title: Lucifer

paragraphs: Lucifer is another name for "Satan". This is because people interpret a passage in the Book of Isaiah of the Bible in a certain way. Lucifer is Latin. It is made of two parts, "lux-lucis" (light) and "ferre" (to bring).

paragraphs: There are two mentions of "Lucifer" in the Latin Vulgate. It is used to refer to the morning star, the planet Venus that appears at dawn: once in to translate the Greek word "Φωσφόρος" (Phosphoros), which has exactly the same literal meaning of "Light-Bringer" that "Lucifer" has in Latin; and once in to translate "הילל" (Hêlēl), which also means "Morning Star".

paragraphs: "Lucifer" is the Latin name for the "Morning Star", both in prose and poetry, as seen in works by Marcus Terentius Varro (116–27 BC), Cicero (106-43 BC) and other early Latin writers

paragraphs: Poets also used the word "Lucifer". Ovid has at least eleven mentions of the Morning Star in his poetry. Virgil wrote:

paragraphs: Lucifer is the epitome of evil in the Christian religion. Lucifer is believed by some to be Satan's name when he was still an angel, but it is Latin for 'light bringer' and not originally in the Bible.

paragraphs: The word "Lucifer" was also used in Latin to mean the "morningstar", the planet Venus, and this word was used in the Latin version of Isaiah 14, where the Hebrew version was speaking to a king of Babylonia.


title: Astrobiology

paragraphs: Astrobiology is the study of life in outer space. The field of astrobiology looks for conditions necessary for life, like liquid water, a good temperature, or the presence of oxygen.

paragraphs: Some possible places to find life in the solar system are Europa and Ganymede, moons of Jupiter, or Titan and Enceladus, moons of Saturn. These places may have liquid water. They may be too cold to support life on their surfaces, but if they have liquid water, the water must be warm enough to support life. Astrobiologists suggest that there may be a liquid water ocean under their surfaces.


title: Castle

paragraphs: Castles are medieval buildings which were defensive homes for powerful people. They could be made from wood, stone, or brick, and some were used for hundreds of years. Thousands of castles were built across Europe, the Middle East and Japan with different styles of design. Today, most castles are ruins and many are popular tourist attractions.

paragraphs: In England and Wales castles were first employed by the invading Normans led by Duke William in 1066. They provided a base for troops to control the surrounding area, and over time helped the owner of the castle administer their land. Castles were designed to be imposing: their massive defenses deterred attackers and showed the owner's strength.

paragraphs: A few troops in a castle could defend themselves against a much larger army. The most common method for taking a castle would be to besiege or storm it. Each had problems. Storming a castle would kill many of the attackers, but a siege would take a long time. Both methods sometimes failed.

paragraphs: The first castles were built in the 9th century and were built up to the 16th century. A castle was both a home for someone important like a king or aristocrat, and a fort. Castles were designed to keep people out and show how powerful the people inside were. They were sometimes used in war, with many famous sieges like the siege of Kenilworth which lasted for six months.

paragraphs: Castles could look very strong, but sometimes the defences were mostly for show. The moat around Bodiam Castle is not very deep and could be drained by an attacking army, so was not very practical as a defence. But it made the castle look very impressive, and look bigger than it really is. If the owner of a castle rebelled against their ruler they might be punished by having their castle demolished, known as slighting.

paragraphs: Castles were built in Europe and the Middle East, with similar buildings developing separately in Japan in the 15th century. Castles were usually built from either wood or stone, and sometimes brick. Some castles started off as wooden, and were then rebuilt in stone which was more expensive and a stronger so that the castles could be bigger. They could be built on hills or low areas like the edge of towns or at river crossings. When thinking about castles, people often think of ones on high hills. Will there are some castles which make dramatic use of the landscape and are very visible because of this, there were a lot of factors in choosing where to build castles. For example, many castles were built along the Rhine River so they could stop people using the river without permission.

paragraphs: Depending on the exact definition, the number of castles varies and more castles are still being discovered. The numbers below are rough, and it is difficult to find guesses for some countries like Italy and Spain though they have many castles. Imitation castles have been built in the 19th and 20th century, like Neuschwanstein or some places in the United States but these are not really castles because they were not meant to be defensive.

paragraphs: The powerful people who built castles also lived in them with their families. They would have servants and a group of people to make sure the castle worked: people fetching water, cooking, clearing the stables, looking after animals, cooking, lighting fires, and checking who was coming into the castle. In peacetime, most castles only had a few soldiers who would guard the place.

paragraphs: Today, most castles have bare stone walls inside but in the Middle Ages they looked very different. Important rooms had colourful tapestries hanging on the walls, and paintings on the ceiling. Other rooms like kitchens or cupboards had plain white walls. Fireplaces kept rooms warm, and candles were used for light at night or in dark rooms. Glass was used later in the Middle Ages, but windows had shutters to keep out the cold and the weather. Religion was an important of the Middle Ages, and castles usually had chapels so that the people who lived there could pray.

paragraphs: Later in the Middle Ages, important people wanted more privacy and larger homes. It was easier to build new homes instead of trying to make the castles bigger, so some people moved out of castles into new homes. The use of gunpowder weapons also changed warfare and made castles less effective. Guns were introduced in the 14th century, and by the 15th and 16th centuries they were powerful enough to break castle walls. New types of fortification were invested, with shorter thicker walls, and using earth to absorb hits from cannonballs.

paragraphs: Though cannons were powerful, castles were still used in war. In the 17th century, lots of castles were used in the English Civil War, though many of them had not been lived in for decades and needed repairs.

paragraphs: As castles were built hundreds of years ago, most of them are ruins. Some are still lived in by wealthy families, or are still used by governments or armies. Because of this they might have changed and look different to old castles which were abandoned. Many castles have been turned into museums so the public can visit and learn about the past. Some castles are owned by the state, and others are owned by private people. Castles are expensive to run, so many are falling down. Every so often lightning strikes, flooding, or earthquakes damage castles.

paragraphs: People have been interested in castle for centuries. Historians and archaeologists have searched old documents and dug into castles to find out more about them. Because of this, for some castles we know who owned them, when they were used, when bits were built, what people ate, and what kind of things happened at castles. But there are lots of places where we know very little, not even when they were built. This is because a lot of medieval documents do not survive.

paragraphs: Some castle ruins have been rebuilt to look like they did originally.

paragraphs: Some terms you might find people using when they talk about castles:


title: Wikimedia Commons

paragraphs: Wikimedia Commons is a website owned by the Wikimedia Foundation, based on a wiki. Anybody can upload images, sounds, videos, and other multimedia files to the website. The files uploaded to Wikimedia Commons can be used by any other Wikimedia Foundation project, like Wikipedia or Wiktionary. For example, Wikipedia uses images on Wikimedia Commons to include pictures in their encyclopedia articles. The files can also be freely used by anyone else because they have free licenses.

paragraphs: Wikimedia Commons has categories, which are groups of files that have something in common or similar. For example, there is a category for pictures of cats. Wikimedia Commons is a multilingual website, meaning that it can be used in every language. However, some parts of Wikimedia Commons are only in English, like names of categories.

paragraphs: Wikimedia Commons also has sound files. Not all of these are music. For example, there are recordings that read words out loud. These files are used in Wiktionary, a free dictionary, to teach people how to say words.

paragraphs: For every file on Wikimedia Commons, the person who made it has to let everybody use it and change it as much as they want, including companies (see Creative Commons).

paragraphs: Wikimedia Commons reached 10 million files on April 15, 2011.

paragraphs: The Wikimedia Foundation was given money to make it easier for people to use their websites. They used some of this money to make the UploadWizard, a new system for uploading files on Wikimedia Commons. People started using the UploadWizard in December 2010.

paragraphs: The UploadWizard also teaches new uploaders about copyright law. It has a tutorial for users to read so that they can check if the file they are uploading is violating copyright. Most uploads are by the UploadWizard.

paragraphs: Before, Wikimedia Commons only let people upload one file at a time. The UploadWizard lets people upload multiple files at the same time and include all the required information about each one.

paragraphs: The logo of Wikimedia Commons has a red circle inside a blue circle. There are many small blue arrows pointing from the blue circle to the red circle in the middle, and one big blue arrow pointing upwards. The small blue arrows represent the different projects of the Wikimedia Foundation. The large arrow is to show that Wikimedia Commons is constantly improving.


title: Bulgaria

paragraphs: Bulgaria (officially called the Republic of Bulgaria) is a country in southeastern Europe.

paragraphs: The capital and the biggest city is Sofia. Their money is called the lev. The Bulgarian government is a member of the European Union and NATO. Rumen Radev became President in 2017. The population of Bulgaria is a little more than 7 million people.

paragraphs: Bulgaria has its own language, called Bulgarian. It is a type of Slavic language. It is related to languages like Serbian and Russian. Bulgaria borders Romania, Serbia, North Macedonia, Greece, Turkey, and the Black Sea. One of the national heroes of Bulgaria is Vasil Levski who led the fight for independence in the late 1800s. Bulgaria is an ancient country, some places have had people living there for over 6,000 years.

paragraphs: In what is now Bulgaria, many different people and different cultures lived over time. This includes Neolithic, Hamangia culture, Vinča culture, eneolithic, Varna culture (5th millennium BC) and the Bronze Age Ezero culture. The Thracians lived in the area of modern Bulgaria. King Tere united the people in Odrysian kingdom around 500 BC. Alexander the Great had influence over the people on the 4th century and later by the Roman Empire during the time of Christ. Eurasian Avars, South Slavs and Huns settled all over the territory of modern Bulgaria during the 6th century.

paragraphs: The first Bulgarian empire was established in 681 AD. The second Bulgarian empire started about 1185 AD, with Turnovo as the capital. The Ottoman Empire took over in 1396, and ruled Bulgaria for about 500 years. The Ottomans had very strict rules and the Bulgarians suffered. The Bulgarians rebelled several times against the Turkish rulers. After the first Balkan war (1876), Bulgaria pulled away from Ottoman Empire's influence with the help of the Russian Empire who were already fighting the Ottomans. But it was not until 1908 that the whole country of Bulgaria was united as modern Bulgaria.

paragraphs: Bulgaria joined the side of Germany in World War I and lost.

paragraphs: During the first year of World War II Bulgaria said it was neutral and refused to join sides with Nazi Germany or the Soviet Union. But the increased tension in the war made the leaders sign the Tripartite Pact with Germany in March 1941. This let German forces go through Bulgaria to reach Greece. However, Bulgaria did not follow Hitler's wishes. Bulgaria's troops refused to participate in military coups and also refused to send Jews to concentration camps in the Holocaust. This made Adolf Hitler very suspicious, and the king of Bulgaria, Tsar Boris III, died one day after talking to Hitler.

paragraphs: In 1944 when it became clear that the Allied Powers would win the war, Bulgaria had to find another solution. Their leaders declared that they withdrew from the Axis forces and they let the Soviets come in. But the Soviet Union didn't respect Bulgaria's wish to be neutral. They replaced the royal monarchy with Communism in 1947 before they withdrew from Bulgaria. For 40 years, under their leader Todor Zhivkov, Bulgaria was very close to the Soviet Union and followed their instructions.

paragraphs: Shortly after the fall of the Berlin Wall, on November 10 1989, the Communist party gave up their rule and allowed the country to elect leaders of their own choice. But in a few years Bulgaria had serious money problems under the new socialist government. Since that time Bulgaria has recovered in many ways, and is much more stable. But it is still one of the poorest countries in Europe. Problems in the administration, a weak court system and organized crime are the biggest issues for Bulgaria.

paragraphs: Bulgaria's economy was dependent on the COMECON market. This was a group of communist countries (Soviet Union, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Poland, and Romania) that agreed to work together. This group fell apart in 1989 with the fall of communism in Europe. While this was good for personal freedom, it was too much of a change for the businesses and jobs. Also Yugoslavia, their neighbor, fell into a civil war as their country broke apart, and that did not help Bulgaria. Living standards fell by 40 percent as people lost their jobs and their savings were not worth much, and even some newborn babies were sent to orphanages when their parents could not take care of them.

paragraphs: In 1994 Bulgaria had a short economic boom. But that slowed down in 1996 from bad finance deals and other banking problems. In 1997 there was high inflation (the money could not buy as much as it did before). Retired people had little income (their pension did not go up as fast as inflation did) and their savings were not worth very much. Many retired people were begging in the streets for food. But since then the economy has grown steadily. People from outside the country started putting money into businesses and houses, and Bulgarians learned how to make their own businesses.

paragraphs: Today Bulgaria has Europe's lowest income and corporate tax, 10 percent for both individuals and businesses. This makes Bulgaria a very good place for business. Bulgaria also has skilled and educated workers. The average monthly salary in Bulgaria is still cheap at 400 euro or $541 USD.

paragraphs: The state no longer has free health care. This system has been replaced by an insurance plan that people pay for, and drug costs are based on income. Private health care is encouraged nowadays. Help for people who lose their jobs is no longer automatic, but some help is available, based on family status and length of unemployment.

paragraphs: The retirement age for men is 64 years and for women 61 years. It will be 63 years and 9 months for woman and 65 years and 3 months for man in 2032.

paragraphs: Since 1999, Bulgaria has been divided into 28 provinces or regions. Each province is named after its local capital. The provinces are divided into municipalities, there are 264 in total.

paragraphs: There are 6 Bulgarian development regions of 27 smaller provinces. See List of settlements in Bulgaria for a list of all large locations.

paragraphs: In Bulgaria there are 5,664,624 citizens of Bulgarians, 1,200,000 citizens of Turks and 800,000 Citizens of Roma/Gypsies.

paragraphs: Bulgaria is classified as an development country by the EU.


title: Alps

paragraphs: The Alps is the greatest mountain range of Europe. It reaches from Austria and Slovenia in the east; through Italy, Switzerland, Liechtenstein and Germany; to France in the west. The original meaning of the word was 'white'.

paragraphs: The highest mountain in the Alps is Mont Blanc, at , on the Italian–French border.

paragraphs: The Alps stretch from Austria and Slovenia in the east, through Italy, Switzerland, Liechtenstein and Germany to France in the west.

paragraphs: The mountains are divided into the Western Alps and the Eastern Alps. The division is along the line between Lake Constance and Lake Como, following the Rhine. The Western Alps are higher, but their central chain is shorter and curved; they are located in Italy, France and Switzerland.

paragraphs: The Eastern Alps (main ridge system elongated and broad) belong to Austria, Germany, Italy, Liechtenstein, Slovenia and Switzerland. The highest peaks of the Western Alps are Mont Blanc, 4,808 metres (15,774 ft), Mont Blanc de Courmayeur 4,748 metres (15,577 ft), the Dufourspitze 4,634 metres (15,203 ft) and the other summits of the Monte Rosa group, and the Dom, 4,545 metres (14,911 ft). The highest peak in the Eastern Alps is Piz Bernina, 4,049 metres (13,284 ft). Perhaps the most famous location for tourist to the Alps are the Swiss Alps.

paragraphs: The main chain of the Alps follows the watershed from the Mediterranean Sea to the Wienerwald, defining the northern border of Italy. It then passes over many of the highest and most famous peaks in the Alps. From the Colle di Cadibona to Col de Tende it runs to the west before turning to the northwest and then, to the north, near the Colle della Maddalena. Upon reaching the Swiss border, the line of the main chain goes about northeast, a heading it follows until its end near Vienna.

paragraphs: The Alps do not make an impassable block; they have been traveled by for war and commerce, and later by pilgrims, students and tourists. Mountain passes give paths between mountains, for road, train or foot traffic. Some are famous, being used for thousands of years.

paragraphs: The Union Internationale des Associations d'Alpinisme (UIAA) has defined a list of 82 "official" Alpine 4,000-meter (13,123 ft) peaks. The list has many sub-peaks with little prominence, but good for mountaineering. Here are the twelve four-thousanders with at least 1 km prominence.

paragraphs: Karl Blodig was the first person to climb all the main four-thousand meter peaks, round 1900.

paragraphs: The reason mountains form is usually the moving together of continental plates of the Earth's crust. The Alps rose as a result of the slow but gigantic pressure of the African plate as it moved north against the stable Eurasian landmass. In particular, Italy (which had been a separate island) got pushed into Europe.

paragraphs: This all took place in the Tertiary period, mostly in the Miocene and Pliocene. That's about 35 to 5 million years ago.

paragraphs: The Alps are just a part of a larger orogenic belt of mountain chains, called the Alpide belt. It reaches through southern Europe and Asia from the Atlantic Ocean most of the way to the Himalayas.

paragraphs: A gap in these mountain chains in central Europe separates the Alps from the Carpathians off to the east. Subsidence is the cause of the gaps in between.

paragraphs: A great and ancient ocean was once between Africa and Europe, the Tethys Ocean. Now sediments of the Tethys Ocean basin and its Mesozoic and early Cenozoic strata sit high above sea level. Even metamorphic basement rocks are found high on Mont Blanc, the Matterhorn, and other high peaks in the Pennine Alps and Hohe Tauern.

paragraphs: The formation of the Mediterranean Sea is a more recent development.

paragraphs: The Alps are popular both in summer and in winter. The Alps as a place for sightseeing and sports. Winter sports (Alpine and Nordic skiing, snowboarding, tobogganing, snowshoeing, ski tours) can be learned in most regions from December to April. In summer, the Alps are popular with hikers, mountain bikers, paragliders, and mountaineers. There are also alpine lakes which attract swimmers, sailors and surfers. The lower places and bigger towns of the Alps are well served by motorways and main roads, but higher passes and by-roads can be bad even in the summer. Many passes are closed in winter. Many airports around the Alps (and some within), as well as long-distance rail links from all bordering countries, afford large numbers of travelers easy access from abroad. The Alps normally has more than 100 million visitors a year.

paragraphs: The Alps is split into five climate zones, each with a different kind of environment. The climate, plant life and animal life vary on different sections or zones of the mountain.

paragraphs: The Alps is a classic example of what happens when a temperate area at lower altitude gives way to higher land. A rise from sea level into the upper regions causes the temperature to decrease. The effect of mountain chains on winds is to carry warm air belonging to the lower region into an upper zone, where it expands and loses heat, and drops snow or rain.

paragraphs: The typical trees—oak, beech, ash and sycamore maple have a natural height limit: the 'tree line'. Their upper limit matches the change in climate which comes with increasing height. The change from a temperate to a colder climate is also shown true by a change in the wild flowering plant life. This limit normally lies about above the sea on the north side of the Alps. On the southern slopes, it often reaches to , sometimes even to .

paragraphs: The Alps do not always have the typical trees. People have felled them in many places. Except for the beech forests of the Austrian Alps, forests of the typical deciduous trees are hardly found. Where such woods were, Scots pine and Norway spruce now grow. These trees are less sensitive to the attacks of goats who eat the saplings of deciduous trees.

paragraphs: Above the tree line, there is often a band of dwarf pine trees ("Pinus mugo"), which is taking place of dwarf shrubs. These shrubs are "Rhododendron ferrugineum" (on acid soils) or "Rhododendron hirsutum" (on non-acid soils).

paragraphs: Above this is the alpine meadow. Above the alpine meadow is where plant life becomes less and less common. At these great heights, the plants are likely to make separate groups. In the Alps, many species of flowering plants have been recorded above . These are like "Ranunculus glacialis", "Androsace alpina" and "Saxifraga biflora".


title: Rwanda

paragraphs: Rwanda is a country in Africa. It is near Burundi, Congo-Kinshasa, Uganda, and Tanzania. In the genocide of 1994, over one million (1,000,000) people were killed.

paragraphs: During the Scramble for Africa, Belgium conquered Rwanda. The Belgians then began to divide Rwandans into groups: Hutu, and Tutsi. The Belgians picked people that they thought looked more European to be Tutsi. The rest became Hutu. The Belgians told Rwandans that Tutsi were superior to Hutu. They helped Tutsi rule over Hutu using their army.

paragraphs: On July 1, 1962, Rwanda became independent and Hutu were given power. Thus, anti-Tutsi purges occurred frequently. Many Tutsi fled to Uganda, where they formed the Rwandan Patriotic Front, or RPF, which tried to invade Rwanda in 1990.

paragraphs: On the night of April 6, 1994, dictator Juvénal Habyarimana's plane was shot down, but it is still not clear who did it. Within half an hour, roadblocks manned by the Interahamwe militia were seen all over the capital, Kigali. The genocide against Tutsi had begun. It lasted for about 100 days, and it left over one million (1,000,000), Tutsi and moderate Hutu dead. The main weapon used was the machete, or "umupanga". Other countries paid little attention to the killing. On July 2, 1994, the RPF captured Kigali. The other countries let the Rwandans sort out their own problems because they didn't care.

paragraphs: There are five provinces in Rwanda. These are , , , , and the in the centre.

paragraphs: At , Rwanda is the world's 149th-largest country. The entire country is at a high altitude. The lowest point is the Rusizi River at above sea level. Rwanda is in Central/Eastern Africa. It is bordered by the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the west, Uganda to the north, Tanzania to the east, and Burundi to the south. It is a few degrees south of the equator and is landlocked. The capital, Kigali, is near the centre of Rwanda.

paragraphs: The country's longest river is the Nyabarongo. The Nyabarongo-Kagera eventually drains into Lake Victoria. Rwanda has many lakes, the largest being Lake Kivu. It is one of the twenty deepest lakes in the world. Other sizeable lakes include Burera, Ruhondo, Muhazi, Rweru, and Ihema. Ihema is the largest of a string of lakes in the eastern plains of Akagera National Park.

paragraphs: There are many mountains in central and western Rwanda. The highest peaks are found in the Virunga volcano chain in the northwest. This includes Mount Karisimbi, Rwanda's highest point, at . The centre of the country is mostly rolling hills. The eastern border area has savanna, plains and swamps.

paragraphs: Rwanda has a temperate tropical highland climate. It has lower temperatures than are typical for equatorial countries. This is because of its high elevation. Kigali, in the centre of the country, has a typical daily temperature range between and . There is little change through the year. There are two rainy seasons in the year. The first runs from February to June and the second from September to December. These are separated by two dry seasons. The major one is from June to September, during which there is often no rain at all. There is a shorter and less severe one from December to February.

paragraphs: In prehistoric times montane forest occupied covered one third of the land of present-day Rwanda. Naturally occurring vegetation is now mostly in the three National Parks, with terraced agriculture in the rest of the country. Nyungwe, the largest remaining forest, has 200 species of tree as well as orchids and begonias. Vegetation in the Volcanoes National Park is mostly bamboo and moorland, with small areas of forest. Akagera has a savanna ecosystem. Here there are mostly acacia. There are several rare or endangered plant species in Akagera, including "Markhamia lutea" and "Eulophia guineensis".

paragraphs: The greatest diversity of large mammals is found in the three National Parks. Akagera has typical savanna animals such as giraffes and elephants, while Volcanoes is home to about one third of the worldwide mountain gorilla population. Nyungwe Forest has thirteen primate species including chimpanzees and Ruwenzori colobus arboreal monkeys. The Ruwenzori colobus move in groups of up to 400, the largest troop size of any primate in Africa.

paragraphs: There are 670 bird species in Rwanda. There is a difference between the east and the west. Nyungwe Forest, in the west, has 280 recorded species. Species include the Ruwenzori Turaco and Handsome Francolin. Eastern Rwanda, by contrast, has savanna birds such as the Black-headed Gonolek and those who live near swamps and lakes, including storks and cranes.


title: Lake Ontario

paragraphs: Lake Ontario is the smallest of the Great Lakes in North America, but its maximum death (802ft; 244m) is deeper than lake Erie's (210ft) and Lake Huron's (750ft).

paragraphs: It forms most of the border between Ontario in Canada and New York in the United States of America. Its inlet is the Niagara River (from Niagara Falls), and its outlet is the Saint Lawrence River. Nearly 9 million Canadians live near Lake Ontario. It is the only Great Lake that does not touch the U.S. state of Michigan, the "Great Lakes State".


title: Lake Superior

paragraphs: Lake Superior is a lake in Canada and the United States.

paragraphs: The Ojibwe Native Americans call it Gitchigume. Lake Superior is in between Ontario and Minnesota to the north and Wisconsin and Michigan in the south, and is the largest of North America's Great Lakes. It is the world's third largest lake, and the world's largest freshwater lake (by area). Its outlet is the St. Marys River to Lake Huron. The Soo Locks allow carrying large amounts of iron ore and other cargo to the other Great Lakes.

paragraphs: Over 80 species of fish live in Lake Superior.


title: SS Edmund Fitzgerald

paragraphs: SS "Edmund Fitzgerald" was an ore carrier on Lake Superior, carrying iron ore, which sank on November 10, 1975 at around 7:30 PM. The ship was known for being the biggest of its time weighing in at around 13, 600 tons, Edmund Fitzgerald was one of the largest “iron boats” working the Great Lakes. Nobody knows how the boat sunk, however it is very possible that the dangerously high weight of its cargo, and the violent winds and waves caused the ship to sink. All 29 men aboard the boat died and to this day no body's have been recovered. To remember the men on the S.S Fitzgerald a song was written by the Canadian singer Gordon Lightfoot the song was titled "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald". The song describes what the ship itself and touches on some theory's on how it may have sunk, interestingly enough the original song contained the passage:

paragraphs: This passage was proven to be false as a dive team sent in to recover the bodies found the main hatch way to be in perfect condition. When informed of this Gordon Lightfoot rewrote the verse to:


title: Gordon Lightfoot

paragraphs: Gordon Meredith Lightfoot, Jr. CC, born November 17, 1938, is a Canadian singer and songwriter. He is famous around the world for his folk, country, and pop music songs. He was first heard in the 1960s and had hit radio songs in the 1970s such as: ""If You Could Read My Mind"", ""Sundown"", ""Carefree Highway"', ""Rainy Day People"" and ""The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald".

paragraphs: Some of his songs have been recorded by other famous singers including: Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Marty Robbins, Jerry Lee Lewis, Barbra Streisand and Tony Rice.

paragraphs: Robbie Robertson of the Canadian music group called the Band said Gordon Lightfoot was his "favourite Canadian songwriters."

paragraphs: Gordon Lightfoot's music career has lasted almost fifty years and he has recorded more than 200 songs. His folk music of the 1960s and 1970s influenced many famous singers including Bob Dylan and Jim Croce. Like Robertson, Bob Dylan called Lightfoot one of his favourite songwriters.

paragraphs: In his career Gordon Lightfoot has received sixteen Juno Awards. He won Junos as ""top folk singer"" in 1965, 1966, 1968, 1969, 1973, 1974, 1975, 1976 and 1977. He won a Juno as ""top male vocalist"" in 1967, 1970, 1971, 1972 and 1973 And he won in 1972 and 1976 for being ""composer of the year."" He received ASCAP awards for songwriting in 1971, 1974, 1976 and 1977. And he has been nominated for five Grammy Awards. In 1980 Gordon Lightfoot was named ""Canadian Male Recording Artist of the Decade"" for his music of the 1970s.

paragraphs: Gordon Lightfoot was inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame in 1986 and he was added to Canada's Walk of Fame in 1998. He was inducted into the Canadian Country Music Hall Of Fame in 2001.

paragraphs: In May 2003 he was made a Companion of the Order of Canada which is one of Canada's highest awards.


title: Chameleon

paragraphs: Chameleons are a family of lizards. Most can change the colo(u)r of their skins for camouflage, or to signal mood to other chameleons.

paragraphs: They are a distinct clade of lizards. They have parrot-like zygodactylous feet, separately mobile and stereoscopic eyes, very long tongues they can flick out, a swaying gait, their prehensile tail, crests or horns on their strange-shaped heads, and many can change colour.

paragraphs: There are about 160 species, living in Africa, Madagascar, Spain and Portugal, across south Asia, Sri Lanka. They have been introduced to Hawaii, California and Florida, and are found in warm habitats that vary from rain forest to desert conditions. Chameleons are often kept as household pets.

paragraphs: Chameleons have long sticky tongues that they can fire out in a fraction of a second. They stretch up to twice their body size. Their eyes can move independently. The largest species is about 1.5 feet when fully grown. They are mainly insectivores, but they do take occasional smaller lizards.

paragraphs: The world's tiniest chameleon has been found on Madagascar. At 2.9 cm, it is one of the world's smallest lizards.

paragraphs: Genetic analysis proved there are four different species of this tiny animal.

paragraphs: Some scientists say that the vision of the chameleon is the most unusual of this planet. Chameleons have 360-degree eye-turning, the ability to zoom in and out, and binocular vision.

paragraphs: Each of the chameleon's eyes can move separately, allowing them to see all around them at all times.

paragraphs: Chameleons have two eyes which overlap. This gives them 3D vision. This is especially helpful when they can switch with monocular vision, which is seeing with each eye independently. This allows them to have a more detailed vision.


title: Interjection

paragraphs: An interjection is a spoken or written expression of emotion like "Wow!" for surprise, "Ouch!" for pain, or "Damn!" for anger, or "Argh!" for frustration. These phrases can stand alone, and are usually capitalized and punctuated.


title: Millard Fillmore

paragraphs: Millard Fillmore (January 7, 1800 – March 8, 1874) was the 13th President of the United States. He was President from 1850 to 1853. He was the last Whig President, and the last President who was not a Democratic or Republican.

paragraphs: Fillmore became president in 1850 when the previous president, Zachary Taylor, died. The Whig party did not pick him to run for president in 1852. He ran for president in 1856 for the American Party, but lost.

paragraphs: Millard Fillmore grew up in a poor family. He worked hard to do well in school, and went to college. He got a job as a lawyer in 1823. In 1828 he was voted to be part of the New York congress, and made friends in the Whig Party. This helped him get chosen to run for vice president in 1848.

paragraphs: When he was vice president, Millard Fillmore was in charge of the United States Senate while it was fighting over a decision about slavery involving Texas and New Mexico.

paragraphs: When he became president, the slavery issue was very intense (to the point where the southern states were close to choosing to not be a part of the United States anymore).

paragraphs: Fillmore signed the Compromise of 1850 (five laws which would calm down the slavery issue by pleasing both the northern states and the southern states). Although, the Compromise of 1850 made the northern states and the southern states get along, the peace did not last forever. In the late 1850s the north and the south stopped getting along.

paragraphs: California was made a part of the U.S. on September 9, 1850. It became the 31st state.

paragraphs: His decision to sign the Compromise of 1850 made many of the people in his Whig Party upset at him. They stopped him from running for president in 1852.

paragraphs: He started the first library at the White House.

paragraphs: After Fillmore, Franklin Pierce became the 14th president. Fillmore got a job in charge of the University of Buffalo. Fillmore joined the Know-Nothing Party and tried to run for president again, but the Know Nothing Party was not very successful.

paragraphs: There is a statue of Millard Fillmore at City Hall in Buffalo, New York.


title: John Tyler

paragraphs: John Tyler (March 29, 1790 – January 18, 1862) was the 10th President of the United States of America, from 1841 to 1845. He was the first vice president to become president after the president before him died. He was also the first President born after the United States Constitution was ratified.

paragraphs: Tyler grew up in Virginia and became a lawyer. His father was also a lawyer who later became governor of Virginia. Tyler became a state representative in the United States Congress, and then also became governor of Virginia like his father.

paragraphs: Tyler started in government as a member of the Democratic Party, but later he changed to the Whig Party, which was very new. He was chosen to run as vice president next to William Henry Harrison. Whig Party people used to say "Tippecanoe and Tyler Too" to get people to vote for them. (William Henry Harrison was famous for being a general in a battle in a place called Tippecanoe, and that was his nickname.)

paragraphs: Harrison and Tyler won the election, but Harrison died one month later. Tyler then became president.

paragraphs: Some people thought that Tyler was not the real president, because he had not been elected. But the United States Constitution says that the vice president takes over if the president dies, and Tyler said that meant he was the new president. At first, the rest of the government agreed and declared him the new president. But the Whig Party did not want Tyler to be president, and a lot of people called him "the accidental president" or "His Accidency".

paragraphs: Tyler made the Whig Party angry when he picked people from the other party (the Democratic Party) to work in his government. He wanted to bring the two parties to work together, but instead this made him unpopular. He rejected many of the Whigs' ideas. The Whig Party decided not to pick him to run for president in 1844.

paragraphs: While he was president, Florida became a new state. Texas was its own country, after winning a war against Mexico. Tyler wanted Texas to be a U.S. state and tried to make this happen while president, but it did not happen until a few months afterwards.

paragraphs: The Whig Party did not want Tyler to be president again, and did not pick him to run for president in 1844. He had some friends in the Democratic Party who sometimes asked him for ideas, but that party did not like him enough to be president, either. Tyler was sometimes called "the President without a party" since both groups did not want him.

paragraphs: When the Confederate States of America was created, Tyler thought that states should be allowed to make their own laws, even about slavery. He did not want a civil war. Instead, he tried to get the United States to agree to let the southern states keep slavery. But the United States Congress said no, and Tyler decided that Virginia had to join the Confederacy. He later was elected to the Confederate congress, but died before taking the job.

paragraphs: Tyler died in Richmond, Virginia on January 18, 1862 of a stroke. Tyler's death was the only one in Presidential history not to be officially recognized in Washington, D. C. because of his loyalty to the Confederacy. His coffin was covered with the Confederate flag. He is the only United States President ever to be buried and honored ceremoniously under a foreign flag that is not the United States flag.


title: Peter Davison

paragraphs: Peter Davison (born Peter Moffett 13 April 1951) is an English actor. He is best known for his roles as Tristan on "All Creatures Great and Small", and as the Fifth Doctor on "Doctor Who" from 1981 to 1984.


title: Ballerina

paragraphs: A ballerina is a name given to a female ballet dancer. Only very good female ballet dancers are called ballerinas. A ballerina is a principal dancer in a classical ballet company. The topmost female dancer in a company was usually called the prima ballerina.

paragraphs: Today the term 'ballerina' has gone rather out of fashion. Now they are simply called 'Principal dancers'. Dancers in a company are ranked by the company, and paid accordingly. They have to prove themselves in lesser parts before they can get promoted.

paragraphs: Example of the ranks in a modern dance company:


title: Buffalo, New York

paragraphs: Buffalo is a city in the U.S. state of New York. Buffalo is the second-biggest city in New York State.

paragraphs: There are about 280,000 people in the city of Buffalo. There are more than a million people in the surrounding area.

paragraphs: Buffalo is on the eastern side of Lake Erie near the Niagara River. It is close to Niagara Falls, and to Canada.

paragraphs: Buffalo has an NFL team called the Buffalo Bills (who play in the suburb of Orchard Park, NY) and an NHL team called the Buffalo Sabres.


title: Hertford

paragraphs: Hertford is the county town of Hertfordshire, England.


title: Jackie Chan

paragraphs: Jackie Chan (成龍) (born Chan Kong-Sang on 7 April 1954) SBS, MBE, PMW is a famous and well-renown martial artist, stuntman, actor, director, producer, screenwriter, singer and entrepreneur who hails from Hong Kong. He is perhaps most famous and best known for his uncanny combination and twist of both action and comedy in his films. He has also appeared and provided the voice for his character's animated counterpart in the animated TV series "Jackie Chan Adventures" which originally aired from 2000-2005. He is also the famous and well-renown legendary and rich father of actor and singer Jaycee Chan.

paragraphs: In his earlier roles, Chan did all of the dangerous stunts without safety equipment. Possibly the role where this was taken farthest is "Rumble in the Bronx", which was his ultimate breakthrough American movie, where he subjected his already aging body to several leaps and falls, which while finally gaining his American stardom, led to injuries including a broken ankle.

paragraphs: His 2 worst injuries occurred during the making of "Armour of God" and "Police Story". Footage of the former's aftermath was shown over the credits and showed a subdued and bloodied Chan in a spinal injury stretcher. Also, a tree branch in which he was to swing off had snapped just when he did jump upon and over for it. Chan fell 10 meters onto the rocky ground.

paragraphs: In "Police Story", Chan was doing a stunt when and where he fell off from about 5 to 6 stories through a series of window canopies. Chan nearly became disorientated about halfway through down. Instead of landing on upon his feet, Chan fell in a head-down position. His arms became caught in the material of the last canopy. He landed on his head first and his head was then forced on to the side as he could not break his fall up with his arms.

paragraphs: While the "Police Story" fall looked worse, Chan has also said that the "Armour of God" fall was the closest he has come to death while filming.


title: Ron Weasley

paragraphs: Ronald Bilius "Ron" Weasley (1980-?) is a fictional character from the "Harry Potter" stories.

paragraphs: He is a red-haired child with freckles. He comes from a poor background. He lives at The Burrow with his family of nine people. He is the youngest son in his family. He was a humorous and loyal boy. He wishes he had money. He is the sixth of seven children born to Molly Prewett(Molly Weasley) and Arthur Weasley, with five brothers and one sister, Ginny. He is Harry Potter's best friend.

paragraphs: It is revealed in later books, that Ron is romantically interested in Hermione Granger. The two are hinted to be romantically involved in the Deathly Hallows.

paragraphs: In movies, he is played by actor Rupert Grint. Ron marries Hermione and they have two children: Rose Weasley and Hugo Weasley. He is the manager of the joke shop Weasley's Wizard Wheezes.


title: Hermione Granger

paragraphs: Hermione Jean Granger (born in September 19, 1979) is a character from the "Harry Potter" series.

paragraphs: Hermione is one of Harry Potter's best friends. She spends a lot of time with Harry and Ron. Her parents are Muggles (not magical) but she is the cleverest witch of her class. She was born on September 19 and when she arrived at Hogwarts for the very first time, she was almost 12. Her parents are dentists. She is intelligent and her special skill is the ability to remember all that she has read. Because of this, Hermione is successful in her tests. Although she is smart, she also is brave and has street-smarts. She cares about house-elves and has made the club S.P.E.W., the Society for the Promotion of Elfish Welfare, which Ron calls "Spew." She made scarfs and garments to liberate the elves of the slavery of the wizards. But none of the elves took the garments and Dobby (the old house elf of the Malfoy family) gathered them. She is one of the prefects of Gryffindor with Ron. Her appearance is made up of bushy brown hair, dark brown eyes, and slightly freckled skin. It is also noted at the end of "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" that she marries Ron and they have two children together called Hugo and Rose. Although in "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire" she was the dance partner of Viktor Krum. She belongs to Gryffindor house, which is known for bravery. The Sorting Hat thought about putting her in Ravenclaw house, which is known for wisdom, but finally it put her in Gryffindor. Hermione has a pet cat named Crookshanks, which Ron told her it was like a hairy pig.

paragraphs: In the first book Hermione had the personality of a snob, and a geek, and she is not very friendly but with the time she improves that. Hermione was teased as Mudblood (Witch/ Wizard born with no Magical parents, also known as an offensive insult on Muggle Born Wich/ Wizard) by many Slytherins, especially Draco Malfoy. Her name refers to The Winter's Tale, by William Shakespeare, and was the daughter of Helen of Troy from Ancient Greek Mythology.

paragraphs: The character is played by British actress Emma Watson in all of Harry Potter movies.


title: Milk shake

paragraphs: In North America, a milk shake (or milkshake) is a cold drink usually made with milk, ice cream, and sweet syrups, such as chocolate syrup, mixed in a blender. People usually drink milkshakes with a drinking straw and from a tall glass or cup.

paragraphs: Milk shakes are similar to smoothies. Smoothies are a type of cold drink made with an electric blender. Smoothies are made with a liquid (either milk, fruit juice, or water), crushed ice or ice cubes, different fruits, and honey or maple syrup.

paragraphs: Milk shakes and other cold drinks such as "ice cream floats" (a scoop of ice cream placed in a glass of cola or other carbonated soda drink) or "malts" (a milk shake with malt powder added to it) were popular among teenagers in the 1950s. Teenagers would go to ice cream parlors and order cold drinks.


title: Bollington

paragraphs: Bollington is a village in Cheshire. The village is home to over twenty pubs. Bollington was home to the biggest water wheel in England and only second in Britain to the Laxey wheel in the Isle of Man. The wheel powered huge mills for the production of cotton. Two of the huge mills were the Adelphi and Clarence.

paragraphs: By 1914 Bollington had a population of around 6000 people and was dominated by fine cotton spinning. The symbol of Bollington has to be White Nancy. A small white cone-like house stands alone on top of a hill overlooking all of Bollington. It was built by the Gaskell family early in the nineteenth century. It has now been sealed.

paragraphs: Sport has been important in the life of Bollington. Even though the village did not have a football team successful enough to rival the cricket team it was still very popular amongst the people of Bollington. The most popular team was St Johns team which was quite successful in the lower leagues. Today there are good teams competing in the amateur leagues such as Bollington United.


title: Education

paragraphs: Education is about learning skills and knowledge. It also means helping people to learn how to do things and support them to think about what they learn. It's also important for educators to teach ways to find and use information.

paragraphs: Through education, the knowledge of society, country, and of the world is passed on from generation to generation. This may include education in morality, for example learning how to act as loyal, honest and effective citizen.

paragraphs: Education may help and guide individuals from one class to other. Educated individuals and groups can do things like, help less educated people and encourage them to get educated.

paragraphs: There are different ways to categorize education, for example by age or subject. One way is to divide it into "formal education", "non-formal education", and "informal education".

paragraphs: Formal education is usually in school, where a person may learn basic, academic, or trade skills. Small children often attend a nursery or kindergarten but often formal education begins in elementary school and continues with secondary school. Post-secondary education (or higher education) is usually at a college or university which may grant an academic degree.

paragraphs: Non-formal education includes adult basic education, adult literacy education or school equivalency preparation. In nonformal education someone (who is not in school) can learn literacy, other basic skills or job skills. Home education, individualized instruction (such as programmed learning), distance learning and computer-assisted instruction are other possibilities.

paragraphs: Informal education is less organized. It may be a parent teaching a child how to prepare a meal or ride a bicycle. People can also get an informal education by reading many books from a library or educational websites. This may also be called self-education.

paragraphs: Unschooling is basically kids learn as they go and do not go to traditional school buildings, rather go on websites, play games, or engage in normal hobbies and learn along the way.

paragraphs: Many public schools provide a free education through the government. Parents may send their own children to a private schools, but they must pay for it. In some poorer places, some children cannot go to school, because their countries do not make education available in their countries, or because their families do not have enough money, or because the children have to work for money, or because the society have negative prejudice on education for girls.

paragraphs: There are primary schools and secondary schools. In many places they are government funded. Colleges and universities usually charge Tuition payments which may be very different in different countries.


title: Army

paragraphs: The army is the part of a country's military that fights on the ground. People in the army are called soldiers. Many modern armies have vehicles such as tanks, airplanes, and helicopters to help soldiers fight on the ground.

paragraphs: A soldier may be a volunteer (someone who joins something because they want to), or he may be forced by the government to join the army. Forcing men to join the army is called conscription or "draft". Voluntary armies tend to be small by numbers, but high in confidence and quality. Drafted armies are large, but often lacking in confidence and in quality: it may be very difficult to force someone to risk his life against his will. Sometimes an army is made up from mercenaries, who fight just for pay and have little loyalty to the country which they serve.

paragraphs: Soldiers do many things, from shooting enemies, to digging defensive trenches. They are used to defend their country, or attack another country's army. It is difficult, and soldiers must be in good shape, both physically and mentally. They almost always move together, and that way the team can do more things, in a safer way. They may be assigned to certain places to guard, or they may be told to search a place, or even attack it. That is up to their commander. Every soldier answers to someone else, so that way, everything is organized.

paragraphs: Sometimes, when a country's army is busy in different places, and there are not enough soldiers to do more, a country can hire civilians to do some of the army's jobs, like protecting buildings and important people and convoys of trucks traveling from one place to another. Usually, they hire veterans who were members of the military before leaving and working elsewhere.

paragraphs: Working in the army and wearing the uniform is called "service". A soldier will never say "I work as a Sergeant in the signal corps" but always "I "serve" as a Sergeant in the signal corps", or other rank, specialty and unit. Only civilian workers who do not wear uniform speak about "working" in the army.

paragraphs: The function of the army is based on discipline. That means that every soldier will unquestionably carry out the orders which he or she has received and will obey his or her superior officer or non-commissioned officer. There is only one exception: orders which violate the human rights or international law must not be obeyed as it is considered a war crime. The chain of command is expressed by the military rank system and hierarchy.

paragraphs: A soldier is supplied with weapons, such as guns, knives, and other simple gear for surviving in the battlefield, such as food, water, clothes, and tents. They must keep good care of the items. Some soldiers train to be a doctor for the army, or other civilian duties.

paragraphs: Before a soldier joins the army, he must qualify to be in it first. The person is put through tests, so that the army will know if the recruit can do it or not. This is sometimes called 'boot camp'. He must complete mental tests, and physical tests. It depends on where he is testing that will tell him how hard it will be. He will also take tests to determine what job he will do in the military. For instance, he may work with computers and be a member of the signal corps or be a cook for the soldiers, he may have been a construction worker in civilian life and be a military engineer, he may become a truck driver and serve in logistics, or he may be very good with a rifle and be a sniper in the infantry. There are a lot of jobs that a person can choose to do in the army.

paragraphs: There are traditionally six branches of service in the army:


title: Theology

paragraphs: Theology is the study of one or more religions

paragraphs: (‘Theo-’ means God in Greek and ’-logy’ is study, which makes it ’God study’ or ’study of God’). Somebody who studies theology is called a theologian. Books or ideas about theology are called theological.

paragraphs: Theology may be studied for many reasons. Some people study theology to better understand their own religion, while other people study theology so that they can compare religions.

paragraphs: The word ‘theology’ was first used to describe the study of God in Christianity but some now use it to describe the study of religion generally, but not everyone agrees that it is right to do so. Some people use the words 'comparative theology' in reference to approaching theology within more than one religion at once.

paragraphs: During the High Middle Ages, it was thought that theology was the highest subject learned in universities. Theology at that time was named "The Queen of the Sciences". There was a plan for young men to study easy subjects and then harder subjects. The easiest subjects were called the Trivium. The next harder subjects were called the Quadrivium. Finally, young men were expected to study theology. This meant that the other subjects existed primarily to help with theological thought.


title: Work

paragraphs: Work can mean different things depending on how the word is used.


title: Romania

paragraphs: Romania (old spelling: Rumania, Roumania; , ) is a country in southeastern Europe. It is north of the Balkan Peninsula, on the Lower Danube River. Part of Romania is circled by the Carpathian Mountains. It also has a border on the Black Sea. Most of the Danube Delta is found inside Romania. Romania shares borders with Hungary and Serbia to the west, Ukraine to the far northeast, the Republic of Moldova to the near northeast, and Bulgaria to the south.

paragraphs: Romania is a semi-presidential unitary state. It was created when Moldavia and Wallachia joined together in 1859. It was given its independence in the Treaty of Berlin of 1878. At the end of World War II, some of its land (close by what is now known as Moldova) was occupied by the USSR. After the Iron Curtain fell in 1989 Romania was liberated from the communist regime. During the 2000s, Romania made changes to the country, such as reform the democratic system, human rights acts, freedom of speech acts, economy and law. That let Romania join the European Union on January 1, 2007.

paragraphs: Romania has the 9th biggest area of land and the 7th biggest population (with 19 million people) of the European Union member states. The capital and biggest city in Romania is Bucharest ( ), with a population of 1.6 million. One of the cities in Transylvania, Sibiu, was named a European Capital of Culture. Romania joined NATO on March 29, 2004.

paragraphs: Romania is famous for vampires, Dracula and it’s large Gypsy population.

paragraphs: The word "Romania" ("Rumania" or "România") comes from the Romanian word "Român", which comes from the Latin word "Romanus" which means "Roman". English texts still used the word "Rumania" during World War II. This came from the French word "Roumanie".

paragraphs: Some of the oldest human remains found in Europe were discovered in Romania. They were about 42,000 years old. This may have been when the first Homo sapiens came to Europe.

paragraphs: The world's first and oldest writing comes from people who lived in today's Romania. Approximately 5300 years BC. According to archaeology it is not a matter of symbols, but the world's first writings. It belonged to the Vinča culture which inhabited all of today's Serbia with over 150 Vinča sites and minor parts of Western Romania, northwestern Bulgaria, eastern Bosnia and Herzegovina and Southeastern Hungary.

paragraphs: Herodotus in the fourth book of The Histories, written in about 440 . Herodotus wrote that the Getae were defeated by the Persian Emperor Darius the Great when he battled the Scythians. The Getae were called the Dacians by the Romans. They were Thracians who were living in Dacia, which is where Romania, Moldova and the northern part of Bulgaria are now. The Dacians attacked the Roman province, the border of which was formed by the Danube, in 87 . This was during Emperor Domitian's rule. The Dacians were defeated by the Roman Empire under Emperor Trajan in two battles that lasted from 101 until 106 . The Roman Empire made Dacia into the province of Roman Dacia.

paragraphs: A lot of ore, such as gold and silver, were found in Roman Dacia. A lot of gold and silver were found in the Western Carpathians. Trajan went back to Rome with 165 tons (330,000 pounds) of gold and 330 tons (660,000 pounds) of silver after his conquest.

paragraphs: There were many Romans living in the province of Roman Dacia. They spoke Vulgar Latin. They began to write the local languages using the Latin alphabet. Writing languages with the Latin alphabet is called romanization. This became the first version of Romanian.

paragraphs: In the 3rd century, the province was attacked by groups of nomadic people like the Goths. They made the Roman Empire leave Dacia about 271 . This became the Roman Empire's first abandoned province.

paragraphs: The origin of modern Romanians is widely talked about by historians to this day. It is thought that the Romanians were formed from large ethnic groups that came from both the south and north parts of the Danube.

paragraphs: From 271 to 275, the Goths took over the abandoned Roman province. They lived in Dacia until the 4th century, when another group of wandering peoples, the Huns, came to Dacia. The Gepids, Avars, with the Slavic people, were in control of Transylvania through the 8th century. In the 8th century, however, the country was taken over by the Hungarian Empire. It was made part of the First Bulgarian Empire, which ended Romania's Dark Ages.

paragraphs: The Bulgarians held Transylvania until the 11th century. The Pechenegs, the Cumans, and the Uzes were a few of the people later noted in the history of Romania.

paragraphs: In 1310, now called the High Middle Ages, Basarab I started the Romanian principality of Wallachia. Moldavia was begun by Dragoş around 1352. During the Middle Ages, Romanians were living in three different areas: Wallachia (Romanian: "Ţara Românească"—"Romanian Land"), Moldavia (Romanian: "Moldova"), and Transylvania.

paragraphs: Transylvania belonged to the Kingdom of Hungary from around the 10th century until the 16th century, when it turned into the Principality of Transylvania. This lasted until 1711. Wallachia had been on the border of the Ottoman Empire since the 14th century. As the Ottoman Empire's influence grew, it gradually fell under the suzerainty (control) of the Ottoman Empire in the 15th century.

paragraphs: The best known ruler of this period was Vlad III the Impaler, also known as Vlad Dracula, or "", , Prince of Wallachia, during the years of 1448, 1456–62, and 1476. While he was the leader of his people, he had an agreement with the Ottoman Empire to stay independent. Many people in Romania during this time thought of him as a ruler with a great sense of justice and defense for his country.

paragraphs: Moldavia was at its greatest when Stephen the Great was ruling between 1457 and 1504. He was a great military leader, winning 47 battles and losing only 2. After every battle he won, Stephen would build a church. Because he won 47 of the battles that he fought, he ended up building 48 churches. After Stephen the Great's death, Moldavia came under the suzerainty of the Ottoman Empire during the 16th century.

paragraphs: When Transylvania was the organic part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and the Ottoman Empire was in control of Wallachia and Moldavia, almost all of the Romanians had limited rights as a citizen. They stayed this way even when they made up most of the people in those areas.

paragraphs: After Wallachian Revolution of 1821 as in the 1830s was addressed nationalists thoughts and feelings into Romania and became called ""National awakening of Romania'"'. Even then adopted a 3-colored flag, blue-yellow-red, which was later to become a Flag of Romania.

paragraphs: After the even more violent Revolution of 1848 did not succeed, so explained the Great Powers did not like the idea of Romania becoming a free nation and it was not a real possibility.

paragraphs: The people who voted in 1859 in Moldavia and Wallachia picked the same person – Alexandru Ioan Cuza – to be the prince in those areas. He managed to unite the people and nationalism was seen as a useful method.

paragraphs: Alexandru Ioan Cuza walked with cautious steps he was not proclaiming a declaration of independence immediately because he knew it would bring a new war. Instead he let Moldavia and Wallachia merged in the United Principalities of the Ottoman Empire and increasing self-government to a greater degree.

paragraphs: The new union was at the front of today's Romania. With cautious steps we freed itself more and Bucharest was established as the capital. However, farmers had more land when serfdom was abolished, which led to a coup d'état against the Alexandru Ioan Cuza staged by peasants who overthrew the regime.

paragraphs: Prince Karl of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen became the new leader, and was later called Prince Carol I of Romania. While the Russo-Turkish War was happening, Romania battled on the Russian side. When the Treaty of Berlin of 1878 was signed, the Great Powers made Romania an independent state. In return, they had to give Russia three of their southern districts of Bessarabia. In 1881, the principality became a kingdom, with Prince Carol ruling as King Carol I.

paragraphs: When World War I started in August of 1914, Romania said it was a neutral country. In 1916, the Allies promised to give Romania parts of the Austro-Hungarian Empire where many Romanians lived, if Romania started a war against Austria-Hungary.

paragraphs: The Romanian military campaign ended in disaster after Romania's forces were stopped in 1917. Many died. Moldova was one of the few parts of Romania that was not captured when it stopped its attackers in 1917. The Allies won the war, Austria-Hungary had been weakened, and an independent Hungarian republic was proclaimed. As promised, Bessarabia, Bukovina and Transylvania became part of the Kingdom of Romania in 1918. After the Treaty of Trianon in 1920, Hungary, as agreed, gave up the claims of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy over Transylvania. Romania and Bukovina were joined together in 1919 as a result of the Treaty of Saint Germain. Bessarabia joined with Romania in 1920 when the Treaty of Paris was signed.

paragraphs: After World War I was much bigger and more nationalist. The small Kingdom received ("major Transylvania"). The principalities Wallachia, Moldavia and Bessarabia (Moldova) together formed the "Greater Romania" 1918-1940. "Greater Romania" did not survive World War II.

paragraphs: Romanians called their country "România Mare", meaning "Great Romania" or "Greater Romania", in the time between World War I and World War II. They called it so because it controlled of land.

paragraphs: The Great Depression meant social unrest, high unemployment, strikes and riots, especially a miners' strike in 1929 in Valea Jiului and a strike in Griviţas maintenance workshops. By the mid-1930s, with a recovering Romanian economy, industry grew, although about 80% of Romanians still were engaged in agriculture.

paragraphs: In end of 1930s, Romania's liberal democracy was slowly being replaced by the fascist dictatorship. The Archangel Michael Legion, known as the Iron Guard organization, was led by Corneliu Codreanu Zelea. In 1937 elections the party supported Adolf Hitler and Nazism and got 15.5% of the votes and became the third biggest party. In 1938 king Carol II of Romania seized power over Romania. He dissolved all political parties and executed Corneliu Codreanu Zelea along with 12 other leaders.

paragraphs: Carol II of Romania declared the country as neutral when World War II broke out in 1939, but included since the Soviet Union occupied Bessarabia and northern Bukovina an alliance with Hitler's Germany. This occurred after field marshal Ion Antonescu forced the authoritarian Carol II of Romania to abdicate. Antonescu appointed himself "conducator", Romania's dictator, and signed at the November 23 of 1940 three-powers pact with Nazi Germany. Hitler's Germany was dependent on a continuous importation of fuel and crude oil from the Romanian oil fields of Ploesti. In 1940, yjr Kingdom of Hungary took over the legitimate domination in Northern Transylvania to the end of the World War II.

paragraphs: The country's troops fought together with the German Wehrmacht against the Soviet Union.

paragraphs: In summer of 1941, Romania join Hitler's war against the Soviet Union in combination also Finland, Slovakia and Hungary join Hitlers war. Romania built concentration camps and began conducting a massive persecution of Jews, of which became very extreme in the city of Iasi.

paragraphs: Romania participated in the Holocaust. The author of the book "The Destruction of the European Jews" Raul Hilberg writes follow: "There was / ... / moment when the Germans actually had to intervene and slow the speed with which the Romanian measures were taken." The hunt for Jews in eastern Romania (including Bessarabia, Bukovina, Transnistria and the city of Iasi) had more the character of pogroms than the German, well-organized camps and transport.

paragraphs: There were pogroms in the city of Iasi. The homes for the Jewish minority in Iasi were marked with crosses. On June 27, 1941, Ion Antonescu make a phone call with the city's mayor and Antonescu said into the phone: "clean the city Iasi from the Jews." And the Holocaust in Romania has began. Police officers and many civilians went to every Jewish home marked with a cross in the town and murdered thousands of Jews on the same day.

paragraphs: In June 1941, the Romanian dictator Ion Antonescu gave an "illegal secret order" to the special police force. He ordered the police in cooperation with the Romanian Army and the German SS troops to kill all Jews in east Romania within the next coming years. The Jews living on the countryside was being killed right on the spot. The Jews in the cities were first collected in the ghettos and later deported away.

paragraphs: On October 22, 1941 the Soviet union with bombs blow up the Romanian military headquarters in Odessa, and killed 66 Romanian soldiers. As revenge Ion Antonescu decided that for every dead Romanian officer, 200 Soviet communists must be killed and for each dead soldier, 100 communists must be killed. All other Communists were imprisoned and Jewish families were taken hostage in the hope that the partisan movement would cease its operations.

paragraphs: The day after in Bucharest, on October 23, 1941, around 5 000 people and the majority were Jews was arrested who later executed by hanging. In the Soviet village Dalnik, almost 20,000 Jews were incarcerated in to several locked buildings and burned alive.

paragraphs: After the massacre, many of the Jews who remained in Odessa were sent to various concentration camps. Nearby Odessa on October 25, 1941, approximately 40,000 Jews, was gathering together on a special closed military secured area, and the Jews had to stay outdoors for more than ten days without food or supply. Many died of cold and starvation. The survivors were murdered one month later.

paragraphs: Totally approximately 469,000 Jews had been murdered by the military and police in Romania between 1941-1944, including the 325,000 murdered Jews in Bessarabia and Bukovina.

paragraphs: At the end of 1943, the Red Army liberated most of Soviet territory and started advancing westward from its borders to defeat Nazi Germany and its allies. It was in this context that the Soviet forces crossed Romania. If the Soviet Union could hit Romania, Nazi Germany's last hope is gone, said the military leadership of the Red Army. Russians deposited the entire 1.5 million soldiers in the attack against Romania and Romania last reserves consisting only of 138 000 soldiers. During the summer of 1944 it began the attack on Bessarabia (Moldova) and the Romanian army fled the area. On 2 August, the whole Bessarabia (Moldova) is captured by the Red Army. The Russians then went a long way in Romania and on 23 August they reached into the Romanian capital Bucharest. The public opinion turned in the country against Antonescu and of summer 1944 he was deposed and imprisoned. The new government signed a ceasefire and extradited itself to the Soviet Union. The Red Army killed the members from the old fascist regime (including Ion Antonescu) on June 1, 1946.

paragraphs: At the end of the war, Romania was allowed to keep the whole of Transylvania in west and Dobruja from south, but lost Bessarabia/Transnistria and Odessa Oblast in the east (with rich oil reserves) which became parts of the Soviet Union. Bukovina was split in half because in the north part the majority ethnic group was Ukrainian and in the south part Romanian.

paragraphs: The Soviet Union replaced the royal monarchy with a communist regime in 1947. The Soviet Union took the country's resources, which led to increased poverty in Romania.

paragraphs: Michael I abdicated the throne and had to leave Romania in 1947 because of the Communists. Romania changed from a monarchy into a republic. The USSR occupied Romania until the late 1950s, when Soviet troops left Romania. During this time, resources in Romania were taken by the Soviet Union due to agreements made by Communist leaders.

paragraphs: After the Soviet troops left Romania, Nicolae Ceauşescu wanted Romania to become more independent from Moscow. Romania started following slightly different foreign policies than Moscow. After the Six-Day War in 1967, Romania began talks with Israel and started relations with the Federal Republic of Germany. Romania started to have their own relations with Arab countries. Romania officials were allowed to participate in peace talks between Israel and Egypt and between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization.

paragraphs: The national debt Romania owed to other countries went from $3 billion to almost $10 billion between 1977 and 1981. The amount of money that Romania owed other countries caused them to rely on banks and other lenders from around the world. President Nicolae Ceauşescu's autarchic ways meant he did not want to rely on other countries and Romania paid back money borrowed from other countries. This affected the Romanian economy. To try to stay in power, Ceauşescu had anyone who disagreed with him arrested and put in prison. Many people were killed or hurt. Almost 60,000 people were put in psychiatric hospitals. Ceauşescu eventually lost power and was killed in the Romanian Revolution of 1989.

paragraphs: In 1989, the National Salvation Front came into power. It was led by Ion Iliescu. When they came into power, several other parties from before World War II were remade. These included the Christian-Democratic National Peasants' Party, the National Liberal Party and the Romanian Social Democrat Party. In April 1990, as a result of several , protests started. The people who protested did not recognize the results of the election. This was because they thought that members of the National Salvation Front were communists. More and more people protested, and it became a demonstration – a very big protest. This was called the Golaniad, and it became very violent.

paragraphs: When the National Salvation Front lost power, several other parties were made. These were the Social Democratic Party, the Democratic Party, and a couple of other parties from before the war. The Social Democratic Party ruled Romania from 1990 until 1996. Ion Iliescu was the head of state, or person in charge. After 1996, several other parties came into power and lost it. In 2004, Traian Băsescu became the president.

paragraphs: After the Cold War, Romania became closer friends with Western Europe. In 2004, Romania joined NATO and hosted the 2008 summit. The country applied in June 1993 for membership in the European Union and became an Associated State of the EU in 1995, an Acceding Country in 2004, and a member on January 1, 2007.

paragraphs: Romania is a part of southeastern Europe. It borders the Black Sea and the Danube River. The Carpathian Mountains lie in the center.

paragraphs: Romania is the biggest country in southeast Europe by population. It has an area of . It is the twelfth-largest country in Europe. Most of Romania's border with Serbia and Bulgaria is made by the Danube. The Danube joins the Prut River. The Prut River makes the Moldovan–Romanian border. The Danube then flows into the area of the Black Sea inside Romania. This makes the Danube Delta. The delta is a biosphere reserve and a biodiversity World Heritage Site. Some of the other major rivers in Romania are the Siret, the Olt, and the Mureş. The Siret River runs from the north to the south of Moldavia. The Olt River runs from the Carpathian Mountains to Oltenia. The Mureş runs through Transylvania from the east to the west.

paragraphs: The land in Romania is made up of equal parts of mountains, hills, and low-lying areas. The Carpathian Mountains make up a big part of the center of Romania. Fourteen of its mountain ranges are taller than . The tallest mountain in Romania is Moldoveanu Peak, with a peak altitude of .

paragraphs: The Danube is the longest river in Romania. Its length inside Romania is about . That is almost half of the length of the entire Danube. Almost all of the rivers in Romania are either direct or tributaries of the Danube.

paragraphs: Romania has a climate that changes between temperate and continental climates. The reason for the climate changes is because Romania is near the coast. Romania has four different seasons. The average temperature during the year is in southern Romania and in the northern part.

paragraphs: Lots of rain and snow falls on the highest western mountains. Most of this falls as snow. In the southern parts of the country, the amount of rain and snow that falls is around .

paragraphs: The lowest temperature ever taken in Romania was , at Braşov in 1944. The highest temperature ever recorded in Romania was , near Calafat in the 1950s.

paragraphs: The official language of Romania is Romanian. The Romanian language is an Eastern Romance language.

paragraphs: Romania has its own culture because of where it is found. It is the point where 3 different areas meet: Central Europe, Eastern Europe, and the Balkans. Romanian culture is a mix of all these areas. The culture of Romania was influenced by the Greeks, Romans, and Slavs.

paragraphs: Romania is a secular state. This means Romania has no national religion. The biggest religious group in Romania is the Romanian Orthodox Church. It is an autocephalous church inside of the Eastern Orthodox communion. In 2002, this religion made up 86.7% of the population. Other religions in Romania include Roman Catholicism (4.7%), Protestantism (3.7%), Pentecostalism (1.5%) and the Romanian Greek-Catholicism (0.9%).

paragraphs: Bucharest is the capital of Romania. It also is the biggest city in Romania, with a population of over 2 millions peoples.

paragraphs: There are 5 other cities in Romania that have a population of more than 300,000 people. These are Iaşi, Cluj-Napoca, Timişoara, Constanţa, and Craiova. Romania also has 5 cities that have more than 200,000 people living in them: Galaţi, Braşov, Ploieşti, Brăila, and Oradea.

paragraphs: Thirteen other cities in Romania have a population of more than 100,000 people.

paragraphs: Romania joined the European Union on January 1, 2007. Romania's economy is healthy. Currently, Romania makes around $350 billion in Gross domestic product and a GDP per capita of $16,540.

paragraphs: Long into the 1900s, Romania was still a largely agricultural country. During Communism 1947-1989, the country had planned economy. The transition from planned economy to a market economy after the communist regime led to economic collapse in the 1990s, the reasons was that more money was printed, expensive prices and substantial privatization of the companies, which initially leads to skyrocketing unemployment. The reforms in the 1990s allowed foreign investors for the first time to buy land in Romania. When it was going explosively good for the industry in the Latin countries such as France, Italy and Spain, these countries began to trade with Romania because it is favorite voice country for them to grow in. Foreign companies expanding in Romania since then, and spurs the market.

paragraphs: The Romanian school is obligatory for 10 years. Children also have the opportunity to be part of a voluntary pre-school at an early age 3–6 years. After school, students can voluntarily take the entrance exam to high school, which has a range of practical and theoretical lines. There are over 40 higher educational institutions, including five universities and five technical colleges. Tuition is free and is a hot political commitment even at the university. The country's minorities have the opportunity to receive instruction in their native language. Since 1989, education has been reformed. But it has been slow and the standard of education varies greatly in different parts of the country, education has improved the standard of urban compared to rural areas where quality can be very low. Romania participates fully in the EU's education program.

paragraphs: The unemployment rate in Romania is five per-cent and has been low for many years.

paragraphs: The living standards were very low at the end of the Communist era, but the situation was just only improved a little bit during the 1990s. On the contrary, the living significantly due caused by the large privatization of jobs that resulted in high unemployment and rising prices. In later years lived yet 2010 nearly 10 percent of the population in absolute poverty and of these, 90% live in rural areas. The State social insurance system have relatively broad coverage but resources are extremely small.

paragraphs: Reforms have been initiated and in 1999 the health insurance became privatized and paid by the employers and the employees. Several thousand local trade unions were founded after the revolution, which were later amalgamated (combined) into federations. These unions and federations have helped organise students, pensioners and the unemployed; because these groups of people all have similar needs, concerns and goals.

paragraphs: By the first quarter of 2011 the average monthly household income is 2,318 Romanian leu (equivalent to approximately £862 USD).

paragraphs: The different between countryside and urban area may vary the income is 36 per-cent higher in the urban area than in the countryside.

paragraphs: The most worrying thing is the fact that there are more pensioners than the number of working people. because many who dismissed during the privatizations had per-retirement. Romanian Pensioners average pension at the month is at about 190 euros (equivalent to approximately £250-300 USD). The current low average retirement age (55 years for men and 57 years for women) will be gradually increased until 2014, when it gets 60 years for women and 65 years for men.

paragraphs: Many of the country's Gypsies have no identity cards and are therefore excluded from the social benefit systems, schools and health care. The State-run health care is free, but the care system is neglected and has deteriorated in recent years due to lack of resources and underpaid staff. In many cases,the patients paying "under the table" to get treatment. here is evidence to suggest that a patient's wealth plays an important role in how they receive medical treatment.

paragraphs: Historically, Romanian researches and inventors have made notable contributions to several fields, such as: aeronautics, medicine, mathematics, computer science/engineering, physics, biophysics, chemistry, biochemistry and biology. In the history of flight, Traian Vuia and Aurel Vlaicu built and flew some of the earliest successful aircraft, while Henri Coandă discovered the Coandă effect of fluidics. Preceding him, Elie Carafoli was a pioneering contributor to the field of aerodynamics in the world.

paragraphs: Victor Babeş discovered more than 50 germs and a cure for a disease named after him, babesiosis; biologist Nicolae Paulescu discovered insulin. Another biologist, Emil Palade, received the Nobel Prize for his contributions to cell biology. George Constantinescu created the theory of sonics, while Lazăr Edeleanu was the first chemist to synthesize amphetamine and also invented the modern method of refining crude oil. Costin Neniţescu found new methods for the synthesis of pirilium salts, of carbenes, tryptamine, serotonin, two new syntheses for the indole nucleus, and a new method of polymerisation of ethylene.

paragraphs: Several mathematicians distinguished themselves as well, among them: Gheorghe Ţiţeica, Spiru Haret, Grigore Moisil, Miron Nicolescu, Nicolae Popescu and Ştefan Odobleja; the latter is also regarded as the ideological father behind cybernetics.

paragraphs: Notable physicists and inventors also include: Horia Hulubei in atomic physics, Șerban Țițeica in theoretical physics, Mihai Gavrilă specialized in quantum theory and discoverer of the atomic dichotomy phenomenon, Alexandru Proca (known for the first meson theory of nuclear forces and Proca's equations of the vectorial mesonic field), Ştefan Procopiu known for the first theory of the magnetic moment of the electron in 1911 (now known as the Bohr-Procopiu magneton), Theodor V. Ionescu, the inventor of a multiple-cavity magnetron (1935), a hydrogen maser in 1947, 3D imaging for cinema/television in 1924 and hot deuterium plasma studies for controlled nuclear fusion, Ionel Solomon known for the nuclear magnetic resonance theory in solids, Solomon equations and photovoltaic devices, Petrache Poenaru, Nicolae Teclu and Victor Toma, with the latter known for the invention and construction of the first Romanian computer, the CIFA-1 in 1955.

paragraphs: The nuclear physics facility of the European Union's proposed Extreme Light Infrastructure (ELI) laser will be built in Romania. Romania currently has 1,400 MW of nuclear power capacity by means of one active nuclear power plant (Cernavodă) with 2 reactors, which constitutes around 18% of the national power generation capacity of the country. This makes Romania the 23rd largest user of nuclear power in the world.

paragraphs: The Constitution of Romania is found to be based from the Constitution of France's Fifth Republic. It was passed into law on December 8, 1991. after a referendum was held. 73 amendments were added to the constitution in October of 2003 to bring the constitution of Romania up to code with the constitution of the European Union.

paragraphs: The legislative branch of the Romanian government is known as the Parliament. It contains two chambers – the Senate, containing 140 members, and the Chamber of Deputies, which has 346 members. The members of both chambers are elected every four years through party-list proportional representation.

paragraphs: The judicial branch of the Romanian government is separate from the other branches. It is made up of a system of courts. The court with the most authority is the High Court of Cassation and Justice, which is the supreme court of Romania. Other courts, including appeal, county, and local courts also make up the judicial branch of the Romanian Government. The way the system of courts works in Romania is modelled off of the French model of law. It is based on civil law.

paragraphs: Romania is divided into 41 counties, including the municipality of Bucharest, which is also its own county.

paragraphs: Romania is divided further into 319 cities and 2,686 communes. Each of the communes has its own council that is led by a mayor.

paragraphs: The Romanian Army is made up of Land, Air, and Naval Forces, which are all led by a Commander-in-chief. The commander-in-chief is given orders by the Ministry of Defense. During war, the President leads the Army. 90,000 people were in the Romanian Army in 2003: 15,000 civilians and 75,000 military people. Of the 75,000 military people in the Romanian Army, 45,800 are in the land forces, 13,250 are in the air forces, 6,800 are in the naval forces, and 8,800 in other areas of the military.


title: Argon

paragraphs: Argon is a chemical element. The symbol for argon is Ar, and its atomic number (or proton number) is 18. It is a noble gas and no electrons or protons can be lost or gained from this atom.

paragraphs: Argon atoms are found in air. About 1% of the Earth's atmosphere (the air around us) is argon.

paragraphs: Argon is often used when welding steel and similar work, to push away the air around the weld, so the oxygen in the air can't join with the metal being welded.


title: Trade

paragraphs: To trade is to willingly give things or services and get other things or services in return. For example, a person giving a thing must find another person who wants to get that thing. The giver gets something back in return. A trade is also called an exchange or a swap.

paragraphs: An early type of trade is barter. Barter was the exchange of goods and services for other goods and services. Barter involves trading things without using of money. Modern traders commonly buy and sell by the use of money. Trade between two traders is called bilateral trade. Trade between more than two traders is called multilateral trade.

paragraphs: The things that are given from one person to the other are called goods.

paragraphs: Services can also be part of a trade. One person can do a job or work for another, and get something in return in a trade.

paragraphs: Money can be given in return for a service or for a thing. If money is part of the trade, then the person who gives the money is buying, and the person who gets the money is selling.

paragraphs: A place where trading takes place is called a market.

paragraphs: When there is no money involved in the trade, the trade is called barter. If there is money involved in the trade, the trade is called a purchase. In the past people would barter to get what they wanted, instead of buying goods and services.

paragraphs: Trade occurs not just between people, but also between large companies and even countries. Governments sometimes take some of the money or goods involved trade between countries. This is a type of tax called a tariff. Smugglers try to trade without paying tariffs.

paragraphs: Free trade between two countries is when there are small or no tariffs, quotas, or other restrictions on trade.

paragraphs: Domestic trade is the exchange of goods within a country. Domestic trade is very important because it allows different types of goods to reach to all parts of the country. It makes the standard of living of the people of the country better. It helps an industry to grow by making sure that there are raw materials. Domestic trade may be divided into two. They are:

paragraphs: Wholeselling is the sale of goods to industrial, commercial, institutional or other professional businesses. They can also be sold to other wholesalers. It is the sale of goods to anyone that is not a consumer. Wholesalers usually buy and sort goods in large numbers.

paragraphs: Retail is the process of selling goods or services to consumers through many means of distribution to earn a profit. The term "retailer" usually means where a person sells a small amount of good to many individuals, who are consumers.

paragraphs: International trade is the exchange of goods and services between different countries. International trade has existed throughout history. For example Uttarapatha, Silk Road, Amber Road, scramble for Africa, Atlantic slave trade, salt roads. When there is trade between two or more countries factors like currency, government policies, economy, judicial system, laws, and markets affect trade. International trade may be divided into three. They are:

paragraphs: An import is a good or service that was bought in one country but was produced in another country.

paragraphs: An export is a good or service that was produced in one country but was sold to another country.

paragraphs: An entrepôt is a port, city, or trading post where goods may be imported, stored or sold. These cities grew because of the growth of long-distance trade.


title: European Union

paragraphs: The European Union (abbreviation: EU) is a confederation of 27 member countries in Europe established by the Maastricht Treaty in 1992-1993. The EU grew out of the European Economic Community (EEC) which was established by the Treaties of Rome in 1957. It has created a common economic area with Europe-wide laws allowing the citizens of EU countries to move and trade in other EU countries almost the same as they do in their own. Nineteen of these countries also share the same type of money: the euro.

paragraphs: The Treaty of Lisbon is the most recent treaty that says how the Union is run. Every member state signed to say that they each agreed with what it says. Most importantly, it says which jobs (’powers’) the Union should do for the members and which jobs they should do themselves. The members decide how the Union should act by voting for or against proposals.

paragraphs: The objective of the EU is to bring its member states closer together with respect of human rights and democracy. It does this with a common style of passport, common rules about fair trading with each other, common agreements about law enforcement, and other agreements. Most members share a common currency (the euro) and most allow people to travel from one country to another without having to show a passport.

paragraphs: After World War II, the countries in Europe wanted to live peacefully together and help one another's economies. Instead of fighting each other for coal and steel, the first member countries (West) Germany, France, Italy, Belgium, Netherlands, and Luxembourg created one European Coal and Steel Community in 1952.

paragraphs: In 1957 in the Italian city of Rome, the member countries signed another treaty and made the European Economic Community. Now it was a community for coal, steel and for trade. Later it changed the name to the European Community.

paragraphs: In 1993, with the "Treaty of Maastricht" it changed its name to the European Union. Now the member countries work together not only in politics and economy (coal, steel and trade), but also in money, justice (laws), and foreign affairs. With the Schengen Agreement, 22 member countries of the EU opened their borders to each other, so people can now travel from one country to the other without a passport or identity card. Now already 16 member countries have replaced their national currencies with the euro. 10 new countries became members of the EU in 2004, 2 more became members in 2007, and 1 more in 2013. Today there are 27 member countries altogether.

paragraphs: A person who is a citizen of the European Union can live and work in any of the 27 member states without needing a work permit or visa. For example, a French person can move to Greece to work there, or just to live there, and he or she does not need permission from an authority in Greece.

paragraphs: In the same way, products made in one member country can be sold in any other member country without any special permissions or extra taxes. For this reason, the members agree rules on product safety - they want to know that a product made in another country will be as safe as it would be if it had been made in their own.

paragraphs: The Council of the European Union is the main decision-making group. The cabinet ministers of the member countries meet (Ministers for Foreign affairs, for Agriculture, for Justice, etc...) and discuss issues that are important to them.

paragraphs: Before the Treaty of Lisbon (written in 2007, implemented in 2008) each member state takes a turn at being President of the Council for six months. For example, from January 2007 until July 2007, Germany held the presidency. The six months before that, Finland held the presidency. Now the President of the European Union chairs the council summits. The President of the Council is the organiser and manager and is voted into office for a duration of two and a half years. He or she does not have the power to make decisions about the European Union like the President of the United States does for that country.

paragraphs: Member countries with a large population (Germany, France, United Kingdom, etc.) have more votes than countries with small populations (Luxembourg, Malta, etc.) but a decision cannot be made if enough countries vote against the decision.

paragraphs: Twice a year, the heads of government (Prime Ministers) and/or the heads of state (Presidents) meet to talk about the main issues and make decisions on different issues. This meeting is different and not as formal. It is known as a European Council.

paragraphs: The European Commission runs the day-to-day running of the EU and writes laws, like a government. Laws written by the Commission are discussed and changed by the European Parliament and the Council of the European Union.

paragraphs: The Commission has one President and 27 Commissioners, selected by the European Council. The Commission President is appointed by the European Council with the approval of the European Parliament.

paragraphs: The Commission operates like a cabinet government. There is one Commissioner per member state, though Commissioners are bound to represent the interests of the EU as a whole rather than their home state.

paragraphs: The Parliament has a total of 785 members (called Members of the European Parliament, or MEP). They are elected in their countries every five years by the citizens of the European Union member countries. The Parliament can approve, reject or change proposed laws. It can also sack the European Commission. In that case, the entire commission would have to give up their jobs.

paragraphs: There are many discussions in the EU about how it should develop and change in the future.

paragraphs: The main reasons why European countries came together are political and economic:

paragraphs: In 1951, six countries made the "European Coal and Steel Community", a basic version of what the EU is now. These six then went further and in 1957 they made the European Economic Community and the European Coal and Steel Community. The UK and others decided not to join, and then when the UK changed its mind it was stopped from joining by French President Charles de Gaulle. When he was no longer President, the UK and others started to join. Today there are 27 members but the idea that more should join is not seen as a good one by everyone.

paragraphs: Serbia, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Turkey and Iceland are "candidate countries"; they are being considered for membership. Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Kosovo are expected to follow.

paragraphs: However, since there have been many political problems happening in Turkey recently, especially with President Erdogan's arresting of tens of thousands of political rivals since the failed coup attempt on July 15, 2016, it is unlikely that it would be allowed to part of the EU anytime soon because EU members believe that the current Turkish government is not respecting human rights, rule of law, or democracy.

paragraphs: United in diversity (or "together with many types of people" in Simple English), is the motto of the European Union.

paragraphs: On June 23, 2016, the UK held a referendum on whether it should stay in the EU or leave it. The majority [52% to 48%] favoured leaving. Britain leaving the EU is commonly known as Brexit.

paragraphs: The government of the UK triggered "Article 50" of the Treaty of European Union (the Treaty of Lisbon) on 29 March 2017. This began negotiations with fellow members of the EU on the terms of exit. The timetable for these negotiations is two years, which meant that the UK would remain a member of the EU until at least March 2019. However this deadline was later extended to October 31st 2019 at the request of the British Government. The United Kingdom left the European Union on the 31. of January 2020 at 23:00 Greenwich Mean Time.