Читать книгу Anglo-American Cultural Studies - Jody Skinner - Страница 11

mountains, valleys, canyons, lakesDo you like outdoor recreation? What about the wide open spaces? Wet or dry, cold or hot? Some of the same barriers we just heard about that made the settlement of the continent so difficult are now some of the top tourist attractions in the country. Interesting features might include the Great LakesGreat Lakes if you enjoy water recreation; the RockyRocky MountainsRocky Mountains if you enjoy climbing, hiking, and skiing; Death ValleyDeath Valley if you enjoy being at one of the lowest points on Earth (the part of Death Valley called BadwaterBadwater is actually the lowest point in North AmericaAmerica). Unusual physical features would certainly include the Grand CanyonGrand Canyon in ArizonaArizona formed by the ColoradoColorado RiverColorado River over millions of years, one of the natural wonders of the world. The Grand Canyon National Park is one of the oldest in the US and extends from one man-made lake, Lake PowellLake Powell, formed by the controversial Glen Canyon DamGlen Canyon Dam in the mid 1960s, to Lake MeadLake Mead, one of the largest man-made lakes in the world formed by one of the largest dams in the world, the Hoover DamHoover Dam, which when built in the mid 1930s was the largest concrete structure in the world. Of course there are also natural lakes; some of the largest in the world make up the Great Lakes, which partly form the border between CanadaCanada and the US and which have the illustrative names Lake SuperiorLake Superior (the biggest as the name implies), Lake HuronLake Huron (named after the Huron Indians), Lake MichiganLake Michigan (which forms part of the border of the state of … MichiganMichigan of course and is the only one of the five completely within the US), Lake ErieLake Erie (named after the Erie Indians), and Lake OntarioLake Ontario, the smallest and most easterly, which has the same name as the Canadian province on its northern banks. All five lakes taken together make up an area larger than the UK. What lies or better “falls” between [10]Lake Erie and Lake Ontario? The most famous waterfall in the US: Niagara FallsNiagara Falls (the word stress in Niagara is on the second syllable unless you’re speaking GermanGerman).

riversAlthough the Grand CanyonGrand Canyon wouldn’t exist without the ColoradoColorado RiverColorado River, the Colorado isn’t even half as long as the MississippiMississippi. (Remember to pronounce the “a” in Colorado like an “ah”; Germans commonly mispronounce the name. And if you can’t remember how many s’s and p’s are in Mississippi, then just call it Ol’ Man River, its name in a famous song from the musicalmusical Show Boat.) The Mississippi RiverMississippi River’s origin lies in the far north of MinnesotaMinnesota fairly close to the Canadian border, and when joined on the west by the MissouriMissouri and on the east by the OhioOhio, it drains most of the vast Great PlainsGreat Plains in the center of the country before expanding into a delta area in New OrleansNew Orleans and flowing into the Gulf of MexicoGulf of Mexico.

samenessAmericans not only crossed the enormous Great PlainsGreat Plains on their movement westwards, they also managed to turn these vast open areas into fertile grazing and farmingfarming land and to exploit the mineral resources – in spite of extreme temperatures and lack of rain, which in the worst of times can lead to conditions found in the Dust BowlDust Bowl, a part of the southern Great Plains where extensive farming led to extreme soil erosion. Perhaps the most interesting and unusual physical feature of the US compared with Western Europe is the sameness of the landscape, clearly evidenced in the Great Plains: you can drive for hours and hours through TexasTexas and not see anything else than fields so flat that on a clear day and with good eyesight you can almost persuade yourself that you can experience the curvature of the earth by staring into the distance (and since much of Texas is “dry”, meaning you can’t legally purchase alcohol, you’ll probably even be sober).

And if this book were only about interesting and unusual features, then we could continue westwards and describe in detail the RockyRocky MountainsRocky Mountains, Death ValleyDeath Valley, Mount Saint HelensMount Saint Helens, the Hawaiian Islands …, but let’s leave that to the tourist brochures and films and turn our sights to some of those aspects not usually on the ordinary tourist’s route.