The League of Nations was thought up by Woodrow Wilson, the American President during the First World War. It was to be a group of nations that worked together to keep peace. One of the reasons for its downfall was that, after a vote, the American public refused to join. The League did not have the power it needed to enforce any of the rules that made it up. This later proved to be a fatal flaw in the League's structure.
Another flaw in the League was that it was not representative enough: at any point there were no more than 65 members part of the league and the interests of the superior nations often exceeded those of more limited members.
The League also had no troops of its own, and decisions it made were often slow. For example, when the Empire of Japan invaded Manchuria (North-East China) in 1931, the League took a whole year to make a decision. When it came, Japan ignored it. When Italy invaded Abyssinia in 1935, the League condemned it more quickly but Italy merely quit the League and continued its conquest. After these disasters, the League was thought to be weak and powerless and stopped operations in 1939.
The League did not fail completely; it had prevented a few conflicts in Europe in the 1920s and worked hard to relieve various public health and social problems around the world.
In 1946, the already inactive League of Nations formally ended. The United Nations was established, and still today does many of the same things the League of Nations did.
President Woodrow Wilson arranged a plan for a "government of governments", or rather an international peacekeeping force. The idea of his plan was to settle problems between nations peacefully. Wilson tried to persuade the international community that the league would discourage aggression and tackle the underlying problems that often lead to war, such as poverty. Wilson was, however, unable to convince the American public into supporting the League. The United States did not want to be part of Wilson’s approach for three reasons.
First, the United States had many German immigrants who hated the Treaty of Versailles. The Treaty of Versailles blamed Germany and its allies for the war and said they must pay heavy war reparations. To join the League of Nations, a country had to agree and accept the Treaty of Versailles. German Americans did not accept this.
Second, Americans did not want to risk more Americans dying in a European war, as they had in World War I. They also felt that it would result in pointless actions such as sending soldiers all around the globe to sort out small disputes. This attitude was called isolationism. Most Americans felt it would be best to avoid European and British affairs completely.
Third, the granting of women's voting rights in the United States brought a huge new voting block that overwhelmingly desired to turn inward towards 'isolation'.
These countries joined League of Nations in 1920:
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland,
Dominion of Canada,
Commonwealth of Australia,
Federation of New Zealand,
Union of South Africa
Audiolingual method
The Audiolingual Method is a method for teaching foreign languages. Linguists at the University of Michigan invented this method in the late 1950s. In the Audiolingual method, students first hear a language. Later, they speak the language, and after that, they read and write in it. This way of language teaching is similar to the Direct Method. Like the Direct Method, the Audiolingual Method does not use the students’ native language. For example, if you are in an English class in Turkey, the teacher only speaks English, and no Turkish. However, unlike the Direct Method, the Audiolingual Method does not teach vocabulary. Rather, the teacher drills grammar. In the Audiolingual method, grammar is most important for the student. In other words, the student must repeat grammar patterns after the teacher. The students do not learn lots of vocabulary. This method also uses psychology. The students get a reward for speaking correctly. They get punishment if they speak incorrectly; because it is based on habit formation, which is establishesd by stimulus, response and reinforcement. It gives priority to speaking the target language, and using the native language is not allowed.
Montenegro
Montenegro (meaning Black Mountain) is a country in Southeastern Europe. It is on the Adriatic Sea, between Albania (to the South) and Croatia to the North. Inland (to the East and South-East) it also has a common border with Serbia, and Bosnia and Herzegovina.
The country came to exist when its people decided to split from the country Serbia and Montenegro on May 21, 2006. For most of the 20th century it was part of Yugoslavia. It had also been independent before World War I and existed as a kingdom. Its leader is Filip Vujanović.
The national song is called "Oj, svijetla majska zoro"Montenegrin Cyrillic: Ој, свијетла мајска зоро""Oh, Bright Dawn of May.""
The size of the economy's GDP is $4.114 billion and it has a population of 625,000 people. The traditional old capital of Montenegro is "Cetinje", but Podgorica is the new one. The country adopted the Euro unilaterally as Montenegro does not have its own currency, but the adoption has raised the national debt to 57 percent of GDP in 2011.
Solar eclipse
As seen from Earth, a solar eclipse /"ee-klips"/ happens when the Moon is directly between the Earth and the Sun. This makes the Moon fully or partially (partly) cover the sun. Solar eclipses can only happen during a new moon. Every year there are about two solar eclipses. Sometimes there are even five solar eclipses in a year. However, only two of these can be total solar eclipses, and often a year will pass without a total eclipse.
The area in which an eclipse is total is only a narrow track along the Earth. Totality lasts only a few minutes. Outside this path, all eclipses are partial, and places far from the track get no eclipse at all. The track can be predicted many years before it happens.
A total solar eclipse is a natural phenomenon (event). Long ago, solar eclipses were thought to happen because of something supernatural or as a sign that something bad was going to happen. This is still believed in some cultures today. A total solar eclipse can frighten people who do not know what it means, because the Sun seems to disappear during the day and the sky turns dark in just a few minutes. Other people like to go to the eclipse path for a good view.
Solar eclipses happen somewhere on Earth almost every year, and very similar solar eclipses happen every 18 years, 11.3 days. This period is called the Saros cycle.
There are four different types of solar eclipses:
The Sun's distance from the Earth is about 400 times the Moon's distance, and the Sun's diameter is about 400 times as big as the Moon's. This is why the Sun and Moon seem to be about the same size from Earth.
Looking directly at the bright surface of the Sun itself can hurt the retina of the eye greatly because of the radiation that comes from the Sun. It can even blind people. The retina does not feel pain, so damage may not be felt for hours.
The Sun is usually so bright that it is hard to look at it directly. However, when the Sun is covered in an eclipse, it is easier to look at it. Looking at the Sun during an eclipse is equally dangerous, except in the very short time when the Sun's surface is completely covered. Looking at the Sun's surface through binoculars, a telescope, or even a camera is extremely dangerous and can damage the eye in less than a second.
Looking at the Sun without an eclipse does not usually hurt the eye very greatly, because the pupil of the eye closes down and makes everything darker. If the Sun is almost completely covered, the pupil opens because there is not as much light. However, the parts of the Sun that can be seen are still equally bright, and can hurt the eye very much.
Kate Fischer