the country's social classes, affecting socialization, language, and values.[293]
The American middle and professional class has initiated many contemporary social trends such as modern feminism, environmentalism, and multiculturalism.[294] Americans' self-images, social viewpoints, and cultural expectations are associated with their occupations to an unusually close degree.[295] While Americans tend greatly to value socioeconomic achievement, being ordinary or average is generally seen as a positive attribute.[296]

Culture.

Amendment of the U.S. Constitution guarantees the free exercise of

religion and forbids the establishment of any religious governance. In a 2002 study, 59% of Americans said that religion played a "very important role in their lives", a far higher figure than that of any other wealthy nation.[274] According to a 2007 survey, 78.4% of adults identified themselves as Christian,[275] down from 86.4% in 1990.[276]
Protestant denominations accounted for 51.3%, while Roman Catholicism, at 23.9%, was the largest individual denomination.[275] The total reporting non-Christian religions in 2007 was 4.7%, up from 3.3% in 1990.[276] Other religions include Judaism (1.7%), Buddhism (0.7%), Islam (0.6%), Hinduism (0.4%), and Unitarian Universalism (0.3%).[275] The survey also reported that 16.1% of Americans described themselves as agnostic, atheist, or simply having no religion, up from 8.2% in 1990.[275][276]
There are also Baha'i, Wiccan, Druid, Jain, Native American, humanist and deist communities.[277] Doubt about the existence of a god or gods is growing rapidly among Americans under 30.[278] Polls show that overall American confidence in organized religion is declining,[279] and that younger Americans in particular are becoming increasingly irreligious.[280]

Religion.

there is no official language at the federal level, some

laws—such as U.S. naturalization requirements—standardize English. In 2010, about 230 million, or 80% of the population aged five years and older, spoke only English at home. Spanish, spoken by 12% of the population at home, is the second most common language and the most widely taught second language.[269][270] Some Americans advocate making English the country's official language, as it is in at least twenty-eight states.[6] Both Hawaiian and English are official languages in Hawaii by state law.[271]
While neither has an official language, New Mexico has laws providing for the use of both English and Spanish, as Louisiana does for English and French.[272] Other states, such as California, mandate the publication of Spanish versions of certain government documents including court forms.[273] Many jurisdictions with large numbers of non-English speakers produce government materials, especially voting information, in the most commonly spoken languages in those jurisdictions.
Several insular territories grant official recognition to their native languages, along with English: Samoan and Chamorro are recognized by American Samoa and Guam, respectively; Carolinian and Chamorro are recognized by the Northern Mariana Islands; Spanish is an official language of Puerto Rico and is more widely spoken than English there.

Language.

regulated by the United States Department of Education through restrictions

on federal grants. In most states, children are required to attend school from the age of six or seven (generally, kindergarten or first grade) until they turn eighteen (generally bringing them through twelfth grade, the end of high school); some states allow students to leave school at sixteen or seventeen.[230] About 12% of children are enrolled in parochial or nonsectarian private schools. Just over 2% of children are homeschooled.[231]
The United States has many competitive private and public institutions of higher education. According to prominent international rankings, 13 or 15 American colleges and universities are ranked among the top 20 in the world.[232][233] There are also local community colleges with generally more open admission policies, shorter academic programs, and lower tuition. Of Americans twenty-five and older, 84.6% graduated from high school, 52.6% attended some college, 27.2% earned a bachelor's degree, and 9.6% earned graduate degrees.[234] The basic literacy rate is approximately 99%.[1][235] The United Nations assigns the United States an Education Index of 0.97, tying it for 12th in the world.[236]

Education.

year. Energy consumption per capita is 7.8 tons of oil equivalent

per year, the 10th highest rate in the world. In 2005, 40% of this energy came from petroleum, 23% from coal, and 22% from natural gas. The remainder was supplied by nuclear power and renewable energy sources.[225] The United States is the world's largest consumer of petroleum.[226] For decades, nuclear power has played a limited role relative to many other developed countries, in part due to public perception in the wake of a 1979 accident. In 2007, several applications for new nuclear plants were filed.[227] The United States has 27% of global coal reserves.[228]

Energy.

Catayev Pavel 6-B class.