title: History of chess

text: The game was taken up by the Muslim world after the Islamic conquest of Persia, with the pieces largely retaining their Persian names; in Arabic "māt" or "māta" مَاتَ means "died", "is dead". In Arabic, the game became Shatranj. In all other languages, the name of the game is derived either from "shatranj" or from "shah".


title: History of chess

text: The following table provides a glimpse of the changes in the names and character of chess pieces, as they passed from one culture to another, from India through Persia to Europe:


title: History of chess

text: Changes in the Arabic names of pieces happened over several centuries after the game arrived in Europe. Most changed were the pieces which had no equivalent in Europe, such as the elephant, the visier (an advisor: the firzan or wazir), and the chariot (rukhkh). The greatest variety of names was for the elephant, which was not seen in Europe, and so not used in war. In Spain names derived from Arabic lasted for centuries (alfil, aufin, orfil...). Eventually, all but France used a word for "bishop". In a similar manner, vizir eventually became "queen", and the chariot became a word for "castle". Except, that is, in English, where "rook" is obviously a version of "rukh". Please note: the following table does not capture all these complicated changes.


title: History of chess

text: The game reached Western Europe and Russia by at least three routes, the earliest being in the 9th century. By the year 1000 it had spread throughout Europe. Introduced into the Iberian Peninsula by the Moors in the 10th century, it was described in a famous 13th century manuscript covering shatranj, backgammon and dice named the "Libro de los juegos".


title: History of chess

text: Buddhist pilgrims, Silk Road traders and others carried it to the Far East, where it was transformed into a game often played on the intersection of the lines of the board rather than within the squares. Chinese chess and Shogi are the most important of the oriental chess variants. However, it was the changes made in medieval Europe which led to our modern game.


title: History of chess

text: The game of chess is really two games. There is the original Indo-Arabic game, and there is the modern game, usually called 'international chess'. The transition between the two happened during the change from the medieval world to the modern world, in the Europe of the later 15th century. In fact, the new game of chess was one of the early topics chosen for the new technology of printing.


title: History of chess

text: The game could be won by 1. Mating the king; 2. By giving stalemate; 3. By capturing all the opponent's pieces. This kept down the number of draws.


title: History of chess

text: About 500 years after chess first reached Europe, after some smaller experiments, there were big changes in the way the pieces moved. The effect was to make the start of the game run faster, and get the opposing pieces in contact sooner. The changes were:


title: History of chess

text: These changes made most of the older chess culture obsolete. The slow development in the openings was replaced by gambits and rapid attacks. The relative values of the pieces are changed. The game can now only be won by mate or resignation by one of the players. Originally, this was not seen as a problem, but as technique improved, so did the number of draws. This became a matter for discussion in the early 20th century. The limited number of ways to win changed what players needed to win in the endgame; many endgames which could be won with the old rules now were drawn.


title: History of chess

text: The first printed work on chess to survive to the present day is Luis de Lucena's "Arte de axedres", printed in Salamanca, Spain. It can be dated to 1496 or 1497. It presents a number of chess problems, some of which are in the old rules ("del viejo"), some in the new rules ("dela dama"). This suggests that the transition is not quite complete, and some readers might not know about the new rules. By 1512, when Damiano published his "Questo libro e da imparare giocare a scachi" in Rome, it only included problems with the new rules, and does not mention the medieval game. The same applies to the Gottingen manuscript, probably written in Spain or Portugal. Though it has been claimed to be earlier, its content suggests it was not written before 1500. England and Germany received the reformed game by 1530. After that, the old game was effectively dead—in Europe, at any rate. A version of the old game survived in India until recently.


title: History of chess

text: Modern chess theory was slow in developing. After the new moves of the pieces, players spent their time playing gambits, and trying to mate each other. The games of Gioacchino Greco (1600– ~1634) clearly show this. The first ideas as to how to win indirectly, 'positionally', started with Philidor. Modern chess has a lot of indirect manoeuvering of a kind the old Arabic players would have understood. They could not attack directly, because their Alfil and Firzān (our bishop and queen) had such limited moves.


title: History of chess

text: One interesting fact is that the Arabs divided their game into the same three stages which we do today: opening, middlegame and endgame.


title: History of chess

text: At the start of a game, the Arabic masters took a number of moves before the pieces were in contact with the other side.


title: History of chess

text: The table, based roughly on square control, suggests the modern game deploys about 20% more force on the board than the older game. However, this understates the case, since the table does not allow for castling, nor the initial optional double move of the pawn. Also, the pawn promotion to the new queen is hugely significant when it takes place. No exact value can be placed on these elements, but perhaps the modern game makes use of up to a third more force than in the original game. Also, the fast development of the pieces makes the opening far more important in the modern game.


title: History of chess

text: Single pieces found in archaeology are seldom taken as chessmen; they are more likely to be art objects, or hnefatafl pieces. "Groups" of small objects are more likely chessmen if there are of more than two types. Many board games have used two kinds of pieces, but only chess uses six different kinds. A dig might not turn up all six forms, but more than two is indicative of chess. If the forms have characteristic chess figures (foot soldiers, kings, man on horse) this is even more convincing.


title: History of chess

text: The evidence from archaeology comes mostly from the discovery of early chess sets, and also from rock art: carvings (petroglyphs) and paintings on rock.


title: History of chess

text: The earliest chessmen found are the Afrasiab collection. In 1977 the Uzbekistan Academy of Archaeology conducted a dig at Afrasiab, near Samarkand. Samarkand is one of the oldest inhabited cities in the world, and at times it has been one of the greatest cities of Central Asia. Samarkand is on the trade route between China and the Mediterranean (the Silk Road), and so it is a logical place for a trader to store some of his precious goods.


title: History of chess

text: The Afrasiab finds include seven chess pieces. They are heavily worn, but they include: two foot soldiers with shields and short swords (= our pawns); a war elephant with chain armour and a rider in full battle-dress (= our bishop); a visier (= our queen) with two horses with armed rider; two mounted riders with sword and shield (= knights); and the Shah, on a three-horse chariot, holding a mace-like symbol of power (= our king). That is five out of the six types of piece, and completely convincing as a chess set. The rukh (rook) is also known: it features a three-horse chariot with two men, one driving, and the other armed with sword and shield.


title: History of chess

text: This group is dated to the 7th–8th centuries, and probably come from the end of the Sassanid Empire just before the Arabic conquest. They are "representational", meaning they are small carvings (though somewhat crude) of war men and equipment. Later Arabic sets became abstract shapes, in accordance with their religious teaching.


title: Amanda Anka

text: Amanda Katherine Anka-Bateman (born December 10, 1968 in New York City, USA) is an American movie, television, and voice actress.


title: Amanda Anka

text: Amanda Katherine Anka was born on December 10, 1968 in New York City. She was born to musician and actor Paul Anka and model Anne de Zogheb, who were married from 1963 until their divorce in 2000. Amanda is the second of five daughters. Her sisters are Alicia Anka (b.1970), Amelia Anka (b.1977), (b.1971) and Alexandra Anka (b.1966). She also has a younger half-


title: Amanda Anka

text: Amanda married her boyfriend of two years, actor Jason Bateman (b.1969), on July 3, 2001. They have two daughters together - Francesca Nora Bateman (b.October 28, 2006) and Maple Sylvie Bateman (b.February 10, 2012).


title: Movie

text: A movie or film is a type of visual art that uses images and sounds to tell stories or teach people something. Most people watch movies to entertain themselves or to have fun. Some movies can make people laugh, but other movies can make them cry, or make them feel afraid.


title: Movie

text: Most movies are made so they can be watched at home or on a movie screen at movie theaters. Movies are shown in movie theaters a few weeks or months after or before the movie is released. Movies can be marketed using media. Movies are shown on pay television or cable television, or are sold or rented on DVD disks or videocassette tapes, so that people can watch the movies at home. Movies can also be downloaded or streamed. Some movies are shown on television broadcasting stations.


title: Movie

text: Movies are filmed with movie cameras or video cameras. Movie cameras take pictures very quickly, and they usually take 24 or 25 pictures, or frames every second. When a movie projector, a computer, or a television shows the pictures at 24 frames a second, it looks like the things shown in the set of pictures are moving. Sound is usually recorded at the same time as the pictures are, but sometimes they are added later. The sounds in a movie are usually people talking, the soundtrack, and sound effects. In the 20th century the camera used photographic film.


title: Movie

text: Most movies start to be made when a screenwriter writes a script, which is the story of the movie with dialogue and words and things that the actors will say and do. A producer hires people to work on the movie and gets the money that will be used to pay for the actors and the equipment. Producers usually get the money by borrowing it from a bank or by asking investors to give money to them. Some producers work for a movie studio, but other producers work by themselves.


title: Movie

text: Actors and directors read scripts to learn what to say and what to do. The actors learn the words from the script that they will say in the movie, and learn the things that the script tells them to do. Then, the director tells the actors what to do and a cameraman takes the film of them saying the words with a film camera.


title: Movie

text: When the filming is done, an editor makes the film play after each other, which makes a story. Audio engineers and sound engineers record music and singing and combine it with the film. When the movie is done, many copies of the movie are made by movie labs and put onto film reels. Then the reels are sent to movie theaters. A projector shines a very bright light through the film, and people sitting in a dark room see it on a big screen.


title: Movie

text: A genre means a type of movie. Movies can be fictional, or non-fictional. Even though hundreds of movies are made every year, there are not like another movie. Some movies can be two or more genres.


title: Movie

text: Most movies lose money but some make up to hundreds of millions. In India movies have become an enormous part of the economy. The industry has always been led by a few major movie studios like MGM/UA, Warner Bros., Columbia, Paramount, or Disney.


title: Movie

text: There are many large companies that provide all of the services needed to make movies, such as special effects, lighting, set building. Many of these employees belong to trade unions who say how much their members must be paid. A large number of smaller companies also offer services, such as music studios (which record the music for original movie sound tracks) and CGI computer animation.


title: Movie

text: Finally there are movie distribution companies (Which send movies around the world or around a country), and advertising companies (Showing people who may watch the movie so they do it.)


title: Movie

text: Movies with famous stars (actors who are well known) and large budgets (lots of money), are designed to have a large appeal (something a person would like about the , so that hopefully millions of people will pay to see them. These most expensive movies are called blockbusters.


title: Movie

text: Special effects can add a huge amount to the cost of a movie, especially the newest CGI effects, but people have come to expect them and every blockbuster movie tries to outdo the last. Even in 2008, some movies cost up to $200 million to make.


title: Movie

text: Very successful movies can make many times that amount in profit, and that's why the studios keep producing them. This kind of movie will have a lot of promotion (getting the movie into the public.) through television advertising, billboards and internet sites.


title: Movie

text: In blockbuster movies, there is usually a happy ending, in which all of the problems in the plot (story) are figured out or fixed and almost everyone (except the bad guys) live happily ever after. Some movies have been so successful that the studios keep releasing more and more sequels, or movies with the same characters and basic plots.


title: Movie

text: At the opposite end of the scale to the blockbuster, there is the independent, art, or Indie movie. These are usually made by small movie companies, or even just a small group of people that do not have much money. An example is The Blair Witch Project, which cost only about $60,000, but which has so far taken perhaps $200 million in ticket and DVD sales. Movies like this are very unusual and usually become popular 'underground' (word of mouth advertising), so that they have a cult following, or popular but not mainstream.


title: Movie

text: Independent movies often tell more creative or unusual (strange) stories, or may have sad endings that do not appeal to the big studios, because they can not be sure how the public will react to them. They rarely make a lot of money, but if they are successful, the big studios will quickly try to get the people involved to sign a contract with them, by offering them a lot of money to make another movie. Often the new movie, with its big budget and its stars will be less successful than the first.


title: Movie

text: Some movies received Oscar nominations, and wins. Also, some actors and actresses received Oscar nominations, and wins.


title: Christmas

text: ‘’’Christmas’’’ (which means “The Mass of Christ”) is a Christian holiday that celebrates the birth of Jesus, who Christians believe is the Son of God. Christmas is also a cultural holiday for many non-Christians.


title: Christmas

text: Christmas Day is celebrated on the 25th day of December. It is one of the most important days of the year for Christians, along with Easter (which celebrates the death and resurrection of Jesus). The season of Advent begins on a Sunday about four weeks before Christmas. During Advent, people prepare for Christmas.


title: Christmas

text: The Christmas season (called Christmastide) ends 6 January, also called the Twelfth Day of Christmas. On this day, Christians celebrate ‘’Epiphany‘’.


title: Christmas

text: People celebrate Christmas in many places around the world. Some people celebrate Christmas as a religious holiday. In some places, Christmas is a time of celebration for Christians and non-Christians alike. Christmas traditions are different in different countries. However, they almost always include a feast; giving gifts or cards; and enjoying church or public festivities, like singing Christmas carols and songs. Christmas is not limited to Christianity.


title: Christmas

text: In the Northern Hemisphere, Christmastide happens during the winter. Before Christmas was ever celebrated, ancient peoples celebrated winter festivals. Some traditions from these ancient festivals became Christmas traditions. For example, some Christmas traditions come from the pagan holiday of Yule.


title: Christmas

text: Today, Christmas traditions often focus on gift-giving. About a month before Christmas Day, retail stores start selling gifts, food, greeting cards, Christmas trees, and decorations.


title: Christmas

text: Christmas celebrates the birth of Jesus. There are four different Gospels in the Bible which talk about Jesus’s birth. The Gospel of Luke gives details about Jesus’s birth. The Gospel of Matthew tells another part of the story. The Gospel of John says that Jesus came from God to bring his “Word” (his message) to all people. Christians believe these Gospels are based on fact.


title: Christmas

text: The Gospels say that many years before Jesus’ birth, prophets had told a promise to the Jewish people that God would send them a Messiah, or holy teacher. Christians believe that the promised Messiah was Jesus. His mother was a young woman called Mary, who was engaged, but not yet married to a carpenter called Joseph. Joseph found out that Mary was pregnant and was upset. He was wondering what he should do, when an angel came from God to tell him that the baby was the Holy One. The angel said that he must ‘’name the baby’’. This was a sign that he would take care of it like his own child.


title: Christmas

text: At this time, the Middle East was ruled by the Romans. An order came that all the people had to travel back to their home town, to put their names on the taxation lists. Joseph took his new wife to Bethlehem. There was nowhere for them to stay, except a stable where the animals slept. This is where the baby was born. Joseph called him Jesus, as the angel had said.


title: Christmas

text: The baby Jesus had two lots of visitors. On the night he was born, angels told some shepherds in the fields that they would find a newborn king lying in an animals’ feed bin (or ‘’manger’’). Jesus’ other visitors were some wise men who saw a new star in the sky and followed it, until they found the house where the family was now living and gave the young child expensive gifts of gold, incense and a precious herb called myrrh. (The wise men are often traditionally called the Three Kings, because there were three very expensive presents but the Bible does not say how many wise men there were.)


title: Christmas

text: All these parts of the Christmas story are remembered and celebrated in different ways at Christmas: in pictures, songs, plays, stories and in models that are called “cribs”, “creches” or “presepe”.


title: Christmas

text: Most Christian countries of the world use a calendar called the Gregorian Calendar, but some churches use a calendar called the Julian Calendar. Most Christians, such as those of the Catholic and Protestant Churches, celebrate the birth of Jesus on 25 December, although holidays begin on 24 December also known as Christmas Eve.


title: Christmas

text: The Eastern Orthodox Church still uses the Julian Calendar in some regions such as Russia. In such regions, Christmas is celebrated on 25 December in the Julian Calendar, but because of the difference between the calendars it is 7 January in the modern Gregorian Calendar.


title: Christmas

text: Some Christians, like Jehovah's Witnesses, do not celebrate Christmas because there is no instruction from Jesus in the Bible which tells Christians to celebrate his birth. Mormons celebrate Christmas on 25 December but they believe that Christ’s actual birth took place on 6 April.


title: Christmas

text: Some believe that Jesus was probably not born on 25 December. Some historians believe this date was used by the Catholic Church to replace the pagan rites that took place at that time of the year.


title: Christmas

text: The Season of Advent, which begins on Sunday about four weeks before Christmas Day, is celebrated by the Catholic and Anglican Churches, as well as others. It is a time for people to prepare themselves for two different things: for the coming of the baby Jesus and Christmas, and for the second coming of Jesus, when he shall rule over all the Earth in peace. Not all Christian people remember Advent. Some people use it as a time of fasting, study, meditation and prayer. Special Advent Calendars are made for children, with pictures or treats for each day of Advent.


title: Christmas

text: Generally, Advent is a time when many people are very busy in preparation for Christmas Day, cleaning and decorating, buying food and presents, writing cards and letters, and cooking the Christmas feast.


title: Christmas

text: Before the 4th century AD, Christians could only worship and celebrate in secret. The feast of Christmas probably began while Constantine was the Emperor of Rome, because it was he who made Christianity a legal religion and built some of Rome’s oldest churches. Some old stone coffins or ‘’sarcophagi’’ from this time are carved with pictures of Mary and baby Jesus and the Wise Men.


title: Christmas

text: Through the Middle Ages Christmas was celebrated with feasting, singing and plays. The plays were held in churches, and also in castles and in market places, where a big hay wagon was sometimes used as a stage.


title: Christmas

text: Because Advent was a time of prayer and preparation, most parties were held after Christmas, rather than before it. The main pre-Christmas celebration was the Feast of St. Nicholas on 6 December. In some countries, particularly the Netherlands, the tradition grew for children to receive presents on this day, rather than Christmas Day. The name of Saint Nicholas is now remembered in many countries as Santa Claus.


title: Christmas

text: Another festivity that takes place is the Feast of Saint Lucy (St. Lucia Day) on 13 December which is particularly celebrated in Scandinavia, where girls take part in candlelit processions, and the daughters of the house must rise early to bring coffee or chocolate to the family.


title: Christmas

text: For many centuries, the celebration of Christmas often began with a church service or mass, which lasted from late at night to after midnight on Christmas morning. Christmas Day was a time of feasting. On the following day, the Feast of Saint Stephen people from rich households would carry boxes of food out to the street for the poor and hungry. Many people would go back to work but employers would give gifts of money to their workers. The Holy Days continued with the feast of Saint John and Holy Innocents' Day. The feasting and parties ended on the Feast of the Epiphany, the day of the Three Wise Men, often called the “Three Kings”. The season is nowadays remembered by the song “The Twelve Days of Christmas”. William Shakespeare wrote a play to be performed as part of the celebration, called “Twelfth Night“.


title: Christmas

text: For many, Christmas has become a time when having parties, sending messages to family and friends and giving presents has become more important than the celebration of Jesus’ birth. Manufacturers and stores have responded to the feasting and present-giving with lots of advertising, decorations and displays. In the US, the Christmas displays are put up right after Thanksgiving, late in November. In some countries such as Australia, stores put up decorations at the beginning of November. Given that Jesus himself called people making money in the Jewish Temple ‘robbers’ (Matthew 21:13) many Christians are uneasy about profit instead of prophets at Christmas.


title: Christmas

text: Town councils celebrate by decorating streets and squares, and providing Christmas entertainment for shoppers. In countries of the Southern Hemisphere, where Christmas falls in Summer, there is a tradition of open-air Carol Services, often organised by the town council, which are attended by thousands of people.


title: Christmas

text: Many Christians celebrate Christmas by attending church, and with prayers and singing. And each year there are Bible readings from the Gospels that tell the story of the birth of Jesus.


title: Christmas

text: Christmas traditions are of several types. There are traditions of the church, traditions which are public celebrations and traditions that are kept by families. These traditions are different in different times, places, cultures and even families.


title: Christmas

text: The celebration of Christmas is a very important time for churches. Almost every church has special services or celebrations. Here are some of the ways that churches celebrate Christmas.


title: Christmas

text: It is the custom in many churches to set up a Crib (or ‘’Creche’’) scene of the ‘’Nativity’’ or birth of Jesus. The first scene of this type was set up by St. Francis of Assisi in the 13th century. They have been very popular in Italy ever since then, and the custom has spread to other countries.


title: Christmas

text: Nativity scenes can be large with life-sized statues, or they can be tiny enough to fit in a matchbox. They are made of many different things including carved and painted wood, brightly coloured ceramics (pottery), painted paper glued to boards, and mixtures of material with clay, wood, cloth, straw and metal used for different parts.


title: Christmas

text: The Advent wreath is a circle of leaves, usually pine boughs, ivy and holly, with 4 (or sometimes 5) candles in it which is hung up in a church. The candles are lit on each Sunday in Advent, and the central candle is lit on Christmas morning. Churches are often decked with green branches and leaves, and many churches also have a Christmas tree.


title: Christmas

text: A popular tradition in many churches is the Carol Service which is often lit only by candles. The carol service generally has lots of singing and Bible readings. There is a tradition in England which began in the Temple Church in London and has now spread to many other places for a service of Nine Lessons and Carols. The lessons are Bible readings. Some carols are sung by a choir and others by the choir and people (the congregation). Every year one of these services is recorded in a large English Church, often King's College Chapel, Cambridge, and is broadcast on radio and television to be enjoyed by people who love good music and carol singing, but particularly for people who cannot go to a Christmas service.


title: Christmas

text: Many cities and towns celebrate Christmas by putting up decorations. These may be banners and bunting which are strung from buildings or lampposts. They may be Christmas lights which can also decorate buildings and street trees. Many large cities put up a huge Christmas tree in a public place, such as those in Trafalgar Square in London, Times Square in New York and Martin Place in Sydney. This is often combined with an appeal to the people of the city to give money or gifts to help the poor and needy.


title: Christmas

text: In many cities, the usual shopping hours are made longer before Christmas so that workers have more time to buy Christmas food and presents. Shop windows are often decorated with Christmas scenes, with large department stores often having animated scenes to entertain children. Shopping malls and big stores often have a Santa Claus, who sits on a throne, while children tell him what they want for Christmas, and have their photos taken.


title: Christmas

text: Many towns hold Christmas parades, street entertainment and concerts. Some towns have a tradition of carols with a choir and entertainers in the town hall, while in Australia and New Zealand, these concerts of Christmas entertainment and carols are usually held outdoors, in parks or even on beaches, with families bringing picnics. The arrival of Santa Claus at the end of the evening is accompanied by a firework display.


title: Christmas

text: A traditional part of Christmas is the theatre entertainment. This includes the performance of classical music such as Handel’s Messiah as well as orchestral concerts and band recitals. Pantomimes are often played at Christmas and favourites include “Peter Pan and Wendy“ and “Cinderella“. Many children’s movies are released during the Christmas season.


title: Christmas

text: Because many people feel very lonely, hungry and sad at Christmas, many cities, churches, charities and service organisations try to help the poor and lonely by providing Christmas food and gifts for poor families, and Christmas parties for people who are hungry or who are lonely and without any friends or family.


title: Christmas

text: Family celebrations are often very different from each other, depending on where a family comes from, and the customs that have grown in particular families.


title: Christmas

text: Most families think of Christmas as a time to get together with other members of the family. People often travel from far away to be with other family members at Christmas. Those people who cannot travel often make long-distance phone calls on Christmas Day. Many people also see Christmas as a time to reach out to others that they know might be lonely, and invite them to dinner on Christmas Day. Christmas is seen as a time for people of all ages to have fun together, for cousins to get to know each other, for grandparents to see their grandchildren and for the family to admire the babies that have been born during the year. Big family parties are usually a time of joy, but some families often talk about their disagreements and have big fights at Christmas time.


title: Christmas

text: Family traditions are very different. Some families might all go off to church together, to a Carol Service, a Midnight Mass, or a Christmas Morning service. Some families are pulled out of bed very early by children who want to open their presents. In other families, presents are given on St. Nicholas Day, on Christmas Eve or not until after church on Christmas morning. The Christmas feast might start on Christmas Eve, with a special breakfast on Christmas morning, or at midday on Christmas Day.


title: Christmas

text: Some families have a tradition of carol singing, and might go around the streets, to hospitals and other such places singing with members of their church. Other families like to watch certain television programs together, which might include carol services and the Queen’s Message. Some families use Christmas as a time to play music and sing together, or to read a favourite book such as “A Christmas Carol” by Charles Dickens. In countries in the Southern Hemisphere, a visit to the beach or a swim in a pool is often part of the Christmas Day tradition.


title: Christmas

text: Christmas Dinner, usually eaten in the middle of the day, is an important part of the family celebration. The food differs from country to country and also from family to family. In the Northern Hemisphere, roasted meat and vegetables are generally the main courses of the meal. Usually one of several types of meat are served, which may include Turkey, , , , or . There are often several courses, with special treats that are usually only eaten at Christmas.


title: Christmas

text: In English-speaking countries, the traditional dessert is Christmas plum pudding. Nowadays these puddings are often bought from bakers, but many people make their own to a family recipe. The tradition came from the Middle Ages when the pudding was used to preserve some of the fruit from autumn until the mid-winter. A traditional pudding is baked six weeks before Christmas and is left tied up in a cloth or basin with a cloth covering, in a cool place. Stirring the pudding is sometimes a family tradition, with everyone making a wish as they stir. Traditionally a silver coin would be stirred into the pudding, to bring luck to the person who found it. Nowadays most coins cannot be used because they are not made of silver so taste horrible and may be poisonous. Some families use old coins or silver charms. On Christmas Day the pudding must be boiled in a pot for several hours. When it is served, the cloth is cut off, brandy is poured onto the pudding, and it is set on fire before it is carried to the table. Christmas crackers are used to decorate and are often opened prior to serving the dish or starter course. It is usually served with hard sauce.


title: Christmas

text: Many families have a Christmas cake or a special bread instead of a pudding (or as well as a pudding). These are very different depending on the country, but often have marzipan which is made from almonds and is traditional in many countries at Christmas. In France ‘’Buche de Noäl’’ or gingerbread men and women are decorated and hung on the Christmas tree. In Scotland a pastry biscuit called shortbread is made and has become a popular tradition in many countries. A German tradition is ‘’pfeffernuss’’, spiced cookies rolled in powdered sugar. Other Christmas food includes fruit cakes, sultanas, ginger, Greek baklava, almonds, chocolates, caramel toffee, candy canes and cookies.


title: Christmas

text: Many families also prepare mulled wine which is warmed with cinnamon and nutmeg or egg nogs, a sweet drink made of milk, sugar, eggs, nutmeg and sometimes alcohol.


title: Christmas

text: In the Southern Hemisphere, the traditional roast dinner is often replaced with cold cuts of meat, and served with salads. The first course might be prawn cocktail or a cold soup like borsch. The plum pudding might be served with ice cream. White wine and beer are both served cold (beer is kept in a refrigerator). Christmas dinner may be served on the veranda, or sometimes as a picnic.


title: Christmas

text: In most homes when Christmas is celebrated, people set up a Christmas tree in the house. This old Yuletide custom began in Germany as the “Tannenbaum” (German for ‘’Fir Tree’’). These are traditionally evergreens, the best type being the Fir Tree which does not shed its needles or lose its fragrance. The tree may be a cut tree that is bought from a plantation or taken from the forest. Artificial trees are sometimes preferred to real trees. The Christmas tree is decorated with lights, shiny coloured balls, sparkly tinsel and other ornaments. A wreath of leaves or pine is often put on the front door of a house as a sign of welcome. Other plants that have special significance at Christmas are holly which is used as decoration and mistletoe which is hung in the centre of a room. The tradition is that people who meet under the mistletoe must kiss.


title: Christmas

text: Many people decorate their homes at Christmas time. These decorations and the Christmas tree are generally inside, but may be put where they can also be seen through a window by people passing by. In the mid 20th century there grew up a custom for decorating the outside of houses as well. These decorations may be just a few lights around the porch, or hundreds of lights and colourful Christmas figures decorating the whole house and garden. Some neighbourhoods hold competitions for the best-decorated house, and driving around the streets to look at them has become another family tradition.


title: Christmas

text: The giving of gifts at Christmas comes from several different ideas. One is that God gave his son, Jesus, to the world at Christmas. There is also the story of the Wise Men who came to the baby Jesus with three gifts, gold, frankincense and myrrh. For many centuries it has been the custom for people to give small gifts at Christmas, and also to give generously to the poor and needy to help them through the winter. Another tradition has become linked to this one, and the result is the tradition of Santa Claus, or Father Christmas as he is sometimes called, and who is nowadays thought by many children to be the bringer of presents and happiness.


title: Christmas

text: In the 4th century, in a Greek village that is now part of Turkey, there was a good man who would secretly given presents to the poor to help them. He became a bishop and is called Saint Nicholas. Over the centuries, he became a very popular saint and lots of churches were named after him. He was very popular in places where there were lots of sailors. One of those places was the Netherlands. In the Netherlands and many other European countries, presents are given on the feast of Saint Nicholas, 6 December. Traditionally, the presents are not big, and are sometimes hidden, or have a funny joke or poem that must be read. In many towns of Europe a man dressed in bishop’s robes comes on a horse or in a boat, acting as St. Nicholas. His name was often shortened to Sante Claus, or Santa Claus in English.


title: Christmas

text: In English speaking countries, where presents are usually given on Christmas Day, not 6 December, Santa Claus, (or Father Christmas) is usually thought of as coming on Christmas Night, when his magic sleigh is pulled across the sky by reindeer, and he comes into houses through the chimney. While in Europe, children put out their shoes for St. Nicholas, the English tradition is to hang up stockings (or long socks) in front of the fireplace. Santa Claus would traditionally fill the socks or shoes with nuts, raisins, chocolates and an orange. Nowadays children usually get much more expensive presents, and hang up pillow cases or have the presents in a big pile under the Christmas tree.


title: Christmas

text: Another Christmas tradition is the sending of cards to friends and relatives. These contain warm greetings and may also have a letter telling all the things that have happened to the person or family during the year.


title: Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy

text: The "Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy" is a dance for a ballerina. It is the third movement in "The Nutcracker pas de deux". This "pas de deux" is from Act 2 of the 1892 ballet "The Nutcracker". It is danced by the principal female dancer. The number was choreographed by Lev Ivanov to music written by Tchaikovsky.


title: Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy

text: Choreographer Marius Petipa wanted the Sugar Plum Fairy's music to sound like "drops of water shooting from a fountain". Tchaikovsky found the ideal instrument to do this job in Paris in 1891. It was then that he came across the recently invented "celesta". This instrument looked like a piano. It sounded like bells. Tchaikovsky wrote, "[The celesta is] midway between a tiny piano and a Glockenspiel, with a divinely wonderful sound." He wanted to use the celesta in "The Nutcracker". He asked his publisher to buy one. He wanted to keep the purchase a secret. He did not want other Russian composers to "get wind of it and ... use it for unusual effects before me."


title: Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy

text: Tchaikovsky introduced the "celesta" to Russian music lovers on 19 March 1892 when the "Nutcracker Suite" was performed for the Russian Musical Society in St. Petersburg. The instrument is forever identified with the Sugar Plum Fairy. It is heard in other parts of Act 2 of "The Nutcracker" besides the Sugar Plum Fairy's dance. The "Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy" is one of the ballet's best known musical numbers. It is often "jazzed up" for television commercials at Christmas time.


title: Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy

text: There is little information about the Sugar Plum Fairy's original choreography. In the first performances the "presto" at the end of the dance was cut. According to Roland John Wiley, the dance appears to have consisted of short "pointe" steps, "petite batteries", and "attitudes" in various combinations. He describes the dance as having "a sense of dynamic build up: from delicate angularity ... to circular shapes, to plainer but more virtuoso movements"pirouettes" to "rounds de jambe"near the end."


title: Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy

text: The first Sugar Plum Fairy was Antonietta Dell'Era. She was a good technician, but Tchaikovsky's brother Modest described her as pudgy and unattractive. Although the Sugar Plum Fairy is the "prima ballerina" of "The Nutcracker", she has very little dancing to do. This was a considered a major defect among early critics. Dell'Era tried to expand the role of the Sugar Plum Fairy in later performances by putting a gavotte by Czibulka into the score.


title: Air

text: Air is the Earth's atmosphere. Air is a mixture of many gases and tiny dust particles. It is the clear gas in which living things live and breathe. It has an indefinite shape and volume. It has mass and weight, because it is matter. The weight of air creates atmospheric pressure. There is no air in outer space.


title: Air

text: Animals live and need to breathe the oxygen in the air. In breathing, the lungs put oxygen into the blood, and send back carbon dioxide to the air. Plants need the carbon dioxide in the air to live. They give off the oxygen that we breathe. Without it we die of asphyxia.


title: Air

text: Air can be polluted by some gases (such as carbon monoxide, hydrocarbons, and nitrogen oxides), smoke, and ash. This air pollution causes various problems including smog, acid rain and global warming. It can damage people's health and the environment. There are debates about whether or not to act upon climate change, but soon enough the Earth will heat up to much, causing our home to become too hot and not support life! Some say less people would die of cold weather, and that is true but there is already a huge amount of people dying from heat and that number is and will keep increasing at a frighting height.


title: Air

text: Since early times, air has been used to create technology. Ships moved with sails and windmills used the mechanical motion of air. Aircraft use propellers to move air over a wing, which allows them to fly. Pneumatics use air pressure to move things. Since the late 1900s, air power is also used to generate electricity.


title: Air

text: Air is one of the four classical elements in Greek theory. It was considered an intervening element, somewhere between fire and water, and the driving force for the birth of the cosmos.


title: Air

text: At first it was mainly a hydrogen atmosphere. It has changed dramatically on several occasions—for example, the Great Oxygenation Event 2.4 billion years ago, greatly increased oxygen in the atmosphere from practically no oxygen to levels closer to present day. Humans have also contributed to significant changes in atmospheric composition through air pollution, especially since industrialisation, leading to rapid environmental change such as ozone depletion and global warming.


title: Air

text: Outgassing from volcanism, supplemented by gases produced during the late heavy bombardment of Earth by huge asteroids, produced the next atmosphere, consisting largely of nitrogen plus carbon dioxide and inert gases.


title: Air

text: The constant re-arrangement of continents by plate tectonics influences the long-term evolution of the atmosphere. Carbon dioxide was transferred to and from large continental carbonate stores. Free oxygen did not exist in the atmosphere until about 2.4 billion years ago. The Great Oxygenation Event is shown by the end of the banded iron formations.


title: Sport

text: Sport is commonly defined as an athletic activity that involves a degree of competition, such as netball or basketball. Some games and many kinds of racing are called sports. A professional at a sport is called an athlete. Many people play sports with their friends. They need coaches to teach or train teams or individuals how to do better. Sports with ufabet can be played indoors or outdoors and by individuals or team.


title: Sport

text: Sports is needed for health and can help reduce diseases such as heart attacks, many types of cancer, depression and anxiety, and dementia. Different types of sports help our body in different ways. For children, sports play an extremely important part in their lives by providing all round development of the child, physically, mentally and emotionally.


title: Sport

text: Some people like to watch other people play sports. Those who watch others playing sports are called "fans". While some fans watch sports on television, others actually go to stadiums or other places where people pay to watch them in person. These fans are called "spectators".


title: Sentence

text: A sentence is a set of words that are put together to mean something. A sentence is the basic unit of language which expresses a complete thought. It does this by following the grammatical basic rules of syntax. For example:"Ali is walking".


title: Sentence

text: A complete sentence has at least a subject and a main verb to state (declare) a complete thought. Short example: "She walks". A subject is the noun that is doing the main verb. The main verb is the verb that the subject is doing. In English and many other languages, the first word of a written sentence has a capital letter. At the end of the sentence there is a punctuation mark depending on whether it is a statement, a question, a command, a request or an exclamation.


title: Sentence

text: There is no verb, so we do not know anything about what the happy dog is doing. Therefore, it is not a sentence.


title: N-type semiconductor

text: It is made by adding an impurity to a pure semiconductor such as silicon or germanium. The impurities used may be phosphorus, arsenic, antimony, bismuth or some other chemical element. They are called donor impurities.


title: N-type semiconductor

text: The impurity is called a "donor" because it gives a free electron to a semiconductor. The purpose of doing this is to make more charge carriers, or electron wires available in the material for conduction. The final material is a lot more conductive than the original silicon or germanium.


title: N-type semiconductor

text: Semiconductor materials like silicon and germanium have four electrons in their outer shell. The outer shell of electrons is called the valence shell. The four electrons are used by the semiconductor atom in forming bonds with its neighbouring atoms. This leaves a low number of electrons available for conduction.


title: N-type semiconductor

text: Pentavalent elements are those elements which have five electrons in their outer shell. To make the n-type semiconductor, pentavalent impurities like phosphorus or arsenic are added. Four of the impurities' electrons form bonds with the surrounding silicon atoms. This leaves one electron free. The resulting material has a large number of free electrons. Since electrons are negative charge carriers, the resultant material is called an n-type (or negative type) semiconductor. The pentavalent impurity that is added is called a 'dopant' and the process of addition is called 'doping'.


title: N-type semiconductor

text: N-type semiconductors are manufactured by doping pure semiconductor material. The amount of impurity added is very small compared to the amount of semiconductor. The way this new semiconductor works is changed by controlling the quantity of the dopant.


title: BTS

text: BTS or Bangtan Boys (), is a South Korean boy band made up of seven members. They were created by Big Hit Entertainment in 2013. The members include RM, Jin, Suga, J-Hope, Jimin, V, and Jungkook. The group debuted on June 13, 2013 with their EP 2 Cool 4 Skool. They have since released 5 Korean studio albums: "Dark & Wild" (2014); "Wings" (2016); "Love Yourself: Tear" (2018); "Map of the Soul: 7" (2020); " BE" - (2020) and Proof (2022)


title: BTS

text: In 2015, they found success in the American charts with their fourth extended play (EP), The Most Beautiful Moment in Life, Pt. 2 entering the U.S Billboard 200. The group is recognized as those who led the Korean Wave into the United States and have broken several sales records, becoming the first Korean group to receive an award by the Recording Industry Association of America for their single "Mic Drop". They are the first Korean act to top the U.S Billboard 200.


title: BTS

text: Along with their success in selling albums, BTS have also been included in "Time"'s ""100 Most Influential People In The World"". They have also donated to charities and launched the Love Myself campaign which helped programs stop violence against children and teenagers.


title: BTS

text: The name BTS is from "Bangtan Sonyeondan" (), which is Korean for "Bulletproof Boy Scouts" and later revealed on 5th July 2017 to extend the identity as "Beyond The Scene". According to member J-Hope, the name was chosen to show the group's desire "to block out stereotypes, criticisms, and expectations that aim on adolescents like bullets".


title: BTS

text: In July 2017, BTS announced that their name would also stand for "Beyond the Scene." This extended their name to mean "growing youth BTS who is going beyond the realities they are facing, and going forward."


title: BTS

text: The CEO of Big Hit Entertainment, Bang Si-Hyuk, met with the group's leader RM and was impressed by his rapping. BTS was supposed to be like a hip hop group, but Bang decided that young people nowadays need "a hero who can lend them a shoulder to lean on, even without speaking a single word". He decided that those heroes would be the members of BTS and so the group was reorganized into a more traditional idol group.


title: BTS

text: On June 12, 2013, BTS released their album "2 Cool 4 Skool". This was a song with a single song, "No More Dream." It was not a commercial success.


title: BTS

text: In September 2014, BTS released their extended play, "O!RUL8,2?" (Oh! Are you late, too?) In it were songs that criticized the Korean educational system and talked about finding themselves in the world. It was more successful than their first album.


title: BTS

text: In June 2022, it was announced that the group was taking time to make solo projects. Their record label confirmed that this was not a hiatus


title: BTS

text: In June 2020, BTS and Big Hit Entertainment donated US$1 million to Black Lives Matter in response to the killing of George Floyd. Their fans also raised US$1 million within 24 hours.


title: Farming

text: Farming is growing crops and keeping animals for food and raw materials. Farming is a part of agriculture.


title: Farming

text: Agriculture started thousands of years ago, but no one knows for sure how old it is. The development of farming gave rise to the Neolithic Revolution as people gave up nomadic hunting and became settlers in cities.


title: Farming

text: Agriculture and domestication probably started in the Fertile Crescent (the Nile Valley, the Levant and Mesopotamia). The area called Fertile Crescent is now in the countries of Iraq, Syria, Turkey, Jordan, Lebanon, Israel, and Egypt. Wheat and barley are some of the first crops people grew. People probably started agriculture slowly by planting a few crops, but still gathered many foods from the wild. People may have started farming because the weather and soil began to change. Farming can feed many more people than hunter-gatherers can feed on the same amount of land.


title: Farming

text: Arable farming means growing crops. This would include wheat or vegetables. Growing fruit means having orchards devoted to fruit. They cannot be switched easily with growing field crops. Therefore, they are not classed as arable land in the statistics.


title: Farming

text: Agriculture is not only growing food for people and animals, but also growing other things like flowers and nursery plants, manure or dung, animal hides (skins or furs), leather, animals, fungi, fibers (cotton, wool, hemp, and flax), biofuel , and drugs (biopharmaceuticals, marijuana, opium).


title: Farming

text: Many people still live by subsistence agriculture, on a small farm. They can only grow enough food to feed the farmer, his family, and his animals. The yield is the amount of food grown on a given amount of land, and it is often low. This is because subsistence farmers are generally less educated, and they have less money to buy equipment. Drought and other problems sometimes cause famines. Where yields are low, deforestation can provide new land to grow more food. This provides more nutrition for the farmer's family, but can be bad for the country and the surrounding environment over many years.


title: Farming

text: In some countries, farms are often fewer and larger. During the 20th century they have become more productive because farmers are able to grow better varieties of plants, use more fertilizer, use more water, and more easily control weeds and pests. Many farms also use machines, so fewer people can farm more land. There are fewer farmers in rich countries, but the farmers are able to grow more.


title: Farming

text: This kind of intensive agriculture comes with its own set of problems. Farmers use a lot of chemical fertilizers, pesticides (chemicals that kill bugs), and herbicides (chemicals that kill weeds). These chemicals can pollute the soil or the water. They can also create bugs and weeds that are more resistant to the chemicals, causing outbreaks of these pests. The soil can be damaged by erosion (blowing or washing away), salt builddup, or loss of structure. Irrigation (adding water from rivers) can pollute water and lower the water table. These problems have all got solutions, and modern young farmers usually have a good technical education.


title: Farming

text: Farmers select plants with better yield, taste, and nutritional value. They also choose plants that can survive plant disease and drought, and are easier to harvest. Centuries of artificial selection and breeding have changed crop plants. The crops produce better yield. Fertilizers, chemical pest control, and irrigation all help.


title: Farming

text: Some plants are improved with genetic engineering. One example is modifying the plant to resist herbicides.


title: Farming

text: Farms may also keep animals. That is called animal husbandry. If they are used to make meat for people to eat, that is livestock production. Non-meat animals, such as milk cows and egg-producing chickens, are kept for their produce. "Produce" here means their eggs and milk, which are sold by the farm, usually in markets. Large animals need grassland of some kind for grazing. What they need depends on the animals. Goats eat a much wider range of plants than cows. In some parts of the world, that makes goats a more sensible choice for a farmer than cows.


title: Farming

text: It is important for there to be enough food for everyone. The food must also be safe and good. People say it is not always safe, because it contains some chemicals. Other people say intensive agriculture is damaging the environment. For this reason, there are several types of agriculture.


title: Farming

text: Agricultural policy focuses on the goals and methods of agricultural production. Common goals of policy include the quality, amount, and safety of food.


title: Farming

text: In produced weight, these crops are the most important (global production in thousand metric tonnes):


title: Japan

text: Japan (; Romanised as "nihon" or "nippon") is a country in East Asia. It is a group of many islands close to the east coast of Korea, China and Russia. The Pacific Ocean is to the east of Japan and the Sea of Japan is to the west. Most people in Japan live on one of the four islands. The biggest of these islands, Honshu, has the most people. Honshu is the 7th largest island in the world. Tokyo is the capital of Japan and its biggest city.


title: Japan

text: The Japanese people call their country "Nihon" or "Nippon", which means "the origin of the Sun" in Japanese. Japan is a monarchy whose head of state is called the Emperor. Japan is the oldest monarchy in the world, lasting more than 2,000 years.


title: Japan

text: The first people in Japan were the Ainu people and other Jōmon people. They were closer related to Europeans or Mongols. They were later conquered and replaced by the Yayoi people (early Japanese and Ryukyuans). The Yayoi were an ancient ethnic group that migrated to the Japanese archipelago mainly from southeastern China during the Yayoi period (300 BCE–300 CE). Modern Japanese people have primarily Yayoi ancestry at an average of 97%. The indigenous Ryukyuan and Ainu peoples have more Jōmon ancestry on the other hand.


title: Japan

text: The earliest records on Japan are from Chinese documents. One of those records said there were many small countries (in Japan) which had wars between them and later a country, ruled by a queen, became the strongest, unified others, and brought peace.


title: Japan

text: The Japanese began to write their own history after the 5th and 6th centuries, when people from Korea and China taught Japan about the Chinese writing system. Japan's neighbours also taught them Buddhism. The Japanese changed Buddhism in many ways. For example, Japanese Buddhists used ideas such as Zen more than other Buddhists.


title: Japan

text: Japan had some contact with the Europeans in the 16th century. The Portuguese were the first Europeans to visit Japan. Later, the Spanish and Dutch came to Japan to trade. Also, they brought Christianity. Japan's leaders welcomed them at first, but because Europeans had conquered many places in the world, the Japanese were scared they would conquer Japan too. So the Japanese did not let the Europeans come into Japan anymore, except in a small area in Nagasaki city. Many Christians were killed. Only the Chinese, Korean, and Dutch people were allowed to visit Japan, in the end, and they were under careful control of the Japanese government. Japan was opened for visitors again in 1854 by Commodore Matthew Perry, when the Americans wanted to use Japanese ports for American whale boats. Perry brought steamships with guns, which scared the Japanese into making an agreement with him.


title: Japan

text: This new contact with Europeans and Americans changed the Japanese culture. The Meiji Restoration of 1868 stopped some old ways and added many new ones. The Empire of Japan was created, and it became a very powerful nation and tried to invade the countries next to it. It invaded and annexed Ryukyu Kingdom, Taiwan, and Korea. It had wars with China and Russia: the First Sino-Japanese War, the Boxer Rebellion, the Russo-Japanese War, World War I.


title: Japan

text: In 1918, World War I allowed Japan, which joined the side of the victorious Allies, to capture German possessions in the Pacific and in China. which grew to become a part of World War II when Japan became allies with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy.


title: Japan

text: In 1941, Japan attacked Pearl Harbor in Hawaii, a water base of the United States, and destroyed or damaged many ships and airplanes. This started the United States' involvement in World War II. American and Japanese forces fought each other in the Pacific. Once airbases were established within range of the Japanese mainland, America began to win, and started dropping bombs on Japanese cities. America was able to bomb most of the important cities and quickly brought Japan close to defeat. To make Japan surrender, the United States dropped two atomic bombs on the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, killing 150,000 Japanese citizens. Soon after this the Soviet Union began to fight against Japan, and the Japanese army in Manchuria lost. Japan surrendered and gave up all the places it took from other countries, accepting the Potsdam Proclamation. The United States occupied Japan from September 1945 to April 1952 and forced it to write a new constitution, in which it promised to never go to war again.


title: Japan

text: Japan was granted membership in the United Nations in 1956. A period of record growth propelled Japan to become the second-largest economy in the world.On March 11, 2011, Japan suffered one of the largest earthquakes in its recorded history, triggering the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster. On May 1, 2019, after the historic abdication of Emperor Akihito, his son Naruhito became Emperor, beginning the Reiwa era. On 8 July 2022, former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was assassinated while giving a campaign speech in Nara.


title: Japan

text: Japan is a group of islands in the Western Pacific, off the coast of China. The four biggest islands are Honshu, Hokkaido, Shikoku, and Kyushu, and there are about 6,000 smaller islands there. Japan is separated from the Asian continent by the Sea of Japan and the East China Sea. Honshu, which means 'Mainland' in the Japanese language, is the biggest island. Hokkaido is the island north of Honshu. Kyushu is the island west of Honshu. Shikoku is the island to the south-west of Honshu.


title: Japan

text: In the middle of Japan there are mountains. They cover the middle of the islands and leave a very narrow strip of flat land on most coasts. Many of the mountains are extinct volcanoes, but some are still active. The highest of these mountains is the beautiful, volcano-shaped Mt Fuji (3,776 metres or 12,389 feet high). Japan has many earthquakes, in fact there are about 1500 of these every year. The biggest earthquake recorded in Japan was in 2011 - called '2011 Tohoku Earthquake'. It caused great damage to several power plants forcing Japan to shut down all its nuclear plants. There was nuclear core meltdown which caused a serious health risk to nearby villages and cities.


title: Japan

text: 90% of the people living in Japan live in just 10% of the land, near the coast. The other 10% of the people in Japan live away from the coast.


title: Japan

text: Over 10 cities have more than a million people in them. The biggest city in Japan is Tokyo, which is the capital.


title: Japan

text: Historically influenced by Chinese law, the Japanese legal system developed independently during the Edo period through texts such as Kujikata Osadamegaki. Since the late 19th century, the judicial system has been largely based on the civil law of Europe, notably Germany. In 1896, Japan established a civil code based on the German Bürgerliches Gesetzbuch, which remains in effect with post–World War II modifications. The Constitution of Japan, adopted in 1947, is the oldest unamended constitution in the world. Statutory law originates in the legislature, and the constitution requires that the emperor promulgate legislation passed by the Diet without giving him the power to oppose legislation.


title: Japan

text: The main body of Japanese statutory law is called the Six Codes.Japan's court system is divided into four basic tiers: the Supreme Court and three levels of lower courts.The ruling party is the Liberal Democratic Party (Japan) and the prime minister is Fumio Kishida. The legislature of Japan is called the National Diet.


title: Japan

text: In the past, the Japanese learned science by way of China or from Europe in the Meiji Era. However, in recent decades Japan has been a leading innovator in several fields, including chemical engineering, nanotechnology, and robotics. There are many technological companies in Japan, and these companies make products for export.


title: Japan

text: Cherry blossom also known as Japanese cherry and Sakura is thought to be the national flower of Japan.


title: Japan

text: Japan's traditional food is seafood, rice, miso soup, and vegetables. Noodles and tofu are also common. Sushi, a Japanese food made of cooked rice with vinegar with other ingredients such as raw fish, is popular around the world.


title: Japan

text: The religion in Japan is mostly Shinto and Buddhist. Due to the tolerant nature of the two main Japanese religions, and the resulting intermixing of the two, many Japanese identify as both Shinto and Buddhist at the same time. There are small numbers of Christians and Hindus, and a few Jews.


title: Japan

text: When it comes to popular culture, Japan is famous for making video games. Many of the biggest companies that make games, like Nintendo, Namco, and Sega, are Japanese. Other well-known parts of Japanese arts are comics, called manga, and digital animation, or anime. Many people get to know Japanese or how life in Japan is like by reading manga or watching anime on television.


title: Japan

text: Since Japan is an island nation, Japan has several problems over territory because maritime boundaries can be hard to protect. These days, Japan is competing for at least 4 different territories. It cannot agree with some neighbouring countries on whether the land belongs to Japan or the other country.


title: Japan

text: There are several important international airports in Japan. Narita is the major international airport in the Tokyo area. Kansai International Airport serves as the main airport for Osaka, Kobe, and Kyoto. Chūbu Centrair International Airport near Nagoya is the newest of the three. Haneda Airport is close to central Tokyo and is the largest domestic airport in the country.


title: Japan

text: The Shinkansen is one of the fastest trains in the world and connects cities in Honshu and Kyushu. Networks of public and private railways are almost all over the country. People mostly travel between cities in buses.


title: Japan

text: Modern Japan is divided into 47 prefectures. Before the Meiji period (1868-1912), the nation was divided into provinces which were consolidated in the prefectural system.


title: Japan

text: Japan has many traditional sports such as sumo, judo, karate, kyudo, aikido, iaido and kendo. Also, there are sports which were imported from the West such as baseball, soccer, rugby, golf and skiing. Baseball is the most popular sport.


title: Japan

text: Japan has taken part in the Olympic Games since 1912. It hosted the Olympic Games in 1964, 1972, 1998 and 2020. From 1912 until now, Japanese sportspeople have won 398 medals in total.


title: Japan

text: Professional sports are also popular and many sports such as baseball (see Pacific League and Central League), soccer (see List of Japanese football teams), sumo, American football, basketball and volleyball, are played professionally.


title: P-type semiconductor

text: A p-type semiconductor is an type of semiconductor. When a trivalent impurity (like Boron, Aluminum etc.) is added to an intrinsic or pure semiconductor (silicon or germanium), it is said to be a p-type semiconductor. Trivalent impurities such as boron (B), gallium (Ga), indium (In), aluminum (Al) etc. are called acceptor impurity. Ordinary semiconductors are made of materials that do not conduct (or carry) an electric current very well but are not highly resistant to doing so. They fall half way between conductors and insulators. An electric current occurs when electrons move through a material. In order to move, there must be an electron hole in the material for the electron to move into. A p-type semiconductor has more holes than electrons. This allows the current to flow along the material from hole to hole but only in one direction.


title: P-type semiconductor

text: Semiconductors are most often made from silicon. Silicon is an element with four electrons in its outer shell. To make a p-type semiconductor extra materials like boron or aluminum are added to the silicon. These materials have only three electrons in their outer shell. When the extra material replaces some of the silicon it leaves a hole where the fourth electron would have been if the semiconductor was pure silicon.


title: P-type semiconductor

text: P-type semiconductors are made by doping the pure semiconductor material. The amount of impurity added is very small compared to the amount of semiconductor. The exact character of the semiconductor can be changed by varying the amount of dopant that is added. In p-type semiconductors the number of holes is much higher than that of thermally generated electrons.


title: States of Germany

text: The Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) has 16 states (). The biggest is Bavaria and the smallest is Bremen. Most of them were created after the Second World War, although their historical roots can be traced back to the early Middle Ages in some cases.


title: Mother Teresa

text: Mother Teresa (26 August 1910 – 5 September 1997), was an Albanian Roman Catholic nun who started the Missionaries of Charity and won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979 for her work with people. For over forty years, she took care of needs of those without money, those who were sick, those without parents, and those dying in Calcutta (Kolkata), guided in part by the ideals of Saint Francis of Assisi. She was born in Skopje, Macedonia, and died in Calcutta.


title: Mother Teresa

text: As the Missionaries of Charity grew under Mother's leadership, they expanded their ministry to other countries. By the 1970s she had become internationally well known as an advocate for the poor and helpless, due in part to a movie and book, "Something Beautiful for God" by Malcolm Muggeridge. She did not think women had the right to have abortions and said "The greatest destroyer of peace is abortion because if a mother can kill her child, what is left for me to kill you and you to kill me?".


title: Mother Teresa

text: Following her death she was beatified (the first stage of sainthood) by Pope John Paul II and given the title Blessed Teresa of Calcutta. she is best social service woman. One day the vision Jesus Christ asked help poor people and she hear this voice in train while going to join the meeting in church


title: Mother Teresa

text: Mother Teresa called Saint on 4 September 2016 by his Holiness Pope at Saint Peter, Vatican. Mother Teresa got many awards like Bharat Ratna in 1980 and Nobel prize in 1979 etc. She is known for serving humanity.


title: Mother Teresa

text: Mother Teresa received criticism over the years, especially in recent years as debate about sex and abortion grew. Christopher Hitchens says that, instead of trying to help the poor, she encouraged them to endure pain and continue to suffer. Hitchens also thinks she was against ending poverty and raising the social status of women. Hitchens wrote a book on Teresa called "The Missionary Position". In an article for Slate, Hitchens writes "Mother Teresa was not a friend of the poor. She was a friend of poverty. She said that suffering was a gift from God".


title: Bangladesh

text: Bangladesh (officially called People's Republic of Bangladesh) is a country in South Asia. To its west is West Bengal in India. To its northeast is Northeast India and to its southeast is the Southeast Asian country of Myanmar. Bangladesh's capital and largest city is Dhaka (formerly "Dacca"). Countries that are near Bangladesh include the People's Republic of China, Bhutan, and Nepal. To the south of Bangladesh is the Bay of Bengal.


title: Bangladesh

text: Bangladesh became an independent country in 1971, breaking away from Pakistan after fighting a war in which over a million people died. Most people in Bangladesh are Muslim. Bangladesh has an area of 57,320 mi² or (142,576 km²). It is slightly smaller than Tajikistan. It ranks 92 out of 195 sovereign countries by area. There are two main rivers in Bangladesh: The Ganges and the Brahmaputra River (called Padma and Jamuna in Bangladesh). They are among the most important sources of economy, also they are sacred to Hindu people. There are often floods in Bangladesh because of these two rivers.


title: Bangladesh

text: For much of its history, Bangladesh was simply the eastern part of Bengal and was considered a part of India. The Bengal delta has been ruled by Hindu rulers, Muslim rulers, and the British empire. People have lived in Bangladesh for thousands of years. Farming developed in Bangladesh very early on. By 500 BC, people grew rice there. Farming lead to the development of urban areas like cities. Early houses in Bangladesh were likely built of wood and mud, and adobe. Because Bangladesh has monsoons, there is not a lot of evidence of ancient people living there. From about 300 BC to the 1700s AD, technology like writing and the Bengali language developed. During this time, many religions were popular and many states were founded. By the 1500s, the area was rich and even peasants had plenty to eat.


title: Bangladesh

text: In the 13th century, Turkic armies took over the Bengal delta. During this time, the delta was ruled by Hindu leaders. In 1202, the last major Hindu Sen leader was pushed out from his capital in Western Bengal(Nadiya), but they stayed for a short time in East Bengal.


title: Bangladesh

text: In 1206, a Muslim kingdom called the Delhi Sultanate was founded. The rulers of the Bengal delta became friendly with the sultanate, and to stay separately ruled the Bengal rulers would pay tribute to the sultanate using war elephants. In 1341, Bengal became independent from Delhi, and Dhaka became the capital of independent Bengal. In 1576, Bengal was taken over by Akbar the Great, a Mughal emperor. Bengal stayed part of the Mughal Empire until the eighteenth century.


title: Bangladesh

text: When the Mughals ruled the Bengal, they began to make Bengal part of India politically. Bengal, however, was too far away from the Mughal capital in Delhi. Because it was hard to talk to Bengal, local governors found it easy to ignore what the Mughals wanted for Bengal. Although Bengal remained a province, religious leaders and scientists from Mughal-ruled Bengal have been famous throughout India.


title: Bangladesh

text: As Bengal was part of their empire, the Mughals helped it grow. They built a road from Delhi to Dhaka, started a postal service, and helped make their calendar better. This calendar is still used in Bangladesh today. The Mughals also collected taxes in Bengal. Soon, Bengal was the richest province and was called the "Breadbasket of India". The Mughals used Bengali resources to help maintain their army, but they did not help protect the Bengali people from pirates. This made the Bengali people angry, and the Mughals had to appoint powerful generals to help rule Bengal. Despite this, Bengal became a center of the textile trade in South Asia.


title: Bangladesh

text: In 1704, the capital of Bengal was moved from Dhaka to Murshidabad. In 1707, Aurangzeb, who is the last great Mughal emperor though by people , died. After this, governors in Bengal still paid tribute to the Mughal empire, but were mostly left alone. These governors protected Bengal from Hindu Marathas during the eighteenth century. When the Mughal governor Alivardi Khan died in 1756, he left rule of Bengal to his grandson, who would lose Bengal to the British in 1757.


title: Bangladesh

text: Bengal was under British rule from 1757 to 1947. It was part of British India. English was made one of the official languages of the Bengal Presidency.


title: Bangladesh

text: In 1947, East Bengal and the Dominion of Pakistan were separated from India, becoming Pakistan. Pakistan was cut in half, its east and west parts separated by 930 miles (1,500 km) of India. In 1949, the Bangladesh Awami League formed, wanting the east and west parts of Pakistan separated. In 1955, East Bengal was renamed East Pakistan, with Dacca becoming the capital. The people living in East Pakistan were mostly ethnically Bengali, spoke Bengali, and had a different culture compared to the people of western Pakistan. These differences eventually led to the Bangladesh Liberation War.


title: Bangladesh

text: Bangladesh declared itself as independent from Pakistan in 1971 after a liberation war in which over a million people died. After Indian military intervention, the provisional government returned from exile in Calcutta, Bengal (India). After the Instrument of Surrender, the Bengali peoples became a sovereign nation.


title: Bangladesh

text: After Bangladesh became independent, Bengali replaced Urdu and English as the only national and official language. Bengali is used in government, business, and schools. Private English-language schools for upper-class students existed into the 1980s. English is now taught in higher education and is offered as a university subject.


title: Bangladesh

text: At first, people began to stop speaking Arabic in Bangladesh. In 1983, after Bangladesh strengthened its ties with Saudi Arabia and other oil-rich countries, people tried to make Arabic a required language to learn in school. Arabic is widely studied today in Madrassas and Islamic schools so people can understand Islamic texts better.


title: Bangladesh

text: Despite gaining independence in 1971, Bangladesh is a poor country and has problems with political corruption. Presently, more than half the population can read and write.


title: Bangladesh

text: The President of Bangladesh acts as Head of state, but the Prime Minister of Bangladesh acts as Head of government. The president is elected by lawmakers every 5 years, and has limited powers. The presidency is largely ceremonial, but sometimes the president has do more than usual. This is called a Caretaker government.


title: Bangladesh

text: The prime minister is chosen by the president and must be a member of parliament (MP). The Cabinet is made up of people chosen by the prime minister, and is appointed by the president.


title: Bangladesh

text: Bangladesh's parliament is called the House of the Nation, or the "Jatiya Sangsad", and has only one chamber. The "Jatiya Sangsad" has 300 members who are elected by popular vote, and they have 5-year terms of office. The highest judiciary body in Bangladesh is the Supreme Court, whose members are chosen by the president.


title: Bangladesh

text: After famines in 1973 and 1974, the prime minister of Bangladesh instituted a one-party socialist state. After this, a military junta ruled Bangladesh until 1990. Since then, Bangladesh has become a parliamentary democracy. In 2007, a caretaker government was appointed to help end corruption in Bangladeshi politics. Many politicians were arrested on corruption charges. Again in 2008, Bangladesh came under a parliamentary rule.


title: Bangladesh

text: Bangladesh is in the Ganges Delta. This is where the rivers Ganges, Brahmaputra, and Meghna come together. Most parts of Bangladesh are less than above the sea level. The highest point in Bangladesh is in Mowdok range at in the Chittagong Hill Tracts to the southeast of the country. Cox's Bazar, south of the city of Chittagong, has a beach that is uninterrupted over .


title: Bangladesh

text: A large part of the coastline is a marshy jungle, the Sundarbans. They are the largest mangrove forest in the world.


title: Bangladesh

text: Bangladesh has heavy cyclones and natural disasters, due to this many lives are often lost. The country is one of the most densely populated in the world. Cyclones are very common in the Bay of Bengal during the middle of the year, particularly in the south of country in areas like Sundarban, Chittagong, Cox's Bazaar, or in neighboring Myanmar and Republic of India. Despite the many storms, Bangladesh does not have a very effective storm prevention system, and cyclones usually inflict heavy damage.


title: Bangladesh

text: Bangladesh is divided into eight administrative divisions: Barisal (বরিশাল), Chittagong (চট্টগ্রাম), Dhaka (ঢাকা), Khulna (খুলনা), Rajshahi (রাজশাহী), Sylhet (সিলেট), Mymensingh (ময়মনসিংহ) and Rangpur (রংপুর).


title: Bangladesh

text: Dhaka is the capital and largest city of Bangladesh. Other major cities include Chittagong, Khulna, Rajshahi, Sylhet, Barisal, Bogra, Comilla, Mymensingh and Rangpur. For more locations see List of settlements in Bangladesh.


title: Bangladesh

text: The main religion in Bangladesh is Islam at (91.57%), while the second largest religion is Hinduism at (7.26%)."" Most Muslims in Bangladesh are Sunni. Islam was made the state religion in the 1980s. Buddhists and Christians together make up 1% of the population.


title: Bangladesh

text: The earliest literary text in Bengali is the 8th century Charyapada. Medieval Bengali literature was often either religious or from other languages. The 19th century had poets such as Rabindranath Tagore, Michael Madhusudan Dutt and Kazi Nazrul Islam.


title: Bangladesh

text: The musical tradition of Bangladesh is lyrics-based with few instruments. Folk music is often accompanied by the ektara, an instrument with only one string. Bangladeshi dance forms are from folk traditions.


title: Bangladesh

text: Bangladesh makes about 80 films a year. Mainstream Hindi films are also quite popular. Around 200 daily newspapers are published in Bangladesh, along with more than 500 magazines.


title: Bangladesh

text: The sari is popularly worn by Bangladeshi women. The salwar kameez (shaloar kamiz) is also commonly worn. In urban areas, many people wear western clothing.


title: Bangladesh

text: Eid ul-Fitr and Eid ul-Adha are major religious festivals in Bangladesh. Buddha Purnima, which marks the birth of Gautama Buddha, and Christmas, called "Bôŗodin" (Great day), are both national holidays. The most important non-religious festival is Pohela Boishakh or Bengali New Year, the beginning of the Bengali calendar year.


title: Bangladesh

text: Cricket is the most popular sport in Bangladesh. Next is football (soccer). The national cricket team was in their first Cricket World Cup in 1999. In 2011, Bangladesh successfully co-hosted the ICC Cricket World Cup 2011 with India and Sri Lanka.


title: Bangladesh

text: Hadudu (kabaddi) is the national sport in Bangladesh. Other popular sports include field hockey, tennis, badminton, handball, basketball, volleyball, chess, shooting, angling, and carrom.


title: Bangladesh

text: The National symbols of the Bangladesh are made of symbols to represent Bengali traditions and ideals that show the different aspects of the cultural life and history of the country.


title: Turkey

text: Turkey officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with a small portion on the Balkan Peninsula in Southeast Europe. It shares borders with the Black Sea to the north; Georgia to the northeast; Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Iran to the east; Iraq to the southeast; Syria and the Mediterranean Sea to the south; the Aegean Sea to the west; and Greece and Bulgaria to the northwest.


title: Turkey

text: Turkey is a republic. There are 81 provinces in Turkey. The money of Turkey is called the Turkish Lira. The capital city is Ankara, a city in the central region, called Anatolia. The cultural and economic centre is in the European side of Istanbul. In the past Istanbul was called Constantinople. The republic was founded in 1923, after World War I and a war of independence ("Kurtuluş Savaşı"). Before that, Turkey was the core of the Ottoman Empire.


title: Turkey

text: Many civilisations were in the area that is now Turkey, like the Hittites, the Roman Empire and the Byzantine Empire. Many important events in the history of Christianity happened in places that are now in Turkey. Because it lies in both Europe and Asia, some people see Turkey as the "door" between them.


title: Turkey

text: Modern Turkey's varied climate lets many kinds of food crops grow, and livestock and forestry are important industries. Turkey makes enough food to feed itself. Turkish manufactures include aeroplanes, electronics, cars, clothing and textiles for home and for other countries.


title: Turkey

text: Turkey is a popular place for tourists to visit. It has hundreds of kilometres of beaches on its Aegean and Mediterranean coasts, and many important historical places.


title: Turkey

text: The first major empire in the area was the Hittites (from the 18th century to the 13th century BCE). The Hittites, who spoke one of the Indo-European languages, developed a high culture in Central Anatolia. Their kingdom was destroyed by the Sea People in the 11th century BCE and the successor states were Lydia, Caria and Lycia.


title: Turkey

text: From 1950 BCE, Armenians and Assyrians inhabited parts of southeastern Turkey. The Assyrian capital was named Tushhan (900-600 BCE). The Assyrians ruled over southeastern Turkey until their empire was conquered by Babylonia in 612 BCE. Then Anatolia became home for various kingdoms including the Achaemenid Empire, Hellenistic kingdoms, Roman Empire, Byzantine Empire (Eastern Roman Empire), Seljuk Empire, and Mongol Empire.


title: Turkey

text: During the 14th century, after the fall of the Mongol Empire, Gazi Osman built a new empire named after himself: the Ottoman Empire. It became one of the longest existing empires of all time. The Empire also stretched across the Balkans, (Yugoslavia and Bulgaria) in Europe. The Empire was ruled by Islamic law, but other religions had certain minority rights.


title: Turkey

text: In World War I the Ottoman Empire was one of the Central Powers. During the war, 500,000 Armenians in the Ottoman Empire were massacred in the so-called Armenian genocide. Turkey denies that the event was genocide. The Central Powers lost the war and the Ottoman Empire was destroyed, but after that Atatürk led the newly formed Turkish army to get rid of foreign enemies, like the Greeks and ousted the imperial Ottoman family from Anatolia.


title: Turkey

text: Mustafa Kemal Atatürk was the first President of Turkey. He made many changes that made Turkey more modern. But some people did not like some of the changes that made life in Turkey more secular. Religious secondary schools were gotten rid of, for example. The opponents to Atatürk felt that he weakened Islam in the country. Later political disputes led to Coup d'état in 1960, 1971, and 1980, and several failed attempts.


title: Turkey

text: In 1974, Turkey invaded Cyprus and later established the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, Rauf Denktaş became the first Turkish Cypriot president.


title: Turkey

text: In 2022, the government of Turkey started to use the Turkish spelling of Türkiye in both Turkish and English. However, Turkey remains the more common name.


title: Turkey

text: About 80 million people live in Turkey. Most of them are ethnic Turks. About 15% are ethnic Kurds. Many refugees from Syria (over 3 million) live in Turkey because they have run away from the Syrian civil war. Many Romani people in Turkey live in Istanbul and Edirne (European part of Turkey).


title: Turkey

text: The biggest city in Turkey is Istanbul which has the biggest population of any city in Europe. Much of the population in Turkey is made up of young adults and adults.


title: Turkey

text: According to religiosity poll conducted in Turkey in 2019 by OPTİMAR, 89.5% of the population identifies as Muslim, 4.5% believed in God but did not belong to an organized religion, 2.7% were agnostic, 1.7% were atheist, 0.5% were belonged to the other religions, and 1.1% did not answer. Another poll conducted by Gezici Araştırma in 2020 interviewed 1,062 people in 12 provinces and found that 28.5% of the Generation Z in Turkey identify as irreligious.


title: Turkey

text: Turkish people have many ethnic and famous foods, such as mantı (Turkish ravioli), döner, kebap, Turkish delight (lokum), baklava, lahmacun, börek, köfte, and other foods.


title: Turkey

text: According to a study, Anatolia is genetically more closely related to the Balkan populations than to the Central Asian populations. The Turks of Anatolia (Asian part of Turkey) have only 13% of genes from populations from Central Asia.


title: Turkey

text: Most people in Turkey are Turks. The largest minority is Kurds. Kurds live mostly in Southeastern and Eastern Turkey. The second largest minority are the Romani people in Turkey, mostly live in Istanbul and East Thrace, the European side of Turkey.


title: Turkey

text: Turkey is in the OECD and the G-20 and is one of the 20 largest economies. The Turkish currency is called the Lira. The first coins were made in Turkey.


title: Turkey

text: In the 1970s, many Turks moved to other countries, like Germany, to escape the bad economy at the time and to get better jobs. They often come back to Turkey for summer holidays. Today, many of the people who left in the 1970s want to move back to Turkey.


title: Turkey

text: Until the 1980s the government owned most companies, but then Prime Minister Turgut Özal sold them. Before, foreigners were usually not allowed to buy companies, land or property. Turkey's international trade is mostly with the EU, the United States, the Russian Federation, and Japan. Turkey and the EU agreed not to put a lot of tax on what they buy and sell to each other. After that it was easier for Turkish factories to sell products to the EU and for business people in the EU to buy companies in Turkey.


title: Turkey

text: Earthquakes in 1994, 1999, and 2001 slowed economic growth a bit. Turkey has no petroleum and not much natural gas so it buys them from other countries, like Russia. In 2010, oil was found in the Turkish City of Diyarbakir, but there was not enough oil to extract. Turkey is searching for natural gas in Turkish Northern Cyprus.


title: Turkey

text: Rich cities in Turkey include Istanbul, Ankara, İzmir, Edirne, Konya, Mersin (also known as İçel), and Antalya.


title: Turkey

text: Most people in Turkey speak Turkish. It is written in Latin script and it belongs to the Turkic language group, which also includes many other languages spoken across Asia, such as Azerbaijani and Tatar. The Turkish language came from Central Asia, but now it is a bit different from the languages spoken in Central Asia. Turks living by the Mediterranean have southern, much thicker, and more masculine accents than western Turkey. Northerners, by the Black Sea have softer accents.


title: Turkey

text: In Turkey there are also minorities who speak languages such as Arabic, Kurdish, Armenian, Greek or Ladino, Romani and many others.


title: Turkey

text: Many of the young adults can also speak English, which is taught throughout Primary, Middle and High school.


title: Turkey

text: Different parts of Turkey have similar but not exactly the same lifestyles. Central Turkey and Northern Turkey are somewhat more conservative and religious. Western Turkey and Southern Turkey, especially coastal cities are more liberal and secular. Eastern Turkey and Southeastern Turkey are made up of mostly Kurds–most of them are conservative and religious. Cosmopolitan neighbourhoods in major cities of Turkey are overwhelmingly liberal and secular. Cities like Hatay and Mardin, where different religions coexist, and Eskişehir, which is the prominent college town of the country, also have cosmopolitan characteristics.


title: Turkey

text: Collectivism is dominant in society rather than individualism. This is seen in everything from a civilian's worldview to the socio-political and socio-economic order of the country. People care a lot about what others think of them or their related ones. Sociologist Şerif Mardin, who argues that there is neighborhood watch in Turkish society, states that "There is no tolerance for deviations from norms in the Turkish tradition, a watching oppression is applied against individuals in this situation and this is not new."


title: Turkey

text: The circumcision of boys in Turkey is very common, with over 98% of men being circumcised. This is due to religious and cultural traditions and the circumcisions are celebrated with ceremonies known as Sünnet Düğünü or at a Mevlüd ceremony.


title: Turkey

text: The capital and second-largest city of Turkey is Ankara. The largest and the most crowded city is Istanbul which is the only city in the world that has land on two different continents. The third largest city is the coastal city of İzmir which is the main port of the country. Turkey is divided into 81 provinces. Each province has its own little government but they can only make decisions about small things: the government in Ankara decides important issues. The provinces are in 7 regions. Each province is divided into districts. There are 973 districts altogether. The biggest Main City at the European Side of Turkey is Edirne in East Thrace.


title: Turkey

text: Istanbul University was the first university in Turkey. It was established in 1453. Ankara University was the first university that was started after Turkey became a republic. It was established in 1946.


title: Turkey

text: There were 6065 high schools in Turkey in 2002 according to Ministry of National Education. In 2011, there were 166 universities in Turkey.


title: Turkey

text: Some people have wanted Turkey to join the European Union (EU) since the 1990s. Negotiations to join began in 2005.


title: Turkey

text: The 1999 İzmit earthquake was an approximately 7.4 magnitude earthquake that struck northwestern Turkey on 17 August 1999, at about 3:02 am local time. 18.000 people died in the earthquake.


title: Turkey

text: The New York Times estimated that over 570 people died in the Erzincan earthquake of 13 March 1992. The earthquake was a 6.8 on the Richter Scale.


title: Season

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


title: Season

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


title: Season

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


title: Season

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


title: Season

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


title: Season

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


title: Season

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


title: Season

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


title: Season

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


title: Call of Duty series

text: Call of Duty was a game series started in the early 2000s. The shorter form of the name; typically used, is CoD. The first 6 games are about World War II, but the series began branching out beginning with "Modern Warfare". The series now spans World War II, the Cold War, the present, the near future, and the far future. The "Modern Warfare" series takes place in present times and is developed by Infinity Ward. Infinity Ward also created "." The "Black Ops" series takes place in the secret missions of the Cold War and in the future, and is developed by Treyarch. The majority of the games have been developed by Infinity Ward and Treyarch, with studio Sledgehammer Games developing and . Many smaller studios have also assisted with development duties.


title: Call of Duty series

text: The "Call of Duty" games are on the Gamecube, Xbox, PlayStation, PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, PlayStation Vita, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox 360, Xbox One, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, PC, Nintendo Wii, Wii U, and the Nintendo DS. The games are rated Teen or Mature for blood, violence and strong language.


title: Mahatma Gandhi

text: Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (; ; 2 October 1869 – 30 January 1948) was a leader of nationalism in British-ruled India. He is more commonly called Mahatma Gandhi; "mahatma" is an honorific meaning "great-soul" or "venerable" in Sanskrit. He was first called this in 1914 in South Africa. He is also called Bapu in India (Gujarati endearment for "father", "papa").


title: Mahatma Gandhi

text: Gandhi was one of the most important people involved in the movement for the independence of India. He was a non-violent activist, who led the independence movement through a non-violent protest.