Australia

· Canberra is the capital city of Australia

· Koala bears, bandicoots, dingo, emu, kangaroo, Tasmanian devil, wombat

· The outback is home to a diverse set of animal species, such as the red kangaroo, emu and dingo. The Dingo Fence was built to restrict dingo movements into agricultural areas towards the south east of the continent.

· Today the Aborigines are in trouble. Many have left the their traditional lifestyle, and have moved to suburbs. There is a 40% unemployment rate in many Aborigines populations, in part because Aborigines are widely discriminated against which causes some people not to hire them. Even the police and government discriminate against aborigines. In many places bars are segregated into different parts for Aborigines or Aborigines aren't served at all. Some progress was made recently when an Aboriginal woman was voted into Australia parliament. But like the similar situation with African Americans in The United Sates recent history, Australia still has a long way to go before Aborigines have equal rights. The Australian government should give land back to an Aboriginal person who wants to live the way his or her people were before the British arrived.

· Didgeridoo is wind instrument developed by Indigenous Australians of northern Australia around 1,500 years ago and still in widespread use today both in Australia and around the world

· sheep farming is primarily based on raising sheep for wool; may also be raised for milk or to to sell to other farmers

· [!] Tasmania has the cleanest air in the world.

· [!] Melbourne has the second largest Greek population in the world, after Athens.

Canada

· Flag: the maple leaf has served as a symbol celebrating the nature and environment; the national colours [red and white] were established by King George

· Provinces and territories [13]:

o Alberta (Edmonton)

o British Columbia (Victoria)

o Manitoba (Winnipeg)

o New Brunswick (Fredericton)

o Newfoundland and Labrador (St. John's)

o Northwest Territories (Yellowknife)

o Nova Scotia (Halifax)

o Nunavut (Iqaluit)

o Ontario (Toronto)

o Prince Edward Island (Charlottetown)

o Quebec (Québec)

o Saskatchewan (Regina)

o Yukon (Whitehorse)

· Official languages: French, English

· The Inuit are a group of culturally similar indigenous peoples inhabiting the Arctic regions of Greenland, Canada, the United States, and Russia. Inuit is a plural noun; the singular is Inuk. The Inuit languages are classified in the Eskimo-Aleut family. The Inuit live throughout most of the Canadian Arctic and subarctic in the territory of Nunavut; "Nunavik" in the northern third of Quebec

· Ottawa – capital, Montreal, Toronto, Vancouver

· [!] The average person in Canada watches more than 20 hours of television per week.

· [!] 50% of Canadians have a TV in the main bedroom.128, 000 Canadian households have TVs in the bathroom.

16. India – Culture

· New Delhi is the capital of the Republic of India, and the seat of executive, legislative, and judiciary branches of the Government of India

· Ganges River – the largest river in India; it flows from the Himalayas to the Bay of Bengal, the most sacred river

· Taj Mahal was built by Mughal emperor Shah Jahan in memory of his third wife, Mumtaz Mahal

· There are 4 main castes [Brahmin - priests, Kshatriyas – warriors, Vaisyas – herders, farmers, merchants, craftspeople, Sudras – farm workers, servants, laborers] + untouchable – outcaste; they deal with corpses and other stuff like that

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· Bollywood is an Indian movie industry, it’s called so because of Hollywood

· Kolkata [Calcutta], Mumbai [Bombay], New Delhi, Agra, Goa

· [!] Many Indian wives will never say their husband’s name aloud, as it is a sign of disrespect. When addressing him, the wife will use several indirect references, such as “ji” or “look here” or “hello,” or even refer to him as the father of her child

17. India – History

· The East India Company (EIC) was an English and later (from 1707) British joint-stock company formed for pursuing trade with the East Indies but which ended up trading mainly with the Indian subcontinent, North-west frontier province and Balochistan. [1617] The East India Company traded mainly in cotton, silk, indigo dye, salt, saltpetre, tea and opium.

· During its first century of operation, the English East India Company focused on trade with the Indian subcontinent, as it was not in a position to challenge the powerful Mughal Empire, which had granted it trading rights in 1617. This changed in the 18th century as the Mughals declined in power and the East India Company struggled with its French counterpart, the Compagnie française des Indes orientales, during the Carnatic Wars in the 1740s and 1750s. The Battle of Plassey in 1757, in which the British, led by Robert Clive, defeated the Nawab of Bengal and his French allies, left the Company in control of Bengal and as the major military and political power in India. In the following decades it gradually increased the size of the territories under its control, either ruling directly or via local rulers under the threat of force from the British Indian Army, the vast majority of which was composed of Indian sepoys

· Mahatma Gandhi was an Indian politician who was against British occupation and supported non-violent civil disobedience

· Indira Gandhi – Prime Minister 1966-1977, 1980-1984, the only child of Jawaharlal Nehru, Pakistan and Bangladesh got their independence, tried to prove the lies, assassinated.

· Jawaharlal Nehru – the ‘Architect of Modern India’, first Prime Minister of India, Rajiv Gandhi – his grandson

· India became independent in 1947

· [!] Raziya Sultana (1205-1240) was the first woman leader of India. She was considered a great leader, though she ruled for only three years before being murdered

Date: 2015-01-29; view: 715