instruction:
In this task, we ask you to rewrite a sentence in simple English without changing its general meaning. Essentially, you want to make the sentence easier to read by using simpler words, utilizing more straightforward sentence structures, and omitting non-essential information etc.
question:
Female genital mutilation ( FGM ) , also known as female genital cutting and female circumcision , is the ritual cutting or removal of some or all of the external female genitalia .
answer:
FGM is also called female genital cutting and female circumcision .


question:
A federation ( also known as a federal state ) is a political entity characterized by a union of partially self-governing provinces , states , or other regions under a central federal government ( federalism ) .
answer:
A federation is a union of a number of self-governing states or regions , which are joined together under a central government .


question:
State officials in the South took advantage of the eclipsed role of Congress in the prohibition of racial discrimination and proceeded to embody individual practices of racial segregation into laws that legalized the treatment of blacks as second-class citizens for another seventy years .
answer:

State officials in the South took advantage of the decision and began to enact laws that legalized the treatment of blacks as second-class citizens for another seventy years .