FINLAND

                         T E X T

      Finland borders Norway, Sweden and Russia. It is a country of thousands of lakes and islands. There are 187,888 lakes and 179,584 islands. Forest covers 86% of the country's area. It is the largest producer of wood in Europe. At Finland's northernmost point, the sun does not set for 73 consecutive days during Summer, and does not rise at all for 51 days during Winter.  The coldest Winter days of southern Finland are usually under -4°F and the warmest days of July and early August can be over 86°F.  The largest and most important cities in Finland are the cities of Helsinki, Espoo and Vantaa. Other large cities include Tampere, Turku and Oulu. Turku is the oldest city and it was the first capital of Finland. It is also the official Christmas city of Finland.

      In 1906, Finland was the first nation in the world to give full suffrage to all citizens, including women. Finland has been an Independent Republic since December 6, 1917. Before that, it was a Grand Duchy of the Russian Empire. And before that, it was part of Sweden.

      There are 342 municipalities, and most have fewer than 6,000 residents. Today, there are 20 universities in Finland, mostly state owned. Students do not have to pay study fees.

      In 2008, President Martti Ahtisaari was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

                          

                    TEXT COMPREHENSION

01-Check the CORRECT sentence according to the text:

a) Most Finnish cities are overpopulated.

b) Finland produces little wood.

c) There are thirty universities in Finland.

d) There are few lakes in Finland.

e) The temperature of July and early August can be over 30° C.

02- Finland is bordered by _________countries.

a) seven

b) six

c) five

d) four

e) three

 

03- The women were given the right to vote and run for office in ___________________________________.

a) nineteen eighteen

b) nineteen seventeen

c) nineteen twenty

d) nineteen oh six

e) nineteen oh two

04- The city of Santa Claus is ______________.

a) Helsinki

b) Tampere

c) Turku

d) Espoo

e) Vantaa

05- Check the CORRECT sentence according to the text:

a) The whole Finland is cold all through the year.

b) Forests cover the majority of the total land area.

c) In nineteen nineteen, Finland declared its independence.

d) Finland belonged to Germany.

e) On December 6, 1906, Finland became a republic

06- Check the CORRECT sentence according to the text:

a) The midnight sun may be experienced in the Finnish

northernmost point.

b) The polar night occurs all through Finland.

c) The sun does not set during Autumn.

d) The sun does not rise during Spring.

e) There are few islands in Finland.

     

SWITZERLAND

                                                  SWITZERLAND

                  Switzerland is a landlocked country. It lies in Europe and its capital city is Bern. It is bordered by Germany, France, Italy, Austria and Liechtenstein. Its largest city is Zurich. The flag of the Red Cross is the flag of Switzerland with the colors inverted.

              Switzerland has four national languages – German, French, Italian and Romansch. But they

vary greatly in the number of speakers. Most products in the Swiss stores are labeled in German, French and Italian.

                  Out of the twenty six cantons in Switzerland, German is spoken in seventeen.

French is spoken in four cantons. Cantons Bern, Fribourg and Valais are bilingual – German/

French. Italian is spoken in Ticino and four southern valleys of canton Graubünden. Romansch

is spoken in the only trilingual canton, Graubünden.

                  Some other facts about Switzerland:

•    Nestlé, founded by Swiss Henri Nestle, is the biggest food company in the world.

•    Swiss Guards protect the Pope at the Vatican.

•    The famous pharmaceutical companies Roche and Novartis are based in Switzerland.

•    The Swiss Franc is among the world's most stable currencies.

      Some famous Swiss people:

•    Actress Ursula Andress

•    Engineer Loius Chevrolet

•    Linguist Ferdinand de Saussure

•    Philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau

•    Pedagogue Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi

•    Psychologist Jean Piaget

                                        TEXT COMPREHENSION

01- The largest city in Switzerland is ________________.

a) Zurich

b) Basel

c) Geneva

d) Lausanne

e) Bern

02- ______________is Switzerland's least-used national language in terms of number of speakers.

a)Spanish

b) Romansch

c) German

d) French

e) Italian

03- The Swiss Confederation consists of __________________cantons.

a) twenty four

b) twenty five

c) twenty six

d) twenty seven

e) twenty eight

04- Switzerland is bordered by ___________countries.

a) nine

b) eight

c) seven

d) five                                                                                                                                                        

e) six                                                                                                                                           

05- _______________is Switzerland's most-used national language in terms of number

of speakers.

a) Romansch

b) French

c) Spanish

d) Italian

e) German         

UK

            The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is a country located in Europe. It is an island nation. Northern Ireland is the only part of the United kingdom with a land border with another sovereign state, sharing it with the Republic of Ireland.

Dublin is the Irish capital and most populous city of Ireland. Guinness has been brewed at the St. James's Gate Brewery since 1759. Great Britain is linked to continental Europe by the Channel Tunnel.

            The United Kingdom is a constitutional monarchy consisting of four countries: England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. London is the capital of England. It has five international airport and forty three universities. The London Underground network is the oldest underground railway network in the world. Belfast, Cardiff and Edinburgh are the capitals of Northern Ireland, Wales and Scotland respectively.

            The flag of the United Kingdom is the Union Flag (also referred to as the Union Jack).

                    TEXT COMPREHENSION

01- Northern Ireland borders ______________.

a) France

b) Germany

c) Spain

d) the Republic of Ireland

e) Italy

02- Edinburgh is the capital city of ______________.

a) Northern Ireland

b) Republic of Ireland

c) England

d) Wales            

e) Scotland

03- Check the correct alternative.

a) London has 4 international airport

b) Cardiff is the capital city of Scotland

c) The Union Flag is the United Kingdom flag

d) Belfast is the capital city of the Republic of Ireland

e) London has 42 universities

 04- Guinness is a brewery in

a) England

b) Wales

c) Scotland

d) the Republic of Ireland

e) Northern Ireland

05- The capital city of Scotland is _____________.

a) Edinburgh

b) Dublin

c) Cardiff

d) Belfast

e) Glasbow

06- The capital city of the Republic of Ireland is ______.

a) Belfast

b) Cardiff

c) Edinburgh

d) London

e) Dublin

MELINDA

    Melinda French Gates (born Melinda Ann French; August 15, 1964) is an American businesswoman, philanthropist and co-founder of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. She is the wife of Bill Gates, whom she met while working at Microsoft, where she was project manager for Microsoft Bob, Microsoft Encarta and Expedia
                Melinda was born in 1964 in Dallas, Texas. She was the second of four children born to Raymond Joseph French Jr., an engineer, and Elaine Agnes Amerland, a homemaker. She has an older sister and two younger brothers. Gates, a Roman Catholic, attended St. Monica Catholic School, where she was the top student in her class year. She graduated as valedictorian from Ursuline Academy of Dallas in 1982. Gates earned a bachelor's degree in computer science and economics from Duke University in 1986 and an MBA from Duke's Fuqua School of Business in 1987. She was a member of the Kappa Alpha Theta women's fraternity at Duke University (Beta Rho).
                Shortly thereafter, she joined Microsoft and participated in the development of many of Microsoft’s multimedia products including Publisher, Microsoft Bob, Encarta, and Expedia.
               Bill and Melinda met in 1987 at a Microsoft press event in Manhattan.  In 1994, she married Bill Gates in a private ceremony held in Lanai, Hawaii. Shortly thereafter, she left Microsoft to focus on starting and raising her family. Her last position was Microsoft’s General Manager of Information Products. Melinda and Bill Gates have three children: daughters Jennifer Katharine Gates (born 1996) and Phoebe Adele Gates (born 2002), and son Rory John Gates (born 1999). The family resides in a large mansion on Lake Washington in Medina.
               Melinda served as a member of Duke University's board of trustees from 1996 to 2003. Gates attends Bilderberg Group conferences and holds a seat on the board of directors of the Washington Post company. She retired from the board of Drugstore.com in August 2006 to spend more time working for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
               As of 2009, Melinda and Bill Gates have donated more than US$24 billion to the Foundation.
               In December 2005, Melinda and Bill Gates were named by Time as Persons of the Year alongside Bono. Melinda and Bill Gates received the Spanish Prince of Asturias Award for International Cooperation on May 4, 2006 in recognition of their world impact through charitable giving. In November 2006, Melinda and Bill Gates were awarded the Order of the Aztec Eagle for their philanthropic work around the world in the areas of health and education, particularly in Mexico, and specifically in the program "Un país de lectores".
                  She was ranked #3 in Forbes 2013 list of the 100 Most Powerful Women,#4 in 2012 and #6 in 2011.
                  In May 2006, she was honored for her work to improve the lives of children locally and around the world with the naming of the Melinda French Gates Ambulatory Care building, at Seattle Children's (then called Children’s Hospital and Regional Medical Center). She also chaired The Campaign for Children’s, a $300 million comprehensive fundraising campaign to expand facilities, fund under-compensated and uncompensated care and grow the hospital’s research program to find cures and treatments.
                   On June 12, 2009, Melinda and Bill Gates received honorary degrees from the University of Cambridge. Their benefaction of $210 million in 2000 set up the Gates Cambridge Trust, which funds postgraduate scholars from outside the UK to study at the University.
                   In 2013, Gates was awarded an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters by Duke University as a tribute for her philantropic commitment.
                     Gates has also donated over $10 million to her high school Ursuline Academy of Dallas. She is one of the major donors of their Facing the Future Campaign and was honored in their dedication ceremony on May 7, 2010.
                                TEXT COMPREHENSION

01-Check the correct sentence according to the text:
a)Melinda Gates is a trustee at Duke University
b)Melinda and Bill met for the first time in Lanai, Hawaii
c)Jennifer Katherine is 16 years old
d)Melinda was born in Washington
e)Melinda is an economist

02-When Melinda French married Bill Gates she was _________________years old.
a)twenty nine    b)thirty           c)thirty one       d)thirty two          e)thirty three

03-The Gates live in _____________________.
a)Dallas       b)Washington D.C.   c)New York         d)Cambridge        e)Medina

04-Bill and Melinda met for the first time in _______________.
a)Cambridge      b)Dallas          c)Washington        d)New York           e)Medina

05-Melinda Gates has ______________siblings.
a)two        b)three        c)four       d)five        e)six

06-Melinda Gates is
a)the most powerful woman in the world
b)director of Drugstore.com
c)an alumna of the University of Cambridge
d)daughter of Raymond Joseph French Jr.
e)Hawaiian

SEAN SELLERS

Sean Richard Sellers (May 18, 1969 – February 5, 1999) was an American murderer, one of 22 persons in the United States since the reinstatement of the death penalty in 1976 to be executed for a crime committed while under the age of 18. He was also the only person during this period to be executed for a crime committed under the age of 17. His case drew worldwide attention due to his age as well as his jailhouse conversion to Christianity and his claim that demonic possession made him innocent of his crimes.
Crimes
On March 5, 1986, Sellers killed his mother, Vonda Bellofatto, and his stepfather, Lee Bellofatto, while they were asleep in the bedroom of their Oklahoma City home. Sellers tried to disguise his guilt by arranging the crime scene to look as if an intruder had committed the killings.
Sellers appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, but the court declined his appeal.
Sellers' imminent execution brought condemnation from a wide variety of sources, including the European Union, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, the American Bar Association and Bianca Jagger. Nearly all raised issues about his age at the time of the crimes, and many argued that his religious work from prison outweighed the state's need to execute him.
Sellers was executed by lethal injection at 12:17 a.m. on February 4, 1999.
Aftermath
. The U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Roper v. Simmons, 542 U.S. 551 (2005) later decided it was unconstitutional to execute an individual for a crime committed under the age of 18.
                        T E X T     C O M P R E H E N S I O N
01-Choose the correct sentence according to the text:
a)When Sean Sellers was executed he was eighteen years old
b)Desmond  Tutu was for Sean Sellers’ execution
c)When Sean Sellers committed the crime he was seventeen
d)Lee Bellofatto was Sean Sellers’ dad
e)Nowadays the US doesn’t execute any individual for a crime committed under the age of 18

02-When Sean Sellers passed away, he was ______________________years old.
a)sixteen     b)seventeen      c)eighteen       d)twenty        e)twenty seven

03-The crime took place in ___________________.
a)New York      b)Los Angeles      c)Chicago       d)Oklahoma City      e)Dallas

04-When Sean Sellers committed the crime he was _____________________years old.
a)fifteen      b)sixteen       c)seventeen      d)eighteen      e)nineteen

05-________________________was for Sean Sellers’ execution.
a)Bianca Jagger            b)The European Union          c)the US Supreme Court
d)the American Bar Association     e)Desmond Tutu