Aarushhh/wikipedia-simple-splitted huggingface dataset:
A street in Nuremberg at night.  Eva’s grand house is opposite Hans Sachs’ simple house.  Eva’s father realizes she is in love with Walther.  Hans is thinking about the young knight and how well he sings.  Eva asks Hans who he thinks will be likely to win the song contest.  Then she is called back by her father.  Beckmesser has come and would like to serenade her (sing her a love song).  Walther meets up with Eva and they wonder whether they should elope (run away together).  Eva changes clothes with her maid.  Hans Sachs stops them as they are about to elope.  Beckmesser is tuning his lute ready to sing.  Walther would like to argue with him but Eva gets him to sit quietly while Beckmesser sings.  Hans Sachs, who is mending Beckmesser’s shoe, has other ideas: he sings a song himself, and this annoys Beckmesser who is trying to sing to the girl he thinks is Eva (but it is Eva’s maid in disguise).  He tells Hans to stop singing
.  Hans says that he will stop, but he will hammer on his shoe every time he hears Beckmesser make a mistake.  Beckmesser starts singing again, and Hans hammers lots of times.  All the neighbours wake up and come into the street and argue and fight.  In the end the night watchman comes and everybody goes back into their houses.
Act 3

David is preparing a song for the midsummer festival.  Then Walther arrives and tells Hans that a song came to him in a dream.  Hans helps him to prepare the song for the contest.  When they have left the workshop Beckmesser comes in and sees the piece of paper with the song.  He picks it up when Hans returns and says that it is obvious that he, Hans, wants to enter the contest.  Hans tells Beckmesser that he can have the song.  Beckmesser is delighted and thinks he can now win Eva in marriage.

At the song contest Beckmesser tries to sing the song, but he sings it to his own tune which does not fit the words, and he gets the words all muddled up.  Everyone laughs and he leaves the stage angrily, saying that Sachs wrote the song.  Walther now sings his prize song.  This time people realize how beautiful it is although it does not obey the usual rules.  Walther can marry Eva.

The music of the opera
Wagner’s operas have continuous music which develops is very logical ways using leitmotifs.  In the prelude we hear several tunes which are leitmotifs that are to be important during the opera: a theme that represents the dignity of the mastersingers, a theme for passion which later becomes Walther’s prize song, the chattering of the apprentices etc.  The music at the beginning of Act Three is also often played separately in the concert hall.

There are many beautiful moments in the opera.  Wagner cleverly changes the style to suit the action, for example when Eva’s father is talking about the Mastersingers’ reputation in Germany we hear an old-fashioned recitative.  Beckmesser is made to look stupid through his music which contrasts with Walther’s romantic music.

Interpretations of the opera
People have explained the meanings behind this opera in several ways.  The basic story is
about the wonderful German art of singing.  It is also about the fact that composers should be able to write music which is beautiful without having to obey rules that were made up long ago and have become old-fashioned.  Wagner was trying to bring lots of changes to opera, making the drama the most important thing.  Some people found his new ideas quite difficult to follow, and this may be why he chose, for once, to write a comic opera instead of a serious one based on mythology.   The character of Beckmesser is a caricature of Eduard Hanslick, a famous music critic who did not like the music of Wagner and Bruckner but preferred the more traditional music of Brahms and Antonín Dvořák.
The opera has been criticized because Wagner may have meant the story to have an anti-Semitic (anti-Jewish) meaning.  This is certainly the way that Hitler understood it. It was his favourite opera, and the idea of praising German art and song fitted in nicely with his racist views.  The character of Beckmesser is also a caricature of a stereotype Jew.

Operas by Richard Wagner
1860s operas
Takbir is the name for the Arabic phrase Allahu Akbar which is a Muslim saying. The exact words in Arabic mean  "God is greater", but people know that saying "God is great" in the right time and place means the same as "God is Greater." "Allahu Akbar" is the first part of the Adhan, which people hear 5 times a day where Muslim people live together. Saying "God is Great" tells people in a few words what Islam believes and teaches. 

This Arabic phrase was added to the Iraqi flag, in Saddam Hussein's handwriting, in 2001. Muslims say it before changing positions during their prayers. Allahu Akbar was the anthem of Libya during the rule of Muammar Gaddafi.

Islam
A shire is an administrative area of Great Britain (also county) and Australia. It is a kind of local government.

History
The first shires were created by the Anglo-Saxons in central and southern England.  Shires were controlled by a royal official known as a "shire reeve" or sheriff. In modern English usage shires are sub-divided into districts.

Individually, or as a suffix in Scotland, the word is pronounced  (to rhyme with "fire"). As a suffix in an English or Welsh place name it is pronounced  (rhymes with "fir").

Shires in Great Britain 
In England and Wales, the term "shire county" is used to refer to counties which are not metropolitan counties.

It can also be used in a narrower sense, referring only to traditional counties ending in "shire".  These counties are typically (though not always) named after their county town.
Shires in England
Bedfordshire, Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, Cambridgeshire, Cheshire, Derbyshire, Gloucestershire, Hampshire, Herefordshire, Hertfordshire, Huntingdonshire, Lancashire, Lincolnshire, Leicestershire, Northamptonshire, Nottinghamshire, Oxfordshire, Shropshire, Staffordshire, Warwickshire, Wiltshire, Worcestershire, Yorkshire.

Of these, all but Huntingdonshire and Yorkshire are also administrative counties (but with different boundaries).  Huntingdonshire is now administered as a district of Cambridgeshire, and Yorkshire is split between East, North, South and West Yorkshire, Greater Manchester, Lancashire, Cumbria and County Durham.

Shires in Wales
Brecknockshire, Caernafonshire, Cardiganshire, Carmarthenshire, Denbighshire, Flintshire, Monmouthshire, Montgomeryshire, Pembrokeshire, Radnorshire

In Wales, the counties of Merioneth and Glamorgan are occasionally referred to with the "shire" suffix. The only traditional Welsh county that never takes "shire" is Anglesey.
Shires in Scotland
Aberdeenshire, Ayrshire, Banffshire, Berwickshire, Clackmannanshire, Cromartyshire, Dumfriesshire, Dunbartonshire, Fifeshire, Inverness-shire, Kincardineshire, Kinross-shire, Kirkcudbrightshire, Lanarkshire, Morayshire, Nairnshire, Peeblesshire, Perthshire, Renfrewshire, Ross-shire, Roxburghshire, Selkirkshire, Stirlingshire, Wigtownshire

Shires in Australia
Shire is the most common word in Australia for the smallest local government areas by population. The states of New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland and Western Australia use shire for this unit. South Australia and Tasmania use district. A shire has the same powers as the next largest units, the town and city.  In NSW, the expression 'The Shire' commonly refers to the Sutherland shire.

Related pages
Counties of England

Counties of the United Kingdom
Fairy Tail is a shonen manga published in the Weekly Shônen Magazine from August 2, 2006 to July 26, 2017. It was created by Hiro Mashima. It has 545 chapters and 63 tankōbon volumes. The series is also aired. Some video games are released by Konami. In August 2012 The Phoenix Priestess, a Fairy Tail movie, was released, and in May 2012 a sequel Dragon Cry, a Fairy Tail sequel movie, was released.

Story 
The story of Fairy Tail focuses around the adventures of main characters Natsu and Lucy, who are sometimes with the members of the Fairy Tail Guild.
In the beginning, Lucy is a young sorceress (a "mage"), who wants to join Fairy Tail Guild. On her trip, she meets Natsu, a young boy, who is looking for Igneel the Salamander. She offers Natsu and Happy (his partner) a lunch and Natsu explains that Igneel is a dragon. Lucy talks about her dream to join a famous guild, which she later told him was the Fairy Tail Guild. Later, she is tricked and taken by Bora of Prominence to be sold as a slave. She is rescued by Natsu, who is the real Salamander, and a true member of Fairy Tail Guild. He offers her to be a member of Fairy Tail. Lucy says yes and joins the guild. Since then, Natsu and Lucy formed a team. This is the beginning of the adventures that the two have while carrying out missions from the guild.

Reception

According to Oricon, Fairy Tail was the eighth best-selling manga series in Japan for 2009. It became the fourth best in 2010 and 2011 and the fifth best of 2012. It also won the 2009 Kodansha Manga Award for shōnen manga.
In 2012, the anime series won the "Meilleur Anime Japonais" (best Japanese anime) award and the best French dubbing award at the 19th Anime & Manga Grand Prix in Paris, France.

References

Other websites 
 Fairy Tail World (US)

2009 anime television series
2011 anime OVAs
2012 anime OVAs
2014 anime television series
Anime series based on manga
Manga
The viol (rhymes with "mile") is a string instrument that is played with a bow. The viol was a popular instrument from the 15th to the 18th century. Small viols are held on the lap, and the larger ones are held between the knees, which gave them the name of "viol da gamba", meaning a leg viol. The bow is held with the palm of the hand facing upwards: the other way round from today's bowhold for violins, violas or cellos. The viol is a gentle-sounding instrument.  When the violin family became popular in the 17th century and people started to go to concerts in large concert halls, and to operas, the viols became less important.
Description 
Viols are made of wood, and are similar to the violin family. Most viols have six strings, although this number did vary during the centuries. The strings were made of gut, and are not as tight as on a violin. The fingerboard has frets like a guitar, except that they were also made of gut. They were tied around the fingerboard, and could be moved for tuning.  These frets help the player to find the exact place to put their fingers.  Sometimes the top of the scrolls on the fingerboard were beautifully decorated. The instruments have sloped shoulders and a flat back. The viol, like the vihuela, from which it developed, has a bridge that is flatter than the bridge of a modern violin.  This makes it easier to play chords. The bow was convex in shape, where a violin bow is concave.
Sizes 
Viols were made in different sizes. A set of viols of different sizes - perhaps four or five instruments - were sometimes kept together in a chest (large box) which is why they were called a "chest of viols". When they were played together people talked of a "consort of viols". A consort would normally have at least one treble, tenor and bass instrument. A "broken consort" meant a mixture of different instruments: viols, recorders etc. Lute and bass viol were often played together. They were tuned in fourths, with a major third in the middle.
The strings of a bass viol (equivalent to the cello in the modern violin family) are tuned (from the lowest note, nearly two octaves below middle C, upwards) to D - G - C - E - A -D. The tenor viol was often called a viola da gamba (literally: "viol of the leg"). It was the most popular size for solo music and many composers wrote sonatas for the viola da gamba. The biggest viol is called the violone. It developed into the modern double bass. This is why the double bass is a little different in shape from the violin, viola and cello. Some double bass players today hold the bow with the palm (inside) of the hand facing upwards, like viol players.

History
History 

 
The viol was popular in the houses of rich people, and in the royal court. During the reign of Elizabeth I and, later, King Charles I composers such as William Byrd, John Dowland, Orlando Gibbons, John Jenkins and William Lawes wrote viol music.  Solo sonatas were written by many composers including Marin Marais, Johann Sebastian Bach, and Karl Friedrich Abel.  Some of the last and greatest fantasies for viol consort were written by Henry Purcell.

After the mid-18th century people forgot about the viol until the 20th century when there was a new interest in early music and people like Arnold Dolmetsch started making them again so that Renaissance and Baroque viol music could be played.  Today there are many societies for people who are interested in playing the viol.
There are now many societies for people with an interest in the viol. One of these, The Viola da Gamba Society has a worldwide membership. Some modern composers have also written for the viol e.g. John Tavener, Sally Beamish, Thea Musgrave, Tan Dun and Poul Ruders.  There is a group called Fretwork which perform viol music.

References

Other websites
 The Viola da Gamba Society 

String instruments
Early musical instruments
The Regnitz is a river in Bavaria, Germany. It is a left tributary of the Main and is 58 km in length.

The river is formed by the confluence of the rivers Rednitz and Pegnitz, which meet in the city of Fürth. From there the Regnitz runs northwards through the cities of Erlangen and Forchheim. It finally meets the Main in the city of Bamberg.

Geography of Bavaria
Rivers of Germany
Geir Ivarsøy (June 27, 1957 – March 9, 2006) was the main programmer at Opera Software. He and Jon Stephenson von Tetzchner were part of a research group at the Norwegian state telephone company (now known as Telenor). They made browsing software called MultiTorg Opera. Telenor stopped them from working on the program, but in 1995 Ivarsøy and Stephenson von Tetzchner got the rights to the software. They created a company of their own, and continued working on it.

Now known as Opera, the Internet browser has become very popular. Opera Software has grown to more than 380 employees since it first moved to its offices in Oslo.

In January 2004, Geir Ivarsøy said he wanted to resign as a board member in Opera Software, though he kept working in the company after that. In June 2005 he was elected as a member of the nomination committee of the company.

Geir died in March 2006 of cancer.

Other websites 
 Death in the Family—an obituary

Computer scientists
1957 births
2006 deaths
Opera ASA
Norwegian people
A color wheel is a circular chart that shows primary and secondary colors.  

The color wheel most commonly used today is called the HSV color wheel which means hue, saturation, value.  The digital form of the HSV color wheel is called the RGB color wheel (shown below).  The HSV/RGB color wheel is described below.  There are two versions: one in which red, green and blue are regarded as the primary colors (called the electronic or computer color wheel); and one in which magenta, yellow, and cyan are regarded as the primary colors (called the printer's color wheel).the primary colours are on the top.

The primary colors 
(* Primary means first)
In the electronic color wheel used for electronic devices such as televisions and computers, red, green, and blue are regarded as the primary colors and   magenta, yellow, and cyan are regarded as the secondary colors.
The primary colors always appear on the color wheel.  There are the three primary colors of light.  These are called the three additive colors.  They are red (made in pigment by mixing yellow and magenta), green (made in pigment by mixing cyan and yellow), and blue (made in pigment by mixing magenta and cyan). The three primary colors of light are the secondary colors on the printer's color wheel.  

The primary colors of light can be mixed together to make secondary colors. A long time ago, people used to think that the primary colors were red, yellow and blue. Now we know they were wrong.
The secondary colors 
(* Secondary means second)
The secondary colors are on all color wheels. Secondary colors are made by mixing the primary colors of light together. The secondary colors of light are the primary colors of pigment on the printer's color wheel--the color wheel used for color printing. These three colors are called the subtractive colors.  They are magenta (a bright pink), yellow and cyan (a light greenish blue).  The primary colors of light are the secondary colors on the "printer's color wheel".  The three primary colors of pigment can be mixed to make red (magenta and yellow), green (yellow and cyan), and blue (cyan and magenta), but they do not appear as bright when they are made with pigment instead of light.  The secondary colors can be mixed with the primary colors to make tertiary colors.
The tertiary colors 
(* Tertiary means third) The tertiary colors are made by mixing a secondary and primary color together. The tertiary colors are orange, made by mixing red and yellow; chartreuse green (yellow-green), made by mixing green and yellow; spring green, made by mixing green and cyan; azure, made by mixing blue and cyan; violet, made by mixing blue and magenta; and rose, made by mixing red and magenta.

The tertiary   colors are the same for both the printer's color wheel and the electronic color wheel.

The 12 major colors of the color wheel
The 12 major colors of the color wheel, at 30 degree intervals on the HSV color wheel (shown above), are the following: red (0 degrees or 360 degrees), orange (30 degrees), yellow (60 degrees), chartreuse green (90 degrees), green (120 degrees), spring green (150 degrees), cyan (180 degrees), azure (210 degrees), blue (240 degrees), violet (270 degrees), magenta (300 degrees), and rose (330 degrees).  This constitutes the complete set of primary, secondary, and tertiary color names.

The 12 major color wheel colors color comparison chart
Note: Red is shown twice so it can be compared to both orange and rose.

RYB color wheel
On the traditional red-yellow-blue pigment color wheel (in which red, yellow, and blue were regarded as the primary colors and orange, green, and violet were regarded as the secondary colors), the tertiary colors on a red-yellow-blue (RYB) color wheel were called red-violet, blue-violet, blue-green, yellow-green, yellow-orange, and red-orange.  

Color
A rerun is a repeat of the same broadcast media, when that program is played again. This is usually a television show, but can also be a radio show.

Television
Radio
A cutaway in movieing is a camera shot that interrupts the program. Its subjects are related. It is going on at the same time as the main action of the program.

Television
Movie production
Cherie Blair CBE  (née Booth; born 23 September 1954) is a British barrister. She is the wife of former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Tony Blair. She was born at Fairfield General Hospital in Bury, Lancashire, and grew up in Waterloo, Lancashire. She is a daughter of actor Antony Booth.

She gained a first class degree from the London School of Economics.

She qualified as a barrister in 1976, and took silk in 1995. In 1999 she became a Recorder in the County Court and Crown Court.

Blair specialises in Human Rights law. She is a Catholic.

References

Other websites 
 Brief biog on her Chamber's website 

1954 births
Living people
Spouses of prime ministers of the United Kingdom
Alumni of the London School of Economics
British lawyers
English Roman Catholics
People from Bury
BBC 100 Women
Commanders of the Order of the British Empire
English historians
British King's Counsel
Since 1949 (except 1990-1996), Slovakia has been divided into a number of kraje (singular kraj, usually translated as Regions, but mean rather county). Slovakia is currently divided into 8 regions. Each kraj is then divided into many okresy (singular okres, usually translated as districts). Slovakia currently has 79 districts.

Each region is named after its capital.

The following list shows: name of the region, its capital, number of districts, population (as of 2001) and area.
Bratislava Region, capital Bratislava - 8 districts, pop. 599,015, 2053km²
 Trnava Region, capital Trnava - 7 districts, pop. 550,103, 4108km²
 Trenčín Region, capital Trenčín - 9 districts, pop. 605,582, 4501km²
 Nitra Region, capital Nitra - 7 districts, pop. 713,442, 6343km²
 Žilina Region, capital Žilina - 11 districts, pop. 692,232, 6788²
 Banská Bystrica Region, capital Banská Bystrica - 13 districts, pop. 662,121, 9455km²
 Prešov Region, capital Prešov - 13 districts, pop. 789,968, 8993km²
 Košice Region, capital Košice - 11 districts, pop. 766,012, 6753km²

Geography of Slovakia
An okres (in English district) is an administrative unit of Slovakia.

Several districts form one region. On the other hand, one district is made of several municipalities, which are further divided into cadastral areas. The current districts exist since 1996, which at first had their own offices, but in 2004, they were abolished and replaced by the Circuit Offices, which are usually responsible for several districts (except for the Nové Zámky District, which has two Circuit Offices), reducing districts to a little more than statistical units.

Slovakia currently has 79 districts, with the city of Bratislava divided into 5 districts and the city of Košice divided into 4 districts.

Alphabetical list of all Slovak districts 

Banská Bystrica
Banská Štiavnica
Bardejov
Bánovce nad Bebravou
Brezno
Bratislava I
Bratislava II, Bratislava III
Bratislava IV, Bratislava V
Bytča
Čadca
Detva
Dolný Kubín
Dunajská Streda
Galanta
Gelnica
Hlohovec
Humenné
Ilava
Kežmarok
Komárno
Košice I
Košice II
Košice III
Košice IV
Košice - okolie
Krupina
Kysucké Nové Mesto
Levice
Levoča
Liptovský Mikuláš
Lučenec
Malacky
Martin
Medzilaborce
Michalovce
Myjava
Námestovo
Nitra
Nové Mesto nad Váhom
Nové Zámky
Partizánske

Pezinok
Piešťany
Poltár
Poprad
Považská Bystrica
Prešov
Prievidza
Púchov
Revúca
Rimavská Sobota
Rožňava
Ružomberok
Sabinov
Senec
Senica
Skalica
Snina
Sobrance
Spišská Nová Ves
Stará Ľubovňa
Stropkov

Svidník
Šaľa
Topoľčany
Trebišov
Trenčín
Trnava
Turčianske Teplice
Tvrdošín
Veľký Krtíš
Vranov nad Topľou
Zlaté Moravce
Zvolen
Žarnovica
Žiar nad Hronom
Žilina

Geography of Slovakia
Žilina (German: Sillein, Hungarian: Zsolna) is a city in northwestern Slovakia.

Geography 
The city is located in the northwestern Slovakia, at the confluence of Váh, Kysuca and Rajčanka rivers. It is surrounded by numerous mountains ranges, for example Lesser Fatra, Strážov Mountains and many others.

History 
People have lived here since the Neolithic age. The Slavs started to move here in the 5th century. German colonists started to live here since the 13th century. When the Hussites burned the city down, it declined it for some time. It regained its position in the 19th century, when it became an important railway junction. Today, it is the fifth largest town in Slovakia and the third most important industrial centre in Slovakia.

Sights 
The centre of the city is the Mariánske námestie, with the city hall, baroque statue of the Virgin Mary and so on. Other sights include:
The Budatín Castle
 Wooden church of St. George (one of the few outside north-eastern Slovakia)
 Church of St. Stephen the King
 Orthodox synagogue

Economy 
Žilina is the main industrial and business centre of the Váh river. The biggest employer is the Kia Motors company, which invested here 1 billion dollars and created 3000 work positions.

Twin towns 
  Bielsko-Biała, Poland
  Corby, England
  Ferrara, Italy
  Changchun, China
  Maykop, Russia
  Nanterre(part of Paris), France
  Piatra Neamţ, Romania

References

Other websites 
 Official site
 Photo gallery of Žilina
 Žilina information 

Cities in Slovakia
Renting (also called leasing) is where someone pays money to use something for a definite amount of time. This can be anything from a car or house to a DVD.  The document that has all the details written on it is called the lease. The person who owns the item that will be leased or rented is called the lessor. The person who is paying the money to use the item is called the lessee. If it is a house, building, or land that is being leased, the person who pays the money is called the tenant. For example, a tenant farmer is a person who rents a farm from its owner. Convict leasing was a historical practice of prisons in the United States and certain other countries offering convicted prisoners as ultra-cheap labor to private entities as a form of penal servitude.

In a closed-end lease (like a car), it is best to drive a vehicle with a residual value of at least 55%.

References 

Economics
Property
Prešov (; ) is a city in eastern Slovakia. With a population of approximately 91,000 it is the third-largest city in the country.

Geography 
Prešov is a city lying in the Torysa river valley, in the historical Šariš region. It is located 33 km north of Košice, connected by the motorway D1.

History 
People have lived in the area since the Paleolithic period. Prešov is first mentioned in 1247. It became a free royal town in 1374. Salt mining started here in the 16th century, in the nearby town of Solivar (which is now part of Prešov).

Twin towns 
  Nyíregyháza, Hungary
  Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States
  Nowy Sącz, Poland
  Mukacheve, Ukraine
  Prague 10, Czech Republic
  Remscheid, Germany
  Keratsini, Greece
  La Courneuve, France
  Comune di Brugherio, Italy

References

Other websites 
 Official site 

Cities in Slovakia
Trnava (German: Tyrnau, Hungarian: Nagyszombat) is a city in western Slovakia, around 50 km from the capital Bratislava. Because it has so many churches with its town walls, it is commonly called Little Rome or Slovak Rome.

History
The town was first mentioned in 1211. It received royal free town privileges as the first town in Slovakia in 1238. The town had its height as a cultural and religious centre, as it was seat of archbishopric  from 1541 to 1820. The first horse-drawn railway in the Kingdom of Hungary was built to Trnava from Bratislava in 1846. It is again an seat of archbishopric since 1978. In 2003, French car manufacturer PSA started construction of automobile plant. It was finished in 2006

Twin towns
 Scranton, Pennsylvania (United States)
 Varaždin, Croatia

Other websites 

 Trnava Official website (in Slovak only)
 Trnava travel guide 

Cities in Slovakia
Nitra (Hungarian: Nyitra / Nyitria [archaic]; German: Neutra ()) is a city in western Slovakia (and the fifth largest urban settlement in Slovakia) at the base of Zobor Mountain in the Nitra River valley.

Nitra is one of the oldest cities in Slovakia. It existed as a town since at least the early 9th century.

History 
Nitra is a city with special history. People have lived there for at least 6000 years. It was an important center of the Celts (in the last few hundred years BC), and later the seat of the first known rulers of what is today Slovak territory, i.e. of : 
 the Germanic Quadi around 396? (disputed) 
 the Slavic/Slovak Principality of Nitra:
 an independent state (late 8th century - 833)
 Principality of Nitra as part of Great Moravia (833 - ?907)
 Principality of Nitra under Hungarian rule (?925/970 - 1107) [between 1000 and 1030 temporarily under Polish rule ]

Nitra is also site of the first known Church in Central and Eastern Europe, built in 828.
Sister cities 
 Bački Petrovac, Serbia
 České Budějovice, Czech Republic
 Gosford, New South Wales, Australia
 Kroměříž, Czech Republic
 Naperville, Illinois, USA
 Osijek, Croatia
 Spišská Nová Ves, Slovakia
 Zielona Góra, Poland
 Zoetermeer, Netherlands

References

Other websites 

 Official site

Cities in Slovakia
Trenčín (German: Trentschin; Hungarian:  Trencsén; Latin: Laugaritio) is a town in western Slovakia (close to the Czech border) on the Váh river.

History 
The site is inhabited since time immemorial. Trenčín is best known for Roman writing below the Trenčín castle. In the 13th century, the castle was home to the legendary Matthew Csák, "Lord of the river Váh and the Tatra mountains".

Partner towns 
  Cran-Gevrier, France
  Uherské Hradiště, Czech Republic
  Zlín, Czech Republic
  Tarnów, Poland
  Casalecchio di Reno, Italy
  Békéscsaba, Hungary
  Kragujevac, Serbia

Other websites 

 Official site

Cities in Slovakia
Banská Bystrica (German: Neusohl, Hungarian: Besztercebánya, Latin: Villa Nova), is a large town in central Slovakia, on the Hron river.

History 
It was first mentioned in 1255 as a royal free mining town. The town had rich ore deposits, mainly copper, and to a lesser extent silver, gold and iron. As the deposits were depleted, the town has reoriented to the industry. During the World War II, the Slovak National Uprising broke out in the town.

Sister cities 
  - Durham, England
  - Hradec Králové, Czech Republic
  - Salgótarján, Hungary
  - Tula, Russia
  - Herzliya, Israel
  - Larissa, Greece
  - Montana, Bulgaria
  - Tarnobrzeg, Poland
  - Zadar, Croatia
  - Ascoli Piceno, Italy
  - Halberstadt, Germany
  - Dabas, Hungary
  - Budva, Montenegro
  - Radom, Poland
  - Kovačica, Serbia
  - Vršac, Serbia

References

Other websites 
 Official site

Banska Bystrica
Social realism is a style of art, fiction, movies and plays. It describes the daily life of workers and poor people. Social realist artists try to show people and their lives in a realistic way. This means that they often show things which are not beautiful or attractive. They may show people who are elderly, sick, sad, insane or have a disability. This does not mean that a Realist work of art or literature is ugly. It can be made beautiful by the way that the artist or writer creates it.

Social realism art does not belong to one period of history, but has been the style of some artists in different centuries and different countries. Caravaggio, who was a late Renaissance artist, painted "Realist" pictures. Several Spanish painters were "Realists": Velazquez, Esteban Murillo and Francisco de Goya. There were many realist painters in the 19th century, including Gustave Courbet in France and Luke Fildes in England.
Social Realism was popular in Russian art and literature. In the 20th century it became the main type of literature in the Soviet Union.  It was also used by David Siqueiros to depict daily struggles of the people in his country, Mexico.

Gallery

Related pages 
 Gustave Courbet
 Edouard Manet 
 Impressionism

Genres
Russia
Art movements
Scottish Premier League (SPL) is the top-tier football league in Scotland.

Competition format

League 
The SPL is in a league format – each team gains points by playing another team in the league. Three points are awarded to each team for a win and one point for a draw. No points are awarded for a loss. Once all the games have been played, if two or more teams are equal on points, then the difference between goals scored and goals against is considered. The season runs from August until May each year. Each club will play each other at least three times before the table splits in half for the last part of the competition. Each club will then play five more games against clubs in their half of the table. Each team plays a total of 38 games.
Split 
Once every team has played each other three times the league splits into two halves for another five games. This means that the top six teams play each other once, and the bottom six teams play each other once. Many people do not like the SPL splitting. Many managers such as Jim Jeffries, the manager of Hearts at the time, have publicly asked for the split to be removed. The man in charge of the SPL, the Chief Executive, said that 11 of the 12 SPL teams would need to agree and, of eight teams asked, five said they wanted the split kept.

Teams cannot move between the two splits, meaning that even if a team in seventh place has more points than the team in sixth or higher they will not move above them in the league. This happens often, for example in the 2005–06 season, the seventh-placed club, Inverness Caledonian Thistle, gained more points than the fourth-placed club, Hibernian, fifth-place Kilmarnock, and sixth place Aberdeen, but they finished the league in seventh.
Winter break 
In the 2000–01 season, the SPL decided to stop the "winter break", forcing teams to play through January. This means that many games are stopped because of the damage to the pitch and very bad weather. Former Celtic manager Martin O'Neill, former Dundee manager Jim Duffy, and former Rangers manager Walter Smith are among those who have asked to start the winter break again. Former Rangers manager Alex McLeish accused the SPL of taking Scottish football "back to the Dark Ages" after its decision to stop the winter break, meaning that they were going back to an old, outdated system.

European qualification 
A total of four clubs can qualify for European competitions. The teams who finish first in the SPL qualify for the UEFA Champions League. The second and third-placed team, and the winner of the Scottish Cup, qualify for the UEFA Europa League.
Rangers and Celtic have recently played in the final of the UEFA Cup, with neither club winning in the final match. In 2003 Celtic played FC Porto in Seville, Spain but Porto won 3– 2. More recently, in 2008 Rangers played FC Zenit St. Petersburg in Manchester, England, but lost 2– 0. More than 200,000 Rangers fans went to Manchester to watch the game on several large televisions.

Promotion and relegation
This situation almost happened again in 2004. There were many votes and threats of legal action from Partick Thistle, the team who finished last in the SPL. The situation was solved and Inverness Caledonian Thistle were allowed promotion, as long as they shared a stadium with their rivals Aberdeen at Pittodrie, a stadium over 100 miles (160 km) away.

In 2005, the stadium size criteria were reduced. A team playing in the SPL must now have at least 6,000 seats (down from 10,000). Standing room is not allowed on SPL grounds for safety reasons. This then allowed Inverness Caledonian Thistle to return to their home stadium during the 2005–06 season.

Players 
In the SPL, there are no restrictions on clubs signing players. The only rule on signing players is with general Scottish employment law. There are no salary caps or age restrictions. There are no restrictions on the size of the playing squad or restrictions on the number of players from other countries.
The only rule is the "Under-21" rule. This means that every club must name at least three players under the age of 21 in their match day squad. They do not need to play. There has been some criticism over this rule. Walter Smith, Gus MacPherson and Jim Jeffries all showed their disapproval.

Media coverage and sponsorship

Television coverage 
Between the 1998–99 season and the 2001–02 season, the right to show SPL matches on television was held by Sky Sports, with highlights being shown by STV's Scotsport. Sky Sports withdrew from the SPL when their offer of £45 million, to continue showing live games on TV, was declined by the SPL. The SPL asked for more money. Discussions began in 2002 for a new pay-per-view satellite television channel, called "SPL TV". However Rangers and Celtic did not like the idea, and rejected it. Because of this, the remaining 10 SPL clubs announced their intention to resign from the league.
Even though a two-year television deal had been agreed with BBC Scotland in July 2002 (for less than the money previously offered by Sky Sports), the 10 non-Old Firm clubs confirmed their resignation from the SPL in August 2002, because they were unhappy with how the league voted which allowed the Old Firm clubs to stop any attempts to change SPL rules. The ten clubs withdrew their resignations in January 2003 after an agreement was reached to change the voting rules and to change the way the money from TV was given out to the SPL teams.

With BBC Scotland's television contract due to expire after the 2003–04 season, the SPL agreed a new television deal with Irish company Setanta Sports in February 2004 in a four-year deal worth £54 million. In June 2008, it was announced that a further four-year deal would start for the 2010–11 season, with the deal worth £125 million. However, Setanta went bankrupt in June 2009. In July, Sky Sports and ESPN agreed a £65 million five-year deal with the SPL.
Radio 
The right to broadcast SPL games on radio is currently held by BBC Radio Scotland, who have held the rights since the SPL started in the 1998–99 season. BBC Radio Scotland also provide internet webcasts to all Scottish Premier League matches, having became the first broadcaster to introduce such a service in June 2000.

Sponsorship 
As with many sports competitions, the name of the SPL has been sold to a sponsor, currently the Clydesdale Bank, a Scottish Bank. The Clydesdale Bank bought the name in the 2007–08 season for £8 million, taking over from another Scottish bank, the Bank Of Scotland. The SPL is now known as the "Clydesdale Bank Premier League".

Teams

Old Firm
Teams

Old Firm 

Until the start of the 2012-13 season, the two Glasgow football clubs known as the Old Firm played in the SPL, Rangers and Celtic. The Old Firm was criticised by some due to the fact that they held such a strong position in Scottish football. The amount of money they made was very large compared to the other teams in Scotland. In 2001 their income was £90 million, almost double the income of the other ten teams, whose income was £48 million combined. Every year since the SPL started one of the Old Firm has won the league. Only once, in the 2005–06 season, did the Old Firm clubs not come first and second in the SPL.
Rangers entered administration in 2012 because they owed money that they could not afford to repay. Some of this money was owed to HMRC (Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs) as Rangers had not paid the tax they should have. Rangers asked HMRC if they would take only some of the money owed to them, called a Company Voluntary Arrangement (CVA) however HMRC demanded the full amount and Rangers were closed. The people who owned Rangers have set up a new company ('newco') and bought Ibrox stadium, the training buildings and other things. This 'newco' was forced out of the SPL and moved to the Scottish Third Division from the 2012-13 season.

Although the two teams had a strong position over other Scottish teams, they still cannot compete with other leagues for players because other leagues, particularly the English Premiership, have a lot more money to spend. There were rumours about the Old Firm splitting from the SPL, and joining the English Premiership, but this was stopped by FIFA.
Current teams 
These teams play in the Scottish Premier League in the 2012–13 season:

Former SPL members 
These are previous members of the SPL in reverse order of them losing membership.

Inverness Caley Thistle and St Mirren are the only clubs to have been promoted into the SPL twice. Dunfermline Athletic are the only club to have been relegated from the SPL twice.
Records 
Updated on 28 October 2009; and partly on 07/10/12
 Most goals in a season: Celtic, 105 goals, 2003–04
 Fewest goals in a season: St. Johnstone, 23 goals, 2010–11
 Most points in one season: Celtic, 103 points, 2001–02
 Fewest points in a season: Gretna, 13 points, 2007–08
 Fewest goals conceded in one season: Celtic, 18 goals, 2001–02
 Most goals conceded in a season: Aberdeen, 83 goals, 1999–00 & Gretna, 83 goals, 2007–08
 Biggest goal difference in a season: Celtic, 80, 2003–04
 Biggest home win: Celtic 9-0 Aberdeen (2010-11) Celtic 7-0 Aberdeen (1999–00 and 2002–03); Rangers 8-0 Hamilton Academical (2020-21);Hibernian 7-0 Livingston (2005–06); Celtic 7-0 St Mirren (2008–09);
 'Biggest away win: St. Johnstone 0-7 Rangers (1998–99); Dunfermline Athletic 1-8 Celtic (2005–06)
 Highest scoring match: Motherwell 6-6 Hibernian (2009–2010)
 Most away wins in a season: Celtic, 13, 2000–01
 Fewest away wins in a season: Dunfermline, 0, 1998–99
 Most away defeats in a season: Livingston, 16, 2005–06
Fewest home defeats in a season: Celtic, 0, 2001–02, 2002–03,
 Top goalscorer in a single season: Henrik Larsson, 35 goals, 2000–01 Celtic
 Player with most hat-tricks: Henrik Larsson, 12, 1998–2004
 Top goalscorer in any one game: Kenny Miller, 5, 4 November 2000, Rangers v St. Mirren; Kris Boyd, 5, 25 September 2004, Kilmarnock v Dundee United; Kris Boyd, 5, 30 December 2009, Rangers v Dundee United,
 Oldest player: Andy Millen, for St. Mirren vs Hearts, 42 years 279 days, 15 March 2008
 Youngest player: Scott Robinson, for Hearts vs Inverness CT, 16 years, 45 days
 Youngest goalscorer: Fraser Fyvie (Aberdeen) 16 years & 10 months, v Hearts 27/01/10.
 Fastest goalscorer: Anthony Stokes, for Hibernian v Rangers, 12.4 seconds
 Most consecutive clean-sheets: Robert Douglas, Celtic, 7 games, 16 December 2000 - 21 February 2001
 Most SPL appearances: Steven Pressley, 306 (correct to the end of the 2008–09 season)
 Highest attendance: 60,440, Celtic v St. Mirren, 7 April 2001
Lowest attendance: 431, Gretna v Inverness CT, 5 April 2008
 Highest average attendance: 59,369, Celtic, 2000–01
 Lowest average attendance: 2,283, Gretna, 2007–08
 Highest transfer fee paid Tore André Flo, from Chelsea to Rangers, £12m, 23 November 2000
 Highest transfer fee received:
Craig Gordon, from Heart of Midlothian to Sunderland, £9m, 8 August 2007
Alan Hutton, from Rangers to Tottenham Hotspur, £9m, 30 January 2008
 Highest transfer fee between two SPL clubs: Scott Brown, from Hibernian to Celtic, £4.4m, 1 June 2007
Related pages 
 Scottish Football League
 Scottish Football League First Division
 Scottish Football League Second Division
 Scottish Football League Third Division
 List of Scottish football teams

References

Notes

Other websites 
 
 

Scottish Football League
1998 establishments in Scotland
2013 disestablishments in the United Kingdom
There are six metropolitan counties in England, which each cover large urban areas, typically with populations of 1.2 to 2.8 million. They were created in 1974 and are each divided into several metropolitan districts. 

There are no county councils any more since 1986. Most of their functions were taken over by the individual boroughs. So the boroughs became unitary authorities. The remaining functions were taken over by so-called joint-boards.

The metropolitan counties have population densities of between 838 (South Yorkshire) and 28 (West Midlands) people/km². Individual metropolitan districts range from 4 people/km² in Liverpool to only 500 people/km² in Doncaster.

Counties and districts
The six metropolitan counties and their metropolitan districts are:
The structure of Greater London is similar to the metropolitan counties, but it is not one.  It was created earlier in 1965, by the London Government Act 1963.
The idea for creating administrative areas based upon the large conurbations outside London based on the model of the County of London or Greater London.  

The metropolitan counties were established by the Local Government Act 1972, the county councils were first elected in 1973, and were formally established in April 1974.

Since 1995, the cities of Birmingham, Bristol, Leeds, Liverpool, Manchester, Newcastle, Nottingham and Sheffield have come together in the English Core Cities Group. This organisation has no distinct legal status but seems to move towards a role of these cities as regional capitals outside of London.

References
A unitary authority is a type of local authority that is responsible for all local government functions within its area. This is different from a system where local government functions are divided between different authorities.

Typically unitary authorities cover large towns or cities, which are large enough to be independent of county or regional administration. Sometimes they consist of counties which have no lower level of administration.

United Kingdom
In the United Kingdom, "Unitary Authorities" are English councils which are responsible for almost all local government functions within their areas.

This is opposed to the system of local government which still exists in most of England, where local government functions are divided between county councils and district councils.
Until 1996 a similar system existed in Scotland and Wales but this has now been replaced by a fully unitary system. The unitary system has existed in Northern Ireland since 1973. when the administrative responsibilities of the Counties of Northern Ireland were replaced by a system of 26 unitary authorities.

England
Some cities, large towns and groups of neighbouring towns are unitary authorities and independent from county councils and some English counties, such as Rutland, Herefordshire and the Isle of Wight, have so small populations that the entire county is a unitary authority.

In practice most unitary authorities in the UK are not entirely unitary, as they often run some services on a joint basis with other authorities, these typically include policing, fire services, and sometimes waste disposal and public transport. In addition some unitary authorities contain civil parishes, which effectively form another limited  of local government
When the metropolitan councils were abolished in 1986 their functions were given to the boroughs. These became unitary authorities in all but name.

Other countries
Similar institituions exist in other countries, which although not called unitary authorities, are similar in concept.

United States
In the United States an Independent city or a consolidated city-county is roughly equivalent to a unitary authority. The city might be separate from any county government, as in Virginia, or merged with a county government, as in San Francisco, California, or as is common in Florida. Another type of local government that is roughly equivalent to a unitary authority is a county when there are no municipal or township governments in the county. That is the case in Arlington County, Virginia, and Baltimore County, Maryland.
Canada
Unitary authorities or single-tier municipalities exist as a single level of government in a province that otherwise has two levels of local government. One should not confuse municipalities in provinces with no upper-level of local government as single-tier municipalities, as these are the only level of local government in that province.

Germany
In Germany a kreisfreie Stadt is the equivalent term for a city which is responsible for the local and the Kreis (district) administrative level.

Political systems
Local government in England
Local government in the United States
Government of Canada
Government of New Zealand

ru:Унитарные единицы Англии
Administrative division is a term for an administrative region within a country that is created for the purposes of managing of land and the affairs of people. The area typically has a local government with a certain degree of autonomy, and is on a level below that of the sovereign state.

Select examples

Autonomous communities 

 1st level:
 Spain: 17 comunidad autónomas

Cantons 

 1st level:
 Switzerland: 26 cantons

 2nd level:
 Bosnia and Herzegovina: 10 kantons or županija
 Costa Rica: 81 cantones
 Ecuador:   cantones
 Luxembourg: 12 cantons

 4th level:
 France: 4,039 cantons

Comarcas (regions)

 1st level:
 Panama: 9 comarcas

Communes 

 2nd level:
 Romania: 2,686  comună

 5th level:
 France: 36,679 communes

Counties 

 1st level:
 Croatia: 22 županije
 Estonia: 15 maakonnad
 Hungary:  19 megyék
 Norway: 19  fylker
 Romania: 41 judeţe
 Sweden: 21 län

 2nd level:
 United Kingdom:  counties
 United States: 2,995 counties

Departments
Departments 

 1st level:
 Benin: 12 départements
 Bolivia: 9 departementos
 Denmark: 14 amter
 El Salvador: 14 departementos
 Guatemala: 22 departementos
 Haiti: 10 départements
 Honduras: 18 departementos
 Ivory Coast: 58 départements
 Paraguay: 18 departementos
 Uruguay: 19 departementos

 2nd level:
 Argentina: 376 departementos
 Burkina Faso: départements
 France: 100 départements
 Indonesia: 268 kabupaten

Districts 

 1st level:
 Belize: 6 districts
 Luxembourg: 3 districts

 2nd level:
 Afghanistan: districts
 Austria: 100 Bezirke
 Bangladesh: 64 zila
 Germany: 22 Regierungsbezirke
 Kenya:   wilaya
 Lebanon: 25 districts
 Malaysia: 3 wilayah persekutuan
 Nepal: 76 districts
 Pakistan: 147 districts
 Panama:  distritos
 Paraguay:  distritos
 Switzerland: 159 districts

 3rd level:
 Peru: 1,747 distritos

States