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 (后代) 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.
[点评]
作者用简单明了的语言告诉了我们美国及美国人的由来，使我们对美国有了初步的了解。
[参考译文]
美国
美国占去北美大陆很大一部分土地。它北邻加拿大，南接墨西哥。这片土地刚从英国独立出来，成为一个国家的时候，只有十三个州，每个州在美国国旗上由一颗星来代表。这些州都在东部。当这个国家不断向西扩大，就增加了新的州，同时它们也出现在国旗上。很长一段时间，美国有48个州，可是，到1959年，国旗上又多了两颗星，分别代表阿拉斯加和夏威夷。
印地安人是如今叫做美国的这块土地上的最初居民。现在在全国各地仍然居住着许多这些原始居民的.后裔。有时人们说印安人才是“真正的美国人”。
不过，大部分美国人是来自世界各地要在这个新世界里寻找新生活的人的后代。那些最早大批来到北美东海岸建立家园的人大部来自英格兰，也是由于这个原因，美国的国语为英语，而它的文化习俗也与英国的更为相像。
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