question: The territory that now constitutes Tajikistan was previously home to several ancient cultures, including the city of Sarazm of the Neolithic and the Bronze Age, and was later home to kingdoms ruled by people of different faiths and cultures, including the Oxus civilization, Andronovo culture, Buddhism, Nestorian Christianity, Zoroastrianism, and Manichaeism. The area has been ruled by numerous empires and dynasties, including the Achaemenid Empire, Sassanian Empire, Hephthalite Empire, Samanid Empire, Mongol Empire, Timurid dynasty, and the Russian Empire. As a result of the breakup of the Soviet Union, Tajikistan became an independent nation in 1991. A civil war was fought almost immediately after independence, lasting from 1992 to 1997. Since the end of the war, newly established political stability and foreign aid have allowed the country's economy to grow.

Tajiks began to be conscripted into the Soviet Army in 1939 and during World War II around 260,000 Tajik citizens fought against Germany, Finland and Japan. Between 60,000(4%) and 120,000(8%) of Tajikistan's 1,530,000 citizens were killed during World War II. Following the war and Stalin's reign attempts were made to further expand the agriculture and industry of Tajikistan. During 195758 Nikita Khrushchev's Virgin Lands Campaign focused attention on Tajikistan, where living conditions, education and industry lagged behind the other Soviet Republics. In the 1980s, Tajikistan had the lowest household saving rate in the USSR, the lowest percentage of households in the two top per capita income groups, and the lowest rate of university graduates per 1000 people. By the late 1980s Tajik nationalists were calling for increased rights. Real disturbances did not occur within the republic until 1990. The following year, the Soviet Union collapsed, and Tajikistan declared its independence.
1. Were there other cultures in Tajikistan?
2. Any example?
3. What period was that?
4. Did others showed up later?
5. Any example?
6. Who used to rule the area?
7. Did they stay with them?
8. What happened?
9. Which year?
10. What happened to them just after that?
11. Which year?
12. Did they recover from that?
13. What helped them in that?
14. What was their role in the Soviet Army?
15. After war who tried to industrialize the place?
16. Who addressed their plight next?
17. In which years?
18. How they fared compared to other Republics?
19. What was their savings ranked in the 80s?
20. After which year they declared independence?
****
answer: 1. yes
2. Sarazm
3. the Neolithic and the Bronze Age
4. yes
5. Buddhism
6. the Soviet Union
7. no
8. the breakup of the Soviet Union
9. 1991
10. A civil war
11. from 1992 to 1997
12. yes
13. political stability and foreign aid
14. 260,000 citizens fought in World War II
15. Stalin
16. Nikita Khrushchev
17. 195758
18. poorly
19. the lowest in the USSR
20. after 1990

question: Tom and Fred are talking about the year 2020. "What will our world be like in the year 2020?" asks Tom. "I don't know," says Fred. "What do you think?" asks Tom. "Well, no one knows, but it's interesting to guess," says Fred. "In the year 2020 everyone will carry a pocket computer. The computer will give people the answer to all their problem. We will have telephones in our pockets, too, and we will be able to talk to our friends," says Tom. "A lot of people will live and work under the sea. Machines will do most of the work, and so people will have more holidays. They will be able to fly to the moon by spaceship and spend their holidays there," says Fred. "And I hope I will be able to live under the sea," says Tom. "Won't that be very interesting? Just like a fish."
1. Who is talking?
2. About what?
3. What will everyone carry?
4. What will it do?
5. How will we communicate?
6. Who will contribute most?
7. Why?
8. Where?
9. How will they get there?
10. Who wishes to survive under water?
****
answer: 1. Tom and Fred
2. the year 2020?
3. a pocket computer
4. answer all problems.
5. telephones in our pockets
6. Machines
7. so people will have more holidays.
8. the moon
9. spaceship
10. Tom.

question: Alfred Alder, a famous psychiatrist, had an interesting experience. When he was a small boy he got off to a poor start in arithmetic. His teacher got the idea that he had no ability in arithmetic, and told his parents what she thought in order that they would not expect too much of him. In this way, they too developed the idea, "Isn't it too bad that Alfred can't do arithmetic?" He accepted their mistaken estimate of his ability, feeling that it was useless to try, and that he was very poor at arithmetic, just as they expected.

One day he became very angry at the teacher and the other students because they laughed when he said he saw how to do a problem which none of the other students had been able to solve.

Adler succeeded in solving the problem. This gave him confidence. He rejected the idea that he couldn't do arithmetic and was determined to show them that he could. His anger and his new found confidence stimulated him to go at arithmetic problems with a new spirit. He now worked with interest, determination, and purpose, and he soon became extraordinarily good at arithmetic. He not only proved that he could do arithmetic, but he learned early in life from his own experience that, if a person goes at a job with determination and purpose, he may astonish himself as well as others by his ability.

This experience made him realize that many people have more ability than they think they have, and that lack of success is as often the result of lack of knowledge of how to apply one's ability, lack of confidence, and lack of determination as it is the result of lack of ability.
1. Is Alfred Alder good at math?
2. Was he always?
3. Did the teacher encourage him?
4. Did she have a talk with his parents?
5. About what?
6. Then did they give up on his future in math?
7. Did this effect him?
8. Try what?
9. What ending up boosting his ego?
10. Was he mad?
11. At who?
12. Why?
13. did he approach math in a new way?
14. Wny?
15. Did he learn a lesson from this?
16. What does he think people are missing when they don't succeed?
17. What did he do for a living?
18. Was the teacher wrong about his math ability?
19. What about his parents?
20. did he complete the problem that he was laughed at for?
****
answer:
1. Yes
2. no
3. No
4. yes
5. that they should not expect too much of his math abilities
6. Yes
7. he felt that it was useless to try
8. To try and excel at arithmetic
9. Adler succeeded in solving a problem that none of the other student had been able to
10. Yes
11. at the teacher and the other students
12. because they laughed when he said he saw how to do the problem
13. He now worked with interest, determination, and purpose
14. Because he was determined to show them that he could do arithmetic
15. He learned that if a person goes at a job with determination and purpose, he may astonish himself as well as others by his ability.
16. a lack of knowledge of how to apply one's ability, a lack of confidence, and a lack of determination
17. He was a famous psychiatrist
18. Yes
19. Also yes
20. Yes