Egy kis földrajz – The world around us

Geographical features – The United States of America

The United States of America is the world’s third largest country in size. Located in North America, the country is bordered on the west by the Pacific Ocean and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean. Along the northern border is Canada and the southern border is Mexico.

More than twice the size of the European Union, the United States has high mountains in the West and a vast central plain. The landscape varies across the large country from tropical beaches in Florida to peaks in the Rocky Mountains, from rolling prairie lands and barren deserts in the West to dense wilderness areas in the Northeast and Northwest. Other main geographical features of the country are the Great Lakes, the Grand Canyon, the majestic Yosemite Valley, and the mighty Mississippi River. The Niagara Falls is one of nature’s most wonderful waterfalls and Alaska can also boast of over one thousand glaciers.

The Southwest is a beautiful stark landscape of prairie and desert. The American West, home of rolling plains and the cowboy, is diverse, ranging from endless wilderness to barren desert, coral reefs to Arctic tundra, Hollywood to Yellowstone.

The climate of the U.S. also varies depending on location. It is considered mostly temperate but is tropical in Hawaii and Florida, arctic in Alaska, semiarid in the plains west of the Mississippi River and arid in the Great Basin of the southwest.

mountain	plain	shore	peak
hegy	síkság	part	hegycsúcs
lake	canyon	valley	river
tó	kanyon	völgy	folyó
waterfall	glacier	desert	coral reef
vízesés	gleccser	sivatag	korallzátony

to be bordered – valami határol vaamit
mountain – hegy
plain – síkság
landscape – táj
to vary – váltakozik
beach – strand
peak – hegycsúcs
prairie land – préri vidék
barren – terméketlen
desert – sivatag
dense – sűrű
wilderness – vadon
lake – tó
canyon – kanyon
valley – völgy
waterfall – vízesés
glacier – gleccser
stark – kopár
rolling plain – dimbes-dombos síkság
coral reef – korall zátony
Artic tundra – sarkvidéki tundra
to depend on – függni valamitől
temperate – mérsékelt (éghajlat)
tropical – trópusi
artic – sarkvidéki
semiarid – félsivatagi (éghajlat)
arid – sivatagi (éghajlat)
basin – medence (földrajzi értelemben)