[文学]lecture 1- us geograghy.ppt

The United States is the third most populous nation in the world, ranking behind China and India. According to the U.S. Census Bureau (美国人口普查局)， America reached a milestone on October 17, 2006, with its population hitting 300 million, up from 200 million in 1967. II. People 1. Population White people constitute about 74.7%, Blacks 12.1 %, Asians 4.3%, Native Americans 0.8%, Native Hawaiians and other Pacific Islanders 0.1 %, mixed race people 1.9% and others 6%. By as early as 2043, the bureau predicts, there will be 400 million Americans. Such robust growth is unique among Western countries. The distribution of the population in the U.S. is rather uneven. The most densely populated region is the northeastern part of the country. The region takes up about one quarter of the total and area, but about half of the population is living there. The Great Plains are an area with a comparatively small population. The South has a population of almost 57.5 million people. The West is not densely populated, except for some metropolitan centers like Los Angeles and San Francisco. At present the West has about 20% of the nations population but is expected to grow faster than any other region in America. When Columbus arrived in the 15th century， there were perhaps 10 million people called Indians. The Westward Movement (西进运动) meant the destruction of the Native Americans. Today there are about 2.4 million Native Americans in the United States. About one third of them live on reservations (居留地) while others live in cities. Poverty and unemployment are the major problems for them, especially on the reservations. The majority of American people are descendants of the European immigrants who make up 85% of the entire population. It is not easy to ascertain the exact time when their ancestors first came to settle. However, modem Americans look back to their Pilgrim Fathers, a group of Puritans who came from England in 1620, as a symbol of their origins in this new country. Afte