Q: Palermo (Italian: [palrmo] ( listen), Sicilian: Palermu, Latin: Panormus, from Greek: , Panormos, Arabic: , Balarm; Phoenician: , Ziz) is a city in Insular Italy, the capital of both the autonomous region of Sicily and the Province of Palermo. The city is noted for its history, culture, architecture and gastronomy, playing an important role throughout much of its existence; it is over 2,700 years old. Palermo is located in the northwest of the island of Sicily, right by the Gulf of Palermo in the Tyrrhenian Sea.

The city was founded in 734 BC by the Phoenicians as Ziz ('flower'). Palermo then became a possession of Carthage, before becoming part of the Roman Republic, the Roman Empire and eventually part of the Byzantine Empire, for over a thousand years. The Greeks named the city Panormus meaning 'complete port'. From 831 to 1072 the city was under Arab rule during the Emirate of Sicily when the city first became a capital. The Arabs shifted the Greek name into Balarm, the root for Palermo's present-day name. Following the Norman reconquest, Palermo became the capital of a new kingdom (from 1130 to 1816), the Kingdom of Sicily and the capital of the Holy Roman Empire under Frederick II Holy Roman Emperor and Conrad IV of Germany, King of the Romans. Eventually Sicily would be united with the Kingdom of Naples to form the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies until the Italian unification of 1860.

Answer the following questions:
1. What is the city being discussed?
2. When was it established?
3. What was the name given to it by the Greeks?
4. How does that translate?
5. Which means?
6. How did the Arabs refer to it
7. When did they rule?
8. What occured in 1860?
9. How did the Phoenicians refer to the city?
10. Which means?
11. Where is it located?
12. Is the city recognized for its cousine?
13. What else?
14. Are there any significant bodies of water nearby?
15. Can you name one?
A: 1. Palermo
2. 734 BC
3.
4. Panormos
5.
6. Balarm
7. From 831 to 1072
8. Italian unification
9. Ziz
10. flowe
11. northwest of Sicily
12. Yes
13. history, architecture and gastronomy
14. yes
15. Gulf of Palermo

Answer the questions at the end based on the text.

Steven Spielberg's new movie Lincolnpaints a vivid and breath-taking picture of the 16th U.S. president and his determination to end slavery. Spielberg based his film on parts ofTeam of Rivals, a book by Doris Kearns Goodwin. He makes Abraham Lincoln relevant today by presenting a cunning political mind trying to overcome Washington's all too familiar political divisions.

In previous movies, Lincoln was shown as a simple yet almost perfect man. But Spielberg's Lincolnis different. "I was determined to make a movie about a working president dealing with real problems. Not some angel," Spielberg said.

We watch the president first ending slavery and then the war.

The film's adviser, historian Eric Martin, explains how Lincoln's thinking evolved.

"His main objective when the war began was not the freeing of the slaves but to keep the country united. Lincoln realizes that in order to keep the country together, the question of slavery will have to be addressed," Martin said.

The film focuses on the last four months of his presidency.

In the movie, the arguments among political enemies seem very similar to the problems we see in Washington today. The disagreements were bitter.

The film turns to Lincoln's relationships with his wife and kids, his beliefs and constant self-examination. Daniel Day-Lewis, the actor who plays Lincoln, offers an Oscar-worthy performance as the 16th President. Not only is his physical similarity to the president incredible, he is able to capture many of Lincoln's mannerisms and his high-pitched, almost lady-like voice.

"I found it very easy to play the role of Lincoln because the real man himself was so open. When I was researching his history to prepare for the part, one of the most surprising things I found was just how accessible he was. Even in war-time, when he was in great danger, he was always willing to meet with others and share his ideas," Day-Lewis said.

Spielberg's Lincolnwill head to the Oscars. But more important it will make history.

1. What is Spielberg's newest release?
2. Who is it about?
3. What is his name?
4. What does he want to achieve when the war began?
5. What will he need to take care of to do that?
6. Which part of his term did the movie deal with?
7. What did Spielberg not want to make him look like?
8. Do other movies show him that way?
9. Does Lincoln have a family?
10. Are they included?
11. Who is the actor portraying him?
12. How do their bodies compare?
13. Does he do a good job with the mannerisms?
14. What kind of voice did Lincoln have?
15. Does the actor recreate that?
16. What did he do to get ready for the role?
17. What shocked him?
18. What did he like to share?
19. Who authored the book that part of the movie was based on?
20. Is it expected to get nominated for an Oscar?

Numbered answers:

A: 1. Lincoln
2. the 16th U.S. president
3. Abraham Lincoln
4. to keep the country united.
5. the question of slavery will have to be addressed
6. the last four months
7. some angel
8. Yes
9. Yes
10. Yes
11. Daniel Day-Lewis
12. Physically similar
13. Yes
14. high-pitched
15. Yes
16. Researched his history
17. how accessible he was.
18. his ideas
19. Doris Kearns Goodwin
20. Yes

Answer the questions at the end based on the text.

The House of Bourbon is a European royal house of French origin, a branch of the Capetian dynasty (). Bourbonic kings first ruled France and Navarre in the 16th century. By the 18th century, members of the Spanish Bourbon dynasty held thrones in Spain, Naples, Sicily, and Parma. Spain and Luxembourg currently have monarchs of the House of Bourbon.

The royal Bourbons originated in 1272 when the heiress of the lordship of Bourbon married the youngest son of King Louis IX. The house continued for three centuries as a cadet branch, while more senior Capetians ruled France, until Henry IV became the first Bourbon king of France in 1589. Bourbon monarchs then united to France the small kingdom of Navarre, which Henry's father had acquired by marriage in 1555, ruling both until the 1792 overthrow of the monarchy during the French Revolution. Restored briefly in 1814 and definitively in 1815 after the fall of the First French Empire, the senior line of the Bourbons was finally overthrown in the July Revolution of 1830. A cadet Bourbon branch, the House of Orleans, then ruled for 18 years (18301848), until it too was overthrown.

The Princes de Conde were a cadet branch of the Bourbons descended from an uncle of Henry IV, and the Princes de Conti were a cadet branch of the Conde. Both houses were prominent French noble families well known for their participation in French affairs, even during exile in the French Revolution, until their respective extinctions in 1830 and 1814.

1. What 's the main topic?
2. When did it originate?
3. Was the wife or the husband the Bourbon in the marriage?
4. Who did she marry?
5. What is The House of Bourbon?
6. In what century did the house have Spanish thrones?
7. What dynasty did they belong to?
8. In what century did they first rule?
9. And for how much longer did the house hold on?
10. What branch?
11. What types of rules were French property at the time?
12. Name a Bourbon cadet branch?

Numbered answers:

A:
1. The House of Bourbon
2. 1272
3. wife
4. the youngest son of King Louis IX.
5. a European royal house of French origin
6. By the 18th century
7. the Spanish Bourbon dynasty
8. 16th
9. three centuries
10. a cadet branch
11. senior Capetians
12. the House of Orleans