We live on the planet that is called the Earth.
The greatest part of it is taken by the waters of the World Ocean. Large masses of land surrounded by oceans and seas are called mainlands or continents. They are like big islands.
Looking at the map of the world we can see that there are six continents. They are: Eurasia (Europe and Asia combined) which is the largest continent, Africa, North America, South America, Australia and Antarctica, in which the South Pole is situated.
It should be said that Asia lies opposite the five times smaller continent of Australia. Europe, that is rather small, lies opposite the big continent of Africa. North America almost equals South America in size.
And only Antarctica has no opposite land.
The parts of the world are also six in number. But they differ from the continents. North and South America form one part of the world – America. The continent of Eurasia is divided into two parts of the world – Europe and Asia. The largest part is Asia.
Australia and the Pacific Ocean are called Oceania.
There are four oceans. The Pacific is the largest and the deepest of all, its total area is greater than that of all the dry land. Second comes the Atlantic. The Indian Ocean is only slightly smaller than the Atlantic.
The smallest ocean is the Arctic Ocean with the North Pole in the centre.
There are also many seas and rivers in all parts of the world. The largest rivers are Mississippi and Missouri. The greatest lakes are: Lake Baikal, Lake Victoria and Lake Michigan.