title: Arabic language

text: Arabic is also becoming a popular language to learn in the Western world even though its grammar is sometimes very hard to learn for native speakers of Indo-European languages. Many other languages have borrowed words from Arabic because of its importance in history. Some English words that can be traced to Arabic are sugar, cotton, magazine, algebra, alcohol and emir.


title: Vowel

text: A vowel is a particular kind of speech sound made by changing the shape of the upper vocal tract, or the area in the mouth above the tongue. In English it is important to know that there is a difference between a vowel sound and a [letter] in the [alphabet]. In English there are five vowel letters in the alphabet.


title: Vowel

text: The sounds of American English are written with letters in the English alphabet, as either vowels or consonants. All English words are written with vowel letters in them.


title: Vowel

text: It is said that Y is "sometimes" a vowel, because the letter Y represents both vowel and consonant sounds. In the words "cry", "sky", "fly", "my" and "why", letter Y represents the vowel sound /aɪ/. In words like "myth" and "synchronize", Y represents the vowel sound /ɪ/. In words like "only", "quickly", and "folly", Y represents the vowel sound /i/.


title: Vowel

text: It can also be a consonant sound called a "glide" as in the beginning of these words: "yellow", "yacht", "yam", "yesterday". Y is a consonant about 2.5% of the time, and a vowel about 97.5% of the time.


title: Vowel

text: The letter W can sometimes be the second part of a vowel sound as in words like such as "cow", "bow", or "how". In these words the vowel has the sound of /aʊ/. The letter W can be used as a consonant sound at the beginning of in the words "when", "where", "wet". In some languages, like Welsh, the letter W represents the vowel sound /ʊ/, like "cwm" (a kind of valley).


title: Vowel

text: In written English the six vowel letters are used to represent the 13-15 vowel sounds (depending on the variety) in English. This means there are many more vowel sounds than letters in the English alphabet, and the English spelling systems doesn't always help us figure out what the English sounds are. This can be confusing.


title: Vowel

text: Simple vowels are called monophthongs. The letters, like /ɪ/, are the IPA letters for each vowel sound in English. (The IPA is the International Phonetic Alphabet). In the IPA, each symbol represents a different sound, so using the IPA is helpful in pronouncing words.


title: Vowel

text: Diphthongs are a combination of two different vowel sounds, one vowel sounds turns into another sound as you say them. If you pronounce the words below slowly, you can hear the two vowel sounds of the diphthongs.


title: Vowel

text: Like other languages, there are many dialects of English, and different dialects often use different vowel sounds. But the IPA symbols can tell us which vowel sound a dialects uses. For example, some American English speakers differentiate between the vowels in the words "cot" and "caught", while in other dialects these words are homophones. People who study the differences between the dialects of English often study the different way vowel sounds are pronounced.


title: Vowel

text: The difference between the way English is spelled and the way the words are pronounced came about because all languages change, so spoken English changes, but the spelling system does not.


title: Child pornography

text: Child pornography is pornography that exploits children. It is against the law in many countries. Child pornography is made by taking pictures or videos, or more rarely sound recordings, of children who are wearing less clothing than usual, wearing no clothing, or being raped. It can also be made using illustrations of children. Child pornography is sometimes called "child sexual abuse images" because it is images (pictures) of a child who is being sexually abused. Child pornography can be made by setting up a camera or other recording device and molesting a child.


title: Child pornography

text: Child pornography can also be drawn, written, or created by a computer. In that case, it is called "simulated child pornography", "virtual child pornography", "non-photographic child pornography", or "pseudo-photographic child pornography": the child in the pornography is simulated, virtual, or drawn, meaning the child is not real.


title: Child pornography

text: There are several possible reasons for a person to look at child pornography. The most common is that the viewer is a pedophile, hebephile, or ephebophile who finds minors sexually attractive and uses pornography featuring minors to induce arousal. Viewers may be curious about the subject. Or a person who plans to commit statutory rape may plan to show the pornography to a minor as a form of grooming to convince the minor that minors having sex with adults is normal. Mexico is the largest distributor of child pornography in the world.


title: Child pornography

text: Between 2016 and 2018, many countries made their child pornography laws more similar, which let police from different countries work together more easily. In particular, the word "child" in the new child pornography laws is used as a synonym for legal minors under the age of 18. This can be confusing because "child" usually means a person who has not yet reached puberty. However, in 2007, the United States already had laws forbidding pornography with models under 18, and most people who were arrested for owning child pornography around that time had images of children who have not started puberty.


title: Child pornography

text: Some countries consider virtual or non-photographic child pornography which depict children who are not real to be a type of child porn that is illegal, whereas other countries do not consider this type of child porn illegal. Making this type of child porn illegal has been controversial. This is due to multiple reasons: due to the opinion that it is pointless to protect children who are not real, the opinion that such laws remove people of their rights, a fear that these laws can cover harmless material, and the fear that it is possible to exploit such laws to charge harmless individuals with heavily disproportionate charges. Another criticism that is often given to the illegal nature of pornographic depiction of fictional children is the assertion that removing a potential a pedophile's ability to access an alternative to the "real thing" will encourage them abuse real children. Research on whether this is true or not has produced mixed results.


title: Child pornography

text: In England due to a 2009 act, basically all non-photographic child pornography is illegal, even if it is something unrealistic, such as an anime drawing. However, charges for unrealistic non-photographic child porn possession or creation which do not involve real children tend to get dismissed by judges at trials and are not treated overly seriously.


title: Child pornography

text: The Internet is a common place for people to share child pornography, especially on the dark web. When police officers find child pornography on the Internet, it is difficult for them to track down the molester and the other people who have looked at the recording.


title: Child pornography

text: Child molestation is when an adult touches a child in the genital area (between the legs), buttocks, or breasts, or a child is made to touch an adult in those areas. An adult touching any part of a child's body without consent (permission) from the child is also sometimes called molestation. Molestation is very harmful to children and can traumatize them for years or for the rest of their lives. An adult recording an instance of molestation as child pornography also harms the child. This harm from the recording is added to the harm from the molestation itself. Knowing that the molestation was recorded can slow down the child's healing from the abuse. The adult who has the recording can sell the recording, or threaten to share it with other adults to scare the child in the recording and make them obey the adult.


title: Kendra Lust

text: Kendra Lust (born September 18, 1978 in Madison Heights, Michigan) is an American pornographic actress.


title: Kendra Lust

text: Kendra was born to a French Canadian and an Italian. Kendra was broke in college so she stripped part time so she could afford school to become a nurse. She worked as a nurse for seven years. Kendra quit nursing after seven years so she could make more money and work less hours in the porn business.


title: Kendra Lust

text: During the final years of her career as a nurse, Kendra worked as a webcam model to being the change of career to porn. Kendra had sex on camera first in March 2012 with Phoenix Marie and Rachel Starr for the porn company Brazzers. Kendra did not have a typical entry into the porn industry as she had not done a scene with casting couch prior to getting a job at a big company like Brazzers.


title: Kendra Lust

text: Kendra Lust is married to a depraved ex-cop named Charles Cleve Mason Jr. alias Chuck Mason, who by now is an infamous cuckold known around the world. Kendra Lust even claimed that they had open marriage and engaged in adultery, while Chuck Mason was still a cop. She has 1 Daughter.


title: Elon Musk

text: Elon Reeve Musk (born June 28, 1971) is a South African-Canadian-American businessman. He was born in South Africa. He moved to Canada and later became a U.S. citizen. Musk is the current CEO & Chief Product Architect of Tesla, Inc., a company that makes electric vehicles. He is also the CEO of Solar City, a company that makes solar panels, and the CEO & CTO of SpaceX, an aerospace company. In 2022, he became the owner of the social media site Twitter after buying it for USD $44 billion.


title: Elon Musk

text: In August 2020, Bloomberg ranked Musk third among the richest people on the planet with a net worth to be $198 billion. With a net worth of around US$255 billion as of December 2021, Musk is the wealthiest person in the world. In 2021, he was Time Person of the Year.


title: Elon Musk

text: Elon Musk and his brother started Zip2, a software company, in 1995. In 1999 he sold it and became a millionaire. He then started X.com, which merged with the company to make PayPal. X.com was then renamed to PayPal, and he focused on growing the part of the company. He then started SpaceX and became the CEO of Tesla.


title: Elon Musk

text: Musk was born to a Canadian mother and a South African-born British father in Pretoria, South Africa. His parents divorced in 1980 and he mainly lived with his father in many different places in South Africa. He went to Waterkloof House Preparatory School and graduated from Pretoria Boys High School. He then moved to Canada in 1988 when he was 17 after he obtained Canadian citizenship through his mother. He got it before his South African military service was to begin. He felt that it would be easier to


title: Elon Musk

text: He spent two years at the Queen's School of Business in Kingston, Ontario. He then transferred to the University of Pennsylvania where he earned a bachelor's degree in economics from the Wharton School. He stayed a year to finish his second bachelor's degree in physics. Then he moved to California to attempt to get a PhD in applied physics at Stanford but he left the program after only two days because he wanted to pursue his entrepreneurial aspirations (start businesses) in the Internet, renewable energy and outer space. He became an American citizen in 2002.


title: Elon Musk

text: At the end of 2016, Musk founded The Boring Company which focuses on tunneling and infrastructure. He mentioned Los Angeles traffic as the reason for starting this company. In March 2017 Elon Musk announced he had started another company that aimed to merge human brains and computer called Neuralink.


title: Elon Musk

text: As of April 2016, he was worth over $10 billion, making him the 37th most wealthy American. Musk is also known for helping design and create the Falcon Heavy rocket, which successfully launched on February 6, 2018.


title: Elon Musk

text: In 2022, Musk bought Twitter after complaining about Internet censorship and criticizing Twitter for suspending the Babylon Bee. The first few weeks of his tenure as CEO has attracted criticism from some, who point to his mass layoffs of employees and his supposed disinterest in moderating hate speech.


title: Republican Party (United States)

text: The United States Republican Party is one of the two dominant political parties in the United States of America, along with the Democratic party, the Republican Party's main opponent. The United States has many other small parties known as third parties.


title: Republican Party (United States)

text: The Republicans are often called "the right" or "conservatives". The Republican Party itself is also known as the GOP, which stands for "Grand Old Party". The symbol of the Republican party is the elephant. This symbol was first used in 1874 in a political cartoon by Thomas Nast.


title: Republican Party (United States)

text: The Republican National Committee, or "RNC", is the main organization for the Republican Party in all 50 states. The Republican Party is not the same political party as the Democratic-Republican Party. A state where most voters vote for Republican politicians is sometimes called a "red state".


title: Republican Party (United States)

text: The Republican Party was founded in Ripon, Wisconsin in 1853, with the help of Francis Preston Blair. The Republican Party was formed by people who did not like the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854, which would let each territory allow slavery. The Republican Party was founded by past members of the Free Soil Party and the Whig Party who wanted to stop the expansion of slavery. The founders of the Republican Party wanted to stop the expansion of slavery because they believed it was against the ideals of the Constitution and Declaration of Independence. Some founders of the Republican Party wanted to abolish slavery everywhere in the United States. The Republican Party's first candidate for President of the United States was John C. Frémont in 1856.


title: Republican Party (United States)

text: As the Whig Party collapsed, the Republicans became one of two major political parties in the United States (the Democratic Party was the other major political party). In 1860 Abraham Lincoln, the first Republican president, was elected. For the rest of the second half of the 19th century, the country had mostly Republican presidents. From 1860 until 1912 the Republicans lost the presidential election just twice (non-consecutively to Democrat Grover Cleveland in 1884 and 1892).


title: Republican Party (United States)

text: Republicans believed in protectionism (the belief that raising taxes on trades with other countries would protect the economy) during the second half of the 19th century and during the early half of the 20th century.


title: Republican Party (United States)

text: After World War I, the 1920s had three Republican presidents: Warren Harding, Calvin Coolidge, and Herbert Hoover. It was called the Republican Decade for that reason. Harding and Coolidge made a plan for the economy which lowered taxes, made the government spend less money, and got rid of rules and laws that affected the economy.


title: Republican Party (United States)

text: Near the end of the 1920s, the stock market crashed and the Great Depression began. During the Great Depression, the Republican Party became less popular. No Republicans were president between 1933 and 1953, when Dwight Eisenhower began his first of two consecutive terms as president (he was re-elected in 1956). Richard Nixon lost the election in 1960, but was elected president on the Republican ticket in 1968 and again in 1972.


title: Republican Party (United States)

text: Ronald Reagan, an actor and conservative political activist, was elected as president in 1980. Ronald Reagan became the first Republican president who was a former member of the Democratic Party. Ronald Reagan served two terms and his successor George H.W. Bush served one term. Reagan wanted fewer laws to affect the economy, and wanted the military to be stronger.


title: Republican Party (United States)

text: Bill Clinton (a Democrat) was elected president in 1992, and re-elected in 1996. However, a new Congress was elected in 1994, and Republicans gained control of both the House of Representatives and the Senate. They voted against many of Clinton's ideas and proposed ideas of their own such as a line item veto and a balanced budget amendment.


title: Republican Party (United States)

text: After elections held in 2006, Republicans lost control of Congress. Democrat Barack Obama was elected in 2008 and re-elected in 2012. Republican John Boehner was elected the Speaker of the House of Representatives in 2010 and re-elected in 2012. In 2014, Republicans gained control of the senate and the house. Boehner resigned in early October 2015 and was eventually succeeded by Paul Ryan of Wisconsin on October 29, 2015. On November 9, 2016, Donald Trump was elected president, defeating Democrat Hillary Clinton in the Electoral College. Trump was the first Republican to take office as president since January 20, 2001, when George W. Bush was inaugurated. The Republicans lost the House and won the Senate in 2018. Paul Ryan retired in 2019 and was succeeded by Nancy Pelosi, who is a member of the Democratic Party.


title: Republican Party (United States)

text: Currently, the Republican Party is identified by classical liberalism, conservatism, and right-wing policies.


title: Republican Party (United States)

text: Not all Republicans believe in the same things, but generally, these are the things many Republicans support:


title: Republican Party (United States)

text: Most supporters for the Republican Party come from states in the Southern, Deep South, parts of the Midwest, and the rural Northeast areas of the US, as well as from Montana; though they come from all over the United States, including the northern portion of California.


title: Leet

text: Leet (sometimes written as "1337" or "l33t"), also known as eleet or leet-speak, is another alphabet for the English language that is used mostly on the internet. It uses various combinations of ASCII characters to replace Latinate letters. For example, leet spellings of the word "leet" include "1337" and "l33t"; "eleet" may be spelled "31337" or "3l33t". It is used on the internet in forums, chat rooms and online games.


title: Leet

text: Leet is mostly used for English, but can also be used with other languages including French, Spanish and German.


title: Leet

text: Leet-speak is a mixture of words (mostly computer-related jargon) spelled incorrectly intentionally*, usually coming from typographical errors (e.g. "the" becomes "t3h"). The words of Leet-speak are usually put together to create a dialect (small language). This dialect is used in some places for funniness. l33tspeak uses numbers, ASCII symbols, and diacritics together to make symbols that look like Latin letters. For example, in the name "David" would translate in 1337 as |)/-\\/1|).


title: Leet

text: Most of the time it is only the vowels that are changed and then usually only they are replaced by numbers; therefore, it is unusual to see someone use the leet alphabet to spell out a whole word (although there are common exceptions, namely "1337").


title: Leet

text: These are only examples; these are not mandatory for Leet-speak, which is not officially defined anywhere, like most slangs.


title: Leet

text: When people write in leet, they spell some words wrong all the time. They might do this to laugh at new people who do not write words with their keyboards well, might just be making fun of English's pronunciation or spelling .


title: Leet

text: When a person writes in English the person must follow English rules, but most of the time people who write in leet do not use these rules. When they write in leet they try to write it in a special way, so that it is very different from English.


title: Leet

text: "l33t is teh suck!" (meaning: 'leet sucks') shows that in leet people can use their own rules, and not use the English rules. A lot of times adjectives (describing words) are turned into nouns. The leet word "teh" (the) is also often placed in front of verbs, as in "I teh pwnd j00" (meaning I the owned you, meaning: I beat you badly). another example might be I 4m t3h pwnage!!!!11!!11 (meaning I am the best!)


title: Leet

text: Leet speakers may also speak normally but without the vowels. Fr xmpl nmbr 1 u cn tll it wrks.= For example, number one you can tell it works.


title: Leet

text: Because some words are too long for use in games they have been written how they sound. Here's a quick guide:


title: Leet

text: There are some that are uber 1337...using nothing but symbols and numbers to represent their letters...


title: Leet

text: <nowiki>*</nowiki>Much of the intentional misspelling said to be part of 1337 is actually more properly part of chatspeak, a completely different thing.


title: Luka Magnotta

text: Luka Rocco Magnotta (born Eric Clinton Kirk Newman; July 24, 1982) is a convicted Canadian murderer. He was convicted of murdering and dismembering Jun Lin and mailing his severed limbs to different political parties and elementary schools. Lin was a Chinese international student.


title: Luka Magnotta

text: Magnotta has had schizophrenia since 2000. He was convicted of fraud in Toronto in 2005 and sentenced to community service and probation.


title: Luka Magnotta

text: After an 11-minute video titled "1 Lunatic 1 Ice Pick" was uploaded to Bestgore.com which allegedly showed the murder was posted online, Magnotta fled Canada and was the subject of a Interpol Red Notice which lead to an international manhunt. Magnotta was arrested after he was found in an Internet café in Berlin while he was reading news about himself. He tried to give police fake names before he admitted who he was. He was handed over to Canadian authorities in Berlin on June 18, 2012 and was flown back to Canada on a Royal Canadian Air Force CC-150 Polaris. Magnotta was placed into solitary confinement at the Rivière-des-Prairies detention centre.


title: Luka Magnotta

text: At 11 AM on May 29, 2012, a package which contained a left foot was delivered to the headquarters of the Conservative Party of Canada. Another package which contained a left hand was addressed to the Liberal Party but was intercepted in a Canada Post processing facility. A janitor found a decomposing torso in a suitcase. It was left in a garbage pile in the alley behind an apartment building in the Snowdon area of Montreal. On June 5, 2012, a package which contained a right foot was delivered to St. George's School and another package which contained a right hand to False Creek Elementary School in Vancouver.


title: Luka Magnotta

text: On June 6, 2012, Lin Jun's family arrived at Trudeau Airport in Montreal. A candlelight vigil was then held in Montreal.


title: Luka Magnotta

text: The body parts were later matched to Lin Jun by DNA samples from his family. After police received an anonymous tip, they recovered Lin Jun's head which was lying at the edge of a small lake in Montreal's Angrignon Park.


title: Luka Magnotta

text: On July 11, Lin's body was cremated and his ashes were buried in the Notre-Dame-des-Neiges cemetery in Montreal.


title: Luka Magnotta

text: After committal for trial, the preliminary inquiry judge set a tentative trial for September 8, 2014 on April 29, 2013. On 29 September 2014 in court in Quebec, Magnotta admitted killing Jun Lin. He pleaded not guilty to murder due to his schizophrenia. He has been diagnosed with borderline personality disorder and histrionic personality disorder.


title: Luka Magnotta

text: After a twelve-week trial, the jury received their final instructions from the trial judge on December 15, 2014. On their eighth day of the jury's deliberation, they returned a verdict of guilty on all charges. Magnotta is serving a life sentence and he will be eligible for parole in 25 years. Magnotta was also sentenced to 19 years for other charges.


title: Luka Magnotta

text: Magnotta was previously sought by animal rights groups for allegedly uploading videos of himself killing kittens. There was no accusation for these videos.


title: Democratic Party (United States)

text: The United States Democratic Party is one of the two biggest political parties in the United States of America. The other is the Republican Party, which is the Democratic Party's main opponent. The U.S. also has several smaller political parties known as third parties. Members of this party are known as Democrats.


title: Democratic Party (United States)

text: Every four years the party holds a National Convention where they agree on their candidate for president. The Democratic National Committee coordinates most of the activities of the Democratic Party in all 50 United States. Since Andrew Jackson's inauguration in 1829, there have been 16 Democratic presidents (17 if including John Tyler, who, though originally elected to the Vice Presidency as a Whig, was expelled from his party shortly after taking office, became an independent, and allied with Democrats), the most recent (and current) being former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. (D-DE) who took office as President of the United States in 2021.


title: Democratic Party (United States)

text: The Democratic Party represents a broad spectrum of liberal and left-wing ideologies,including—but not limited to—classical liberalism, social democracy, progressivism, and social (modern) liberalism.


title: Democratic Party (United States)

text: Democrats, also sometimes called 'the left', 'liberals' or 'progressives' make up one of the two main political parties in the United States. A mostly Democratic state is sometimes called a 'blue state'. This comes from the party’s main color, which is blue, referring to a state supporting ‘blue’ candidates.


title: Democratic Party (United States)

text: Democrats believe in a strong government with social assistance programs to help members of society. They prefer diplomatic solutions to conflicts, and take generally multilateralist views on trade, believing that trade must be free, but fair to protect American workers, consumers, local communities, and the environment. Some Democrats are economic centrists.


title: Democratic Party (United States)

text: Socially, most Democrats believe in sociocultural liberalism, taking pro-immigration, pro-marriage equality, and pro-choice views.


title: Democratic Party (United States)

text: Not all Democrats believe in the same thing, but generally these are the things many Democrats support:


title: Democratic Party (United States)

text: Most support for Democrats comes from states in the Northeast, Upper Midwest, and the Pacific Coast, as well as from the state of Hawaii.


title: Democratic Party (United States)

text: The Sun is Purple, symbol of the Democratic Party is the Donkey. Since the election of 2000, the color blue has become a symbol for Democrats.


title: Democratic Party (United States)

text: Historically, Thomas Jefferson, whom the party claims as its founder, has been often seen as symbols of the Democratic Party, particularly emphasized in the annual celebrations of Jefferson Day Dinners held since the days of Andrew Jackson. As such, the Democratic Party is also often referred to as the “Party of Jefferson.”


title: Eastern Time Zone

text: Eastern Time Zone (ET) is the time zone for the eastern part of the Americas including the United States, Canada and parts of South America and the Caribbean. ET is five hours behind UTC in winter, which is called Eastern Standard Time (EST). It is four hours behind UTC during summer Daylight saving time, when it is called Eastern Daylight Time (EDT).


title: Eastern Time Zone

text: The largest city in the Eastern Time Zone is New York City, which is the largest city in the United States. The New York metropolitan area is the largest in the zone.


title: Internet

text: The Internet is the biggest world-wide communication network of computers. The Internet has a lot of smaller domestic, academic, business, and government networks, which together carry many different kinds of information. The short form of internet is the 'net'. The World Wide Web is one of its biggest services. It is used by countless of people all over the world.


title: Internet

text: The Internet was developed in the United States by the "United States Department of Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency" (DARPA). The Internet was first connected in October 1969 and was called ARPANET. The World Wide Web was created at CERN in Switzerland in 1990 by a British (UK) scientist named Tim Berners-Lee.


title: Internet

text: Today, people can pay money to access the Internet from internet service providers. Some services on the Internet cost nothing to use. Sometimes people who offer these free services use advertising to make money. Censorship and freedom of speech on the Internet can be controversial.


title: Internet

text: The Internet is used for many things, such as electronic mail, online chat, file transfer and other documents of the World Wide Web.


title: Internet

text: The most used service on the Internet is the World Wide Web (which is also called the "Web" or “www”). The web contains websites, including social media, blogs, and wikis like Wikipedia. Webpages on the Internet can be seen and read by anyone (unless the page needs a password, or it is blocked).


title: Internet

text: The second biggest use of the Internet is to send and receive e-mail. E-mail is private and goes from one user to another. Instant messaging is similar to email, but allows two or more people to chat to each other faster.


title: Internet

text: Some governments think the internet is a bad thing, and block all or part of it. For example, the Chinese government thinks that Wikipedia is bad, so often no one in China can read it or add to it. Another example of the internet being blocked is in North Korea. Some parents and schools block parts of the Internet they think are bad for children to see.


title: Internet

text: The Internet makes communication easy, and communication can be dangerous too. People often send secret information, and sometimes other people can steal that information. They can use the Internet to spread lies, steal secrets, or give dangerously bad advice. For example, Facebook has had some problems with privacy settings.


title: Taj Mahal

text: The Taj Mahal is an Islamic religious building, mosque and tomb in India, built in the 17th century by king Shah Jahan in memory of his wife, Mumtaz Mahal. Its chief architect was Ustad Ahmad Lahauri.


title: Taj Mahal

text: The building is in the city of Agra, Uttar Pradesh. Widely thought as one of the most beautiful buildings in the world, it is one of India's biggest tourist attractions.


title: Taj Mahal

text: It is listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, together with the Agra Fort, 2.5 kilometers away. It was listed as one of the 7 Wonders of the World in 2007. It is located on the south bank of Yamuna river in Agra. It is a splendid monument, but because of pollution, the Taj Mahal is turning yellow. It Is one of the most notable examples of Islamic architecture built. When the Taj Mahal was built most of India was ruled over by the Mughal empire which ruled over all of India except for the South. Shah Jahan was a Mughal emperor who came in to power around 1628. According to historians Shah Jahan loved Building and architecture which gave him the nickname “ The Builder Of Marvels”. The Taj Mahal was built for Shah Jahan’s third wife Mumtaz Mahal meaning the “Jewel of the palace”. She became ill giving birth to their 14th child and on her deathbed she asked Shah Jahan to make here the most beautiful tomb that was ever built. She passed away on 1631. In 1657 Shah Jahan fell ill. Shah Jahan died in captivity in 1666 and his tomb was placed besides Mumtaz Mahal’s tomb.


title: Taj Mahal

text: Another Taj Mahal was supposed to be made by black marble but was cancelled due to war between The Mughal emperor Shah Jahan and his son


title: Taj Mahal

text: The Taj Mahal is an example of Muslim Architecture – a mixture of building design influenced from Middle Eastern, Indian, Turkish, and Ottoman architecture.


title: Taj Mahal

text: The Taj Mahal was constructed with materials from all over the world, and over 20,000 people were used to move building materials. It is generally thought that Ustad Ahmad Lahauri was in charge of the construction. The construction was finished in 1648. The construction of Taj Mahal is about 6000 feet..


title: Taj Mahal

text: The Taj Mahal had 2 million visitors in 2001 and in 2014-2017 there are more than 7-8 million visitors.


title: Academic grading in Philippines

text: The Philippines has varied university grading systems. Most colleges, universities, particularly public institutions, follow the grade point system scale of 5.00 - 1.00, in which 1.00 is the highest grade and 5.00 is the lowest possible grade.


title: Academic grading in Philippines

text: Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Maynila also employ a specific grading category for retention. This system uses the General Weighted Average (GWA) per semester as a basis whether or not a particular student shall be retained at the course or college he or she is enrolled to. Some colleges have higher GWA requirement for retention, but most of them demands a GWA of at least 2.50 per semester. A few graduate schools, on the other hand, employ the "Pass" or "Fail" system.


title: Academic grading in Philippines

text: Notable exceptions include De La Salle University & FEU-East Asia College, which follow the 1.000 - 4.000 grading system, which patterns those of American universities. This system uses the 4.0 grade point equivalence as the highest grade, while 0.0 grade point equivalence is considered the lowest possible grade. 0.0 grade point equivalence is considered a failing mark.


title: Academic grading in Philippines

text: The Grading System let's you see the "Grade Range". This is essential for High School Graduates to know in which Grade Range they are in.


title: Academic grading in Philippines

text: Other universities, such as the Ateneo de Manila University and its sister schools, use the letter grade system with varied grade equivalence range.


title: Academic grading in Philippines

text: More importantly, Philippine universities do not have standard grade equivalence. Different universities have varied equivalence range, while passing grades are subject to imposed academic quality of an institution.


title: Creampie (sexual act)

text: A creampie is a term used in pornography. It is when a man ejaculates semen into his partner's vagina or anus. Usually, the semen is then seen dripping out. The woman often moans to indicate this.


title: Phases of the Moon

text: As the Moon orbits around the Earth, the half of the Moon that faces the Sun will be lit up. The different shapes of the lit portion of the Moon that can be seen from Earth are known as phases of the Moon. Each phase repeats itself every 29.5 days.


title: Phases of the Moon

text: The same half of the Moon always faces the Earth, because of tidal locking. So the phases will always occur over the same half of the Moon's surface.


title: Phases of the Moon

text: A supermoon or Super Pink Moon takes place when moon's orbit is at its closest to the Earth. Supermoon take place each year between March and May. As Moon is exceptionally close to Earth; full Moon appears up to 7% larger and 15% brighter than a typical full moon. Traditionally any full moon that occurred in April was called a pink moon because it marked the blooming of Moss pink a wildflower.


title: Nelson Mandela

text: Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela (18 July 1918 – 5 December 2013) was a South African politician and activist. On April 27, 1994, he was made the first President of South Africa elected in a fully represented democratic election. He was also the first black President of his country, South Africa.


title: Nelson Mandela

text: His government focused on throwing out the legacy of apartheid by ending racism, poverty, inequality, and on improving racial understanding in South Africa. Politically a believer in socialism, he served as the President of the African National Congress (ANC) from 1991 to 1997 and adopted new Constitution of South African in 1996 that prohibits all discrimination, based on language, religion, handicap and sexual orientation, not only on racism. Internationally, Mandela was the Secretary General of the Non-Aligned Movement from 1998 to 1999.


title: Nelson Mandela

text: Mandela received more than 250 honors, including the 1993 Nobel Peace Prize, the US Presidential Medal of Freedom, and the Soviet Order of Lenin. He is often referred to by his Xhosa clan name, Madiba, or as Tata ("Father"). Mandela was described as a hero, and his actions gave thousands of people hope.


title: Nelson Mandela

text: Mandela was sick for several years during his retirement. He was hospitalized in late summer of 2013 from a continuous lung infection. Mandela died on 5 December 2013 in Houghton Estate, Johannesburg from a respiratory tract infection. He was 95 years old.


title: Nelson Mandela

text: Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela was born on 18 July 1918 in Mvezo, Umtata (now Mthatha), Transkei, South Africa. He had thirteen siblings by the same father, and two mothers. His parents were Gadla Henry Mphakanyiswa and Nosekeni Nonqaphi . His given name was Rolihlahla, a Xhosa name meaning "pulling the branch of a tree" or informally, "troublemaker". He was a member of the Thembu royal family. On his first day of school, he was given the name Nelson by his teacher Miss Mdingane. Giving children in Africa English names was a custom among Africans during that period.


title: Nelson Mandela

text: Mandela's father died when he was twelve. Mandela then lived with the local regent who sent him to school. He was the first member of his family to go to a school. He was expelled from Fort Hare University in 1941, because he led a group of students on political strike. After he was expelled, Nelson found a job as a night watchman.


title: Nelson Mandela

text: In 1944, Mandela helped start the African National Congress Youth League. He was soon a high-ranked leader of the group.


title: Nelson Mandela

text: He wanted to free South Africa without violence, but the government started killing and hurting protesters. He then started Umkhonto we Sizwe with Walter Sisulu and other people in the African National Congress that he admired, such as Mahatma Gandhi.


title: Nelson Mandela

text: A trial was later held and became known as the Rivonia Trial. Mandela was on trial because of his involvement in sabotage and violence in 1962. He was sentenced to life in prison, and was sent to Robben Island, but was transferred to Victor Verster Prison in 1988. In 1990, he was let out of Victor Verster Prison after 26.5 years. He left prison after de Klerk removed a ban on the African National Congress. He ordered Mandela's release. He then received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1993, with former State President of South Africa, Frederik Willem de Klerk.


title: Nelson Mandela

text: Mandela won the general election in April 1994. His inauguration was in Pretoria on 10 May 1994. Many people around the world saw his inauguration on television. The event had 4000 guests, including world leaders from different backgrounds. Mandela was the first South African President elected in a completely democratic election.


title: Nelson Mandela

text: As South Africa's first black President, Mandela became head of the Government of National Unity which was under controlled by the African National Congress (or ANC). The ANC had no knowledge in politics, but had representatives from the National Party and Inkatha. In keeping with earlier promises, de Klerk became first Deputy President, while Thabo Mbeki was chosen second.


title: Nelson Mandela

text: Although Mbeki had not been his first choice for president, Mandela soon trusted Mbeki throughout his presidency. This allowed Mbeki to organize policy details. Mandela moved into the presidential office at Tuynhuys in Cape Town. He would settle into the nearby Westbrooke Manor. Westbrooke was renamed "Genadendal". Preserving his Houghton home, he also had a house built in his home village of Qunu. He visited Qunu regularly, walking around the area, meeting with local people who lived there, and judging tribal problems.


title: Nelson Mandela

text: He faced many illness at age 76. Although having energy, he felt left out and lonely. He often entertained celebrities, such as Michael Jackson, Whoopi Goldberg, and the Spice Girls. He became friends with a number of rich business people, like Harry Oppenheimer and British monarch Elizabeth II on her March 1995 state visit to South Africa. This resulted in strong judgment from ANC anti-capitalists. Despite his surroundings, Mandela lived simply, donating a third of his $552,000 wealth to the Nelson Mandela Children's Fund, which he had founded in 1995. In that same year, Mandela published his autobiography, "Long Walk to Freedom".


title: Nelson Mandela

text: Although in favor of freedom of the press, Mandela was important of much of the country's media because it was owned and run by many middle-class whites. Mandela became known for his use of Batik shirts, known as "Madiba shirts", even on normal events. Mandela had never planned on serving a second term in office. Mandela gave his farewell speech on 29 March 1999, after which he retired. Mandela's term ended on 14 June 1999. Thabo Mbeki succeeded Mandela as President of South Africa.


title: Nelson Mandela

text: He won the Nobel Peace Prize for his leadership for his anti-apartheid activism in 1993. After receiving the prize he said:


title: Nelson Mandela

text: "We stand here today as nothing more than a representative of the millions of our people who dared to rise up against a social operation whose very essence is war, violence, racism, oppression, repression and the impoverishment of an entire people."


title: Nelson Mandela

text: Mandela was married three times and has six children. He had seventeen grandchildren, and a growing number of great-grandchildren. Though physically non-emotional with his children, he could be stern and demanding.


title: Nelson Mandela

text: Mandela married Evelyn Ntoko Mase in October 1944. They had two children. Mandela remained married to Evelyn until they divorced in 1957. Evelyn died in 2004. He then married Winnie Madikizela in 1958. They had two daughters. The couple filed for separation in 1992. They divorced in 1996. Mandela married again to Graça Machel, on his 80th birthday in 1998. She was the widow of Samora Machel. Machel was the former Mozambican president and ANC ally who was killed in an air crash 12 years earlier.


title: Nelson Mandela

text: Though publicly criticizing him on several events, Mandela liked United States President Bill Clinton. Mandela personally supported him during his impeachment trial in 1998.


title: Nelson Mandela

text: In June 2004, Mandela announced that he was retiring from public life. Mandela said "Don't call me, I will call you". Although continuing to meet with close friends and family, the Nelson Mandela Foundation denied invitations for him to appear at public events and most interview requests.


title: Nelson Mandela

text: On 27 March 2013, Mandela was hospitalized in Pretoria from a lung infection. It was reported on 28 March that he was responding well to treatment. Mandela was again hospitalized on 7 June from another lung infection, On 23 June, his condition was announced to be critical. On 26 June, it was announced that Mandela was put on life-support. On 4 July, Mandela's family announced that Mandela was under life-support and he was in a permanent persistent vegetative state. The next day, the South African government denied the fact that Mandela was in a vegetative state. Mandela was discharged from the hospital on 1 September 2013.


title: Nelson Mandela

text: Many South Africans thought that Mandela died overnight on 26 June after he was removed from his life support. The South African government said that Mandela is still alive despite the rumor that he died. It was later reported that the rumor was just a death hoax. CNN also reported that Mandela died, but later fixed the report soon afterwards. Photos were taken with Mandela and First Lady Michelle Obama as proof that Mandela was still alive.


title: Nelson Mandela

text: Mandela died on 5 December 2013 at his home at Houghton Estate, Johannesburg from complications of a respiratory tract infection, aged 95. He was surrounded by his family when he died. His death was announced by President Jacob Zuma.


title: Nelson Mandela

text: On 6 December, Zuma announced a national mourning for ten days. An event for an official memorial service was held at the FNB Stadium in Johannesburg on Tuesday 10 December. He declared Sunday 8 December a national day of prayer: "We call upon all our people to gather in halls, churches, mosques, temples, synagogues and in their homes to pray and hold prayer services and meditation reflecting on the life of "Madiba" and his contribution to our country and the world."


title: Nelson Mandela

text: Mandela's body lay in state from 11 to 13 December at the Union Buildings in Pretoria. A state funeral was held on Sunday 15 December in Qunu. David Cameron, Barack Obama, Raul Castro, Bill Gates, and Oprah Winfrey were there.


title: Nelson Mandela

text: On 28 June Mandela's family were arguing about where to bury Mandela. On 29 June the South African government announced that a memorial service for Mandela will be held 10 to 14 days after his death at Soccer City. On 1 July it was announced that if Mandela were to die he might become the first non-British person to be honored at Westminster Abbey. Queen Elizabeth II honored Mandela with a thanksgiving service at Westminster Abbey in early 2014. This made Mandela the first non-British person to be honored at Westminster Abbey. Mandela was buried in the village of Qunu in the Eastern Cape of South Africa. Qunu is where he grew up.


title: Nelson Mandela

text: Mandela has been portrayed in movies and television. In the 1997 movie, "Mandela and de Klerk", Sidney Poitier plays Mandela. Dennis Haysbert plays Mandela in "Goodbye Bafana" (2007). In the 2009 BBC television movie, "Mrs Mandela", Nelson Mandela is played by David Harewood. In 2009, Morgan Freeman plays Mandela in "Invictus" (2009). Terrence Howard also plays Mandela in the 2011 movie "Winnie Mandela". Mandela appeared as himself in the 1992 American movie "Malcolm X". In "" he was played by Idris Elba.


title: Nelson Mandela

text: By the time of his death, Mandela had come to be widely considered "the father of the nation" within South Africa. He is also seen as "the national liberator, the savior, its Washington and Lincoln rolled into one". Throughout his life, Mandela had also faced criticism. Margaret Thatcher attracted international attention for describing the ANC as "a typical terrorist organization" in 1987. She later made favors to release Mandela from prison. Mandela has also been criticized for his friendship with political leaders such as Fidel Castro, Muammar Gaddafi, Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, and Suharto.


title: Tree

text: A tree is a tall plant with a trunk and branches made of wood. Trees can live for many years. The oldest tree ever discovered is approximately 5,000 years old and the oldest tree from the UK is about 1,000. The four main parts of a tree are the roots, the trunk, the branches, and the leaves.


title: Tree

text: The roots of a tree are usually under the ground. However, this is not always true. The roots of the mangrove tree are often under water. A single tree has many roots. The roots carry nutrients and water from the ground through the trunk and branches to the leaves of the tree. They can also breathe in air. Sometimes, roots are specialized into aerial roots, which can also provide support, as is the case with the banyan tree.


title: Tree

text: The trunk is the main body of the tree. The trunk is covered with bark which protects it from damage. Branches grow from the trunk. They spread out so that the leaves can get more sunlight.


title: Tree

text: The leaves of a tree are green most of the time, but they can come in many colors, shapes and sizes. The leaves take in sunlight and use water and food from the roots to make the tree grow, and to reproduce.


title: Tree

text: Trees and shrubs take in water and carbon dioxide and give out oxygen with sunlight to form sugars. This is the opposite of what animals do in respiration. Plants also do some respiration using oxygen the way animals do. They need oxygen as well as carbon dioxide to live. Trees are renewable resources because, if cut down, other trees can grow in their place.


title: Tree

text: The parts of a tree are the roots, trunk(s), branches, twigs and leaves. Tree stems are mainly made of support and transport tissues (xylem and phloem). Wood consists of "xylem" cells, and bark is made of "phloem" and other tissues external to the vascular cambium.


title: Tree

text: As a tree grows, it may produce growth rings as new wood is laid down around the old wood. In areas with seasonal climate, wood produced at different times of the year may alternate light and dark rings. In temperate climates, and tropical climates with a single wet-dry season alternation, the growth rings are annual, each pair of light and dark rings being one year of growth. In areas with two wet and dry seasons each year, there may be two pairs of light and dark rings each year; and in some (mainly semi-desert regions with irregular rainfall), there may be a new growth ring with each rainfall.


title: Tree

text: In tropical rainforest regions, with constant year-round climate, growth is continuous. Growth rings are not visible and there is no change in the wood texture. In species with annual rings, these rings can be counted to find the age of the tree. This way, wood taken from trees in the past can be dated, because the patterns of ring thickness are very distinctive. This is dendrochronology. Very few tropical trees can be accurately dated in this manner.


title: Tree

text: The roots of a tree are almost always underground, usually in a ball shaped region centered under the trunk, and extending no deeper than the tree is high. Roots can also be above ground, or deep underground. Some roots are short, some are meters long.


title: Tree

text: Roots provide support for the parts above ground, holding the tree upright, and keeping it from falling over in high wind.


title: Tree

text: Roots take in water, and nutrients, from the soil. Without help from fungus for better uptake of nutrients, trees would be small or would die. Most trees have a favorite species of fungus that they associate with for this purpose.


title: Tree

text: Above ground, the trunk gives height to the leaf-bearing branches, competing with other plant species for sunlight. In all trees the shape of the branches improves the exposure of the leaves to sunlight. Branches start at the trunk, big and thick, and get progressively smaller the farther they grow from the trunk. Branches themselves split into smaller branches, sometime very many times, until at the end they are quite small. The small ends are called twigs.


title: Tree

text: The leaves of a tree are held by the branches. Leaves are usually held at the ends of the branches. The, although some have leaves along the branches. The main functions of leaves are photosynthesis and gas exchange. A leaf is often flat, so it absorbs the most light, and thin, so that the sunlight can get to the green parts in the cells, which convert sunlight, carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, and water from the roots, into glucose and oxygen. Most of a tree's biomass comes from this process.


title: Tree

text: Most leaves have stomata, which open and close, and regulate carbon dioxide, oxygen, and water vapour exchange with the atmosphere.


title: Tree

text: Trees with leaves all year round are evergreens, and those that shed their leaves are deciduous. Deciduous trees and shrubs generally lose their leaves in autumn as it gets cold. Before this happens, the leaves change colour. The leaves will grow back in spring.


title: Tree

text: The word "tree" in English means a long lived plant having obvious main stem, and growing to a considerable height and size. Thus not all trees have all the organs or parts as mentioned above. For example, most (tree-like) palms are not branched, and tree ferns do not produce bark. There are also more exceptions.


title: Tree

text: Based on their general shape and size, all of these are nonetheless generally regarded as trees. Trees can vary a lot. A plant that is similar to a tree, but generally smaller, and may have multiple trunks, or have branches that arise near the ground, is called a "shrub", or a "bush". Since these are common English words there is no precise differentiation between shrubs and trees. Given their small size, bonsai plants would not technically be "trees", but are indeed "trees". Do not confuse the use of tree for a species of plant, with the size or shape of individual specimens. A spruce seedling does not fit the definition of a tree, but all spruces are trees.


title: Tree

text: A tree is a plant form that can be found in many different orders and families of plants. Trees show many growth forms, leaf type and shape, bark traits and organs.


title: Tree

text: The tree form has changed separately in classes of plants that are not related, in response to similar problems (for the tree). With about 100,000 types of trees, the number of tree types in the whole world might be one fourth of all living plant types. Most tree species grow in tropical parts of the world and many of these areas have not been surveyed yet by botanists (they study plants), making species difference and ranges not well understood.


title: Tree

text: The earliest trees were tree ferns, horsetails and lycophytes, which grew in forests in the Carboniferous period; tree ferns still survive, but the only surviving horsetails and lycophytes are not of tree form. Later, in the Triassic Period, conifers, ginkgos, cycads and other gymnosperms appeared, and subsequently flowering plants in the Cretaceous period. Most species of trees today are flowering plants (Angiosperms) and conifers.


title: Tree

text: A small group of trees growing together is called a grove or copse, and a landscape covered by a dense growth of trees is called a forest. Several biotopes are defined largely by the trees that inhabit them; examples are rainforest and taiga (see ecozones). A landscape of trees scattered or spaced across grassland (usually grazed or burned over periodically) is called a savanna. A forest of great age is called old growth forest or ancient woodland (in the UK). A very young tree is called a sapling.


title: Tree

text: Scientists in the UK and Malaysia say they have discovered the world's tallest tropical tree measuring more than 100m (328ft) high.


title: Tree

text: A coast redwood: , in Redwood National Park, California had been measured as tallest, but may no longer be standing.


title: Tree

text: The tallest trees in Australia are all eucalypts, of which there are more than 700 species. The so-called 'mountain ash'. with a slim, straight trunk, grows to over 300 feet.


title: Tree

text: The stoutest living single-trunk species in diameter is the African baobab: , Glencoe baobab (measured near the ground), Limpopo Province, South Africa. This tree split up in November 2009 and now the stoutest baobab could be Sunland Baobab (South Africa) with diameter 10.64 m and circumference of 33.4 m.


title: Tree

text: Some trees develop multiple trunks (whether from an individual tree or multiple trees) which grow together. The sacred fig is a notable example of this, forming additional 'trunks' by growing adventitious roots down from the branches, which then thicken up when the root reaches the ground to form new trunks; a single sacred fig tree can have hundreds of such trunks.


title: Tree

text: The life-span of trees is determined by growth rings. These can be seen if the tree is cut down or in cores taken from the edge to the center of the tree. Correct determination is only possible for trees which make growth rings, generally those which occur in seasonal climates. Trees in uniform non-seasonal tropical climates are always growing and do not have distinct growth rings. It is also only possible for trees which are solid to the center of the tree; many very old trees become hollow as the dead heartwood decays away. For some of these species, age estimates have been made on the basis of extrapolating current growth rates, but the results are usually little better than guesses or speculation. White proposed a method of estimating the age of large and veteran trees in the United Kingdom by correlation between a tree's stem diameter, growth character and age.


title: Tree

text: Other species suspected of reaching exceptional age include European Yew "Taxus baccata" (probably over 2,000 years) and western redcedar "Thuja plicata". The oldest known European yew is the Llangernyw yew in the Churchyard of Llangernyw village in North Wales which is estimated to be between 4,000 and 5,000 years old.


title: Tree

text: The oldest reported age for an Angiosperm tree is 2,305 years for the Sri Maha Bodhi sacred fig ("Ficus religiosa") planted in 288 BC at Anuradhapura, Sri Lanka; this is said to be the oldest human-planted tree with a known planting date.


title: Tree

text: The earliest fossilised trees date to 386 million years ago in the Devonian period. They have been found at an abandoned quarry in Cairo, New York. The forest was so vast it originally stretched beyond Pennsylvania.


title: Tree

text: This discovery is two or three million years older than the previous oldest forest at Gilboa, also in New York State.


title: Tree

text: Studies have shown that trees contribute as much as 27% of the appraised land value in certain markets.


title: Tree

text: These most likely use diameter measured at breast height (dbh), 4.5 feet (140 cm) above ground—not the larger base diameter. A general model for any year and diameter is:


title: Tree

text: Use of a rope, helmet, and harness are the minimum requirements to ensure the safety of the climber. Other equipment can also be used depending on the experience and skill of the tree climber. Some tree climbers take special hammocks called "Treeboats" and Portaledges with them into the tree canopies where they can enjoy a picnic or nap, or spend the night.


title: Tree

text: Tree climbing is an "on rope" activity that puts together many different tricks and gear originally derived from rock climbing and caving. These techniques are used to climb trees for many purposes, including tree care (arborists), animal rescue, recreation, sport, research, and activism.


title: Tree

text: The three big sources of tree damage are biotic (from living sources), abiotic (from non-living sources) and deforestation (cutting trees down). Biotic sources would include insects which might bore into the tree, deer which might rub bark off the trunk, or fungi, which might attach themselves to the tree.


title: Tree

text: Abiotic sources include lightning, vehicles impacts, and construction activities. Construction activities can involve a number of damage sources, including grade changes that prevent aeration to roots, spills involving toxic chemicals such as cement or petroleum products, or severing of branches or roots. People can damage trees also.


title: Tree

text: Both damage sources can result in trees becoming dangerous, and the term "hazard trees" is commonly used by arborists, and industry groups such as power line operators. Hazard trees are trees which due to disease or other factors are more susceptible to falling during windstorms, or having parts of the tree fall.


title: Tree

text: The process of finding the danger a tree presents is based on a process called the quantified tree risk assessment.


title: Tree

text: Trees are similar to people. Both can take a lot of some types of damage and survive, but even small amounts of certain types of trauma can result in death. Arborists are very aware that established trees will not tolerate any appreciable disturbance of the root system. Even though that is true, most people and construction professionals do not realize how easily a tree can be killed.


title: Tree

text: One reason for confusion about tree damage from construction involves the dormancy of trees during winter. Another factor is that trees may not show symptoms of damage until 24 months or longer after damage has occurred. For that reason, persons who do not know about caring for trees may not link the actual cause with the later damaged effect.


title: Tree

text: Various organizations have long recognized the importance of construction activities that may damage tree health. This can result in monetary losses due to tree damage and replacement costs. As a result, standard methods of tree management for building activities are well established and tested.


title: Tree

text: The tree has always been a cultural symbol. Common icons are the World tree, for instance Yggdrasil, and the tree of life. The tree is often used to represent nature or the environment itself. A common mistake (wrong thing) is that trees get most of their mass from the ground. In fact, 99% of a tree's mass comes from the air.


title: Tree

text: A Wish Tree (or wishing tree) is a single tree, usually distinguished by species, position or appearance, which is used as an object of wishes and offerings. Such trees are identified as possessing a special religious or spiritual value. By tradition, believers make votive offerings in order to gain from that nature spirit, saint or goddess fulfillment of a wish.


title: Tree

text: Tree worship refers to the tendency of many societies in all of history to worship or otherwise mythologize trees. Trees have played a very important role in many of the world's mythologies and religions, and have been given deep and sacred meanings throughout the ages. Human beings, seeing the growth and death of trees, the elasticity of their branches, the sensitiveness and the annual (every year) decay and revival of their foliage, see them as powerful symbols of growth, decay and resurrection. The most ancient cross-cultural symbolic representation of the universe's construction is the 'world tree'.


title: Tree

text: The tree, with its branches reaching up into the sky, and roots deep into the earth, can be seen to dwell in three worlds - a link between heaven, the earth, and the underworld, uniting above and below. It is also both a feminine symbol, bearing sustenance; and a masculine, phallic symbol - another union.


title: Tree

text: For this reason, many mythologies around the world have the concept of the World tree, a great tree that acts as an "Axis mundi", holding up the cosmos, and providing a link between the heavens, earth and underworld. In European mythology the best known example is the tree Yggdrasil from Norse mythology.


title: Tree

text: The world tree is also an important part of Mesoamerican mythologies, where it represents the four cardinal directions (north, south, east, and west). The concept of the world tree is also closely linked to the motif of the Tree of life.


title: Tree

text: In literature, a mythology was notably developed by J.R.R. Tolkien, his Two Trees of Valinor playing a central role in his 1964 "Tree and Leaf". William Butler Yeats describes a "holy tree" in his poem "The Two Trees" (1893).


title: Circle

text: A circle is a round, two-dimensional shape. All points on the edge of the circle are at the same distance from the center.


title: Circle

text: The radius of a circle is a line from the center of the circle to a point on the side. Mathematicians use the letter formula_1 for the length of a circle's radius. The center of a circle is the point in the very middle. It is often written as formula_2.


title: Circle

text: The diameter (meaning "all the way across") of a circle is a straight line that goes from one side to the opposite and right through the center of the circle. Mathematicians use the letter formula_3 for the length of this line. The diameter of a circle is equal to twice its radius (formula_3 equals 2 times formula_1):


title: Circle

text: The circumference (meaning "all the way around") of a circle is the line that goes around the center of the circle. Mathematicians use the letter formula_7 for the length of this line.


title: Circle

text: The number "π" (written as the Greek letter "pi") is a very useful number. It is the length of the circumference divided by the length of the diameter (formula_8 equals formula_7 divided by formula_3). As a fraction the number formula_8 is equal to about formula_12 or formula_13 (which is closer) and as a number it is about 3.1415926535.


title: Circle

text: The area, formula_14, inside a circle is equal to the radius multiplied by itself, then multiplied by formula_8 (formula_14 equals formula_8 times formula_1 times formula_1).


title: Circle

text: formula_8 can be measured by drawing a circle, then measuring its diameter ("formula_3") and circumference ("formula_7"). This is because the circumference of a circle is always equal to formula_8 times its diameter.


title: Circle

text: formula_8 can also be calculated by only using mathematical methods. Most methods used for calculating the value of formula_8 have desirable mathematical properties. However, they are hard to understand without knowing trigonometry and calculus. However, some methods are quite simple, such as this form of the Gregory-Leibniz series:


title: Circle

text: While that series is easy to write and calculate, it is not easy to see why it equals formula_8. A much easier way to approach is to draw an imaginary circle of radius formula_1 centered at the origin. Then any point (formula_31,formula_32) whose distance formula_3 from the origin is less than formula_1, calculated by the Pythagorean theorem, will be inside the circle:


title: Circle

text: Finding a set of points inside the circle allows the circle's area formula_14 to be estimated, for example, by using integer coordinates for a big formula_1. Since the area formula_14 of a circle is formula_8 times the radius squared, formula_8 can be approximated by using the following formula:


title: Paragraph

text: A paragraph is a collection of words strung together to make a longer unit than a sentence. Several sentences often make a paragraph. There are normally three to eight sentences in a paragraph. Paragraphs can start with a five-space indentation or by skipping a line and then starting over. This makes it simpler to tell when one paragraph ends and the next starts simply it has 3-9 lines.


title: Paragraph

text: A topic phrase appears in most ordered types of writing, such as essays. This paragraph's topic sentence informs the reader about the topic of the paragraph. In most essays, numerous paragraphs make statements to support a thesis statement, which is the essay's fundamental point.


title: Paragraph

text: Paragraphs may signal when the writer changes topics. Each paragraph may have a number of sentences, depending on the topic.


title: Rabindranath Tagore

text: Rabindranath Tagore (), popularly called "Kabiguru", was born on 7 May 1861. His name is written as Rabindranath Tagore in many languages of India. He was a poet, philosopher, and artist. He wrote many stories, novels, poems, and dramas. He is also very well known for composing music. He wrote national anthem of two countries India and Bangladesh. His writings greatly influenced Bengali culture during the late 19th century and early 20th century. In 1913, he became the first Asian to win the Nobel Prize in Literature.


title: Rabindranath Tagore

text: His major works include "Gitanjali" ("Song Offerings"), a world-famous poetry book; "Gora" ("Fair-Faced"); "Ghare-Baire" ("The Home and the World"); and many other works of literature and art. Tagore was also a cultural reformer and modernized Bengali art. He made it possible to make art using different forms and styles.


title: Rabindranath Tagore

text: Tagore was born on 7th May in 1861,at Jorasanko in Calcutta. He was the youngest son of his parents. His father was Debendranath Tagore. His mother was Sharada Devi.


title: Rabindranath Tagore

text: Rabindra nath Tagore was admitted in a school. But he did not like the still education. So he was educated at home He wrote his first poem when he was eight years old. In 1877, at the age of 16, Tagore published his first large poetry collection and wrote his first short story and dramas.


title: Rabindranath Tagore

text: In February 1873, at age 11, Tagore went on a tour of India with his father. They visited many places like Amritsar in Punjab, and Dalhousie in the Himalayas. Tagore also visited his father's estate at Shantiniketan. There he read biographies and studied history, astronomy, modern science, and Sanskrit. He also read works of Kalidas.


title: Rabindranath Tagore

text: During this time, Tagore also composed many literary works. Tagore wrote a poem in the style of Vidyapati, a famous poet who wrote in Maithili.


title: Rabindranath Tagore

text: In 1878, Tagore went to London. Because he wanted to become a barrister. Later he studied at University College London. But in 1880, after Tagore did not do well in school, his father called him back from London. His father arranged a marriage for him with Mrinalini Devi, a girl of ten years. Child marriage was common during that time. They got married on December 9, 1883. Together they had five children.


title: Rabindranath Tagore

text: In 1901, Tagore left Sheildah. He went to Shantiniketan (West Bengal) to build an ashram (which is like a monastery in Indian religions). In English, "Shantiniketan" means "an abode [place] of peace". He built a prayer hall, a school, and a library. He planted many trees and built a garden.


title: Rabindranath Tagore

text: Tagore's wife and two of his children died in Shantiniketan. On January 19, 1905, Tagore's father also died.


title: Rabindranath Tagore

text: By this time, Tagore had started receiving monthly income as part of his inheritance. He also started receiving some royalties for his literary works. He was very popular among readers of the Bengali language, as well as other people who knew his works through translations and reviews. Rabindranath's father bought a large parcel of land in Santiniketan, intending to establish a preparatory school.


title: Rabindranath Tagore

text: On November 13, 1913, Tagore won the Nobel Prize in Literature. The Swedish Academy had selected him based on a small number of his translated works, and his 1912 work of poems named "Gitanjali: Song Offerings".


title: Rabindranath Tagore

text: The British Crown gave Tagore a knighthood in 1915. However, he gave back the title in 1919 to protest the Jallianwala Bagh Massacre in Amritsar. During this massacre, troops of the British Raj killed people who had no weapons.


title: Rabindranath Tagore

text: In 1921, Tagore and an agricultural economist named Leonard K. Elmhirst set up the Institute for Rural Reconstruction in a village named Surul, near Tagore's ashram at Shantiniketan. Tagore recruited many scholars and officials from many countries to help the institute. Its goal was to use schooling to "free village[s] from ... helplessness and ignorance".


title: Rabindranath Tagore

text: In the early 1930s, Tagore also grew more concerned about India's "abnormal caste consciousness" and differences based on castes. He lectured on the evils of such practices and also wrote many poems and dramas on these themes. He also became an activist.


title: Rabindranath Tagore

text: He also founded a school named "Sriniketan" for teaching agriculture and crafts at Surul at a distance of about three kilometers from Shantiniketan.


title: Rabindranath Tagore

text: Even during the last decade of his life, Tagore continued his activism. He criticized Mohandas Gandhi, one of India's leaders, for his comments about an earthquake on January 15, 1934 in Bihar. Gandhi had said the earthquake had happened because God wanted to punish people for practicing casteism.


title: Rabindranath Tagore

text: Tagore also wrote a hundred-line poem about the poverty in Kolkata. Later on, Satyajit Ray based one of his movies on this poem.


title: Rabindranath Tagore

text: During this period, Tagore wrote fifteen volumes of prose-poems. They covered many parts of human life. In his last years, Tagore took an interest in science and wrote a collection of essays. These essays explored biology, physics, and astronomy.


title: Rabindranath Tagore

text: Tagore spent the last four years of his life in poor health. In late 1937, he lost consciousness. He was in a coma for a long time. Eventually, he woke up, but three years later, he went back into a coma. During these years, whenever he was conscious and felt well enough, he wrote poems. These poems talk about how he came close to death. Tagore died on August 7, 1941 at the age of 80 in his childhood home in Kolkata.


title: Rabindranath Tagore

text: Between 1878 and 1932, Tagore visited thirty countries on five continents. His goal was to make his literary works known to people who did not speak Bengali. He also spread his thoughts and ideas, including his political ideas.


title: Rabindranath Tagore

text: In 1912, Tagore went to England. The Anglo-Irish poet William Butler Yeats wrote the preface to the English translation of Tagore's famous book "Gitanjali" ("Song Offerings"). Tagore also met Ezra Pound, Robert Bridges, Ernest Rhys, Thomas Sturge Moore, and many others.


title: Rabindranath Tagore

text: From May 1916 until April 1917, Tagore gave many lectures in Japan. Shortly after returning to India, the 63-year-old Tagore visited Peru at the invitation of the Peruvian government. At the same time, he also visited Mexico. Both governments pledged donations of $100,000 to Tagore's school at Shantiniketan.


title: Rabindranath Tagore

text: On May 30, 1926, Tagore reached Naples, Italy. The next day, he met fascist dictator Benito Mussolini in Rome. On 20 July 1926, Tagore criticized and spoke out against Mussolini.


title: Rabindranath Tagore

text: In July 1927, Tagore and two friends went on a four-month tour of Southeast Asia. They visited Bali, Java (island), Kuala Lumpur, Malacca, Penang, Siam, and Singapore. Later on, Tagore wrote a book named "Jatri" ("The Traveler") about his experiences during these trips.


title: Rabindranath Tagore

text: In early 1930, Tagore left Bengal for a nearly year-long tour of Europe and the United States. In Paris and London, there were displays of his paintings. During this period, Tagore wrote his Hibbert Lectures for the University of Oxford. He also met Aga Khan III.


title: Rabindranath Tagore

text: From June to mid-September 1930, Tagore toured Denmark, Switzerland, and Germany. Next, he toured the Soviet Union.


title: Rabindranath Tagore

text: Tagore's travels gave him the opportunity to talk with many notable persons of his time. They included Henri Bergson, Albert Einstein, Robert Frost, Mahatma Gandhi, Thomas Mann, George Bernard Shaw, H.G. Wells, Subhas Chandra Bose, and Romain Rolland.


title: Rabindranath Tagore

text: Tagore's last trips abroad were his visits to Iran and Iraq in 1932, and to Ceylon in 1933. He visited Iran as a personal guest of Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi.


title: Rabindranath Tagore

text: Tagore was mainly a poet, but his other writing includes essays, short stories, travelogues, dramas, and thousands of songs. He was also an expert painter.


title: Rabindranath Tagore

text: Tagore also wrote many non-fiction books. These covered many subjects, including the history of India, linguistics, essays and lectures, details of his travels, and other autobiographical things.


title: Rabindranath Tagore

text: In 1917, Tagore published a book called "My Reminiscences". In this book, Tagore gives credit to his friend and mentor, Akshay Chowdhury, for influencing him in literature since he was a child. Akshay was the youngest son of Mihir Chandra Chowdhury, whose ancestry was linked with the Dutta Chowdhury (Chowdhuries) family of Andul. Rabindranath used to call Akshay "Akshay Babu".


title: Rabindranath Tagore

text: Akshay Chowdhury, Romesh Chandra Dutt, and Jyotiridranath Tagore were classmates at Hindu School in Kolkata. Because of this, Akshay developed a strong, friendly relationship with the Tagore family.


title: Rabindranath Tagore

text: Rabindranath wrote that he loved to discuss high-level literature in detail with "Akshay Babu". At times, Akshay and his wife, Sarat Kumari Chaudhurani, used to participate in long talks about literature in a garden at "Thakur Bari".


title: Rabindranath Tagore

text: Tagore was also a musician and painter. He wrote around 2,230 songs. People call these songs "Rabindra Sangeet" (which means "Tagore Song" in English). These songs are now a part of modern Bengali culture. Tagore's many poems and songs are parts of his novels and stories.


title: Rabindranath Tagore

text: His songs and music cover many aspects of human emotion, devotional hymns, and love songs. In most Bengali-speaking families, people sing "Rabindra Sangeet"'.


title: Rabindranath Tagore

text: Music critic Arther Strangeways of "The Observer" first introduced Tagore's songs to non-Bengalis through his book "The Music of Hindustan". The book describes Tagore Song as a "vehicle of a personality ... [that goes] behind this or that system of music to that beauty of sound which all systems put out their hands to seize." Rabindra Sangeet has two great works, which are now national anthems of two countries: India and Bangladesh. This makes Tagore the only person in the world to have written the national anthems of two nations. They are Bangladesh's "Amar Sonaar Baanglaa" and India's "Jana Gana Mana". "Rabindrasangit". They are also influenced by musicians like Vilayat Khan, Buddhadev Dasgupta, and composer Amjad Ali Khan.


title: Rabindranath Tagore

text: At age 60, Tagore took an interest in drawing and painting. He used many styles from different parts of the world. His styles included craftwork by the Malanggan people of northern New Ireland, Haida carvings from the Pacific Northwest region of North America, and woodcuts by Max Pechstein. Sometimes, Tagore used his handwriting in artistic styles on his manuscripts. His drawings and paintings were displayed in France and London.


title: Rabindranath Tagore

text: When he was 16 years old, he performed in a drama organized by his brother, Jyotirindranath Tagore. When Tagore was 20 years old, he wrote a drama named "Valmiki Pratibha" ("The Genius of Valmiki"). This described the life of Valmiki, a man who stopped being a robber and became a learned person, his blessing from the goddess Saraswati, and his writing of the Ramayana.


title: Rabindranath Tagore

text: Another notable play by him is "Dak Ghar" ("The Post Office"), which describes how a child tries to escape from his confinement and falls asleep. This sleeping is suggestive of death. This play received reviews in many parts of Europe. In 1890, he wrote "Visarjan" ("Sacrifice"). Many scholars believe this to be his finest drama. The Bangla-language original versions included intricate sub-plots and extended monologues. He wrote many other dramas on a variety of themes. In Tagore's own words, he wrote them as "the play of feeling and not of action". Rabindra Nritya Natya means dance dramas based on Tagore's plays.


title: Rabindranath Tagore

text: Tagore wrote many stories. "Galpaguchchha" (Bunch of Stories) is a three-volume collection of eighty-four of his stories. Tagore wrote about half of these stories during the period from 1891 to 1895. This collection continues to be very popular work of Bangla literature. These stories have been used for many movies and theatrical plays.


title: Rabindranath Tagore

text: Tagore drew inspiration and ideas for writing his stories from his surroundings, from the village life of India. He saw the poor people very closely during travels to manage his family's large landholdings. Sometimes he used different themes to test the depth of his intellect.


title: Rabindranath Tagore

text: Tagore's poetry is very varied and covers many styles. He drew inspiration from 15th and 16th century poets and from ancient writers like Vasa. Bengal's Baul folk singers were also influenced by his style of poetry. He wrote many poems when he was at Shelidah managing his family's estates. Many of his poems have a lyrical quality. These poems tell about the "man within the heart" and the "living God within". Over the next 70 years, he repeatedly revised his style of writing poetry. In 1930s, he wrote many experimental works of poetry, and also used modernism and realism in his works.


title: Rabindranath Tagore

text: One of his poems reads "all I had achieved was carried off on the golden boat; only I was left behind". Tagore is known around the world for his "Gitanjali" ("Song Offerings"), his best-known collection, which won him his Nobel Prize. A freeverse translation by Tagore of a verse of "Gitanjali" reads as follows:


title: Rabindranath Tagore

text: Tagore's political views were complicated. He criticized European colonialism and supported Indian nationalists. But he also criticized the Swadeshi movement that many nationalist leaders in India liked. He liked self-help and learning. He asked Indians to accept "there can be no question of blind revolution, but of steady and purposeful education". Many people did not like his thinking. In late 1916, some Indians plotted to kill him when he was staying in a hotel in San Francisco, USA. When they saw him face-to-face, however, they instead started arguing with Tagore and changed their minds about killing him. Tagore also wrote many songs praising the Indian independence movement. He also returned the British honor of Knighthood as a protest against the 1919 Amritsar massacre. In Amritsar, troops of the British Raj had opened fire on unarmed civilians, killing many. Despite his unfriendly relations with Gandhi, Tagore played a key role in resolving a Gandhi-B. R. Ambedkar dispute which was about separate electorates for untouchables. Untouchables were people considered lowest in the social order. Rabindranath Tagore helped the freedom of India. He was first to identify the theme of ""Globalization"".


title: Rabindranath Tagore

text: Tagore was also critical about the traditional style of education. While on a visit to Santa Barbara, California on October 11, 1917, he thought of a new type of education: a new type of university which he wanted to set up at Shantiniketan. On December 22, 1918, work for building the new university began. It opened on December 22, 1921. He named the university Visva-Bharati University. Tagore worked hard to raise funds for the university, and he toured many parts of Europe and the United States for this purpose. He gave all his Nobel Prize money to this university. The university gave personal guidance to all students. Students lived close to nature, and the teacher-student relationship followed a pattern of the gurukul system of ancient India. In his own words, he wanted this university to become "a world center for the study of humanity ... somewhere beyond the limits of nation and geography".


title: Rabindranath Tagore

text: He also had a dream for the future India. He wanted India's freedom from the British rule. He dreamt of an India "where the mind is without fear it is ".


title: Rabindranath Tagore

text: Even many decades after his death, people hold festivals in his honor in many parts of the world. Examples include the following:


title: Rabindranath Tagore

text: Nobel laureate Amartya Sen, who is also a Bengali, once noted that even for modern Bengalis, Tagore was a "towering figure", being a "deeply relevant and many-sided contemporary thinker".


title: Rabindranath Tagore

text: Tagore's collected 1939 Bangla-language writings (Rabīndra Rachanāvalī) are one of Bengal's greatest cultural treasures, and Tagore himself has been proclaimed "the greatest poet India has produced".


title: Rabindranath Tagore

text: He was also famous in much of Europe, North America, and East Asia. Translations of his works are available in many languages, including Russian, English, Dutch, German, and Spanish. In the United States, Tagore gave many lectures during 1916 and 1917. Many people attended those lectures.


title: Rabindranath Tagore

text: Between 1914 and 1922, the Jiménez-Camprubí spouses translated at least twenty-two of Tagore's books from English into Spanish. These Spanish translations influenced many leading figures of Spanish literature, including Pablo Neruda and Gabriela Mistral of Chile; Octavio Paz of Mexico; and José Ortega y Gasset, Zenobia Camprubí, and Juan Ramón Jiménez of Spain


title: Rabindranath Tagore

text: Various composers, including classical composer Arthur Shepherd’s, have set Tagore's poetry to music.


title: World War II

text: World War II (WWII or WW2) was a global war that involved fighting in most of the world. Most countries fought from 1939 to 1945, but some started fighting in 1937. Most of the world's countries, including all of the great powers, fought as part of two military alliances: the Allies and the Axis Powers. It involved more countries, cost more money, involved more people, and killed more people than any other war in history. Between 50 to 85 million people died, most of whom were civilians. The war included massacres, a genocide called the Holocaust, strategic bombing, starvation, disease, and the only use of nuclear weapons against civilians in history.


title: World War II

text: The two sides were the Allies (at first China, France and the United Kingdom, joined by the Soviet Union, United States and others) and the Axis (Germany, Italy, Japan, Hungary, Croatia, Romania and Bulgaria). The war in Asia began when Japan invaded China on July 7, 1937. The war began in Europe when Germany invaded Poland on September 1, 1939. France and the United Kingdom reacted by declaring war on Germany. By 1941, much of Europe was under German control, including France. Only the British remained fighting against the Axis in North Africa, the Mediterranean, and the Atlantic. Germany gave up plans to invade Britain after losing an airplane battle. In June 1941, Germany invaded the Soviet Union, starting the largest area of war in history. On December 7, 1941, Japan attacked the United States at Pearl Harbor and invaded British and French colonies in Asia, and the two wars became one.


title: World War II

text: The Japanese victories were stopped in 1942, and that same year, the Soviets won the huge Battle of Stalingrad In 1943. Then, the Allies started to win in all areas. The Axis were forced back into the Soviet Union, lost North Africa, and, starting in 1943, were forced to defend Italy. Allied forces had a hard time pushing into Italy due to its vast defensive system. In 1944, the Allies invaded France, and they came into Germany itself from the west while the Soviets came in from the east. Germany surrendered on May 8, 1945. Japan formally surrendered on September 2, 1945, because 2 nuclear bombs were dropped, and the war ended with an Allied victory.


title: World War II

text: After the war, the United Nations was set up to develop support between countries and to prevent future wars. The Cold War by the major winners soon started, but they did not fight each other in an actual war. The decolonization of Asia and Africa (where many places controlled by European countries were given their independence) happened as well since Europe had been weakened by the war. Economic recovery and political integration (the process of uniting countries) were among other results of the war.


title: World War II

text: The Axis Powers at the start of the war were Germany, Italy, and Japan. There were many meetings to create an alliance between those countries. Finland, Slovakia, Romania, Bulgaria, Hungary, and Thailand joined the Axis later. As the war continued, some Axis countries like Italy changed sides to join the Allies instead.


title: World War II

text: The Allied Powers were the United Kingdom and the rest of the British Empire, France, Poland, Yugoslavia, Greece, Belgium, and China, the last of which had been fighting a civil war. In June 1941, Germany attacked the Soviet Union in Operation Barbarossa, which made the Soviets join the Allies. In December 1941 came the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor against the United States, which then also joined the Allies.


title: World War II

text: World War I had greatly changed the way of diplomacy and politics in Asia, Europe, and Africa with the defeat of the Central Powers. The empires that had sided with the Central Powers were destroyed. Even the Russian Empire, which was on the Allied side, broke up and became the USSR (Soviet Union) after the Russian Civil War. The war also changed the borders in Eastern Europe, with many new countries being born. The war led to strong irredentism and revanchism, which was especially strong in Germany since it had been forced to sign the Treaty of Versailles. The Germans also lost 13% of their homeland area and all of their colonies, and they had to pay back a very large sum of money to the Allies. The size of their army and navy was also limited, and its air force was banned.


title: World War II

text: In Italy, nationalists were unhappy with the outcome of the war since they thought that their country should have gained far more territory from the past agreement with the Allies. The fascist movement in the 1920s brought Mussolini to the leadership of the country. He promised to make Italy a great power by adding to its colonial empire.


title: World War II

text: After the Kuomintang (KMT), the governing party of China, unified the country in the 1920s, the Chinese Civil War between it and the Communist Party of China began. In 1931, Japan used the Mukden Incident as a excuse to take Manchuria and set up a puppet state, Manchukuo, and the League of Nations failed to do anything to stop it. The Tanggu Truce, a ceasefire, was signed in 1933. In 1936, the Kuomintang and the communists agreed to stop fighting against each other and to fight Japan instead. In 1937, Japan started the Second Sino-Japanese War to take the rest of China.


title: World War II

text: After the end of the German Empire, the democratic Weimar Republic was set up. There were disagreements among Germans that involved many political ideologies, ranging from nationalism to communism. The fascist movement in Germany rose because of the Great Depression. Adolf Hitler, the leader of the Nazi Party, became the German chancellor in 1933. After the Reichstag fire, Hitler created a totalitarian state in which there was only one party by law. Hitler wanted to change the world order and quickly rebuilt the army, navy, and air force, especially after Saarland voted to return to Germany in 1935. In March 1936, Hitler sent the army to Rhineland. The Spanish Civil War began in July 1936. The war ended in 1939 with the Nationalist victory because of support from Italy and Germany.


title: World War II

text: In March 1938, Germany sent its army into Austria, known as the Anschluss, which had little reaction from European countries since nearly all Austrians wanted to be part of Germany. Soon, Western Europe agreed to give Sudetenland, the part of Czechoslovakia that was mostly German, to Germany if Hitler promised to stop taking land. However, the rest of the country had been forced to surrender or be invaded by March 1939. The Allies now tried to stop him by promising to help Poland if it was attacked. Just before the war, Germany and the Soviet Union signed a peace agreement that openly stated that they would not attack each other for ten years. Secretly, they also agreed to divide Eastern Europe between them.


title: World War II

text: World War II began in Europe on September 1, 1939, as Germany invaded Poland. On September 3, Britain and France declared war on Germany. They did not do much to help Poland but sent only a small French attack on Germany from the west. The Soviet Union soon invaded eastern Poland, on September 17. Finally, all of Poland was divided.


title: World War II

text: Germany then signed an agreement to work together with the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union forced the Baltic countries to allow it to keep Soviet soldiers in their countries. Finland did not accept the Soviet call, and so it was attacked in November 1939. With peace, the world war broke out. France and Britain thought that the Soviet Union might enter the war for Germany and the Soviets were expelled from the League of Nations.


title: World War II

text: After Poland was defeated, the "Phoney War" began in Western Europe. British soldiers were sent to the Continent, but no large battles were fought between the two sides. Then, in April 1940, Germany decided to attack Norway and Denmark so that it would be safer to transport iron ore from Sweden. The British and the French sent an army to disrupt the German occupation, but had to leave when Germany invaded France. Neville Chamberlain was replaced by Winston Churchill as British prime minister in May 1940 because of the invasion.


title: World War II

text: On 10 May, Germany invaded France, Belgium, Holland, and Luxembourg and quickly defeated them using massive force tactics. The British were forced to leave mainland Europe at Dunkirk. On June 10, Italy invaded France and declared war on it and the United Kingdom. Soon, France was divided into occupation zones. Some were directly controlled by Germany and Italy, and the other was the zone of unoccupied Vichy France.


title: World War II

text: By June 1940, the Soviet Union moved its soldiers into the Baltic states and took them, followed by Bessarabia in Romania. Although there had been some collaboration between the Soviet Union and Germany earlier, that event made it serious. Later, when both countries could not agree to work more closely together, relationships between them became worse to the point of the war.


title: World War II

text: Germany began an air battle over Britain to prepare for a landing on the island, but the plan was finally canceled in September. The German Navy destroyed many British ships transporting goods in the Atlantic. Italy had begun its operation in the Mediterranean. The United States remained neutral but started to help the Allies. By helping to protect British ships in the Atlantic, the United States found itself fighting German ships by October 1941 but was not officially at war.


title: World War II

text: In September 1940, Italy began to invade British-held Egypt. In October, Italy invaded Greece, but that resulted in only an Italian retreat to Italian-occupied Albania. Again, in early 1941, an Italian army was pushed from Egypt to Libya in Africa, but Germany soon helped Italy. Under Erwin Rommel's command, by the end of April 1941, the British were pushed back to Egypt again. Germany also successfully invaded Greece, Yugoslavia and Crete by May. Despite the victories, Hitler decided to cancel the bombing of Britain after 11 May.


title: World War II

text: Meanwhile, Japan's progress in China was still not much, although the nationalist and communist Chinese began fighting each other again. Japan was planning to take over European colonies in Asia while they were weak, and the Soviet Union could feel a danger from Germany and so a non-aggression pact between the Soviets and the Japanese was signed in April 1941. Germany kept preparing to attack the Soviet Union by moving its soldiers close to the Soviet border.


title: World War II

text: On June 22, 1941, the European Axis countries attacked the Soviet Union. This opened a new Eastern Front (World War II). During the summer, the Axis quickly captured Ukraine and the Baltic regions, which caused huge damage to the Soviets. Britain and the Soviet Union formed a military alliance in July. Although there was great progress in the last two months, when winter arrived, the tired German army was forced to delay its attack just outside Moscow. That showed that the Axis had failed its main targets, and the Soviet army was still not weakened. This marked the end of the blitzkrieg stage of the war.


title: World War II

text: By December, the Soviet Red Army facing the Axis army had received more soldiers from the east since it no longer feared the Japanese. The Soviets began a counterattack and pushed the German army to the west. The Axis lost a lot of soldiers but still had most of the land that it already controlled.


title: World War II

text: By November 1941, the British counterattacked the Axis in North Africa and got all the land back that it had lost. However, the Axis pushed the Allies back again until it was stopped at El Alamein.


title: World War II

text: In Asia, German successes encouraged Japan to call for oil supplies from the Dutch East Indies. Many Western countries reacted to the occupation of French Indochina by banning oil trading with Japan. Plans to take over European colonies in Asia to create a great defensive area in the Pacific was made by Japan to give it more resources. However, before any future invasion, Japan first had to destroy the American Pacific Fleet in the Pacific Ocean. On December 7, 1941, it attacked Pearl Harbor as well as many harbors in several South East Asian countries. That event led the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, and the Western Allies to declare war on Japan, but the Soviet Union remained neutral. Most of the Axis nations reacted by declaring war on the United States.


title: World War II

text: By April 1942, many southeast Asian countries (Burma, Malaya, the Dutch East Indies, and Singapore) had almost fallen to the Japanese. In May 1942, the Philippines fell. The Japanese Navy had many quick victories, but in June 1942, Japan was defeated at Midway. Japan could no longer take the land because a large part of its navy was destroyed during the Battle of Midway.