The stars and stripes

The "Stars and Stripes" is a popular name for the red, white, and blue flag of the United States. Another popular name is the "Star Spangled Banner." This is also the name of the na­tional anthem of the United States.

Every country has its own flag. In 1776, the thirteen colo­nies declared their independence from Great Britain. The United States was born. George Washington was the general of the American К Army. He decided that the United States needed a flag, too.

There is a story that General George Washington asked Betsy Ross to make the flag. She used three colors: red, white, and blue. The color red was for courage, white was for liberty, and blue was for justice. She sewed thirteen red and white stripes and thirteen white stars in a circle on a blue square. The thirteen stars and stripes stood for the number of states at the beginning of the United States. On June 14,1777, Congress voted this flag to be the na­tional flag.

Later; new states joined the United States. This was a problem for the flag. In 1818, Congress made another law about the flag. The thirteen stripes stayed the same, but for each new state there was a new star. Today, there are fifty stars on the flag. Hawaii was the last star in 1959.

Vocabulary

Complete the definitions. Circle the letter of the correct answer.

1. A national song of a country is called the national ________.

1. flag

2. star

3. anthem

2. Another word for freedom is ________.

1. white

2. liberty

3. beginning

3. A country has laws for ________.

1. justice

2. colors

3. stars

4. When a person is not afraid, he or she has ________.

1. songs

2. courage

3. states

5. Thick lines are ________.

1. flags

2. stars

3. stripes

6. The stars on the flag have a meaning. Each star ________ a state.

1. joins

2. stands for

3. needs

Comprehension

A. Looking for Main Ideas

Write complete answers to these questions.

1. What are the colors of the flag of the United States?

2. How many red and white stripes are there?

3. How many stars are there on the flag today?

B. Looking for Details

Circle Т if the sentence is true. Circle F if the sentence is false.

1. The national anthem is "The Stars and Stripes." T F

2. The United States was born in 1776. T F

3. There were thirteen states in the beginning. T F

4. In the beginning the flag had two colors. T F

5. The color white is for courage. T F

6. The white stars are on a blue square. T F

7. Each new state gets a new stripe. T F

8. The last star was for Hawaii. T F

The pentagon

The Pentagon is a building in Arlington, Virginia, near Washington, D.C. It has the offices of the I U.S. Department of Defense. The Department of Defense includes the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, and Coast Guard.

The word pentagon comes from the Greek penta, which means "five." A pentagon is a figure with five sides. Look at the picture. The Pentagon has five rings. The rings are inside each other. Each ring has five sides. How tall do you think the Pentagon is? The answer is easy. Each ring is five stories tall.

The Pentagon is the largest office building in the world. It has seventeen miles of halls. People can get lost in the Pentagon. So the walls on each floor are a different color (brown, green, red, gray, and blue). This helps people to know where they are. There are also many maps in the halls!

The Pentagon is so big that it is like a city. Almost 30,000 people work there. The Pentagon has its own doctors, dentists, and nurses. It has its own banks and stores. It has a post office, a fire department, and a police de­partment. It also has an important center for communi­cations. This center guards the country. It is hundreds of feet. under the ground. The Pentagon even has its own radio and TV stations.