Бразилия — страна, известная своей заразительной культурой и изумительным ландшафтом. Это самая большая страна в Южной Америке и на сегодняшний день она имеет самую быстрорастущую экономику в регионе. Бразилия является пятой по величине страной в мире. Она немного больше, чем Австралия, и немного меньше, чем США.
Brazil is a country known for its infectious culture and its amazing landscape. It is the largest country in South America and by far it has the large fastest growing economy in the region. Brazil is the fifth largest country in the world. It’s slightly larger than Australia and slightly smaller than the USA.
Бразилия. Основные сведения
It is also the world’s fifth most populous country, with over 200 million people. It is the world’s longest country from North to South, so it shares land borders with 10 countries in South America. Brazil’s climate is largely tropical, but because the country is so large, and because it has a variety of elevations, the climate differs from one region to another.
Экватор
The north of the country is located on the equator, and has a tropical climate with warm temperatures that vary very little throughout the year, and rainfall is year round. The central plateau is at a higher elevation so it has slightly lower temperatures, especially at night, and it is further from the equator so it has more seasonal variation and a definite dry season.
Тропик Козерога
Closer to the south of the country around and below the Tropic of Capricorn the seasonal differences are more extreme with hotter summer temperatures and colder winter temperatures. Every year there is snowfall in some of the towns, and the higher areas in the southern region. This is quite different from the typical image of Rio De Janeiro. This southern area accounts for about 10% of the country. The coastal plains are generally warm and tropical year round.
Северный регион
Brazil has five large administrative regions that more or less correspond to the different climate and landscape areas of the country. The North Region consists of mainly the Amazon rainforest which is the largest rainforest in the world. This region is very sparsely populated with only about 15 million people. There aren’t very many highways and people mainly travel by riverboats.
Амазонка
There are many rivers in the region, but of course, the one that we’ve all heard of is the Amazon river, the largest river in the world based on volume of water. The Amazon rainforest is home to a wide variety of wildlife including jaguars, sloths, anacondas, and incredible variety of monkey. In fact, Brazil has more species of monkeys than any other country in the world.
Северо-восточный регион
The Northeast region is mostly dry with desert-like conditions and sparse vegetation. It is a very populated region with 53 million people, but unfortunately, it is the most impoverished region in Brazil. This was the first region that was discovered by Portuguese settlers when they first arrived in Brazil. The largest city in this region is Salvador which was the first capital of Brazil. Salvador is often called the largest African city outside of Africa, because 82% of its population are the descendants of African slaves.
Центральный западный регион Бразилии
The central west region is located on a Highland plateau and it is mostly Savannah. That means that it’s a grassy flat land without many trees. With the population of only 13 million people, this area has a low population density and is less industrialized of all the regions in Brazil. Similar to the North Region, there is a wide variety of wildlife including capybaras, giant armadillos, giant anteaters and tapirs.
Столица Бразилии — город Бразилия
The capital city of Brasilia is also located in this region. It’s a city that was intentionally planned and created back in 1956 in order to move the capital city from Rio de Janeiro to a more central location in the country. That sounds like a good idea, but the city looks kind of bland and artificial compared to Brazil’s other cities that naturally arose.
Юго-восток Бразилии
The Southeast region is the region that most people probably think of when they think of Brazil. It is the most highly populated region with 80 million people and it is where the two largest cities of South Paulo and Rio de Janeiro are located. It is the main economic powerhouse of Brazil producing nearly 1/2 of its GDP. This region lies at the edge of the tropical zone and the temperate subtropical zone meaning that the Northern part of the region is warm and tropical, while the southern part is temperate and has more temperature variation especially at the higher altitudes.
Южный регион
The south region is the temperate region with cool wet winters and winter snowfall in some of the higher areas. It is also characterized by prairie grasslands. It has a population of around 26 million and it is the most urbanized of all of the different regions. It also has the highest standard of living of all the different regions and it happens to be the most European region.
Население Бразилии
Brazil has a very ethnically and racially mixed population because of its history, with many Brazilians being of mixed racial heritage. Brazil was founded by Portuguese settlers in the 1500 who brought with them huge numbers of African slaves to work on sugar plantations. They were later followed by new waves of European and Asian immigrants. And of course there were already native people living in Brazil. At some point Brazil had an intentional policy of race-mixing of whitening the largely black population. According to a survey from 2010, 47.73% of Brazilians consider themselves white, 43.13% consider themselves mixed race, 7.61% consider themselves black, 1.09% consider themselves Asian, and 0.3% consider themselves indigenous.
Религия и официальный язык Бразилии
Another legacy of the colonial period is the religion. Catholicism was brought to Brazil by the Portuguese and now it’s the predominant religion in Brazil with 130 million Catholics. That means Brazil has more Catholics than any other country in the world. The language is another legacy of the colonial period. Portuguese is the only official language of Brazil and it is spoken as the main language by the vast majority of Brazilians. Brazilian Portuguese isn’t exactly the same as the Portuguese spoken in Portugal. There are some differences in vocabulary, some slight differences in grammar, a different accent, and some different idioms, but basically it’s the same language and native speakers can manage to communicate with each other.
Кофе, футбол и самба
Brazil is the largest exporter of coffee in the world and accounts for about 30% of the world’s coffee. Two other things that people often think when you mention Brazil are football, also known as soccer, and Samba. The FIFA World Cup was held in Brazil in 2014 which seems suitable since Brazil is possibly the most football crazy country in the world. Brazil is the only country whose team has qualified for the World Cup every single year since the event began. And there are over 10,000 Brazilians playing professional soccer around the world.
Самба
Another Brazilian offering to the world is Samba. Samba is a genre of music and dance that began in Rio de Janeiro, but has its original roots in West Africa. Samba is the music and dance of the Brazilian Carnival, the annual week-long festival that unites all of Brazil and nearly brings the country to a halt. That energy and spirit of the Brazilian people is one of the things that makes the world interested in Brazil. That along with its amazing nature and generally great weather make it one of the most attractive destinations for tourists.