question: Silesia (; ; ; ; Silesian German: "Schlasing"; Silesian: "Slunsk" ; ; ; ) is a region of Central Europe located mostly in Poland, with small parts in the Czech Republic and Germany. Its area is about , and its population about 8,000,000. Silesia is located along the Oder River. It consists of Lower Silesia and Upper Silesia.

The region is rich in mineral and natural resources, and includes several important industrial areas. Silesia's largest city and historical capital is Wrocaw. The biggest metropolitan area is the Upper Silesian metropolitan area, the centre of which is Katowice. Parts of the Czech city of Ostrava fall within the borders of Silesia.

Silesia's borders and national affiliation have changed over time, both when it was a hereditary possession of noble houses and after the rise of modern nation-states. The first known states to hold power there were probably those of Greater Moravia at the end of the 9th century and Bohemia early in the 10th century. In the 10th century, Silesia was incorporated into the early Polish state, and after its division in the 12th century became a Piast duchy. In the 14th century, it became a constituent part of the Bohemian Crown Lands under the Holy Roman Empire, which passed to the Austrian Habsburg Monarchy in 1526.
1. True or False: Silesia is contained entirely in Germany.
2. How many countries is it in?
3. Where is most of it located?
4. What are the other two countries it is part of?
5. When did Bohemia rule there?
6. What other state ruled it?
7. When?
8. What happened to Silesia in the 900s?
9. What did it become in the 1100s?
10. What state ruled the Crown Lands?
11. True or False: The Holy Roman Empire passed to the Bourbon Monarchy.
12. To which monarchy did the Crown lands pass?
13. When?
14. What is the German name for Silesia?
15. How many people live there?
16. What flowing water is it near?
17. Is Silesia further divided in any way?
18. Into how many parts?
19. What are they called?
20. What is its major city?
****
answer: 1. False.
2. Three.
3. Poland
4. the Czech Republic and Germany.
5. the 10th century
6. Greater Moravia
7. at the end of the 9th century
8. it was incorporated into the early Polish state
9. a Piast duchy
10. the Holy Roman Empire
11. False.
12. the Austrian Habsburg Monarchy
13. 1526
14. "Schlasing"
15. about 8,000,000
16. the Oder River
17. Yes.
18. Two.
19. Lower Silesia and Upper Silesia.
20. Wrocaw.

question: Connie Lau hates smoking. "It smells awful, and it's so bad for you. It breaks my heart to see my friends smoking. I try to get them to give up smoking." She says.

So why does Connie walk into convenience stores and try to buy cigarettes? She is testing to see if stores will sell cigarettes to a kid who is younger than 18. "You have to be 18 to purchase cigarettes, and I'm 16, so if they sell to me, they're breaking the law," Connie says.

Connie isn't a vigilante ; She works with local police in her town of Castro Valley, California. Officers drive her to stores, and she goes in alone to try to buy cigarettes. If the person behind the counter sells her a pack, an officer comes in and writes the business a ticket for breaking the law.

Most stores obey the law and don't sell her cigarettes. The law requires that customers show ID if store employees ask them to. "When they ask your age, you can't lie," Connie says. "Most stores don't sell to me. In a year, we've visited almost 150 stores and had only 15 sales."

Working undercover can be scary, even with police nearby. Connie said one cashier refused to sell her cigarettes and then got angry when he found out her age. He threatened to call the authorities. "To calm him down, the police went in to explain that I was undercover," she says.

Most teens wouldn't think of going undercover for the police. What's Connie's motivation ? For starters, she can't stand smoking. But she also believes it's important for young people like her to try to make a real impact in their communities. In her view, teens can do more than get good grades in school, do chores at home, and do well in out-of-class activities.

Every time she stops the sale of cigarettes to children, she's helping to uphold the law. "A single teenager can make a big difference," Connie says. "For the most part, when stores get caught, they learn their lesson and don't do it again."
1. Who hates smoking?
2. Why?
3. How old is she?
4. Does she try to buy cigarettes?
5. Who does she work with?
6. Where?
7. Where?
8. Do most stores sell her cigarettes?
9. How many stores have they visited in the last year?
10. How many sales happened at those stores?
11. Has she ever been scared?
12. Why?
13. Did he call?
14. Why does she do what she does?
15. Are there any other reasons?
16. What are they?
17. What are they?
****
answer: 1. Connie Lau
2. It smells awful
3. 16
4. yes
5. local police
6. in her town
7. Castro Valley, California
8. no
9. 150
10. 15
11. yes
12. one cashier refused to sell her cigarettes and then got angry when he found out her age. He threatened to call the authorities.
13. no
14. she can't stand smoking
15. yes
16. believes it's important for young people like her to try to make a real impact in their communities
17. believes it's important for young people like her to try to make a real impact in their communities

question: (CNN) -- Long before Chen Guangcheng became internationally known as a human rights crusader, villagers near his home knew him as the man to go to when they had trouble with local authorities.

Despite having little formal legal education, Chen began advocating on behalf of villagers in 1996 at the age of 25, according to China Human Rights Defenders, a China-based human rights group.

Chen has been at the center of a burgeoning international impasse since his dramatic escape last week from the guards who kept him under house arrest in a small village in eastern China. He was confined to his home after serving four years in prison, apparently over his legal advocacy for what he called victims of abusive practices such as forced abortions by China's family planning officials.

Fellow activists say he made his way to the U.S. Embassy in Beijing, where he remains as the United States and China try to sort out the future for Chen, who has sought to call attention to the practice of forced abortions and sterilizations in China.

Yet he never sought out to be a rabble-rouser, said New York University law professor Jerome Cohen, who first met Chen when the activist traveled to the United States as part of a State Department program in 2004.

"You got the feeling you were in the presence of some Chinese equivalent of Gandhi or something," Cohen said. "He had this gentle but steely moral force."

Chen was born in 1971 in Dongshigu, a small farming village in eastern Shandong province, more than 400 kilometers (248 miles) from Beijing.
1. Who escaped?
2. From where?
3. What kind of punishment was he serving?
4. Was he guarded?
5. Had he already served prison time?
6. How much?
7. Why was he originally in trouble?
8. Where did he escape to?
9. In what city?
10. What issues is he concerned with?
11. When did he began advocating?
12. How old was he then?
13. Where was he born?
14. In China?
15. In what year?
16. How far is Donshigu from Beijing?
17. Was it a large town?
18. What is Jerome Cohen's profession?
19. At which university?
20. Had he met Chen before?
21. When?
22. Where did they meet?
23. Who did he compare Chen to?
****
answer:
1. Chen
2. a small village in eastern China.
3. house arrest
4. yes
5. yes
6. four years
7. legal advocacy
8. the U.S. Embassy
9. Beijing
10. forced abortions and sterilizations
11. 1996
12. 25
13. Dongshigu
14. yes
15. 1971
16. more than 248 miles
17. no
18. law professor
19. New York University
20. yes
21. 2004
22. in the United States
23. Gandhi