input: Near East (French: Proche-Orient) is a geographical term that roughly encompasses Western Asia. Despite having varying definitions within different academic circles, the term was originally applied to the maximum extent of the Ottoman Empire. The term has fallen into disuse in English, and has been replaced by the term Middle East.

The Encyclopdia Britannica defines the Near East as including Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Cyprus, Egypt, Georgia, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Oman, Palestine, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Syria, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, the West Bank, and Yemen. The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations defines the region similarly, but also includes Afghanistan while excluding the countries of North Africa and the Palestinian territories. According to the National Geographic Society, the terms Near East and Middle East denote the same territories and are 'generally accepted as comprising the countries of the Arabian Peninsula, Cyprus, Egypt, Iraq, Iran, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Palestinian territories, Syria, and Turkey'. 1. How many countries are in an encyclopedia's definition of a term?
2. What is the term?
3. Is that term still used?
4. What is used now?
5. What is a more rough definition of the area?
6. How was it used at the beginning?
7. What is the French version of the term?
8. What areas does a society think is a part of it?
9. Do groups agree on the meaning of it?
10. Who else has a meaning for it? Return numbered answers in your output.

output: 1. 22
2. the Near East
3. not in English
4. Middle East.
5. Western Asia
6. it applied to the maximum extent of the Ottoman Empire
7. Proche-Orient
8. the countries of the Arabian Peninsula, Cyprus, Egypt, Iraq, Iran, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Palestinian territories, Syria, and Turkey'.
9. No
10. The Food and Agriculture Organization

question: CHAPTER XLVI.

OPERATIONS IN MISSISSIPPI--LONGSTREET IN EAST TENNESSEE--COMMISSIONED LIEUTENANT-GENERAL--COMMANDING THE ARMIES OF THE UNITED STATES--FIRST INTERVIEW WITH PRESIDENT LINCOLN.

Soon after his return from Knoxville I ordered Sherman to distribute his forces from Stevenson to Decatur and thence north to Nashville; Sherman suggested that he be permitted to go back to Mississippi, to the limits of his own department and where most of his army still remained, for the purpose of clearing out what Confederates might still be left on the east bank of the Mississippi River to impede its navigation by our boats. He expected also to have the co-operation of Banks to do the same thing on the west shore. Of course I approved heartily.

About the 10th of January Sherman was back in Memphis, where Hurlbut commanded, and got together his Memphis men, or ordered them collected and sent to Vicksburg. He then went to Vicksburg and out to where McPherson was in command, and had him organize his surplus troops so as to give him about 20,000 men in all.

Sherman knew that General (Bishop) Polk was occupying Meridian with his headquarters, and had two divisions of infantry with a considerable force of cavalry scattered west of him. He determined, therefore, to move directly upon Meridian.

I had sent some 2,500 cavalry under General Sooy Smith to Sherman's department, and they had mostly arrived before Sherman got to Memphis. Hurlbut had 7,000 cavalry, and Sherman ordered him to reinforce Smith so as to give the latter a force of about 7,000 with which to go against Forrest, who was then known to be south-east from Memphis. Smith was ordered to move about the 1st of February.
1. How many horse riders did someone send?
2. Who lead them?
3. What was his ranking?
4. Did someone else have horse fighters?
5. Who?
6. How many?
7. Who was he supposed to help?
8. Who were they to battle?
9. When were they to go?
10. Where had Sherman been?
11. Where was he to go?
12. Did he want to go there?
13. Where did he want to go?
14. For what purpose?
15. What his wish granted?
16. Where was he after that?
17. On what date?
18. Who lead there?
19. How many soldiers did he get from someone?
20. Who were they from?
****
answer: 1. 2,500
2. Sooy Smith
3. General
4. yes
5. Hurlbut
6. 7,000
7. Smith
8. Forrest
9. about the 1st of February.
10. Knoxville
11. Nashville
12. no
13. Mississippi
14. to clear out what Confederates might still be left
15. yes
16. Memphis
17. About the 10th of January
18. Hurlbut
19. about 20,000
20. McPherson

Question: CHAPTER III.

Noah, who is the first seafaring man we read of, begat three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japhet. Authors, it is true, are not wanting who affirm that the patriarch had a number of other children. Thus Berosus makes him father of the gigantic Titans; Methodius gives him a son called Jonithus, or Jonicus (who was the first inventor of Johnny cakes); and others have mentioned a son, named Thuiscon, from whom descended the Teutons or Teutonic, or, in other words, the Dutch nation.

I regret exceedingly that the nature of my plan will not permit me to gratify the laudable curiosity of my readers, by investigating minutely the history of the great Noah. Indeed, such an undertaking would be attended with more trouble than many people would imagine; for the good old patriarch seems to have been a great traveler in his day, and to have passed under a different name in every country that he visited. The Chaldeans, for instance, give us his story, merely altering his name into Xisuthrus--a trivial alteration, which to an historian skilled in etymologies will appear wholly unimportant. It appears, likewise, that he had exchanged his tarpaulin and quadrant among the Chaldeans for the gorgeous insignia of royalty, and appears as a monarch in their annals. The Egyptians celebrate him under the name of Osiris; the Indians as Menu; the Greek and Roman writers confound him with Ogyges; and the Theban with Deucalion and Saturn. But the Chinese, who deservedly rank among the most extensive and authentic historians, inasmuch as they have known the world much longer than any one else, declare that Noah was no other than Fohi; and what gives this assertion some air of credibility is that it is a fact, admitted by the most enlightened _literati_, that Noah traveled into China, at the time of the building of the Tower of Babel (probably to improve himself in the study of languages), and the learned Dr. Shuckford gives us the additional information that the ark rested on a mountain on the frontiers of China. 1. Who was first read of?
2. What was he?
3. did he have siblings?
4. did he have children?
5. sons or daughters?
6. how many
7. what was their names?
8. who was the father of titans?
9. who gave him one son?
10. where did thusicon come from?
11. who invented johnny cakes?
12. was researching noah easy?
13. did noah travel?
14. what was his name altered to by chaldeans?
15. what was his egyptian name?
16. his greek name?
17. what was his chinese given name?
18. did he travel to china?
19. what was being built?
20. where was the ark? Provide a numbered list of answers.
****
A numbered of answers:
1. Noah,
2. a seafaring man
3. no
4. yes
5. sons,
6. three
7. Shem, Ham, and Japhet
8. Berosus
9. Methodius
10. the Teutons or Teutonic
11. Jonicus
12. no
13. yes
14. Xisuthrus
15. Osiris
16. Ogyges
17. Fohi
18. yes
19. the Tower of Babel
20. on a mountain on the frontiers of China.