The United States
The United States covers a large part of the North American continent. Its neighbours are Canada to the north, and Mexico to the south.
When this land first became a nation, after winning its independence from Engand, it had thirteen states. Each of the states was represented of the American flag by a star. All these states were in the eastern part of the continent. As the nation grew toward the west, new states were added and new states appeared on the flag. For a long time, there were 48 states. In 1959, however, two more stars were added to the flag, representing the new states of Alaska and Hawaii.
Indians were the first inhabitants (居民) of the land which is now the United States. There are still many thousands of the descendants (後代) of these original inhabitants living in all parts of the country. Sometimes it is said that the Indians are "the only real Americans."
Most Americans, however, are descendants of people who came from all over the world to find a new life in a new land. Those who came first and in greatest numbers to make their homes on the eastern coast of North America were mostly from England. It is for that reason that the language of the United States is English and that its culture and customs are more like those of England than of any other country in the world.
[點評]
作者用簡單明了的語言告訴了我們美國及美國人的由來，使我們對美國有了初步的了解。
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美國
美國佔去北美大陸很大一部分土地。它北鄰加拿大，南接墨西哥。
這片土地剛從英國獨立出來，成為一個國家的時候，隻有十三個州，每個州在美國國旗上由一顆星來代表。這些州都在東部。當這個國家不斷向西擴大，就增加了新的州，同時它們也出現在國旗上。很長一段時間，美國有48個州，可是，到1959年，國旗上又多了兩顆星，分別代表阿拉斯加和夏威夷。
印地安人是如今叫做美國的這塊土地上的最初居民。現在在全國各地仍然居住著許多這些原始居民的後裔。有時人們說印安人才是“真正的美國人”。
不過，大部分美國人是來自世界各地要在這個新世界裏對找新生活的人的後代。那些最早大批來到北美東海岸建立家園的人大部來自英格蘭，也是由于這個原因，美國的國語為英語，而它的文化習俗也與英國的更為相像。