My Science School

People have been catching fish from the sea, rivers and lakes for thousands of years. Fishing is still a source of food, and an important industry for many people living near the sea. Japan, China and Russia are the largest commercial fishing nations. The world's major fishing grounds are the areas of relatively shallow waters that lie above the continental shelf - those parts of the Earth's landmasses that are submerged by ocean waters.

Most sea fish are caught by fishermen working on trawlers. Trawlers are equipped with a large net that is trawled (dragged) along the sea bed. Distant-water trawlers, the most numerous type, can stay at sea for several months. Many of them have freezers so the fish can be gutted and frozen on board. Middle-water trawlers go out for two or three weeks and near-water trawlers for only a few days at a time.

Trawlers catch demersal fish, those kinds that live near the sea bed. North Atlantic trawlers catch cod in the cold waters off Canada, Greenland and Scandinavia. Japanese and American fleets catch tuna in the deep waters of the Pacific Ocean.

Middle-water trawlers catch fish such as halibut and plaice, while near-water vessels catch fish that live in the warmer waters close to shore, such as haddock, plaice, sole and turbot. These boats do not have freezers on board but the fish can be packed in ice to keep them fresh.

Different techniques are used to catch other marine creatures. Lobsters and crabs are caught in small traps called pots. Oysters and scallops are collected with a dredge, a triangular steel frame with a net on it, which is towed along by a fishing boat.

Today, in many traditional fishing grounds numbers of fish are declining fast, the result of overfishing. In the North Atlantic, herring are now almost extinct and there are far fewer cod and haddock. The use of huge factory ships, on which large quantities of fish can be frozen, is severely depleting supplies for local people in developing countries, who rely on fish for their livelihood. There is also concern about the destruction of ocean food chains by overfishing. It is estimated that 20 million tonnes of fish a year are discarded by fishing boats because they are not the right kind - a practice that needlessly reduces stocks of other kinds of fish.

TRADITIONAL FISHING

In some parts of the world, fishermen still go out in small boats and catch fish with hand-held nets, as they have done for centuries. These fishermen catch only enough fish for their local communities.

Whales used to be hunted for their meat and oil. Harpoons and factory ships were used. So many species became endangered that commercial whaling of a number of different species was banned by international agreement in 1986.

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At about the same time as people began to grow crops, they also domesticated wild animals for meat, milk and skins or wool. This was the start of livestock farming.

Cattle are kept for milk and meat. There are about 200 million cattle in India alone, with about 1000 million in the rest of the world. Breeds of cattle can be divided into two main groups: the European breeds, which are descended from a now-extinct species of long-horned wild cattle called the auroch, and the various breeds of zebu, the humped cattle of India.

Animals kept for their wool include sheep, goats, rabbits, and vicunas (a type of llama). Of these, sheep are the most common on farms worldwide. Australia is one of the world's biggest wool producers. Of the 1000 million sheep in the world, about 140 million are in Australia where, in fact, there are many more sheep than people! Australian farmers keep large herds of sheep on huge sheep stations. Most of the sheep are Merinos, a breed that has soft; thick wool and which can survive on the poor grass that is characteristic of the dry grasslands of central Australia.

Some livestock farmers keep pigs for meat. On large modern pig farms, the animals are kept indoors in controlled conditions and fed a mixture which makes them put on the most weight in the shortest time. About 400 breeds of pig have been produced over the centuries but many of these have now disappeared with the development of intensive farming methods. The main surviving breeds include the Berkshire, Chester White, Poland, China, Saddleback, Yorkshire, Duroc, and Razorback. There are about 800 million pigs in the world, half of them in Asia. Their meat is sold as pork (fresh meat), bacon or ham (cured or preserved meat).

POULTRY

Poultry farmers keep chickens, turkeys, geese and other birds for meat and eggs. Chickens are descended from tropical forest birds found in Southeast Asia. They can be reared by intensive or free-range methods. There are about 7000 million chickens in the world. Good breeds for egg-laying include Leghorns and Minorcas. Dorking and Cornish breeds are good for meat, and Orpingtons and Rhode Island Reds are useful for both. Turkeys, ducks and geese are mainly reared for their meat.

The world relies on farming (also called agriculture) for its food. Farms range in size from large commercial businesses that provide food for sale at home and abroad (cash crops), to small farms that produce only enough food for the community (subsistence farming).

There are several different kinds of farming. Arable farming is the cultivation of crops, which include cereals, vegetables and plants for making industrial products such as oil and cotton cloth. Another type of cultivation is growing trees or vines, such as fruit orchards, vineyards, and rubber or coffee plantations. Livestock farming involves keeping animals such as pigs, cows and sheep for meat, milk or wool. The animals graze on permanent grassland or rough pasture, including heath land, scrub, mountain slopes or tundra grasses. Some farmers concentrate on one type of farming, while others have mixed farms where they both grow crops and keep livestock.

Intensive farming methods are used to increase food production. For example, intensive egg production involves keeping hens in tiny, crowded cages where they spend their lives just laying eggs. Many people regard this type of farming as cruel.

“Free-range” products come from animals kept in more natural surroundings. These include eggs from hens that have been allowed to roam around in the farmyard. Farmers on commercial farms use chemicals to keep pests and weeds at bay. These chemicals cause pollution of the soil and water, and may get into the crops or livestock themselves. Organic farmers do not use artificial pesticides or fertilizers, but enrich the soil with natural fertilizers such as seaweed and manure. Some people prefer free-range and organic products, believing them to taste better and be safer to eat.

Not all farmers settle in one place. Some livestock farmers are nomadic - they move around with their herds, looking for fresh grazing land. Shifting cultivation is a system where arable farmers move on when the soil becomes exhausted. The most common method is slash-and-burn, which is practised in tropical regions such as the Amazon rainforests. Land is cleared by burning patches of forest. After a few years of planting crops such as maize, manioc, millet and yams, the rainforest soil is no longer fertile, so the farmers clear a new area, leaving the previous land to return to its natural state.

People first started to grow crops about 12,000 years ago. They discovered that certain wild plants, which produced seeds that were ground for flour to make bread, could be made to grow in fields. Crop, or arable, farming had begun.

Today, huge swathes of land that were once natural grasslands or woodlands are under cultivation. Finding new land to farm is sometimes so important that tropical rainforest, desert and swamp are turned into farmland. Even land under the sea has been reclaimed to find more room for crops.

In rich countries, farmers use modern machines and methods to produce better crop yields - more grain from a certain size of field. In poorer countries, most of the population still work in the fields and depend on a small number of crops, together with a few animals, for their livelihood. They grow only enough food for themselves. This is known as subsistence farming.

THE WORLD'S CROPS

The most important crops are the cereals: wheat, rice, maize, barley, rye and millet. These provide many people with their basic source of food, their staple diet.

Rice is the main food for millions of Asians. Rice-fields, known as paddies, must be flooded, so in hilly country flat shelves of land, or terraces, are built so that the floodwaters do not flow away. The rice seedlings are planted in rows under water, often by hand. After harvesting, the crop is threshed, to separate out the grain, and then winnowed, to lose the husks and grit.

Other important staple crops include beans, peas and lentils. Fruit and vegetables add vitamins and carbohydrates to our diet.

Soya beans, groundnuts and palms are also useful for the oils in their seeds. A range of crops are grown as fodder (livestock feed). They include grasses, some root vegetables and alfalfa.

Many of the sports we know today have their origins in ancient history. Some began as religious rituals. Others were tests of strength or endurance. Sporting competitions encouraged men to practise archery, horsemanship, wrestling and other exercises. This helped warriors prepare themselves for battle.

Today, there are professional sports people who train hard and compete regularly with others from around the world. Many people also play sports for fun and exercise. They may join in team sports such as football and hockey, or perform as individuals in sports such as tennis and running.

The most famous sporting competition in the world is the Olympic Games which are held every four years. It is named after Olympia in Greece, where the games were first held in ancient times. They began as a way of honouring the gods and gradually became an organized competition with running, throwing, jumping, wrestling, riding and chariot-racing events.

In the modern Olympics, begun in 1896, men and women from all over the world try to win bronze, silver and gold medals in their sport. The Games are held in a different city around the world each time. A special stadium is often built for the event, such as the one in Munich, Germany, for the 1972 Olympics.

Of all the popular sports, association football (soccer) is probably the most international. National sides from all over the world compete for the World Cup every four years.

Cricket is a favourite summer game in England, South Asia, southern Africa, Australasia and the West Indies, while baseball is played mainly in North America and Japan. Pelota is a fast ball game that originated in the Basque region of Spain, and which is now popular in Latin American countries.

Some people prefer taking to the water to sail or row boats. The most daring sailors pit their wits against all conditions in round-the-world races. White-water canoeists steer their long, narrow canoes through very rough water.

Basketball was invented in the United States in 1891.The object of the game is to throw the ball into the other team’s basket, a net mounted three metres above the court. The game of netball was adapted from basketball and is quite similar.

Horses are used in some sports, including racing. They may run on a level course or one in which they have to clear obstacles.

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Thousands of festivals - celebrations of special events or times of the year - take place all over the world every year. Singing, dancing, ritual (a kind of ceremony), costume or processions are a feature of many festivals. Some are family events. Others are large-scale festivals in which everyone takes part.

There are many festivals concerned with marriage and weddings. These may be to do with choosing a husband or wife, or with the courtship and marriage itself.

The Berber Festival of Brides is a traditional marriage festival celebrated by the Berber people in Morocco, North Africa, and every September. Thousands of men and women come to the festival, many of them hoping to find a partner. Men looking for a wife wear white clothes. The women are so heavily veiled that the men cannot see what they look like before deciding to marry them. The men and women start to talk to one another and some make up their minds to get married. An official scribe writes out a marriage application and a ceremony is carried out by an official called a qadi.

Some festivals are very large and involve whole towns and cities. Mardi Gras celebrations are held in towns and cities all over the world on the day before Lent, a period when Christians used to fast for 40 days.

The Maasai people of East Africa are cattle herders who live a semi-nomadic life. Young Maasai boys become members of the warrior class. Warriors are expected to be brave and fearless hunters, even though they do not rely on hunting for food. One test of their courage is the traditional lion hunt, although this is not carried out as often as it used to be because lions have become scarce. Before the hunt, the warriors perform ritual dances. One of these is the Namba, in which the dancers leap up in the air and land with their legs braced stiff.

Many people’s have ritual dances (performed for religious purposes) which go back to ancient traditions. The aboriginals of Australia are an example of such a people. They traditionally believe that the Earth and everything that lives on it were created by certain mythical beings. This process of creation is called “Dreamtime”. They believe that the spirit goes on forever, known as “Eternal Dreaming”. The music, dance and art of the aboriginals has been inspired by these religious beliefs and the importance they attach to their land.

People all over the world celebrate the harvest. In the Far East, they are concerned with ensuring the safe arrival of the rice crop. In Sumatra and Java in Indonesia, when the rice is ready to be cut, the oldest woman in the family goes to choose the “Rice-mother”, made from the first stalks that bend in the breeze. The chosen stalks are tied together, and then put into a barn to look after the rice as it is harvested.

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The inside of a home reflects the lifestyle and customs of the people who live there. These two examples of a family home in the present day, one from a modern developed country, the other from an African farming people; show how traditions shape people’s daily lives.

A JAPANESE HOME

Japan is one of the richest and most technologically advanced countries in the world today. The influence of the West is very strong, but the Japanese are nevertheless proud of their traditional cultures and religion.

Japanese homes are a mixture of the old and the new. They are equipped with modern technology such as microwave ovens, televisions and computers, but many people also like to keep up some ways of life that have been around for centuries.

When you enter a Japanese home, it is customary to take off your shoes and put on slippers. Shoes are stored in a cupboard or rack in the entrance hall or genkan. Some rooms have woven rush mats, called tatami, on the floor. Tatami mats are made from fresh grasses: they are green when new. On entering a tatami mat room, you take off your slippers, to help keep the mats clean.

Summers in Japan can be hot, so some rooms have sliding doors made of wood and paper, called shoji, which allow fresh air to move around the house. The dining room usually has a low table with no chairs. Everyone sits on a cushion called a zabuton. In winter people use a table called a kotatsu which has a heater underneath and a quilt to keep the warmth in.

In a Japanese bathroom, known as the o-furo, the whole room is used as a bathing place: there is a drain in the floor. You sit on the stool and soap and rinse yourself, before stepping into the deep, square bath.

Even modern Japanese homes will have a Buddhist altar. On it are placed photographs of family ancestors.

A MAASAI HOME

In East Africa, many Maasai prefer to live in small, traditional settlements on the grassland plains close to their cattle or their fields. Maasai women build their own homes. First, they draw the shape of the house, a rectangle, on the ground. They make a frame by weaving together branches and twigs. Then they pack grass and dung over the outside to keep the building dry.

There is just one room inside a Maasai house. Up to six people sleep together in one large bed made of large branches and covered with hide. The woman of the house and her young children sleep in another bed in a more private area. A fire burns in the hearth in the centre of the house. It is used for cooking, warmth and light. There are no windows - just an opening to let light in and smoke out.

Cattle come second only to children in importance to the Maasai. They drink the animal’s milk but only eat its meat on special occasions. The women store the milk in a calabash, a long container made from a hollowed-out gourd, a kind of fruit.

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There is an enormous variety in the style of houses built in different parts of the world. Local conditions play an important part in the design of houses. In regularly-flooded areas, houses are built on stilts. Strong foundations are necessary where earthquakes are common. Houses in mountainous lands often have steep roofs, so that heavy layers of snow can slide off.

 It is the custom in Islamic countries to keep family and visitors apart, and also for men and women to live separately, so each storey in the house has its own special purpose. The top floor is kept for visitors, for example. It has windows to catch cooling breezes.

The Bedouin people are nomads who live in the deserts of Arabia and Africa, herding cattle, sheep and goats. They do not have permanent houses but carry tents with them as they travel around. The tents are made of woollen cloth stretched across wooden poles and held in place with ropes. Some Bedouins now work in towns and cities instead of following the nomadic life but, like the Mongolians, many still choose to live in traditional tents in the desert rather than in the towns.

Mudbrick is a traditional building material that has been used for centuries. Early builders noticed that mud bakes hard in hot sun. So they shaped the bricks from wet mud and then left them to dry.

The round houses in the Cote d’Ivoire in West Africa are made from baked mud with thatched roofs of dried reeds. Many early houses and huts were round like tents, but as time went by people began to build rectangular houses which were easier to fit along streets in villages and towns. Many mudbrick buildings in the Middle East are thousands of years old. They often have flat, rather than steeply sloping, roofs -unnecessary in these very dry regions.

In the centre of large cities there is very little room for big houses with gardens. Many people live in apartment blocks which tower into the sky. Around the outskirts of a city there will be suburbs where the houses can be more spacious. People prefer to live in the suburbs and commute (travel to work) to the city.

People live on or near the water for other reasons than overcrowding. The Bajau people from the Philippines travel around the islands of Southeast Asia catching and selling fish. They sometimes live in their boats, which are called lipas, or in wooden houses on stilts in the water.

Another type of traditional house is the Inuit igloo. Nowadays, Inuit people, from Canada’s Arctic north and Greenland, live in modern houses on settlements, but when they go on hunting or fishing trip they may still build an igloo for shelter.

An igloo is a dome-shaped house made of snow. First, blocks of snow are cut out and laid one on top of the other to form the dome. Each layer leans inwards slightly so that the blocks eventually meet at the top. When the dome has been completed, a lamp is lit inside to melt the snow on the inside walls. Then the lamp is removed and the cold wind freezes the melted snow into a solid, smooth sheet of ice which keeps the walls firm and wind tight. Finally, skins and rugs are draped over the walls and ceiling to make the igloo warmer inside.

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There are many different religions in the world. Seven of the most important are: Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism and Sikhism. These religions have now spread far beyond the places where they began and there are followers of them all over the world.

A religion is a collection of beliefs that help people understand the world and the events that take place in it. Most religious people believe in one God, or several gods. In religions such as Judaism, Christianity and Islam, people worship one god. In others, such as Hinduism and the Japanese religion Shinto, people worship many gods.

People have worshipped gods since ancient times. They have always believed that the world was created by some unseen being or beings. Many of the ancient beliefs centered around natural elements such as the sun and rain which were so necessary for life. People felt that they needed to worship sun and rain gods and make them offerings so that their crops would grow.

Religions of the world today are different from one another, but also similar in many ways. People follow set rituals and celebrate special holy days. They go to a place of worship such as a church, a synagogue, a mosque or a temple to pray, and most religions have priests who conduct religious worship and preach to the people.

JUDAISM

Judaism is the religion of the Jewish people. They believe in one God who created Heaven and Earth. God has a covenant (an agreement) with everyone who leads a good life. Their holy book is the Hebrew Bible (the Old Testament of the Christian Bible). The most important part is the Torah, which contains God’s laws. The Bible, along with many Jewish festivals, commemorates events in the history of Israel, from where the Jews originally came.

Traditionally, Jews are not allowed to work on Saturday, the Sabbath. The word Sabbath comes from the Hebrew sabat, meaning “rest”. Saturday is the main day of worship, when Jews go to the synagogue for a service conducted by a rabbi.

SIKHISM

Most Sikhs live in the Punjab, India. Their holy city is Amritsar. Sikhs follow the teachings of ten leaders called gurus (guru is the Punjabi word for “holy man”). They all lived between 1469 and 1708. The first guru and founder of Sikhism was Guru Nanak who was born a Hindu. Guru Nanak believed that ceremonies and rituals divided people of different religions and that it was how people behaved and what they believed in that mattered. The gurus who came after him were all chosen to carry on his work.

Sikhs believe in one God who created the Universe. Their place of worship is called a gurdwara, which means “God’s house”. There are no priests in Sikhism. Readers, called granthi, conduct services and read from the Guru Granth Sahib in the gurdwara, but any member of the congregation can speak at a service. Sikhs live all over the world today and their day of worship follows the traditions of the country they live in.

HINDUISM

Hinduism is one of the oldest religions in the world. It began more than 4000 years ago in India.

Hindus believe in a set of ideas called the dharma, the truth. All living things have souls that are reborn many times, in both animal and human form. The actions (karma) of people in this life will decide their fate in the next.

Hindus believe that Shiva is found in frightening places, but he is sometimes seen as a loving god, too. Two of his other titles are “Lord of Dance” and “Lord of the Beasts”. His wife Parvati is the goddess of happy marriage.

The Hindu religion has many gods who are all different appearances of the supreme spirit, Brahman. The three most important gods are Brahma the Creator, Vishnu the Preserver and Shiva the Destroyer.

A Hindu place of worship is called a mandir, although it is often referred to as a temple. There are mandirs all over the world, wherever groups of Hindus have settled. Many are elaborately decorated with carvings and sculptures. Each mandir has its own priests who carry out ceremonies and look after the sacred images of the gods.

To Hindus, the River Ganges, which flows through northern India and Bangladesh, is a holy river. They believe that bathing in the river will wash away their earthly sins. Millions of Hindus make pilgrimages to the holy city of Varanasi, (also known as Benares).Varanasi is one of the oldest cities in India. It has special steps called ghats along the river bank from which people can bathe in the Ganges. They take a little of the water back home with them as a blessing.

BUDDHISM

Buddhists do not worship a god but follow the teachings of an Indian prince, Siddhartha Gautama (c. 563-483 BC). Siddhartha lived a life of luxury in his father’s palace but he saw suffering around him and wanted to find an answer to it. He left his home and spent six years studying and talking to holy men. One day he sat under a fig tree and resolved to stay there until he had found the answer. After 49 days he had reached a state of wisdom in which he could understand human suffering and see how people could live in peace and harmony together. He had achieved nirvana, or enlightenment (the name Buddha means “the enlightened one”). He spent the rest of his life travelling and teaching people how to live happier and better lives.

Buddha taught four “noble” truths. First: life is full of suffering. Second: this suffering is caused by greed. Third: suffering would end if we stopped desiring material things. Fourth: there is a path to a state of peace.

The golden stupa at Yangon in Burma. A stupa is a sacred structure containing holy texts and relics. Stupas in India are said to contain parts of Buddha’s body.

At first there were no statues of Buddha. But Hindus had statues of their gods and so those of Buddha became popular. (Buddhists today keep small statues in their homes for inspiration.) The Amida Buddha in Ushiku City, Japan, is the world’s tallest statue. It is 120 metres high and contains rooms for meditation and learning. Buddha is also shown sitting or reclining, as with famous statue at Polonnaruwa, Sri Lanka.

Today there are about 400 million Buddhists in the world, many of whom live in the Far East. Some Buddhists dedicate their lives to becoming monks and nuns so that they can give other people the dharma, Buddha’s teachings. Buddhist monks and nuns live simple lives in monasteries. They carry out ceremonies in the temples and monasteries, where people come to meditate and pay their respects to Buddha. Buddha’s teachings were written down about 300 years after his death and these are the sacred texts that Buddhists study.

Buddhism has two main branches: the Theravada and the Mahayana. They have different festivals, but all Buddhists celebrate Buddha’s birth, enlightenment and death, the three most important dates in their year.

CHRISTIANITY

Christians believe in one God who sent his son Jesus Christ to Earth to save people from sin by sacrificing his own life. The name Christ is from a Greek word meaning “the anointed one”. The Christian holy book, the Bible, contains both the Old Testament or Hebrew Bible and the New Testament, which describes the life and work of Jesus and his disciples.

Jesus was born 2000 years ago in Judaea, then part of the Roman Empire. He spent his life teaching people about love and forgiveness. He had many followers, but he made enemies among the Jewish priests.

The priests persuaded the Roman governor to condemn Jesus to death by crucifixion. But his followers, especially St. Paul, preached the message of Christianity throughout the Roman Empire. The Romans condemned Christianity for many years, but it eventually became the official religion of the empire under the Emperor Constantine (c. AD 274-337).

After the fall of the Roman Empire, Christianity continued to spread in new empires that grew up in Europe. More people became converted to Christianity.

Over the centuries, missionaries travelled around the world in order to convert others to Christianity. Today, there are more than one billion Christians worldwide.

Christians take part in two sacraments, actions that affirm a relationship with God. The first is Mass or Holy Communion: sharing bread and wine that has been blessed. People are welcomed into the faith by baptism, the second sacrament, a sign of washing away sin. Children and babies have water sprinkled on their heads.

There are three main branches of Christianity—Roman Catholic, Protestant and Eastern Orthodox. All three follow the same basic principles, but there are some differences. In the Roman Catholic Church, the Pope (from the Latin papa, a word for father) has supreme authority. Orthodox followers believe that their bishops are supreme. Protestants believe that the Bible is the only authority. Christian festivals take place throughout the year, but the two most important are Christmas, which celebrates the birth of Jesus, and Easter, which celebrates the Christian belief that Jesus rose from the dead and ascended into Heaven.

ISLAM

Islam means “submitting to the will of God”. The followers of Islam are called Muslims. The founder of Islam was the Prophet Muhammad, who was born in Makkah, Arabia, in AD 570. He was making a pilgrimage to Mount Hira, near Makkah, when the angel Gabriel came to him and told him that there is only one God, who is called Allah and that he, Muhammad, should become the prophet of Allah and teach God’s will.

Prophet Muhammad began to preach but at first people refused to believe what he told them. Pilgrimages to Makkah brought money into the city and people did not want this to change. In AD 622, Prophet Muhammad and his followers were forced to flee from Makkah to the town of Yathrib, later re-named Medina, “the City of the Prophet”. This flight, called the hijra, marked the start of the Islamic calendar.

Prophet Muhammad continued to preach in Medina. He said that Allah had told him that people should live peacefully together, rather than fighting between tribes. The words of Allah, which Prophet Muhammad passed on to the people, were written down in a holy book called the Qur’an (Koran), which all Muslims must follow.

To Muslims, Islam is a way of life, supported by five rules or “pillars”. Firstly, there is no God except Allah; Prophet Muhammad is His messenger. Secondly, a prayer to Allah is to be made five times a day. Thirdly, alms should be given to the poor at least once a year. Fourthly, Muslims should fast between dawn and dusk, especially during the month of Ramadan. Finally, Muslims should make a pilgrimage once in their lives to Makkah.

Muslims worship in mosques and they are called to prayer five times a day, at times set down in the Qur’an.

            A Muslim religious leader is called an Imam. During prayers in the mosque, worshippers stand in straight rows behind the Imam. The men and boys stand together while the women and girls stand separately from them. Everyone watches the Imam and follows what he does.

Friday is an important day for Muslims. They gather in the mosque to listen to a talk by the Imam at an event called salat-ul-jumu’ah. This occasion also gives Muslims a chance to get to know each other, particularly in places where there is not a large Muslim community.

There are two main religious festivals in Islam. The first is Eid Al-Fitir, the festival of successfully fasting in the month of Ramadan. Ramadan is a period of fasting and prayer which lasts for a month and marks the time when Prophet Muhammad was visited by the angel Gabriel. All Muslims over the age of 12 should fast between dawn and dusk during Ramadan. As soon as the new moon appears at the end of Ramadan, everybody celebrates with Eid Al-Fitir, which lasts for three days. People dress up in their best clothes and give each other presents. Prayers are said in the mosques.

The second festival is Eid Al-Adha, the Festival of Sacrifices, which is celebrated at the end of the hajj or pilgrimage. All Muslims are expected to make a pilgrimage to Makkah at least once in their lives if they are well enough and can afford the journey. The events of the hajj take a few days but pilgrims may stay in Arabia for two or three weeks and visit Prophet Muhammad’s mosque in Medina and other sacred places. About two million people from all over the world make the pilgrimage each year. Muslims mark the end of the hajj with prayers and thanks in the mosque.

The Islamic calendar is based on the cycles of the moon, so Muslim festivals fall on different days each year.

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There may be up to 6000 different languages spoken in the world today - no-one is quite sure how many. Of these, 90 per cent are spoken by very few people and are in danger of becoming extinct. More than a third of the world’s population speak one of five languages - Chinese, English, Hindi, Spanish and Russian. People first developed languages to communicate with one another. Languages spread and changed as people moved to new lands, often as a result of invasion and conquest.

Languages fall into a number of different families. Most European languages and many of those of southwest Asia and India belong to a single group, known as the Indo-European language family. More than 80 languages in all, they developed from a single original language, probably spoken by farming peoples who lived in Eastern Europe about 6000 years ago. As these people spread out over a wider area, their language gradually changed as communities lost contact with each other.

The four most common first languages are: Chinese - more than 1 billion speakers; English - 450 million speakers; Hindi - 400 million speakers; and Spanish - 350 million speakers.

More than 800 languages are spoken in Papua New Guinea.

The main language of India is Hindi but there are hundreds of others. More than 20 million people in Gujarat and another state, Maharashtra, speak Gujarati. It is descended from the ancient Indo-European language.

The most common Chinese language is Mandarin, which is spoken by 70 per cent of the population. Mandarin was the language of the government officials who were appointed in China until 1911. However, China has many different peoples who still speak their own languages.

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As languages became more established and civilizations developed, people needed to write things down. The earliest known writing was invented about 5500 years ago by the Sumerians, who lived in Mesopotamia (now Iraq). Later, they used a reed stylus with a wedge-shaped tip to write symbols in soft clay. This style of writing is known as cuneiform, from the Greek word for “wedge-shaped”.

Other ancient peoples developed picture writing which was slow to use because there were so many different symbols. The ancient Egyptians used a form of picture writing known as hieroglyphs and later added a simplified form called hieratic script which was quicker to use. The Maya, who built up a civilization in Central America between AD 300 and 900, carved picture symbols in stone.

Alphabets use single letters to represent the different sounds in a word. Writing with letters is far quicker than using hundreds of different symbols. The first people to use an alphabet were the Canaanites, who lived about 3000 years ago on the eastern shores of the Mediterranean Sea. Their writing had only 18 letters. Hebrew, Arabic, Hindi and Phoenician alphabets all developed from it. The ancient Greeks took up the Phoenician alphabet but added vowels. The Romans developed their alphabet from a later Greek version. All Western European languages still use the Roman alphabet today. The Cyrillic alphabet also developed from the Greek alphabet. It is used in Russia and some Eastern European countries today.

The oldest Chinese writing we know about is on oracle bones. Priests scratched questions on animal bones and then held the bones in a fire so that they cracked. The places where the cracks crossed the pictograms were thought to give the answers from the gods. Modern Chinese writing has developed from the earliest pictograms, which illustrate how the characters have changed over the centuries.

The Chinese and Japanese still write with symbols called characters. The characters are painted with deft strokes, using a brush and ink. Chinese characters are descended from an ancient form of picture writing. They symbolize whole words or parts of words.

There are many different alphabets in use today. The Roman alphabet is probably the most widely used. The Arabic alphabet, which has 28 letters, is written from right to left. The Devangari alphabet, used for northern Indian languages, has 46 letters.

All the words mean “book”. Hindi, Greek, Russian and Arabic all have their own alphabets which are quite different from the Roman version. Other languages use the Roman alphabet but have accents over letters to show that they are pronounced in a special way.

The realization that words could be put together using a set of letters or symbols was a remarkable achievement which has allowed people to record history and to write down poetry, stories and plays.

Many languages have changed and developed because of outside influences. English as we know it today, for example, has many words adapted from other cultures. It has some Latin words from the days when England was part of the Roman Empire. It has a large number of words derived from French, the language of England’s ruling classes following the Norman invasion of 1066.

Spanish, Italian, French, Portuguese and Romanian languages all have many similar words. This is because they are descended from Latin, the language of the Roman Empire, of which Spain, Italy, France, Portugal and Romania were once part.

People who are deaf have to understand a language without being able to hear it. Many of them do this by reading the shapes of words on the speaker’s lips. This is known as lip-reading. Another way is to use the special sign language for the deaf. Sign language differs from one country to another, but the names of the countries are “signed” in the same way.

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The earliest humans evolved, it is thought, in Africa. After thousands of years, they began to move to other parts of the world. By about 30,000 years ago, they had spread to every continent of the world except Antarctica.

As people settled in different parts of the world, different ethnic groups emerged. These are large communities of people who have physical characteristics, languages, religions and other traits in common. People developed languages so that they could communicate with each other. Different cultures, including art and religion, soon followed.

People have moved around throughout history, because of the opportunities offered by the discovery of new lands, or for better economic prospects. War or natural disasters such as flooding or drought have also led to mass-migrations of people. When groups of people settle in a new country, they often bring their own religions and cultures with them. Some nations, such as the United States, are now considered multicultural.

In a very few parts of the world, people still live as they have done for thousands of years, although nearly all are affected in some way by the modern world. Natives still hunt and fish in the Amazon rainforest just as their ancestors did. Their lifestyle is threatened by destruction of the forests.

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A government is any system in which an authority is exercised over the people. There are several different types of government. A liberal democracy is a style of government where there is more than one political party and the people vote for the party of their choice. A totalitarian government is a one-party state in which the state has total power. An autocracy is a form of government where power is in the hands of one person, or of the army.

In a liberal democracy, there is an election in which the people vote for the candidate of their choice. In France or the United States, people vote directly for the president as well as for members of parliament (MPs). In other countries, such as the United Kingdom, people vote for MPs. The political party with the most MPs forms the government. Under a system known as “proportional representation”, each party draws up a list of candidates and the people vote for a party, not an MP. Parties gain a percentage of seats depending on the number of votes they have.

Some liberal democracies, for example, the UK, Spain and Japan, are also monarchies. While the monarch is head of state, the government is run by elected members of parliament. Countries that do not have monarchs, for example, the USA, France and Russia, are called republics. Their head of state is the president.

The USA is a federal republic of 50 states. Each state has its own elected government that makes decisions on matters such as education and certain laws, while the government is in charge of national and international affairs. The United States government, known as Congress, is divided into two houses: the Senate and the House of Representatives. All congressmen are directly elected by the people. The head of the US state is the president, who is elected independently and is not necessarily a member of the majority party in Congress.

The countries of Europe have their own governments, but some are members of the European Union (EU). They agree to work together more closely, aiming to create a peaceful and prosperous Europe. The EU is run by the Commission, a body that is accountable to the Council of Ministers.

THE UNITED NATIONS

The United Nations (UN) was formed to prevent war and to foster good relations between nations. Set up in October 1945, at the end of World War II, the UN today is a worldwide organization with 185 member countries. Every member has a seat on the General Assembly. A body of selected countries forms the UN Security Council, together with five permanent members, USA, UK, France, Russia and China. This takes decisions at times of crisis. The UN sends troops from different countries to keep the peace between warring groups.

Other international organizations include the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), the Arab League and the Organization of African Unity (OAU). NATO was formed in 1949 to protect the West against possible attack from the then Soviet Union during the Cold War, a period of tension which lasted until 1989. The Arab League was formed in 1945 to promote co-operation between Arab countries. The OAU was founded in 1963. It provides a means for independent African countries to meet to discuss their political and economic problems.

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The world’s population has undergone a massive increase during the 20th century. In 1900 it stood at 1.6 billion. By the end of the century, it topped 6 billion, and is still increasing at a rate of 86 million people a year. According to the United Nations, world population will be at least 7.9 billion by 2020 and could reach 13 billion by 2050.

The world’s population is not evenly spread. Some regions, including Europe, eastern North America, India, China and Japan have a much higher density of people. Here there are many more industrial cities, or the land is intensively farmed.

Rapid population growth began in about 1800 with the onset of the Industrial Revolution. Then most of the increase was in Europe and North America as better health care and food resources became available. In 1900 most of the world’s largest cities were in these continents.

In the past century, about 97 per cent of this growth has taken place in the poorer countries of Africa, Asia and Central and South America, sometimes referred to as “the South”. Here, people have traditionally had a lot of children because they fear that many will not survive to be adults. The average fertility rate in Sudan, for example, is 5.7 babies per family, compared to 1.8 in Canada. Better health care, even in poor countries, means that today fewer children die of hunger or disease and fewer women die in childbirth. As a result, the populations of countries in the South now have large proportions of young people. Half of India’s population, for example, is under 30 years old. These young people are having children of their own, so the birth rate remains high.

Countries like China, the most populous country in the world, have taken steps to arrest the growth of its massive population. The government has introduced a policy of one child per family.

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The word “city” is generally used to describe a large and important town. Every country has a capital city, where its government is based. Other large cities have grown up around industries and the services that go with them, such as ports, shops, transport and offices.

Cities first developed in the ancient world, in those places where farming had become so efficient that not everybody had to work on the land. Some people became craft-workers, priests or teachers instead. The cities brought together many people with skills and new ideas. The emergence of cities marked the beginning of civilization (from the Latin civis, meaning citizen, a city-dweller).

Some cities developed from market towns, local trading centres. People came from the countryside to sell their produce at the market. If that town was favourably positioned - for example, at a place where a river could be bridged or near a natural harbor - it grew as more and more people came to live and work there.

The Industrial Revolution of the 18th and 19th centuries provided a major boost for the expansion of cities. Large cities grew up around the new factories and ports, where jobs much better paid than in the countryside were on offer.

Cities have continued to grow up to the present day and some have become merged to become a super city or “megalopolis” where many millions of people live and work. The region of the eastern USA from Boston via New York and Philadelphia to Washington is an example of a megalopolis. Cities cover only 2 per cent of the world’s surface but use 75 Per cent of its resources. It is estimated that two-thirds of the world’s population will live in cities by 2025.

The fastest-growing cities today are in the developing world. Many people from poor rural districts go to cities where they hope to find work and a better life. Home to 24 million people, Mexico City is one of the world’s largest cities. Cities with such large populations face serious overcrowding and high unemployment when work is short.

The world’s largest city is the supercity of Tokyo-Yokohama, Japan. Space for building is limited in this mountainous country, although some land has been “reclaimed” from the sea. Tokyo’s facilities, including its underground railway, hotels and swimming pools, for example, are often overcrowded.

The Italian city of Venice was built on islands in a shallow bay, called a lagoon, of the Adriatic Sea. The city has canals instead of streets, so you cannot take a car there. People travel in boats called gondolas or catch a water bus called a vaporetto. Venice was once an independent state with a ruler called a Doge. The Bridge of Sighs crossed from the Doge’s Palace to the prison.

New York in the United States of America is a city of skyscrapers. It was built on the island of Manhattan. Like other island cities such as Hong Kong, room to expand was limited, so the only alternative was to build upwards. New York is the largest city in the USA and the nation’s leading seaport one of the world’s leading financial centres is New York’s Wall Street.

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