Introduction
The United States represents a series of ideals. For most of those who have come to its shores, it means the ideal of freedom—the right to worship as one chooses, to seek a job appropriate to one's skills and interests, to be judged equally before the law. It means the ideal of the frontier, of overcoming obstacles—taming the West, curing diseases, voyaging to the planets. It means the ideal of progress—that personal life and political, social, and economic institutions will improve through hard work, fair play, and honest endeavor. It means the ideal of democracy—the right to be heard as an individual, the right to cast a ballot in a free election, the right to dream of a better life and to work toward one's goals. In order to understand the United States, it is necessary to consider the role its landscape and its ideals have played in its development.
The mainland United States is located between Mexico on the south and Canada on the north and between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. Two of its 50 states, however, are far removed from the continental core: Hawaii lies in the Pacific Ocean, 2,400 miles (3,900 kilometers) from San Francisco; Alaska, in the northwestern corner of North America, is nearly 700 miles (1,100 kilometers) from Seattle, Wash. If the outlying states are included, the total area is 3,675,267 square miles (9,518,898 square kilometers), making the United States the fourth largest country in the world. The United States also ranks fourth in population. At the 2000 census its population was 281,421,906.
The American landscape has evolved over millions of years. Mountains have risen to great heights only to be worn down by the forces of erosion. Rivers have changed course. Plains and plateaus have been alternately raised and lowered. Glaciers have created new landforms and moved rich soil from one location to another. Wetlands have become deserts; arid wastes have become filled with lakes. Landscape changes have often meant extinction for native plants and animals, and their replacements have been forced to adapt to new environments. Change is an axiom of the American landscape.
w511390197,你说翻译机和人工翻译。人工翻译总没有“克服obstacles-taming西方”和“它的意思是理想的progress-that"和“它的意思是理想的democracy-the权利被听见就个人而言”吧,还骂我!不负责任!不想翻译就算了!