The USA is the fourth largest country in the world in size after Russia, Canada and China. The population(人口) of the USA is the third largest in the world.

   The Mississippi River is the longest river in America. It's over 6,000 kilometers long. The Mississippi River has been called the "Father of Waters" or "Old Man River". The most important lakes in the United States are the Great Lakes. They are Lake Superior, Lake Michigan, Lake Huron, Lake Erie and Lake Ontario. All of them are between Canada and the United States except(除了) Lake Michigan.

   Let us talk about American education(教育). There are two kinds of schools in the United States: public schools and private schools. Most children go to public schools. Their parents do not have to pay for their education. If a child goes to a private school, his parents have to pay for their schooling. Children start school when they are five years old. Most students are eighteen years old when they leave secondary(中级) schools.

    Horatio Spafford, who was born in 1828, was a wealthy Chicago lawyer with a promising career, a beautiful home, a wife, four daughters and a son.

    At the very height of his financial and professional success Horatio and his wife, Anna, suffered the loss of their young son. Shortly thereafter, on October 8, 1871, the Great Chicago Fire destroyed most of his real estate(地产) Investment.

    In 1873, Spafford planned a boat trip to Europe in order to give his wife and daughters a much-needed vacation and time to recover from the loss of their young son. Spafford sent his wife and daughters ahead of him while he remained in Chicago to take care of some small business. Several days later he received notice that his family's ship had had a collision (碰撞). All four of his daughters had drowned, only his wife had survived.

    With a heavy heart, Spafford boarded a boat that would take him to his broken-hearted Anna in England. It was on this trip that he wrote those now famous words: When sorrows like sea billows roll, it is well, it is well with my soul.

    Philip Bliss (1838-1876), composer of many songs, including Hold the Fort, Let the Lower Lights be Buming, and Jesus Loves Even Me, was so impressed with Spafford's life and the words of his hymn (赞美) that be composed a beautiful piece of music to accompany the poem. The song was published by Bliss and Sankey in 1876.

    For more than a century, the tragic story of one man has given hope to countless people.

    Smokejumpers are special firefighters. They jump from planes into areas that are difficult to reach by car or on foot, like the middle of a mountain forest. They race to put out fires as fast as they can.

    At a fire site, smokejumpers first check the land and decide how to fight the fire. They try their best to stop a fire from spreading. Using their tools, smokejumpers clear the land of burnable things like dry grass and leaves. They usually carry some water with them.

    In the US, although most smokejumpers are men, more women are joining. The important thing is that your height and weight must be within a certain range(范围). For example, smokejumpers in the US must be between 120 and 200 pounds, so they don't get hurt when they land, or get blown by strong winds.

    Smokejumpers must also be able to live in the wilderness. In Russia, many smokejumpers know how to find food in the forest and make simple tools.

    The work is dangerous, and the hours are long. But for smokejumpers, smokejumping isn't just a job. They love being able to jump out of planes, fight fires, and live in the forest. As 28-year-old proud Russian smokejumper Alexi Tishin says, "This is the best job for brave people."

Misunderstandings

    A man, wearing dirty clothes, with dirty hair and only 35 cents in his pocket, got on a bus and headed straight for the restroom. He thought that if he hid in the restroom, he could ride to New York without paying. But a passenger at the back of the bus saw him. She tapped(拍)the person in front of her on the shoulder and said, "There's a bum in the restroom. Tell the bus driver. "That passenger tapped the person sitting in front of him. "Tell the bus driver there's a bum in the restroom," he said.

    The message was passed from person to person until it reached the front of the bus. But somewhere along the way, the message changed. By the time it reached the bus driver, it was not "There's a bum in the restroom" but "There's a bomb(炸弹)in the restroom. "The driver pulled over to the side of the highway(高速公路)at once and called the police. When the police arrived, they told the passengers to get off the bus and stay far away. Then they closed the highway. That soon caused a 15-mile-long traffic jam. With the help of a dog, the police searched the bus for two hours. Of course, they found no bomb.

    Two similar-sounding English words also caused trouble for a man who wanted to fly from Los Angeles to Oakland, California. His problems began at the airport in Los Angeles. He thought he heard his flight announced, so he walked to the gate, showed his ticket, and got on the plane. Twenty minutes after take-off, the man began to worry. Oakland was north of Los Angeles, but the plane seemed to be heading west, and when he looked out his window all he could see was ocean. "Is this plane going to Oakland? "he asked the flight attendant. "No, "she said. "We're going to Auckland-Auckland, New Zealand."

    Because so many English words sound similar, misunderstandings among English-speaking people are not uncommon. Most misunderstandings are much less serious. Every day, people speaking English ask one another questions like these: "Did you say seventy or seventeen?" "Did you say that you can come or that you can't?"

    Similar-sounding words can be especially confusing（混淆）for people who speak English as a second language. When a Korean woman who lives in the United States arrived at work one morning, her boss asked her, "Did you get a plate?" "No." she answered, wondering what in the world he meant. She worked in an office. Why did the boss ask her about a plate? All day she wondered about her boss's strange question, but she was too embarrassed to ask him about it. At five o'clock, when she was getting ready to go home, her boss said, "Please be on time tomorrow.

You were 15 minutes late this morning." "Sorry," she said. "My car wouldn't start, and…"

    Suddenly she stopped talking and began to smile. Now she understood. Her boss hadn't asked her, "Did you get a plate?" He had asked her, "Did you get up late?"

    Auckland and Oakland. "A plate" and" up late". When similar-sounding words cause a misunderstanding, probably the best thing to do is just to laugh and learn from the mistake. Of course, sometimes it's hard to laugh. The man who traveled to Auckland instead of Oakland didn't feel like laughing. But even that misunderstanding turned out all right in the end. The airline paid for the man's hotel room and meals in New Zealand and for his flight back to California. "Oh well, "the man later said. "I always wanted to see New Zealand."