I am going to tell you some informations about USA - United States of America.

(1) Location

So let us start with less interesting facts:

USA is situated mostly in central North America, but Alaska is in the north-west of the continent.

In 18 century we had got only 13 colonies of Great Britain located along Atlantic Seaboard and they had population of 2,6 million.

Now, At 9,83 million square kilometers lives 306 million people. And it makes that the USA is the third or fourth largest country by total area, and third by land area and by population.

4precent from the whole American population are Poles, whose left Poland. In our country live 38 million people, however aboard Poland live 21 million people. It's a one third of whole our population. Its huge. They live mainly in Chicago and Detroit.

(2) Regions

Americans often speak of their country as one of several large regions. These regions are cultural units rather than governmental units - formed by history and geography and shaped by the economics and literature.

The regions of the U.S. are :
New England, Mid-Atlantic, The South, Midwest , The Southwest, The West.

This country is a federal union of 50 states. The last two states, Alaska and Hawaii, joined the Union in 1959.

Washington D.C. is the capital of the United States of America where is located official President's residence - The White House.

In 2008 people voted for the president. And they chose Barack Obama whose is the head of the Federal constitutional republic (republika prezydencka) now.

(3) Symbols, holidays

USA has got a motto: “In God we trust”

This is the flag of The United States of America: thirteen horizontal stripes of Red alternating with white with a blue rectangle which has 50 small stars. The fifty stars on the flag represent the fifty U.S. states and the thirteen stripes represent the original thirteen colonies.

Now something about holidays in USA.

People in every culture celebrate holidays. Although the word "holiday" literally means "holy day," most American holidays are not religious but commemorative in nature and origin. In the United States, the word "holiday" is synonymous with "celebration"

The federal government accepted ten following holidays:

New Year's Day - 1 January

Martin Luther King Day - third Monday in January (because Protestantism is the Americans religion)
Presidents' Day - third Monday in February
Memorial Day - last Monday in May
Independence Day - July 4 (like the 11 of November in our country)
Labor Day - first Monday in September (day when all workers have holiday)
Columbus Day - second Monday in October
Veterans' Day - second Monday in November ( annual American holiday honoring military veterans)
Thanksgiving Day - fourth Thursday in November
Christmas Day - December 25

(4) Traveling

The USA has some interesting places to vistit:

Washington is closely associated with the history of the United States. Here is no skyscrapers what is atypical in the USA. Being here absolutely it is necessary to visit: the library of the congress, university of John Hopkins, world bank, the National Museum, as well as a lot of other buildings.

New York is one of the biggest metropolises certainly in world. Being here you have to see Empire State Building, statue of the freedom, Wall street, brooklin brigde.

Los Angeles, is located in the California on the Pacific Ocean. We can meet here stars well-known for the screen. You have to remember about Hollywood and Disneyland.

USA hasn't got well-known historical places and monuments. Americans situated their national identity in the glories of nature. Here “huge” is always beautiful: waterfall Niagara , Grand Canyon. National Park Grand Canyon, it was created in 1918 and he belongs to oldest in the USA. His total area is 4934 square kilometers.

Cuisine

Now some about cuisine of the United States.

Because of the huge area of the country it is not surprise that we can find lots of variants of regional kitchen. For example on the eastern coast fish dishes are dominating. Next on the centre west (Midwest) a corn and a beef are more universal.

Style of the American food was popularized worldwide. Practically in every country it is possible to eat the grilled dish or the fast food.

When we are thinking about American food we have got in mind:

hot-dog, hamburger, apple pie, coca-cola, cheeseburger, sandwich with jam and nut butter, pancakes with maple syrup.

Fun facts and nonsense

1. Because of overweight, one Man (his weight:225kg) lose his job and stop to pay off his credit. Court of law in Cansas convict him on restraint and lose 50kg.

2. In Missouri women cant wearing hats, which could make children frighten.

3. In Alabama state is forbidden to play checkers(warcaby) in Sundays.

4. Girls under age (under 18 years old) from Oregon cant drink coffe after 7 pm in public places.

5. In Los Angeles husband can beat his wife when his belt is under 3,6 cm width.

6. In san Francisco washing cars by used underwear is punished.

7. Passing girl on Little Rock Street is punished.

8. In Texas is forbidden to having sex in cars.

9. Americans invented absurd thing. This is insect ball - On stick attached to your favorite hat is a little ball with substance for insects. This specific attract insects and then they glue to that.

Lifestyle

Everybody heard about American style in life, wearing, weddings..

For many years on television, on the radio everyone was admiring the USA. Everyone was curious about American money, army, and their lifestyle. In times of PRL people were thinking about USA as rich country. Cowboys, sheriffs and robbers in westerns were the favorite heroes. Our parents were wondering about original jeans or about bottle of coca-cola.

But now, people who visited USA know that the country is different like in their mind. the centre and High Streets are dirty. The New York underground is very old and yet still not-repaired. The view of the rat on some stations isn't also a novelty at all for the New Yorker.

Language

In the end I want to tell you something about American English.

American English is type of English language which is used in USA. Americans have got their own vocabulary which is a little bit different than British English. For example:

Polski	Brytyjski	Amerykański
Metro	underground, tube	subway
czipsy	Crisps	chips
Szary	Grey	gray
Cukierek	Candy	sweet
Spodnie	Trousers	pants
Apteka	chemist's	drugstore
Sklep	Shop	store
Film	Film	movie
Jesień	Autumn	fall
Ogród	garden	yard
Bielizna	Underwear	smalls
Tennisówki	Gym shoes	Sneakers
Piłka nożna	football	soccer
Płaszcz przeciwdeszczowy	mackintosh	raincoat

Istnieje spora różnica w brytyjskim i amerykańskim angielskim, a poniżej poza kilkoma zasadami znajduje się lista wybranych słów. Każdy powinien się zdecydować którego angielskiego używa i być konsekwentnym w swoim wyborze. Czasem różnicę widać jedynie w końcówce wyrazu, np.
- w brytyjskim angielskim (BrE) wyraz kończy się na "our" (neighbour), a w amerykańskim (AmE) "or" (neighbor);
- w BrE wyraz kończy się na "ise" (penalise), a w AmE na "ize" (penalize);
- w BrE wyraz kończy się na "re" (centre), a w AmE na "er" (center);
- w BrE wyraz kończy się na "ogue" (dialogue), a w AmE na "og" (dialog).

W przypadku mowy o posiadaniu, w brytyjskim angielskim częściej używana jest forma "have got", a w amerykańskim "have", np.:
- I have got a nice house. (BrE);
- I have a nice house. (AmE);

Czas Present Perfect w BrE używany jest do mowy o zdarzeniach z niedalekiej przeszłości mających wpływ na teraźniejszość, np. "I've just finished doing my homework.", jednak w AmE jest on rzadziej używany i zastępowany Past Simple, chociaż obie formy uważane są w AmE za poprawne.

Trzecie formy czasowników nieregularnych czasem różnią się w BrE i AmE, np. forma Past Participle od czasownika "get" to "got" w BrE, a "gotten" w AmE. Jeśli czasownik nieregularny w Past Participle ma 2 formy, np. "learnt/learned", wtedy zwykle w BrE użyjemy formy nieregularnej "learnt", a w AmE regularnej "learned".

Różnice widoczne są również w przyimkach, np. "w weekend" to "at the weekend" (BrE) albo "on the weekend" (AmE).

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Polski wyraz	Brytyjski wyraz	Amerykański wyraz
bilet jednorazowy	single ticket	one way ticket
ciężarówka	lorry	truck
ciężka praca	labour	labor
ćwiczyć	practise	practice
dwa tygodnie	fortnight	two weeks
dzielnica	district	precinct
dzwonić	ring up/phone	call/phone
jesień	autumn	fall
kino (budynek)	cinema	(movie) theater
kino (sztuka)	the cinema	the movies
metro	underground/tube	subway
mieszkanie	flat	apartment
parking	car park	parking lot
parter	ground floor/level	first floor
piłka nożna	football/soccer	soccer
przejście podziemne	subway	underpass
rachunek	bill	check
semestr	term	semester
słodycze	sweets	candy
sprzedawca	salesman, shop assistant / sales assistant	salesclerk
szafa	wardrobe	closet
wakacje	holiday	vacation
wanna	bath	bathtub
winda	lift	elevator
wesołe miasteczko	funfair	amusement park

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