دیکشنری

THE OLYMPIC GAMES

Every four years people all over the world watch the Olympic Games. It is a time for all kinds of people to unite in peace. Some of them join together to compete for gold medals. Millions of other people watch them on television

Why do we have the Olympics? How did they begin? The first Olympic Games were in Greece in 776 B.C. There was only one event. People ran a race the length of the stadium. The games lasted one day

Slowly people added more events. The games were only for men. and women could not even watch them. Only Greeks competed. They came from all parts of the Greek world. The time of the games was a time of peace, and the government let everyone travel safely. Kings competed against common people. The winners became national heroes

The first modern Games were in 1896 in Athens. The Greeks built a new stadium for the competition. Athletes from several countries competed. Then there were Olympics every four years in different cities in Europe and the United States until 1952. After that they were in Melbourne, Tokyo, Mexico City, and Montreal besides in European cities. Each year there were athletes from more nations. The first Winter Olympics were in 1924. The athletes compete in skiing and other winter sports.

Today there must be Olympic Games every four years. The games must have at least fifteen events, and they cannot last more than sixteen days. There is no age limit and people of any age can compete

The competitors must not be professionals. They must be amateurs. The athletes compete for gold medals. The winners are still national heroes, as they were in the early Olympic Games in Greece

In 1956, Egypt, Iraq, and Lebanon boycotted the Games. They did not compete in the games because several countries took the Suez Canal from Egypt that year. Other countries boycotted the Games in 1964 and 1976. In 1980 the United States and other countries boycotted the games in Moscow. in 1984 the Soviet Union and other countries boycotted the Games in Los Angeles. How can the nations of the world solve this problem? Maybe the Games should be in Greece every year, where they began. Then athletes from all over the world could compete without any boycotts

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GREENLAND

Greenland is the largest island in the world. It covers over 2,000,000 ( two million ) square kilometers. Most of it lies inside the arctic Circle, and a huge sheet of ice covers 85% (85percent) of it. Imagine that a map of Greenland is on top of a map of Europe. Greenland stretches from London to the middle of the Sahara Desert

The ice sheet is more than 1.6 kilometers thick, and it never melts. There is probably only rock under the ice, but no one knows for sure

Along the sea coast, mountains rise from the sea. There are a few low trees in the southwest, but no forests. Snow covers everything in winter, but in summer very low plants cover the ground between the sea and the ice sheet

Norwegian Vikings were the first Europeans to see the island in A.D. 875, but no one visited it until 982. Three years later a few Vikings went to live there. In 1261 the people in Greenland decided to join Norway. Norway and Denmark united in 1380. This union ended in 1814, and Greenland stayed with Denmark. Greenland is fifty times larger than Denmark, but it is still a part of this small country

about 62,000 people live in Greenland. Most of them are part Eskimo and part Danish. Almost all of them live in towns and villages on the southwestern coast because that is the warmest part of the island. A few pure Eskimos live in the far north and some Danes live in the towns. Life in Greenland is difficult because the weather is very cold. In January it is -29.5 C ( minus 29 point 5 degrees Celsius ) and in July it is 4 C ( 4 degrees Celsius ). It is dark twenty-four hours a day during winter. In summer it is always daylight

The island has very few natural resources. The people raise a few vegetables and sheep. They used to fish and hunt, but now they usually buy food at stores

Greenland is important to the world because scientists study the weather there. They can tell when storms are developing over the North Atlantic Ocean. It is important to know when storms are developing there because it is an important shipping area

Life in Greenland is changing very fast. People lived a traditional life for centuries, but now they are moving into the modern world very quickly. They are losing their old traditions, but there is nothing to take their place. There are a lot of problems among the people. It is difficult for any country to move from a traditional life to a modern life. It is especially hard for Greenland because the people spent centuries with very little communication with the rest of the world. These problems will probably continue into the future

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Memory
 

Memorize these words. " Learn this spelling rule. " " Don't forget the quiz tomorrow. " You remember things every day , but how do you do it

You find a telephone number in the phone book, dial it, and then forget it. This is your short-term memory. It lasts less than 30 seconds. ( There are 60 seconds in a minute. ) However, you don't look in the phone book for a friend's number. You know it. This is long-term memory. Your long-term memory has everything that you remember

Why do you forget something? What is the reason? You did not learn it in the beginning. This is the major reason for forgetting. For example, you meet some new people, and you forget their names. You hear the names, but you do not learn them. Then you forget them

You can remember better. Here are some ideas

Move information from your short-term memory to your long-term memory. Practice the information. Say the information to yourself. Think about it. Spend time on it

overlearn. After you learn something, study it some more. Learn it more than you need to. For example, when you know a list of new words, don't stop. Practice the words a few more times

Be sure that you understand the information. It is difficult to memorize something you don't understand

Do only one thing at a time. Study in a quiet place. You cannot listen to music or people and memorize at the same time

Try to connect the new information with something you already know. For example, when you learn the name of a new kind of food, think of a similar kind of food

Divide the information into parts. Do not have more than seven parts. learn one part and stop for a few minutes. Don't try to learn all the parts at the same time

Make a picture in your mind. For example, maybe you see a new word. It is a kind of furniture. Make a picture in your mind of this furniture in a room. Remember what it looks like

try to relax when you study. Enjoy it. You cannot remember things when you are tired or unhappy

Some people have a photographic memory. They see everything like a picture. Later they can see the picture in their mind again and describe everything in it. They can remember long lists of numbers and thousands of other things. Would you like to have a photographic memory

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BUY ME

People in cities all over the World shop in supermarkets. who decides what you buy in the supermarket? Do you decide? Does the supermarket decide

When you enter the supermarket , you see shelves full of food. you walk in aisles between the shelves. you push a shopping cart and put your food in it

You probably hear soft , slow music as you walk along the aisles. If you hear fast music ,  you walk quickly. The supermarket plays slow music. You walk slowly and have more time to buy things.

Maybe you go to the meat department first. There is some meat on sale , and you want to find it. The manager of the supermarket knows where customers enter the meat department. The cheaper meat is at the other end of the meat department , away from where the customers enter. You have to walk by all the expensive meat before you find the cheaper meat. Maybe you will buy some of the expensive meat instead of the meat on sale

The dairy department sells milk and milk products such as butter and cheese. Many customers like milk that has only a little butterfat in it. One store has three different containers of low fat milk. One says " 1 percent (1%) fat  " on the container. The second says " 99 percent (99%) fat free. " The third says " Low Fat " in big letters and " 1% " in small letters. As you can see, all the milk has the same amount of fat. The milk is all the same. The amount of milk in each container is also the same. However, in this store the three containers of milk cost three different amounts of money. Maybe the customer will buy the milk that costs the most

Most of the food in supernarkets is very attractive. It all says " Buy me! " to the customers. The expensive meat says " Buy me! " as you walk bye. The expensive milk container says " Buy me! I have less fat. " The supermarket tells you what to buy

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