title: Genghis Khan

paragraphs: Genghis Khan (c. 1167 – August 18, 1227) was a Mongolian ruler who became one of the world's most powerful military leaders, who joined with the Mongol tribes and started the Mongol Empire. He was a Mongol Emperor who was very successful in battles, conquering many other peoples such as the Jin Dynasty. He was a very strong and powerful emperor who occupied much of China and some surrounding countries of China. His children and his grandchildren started the largest empire in the world.. Genghis Khan's grandson, Kublai Khan, was the first ever emperor of the Yuan Dynasty (1271–1368) in China.

paragraphs: Genghis Khan's real name was Temüjin which means "iron worker". Because of his military success people referred to him as Genghis, meaning "Universe ruler". Many people were killed by his armies and he gained a reputation as a "brutal monster". Genghis Khan died in the Liupan Mountains in northwestern China, in Aug. 1227 His burial site is unknown.

paragraphs: Temüjin was related on his father's side to Khabul Khan, Ambaghai and Qutula Khan who had headed the Mongol confederation. When the Chinese Jin Dynasty switched support from the Mongols to the Tatars in 1161, they destroyed Khabul Khan. Genghis's father, Yesügei (leader of the Borjigin and nephew to Ambaghai and Qutula Khan), emerged as the head of the ruling clan of the Mongols, but this position was contested by the rival Tayichi’ud clan, who descended directly from Ambaghai. When the Tatars grew too powerful after 1161, the Jin switched their support from the Tatars to the Keraits. When Yesügei was poisoned, Temüjin who was only 13, became leader.

paragraphs: Because of the lack of records, there is very little information about the early life of Temüjin. The few sources that provide insight into this period often conflict.

paragraphs: Temüjin was born in 1162 into an influential family who were part of a Mongol tribe near Burkhan Khaldun mountain and the Onon and Kherlen Rivers in modern-day Mongolia, not far from the current capital Ulaanbaatar. The Secret History of the Mongols reports that Temüjin was born with a blood clot grasped in his fist, a sign that he was destined to become a great leader. He was the second-oldest son of his father Yesükhei, a minor tribal chief of the Kiyad and an ally of Ong Khan of the Kerait tribe, and the oldest son of his mother Hoelun. According to the Secret History, Temüjin was named after a Tatar chieftain whom his father had just captured. The name also suggests that they may have been descended from a family of blacksmiths.

paragraphs: Yesükhei's clan was called Borjigin (Боржигин), and Hoelun was from the Olkhunut, the sub-lineage of the Onggirat tribe. Like other tribes, they were nomads. Because his father was a chieftain, Temüjin was of a noble background. After his death his third son Ogodei succeeded him. He had four queens, and Ogodei was born from his first wife.

paragraphs: As a ruler, Genghis lowered taxes and got rid of taxes for doctors, teachers and priests. He created the first international postal system. His empire was not known to be greedy with their loot; instead he would spread the wealth among the conquering Mongolians. Temujin eradicated torture, and held no prisoners; instead he merely killed his enemies. In doing so, he became respected. He completely re-made the feudal system to disregard people’s ethnicity and instead based it on loyalty and accomplishments. He gave his people religious freedom, unlike empires that limited their people to one religion.

paragraphs: These benefits were enjoyed by those who surrendered immediately to the Mongol invaders. Those populations that resisted would be massacred as a warning to other towns and cities. These massacres were a method of psychological warfare to terrify those not yet conquered. The terror endured, and helped color the historical portrayal of the Mongols.

paragraphs: No accurate portraits of Genghis Khan exist, and any surviving depictions of him are considered to be artistic interpretations. Persian historian Rashid-al-Din recorded in his ""Chronicles"" that the legendary "glittering" ancestor of Genghis was tall, long-bearded, red-haired, and green-eyed. Rashid al-Din also described the first meeting of Genghis and Kublai Khan, when Genghis was shocked to find that Kublai had not inherited his red hair. Also according to al-Din, Genghis's Borjigid clan had a legend involving their origins: it began as the result of an affair between Alan-ko and a stranger to her land, a glittering man who happened to have red hair and bluish-green eyes. Modern historian Paul Ratchnevsky has suggested in his Genghis biography that the "glittering man" may have been from the Kyrgyz people, who historically displayed these same characteristics. Controversies aside, the closest depiction generally accepted by most historians is the portrait currently in the National Palace Museum in Taipei, Taiwan (see picture above).


title: Joseph Stalin

paragraphs: Joseph Stalin was born as Ioseb Besarionis dze Jughashvili in Gori, Georgia, Russian Empire (18 December 1878  – 5 March 1953). was a Georgian politician who became leader of the Soviet Union from 1922 until his death. He replaced Vladimir Lenin as leader of the Soviet Union. His ideas and policies turned the Soviet Union into a powerful, relatively modern nation, as the largest on Earth. His form of government was later called Stalinism.

paragraphs: Stalin invaded Poland on 18 September 1939. In the subsequent World War II, Stalin stayed neutral but signed a peace deal with Germany's leader Adolf Hitler. He then led a bloody war after Germany invaded the Soviet Union. And after the end of the war Stalin gained control of all Eastern Europe including part of Germany. There, a series of loyal Marxist-Leninist single-party states were set up, extending his power and determining the Soviet Union's position as a superpower.

paragraphs: Stalin was born as Ioseb Besarionis dzе Jughashvili or Iosif Dzhugashvili. He began calling himself "Stalin" in 1912.

paragraphs: Ioseb Vissarionovich Jugashvili was born in a small one room house in Gori, Georgia. His father made and repaired shoes. His father was often drunk and used to hit his wife and his son until his death in a fight in 1890. Joseph had smallpox when he was young. This left his face scarred. Later, photographs were often changed to hide the scars. His left arm was also shorter because of an accident. He was educated at the Gori church school. Stalin studied to be a priest at a seminary (school for priests) in Tbilisi. He was an active student reading many books, especially books that were not allowed by the seminary. This included books by Karl Marx. He joined a Marxist group in 1898, the Mesame Dasi, or Group Three.

paragraphs: He left school in 1899 and got a job at the Tbilisi Physical Institute. He joined groups that were trying to start a revolution to remove the Tsar. They wanted a different type of government. The police raided his house in 1901 while hunting for people who opposed the government. Stalin escaped but went into hiding so the police could not find him. He organized anti-government activities such as May Day marches and protests. He became a Bolshevik. He supported a violent revolution, and did not support the Mensheviks. The secret police caught him in April 1902 and exiled him without trial to Siberia. He lived in the village of Novaya Uda.

paragraphs: He soon escaped from Siberia. This led to many later claims that he was a police spy. The arrest of another Bolshevik, Stephan Shaumyan, a rival of Stalin, increased these beliefs. At the end of 1905, he went to a meeting in Finland and met Vladimir Ilyich Lenin. Lenin was not what Stalin had expected. The government arrested and exiled Stalin several times in the next ten years. This increased his power in the Bolshevik party and he was elected to the Central Committee of the party in 1912. He was promoted to a position at St.Petersburg.

paragraphs: Stalin was a member of the Bolshevik Party, but did not do much in the Russian Revolution of 1917. He was writing and editing Pravda, the party newspaper. He had a number of organizational jobs in the Communist Party. In 1922 he became General Secretary. He was able to give jobs to people he liked in the Communist Party. These supporters helped him become the leader after Vladimir Lenin died in 1924.

paragraphs: Stalin tried to collectivize farms. "Collectivization" meant taking the land from owners of all farms and joining it into large farms run by the government. Communist officials then let farmers work the new farms and told them to turn the harvest over to the government.

paragraphs: Collectivization did not work well. There was a famine 1932–33, in which millions died. Because farmers were not paid much money, and whatever they grew went to the state, the workers did not try their best. The best farming worked on very small bits of land given to the peasants to grow what they liked. On these pieces of land, farmers could keep what they grew. In 1938 these parts of land were 4% of Soviet farmland. However, they grew 20% of its produce.

paragraphs: There was a second great famine in the Soviet Union in 19461947. The conditions were caused by drought, made worse by the devastation caused by World War II. The grain harvest in 1946 totaled 39.6 million tons - barely 40% of the yield in 1940.

paragraphs: To eliminate "enemies of the working class", Stalin instituted the "Great Purge". Over a million people were imprisoned and at least 700,000 executed between 1934 and 1939. Those executed included most of the generals in the Red Army, whom Stalin saw as a threat to his rule. This greatly weakened the army in the early months of the Wehrmacht's offensive against the Soviet Union in 1941.

paragraphs: Stalin cooperated with German Nazi leader Adolf Hitler. However, Hitler hated communism. After invading and neutralising France, Germany attacked the Soviet Union. After the Operation Barbarossa invasion, the USSR began working with the Western Allies to defeat Germany. In the end, Germany lost, but the USSR had more casualties than any other country during the war.

paragraphs: When World War II was over, the Soviet army occupied many countries in Europe, such as Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, and part of Germany. They imposed Marxism-Leninism on these countries. This was done against the wishes, and over the protests, of the American and British governments.

paragraphs: Stalin continued to rule over the Soviet Union until he died. He also militarized Russia by focusing the country's time and energy towards weapons, vehicles, and the armed forces.

paragraphs: Stalin died on March 5, 1953. It was officially said to be because of a stroke. In 2003, however, a group of Russian and American historians said that Stalin had been poisoned with powerful rat poison warfarin, possibly by the men who took over the government after Stalin died. Led by Lavrentiy Beria, these were Vyacheslav Molotov and Georgy Malenkov. Nikita Krushchev later began a process called "De-Stalinization", which meant taking apart much of the political system that Stalin made. Stalin was denounced as a tyrant. After outsmarting and defeating his rivals, Krushchev established a personal control over the government comparable to Stalin's own, even if he never went as far in murdering millions of people.

paragraphs: Stalin is a controversial figure in history. Many historians see him as a ruthless dictator, though others praise him as the Father of the Soviet State. He has been criticized for his role in the Holodomor. A recent poll in Russia (2008) listed him as the third most popular person in Russian history. In 2006, a poll stated that almost half the adults in Russia thought Joseph Stalin was a good person.


title: Antigua and Barbuda

paragraphs: Antigua and Barbuda is an island nation in the eastern Caribbean Sea on the boundary with the Atlantic Ocean. Antigua and Barbuda are part of the Lesser Antilles archipelago. In 2011, about 81,800 people lived there. The capital and largest port and city is St. John's, on Antigua. The country used to be a part of the British Empire. The nation still belongs to the British Commonwealth.

paragraphs: Antigua and Barbuda is divided into six parishes and two dependencies:

paragraphs: Note: Though Barbuda and Redonda are called dependencies, they are important parts of the state. Dependency is simply a title.

paragraphs: Below is a list of the ten largest cities. For other cities see List of cities in Antigua and Barbuda.

paragraphs: Below is a list of the islands of the country.

paragraphs: Tourism is the main part of the economy. It is more than half of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Antigua is famous for its many luxury resorts. Investment banking and financial services are also important.

paragraphs: The Royal Antigua and Barbuda Defence Force has 285 members.

paragraphs: English is the official language, but many of the locals speak Antiguan Creole. The Barbudan accent is slightly different from the Antiguan.


title: San Marino

paragraphs: San Marino is one of the smallest countries in the world. It is found in southern Europe and is fully surrounded by Italy (this is called an "enclave", and only the Vatican City, Lesotho and San Marino are like this). Fewer than 30,000 people live there. Its total area is 61 km. Its capital is the City of San Marino.

paragraphs: San Marino is the world's oldest republic that still exists. It was started on 3 September in A.D. 301 by a skilled builder called Saint Marinus. Its written constitution was adopted on October 8, 1600. The very small nation was recognized by Napoleon's France in 1797, and by the other European nations at the 1815 Congress of Vienna.

paragraphs: Even though it is an independent country, it depends very much on Italy. Since the 19th century, when Italy was unified, San Marino has been fully surrounded by Italy.

paragraphs: The biggest industry in San Marino is tourism. Selling postage stamps is an important source of income, too. San Marino is not a member of the European Union, but the euro is used in San Marino.

paragraphs: People in San Marino speak the Italian language. Most people in San Marino believe in Roman Catholicism.

paragraphs: San Marino is covered by the Apennine mountain range, and it has a rugged terrain. The highest point in the country is Monte Titano. There are no bodies of water of any significant size. San Marino has no natural level ground. It is hilly terrain.

paragraphs: San Marino is the third smallest country in Europe, Only Vatican City and Monaco are smaller.

paragraphs: Two rivers flow through San Marino. There is no major water transport, and no major port or harbour.

paragraphs: These are the 9 "castelli" (municipalities) of San Marino:

paragraphs: The cuisine of San Marino is strongly similar to Italian, especially that of the Emilia-Romagna and Marche regions. It has a number of its own unique dishes and products. Its best known is probably the "Torta Tre Monti" ("Cake of the Three Mountains" or "Cake of the Three Towers"), a wafer layered cake covered in chocolate. It shows The Three Towers of San Marino. The country also has a small wine industry.


title: Philippe's

paragraphs: Philippe's is a sit-down restaurant in downtown Los Angeles, California, U.S.A.. It is at 1001 North Alameda Street, near Olvera Street. Phillippe's is famous for inventing the French dip sandwich (though another restaurant called "Cole's" claims to have invented it, too). It has been in business since 1908, and is the oldest operating restaurant in Los Angeles. The traditional meal served at Phillippe's is a French dip sandwich, a bag of potato chips, a soft-drink (preferably root beer or cola), and a tapioca pudding cup for dessert.


title: Orbit

paragraphs: An orbit is the path that an object takes in space when it goes around a star, a planet, or a moon. It can also be used as a verb. For instance: “The earth "orbits" around the Sun.” The word ‘revolves’ has the same meaning, but 'rotates' is the spin of the object.

paragraphs: Many years ago, people thought that the Sun orbits in a circle around the earth. Every morning the Sun came up in the east and went down in the west. It just seemed to make sense that it was going around the earth. But now, thanks to people like Copernicus and Galileo Galilei, we know that the Sun is the center of the Solar System, and the earth orbits around it. Isaac Newton discovered that gravity controls the orbit of the planets and moons. Since a satellite is an object in space that revolves around another object, the earth is a satellite of the sun, just like the moon is a satellite of the Earth! The sun has lots of satellites orbiting around it, like the planets, and thousands of asteroids, comets, and meteoroids. The Earth just has one natural satellite (the Moon), but there are many artificial satellites orbiting the earth.

paragraphs: When people first began to think about orbits, they thought that all orbits had to be perfect circles, and they thought that the circle was a "perfect" shape. Copernicus and Galileo, for example, thought so. But when people began to study the motions of planets carefully, they saw that the planets were not moving in perfect circles. Some of the planets have orbits that are almost perfect circles, and others have orbits that are more oblong (egg shaped).

paragraphs: An "orbital period" is the time that it takes for one object - that is, satellite - to orbit around another object. For instance, the Earth's orbital period is one year: 365.25 days. (The extra ".25" is why we have a leap day once every four years).

paragraphs: The Moon takes 27 days (29.53 days as seen from Earth) to go around the Earth and also to rotate around its own axis. This is why only one side always faces the Earth and the "dark side of the Moon" faces away (it is called dark because we cannot see it, though all sides of the moon get equal light). One lunar year and one lunar day take the same amount of time.

paragraphs: Johannes Kepler (lived 1571-1630) wrote mathematical "laws of planetary motion", which gave a good idea of the movements of the planets because he found that the orbits of the planets in our Solar System are not really circles, but are really ellipses (a shape like a "flattened circle"). That is why orbits are described as elliptical. The more elliptical an orbit is, the more eccentric the orbit is. This is called orbital eccentricity.

paragraphs: Isaac Newton (lived 1642-1727) used his own ideas about gravity to show why Kepler's laws worked the way they did. Joseph-Louis Lagrange further advanced the study of orbital mechanics, using Newton's theory to predict perturbations which change the shapes of orbits.


title: Funeral

paragraphs: A funeral is a ceremony that is held because someone has died. A funeral is a gathering of friends and family of the dead person. They will mourn the dead person, meaning that they will feel and show sadness that the person has died, and also say thanks for the life the person had. A funeral is usually held with the dead body present but hidden in a coffin, but there are also open casket funerals. During the funeral, or soon after it, the dead body will be buried, cremated (burned) or made to disappear in some other way. A memorial service or celebration of life is a funeral in which the dead body is not present.

paragraphs: Funerals are held in all human cultures. Religion is an important part of funeral customs in most countries. At many funerals, they say a prayer for the dead so that his or her soul may rest in peace and have a good time in the afterlife.

paragraphs: There are other reasons why funerals are held. Many of them are to do with helping the dead person's friends and family (the mourners):

paragraphs: Modern funerals have greatly changed over time. Present day funeral or memorial services may often be more like a thanksgiving for the life of the dead person, rather than just thinking about the sadness of death.

paragraphs: A funeral ceremony can be held at a church, a temple, a public building for holding funerals or in many other places.

paragraphs: In North America, it is common for there to be a "visitation" (also called a "viewing" or a "wake") a few days before the funeral. This is where people are invited to see the dead body.

paragraphs: In Madagascar, people have a ritual called famadihana or “the turning of the bones” in English. Once every five or seven years, family members exhume the remains of their ancestors. They clean the bones and spray them with perfume or wine. They take the skeleton back home to dance with it and introduce it to the younger generation.

paragraphs: According to Balinese Hindu tradition, the soul of the deceased restarts the rebirth cycle once it is free through cremation. Balinese cremation, or Ngaben, uses an open pyre to incinerate the corpse. The whole memorial often has a festive atmosphere, focusing on celebrating the life of the departed loved one.

paragraphs: Several things often happen at a funeral in a Western country:

paragraphs: At many present day funerals there is a video tribute played before, after, or during the funeral service. Memorial folders or prayer cards are handed out at many funeral services and this, too, is a way to make a funeral service personal. At funerals it is not uncommon to see a "life reflection" table. Family members sometimes bring favorite pictures or other reminders of the dead person. There are lots of different traditions that different religions use.


title: Georgian Uprising of Texel

paragraphs: The Georgian Uprising of Texel (5 April 1945 – 20 May 1945) was an insurrection (a rebellion, or mutiny, when soldiers disobey their orders) by Soviet Georgian soldiers on the island of Texel. The uprising was against the Germans army who had taken over the Dutch island during the Second World War. The event is sometimes described as "Europe's last battlefield".

paragraphs: The island was very important in the German Atlantic Wall – the line of defences along the Atlantic coast. It was strong and had many defences. The Georgians were soldiers from the Soviet Republic of Georgia who had been captured (taken prisoner) on the Eastern front. They were now fighting for the Germans so that they did not have to stay in camps for prisoners. Their job was to help the German troops.

paragraphs: On the night of 5–6 April 1945 they thought that the Allies would land soon. They took over the island and killed 400 German soldiers. Some parts of the island stayed under German control and the Georgian soldiers could not capture them. More Germans were able to come to the island to help defeat the Georgians. After a few weeks of very tough fighting the Germans took control of the island again.

paragraphs: Unfortunately the British and Canadians, who were warned of the events on Texel by escapees who fled by boat to England, did not believe them, and did not take any action in order to stop the fighting.

paragraphs: On Texel this is called the "Russian war". Approximately 800 Germans, 500 Georgians, and 120 Tesselans (people from the island) were killed. Lots of farms were burned. Even after the Germans surrendered (gave up) in the Netherlands and Denmark on 5 May 1945, and after the full German surrender on 8 May, the fighting continued. Canadian soldiers stopped the fighting on 20 May.

paragraphs: The Georgian survivors did not have a happy ending. They were sent back to the Soviet Union. Stalin said that because the soldiers had been captured by the Germans, they had not fought until they died, so they were traitors. Some of the two million Soviet prisoners who were sent back to the Soviet Union by the Allied forces after the end of the war were executed (killed) when they got there.

paragraphs: A museum at the airport on the island tells the story of this event.


title: Neutrino

paragraphs: Neutrinos are a type of elementary particle that exist all across the universe. Physicists study these particles, but they are hard to find because they have a very small chance of interacting with regular matter. (For example, they pass through the whole earth without touching any other particles). Neutrinos travel near the speed of light.

paragraphs: We used to think that they have no mass, but a few years ago physicists found that they have a very small mass, much lighter than electrons. By finding neutrinos, we can learn about the structure and the history of the universe.

paragraphs: Neutrinos are very difficult to detect. They are very unlikely to collide (interact, in this case) with other particles as they travel through space or through matter. Unlike negatively charged electrons, neutrinos have no charge (neutrino meaning small neutral particle). This means that they are unaffected by the electromagnetic force, too. Detectors built to find them only see 10-15 a year.

paragraphs: They are commonly generated in particle accelerators, the sun, nuclear reactions, and other stars. They are generated whenever there is a nuclear reaction in the form of Beta decay. This process starts off with one neutron, and ends with one electron, one proton, and one neutrino.

paragraphs: The 3 types of neutrinos are named after the previous three leptons. There is the electron neutrino (v), the muon neutrino (v), and the tau neutrino (v). Each neutrino has an antiparticle, called an antineutrino. Therefore, there is an electron antineutrino, a muon antineutrino, and tau antineutrino.

paragraphs: The three types of neutrinos change into each other over time, so an electron neutrino could turn into a tau neutrino and then back again. This is called neutrino oscillation. This was first suggested as there were only a third of the number of electron neutrinos coming from the sun as theories of the time said there should be.

paragraphs: Most neutrinos passing through the Earth come from the Sun. About 65 billion () solar neutrinos per second pass through every square centimeter perpendicular to the direction of the Sun in the region of the Earth.


title: Play (theatre)

paragraphs: A play is a piece of writing (literature) which can be seen at a theatre or on television, or heard on the radio. Plays often show conversations between people. A play is usually watched, rather than being read.

paragraphs: The people who appear in a play are actors; in a theatre they stand on a stage so the people watching (the audience) can see them better. A director helps the actors to work better, or tells them how he wants the play to be.

paragraphs: Plays can be very interesting because they can be understood in many different ways. When the writer - the playwright - makes the play, he can not say how the actors or director will use it. Sometimes the playwright is also the director or an actor: Molière, for example, was often an actor in his plays. But the director can change the play in different ways: the actors' costume, the music, how people say things, how they move or what they hold. Modern directors can direct plays by Shakespeare, and these old plays seem modern now, too.

paragraphs: There are many sorts of plays, but there are six important sorts:

paragraphs: Symbolic can also be called expressionistic. Its all about how the writer or director presents ideas in a very different point of view.


title: Phrasal verb

paragraphs: Phrasal verb is the name given to an English verb which is composed of two or three words. One verb is combined with a preposition (like "on, in, under)" or an adverb (like "up, down, away"). Sometimes a phrasal verb can have a meaning that is very different to the meaning of at least one of those two or three words separately. Some text books call these verbs multi-word verbs. Phrasal verbs are used more frequently in everyday speech than in formal, official writing or speaking.

paragraphs: "Maria didn't know the word, so she" looked it up "in the dictionary."

paragraphs: "Oh no, we've" run out of "milk! I'll have to buy some more."

paragraphs: "Farmers have to" get up "early in the morning."

paragraphs: "The rocket" took off "with a loud roar."

paragraphs: Often these phrasal verbs have a one-word equivalent in other languages.

paragraphs: In Spanish, to get up can be translated as "levantarse", in French as "se lever" etc.

paragraphs: There are four different types of phrasal verbs.

paragraphs: Instead of "separate" or "separable", some text books use the word "split" or "splittable".

paragraphs: A useful piece of advice to confused students of English is this:

paragraphs: If you do not know if a phrasal verb is separable or inseparable ALWAYS use a noun or noun phrase and do not try to separate the verb.


title: Season

paragraphs: A season is a part of a year. Most areas of the Earth have four seasons in a year: spring, summer, autumn (British English) or fall (US English), and winter.

paragraphs: In some areas, there are a different number of seasons. For example, the tropical parts of Australia (the northern parts of Queensland, Western Australia and the Northern Territory) have wet and dry seasons. These are in addition to, or replace the regular season names.

paragraphs: In places which are tropical and subtropical, there are two seasons: the rainy (or wet, or monsoon) season and the dry season. This is because the rain changes more than the temperature.

paragraphs: Summer is a warm season because the days are longer and the Sun is high in the sky, giving direct light to the ground. Winter is a cold season because the days are shorter and the Sun is low in the sky, giving indirect light to the ground. Both the changes in the length of the day and the height of the Sun at noon are caused by the tilt of the Earth's spin axis with respect to the plane of the Earth's path around the Sun. At any time, in any season, the northern and southern hemispheres (halves of the Earth) have opposite seasons.

paragraphs: Seasons begin and end on different dates in different countries. In the United States, people say the seasons begin at the solstices and equinoxes. The summer solstice is the longest day of the year, and the winter solstice is the shortest. The equinox is the time when the day and the night are the same number of hours, assuming the sun were a point of light at its center. Since civil dawn occurs when the edge of the sun first appears over the horizon and civil dusk occurs when the edge drops over the horizon, the civil length of day is 12 hours long several days prior to the equinoxes. In the USA, summer begins at summer solstice, winter at winter solstice, spring at the spring ("vernal") equinox and autumn at the autumnal equinox.

paragraphs: In Britain, people traditionally say that the seasons begin about seven weeks earlier: spring begins on Candlemas (February 2), summer on May Day (May 1), autumn on Lammas (August 1), and winter on All Hallows (November 1). These are near the cross-quarter days halfway between the solstices and the equinoxes. The Irish calendar is similar, but Spring begins on February 1.

paragraphs: In Denmark, spring begins on March 1, summer on June 1, autumn on September 1 and winter on December 1. In Australia, summer begins on December 1, autumn on March 1, winter on June 1, and spring on September 1.

paragraphs: In the Chinese calendar and the Northern parts of India, the solstices and equinoxes are in the middle of each season. Summer happens in the hemisphere tilted towards the sun.

paragraphs: High season is the time of year that people travel. During high season hotels and resorts increase their prices because demand is higher than in offseason. For example, winter is high season for skiing; summer is high season for beaches.


title: Carisbrooke Castle

paragraphs: Carisbrooke Castle is the Isle of Wight's only remaining medieval castle. It was built on a Roman site. The castle earthworks were begun in 1070.

paragraphs: The shell keep was built on the site some 70 years later. None of the Norman domestic buildings now remain. The gatehouse with its drum towers dates from the 14th and 15th centuries.

paragraphs: In 1377 the French landed on the island but the castle was not attacked.

paragraphs: During Elizabethan times the threat of a Spanish invasion was avoided when the Spanish Armada was turned away at a nearby battle. However, the castle was considerably altered to resist the new artillery. Outer lines of defence were built enclosing the old castle. The curtain walls, bastions, and bulwarks remain in good condition to this day.

paragraphs: Charles I was held as prisoner at the castle in 1647. An attempt to escape failed when he got stuck in the bars.

paragraphs: Later the castle was the occasional residence of the governor of the Isle of Wight and it became home to Princess Beatrice, youngest daughter of Queen Victoria, when she was governor.


title: Atlantis

paragraphs: Atlantis is a name for a fictional large island or small continent that was (in the legend) in the Atlantic Ocean many years before it sank into the depth of the sea .

paragraphs: The name Atlantis first appears in the writings of Herodotus - he describes the western ocean as "Sea of Atlantis." Then, one generation later, Atlantis is described in detail in the stories Timaeus and Critias by the Greek philosopher Plato. He used this story to help explain his ideas about government and philosophy. Plato was the only ancient writer who wrote specific things about Atlantis.

paragraphs: According to Plato, the Atlanteans lived 9000 years before his own time and were half human and half god. They created a very good human society. When they stopped being good people and did bad things, the gods sent earthquakes and fire to destroy Atlantis.

paragraphs: Many scholars think Plato could have been thinking of a real place when he wrote about Atlantis. Many, many people have thought of many, many places where the real place that inspired Atlantis could have been. For example, there was a Minoan kingdom on the island of Santorini. The Minoan kingdom was very powerful thousands of years before Plato, and their society was damaged when a volcano erupted on their island. According to Plato, Atlantis was very large, as big as North Africa, so it should not have been hard to find.

paragraphs: After the discovery of the Americas, some people in Europe thought they might be Atlantis. However, after Plato, the idea of Atlantis was mostly forgotten until 1882, when a writer named Ignatius Donnelly wrote a book saying that Atlantis was real and that the culture of Atlantis had started many other ancient cultures, such as the Egyptian and Mayan. Then other people became interested in Atlantis.

paragraphs: Atlantis has appeared in many works of fiction. In Marvel Comics, Atlantis is at the bottom of the ocean and exists in modern times, with people who breathe water. Other works of fiction use Atlantis as background. For example, Robert E. Howard set his Conan the Barbarian stories in a fictional time called the Hyborian Age, which began with the destruction of Atlantis and ended when real written history started.


title: Comparative

paragraphs: Adjectives and Adverbs can be comparative in English and some other languages. When people are talking about two or more nouns, they can compare them (say the differences between them). The word which explains how they compare is called the comparative. They can also compare actions using adverbs.

paragraphs: Many words can be made into a comparative by adding "er" to the end of the word.

paragraphs: Words that end with the letter 'Y' can still be made into a comparative, but people change the 'Y' to an 'I' and then add 'ER'.

paragraphs: Some words cannot be made into a comparative by adding 'ER' Instead we use the word more in front. Most of these words have three or more syllables, such as "beautiful", "reliable".

paragraphs: If people are not sure about a word, it is always acceptable to say "more" (something), such as "more beautiful", "more expensive".

paragraphs: Warning: The 'ER' ending and the word "more" together cannot be used.


title: Asbestos

paragraphs: Asbestos is a set of six silicate minerals which occur naturally. White asbestos makes up 95% of the asbestos found in buildings. It occurs in all parts of the world. It is fibrous, heat resistant and non flammable. These properties made it very attractive as a component in building materials and other products such as insulation and automobile brake pads. People have used asbestos throughout history. Ancient Egyptian people used asbestos. Asbestos is extremely dangerous for human health, as it can cause lung diseases such as asbestosis, emphysema and mesothelioma if the fibres get loose in the air. It can also harm animals such as livestock or pets.

paragraphs: Asbestos was linked to lung cancer in the early 1970s, and was replaced by other materials in most applications by 1980.


title: Syllable

paragraphs: A syllable is a unit of pronunciation uttered without interruption, loosely, a single sound. All words are made from at least one syllable.

paragraphs: "Monosyllables" are words that have only one vowel sound; "polysyllables" have more than one. If a syllable ends with a consonant, it is called a "closed syllable". If a syllable ends with a vowel, it is called an "open syllable". Patterns of syllables can be shown with C and V (C for 'consonant', V for 'vowel'). Closed syllables are often shown as "CVC" (such as "got"), and open syllables as "CV" (such as "go"). Some languages like English have many kinds of closed syllables. Other languages, like Japanese, have few kinds of closed syllables. Other languages still, like Hawaiian and Swahili, have no closed syllables.

paragraphs: Notice that the consonant (C) and vowel (V) notation does NOT match the letters of English spelling in a one-to-one relationship (e.g. 'th' is one sound), but rather individual sounds.

paragraphs: There are many words in English that have only one syllable.

paragraphs: However, in several languages, such as English, syllables can have consonant clusters (having multiple consonants next to each other), which easily allow for words to have much more complicated syllables, such as:

paragraphs: There are many more words that have two or more syllables.

paragraphs: Some languages do not use an alphabet with letters. Instead, each sign may stand for a syllable. For example: Japanese can be written using Kana. A writing system based on syllables is called a syllabary. Since words in languages like English can have many different complex syllables (well over 10,000 can be produced in English), writing such languages using a syllabary would be completely impractical, thus alphabets are much better suited to write languages with complex syllable structures. However, since words in Japanese can be made with just a few simple syllables (around 90), writing such languages are well suited for the type of language.


title: Umbrella

paragraphs: An umbrella is a hand tool that is used to stop rain from falling on a person. It is also used to make shade and protect people from sunlight. An umbrella made for protection from the sunlight is called a parasol. And a plastic umbrella is cheap but it is fragile.


title: Usenet

paragraphs: Netnews is a kind of online service that shares postings between a group of computers over a network. One kind of netnews is called usenet. Usenet was started in 1980, before the World Wide Web and is still very active today. Usenet provided a way for people to write postings on many different topics and share them with people all over the world. Postings are sent to all the computers in the community. This differers from a posting on a webserver, which stays on one computer until a person gets it with their web browser.

paragraphs: The community of computers comprising a Usenet typically does not include those of end users, e.g. home personal computers. Rather, that community consists of a group of cooperating servers. End users must have access to a member of the server community to read and post. Such access is typically achieved through the news feature of their email program or web browser or through a special program that specializes in netnews. Configuring the program requires the URL of a server, and often a user ID and password.

paragraphs: The servers in the Usenet community are independent in the sense that each gets to decide what portions of the Usenet they will serve to their users and how long postings will last on the server. For example, some servers may leave out the adult groups. Because postings have to be transmitted from computer to computer, a given posting takes some time to be available on all servers. Further, they may disappear from active groups on busy servers in a matter of days or weeks.

paragraphs: Because Usenet groups are frequently used to share large files, servers may have bandwidth and download limits. If you use a commercial service, it may offer a range of limits at different prices.

paragraphs: Query your Internet Service Provider to determine whether their servers are members of the Usenet community or whether they provide free access to one of the commercial services that offers access. You may have to seek out your own commercial service because many providers have their own alternative. AOL and MSN have their Communities; AT&T uses Yahoo! Groups.

paragraphs: A netnews service may not even be a community of computers. Any user could configure their personal computer to offer a netnews service. Organizations often offer their own netnews service independent of Usenet to support their customers and members. For example, news.microsoft.com is a very large community of Microsoft users and developers that help each other out.

paragraphs: Netnews groups have a long history and their own netiquette. Look for FAQ and netiquette postings to see the rules for any given group.

paragraphs: Groups may be moderated or unmoderated. Expect a lot of off topic and potentially offensive material on the unmoderated groups, which are the majority of Usenet.


title: Diagonal

paragraphs: Diagonal is a kind of straight line. A diagonal line does not go straight up, down, or across. It is a line that connects two corners of a shape.

paragraphs: In mathematics, "diagonal" has different meanings. For example, in geometry a diagonal is any line that goes between the corners of a polygon. So a square has two diagonals, and a five-sided shape has five diagonals. In general the count of diagonal can be identified by a formula [n(n-3)]/2 where n is the total number of sides of shapes.


title: Kwashiorkor

paragraphs: Kwashiorkor is a health condition of poor nutrition from not having enough protein in the diet. If a person uses up energy from carbohydrates (starches) and lipids (fats), their body may begin to use protein for energy.

paragraphs: The body breaks down protein into energy that can be used. They then do not have enough protein for other needed bodily functions such as growth and building tissues like bones. Usually this is a condition of children from aged 1 to 5 years, but rarely adults and older children get it. It is common in poor places in Africa. Symptoms include having a pot belly, swollen face, and hair that is dark then light then dark. This can be cured by having a protein- rich diet.

paragraphs: Kwashiorkor comes from a protein deficiency (lack) in the diet. Body parts becomes swollen due to an accumulation of water in the spaces between the body's cells. Other symptoms are poor muscle development, swollen legs, puffy face, difficulty in eating, diarrhea, and dry skin are the symptoms of this disease.


title: Popocatépetl

paragraphs: Popocatépetl (also called El popo or Don Goyo) is an active volcano. The volcano is the second highest mountain in Mexico after Pico de Orizaba (5,610m). It is high .

paragraphs: Popocatépetl is the Aztec word for "Smoking Mountain". Popocatépetl was an Aztec warrior who loved Iztaccíhuatl. Iztaccíhuatl's father sent Popocatepetl to war in Oaxaca. He promised him his daughter as his wife if he returned (which Iztaccíhuatl's father thought he would not). Iztaccíhuatl's father told her that her lover had died in battle. She died of sadness. When Popocatépetl returned, and found out about the death of his lover, he killed himself by stabbing a knife into his heart. The gods covered them with snow and changed them into mountains. Iztaccíhuatl's mountain was called "La Mujer Dormida, (the "Sleeping Woman"), because it looks like a woman sleeping on her back. Popocatépetl became the volcano Popocatépetl, raining fire on Earth in anger at the loss of his lover.

paragraphs: Popocatepetl has had more than 20 big eruptions since the arrival of the Spanish in 1519. A major eruption happened in 1947. On December 21, 1994 the volcano threw out gas and ash which was carried as far as 25 km away by the wind. This led to people having to leave nearby towns. Scientists began to check the volcano for an eruption. In December 2000, tens of thousands of people were made to leave the area by the government based on the warnings of scientists. The volcano then made its largest display in thousands of years.


title: North Sea

paragraphs: The North Sea is a sea that is part of the Atlantic Ocean in northern Europe. The North Sea is between Norway and Denmark in the east, Scotland and England in the west, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium and France in the south.

paragraphs: The Skagerrak connects the North Sea to the Baltic Sea. In the south, the North Sea becomes the English Channel, a sea between England and France. This is called the Dover Straits and is very busy with ships.

paragraphs: The border between the North Sea and the Skagerrak is at an imagined line between Lindesnes in Norway, and Hanstholm in Denmark. In the North, the North sea is open towards the Atlantic. The border between the two is an imagined line from Northern Scotland, to Shetland, and then to Ålesund in Norway. According to the Oslo-Paris Treaty of 1962 it is a bit more to the west and the north though. The treaty puts it at 5° East longitude, and 62° North latitude. That is at the parallel of the Geirangerfjord in Norway.

paragraphs: On average, the North Sea has a depth of only 94 meters. About 80 million people live near the North Sea, at most 150 km away from the coast. Together with the English Channel in the south, the southern North Sea is the busiest body of water in the world.

paragraphs: Well-known rivers that drain into the North Sea include the Tay (at Dundee), the Forth (at Edinburgh), the Tyne (South Shields), the Wear (at Sunderland), the Tees (near Middlesbrough), the Elbe (at Cuxhaven), the Weser (at Bremerhaven), the Rhine and Meuse or Maas (at Rotterdam), the Scheldt (at Flushing or Vlissingen), the Thames, and the Humber (at Hull), and the river Nairn (at Nairn)

paragraphs: The Kiel Canal, one of the world's busiest artificial waterways, connects the North Sea with the Baltic.

paragraphs: Its name comes from its relationship to the land of the Frisians (see Frisia). They live directly to the south of the "North Sea", and to the west of the "East Sea" ("Oostzee", the Baltic Sea), the former "South Sea" ("Zuiderzee", today's IJsselmeer) and the today reclaimed "Middle Sea" ("Middelzee"). But the spread of the name could also be from the view of the cities of the Hanseatic League. Some of its main cities, like Lübeck, Bremen or Hamburg had the same view.

paragraphs: In classical times this body of water was also called the "Oceanum Germanicum" or "Mare Germanicum", meaning German Ocean or Sea. This name was commonly used in English and other languages along with the name "North Sea", until the early eighteenth century. By the late nineteenth century, "German Sea" was a rare, scholarly usage even in Germany. In Danish the North Sea is also named "Vesterhavet" (besides "Nordsøen"), meaning "Western Ocean" because it is west of Denmark.

paragraphs: Most of the North sea is on the European Continental shelf. On average, the depth is about 93 to 94 meters only. In the south it is very shallow, only 25 to 35 meters. In the north in the bathyal zone north of Shetland, this depth increases to between 100 and 200 metres. In the south, the depth is at most 50 metres. An exception to this is the Norwegian Trench. It is deepest there, with a depth of 725 metres. The most shallow part of it is a sand bank called Dogger Bank. In the southern part, there are many sand banks.

paragraphs: Looking at the satellite picture it is easy to see the geographic divisions of the North Sea:

paragraphs: The southern north sea is composed of the Southern Bight, before the coast of Belgium and the Netherlands and the German Bight before the coastline of Germany. The Dogger Bank is the limit between the southern and central parts. The Waddenzee runs all the way from Den Helder in the Netherlands to Esbjerg in Denmark.

paragraphs: The Dogger Bank covers an area about half the size of the Netherlands. There, the North Sea has a depth of between 13 and 20 metres only. The area is very famous for fishing. With some storms there are even waves breaking there.

paragraphs: The Norwegian Trench has an average depth of around 250 to 300 metres; at the entrance to the Skagerrak, the depth increases up to 725 meters. Along the trench is the Norwegian Current, which brings most of the waters of the North Sea into the Atlantic Ocean. Also, most of the waters of the Baltic Sea flow northwards here.

paragraphs: About 200 km east of the Scottish city of Dundee there are more trenches, known collectively as the "Devil's hole". Generally, the water is about 90 meters deep there. The trenches very often are only a few kilometers in length. In these trenches, the depth increases to up to 230 meters.

paragraphs: In the Dover Strait the water is about 30 meters deep. At the end of the English Channel, this depth increases to about 100 meters.

paragraphs: In the last ice age the North Sea was covered by large areas of ice called glaciers. About 20,000 years ago the ice melted and the North Sea was formed (made).

paragraphs: In the 1960s, geologists found large areas of oil and natural gas under the North Sea. Most of the oil fields are owned by the United Kingdom and Norway but some belong to Denmark, the Netherlands and Germany. Drilling began in the 1960s and led to a famous argument between England and Scotland about how the revenue (money) from the oil should be spent.

paragraphs: People have been fishing in the North Sea for thousands of years. However, so many fish are now caught there that new ones may not be able to grow fast enough to keep the fishery going.

paragraphs: Terns, Atlantic puffins, razorbills, kittiwakes and other seabirds live on the North Sea coast. Many coastal areas are protected nature reserves.


title: Letter

paragraphs: In languages that use an alphabet, for example English, each symbol in the alphabet is a letter. Letters represent sounds when the language is spoken.

paragraphs: Some languages do not use letters for writing: Chinese, for example, uses "ideograms".

paragraphs: In English and many other languages, the smallest part of writing is the letter. We use letters to make words. In some languages, for example Spanish, there is usually one letter for one sound (or better: for one "phoneme", the smallest part of speech). This is easy to read. In other languages, for example English, we can use several different letters for the same sound in different words, or one letter for different sounds in different words. This is difficult for learners to read. Here are some examples:

paragraphs: English, French, Spanish and many other languages use the Latin alphabet for writing. In this alphabet there are often two different letters for a sound. For example, "A" and "a". In other alphabets, for example the Cyrillic alphabet, there is only one letter for a sound (except for handwritten Cyrillic, in which the shape of the capital letter is much different - and usually unrecognisable - from its lowercase counterpart). The letters are: ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ

paragraphs: There are about twenty-six alphabets currently, with Arabic, Cyrillic, and Roman in widest use. The following alphabets, abjads, and individual letters are discussed in related articles. Each represents a different script:

paragraphs: Assamese alphabet:অ, আ, ই, ঈ, উ, ঊ, ঋ, এ, ঐ, ও, ঔ, ক, খ, গ, ঘ, ঙ, চ, ছ, জ, ঝ, ঞ, ট, ঠ, ড, ঢ, ণ, ত, থ, দ, ধ, ন, প, ফ, ব, ভ, ম, য, ৰ, ল, ৱ, শ, ষ, স, হ, ড়, ঢ়, য়, ৎ, ং, ঃ, ঁ

paragraphs: Arabic alphabet: (Alphabetical from right to left) , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , .

paragraphs: Armenian alphabet: Ա, Բ, Գ, Դ, Ե, Զ, Է, Ը, Թ, Ժ, Ի, Լ, Խ, Ծ, Կ, Հ, Ձ, Ղ, Ճ, Մ, Յ, Ն, Շ, Ո, Չ, Պ, Ջ, Ռ, Ս, Վ, Տ, Ր, Ց, Ւ, Փ, Ք, Օ, Ֆ.

paragraphs: Syriac alphabet: (Alphabetical from right to left) ܐ, ܒ, ܓ, ܕ, ܗ, ܘ, ܙ, ܚ, ܛ, ܝ, ܟܟ, ܠ, ܡܡ, ܢܢ, ܣ, ܥ, ܦ, ܨ, ܩ, ܪ, ܫ, ܬ.

paragraphs: Cyrillic script: А, Б, В, Г, Д, Е, Ж, З, И, І, К, Л, М, Н, О, П, Р, С, Т, У, Ф, Х, Ц, Ч, Ш, Щ, Ъ, Ы, Ь, Ю, Я.

paragraphs: Georgian script: ა, ბ, გ, დ, ე, ვ, ზ, თ, ი, კ, ლ, მ, ნ, ო, პ, ჟ, რ, ს, ტ, უ, ფ, ქ, ღ, ყ, შ, ჩ, ც, ძ, წ, ჭ, ხ, ჯ, ჰ

paragraphs: Greek alphabet: Α, Β, Γ, Δ, Ε, Ζ, Η, Θ, Ι, Κ, Λ, Μ, Ν, Ξ, Ο, Π, Ρ, Σ, Τ, Υ, Φ, Χ, Ψ, Ω.

paragraphs: Hebrew alphabet: (Alphabetical from right to left) א, ב, ג, ד, ה, ו, ז, ח, ט, י, כ, ל, מ, נ, ס, ע, פ, צ, ק, ר, ש, ת.

paragraphs: Latin alphabet: A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, J, K, L, M, N, O, P, Q, R, S, T, U, V, W, X, Y, Z.

paragraphs: Hangul: ㄱ ㄲ ㄴ ㄷ ㄸ ㄹ ㅁ ㅂ ㅃ ㅅ ㅆ ㅇ ㅈ ㅉ ㅊ ㅋ ㅌ ㅍ ㅎ ㅏ ㅐ ㅑ ㅒ ㅓ ㅔ ㅕ ㅖ ㅗ ㅘ ㅙ ㅚ ㅛ ㅜ ㅝ ㅞ ㅟ ㅠ ㅡ ㅢ ㅣ

paragraphs: Bopomofo: ㄅ ㄆ ㄇ ㄈ ㄉ ㄊ ㄋ ㄌ ㄍ ㄎ ㄏ ㄐ ㄑ ㄒ ㄓ ㄔ ㄕ ㄖ ㄗ ㄘ ㄙ ㄚ ㄛ ㄜ ㄝ ㄞ ㄟ ㄠ ㄡ ㄢ ㄣ ㄤ ㄥ ㄦ ㄧ ㄨ ㄩ ㄭ

paragraphs: Ogham:   ᚁ ᚂ ᚃ ᚄ ᚅ ᚆ ᚇ ᚈ ᚉ ᚊ ᚋ ᚌ ᚍ ᚎ ᚏ ᚐ ᚑ ᚒ ᚓ ᚔ ᚕ ᚖ ᚗ ᚘ ᚙ ᚚ ᚛ ᚜

paragraphs: Ethiopic ሀ ለ ሐ መ ሠ ረ ሰ ቀ በ ተ ኀ ነ አ ከ ወ ዐ ዘ የ ደ ገ ጠ ጰ ጸ ፀ ፈ ፐ

paragraphs: Tifinagh (Amazigh alphabet) : ⴰ, ⴱ, ⵛ, ⴷ, ⴹ, ⴻ, ⴼ, ⴳ, ⴳⵯ, ⵀ, ⵃ, ⵉ, ⵊ, ⴽ, ⴽⵯ, ⵍ, ⵎ, ⵏ, ⵓ, ⵄ, ⵖ, ⵅ, ⵇ, ⵔ, ⵕ, ⵙ, ⵚ, ⵜ, ⵟ, ⵡ, ⵢ, ⵣ, ⵥ.

paragraphs: International Phonetic Alphabet - used to represent exact pronunciation

paragraphs: For other writing systems and their letters, see List of writing systems.


title: Anne Frank

paragraphs: Annelies Marie Frank (12 June 1929 in Frankfurt am Main – February 1945 in Bergen-Belsen) is one of the most famous Jewish people who died in the Holocaust. Her diary is seen as a classic in war literature, and is one of the most widely read books today. Several plays and movies have been made about it.

paragraphs: Anne was born in the city Frankfurt am Main in Weimar Germany. She lived most of her life in or around Amsterdam, in the Netherlands. She was officially seen as a German until 1941. This was when she lost her nationality because of the anti-Semitic rules of Nazi Germany. She became famous around the world after her death when her diary was printed. In it she described her experiences hiding during the Nazi German occupation of the Netherlands in World War II.

paragraphs: The Frank family moved from Germany to Holland's capital, Amsterdam in 1933. This was the same year that the Nazis grew powerful in Germany. By the beginning of 1940, because of the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands, the Frank family was trapped in Amsterdam. Persecution of Jewish people increased in July 1942, and the family decided to hide. They hid in some secret rooms of her father Otto Frank's office building. After two years, they were betrayed and taken to concentration camps. Anne and her sister, Margot, were later taken to the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. There, they both died from typhus in February 1945.

paragraphs: Otto Frank was the only person in his family who survived. He went back to Amsterdam after the war and found that Anne's diary had been saved. He helped print a version of it in 1947. It was translated from Dutch and first printed in English in 1952 as "The Diary of a Young Girl". It has been translated into many languages. The diary had been given to Anne on her 13th birthday. In it she wrote of her life from 12 June 1942 until 1 August 1944. she was only 15 years old when she died.

paragraphs: Anne Frank was born on 12 June 1929 in Frankfurt, Germany. She was the second daughter of Otto Frank (1889–1980), a German businessman, and Edith Frank-Holländer (1900 – 45). Margot Frank (1926–45) was her older sister. The Franks were Jews, and they lived with many Jewish and non-Jewish citizens. Anne and Margot grew up with Catholic, Protestant, and Jewish friends. The Frank family did not follow all the customs of Judaism. Edith Frank was very religious, though her husband was more interested in studying. He had a large library, and both parents encouraged the children to read.

paragraphs: On 13 March 1933, elections were held in Frankfurt, and Adolf Hitler's Nazi Party won. Acts of Antisemitism began almost immediately. The Franks were afraid of what might happen to them if they stayed in Germany. Therefore, later that year, Edith and the children went to Aachen. They stayed there with Edith's mother, Rosa Holländer. Otto remained in Frankfurt, but after getting an offer to start a company in Amsterdam, he moved there to begin the business and to find a place to live with his family. The Franks were included in the 300,000 Jews who ran away from Germany between 1933 and 1939.

paragraphs: Otto Frank began working at the Opekta Works. Opteka was a company that sold pectin. Otto Frank found an apartment on the Merwedeplein (Merwede Square) in Amsterdam. By February 1934, Edith and the children had arrived in Amsterdam, and Anne and Margot began going to school. Margot went to public school and Anne went to a Montessori school. Margot enjoyed math, while Anne preferred reading and writing. Her friend Hanneli Goslar later remembered that from when she was young, Anne often wrote, though she tried to hide what she wrote and did not like talking about it. Margot and Anne had very different personalities. Margot was polite, quiet, and thoughtful, while Anne was brave, energetic, and friendly.

paragraphs: In 1938, Otto Frank started a second company, Pectacon. Pectacon sold herbs, salts and mixed spices that were used to make sausages. Hermann van Pels worked at Pectacon as a helper about spices. He was a Jewish butcher. In 1939, Edith's mother came to live with the Franks. She stayed with them until she died in January 1942.

paragraphs: In May 1940, Germany invaded the Netherlands. The government began to hurt Jews by making rules and laws about their freedom. The Frank sisters were both studying well and had many friends. But a new law that Jewish children could only go to a Jewish school made them move to a Jewish school. The companies that Otto Frank worked at still gave him some money, but they became poorer. It was not enough to support their family.

paragraphs: For her 13th birthday on 12 June 1942, Anne Frank got a book she had shown her father a few days before. It was actually an autograph book with red-and-white cloth and a small lock on the front, but Anne decided to use it as a diary. She began writing in it almost immediately. Most of her first writings are about normal parts of her life, but she also wrote about some other things.

paragraphs: In July 1942, the Zentralstelle für jüdische Auswanderung (Central Office for Jewish Emigration) ordered Margot Frank to come to be taken to a work camp. Otto Frank told his family that they would hide in rooms above and behind the place where his company worked on the Prinsengracht. The Prinsengracht was a street next to one of Amsterdam's canals, where some of his most trusted employees would help them. The notice to Margot made them move a few weeks earlier than they had expected.

paragraphs: Anne's father, Otto Frank, was scared that the Nazis would find him and his family which he needed to protect, he then spoke to some of the people who worked in his business. One of them was a young woman of about 33 years old, and was named Miep Gies. He told her he needed help - he was going to turn the top floor of his business into a secret hiding place for himself and his family called "The Secret Annex". Miep and the others would have to help them keep their secret, and bring them food. They hid in their secret hiding place for two whole years, without being discovered by the Nazis. Anne Frank left all her other belongings in Frankfurt.

paragraphs: Miep agreed to help. In 1942, the Frank family, together with the Van Pels (And their son Peter) and a dentist named Fritz Pfeffer, moved into the Secret Annex that they had prepared. They planned to stay there until the end of the war. They hoped the war would end soon, but it did not. They spent around two and a half years in their hiding place, never able to go out into the sunshine. During the day, the family had to be very quiet, because the business continued downstairs, and not all the workers knew that the Frank family was in hiding in the upper part of the building.

paragraphs: A few months before the Franks went into hiding, Anne was given a diary, for her birthday. She called her diary "Kitty" and wrote in it about all the things that were happening to her and to her family. Anne was only a young girl, but she knew how to write beautifully. She wrote about all the things that young girls think about - how she was getting along with her friends and parents, boys (pretty much Peter), her life and emotions. After a while, Anne had one strong ambition, she aspired to be a writer. She hoped to write a book that everyone would read.

paragraphs: A total of 78 families lived hiding in the same building which was a total of 700 people.

paragraphs: After 2 years a thief had come and took not much, but after about two and a half years in hiding, not long before the end of the war, the thief was caught and, in exchange of not going to jail or death, he told the Nazis that a Jewish family - the Franks - were in hiding. Nazi soldiers came into the Frank's secret hiding place. They sent the Franks and the others to a concentration camp. Miep Gies found Anne's diary and put it into a drawer. She wanted to keep it safe until after the war. She hoped that Anne would return, and she would be able give her her diary back to her.

paragraphs: However, that was not to be. Anne's father, Otto Frank, lived through the war and came back to Amsterdam. He hoped that his family had survived too - but they had not. Of all the family, only he survived. His wife was killed at Auschwitz. Anne and her older sister, Margot, died at Bergen-Belsen concentration camp from typhus, a disease - only a month before the camp was freed by the Allied forces. When he got out, he found Anne's diary and published it.

paragraphs: When World War II ended, Miep Gies gave Otto Frank Anne's diary and a bundle of notes. Otto Frank then decided to publish her diary to commemorate her.

paragraphs: Miep Gies was with Otto Frank when he got the letter telling him that his two daughters were dead. Now she knew that Anne would never return for her diary. She went to the drawer where the diary was kept, and she gave it to Otto Frank. People who were close to Anne read the diary. They told Otto Frank that he should publish it. Anne had wanted to be a famous writer. Now, people would be able to read her book, and they would also learn about the difficult time that the Jews had during the war, and about the wonderful people who helped them.

paragraphs: Otto had Anne's diary printed. It became one of the world's most widely-read books. It has been printed in over 60 languages, and people across the world have read and enjoyed this true story. Today, for an admissions fee, you can visit the house in Amsterdam where Anne Frank and her family hid during the war. You can also see the diary that she wrote.


title: Jan Peter Balkenende

paragraphs: Jan Peter Balkenende (born 7 May 1956) is a Dutch politician. He was the Prime Minister of the Netherlands from 2002 until 2010. He is a member of the Christian Democratic Appeal party.

paragraphs: In other countries, he is perhaps most famous because he looks like Harry Potter. This makes him popular with young children, but many Dutch make jokes about it and call him "Jan Potter Balkenende" and other names like that.

paragraphs: Balkenende lives in Capelle aan den IJssel, Netherlands.


title: Toleration

paragraphs: Tolerance is not taking action against people who do things one does not like. The opposite of tolerance is intolerance. Intolerance is often found in dictatorships historically and often causes the hate crime and hate speech. Tolerance is often about religion (religious toleration), sex, or politic opinion, nation, race, disability, sexual orientation or gender identity.

paragraphs: Also multiculturalism is promoted through toleration.


title: William the Silent

paragraphs: William I of Orange-Nassau (24 April 1533 – 10 July 1584) was an important leader of the Dutch rebellion against the Spanish in the Eighty Years' War. He was the first leader of the Netherlands. He held the title of Prince of Orange.

paragraphs: William of Orange is better known as William the Silent (in Dutch: "Willem de Zwijger"). It is not known how he got this name. One story says that when the kings of France and Spain proposed to William to kill all Protestants in his area, William did not reply.

paragraphs: William was born in Nassau in Germany. The king of Spain made him stadtholder (a sort of leader) of several Dutch provinces. But William converted to Protestantism, the religion of the Dutch people, and joined their struggle for independence. The king of Spain offered a reward for the person who would kill William. In 1584 William was shot by Balthasar Gerards in his house in Delft. William's last words were in French: "Mon Dieu, mon Dieu, ayez pitié de moi et de ton pauvre peuple" (My Lord, My Lord, have pity on me and your poor people). Balthasar Gerards never received his reward, because he was killed by the angry Dutch.

paragraphs: In the Netherlands, people often call him "Father of the fatherland". The Dutch national anthem, the Wilhelmus, is about William.


title: Simón Bolívar

paragraphs: Simón Bolívar (1783 - 1830) was a Venezuelan military and political leader. He was born in Caracas, Venezuela. He liberated many countries from Spain in South America. Those countries included Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Bolivia. For a few years he was president of Gran Colombia, a country that no longer exists. The country Bolivia is named after Bolívar.

paragraphs: Simón Bolívar was born in Caracas into a very rich family that owned plantations, ranches, mines, and many slaves who they forced to work in their businesses. His full name was Simón José Antonio de la Santísima Trinidad Bolívar y Palacios Ponte-Andrade y Blanco. He was sent to school in Spain like many children of rich families were at the time. While he was in Madrid, Bolívar married María Teresa Rodríguez del Toro y Alaiza in 1802. He also learned about the ideas of the Enlightenment.

paragraphs: White people felt ignored because Spaniards were sent by their governor, and resented wealthy mixed heritage people who could “buy” whiteness. The creoles started calling themselves Americans and not Spaniards to demonstrate that they wanted independence. In 1808, Napoleon conquered Spain, and made his brother, Joseph Bonaparte the new king. The colonies in Latin America rebelled because they said they were loyal to the old king, Charles IV of Spain and not Napoleon.

paragraphs: On September 6th 1815 Simón Bolívar wrote a letter from Jamaica. He explained the causes and reasons why all of South America or parts of it should be independent (free from Spain's ruling). Simón Bolívar was tired of how Venezuela and other countries were treated like slaves and how they were not free. He said “We have been harassed by a conduct which has not only deprived us of our rights but has kept us in a sort of permanent infancy with regard to public affairs.” He kept saying in the Jamaica letter why it's important to be free. “We are still in a position lower than slavery, and therefore it is more difficult for us to rise to the enjoyment of freedom.” This means they could not even enjoy freedom. "Because successes have been partial and spasmodic, we must not lose faith. We are young in the ways of almost all the arts and sciences, although, in a certain manner, we are old in the ways of civilized society."

paragraphs: On May 26, 1819 Bolívar gathered with a group of guerrillas that wanted to defeat the Spanish army. They got supplies and they crossed hundreds of miles of plains, swamps, rivers, etc. Many of the men died of hunger, diseases, and other causes on the way there. Crossing plains on August 7, they encountered the royalists and won the battle in Boyacá on August 10. Bolívar then occupied Boyacá, Colombia. Bolívar won the fight of Carabobo in June 1821, and then another in Caracas. A few days later and Venezuela was free of the Spanish royalists, then Bolívar went South and conquered Quito. On July 27, 1822 Simón Bolívar and José de San Martín met in the Guayaquil Conference. Bolívar came in as a military leader. Bolívar and San Martin went back to Europe where they both had a meeting. They were preparing to march across the Andes to Peru to defeat the Spanish royalists in August of 1824. Bolívar launched his campaign and soon he won a small but important battle at Junín. The royalists retreated and eventually lost.

paragraphs: Bolívar said that his people were in a position "lower than slavery", but many of them owned slaves themselves. Alexandre Pétion, the president of Haiti, said that he would help Bolívar fight if he abolished slavery as part of independence. Bolívar agreed, but only because he was afraid the slaves would revolt against the slaveowners, like they did in Haiti, and he only freed slaves who agreed to fight in his army. Even though Pétion helped him, Bolívar never freed all the slaves, and slavery was not abolished until the 1850s in Colombia, Venezuela, and Ecuador.

paragraphs: He is still remembered and celebrated for helping many of the Latin American countries achieve independence. People called him "El Liberator" because of this. Some people hated him because they thought he was a traitor, and he was going to be a dictator.


title: Pythagorean theorem

paragraphs: In mathematics, the Pythagorean theorem or Pythagoras's theorem is a statement about the sides of a right triangle.

paragraphs: One of the angles of a right triangle is always equal to 90 degrees. This angle is the right angle. The two sides next to the right angle are called the legs and the other side is called the hypotenuse. The hypotenuse is the side opposite to the right angle, and it is always the longest side. It was discovered by Vasudha Arora.

paragraphs: The Pythagorean theorem says that the area of a square on the hypotenuse is equal to the sum of the areas of the squares on the legs. In this picture, the area of the blue square added to the area of the red square makes the area of the purple square. It was named after the Greek mathematician Pythagoras:

paragraphs: If the lengths of the legs are "a" and "b", and the length of the hypotenuse is "c", then, formula_1.

paragraphs: There are many different proofs of this theorem. They fall into four categories:

paragraphs: One proof of the Pythagorean theorem was found by a Greek mathematician, Eudoxus of Cnidus.

paragraphs: We can get another proof of the Pythagorean theorem by using similar triangles.

paragraphs: From the image, we know that formula_4. And by replacing equations (1) and (2):

paragraphs: Pythagorean triples or triplets are three whole numbers which fit the equation formula_1.

paragraphs: The triangle with sides of 3, 4, and 5 is a well known example. If a=3 and b=4, then formula_8 because formula_9. This can also be shown as formula_10

paragraphs: The three-four-five triangle works for all multiples of 3, 4, and 5. In other words, numbers such as 6, 8, 10 or 30, 40 and 50 are also Pythagorean triples. Another example of a triple is the 12-5-13 triangle, because formula_11.

paragraphs: A Pythagorean triple that is not a multiple of other triples is called a primitive Pythagorean triple. Any primitive Pythagorean triple can be found using the expression formula_12, but the following conditions must be satisfied. They place restrictions on the values of formula_13 and formula_14.

paragraphs: If all four conditions are satisfied, then the values of formula_13 and formula_14 create a primitive Pythagorean triple.

paragraphs: formula_30 and formula_31 create a primitive Pythagorean triple. The values satisfy all four conditions. formula_32, formula_33 and formula_34, so the triple formula_35 is created.


title: Temperature

paragraphs: Temperature is how hot or cold something is. Our bodies can feel the difference between something which is hot and something which is cold. To measure temperature more accurately, a thermometer can be used. Thermometers use a temperature scale to record how hot or cold something is. The scale used in most of the world is in degrees Celsius, sometimes called "centigrade". In the USA and some other countries and locations, degrees Fahrenheit are more often used while scientists mostly use kelvins to measure temperature because it never goes below zero.

paragraphs: Scientifically, temperature is a physical quantity which describes how quickly molecules are moving inside a material. In solids and liquids the molecules are vibrating around a fixed point in the substance, but in gases they are in free flight and bouncing off each other as they travel. In a gas the temperature, pressure and volume of the gas are closely related by a law of physics.

paragraphs: When they invented temperature scales scientists found there were certain things which were always around the same temperature:

paragraphs: Temperature is not the same as heat. Heat is energy which moves from one thing, cooling it, to another, heating it. Temperature is a measure of the movements (vibration) of the molecules inside a thing. If the thing has a high temperature, it means the average speed of its molecules is fast. A thing may have a high temperature but because it contains very few or light atoms it has very little heat.

paragraphs: The amount of heat that is needed to make a substance one degree higher is called its heat capacity. Different substances have different heat capacities. For example, a kilogram of water has more heat capacity than a kilogram of steel. This means that more energy is needed to make the temperature of water 1°C hotter than is needed to make the temperature of steel 1°C hotter.

paragraphs: Temperature is also important in weather and climate. It is related to the amount of heat energy in the air. Isotherm maps are used to show how temperature is different across an area. Temperature will be different during different times of day, different seasons and in different places. It is affected by how much heat reaches the place from the suns rays (insolation), how high the place is above the level of the sea, and how much heat is brought to the place by the movement of winds and ocean currents.


title: Tux

paragraphs: Tux is a mascot of the Linux operating system; a cartoon penguin made by Larry Ewing in 1996. Wherever he is seen, it means such a system can work with Linux. He is also a character in some Linux games, like "Super Tux".

paragraphs: The name "Tux" comes from James Hughes, who named the Linux Mascot that as an shortened form of "Torvalds' UniX," as Linus Torvalds was the creator of the Linux operating system. Tux is also an abbreviation of tuxedo.


title: Mein Kampf

paragraphs: Mein Kampf ("My Struggle") was a book written by Adolf Hitler and Rudolf Hess. Rudolf Hess helped Hitler write the book, but he is not mentioned as an author. The book consists of two parts. The first part was written by Hitler while he was in jail in Landsberg am Lech. He was put in jail after a failed "putsch", in 1923. He wrote the second part after his (early) release from jail. From 1926 to 1930, both volumes were sold separately, at the price of 12 Reichsmark each. In 1930, both volumes were published as one book.

paragraphs: There were several editions between 1925 and 1945. With each new edition, the text was revised as well. This was done to clarify those parts of the text that were unclear. Probably, ghostwriters around Hitler did this work.

paragraphs: In the book, Hitler describes (talks about) his view of greater Germany. He also describes his future plan for Jews. When he came to power, in 1933, he realized (made happen) some of those plans. This resulted in a genocide known as The Holocaust. The book was given away for free at civil registry offices during the time when the Nazi government had power in Germany. The reason for giving the book away for free was because in part, the book was propaganda, and giving it away free was a way to recruit members.

paragraphs: After the Second World War, the book was made illegal to reprint or sell new copies in Germany and Austria. It is not illegal to own a book, and it is also not illegal to sell or buy such books second-hand.


title: Computer graphics

paragraphs: Computer graphics are visual representations of data, made with the help of computer. Computer graphics can be a series of images (video or animation) or a single image.

paragraphs: Computer graphics are very useful. Computer-generated imagery is used for movie making, video games, computer program development, photo editing, scientific modeling, design for advertising and more. Some people see computer graphics as art.

paragraphs: Computer graphics can be 2D or 3D. They are made differently and used differently. People can use computer programs to make different types of graphics.

paragraphs: 2D computer graphics are usually split into two categories: vector graphics and raster graphics.

paragraphs: Vector graphics use lines, shapes and text to create a more complex image. If a vector graphic image is made very big on the monitor, it will still look as good (smooth) as its regular size. This is one of the reasons vector graphics are liked so much. Vector images also take very little computer memory when saved. Vector graphics are made with programs like Adobe Illustrator and Inkscape, and were used for some older computer games. Today, they are often used for when computer graphics have to be printed out.

paragraphs: Raster images are made up of very small points called pixels. Digital cameras create raster pictures but artists can make them with computers too. The artists don't have to change a single pixel at a time – raster programs often have tools like paintbrushes, paint buckets and erasers to make a picture. Programs used to make these include Adobe Photoshop, GIMP and Corel Paint Shop Pro.

paragraphs: Sometimes people "do" use only pixels to make an image. This is called pixel art and it has a very unique style.

paragraphs: 3D graphics are graphics that look more realistic because they are three-dimensional. This means the computer thinks it has a height, a length and a depth, and displays them as we would see them in the real world with our eyes. Among other things they use solid geometry and trigonometry to create correct perspective. Some programs used to make 3D graphics are Bryce, 3D Studio Max, Maya and Blender. 3D graphics are used many times in movies and TV shows and video games.

paragraphs: Most of 3D graphics can be seen as vector graphics because it uses mathematical shapes like 3D triangles to describe objects. But there also exists 3D graphics that uses a grid of "3D pixels" which we call voxels.


title: FC Bayern Munich

paragraphs: FC Bayern Munich, also known as FC Bayern München, is a German football club. The club was founded in 1900 and has over 200,000 paying members. It has won the most titles in the Bundesliga and in the German cup.

paragraphs: The football team is playing in the Allianz Arena. The team also has the most supporters in all of Germany.

paragraphs: Bayern Munich won its first national title in 1932. This was the last season before the Nazi Regime took over the power. Bayern Munich was blamed to be a 'Club of Jews', the president, Kurt Landauer, was forced to flee and several players were punished. After the war ended, erroneously the local rival "1860 München" was considered to be better and let into the first German league. But in the first season 1963, Bayern Munich won most of its games, ascended into the first league and still plays there without any descend.

paragraphs: Bayern Munich won the UEFA Champions League in 2001 and in 2013. 2013 also was the year of the victory of the historic treble - an achievement no other German club ever gained before.


title: Cape of Good Hope

paragraphs: The Cape of Good Hope is a place near the far south end of Africa, where the Atlantic Ocean and the Indian Ocean meet. It is a well known area for ships that pass in the sea between southern Africa and Antarctica. It is in the Western Cape Province of South Africa and forms part of the Table Mountain National Reserve.

paragraphs: The first person from Europe to see it was the Portuguese man Bartolomeu Dias. He saw it in 1488 and named it the "Cape of Storms".


title: Hand washing

paragraphs: Hand washing is the process of cleaning hands with water and soap or other special liquids. It is done to take off dirt, germs, and poisons. Germs and poisons cause diseases and other health problems. Germs are bacteria, viruses, or fungi. Some diseases are not stopped by antibiotic drugs. Hand washing prevents lots of new diseases. Not washing hands before cooking or touching food is risky.

paragraphs: Use soap and warm (running, if available) water. Wet hands and add soap. Rub wet hands strongly with soap outside running water more than 10 seconds. Rub all parts of the hands again and again. Clean all dirt under fingernails. Then rub hands under running water again and again to take off all soap. Dry hands using a clean cloth or paper. Use moisturizing lotion so hands do not dry if the hands are being washed many times every day.

paragraphs: For a medical worker, doctor, or nurse, not washing hands before touching every new person is dangerous. Use more than enough soap and water and rub each part of the hands again and again. Rub between each finger. Use a brush and clean under fingernails. Use more water to take off the soap and dry hands paper towel.

paragraphs: To "scrub" the hands for a surgery, water that can be turned on and off without touching with the hands is needed, a cleaning liquid named "chlorhexidine" or "iodine wash", sterile cloth for drying the hands after washing, a sterile brush for hard washing and another sterile instrument for cleaning under the fingernails. Take off all watches, rings, and other jewels from the hands before washing. Wash the hands and arms to the elbows again and again. Be strong and serious about the washing. Use running water again and again to take off all soap. Keep hands up so water does not go from arms to hands. Dry the hands with the sterile cloth and put on surgical shirt or dress. Sterile means nothing on it that could cause a disease.


title: Franklin D. Roosevelt

paragraphs: Franklin Delano Roosevelt (January 30, 1882 - April 12, 1945) was the 32nd President of the United States from 1933 until his death in 1945. He served 12 years as President, dying shortly after beginning his 4th term, the longest ever spent in office. After his death, the twenty-second amendment came into effect. It limited how long a person could be President. Before becoming President, he was Governor of New York from 1929 to 1932, Assistant United States Secretary of the Navy from 1913 to 1920 and a state senator from the state of New York.

paragraphs: His father, James Roosevelt and his mother Sara Delano were from rich old New York families that made money from slavery. The Roosevelts were originally Dutch, and the Delanos were originally French. Franklin was their only child. His paternal grandmother, Mary Rebecca Aspinwall, was a first cousin of Elizabeth Monroe, wife of the fifth U.S. President, James Monroe.

paragraphs: One of his ancestors was John Lothropp, also an ancestor of Benedict Arnold and Joseph Smith, Jr. One of his distant relatives from his mother's side is the author Laura Ingalls Wilder. His maternal grandfather Warren Delano II, a descendant of "Mayflower" passengers Richard Warren, Isaac Allerton, Degory Priest, and Francis Cooke, during a period of twelve years in China made more than a million dollars in the tea trade in Macau, Canton, and Hong Kong, but upon coming back to the United States, he lost it all in the Panic of 1857.

paragraphs: In 1860, he came back to China and made a fortune in the notorious but highly profitable opium trade supplying opium-based medication to the U. S. War Department during the American Civil War. He is a 5th cousin and a nephew-in-law of another United States President Theodore Roosevelt. His 5th cousin, once removed was Eleanor Roosevelt, who was also his widow. Roosevelt once had an affair with his wife's secretary and later avoided seeing her to protect his political career.

paragraphs: Franklin Delano Roosevelt was born on January 30, 1882 in the Hudson Valley town of Hyde Park, New York. When Roosevelt was five years old his father took him to visit President Grover Cleveland. The president said to him: "My little man, I am making a strange wish for you. It is that you may never be President of the United States." Roosevelt became the longest-serving president in American history.

paragraphs: Roosevelt was the Assistant of the United States Secretary of the Navy under Woodrow Wilson. He was nominated the vice presidential candidate under James M. Cox in 1920. Cox and Roosevelt lost to Warren Harding and Calvin Coolidge.

paragraphs: In 1921, Roosevelt got sick with poliomyelitis, a disease that paralyzes people. He never walked again, but Roosevelt remained physically fit, becoming an avid swimmer. Roosevelt became a champion of medical research and treatment for crippling illnesses, but kept his illness as hidden as much as possible from the public, fearing discrimination. His disability did not limit his political career; Roosevelt was elected the Governor of New York in 1928. His wife, Eleanor Roosevelt helped his career by traveling and meeting people when Roosevelt could not. She became famous as his eyes and ears, meeting thousands of ordinary people and bringing their concerns to Roosevelt.

paragraphs: Roosevelt won the election against the unpopular incumbent (president at the time) Herbert Hoover and became president in early 1933.

paragraphs: He started a series of popular programs known as the New Deal to fight against the Great Depression. The New Deal gave people jobs building roads, bridges, dams, parks, schools, and other public services. Also, it created Social Security, made banks insure their customers, gave direct aid to the needy, and made many regulations to the economy. Because of this, he was re-elected in a large victory in 1936 and continued the New Deal. The United States did not fully recover from the Great Depression until it entered World War II.

paragraphs: In 1939, Roosevelt became the first President of the United States to appear on television. Roosevelt was elected a third term in 1940. He gave weapons and money to the Allies fighting in World War II as a part of the Lend-Lease program at this time, but the United States was still technically neutral in the war.

paragraphs: On December 7, 1941, Japan launched its attack on the Pearl Harbor military base in Hawaii. On December 8, the United States Congress declared war on the Empire of Japan. It was formulated an hour after the famous Infamy Speech by Roosevelt. After the declaration, Japan's allies, Germany and Italy, declared war on the United States. This brought the United States fully into World War II.

paragraphs: Roosevelt also signed an order allowing Japanese Americans to be sent to internment camps against their will. While still president, he died on April 12, 1945. Vice President Harry Truman became president. World War II continued for almost four more months, but Allied victory was already assured.

paragraphs: For overcoming the difficult challenges of a depression and a world war, historians generally consider him to be one of the best U.S. presidents.


title: Venezuela

paragraphs: Venezuela is a country in northern South America. Its official name is República Bolivariana de Venezuela (Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela). The official language is Spanish, and its capital is Caracas. Venezuela produces a large amount of oil every year, and has one of the largest oil supplies in the world.

paragraphs: Ancient Venezuelans came from the east, west, south, and north. Christopher Columbus was the first European to set foot on the land, but there were already natives living there for a long time. The Spaniards first conquered Venezuela. Slaves were imported from Africa.

paragraphs: Venezuela's inhabitants are very racially mixed. This comes from the colonial period. When whites (the British, Spaniards, French, etc.) conquered America's territory, they took their black African slaves to America to work. During Venezuela's colonial time, black people did not have any rights. They just worked for food. The native people were taught Roman Catholicism. For a long time, white creoles, people in Venezuela that were descended from Spaniards but considered Venezuela home, headed society. The Venezuelan people did not like that, and started thinking about independence. On July 24, 1823, Venezuela won its independence, led by Simón Bolívar. The current president is disputed.

paragraphs: Venezuela's economy is based on oil, cotton, cocoa, sugar, coffee, and tobacco.

paragraphs: Some other languages spoken in Venezuela are Carib, Guahibo, Warao, Wayuu, Pemon, and Piaroa. Most people are Roman Catholic at 96%, and a small minority is Protestant at 2%.

paragraphs: Venezuela's modern history was shaped by a number of people, including President Romulo Betancourt, who replaced a military dictatorship with a democracy. By the 1970s, Venezuela had become rich off of oil revenue, but it had problems in the 1980s and 1990s. In 1999 Hugo Chávez became president and tried to remake Venezuela as a socialist state. While popular at first, the economic changes Chavez and the next president, Maduro passed caused a massive economic depression in the mid 2010s.

paragraphs: Venezuela is famous for being the home of Angel Falls, the world's tallest waterfall, which is located in the Bolivar state.

paragraphs: The population of Venezuela is about 28,946,101 people. The ethnic groups of the population are:


title: Saudi Arabia

paragraphs: Saudi Arabia officially known as the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia , is a country located in Western Asia constituting the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula. With a land area of approximately , Saudi Arabia is geographically the 5th-largest state in Asia and 2nd-largest state in the Arab world after Algeria. Saudi Arabia is bordered by Jordan and Iraq to the north, Kuwait to the northeast, Qatar, Bahrain, and the United Arab Emirates to the east, Oman to the southeast, and Yemen to the south. It is separated from Israel and Egypt by the Gulf of Aqaba. It is the only nation with both a Red Sea coast and a Persian Gulf coast, and most of its land is dry and barren. Saudi Arabia is the birthplace of Arabs and Islam and sometimes called "the Land of the Two Holy Mosques" in reference to Al-Masjid al-Haram (in Mecca), and Al-Masjid an-Nabawi (in Medina), the two holiest places in Islam. Arabic is the exclusive official language in Saudi Arabia.

paragraphs: Sunni Islam is the state religion. The practice of non-Islamic religions is forbidden in public but not in private. The Hanbali school of faith has a big influence, and the ultra-conservative Wahhabism religious movement within Sunni Islam has been called "the predominant feature of Saudi culture".

paragraphs: Saudi Arabia is the largest state in western Asia by land area (most of the Arabian Peninsula) and the second-largest in the Arab World. It has an estimated population of 27 million, of which 8.8 million are registered foreign expatriates and an estimated 1.5 million are illegal immigrants. Saudi nationals comprise an estimated 16 million people.

paragraphs: Saudi Arabia has the world's largest petroleum reserves and is the world's largest oil exporter. Oil accounts for more than 90% of exports and nearly 75% of government revenues, facilitating the creation of a welfare state. However, human rights groups such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have expressed concern about the state of human rights in Saudi Arabia.

paragraphs: Saudi Arabia has cities that are important to the Muslim religion. Many Muslims from around the world visit Mecca in Saudi Arabia to make a pilgrimage. The pilgrimage is one of the "pillars of Islam". Other big cities are Riyadh, Jeddah and Dammam. The pilgrimage is called hajj in the Arabic language. Somebody who makes a pilgrimage to Mecca is called a "hajj" in the Arabic language. People who are not Muslim are not allowed to enter Mecca.

paragraphs: Most people speak the Arabic language. Many people from other countries work in Saudi Arabia. They are called guest workers or expats.

paragraphs: The money, or currency is called the Saudi Riyal.

paragraphs: The area of modern-day Saudi Arabia formerly consisted of four distinct regions: Hejaz, Najd, and parts of Eastern Arabia (Al-Ahsa) and Southern Arabia ('Asir). The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia was founded in 1932 by Ibn Saud. He united the four regions into a single state through a series of conquests beginning in 1902 with the capture of Riyadh, the ancestral home of his family, the House of Saud. The country has since been an absolute monarchy, governed along Islamic lines.

paragraphs: The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia was founded by Abdul-Aziz bin Saud (known for most of his career as "Ibn Saud") in 1932. The conquests which eventually led to the creation of the Kingdom began in 1902 when he captured Riyadh, the ancestral home of his family, the House of Saud. The Saudi Arabian government, which is an absolute monarchy, refers to its system of government as being Islamic. It has a strong basis in Wahhabism, a minority school of thought in Islam. The kingdom is sometimes called "The Land of the Two Holy Mosques" in reference to Masjid al-Haram (in Mecca), and Masjid al-Nabawi (in Medina), the two holiest places in Islam.

paragraphs: Saudi Arabia is an absolute monarchy. However, according to the Basic Law of Saudi Arabia adopted by royal decree in 1992, the king must comply with Sharia (Islamic law) and the Quran, while the Quran and the Sunnah (the traditions of Muhammad) are declared to be the country's constitution. The primary source of law is the Islamic Sharia derived from the teachings of the Qur'an and the Sunnah (the traditions of the Prophet). Saudi Arabia is unique among modern Muslim states in that Sharia is not codified and there is no system of judicial precedent, giving judges the power to use independent legal reasoning to make a decision. Saudi judges tend to follow the principles of the Hanbali school of jurisprudence (or "fiqh") found in pre-modern texts and noted for its literalist interpretation of the Qur'an and hadith.

paragraphs: Because the judge is empowered to disregard previous judgments (either his own or of other judges) and may apply his personal interpretation of Sharia to any particular case, divergent judgements arise even in apparently identical cases, making predictability of legal interpretation difficult. The Sharia court system constitutes the basic judiciary of Saudi Arabia and its judges (qadi) and lawyers form part of the ulema, the country's Islamic scholars.

paragraphs: Royal decrees are the other main source of law; but are referred to as "regulations" rather than "laws" because they are subordinate to the Sharia. Royal decrees supplement Sharia in areas such as labor, commercial and corporate law. Additionally, traditional tribal law and custom remain significant. Extra-Sharia government tribunals usually handle disputes relating to specific royal decrees. Final appeal from both Sharia courts and government tribunals is to the King and all courts and tribunals follow Sharia rules of evidence and procedure.

paragraphs: A hijab is a traditional Islamic norm whereby women are required "to draw their outer garments around them (when they go out or are among men)" and dress in a modest manner. Saudi Arabia is different from many Islamic societies in the extent of the covering that it considers Islamically correct hijab (everything except the hands and eyes) and the fact that covering is enforced by "Mutaween" or religious police.

paragraphs: Among unrelated men, women must cover the parts of the body that are awrah (private). In much of Islam, a women's face is not considered awrah. In Saudi Arabia and some other Arab states, all of the body is considered awrah except the hands and eyes. Accordingly, most women are expected to wear the hijab (head covering), a full black cloak called an abaya, and a face-veil called niqab. Many historians and Islamic scholars argue that the Quran was interpreted to require the veil as part of adapting it to tribal traditions.

paragraphs: Saudi Arabia is home to the largest mass of sand on earth, known as the Rub-al Khali desert (Rub-al Khali means "empty quarter"). The temperature is very hot. There are almost no rivers or lakes in the country. There are many wadis.

paragraphs: The countries of Yemen and Oman are south of Saudi Arabia. Saudi Arabia is west of Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Iraq, and Jordan. All of these countries, except Jordan and Iraq, make the Arabian Peninsula.

paragraphs: Animal life includes wolves, hyenas, mongooses, baboons, hares, sand rats, and jerboas. There used to be many larger animals such as gazelles, oryx, and leopards. By the 1950s hunting from motor vehicles made these animals almost extinct. Birds include falcons (which are caught and trained for hunting), eagles, hawks, vultures, sand grouse and bulbuls. There are several species of snakes, many of which are venomous, and numerous types of lizards. There is a wide variety of marine life in the Persian Gulf. Domesticated animals include camels, sheep, goats, donkeys, and chickens.

paragraphs: Because it is mostly a desert Saudi Arabia’s plant life is mostly small herbs and shrubs that need little water. There are a few small areas of grass and trees in southern Asir. The date palm ("Phoenix dactylifera") is widespread.

paragraphs: Saudi Arabia is divided into 13 provinces. The provinces are divided into 118 governorates.

paragraphs: These are the largest cities in Saudi Arabia.