Transcript of 120 - 5-Minute English: U.S. Geography

hi everybody my name is Shawna and this is the American English podcast my goal here is to teach you the English spoken in the United States through common Expressions pronunciation tips and interesting cultural Snippets or stories I hope to keep this fun useful and interesting let's do it thank you hi everyone welcome back this is episode number 120 geography of the United States today you're going to learn so many fun facts about the us all of which have to do with geography you'll hear about the topography so the physical features of the land that make it visually unique and you'll also learn about the population so where residents are distributed throughout the country distributed I'm going to say that one more time not distributed but distributed emphasis on that RI there in the middle in any case by the end of this episode you should have a solid geographical overview of the United States and be able to talk about geography in English this is a five minute English episode so in a matter of five minutes or close to it I hope you'll hear loads of topic specific vocabulary so much that it can be overwhelming a smart human would not be able to retain all of the vocabulary in this lesson after listening once first off you should listen twice and secondly don't stress this is an advanced listening exercise so to make the most of it you can do one of two things first you could you know look up all of the vocab words on your own and take notes and then push yourself to master all of the terms on your own or you could sign up to premium content at americanenglishpodcast.com the premium content for five minute English episodes includes everything you need to learn and retain the challenging terms you hear in the audio you'll be given the definitions for key vocabulary exercises to practice it as well as quizzes to make sure you've learned what you should have you also get a pronunciation video and much more many of my students who have signed up to premium content have written and told me how much they enjoy the supplementary material and how much it has helped their learning process so once again to access premium content go to americanenglishpodcast.com or you can find the direct link inside of the episode notes before we begin I need to mention that today we are talking about the 50 U.S states I'm not talking about U.S territories which include Guam Puerto Rico U.S Virgin Islands Mariana Islands or American Samoa but uh we will talk about those in a future episode each of the places I just mentioned are unique they have a unique relationship with the US and their own story their own vibrant culture they deserve their own episodes so stay tuned for that if anyone listening is from a U.S territory or a disputed territory I'd love to talk to you please write to me on Instagram you can find me at American English podcast without any further Ado let's begin talking about the United States [Music] take a deep breath and look around you for as far as you can see there are grassy fields and cows you're in Lebanon not the country Lebanon Kansas the geographic center of the contiguous United States smack dab in the middle if you drive to the West Coast it'll take you around 22 hours to the east coast another 22. a cross-country road trip would take almost two days driving Non-Stop that's a big country in fact if countries were ranked by size the U.S would come in Forth after Russia Canada and China it's 3.8 million square miles and I should say third or fourth depending on who you're talking to by now you probably know that the US is part of North America and there are 50 states each represented by a star on the American flag the 48 connected States the ones sandwiched between Canada and Mexico we call the contiguous U.S or more casually the lower 48. the other two Alaska and Hawaii are really out there Alaska which is our biggest state one-sixth the size of Europe sits just 55 miles away from Russia it has Arctic temperatures and long icy Winters Hawaii our southernmost State and Island state has the same latitude as Mexico City and boasts tropical weather year round just like Southern Florida the states are spread out in fact we have six different time zones Hawaiian Alaskan Pacific Mountain Central and Eastern Time my question to you is if you could live anywhere in the U.S where would that be approximately 332 million people live in the states ranking third after China and India and according to the U.S census a whopping 29.1 percent of the population live near the coast there are three main coastlines the Pacific Coast or West Coast is where you'll find Washington Oregon and California as well as icy cold Pacific ocean water and chilly nights while you'll find tons of beachgoers and sunbathers in SoCal AKA Southern California up north the beaches are less crowded and are often part of Scenic hiking trails the Atlantic ocean is off of the East Coast with a number of famous beach cities and towns from the Latin infused Miami and Southern Florida all the way to the rich New England beach towns up north like the Hamptons Cape Cod Nantucket and Martha's Vineyard just picture Rocky coasts with lighthouses and Colonial architecture the Gulf of Mexico is sometimes called the Third Coast and is a popular destination for divers who want to visit its coral reefs and shipwrecks the coastline is spotted with oil rigs one-sixth of the u.s's crude oil is taken from there the gulf also hugs a region that we call the South which is actually the southeast from Texas to the Atlantic coast that area the South has a reputation for being hot and humid especially near its Wetlands such as swamps and rivers in wintertime you can also find snow at higher elevations just take a trip to the Appalachian mountain range the Ozarks or head to the Great Plains just west of the Mississippi River speaking of rivers the U.S has over 250 000 of them the longest is the Missouri River a tributary of the Mississippi our second largest the Mississippi though is debatably more popular it's the setting for many classic American novels like Huckleberry Finn and The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and it plays an important role in U.S history since it is where Native American tribes and settlers chose to live fish and harvest for thousands of years take a look at a map the river stretches from north to south bordering 10 different states and looks like a man with a top hat many beaches in the United States are not near the ocean the Great Lakes region is spotted with charming beach towns and cozy getaway spots ten percent of the U.S population call it home there are five lakes Superior Michigan Huron Erie and Ontario and we share all of them except Lake Michigan with our Northern neighbor Canada together they make up 84 percent of the US's fresh surface water Lake Superior is the largest of them and is also the second largest lake in the world the states in the Great Lake Region and just to the west of it are referred to as the Midwest which can be confusing because although it is mid or Central it's nowhere near the West Coast it's north and Central the name was created back when everything west of the Appalachian Mountains was considered West there you'll find Rolling Hills Plains and grasslands the Northeast is home to many of the original 13 colonies and also to a few famous cities like Boston Philadelphia and New York the region is also known for its distinct Seasons photographers flock during fall to catch the leaves changing colors while the most densely populated city is New York City with 8.8 million residents and the most populated state is California with around 40 million there are areas of the United States that are stunning and very sparsely populated the southwest Arizona New Mexico parts of Utah and debutable California is known to be dry or arid long Barren highways in the desert lined with cactus lead visitors to old western Corrals sections of Route 66 in the iconic Red Rocks that the Southwest are known for you can catch a sunset at the Grand Canyon admire red Sandstone arches at arches National Park the hoodoos at Bryce Canyon the valley of Zion or even have a tour of the Sandstone Buttes in Monument Valley with a Navajo guide how cool the West is also known for the Rockies which are popular for skiing Yellowstone National Park forts geothermal hot springs and Wildlife but perhaps the most challenging Adventure would be a hiking trip to the highest peak in the country Denali which sits at twenty thousand three hundred feet above sea level in Alaska at negative 282 feet below sea level Death Valley is the lowest point in the country and can be found in eastern California just north of the Mojave Desert on July 10 1913 the National Weather Service measured a record-breaking 134 degrees Fahrenheit there that's 56.7 degrees Celsius what many find surprising is the fact that in spite of its name Death Valley is known for life in springtime you might just spot a big horned sheep walking through fields of yellow flowers maybe even a roadrunner BB come to the U.S while on the west coast you should consider checking out Redwood National Park to see Hyperion the tallest tree in the world at 380 feet tall or check out General Sherman the most massive tree in the world a sequoia at 52 500 cubic feet that's located in Sequoia National Park just up north you can check out the deep blue of Crater Lake in Oregon the deepest lake in the U.S or take a trip to Bonville salt flats in Utah or the Great Sand Dunes of Southern Colorado take a lot of pictures so your friends will come too [Music] I hope you enjoyed the talk about geography there's so much more that could be discussed here but this is a good first overview before I hang up today I do want to clarify a few facts about U.S geography that often confuse people the first being the capital of the U.S the capital of the U.S is Washington DC which was named after the first president of the U.S George Washington the man you'll see on our one dollar bill and also on the U.S quarter the capital also known as DC which stands for the District of Columbia is not in any state it's actually sandwiched between Maryland and Virginia it's on the east coast about four hours south of New York City the capital has nothing to do with Washington which is a state on the west coast to avoid confusion don't forget to say DC when you're talking about the U.S Capitol number two Americans do not agree on which states are technically within each region for example the South some people say that Northern Florida is part of the South other people don't include Florida at all Texas is sometimes in it sometimes it's left out sometimes it's considered part of the Southwest some people divide Texas in two it all depends it's related to culture it's related to the way that the land looks and yeah just wanted to clarify that sometimes even among Americans there is confusion same thing with California many people think Oh California that's not part of the Southwest whereas when they go to the eastern part of California with Death Valley and some of the cactus that you see you kind of get that image of the Southwest in your mind some people include it some people don't number three I mentioned the largest state is Alaska our smallest state is Rhode Island and it's not actually an island I mentioned that Denali is the highest peak in the U.S and it's in Alaska fun fact the official name for Denali was actually Mount McKinley up until 2015. I grew up hearing Mount McKinley so yeah that was a surprise to me when the name changed after recording this episode I decided to watch the Roadrunner show do you know the Road Runner with Wiley Coyote the coyote that chases after him and tries to capture him and I don't know I guess kill him with all of his might by setting up dynamite by painting invisible walls that he'll run into and be destroyed anyway I decided to watch it with my my little girls because I remembered as a kid that it took place in a setting that looked like the southwest and I wanted to see if I could figure out what area of the Southwest it was actually in because I did mention road runners in this episode so when I turn it on the first thing I saw was a Butte a Butte we talked about b-u-t-t-e and it looks like a mountain with steep sides and a flat top and a mountain that is not connected to any other mountains like in a mountain range where you would see mountains connected together it's isolated so in the middle of the desert very flat arid dry land you'll see them shooting up from the ground right so that is in Monument Valley Arizona so Wiley Coyote and Roadrunner are from Monument Valley which is so cool because as a kid obviously I didn't have any reference to that geographical area but yeah that's where that took place and it's also really close to Four Corners Four Corners is a place in the United States where you can actually put your hands and feet in different states four different states actually so you can have your hands in Utah and in Colorado and your feet in Arizona and New Mexico so you can be in four states at once it's also where the Navajo Nation is so that is a Native American tribe and it's the largest federally recognized tribe in the United States so it's definitely worth visiting if you come to the Southwest once again I hope you really enjoyed this episode if you would like to get the bonus material that goes along with this I highly recommend buying the premium content you can find that in the episode notes or on the website at americanenglishpodcast.com hope you're having a nice day and until next time bye [Music] thank you [Music]