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The flag: The flag of the United States of America, often simply referred to as the American flag, consists of thirteen equal horizontal stripes of red alternating with white, with a blue rectangle bearing fifty small, white stars. The 50 stars on the flag represent the 50 states of the United States of America, and the 13 stripes represent the thirteen British colonies that declared independence from Great Britain and became the first states in the Union.

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"White signifies purity and innocence, Red, hardiness & valour, and Blue . . . signifies vigilence, perseverence & justice."

~Charles Thomson (1729 - 1824), secretary of the Continental Congress

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The United States consists of forty-eight contiguous states in North America, Alaska, a peninsula which forms the northwestern most part of North America, and Hawaii, an archipelago in the Pacific Ocean. There are several United States territories in the Pacific and Caribbean. The term "United States", when used in the geographical sense, means the continental United States, Alaska, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Virgin Islands of the United States. The country shares land borders with Canada and Mexico and maritime (water) borders with Russia, Cuba, and The Bahamas in addition to Canada and Mexico.

Mount McKinley, Alaska, the highest point in North America at 20,320 ft

The Grand Canyon from Moran Point. The Grand Canyon is among the most famous locations in the country.

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Due to its large size and wide range of geographic features, the United States contains examples of nearly every global climate. The climate is temperate in most areas, subtropical in the Deep South, tropical in Hawaii and southern Florida, polar in Alaska, semiarid in the Great Plains west of the 100th meridian, Mediterranean in coastal California and arid in the Great Basin. Its comparatively favorable agricultural climate contributed (in part) to the country's rise as a world power, with infrequent severe drought in the major agricultural regions, a general lack of widespread flooding, and a mainly temperate climate that receives adequate precipitation.