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Cats are very clean animals. They groom themselves by licking their fur. The cat's tongue can act as a hairbrush and can clean and untangle a cat's fur. Still, owners may buy grooming products to help the cat take care of itself. After licking their fur, cats sometimes get hairballs. A hairball is a small amount of fur that is vomited up by animals when it becomes too big. This is quite normal. Owners brush their cats to try to prevent a lot of hairballs.
Many house cats eat food which their owners give them. This food is manufactured, and designed to contain the right nutrients for cats. There are many different types of cat food. These come in many different flavors and costs are often very small.
There is moist canned food and also dry cat food which comes in different sized cans or bags and formulas. There are kitten formulas, cat formulas, health formulas, formulas for reducing a cat's weight, and many others. It seems obvious that the food should be mostly meat, as that is most of a cat's natural diet. But remember, when they catch mice, they also eat the bones. So there is need for formulas to have more than just meat.
Cats should not be fed a daily diet of dog food. It could make the cat blind, as it has no taurine, which is a nutrient for the eyes.
Cats do get diseases, and prevention is better than cure. It is most important to get a young cat vaccinated against some of the most deadly diseases. If a cat gets a disease, a veterinarian (animal doctor) can offer help. Some cats, depending on breed, gender, age, and general health, may be more susceptible to disease than others. Regular visits to a vet can keep a cat alive many extra years by catching sickness and disease early.
Cats that roam outside will get fleas at some time. Cat fleas will not live on people, but fleas will not hesitate to bite anyone nearby. Owners may choose to buy anti-flea collars, but any areas where the cat normally sleeps need to be cleaned up. A vet or local pet-shop may offer advice about fleas. It is recommended that people quickly take action when a cat gets fleas because fleas can make cats uncomfortable.
House cats can become "overweight" through lack of exercise and over-feeding. When they get "spayed" or neutered ("fixed"), they tend to exercise less. Spaying is done for queens, and neutering is done for toms. It is important to fix cats, and here are some reasons. First of all, if a female cat has kittens, they will need homes. Finding homes for kittens is often quite difficult. If a tom is not fixed, it develops a disgusting smell. Breeders who have entire toms keep them in a special hut outside the house, for that reason. Fixing also helps to avoid over-population. Over-population means that there are too many cats, and some will be put to sleep (put down) in animal pounds (animal shelters).
It is a good idea to adopt a cat from a vet or an animal shelter. The vet, shelter or RSPCA will make sure they are healthy and spayed.
Kittens are sometimes born with defects. People who receive cats as gifts are recommended to get it examined for its health. Some birth defects, like heart problems, require urgent vet attention. Others are harmless, like polydactyly. Polydactyly means many digits, or many "fingers" from poly (many) and dactyl (digit). Sometimes, there is a mutation (change) in cat families. Most cats have only four to five toes per paw, depending on whether it is the front or back paw. These mutated cats have six, seven, and in rare cases even more. All of these cats are called "polydactyl cats". They can also be called "Hemingway cats" because author Ernest Hemingway owned some of these cats.
Engineering
Engineering is the use of science and math to design or make things. People who do engineering are called engineers. They learn engineering at a college or university. Engineers usually design or build things. Some engineers also use their skills to solve technical problems. There are different types of engineers that design everything from computers and buildings to watches and websites. People have been engineering things for thousands of years.
Engineering is a big subject. Here are a few of the many types of engineers:
Engineers do not only work with machines. They also work a lot with other people. Many engineering projects are large and very complicated. Often different kinds of engineers work together and help each other. As an example, computer engineers need help from electrical engineers to build a computer. The computer needs programs written by software engineers. The computer could be used by aerospace engineers to control an airplane. An airplane is a big mechanical system with many parts, so a mechanical engineer and a systems engineer are also needed.
Most (but not all) engineers have had years of training. Much of their training involves working within a limited budget and materials.
In the United States, most engineers go to a college or university to get an engineering degree. Most people go to school for four years to get a bachelor's degree in engineering. A Master's Degree is an advanced degree, usually requiring two more years of study after the Bachelors. A person with a master's degree is eligible to enter a Doctoral program in engineering. A graduate of a Doctoral program is awarded a Doctor of Philosophy degree, which is commonly called a PhD. A PhD in engineering requires three or four years of study after a master's degree, and includes the completion of a long research report called a dissertation. After having gained enough work experience, one can sit for their Professional Engineer's (PE) License, reinforcing their demonstrated proficiency in their specialty.
In the United Kingdom, engineering degrees at universities are either three year BEng (Bachelor of Engineering) or four year MEng (Master of Engineering). In many universities it is common to take only one engineering discipline (e.g. aeronautical or civil engineering) although some universities have a general engineering degree. British universities may also offer Doctoral programs as a doctor of philosophy (PhD) or a doctor of engineering (EngD). Engineers of all disciplines have common approaches to solving problems including teamwork, communication, and an Iterative design process.
Engineers can also get additional recognition in the form of becoming Chartered. A chartered engineer is one who has his degree or doctorate has been recognised by a group of professionals such as the IET (Institute of Engineering and Technology), IMechE (Institution of Mechanical Engineers), IChemE (Institution of Chemical Engineers) or ICE (Institution of Civil Engineers). Experience and responsibility enables a further step of recognition by becoming a Fellow of these institutions.
The best way to become an engineer in France is to take the CPGE (Classe Préparatoire pour les Grandes Écoles is the French class for engineer's school) for two years and then study for three years in an "École d'Ingénieur" (Engineer's school).
You can also study in an IUT (Institut universitaire technologique) for two years, and then study three years in an "École d'Ingénieur".
Communication
Communication is when information is passed from a sender to a recipient using a medium. There are different media that can be used:
Communication can be spoken (a word) or non-spoken (a smile). Communication has many ways, and happens all the time. Not only humans communicate, most other animals do too. Some communication is done without thinking, such as by changing in posture.
Communication that tries to change somebody's mind may be called persuasion or propaganda.
Communication works by exchanging information or messages. In very basic terms
Besides the content of the message, there are other things that are important. These are not part of the message itself, but rather of its context
For a message exchange to be successful, the sender and the recipient must have agreed on a vocabulary. The word "hedge" can mean completely different things based on the context. In biology a hedge is a row of shrubs or trees that make a barrier or form a border. In finance, a hedge is an investment made to reduce the risk of another investment. In linguistics a hedge is a word or set of words that make other words less important. Without any information it is therefore very difficult to know which "hedge" is really meant by the speaker.
Miracle
A Miracle is an amazing, beneficial event that goes (or at least seems to go) against natural laws. Some people say that a miracle is always an act brought about by God or other supernatural force (such as an angel). Others say that there can always be another explanation for it.
In the Bible a miracle is an act by God, where God's presence is shown. They can be an act that affects one person, or a gigantic disturbance of nature that changes the world.
Here are seven types that can be found. These are just some of the many miracles in the Bible.
Other religious books, like the Quran, Mahabharata and the Avesta, contains many references to this definition of miracle. An example of a miracle in the Quran is when Muhammad splits the moon into halves.
Kami
Kami (神) is a Japanese word for the spirits that are worshipped in the Shinto religion. Not all of Kami are gods of the personified type. Instead, they have to do with phenomena and events like the growth of trees, or rain, or wind, or other aspects of Nature; it is believed that these kami live in those natural things.
It is usually said that there are . In Japanese the number "eight-million" is normally used to mean infinity.
Though the word "kami" can be translated multiple ways into English, no English word expresses its full meaning.
Cardboard
Cardboard is a heavy type of paper, notable for its stiffness and durability. It was first invented in China some time in the 15th century, and is used for a wide variety of purposes. One of its more common uses is as a packaging material.
Cardboard boxes were first produced commercially in 1817 in England. Corrugated (also called pleated) paper was patented in England in 1856, used as a liner for tall hats, but corrugated cardboard would not be patented and used as a shipping material until 20 December 1871. The patent was issued to Albert Jones of New York City, New York for single-sided corrugated cardboard. Jones used the corrugated cardboard for wrapping bottles and glass lantern chimneys. The first machine for producing large quantities of corrugated cardboard was built in 1874 by G. Smyth, and in the same year Oliver Long improved upon Jones' design by inventing corrugated cardboard with liner sheets on both sides. This was now cardboard as we know it today.
American Robert Gair was a Brooklyn printer and paper-bag maker during the 1870s, and while he was printing an order of seed bags a metal ruler normally used to crease bags shifted in position and cut the bag. Gair discovered that by cutting and creasing cardboard in one operation he could make prefabricated cartons. Extending this to corrugated cardboard was a straightforward development when the material became available. By the start of the 20th century, corrugated cardboard boxes began replacing the custom-made wooden crates and boxes previously used for trade.
The Kellogg brothers first used cardboard cartons to hold their flaked corn cereal, and later when they began marketing it to the general public a heat-sealed waxed bag of "Waxtite" was wrapped around the outside of the box and printed with their brand name. This marked the origin of the cereal box, though in modern times the sealed bag is plastic and is kept inside the box rather than outside.
Cardboard packaging has undergone minor changes in recent times due to the trend towards environmentalism. It is now common for cardboard to be manufactured with a large percentage of recycled fibers.
English language
English is a very common language.It is one of the main spoken languages. It is the most populated language.
English is a language that started in Anglo-Saxon England. It is originally from Anglo-Frisian and Old Saxon dialects. English now has the status of a global language, because it is used worldwide. There are about 375 million native speakers (people who use it as their first language) in the world.
Frisian is the language closest to English. The vocabulary of English was heavily influenced by other Germanic languages in the early Middle Ages and later by Romance languages, especially French. English is the only official language or one of the official languages of nearly 60 countries, and it is also the main language of the most countries in the world, like in the United Kingdom, Ireland, the United States, Canada, Singapore, India, Hong Kong, and South Africa. It is also the main languages in Australia and New Zealand and is widely spoken in parts of the Caribbean, Africa and South Asia.
English is the first foreign language for most learners, and the official language of the United Nations, European Union, and many other international organizations. It is the most widely-spoken Germanic language, with at least 70% of Germanic speakers speaking English. About 220 million others use it as their second language.
It is often used in work and travel and trade, and there are at least a billion people who are learning it. That makes English the second most-spoken language, and the most international language in the world.
English has changed and developed over time, like all other languages. The most obvious changes are the many words taken from Latin and Old French, which then came to Old English and then Modern English, which is used today.
English grammar has also become very different from other Germanic languages, but it stayed different from Romance languages. Because nearly 60% of the vocabulary comes from Latin, English is sometimes called the Germanic language that is the most Latin, and it is often mistaken for being a Romance language, which really is French
Germanic tribes (Saxons, Angles, and Jutes) came to Britain from around 449 AD. They made their home in the south and east of the island, pushing out the Celtic Britons who were there before them, or making them speak the English language instead of the old Celtic languages. Some people still speak Celtic languages today, in Wales (Welsh) and elsewhere. Gaelic is the Scottish Celtic language, still spoken by some in the Scottish Highlands and Islands. "Scots" is a dialect of English (although some call it a separate language). Irish Gaelic is spoken by very few people today.
The Germanic dialects of these different tribes became what is now called Old English. The word "English" comes from the name of the Angles: "Englas". Old English did not sound or look much like the English spoken today. If English speakers today were to hear or read a passage in Old English, they would understand just a few words.
The closest language to English that is still used today is Frisian, spoken by about 500,000 people living in the Netherlands, Germany and Denmark. It is much like English, and many words are the same. The two languages were even closer before Old English changed to Middle English). Today, speakers of the two languages would not be able to understand each other. Dutch is spoken by over 20 million people, and is more distant from English. German is even bigger, and even more distant. All these languages belong to the same West Germanic family as English.
Many other people came to England later at different times, speaking different languages, and these languages added more words to make today's English. For example, around 800 AD, many Danish and Norse pirates, also called Vikings, came to the country, established Danelaw. So, English got many Norse loanwords. Their languages were Germanic languages, like Old English, but are a little different. They are called the North Germanic languages.
When William the Conqueror took over England in 1066 AD, he brought his nobles, who spoke Norman, a language closely related to French. English changed a lot because it was mostly being spoken instead of written for about 300 years, because all official documents were written in Norman French. English borrowed many words from Norman at that time, and also began to drop the old word endings. English of this time is called Middle English. Geoffrey Chaucer is a well known writer of Middle English. After more sound changes, Middle English became Modern English.
English continued to take new words from other languages, for example mainly from French (around 30% to 40% of its words), but also Chinese, Hindi and Urdu, Japanese, Dutch, Spanish, Portuguese, etc. Because scientists from different countries needed to talk to one another, they chose names for scientific things in the languages they all knew: Greek and Latin. Those words came to English also, for example, "photography" ("photo-" means "light" and "-graph" means "picture" or "writing", in Greek. A photograph is a picture made using light), or "telephone". So, English is made of Old English, Danish, Norse, and French, and has been changed by Latin, Greek, Chinese, Hindi, Japanese, Dutch and Spanish, and some words from other languages.
English grammar has also changed, becoming simpler and less Germanic. The classic example is the loss of case in grammar. Grammatical case shows the role of a noun, adjective or pronoun in a sentence. In Latin (and other Indo-European languages) this is done by adding suffixes, but English usually does not. The style of English is that meaning is made clear more by context and syntax.
The history of the British Empire has added to the spread of English. English is an important language in many places today. In Australia, Canada, India, Pakistan, South Africa, and the United States, among others (like those in the Commonwealth of Nations), English is the main language. Because the United Kingdom (the country where England is) and the United States have historically been powerful in commerce and government, many people find it helpful to learn English to communicate in science, business, and diplomacy. This is called learning English as an additional language, English as a Second Language (ESL) or English as a Foreign Language (EFL).
English literature has many famous stories and plays. William Shakespeare was a famous English writer of poems and plays. His English is Early Modern English, and not quite like what people speak or write today. Early Modern English sounded different, partly because the language was beginning a "great vowel shift". Later, many short stories and novels also used English. The novel as we know it is first seen in 18th century English. Therefore today, many famous songs and movies (cinema films) use the English language.
Written English uses a strange spelling. Different words can use the same letters and combinations for very different sounds. For example, "-ough" was once a guttural but has become different in "through" (threw), "rough" (ruff), "dough" (doe) or "cough" (coff). That can make it a difficult language to learn.
Many English-speaking countries spell words differently. Some words are spelled differently in the United States from in the United Kingdom and many other countries and others of the British Commonwealth, where English is the main language. The different ways of spelling are sometimes called "American English" and "British English". For example, "colour" is spelled "color" in American English, and "programme" is spelled "program". Even the word "spelled" is different in British English, which uses "spelt".
The English Alphabet consists of 26 letters:-
A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, J, K, L, M, N, O, P, Q, R, S, T, U, V, W, X, Y, Z
Nearly 60% of the vocabulary in the English language comes from Latin and its descendents, mainly French:
However, the most common words are more often those of Germanic origin. Also, expressions and typical short phrases are often of Germanic origin.
Trier
Trier is a city at the Moselle River in Rhineland-Palatinate in Germany. The population is about 100,000.
Trier is famous for some Roman buildings like the Porta Nigra and others. It is famous as the birthplace of Karl Marx. Trier is also famous for the wine of the wine-growing-region Mosel-Saar-Ruwer.
The districts of Trier with area and inhabitants (July 2007):
Turkey
Turkey (Turkish: "Türkiye") is a country in both Europe and Asia. The area of Turkey is about .
Turkey is a republic. There are 81 provinces in Turkey. The money of Turkey is called Turkish Lira. The capital city is Ankara, a city in the central region, called Anatolia. The cultural and economic center is in the European side of Istanbul. In the past Istanbul was called Constantinople. The republic was founded in 1923, after World War I and a war of independence ("Kurtuluş Savaşı"). Before that, Turkey was the core of the Ottoman Empire.
Many civilizations were in the area that is now Turkey, like the Hittites, the Roman Empire and the Byzantine Empire. Many important events in the history of Christianity happened in places that are now in Turkey. Because it lies in both Europe and Asia, some people see Turkey as the "door" between them.
Modern Turkey's warm and varied climate lets many kinds of food crops grow, and livestock and forestry are important industries. Turkey makes enough food to feed itself. Turkish manufactures include airplanes, electronics, cars, clothing and textiles for home and for other countries.
Turkey is a popular place for tourists to visit. It has hundreds of kilometers of beautiful beaches on its Aegean and Mediterranean coasts, and many important historical places.
People have been living in Anatolia (the Asian part of Turkey - also called Asia Minor) longer than almost anywhere else in the world, except Africa.
The first major empire in the area was the Hittites (from the 18th century to the 13th century BC). The Hittites, who spoke one of the Indo-European languages, developed a high culture in Central Anatolia. Their kingdom was destroyed by the Cimmerians in the 7th century BC and the successor states were Lydia, Caria and Lycia.
From 1950 BCE, Greeks and Assyrians inhabited parts of southeastern Turkey. The Assyrian capital was named Tushhan (900-600 BC). The Assyrians ruled over southeastern Turkey until the Assyrian Empire was conquered by Babylonia in the year 612 BC. Then Anatolia became home for various kingdoms including the Achaemenid Empire, Hellenistic kingdoms, Roman Empire, Byzantine Empire (Eastern Roman Empire), Seljuk Empire, and Mongol Empire.
During the 14th century, after the fall of the Mongol Empire, Lord Osman built a new empire named after himself: the Ottoman Empire. It became one of the longest existing empires of all time. The Empire also stretched across the Balkans, (Yugoslavia and Bulgaria) in Europe. The Kingdom was ruled by Muslim law, but other religions had certain minority rights.
In World War I the Ottoman Empire was one of the Central Powers. During the war, 500,000 Armenians in the Ottoman Empire were massacred in the so-called Armenian Genocide. Turkey denies that the event was genocide. The Central Powers lost the war and the Ottoman Empire was destroyed, but after that Atatürk led the army to get rid of foreign enemies, like the Greeks.
Mustafa Kemal Atatürk was the first President of Turkey. He made many changes that made Turkey more modern. But some people did not like some of the changes that made life in Turkey more secular. Religious secondary schools were gotten rid of, for example. The opponents to Atatürk felt that he weakened Islam in the country. Later political disputes led to Coup d'état in 1960, 1971, and 1980, and several failed attempts.
For many years Kurdish guerrillas of the Kurdistan Workers Party (known as the PKK; ) have been fighting the Turkish government. The PKK is a nationalist and separatist movement led by Abdullah Öcalan. Their aim is for the Kurds in the southeast of Turkey to have autonomy, with a government of their own. Because they use armed conflict, the Turkish government calls them terrorists. The European Union and United States also call them terrorists.
On 15 July 2016, a coup d'état was attempted.
About 80 million people live in Turkey. Most of them are ethnic Turks. About 15% are ethnic Kurds. Many refugees from Syria (over 3 million) live in Turkey because they have run away from the Syrian civil war. Many Romani people live in Istanbul and Edirne (European part of Turkey).
The biggest city in Turkey is Istanbul which has the biggest population of any city in Europe. Much of the population in Turkey is made up of young adults and adults.
According to religiosity poll conducted in Turkey in 2019 by OPTİMAR, 89.5% of the population identifies as Muslim, 4.5% believed in God but did not belong to an organized religion, 2.7% were agnostic, 1.7% were atheist, and 1.7% did not answer. Another poll conducted by Gezici Araştırma in 2020 interviewed 1,062 people in 12 provinces and found that 28.5% of the Generation Z in Turkey identify as irreligious.
Turkish people have many ethnic and famous foods, such as mantı (Turkish ravioli), döner, kebap, Turkish delight (lokum), baklava, börek, köfte, and other foods.
According to a study, Anatolia is genetically more closely related to the Balkan populations than to the Central Asian populations. The Turks of Anatolia (Asian part of Turkey) have only 13% of genes from populations from Central Asia. The population is mainly from the Greeks, Armenians and Kurds.
The majority of Turkey is made up of Turks. The largest minority is Kurds. Kurds live mostly in Southeastern and Eastern Turkey. The second largest minority are Arabs.
Turkey is in the OECD and the G-20 and is one of the 20 largest economies. The Turkish currency is called the Lira. The first coins were made in Turkey.
In the 1970s, many Turks moved to other countries, like Germany, to escape the bad economy at the time and to get better jobs. They often come back to Turkey for summer holidays. Today, many of the people who left in the 1970s want to move back to Turkey.
Until the 1980s the government owned most companies, but then Prime Minister Turgut Özal sold them. Before, foreigners were usually not allowed to buy companies, land or property. Turkey's international trade is mostly with the EU, the United States, the Russian Federation, and Japan. Turkey and the EU agreed not to put a lot of tax on what they buy and sell to each other. After that it was easier for Turkish factories to sell products to the EU and for business people in the EU to buy companies in Turkey.
Turkey's exports in 2010 were worth 117 billion United States dollars.
Earthquakes in 1994, 1999, and 2001 slowed economic growth a bit. Turkey has no petroleum or natural gas so it buys them from other countries, like Russia. In 2010, oil was found in the Turkish City of Diyarbakir, but there was not enough oil to extract. Turkey is searching for natural gas in Turkish Northern Cyprus.
Most people in Turkey speak Turkish. It is written in Latin script and it belongs to the Turkic language group, which also includes many other languages spoken across Asia, such as Azerbaijani and Tatar. The Turkish language came from Central Asia, but now it is a bit different from the languages spoken in Central Asia. Turks living by the Mediterranean have southern, much thicker, and more masculine accents than western Turkey. Northerners, by the Black Sea have softer accents.
In Turkey there are also minorities who speak languages such as Arabic, Kurdish, Armenian, Greek or Ladino, and many others.
Many of the young adults can also speak English, which is taught throughout Primary, Middle and High school.
Turkish culture is a modern Islamic culture, with some European influence.
Different parts of Turkey have similar but not exactly the same lifestyles. Central Turkey and Northern Turkey are somewhat more conservative and religious. Western Turkey and Southern Turkey, especially coastal cities are more liberal and secular. Eastern Turkey and Southeastern Turkey are made up of mostly Kurds–most of them are conservative and religious. Cosmopolitan neighbourhoods in major cities of Turkey are overwhelmingly liberal and secular. Cities like Hatay and Mardin, where different religions coexist, also have cosmopolitan characteristics.
Rich cities in Turkey include Istanbul, Ankara, İzmir, Konya, Mersin (also known as İçel), and Antalya.
The capital and second-largest city of Turkey is Ankara. The largest and the most crowded city is Istanbul which is the only city in the world that has land on two different continents. The third largest city is the coastal city of İzmir which is the main port of the country. Turkey is divided into 81 provinces. Each province has its own little government but they can only make decisions about small things: the government in Ankara decides important issues. The provinces are in 7 regions. Each province is divided into districts. There are 973 districts altogether.