question: (CNN) -- He is a superstar in Arab cinema and has acted alongside Hollywood names such as Sean Penn, Naomi Watts and Orlando Bloom in worldwide blockbusters.

Now, acclaimed Egyptian movie star Khaled El Nabawy is raring to conquer new heights, starring in gripping drama "The Citizen," his first lead role in a Hollywood film.

The movie, released last year, has a story line based on the September 11 attacks in the United States. El Nabawy's character, Ibrahim Jarrah, is a newly arrived immigrant from Lebanon, who finds himself wrongly accused of being involved in the terrorist attacks.

"The guy didn't do anything except he was infatuated by the American dream," says El Nabawy of his character in "The Citizen."

"This is why he won the green card lottery but [it is] his bad luck that he arrived one day before 9/11 to New York. He loves America and he's educated, he is cultured, he is helpful and it's a great message through 'The Citizen' that gives hope. It talks about the cooperation that can happen instead of creating revenge between each other."

See also: 'Egypt's Brad Pitt' calls for people power in Africa

This is the third time in the Egyptian actor's career that he has landed a role in a major Hollywood production. His two previous outings include a smaller part in Ridley Scott's 2005 epic "Kingdom of Heaven," while in 2010 El Nabawy played an Iraqi scientist in "Fair Game," a thriller based on former CIA agent Valerie Plame Wilson's memoir "Fair Game: My Life As A Spy, My Betrayal By The White House."
1. What is Khaled El Nabawy's profession?
2. Where is he from?
3. Is he well known in the Arab world?
4. Has he acted with any big stars in the past?
5. Who is one of them?
6. Who else?
7. What new movie is he going to be in?
8. When was it released?
9. What is the name of the person he plays?
10. Was he a terrorist?
11. What do they say the character was infatuated with?
12. How many big Hollywood movies has he been in?
13. Name one?
14. What year did that come out?
15. What was another movie he was in?
16. What was his character's nationality in that movie?
17. What was his profession?
18. Who was it based on?
****
answer: 1. movie star
2. Egypt
3. Yes
4. Yes
5. Sean Penn
6. Naomi Watts
7. The Citizen,"
8. last year
9. Ibrahim Jarrah
10. No
11. the American dream
12. Three
13. Kingdom of Heaven
14. 2005
15. Fair Game
16. Iraqi
17. scientist
18. Valerie Plame Wilson

question: Damascus is the capital and likely the largest city of Syria, following the decline in population of Aleppo due to the battle for the city. It is commonly known in Syria as "ash-Sham" and nicknamed as the "City of Jasmine". In addition to being one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world, Damascus is a major cultural centre of the Levant and the Arab world. The city has an estimated population of 1,711,000 .

Located in south-western Syria, Damascus is the centre of a large metropolitan area of 2.6 million people (2004). Geographically embedded on the eastern foothills of the Anti-Lebanon mountain range inland from the eastern shore of the Mediterranean on a plateau above sea level, Damascus experiences a semi-arid climate because of the rain shadow effect. The Barada River flows through Damascus.

First settled in the second millennium BC, it was chosen as the capital of the Umayyad Caliphate from 661 to 750. After the victory of the Abbasid dynasty, the seat of Islamic power was moved to Baghdad. Damascus saw a political decline throughout the Abbasid era, only to regain significant importance in the Ayyubid and Mamluk periods. Today, it is the seat of the central government and all of the government ministries.
1. What city is this article talking about?
2. Located where?
3. Why did the population of Aleppo go down?
4. What is the city's nickname?
5. and the population?
6. Is it the oldest city?
7. Its a major cultural center of wht?
8. What river flows through it?
9. and why is there a semi arid climate ther?
10. When was it first settled?
****
answer: 1. Damascus
2. Syria
3. no
4. the city of Jasmine
5. 1,711,000 .
6. one of them
7. the Levant
8. The Barada River
9. because of the rain shadow effect.
10. in the second millennium BC

question: During the years after the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center, structural engineers have been trying hard to solve a question that would otherwise have been completely unthinkable: Can building be designed to stand catastrophic blasts by terrorists?

Soon after the terrorist attacks on the twin towers, structural engineers from the University at Buffalo and the Multidisciplinary Center for Earthquake Engineering Research (MCEER) traveled to ground zero as part of a project funded by the National Science Foundation. They spent two days beginning the task of formulating ideas about how to design such structures and to search for clues on how to do so in buildings that were damaged, but still are standing.

"Our objective in visiting ground zero was to go and look at the buildings surrounding the World Trade Center, those buildings that are still standing, but that sustained damage," said M. Bruneau, Ph.D. "Our immediate hope is that we can develop a better understanding as to why those buildings remain standing, while our long-term goal is to see whether earthquake engineering technologies can be married to existing technologies to achieve enhanced performance of buildings in the event of terrorist attacks," he added.

Photographs taken by the investigators demonstrate the monumental damage to the World Trade Center towers and buildings nearby. One building a block away from the towers remains standing, but was badly damaged. "This building is many meters away from the World Trade Center and yet we see a column there that used to be part of that building," explained A. Whittaker, Ph.D. "The column became a missile that shot across the road, through the window and through the floor."

The visit to the area also brought some surprises, according to the engineers. For example, the floor framing system in one of the buildings was quite strong , allowing floors that were pierced by tons of falling debris to survive. "Good framing systems may provide a simple, but reliable strategy for blast resistance," he added. Other strategies may include providing alternate paths for gravity loads in the event that a load-bearing column fails. "We also need a better understanding of the mechanism of collapse," said A. Whittaker. "We need to find out what causes a building to collapse and how you can predict it."

A. Reinhorn, Ph.D. noted that "earthquake shaking has led to the collapse of buildings in the past. Solutions developed for earthquake-resistant design may apply to blast engineering and terrorist-resistant design. Part of our mission now is to transfer these solutions and to develop new ones where none exist at present."
1. What are engineers trying to solve?
2. What question is that?
3. Who funded the project?
4. Where did they travel to?
5. Where is ground zero?
6. Does M. Bruneau have a degree?
****
answer:
1. to solve a question that would otherwise have been completely unthinkable:
2. Can building be designed to stand catastrophic blasts by terrorists?
3. structural engineers from the University at Buffalo and the Multidisciplinary Center for Earthquake Engineering Research (MCEER)
4. traveled to ground zero
5. World Trade Center
6. Ph.D