Q: Australia uses three main time zones: Australian Western Standard Time (AWST; ), Australian Central Standard Time (ACST; ), and Australian Eastern Standard Time (AEST; ). Time is regulated by the individual state governments, some of which observe daylight saving time (DST). Australia's external territories observe different time zones.

Standard time was introduced in the 1890s when all of the Australian colonies adopted it. Before the switch to standard time zones, each local city or town was free to determine its local time, called local mean time. Now, Western Australia uses Western Standard Time; South Australia and the Northern Territory use Central Standard Time; while New South Wales, Queensland, Tasmania, Victoria, and the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) use Eastern Standard Time.

Daylight saving time is used in South Australia, New South Wales, Victoria, Tasmania, and the ACT. It is not currently used in Western Australia, Queensland or the Northern Territory.

The standardization of time in Australia began in 1892, when surveyors from the six colonies in Australia met in Melbourne for the Intercolonial Conference of Surveyors. The delegates accepted the recommendation of the 1884 International Meridian Conference to adopt Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) as the basis for standard time.

The colonies enacted time zone legislation, which took effect in February 1895. The clocks were set ahead of GMT by eight hours in Western Australia; by nine hours in South Australia (and the Northern Territory, which it governed); and by 10 hours in Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria, and Tasmania. The three time zones became known as "Eastern Standard Time", "Central Standard Time", and "Western Standard Time". Broken Hill in the far west of New South Wales also adopted Central Standard Time due to it being connected by rail to Adelaide but not Sydney at the time.

Answer the following questions:
1. How many times zones does Australia have?
2. Who regulates time?
3. Do they all observe DST?
A: 1. three
2. ndividual state governments
3. no
Q: Woody Guthrie left California for New York in 1940. There he met Alan Lomax, an expert on America's traditional music. He collected and recorded traditional American folk music, which had few fans at that time. When he heard Woody sing, Lomax knew he had found a true singer of American folk music. Lomax recorded many of Woody's songs for the Library of Congress.

Three years later, Woody published a book called Bound for Glory. It was about his early life and travels. From this book people came to learn how Woody had spent his unhappy youth. His mother, Nora Guthrie, died of Huntington's Disease in 1929 when he was only seventeen years old. There was no treatment for the disease. About twenty years later, the disease also began to attack the son. Woody's health got worse and worse, and finally he entered a hospital.

While Woody seemed to be forgotten, his music was not. By the late 1950s, folk music became popular in America. More Americans began listening and playing the songs of Woody Guthrie. Young folk singers came to New York to visit Woody in the hospital. Among them was Bob Dylan, one of America's greatest popular songwriters. He called Woody his hero. Dylan and others copied the way Woody sang and played the guitar. And like Woody, they wrote songs that called for social and political justice .

Woody Guthrie stayed in the hospital until he died in 1967. In the last years of his life, Woody could hardly speak. But his family and friends knew he still believed in the causes he had sung and written about all his life. They knew this because when they sang his songs, Woody's eyes would become brighter and his defiant spirit would shine through.

Answer the following questions:
1. When did Woody leave California?
2. Where did he go?
3. Who did he meet there?
4. What was Alan an expert in?
5. What did he do with the music?
6. Was it popular during that time period?
7. What happened after he sang for him?
8. Where did Woody stay until he passed away?
9. When was that?
10. Was he able to perform at all right before he passed away?
11. What brought happiness and light to him in his final days?
12. What did he write?
13. Did he write anything else?
14. What was it called?
15. What was it about?
16. Who was his mom?
17. What did she pass away from?
18. When was that?
19. How old was he when she passed?
20. What did he die of?
A: 1. 1940
2. NewYork
3. Alan Lomax
4. American music
5. collected and recorded it
6. no
7. Lomax recirded his songs
8. in the hospital
9. 1967
10. noeak.
11. hearing his songs
12. folk music
13. a book
14. Bound for Glory
15. his early life
16. Nora
17. Huntington's Disease
18. 929
19. seventeen
20. Huntington's disease
Q: Madrasa (Arabic: , madrasah, pl. , madaris, Turkish: Medrese) is the Arabic word for any type of educational institution, whether secular or religious (of any religion). The word is variously transliterated madrasah, madarasaa, medresa, madrassa, madraza, medrese, etc. In the West, the word usually refers to a specific type of religious school or college for the study of the Islamic religion, though this may not be the only subject studied. Not all students in madaris are Muslims; there is also a modern curriculum.

The word madrasah derives from the triconsonantal Semitic root -- D-R-S 'to learn, study', through the wazn (form/stem) (); mafal(ah), meaning "a place where something is done". Therefore, madrasah literally means "a place where learning and studying take place". The word is also present as a loanword with the same innocuous meaning in many Arabic-influenced languages, such as: Urdu, Bengali, Hindi, Persian, Turkish, Azeri, Kurdish, Indonesian, Malay and Bosnian / Croatian. In the Arabic language, the word madrasah simply means the same as school does in the English language, whether that is private, public or parochial school, as well as for any primary or secondary school whether Muslim, non-Muslim, or secular. Unlike the use of the word school in British English, the word madrasah more closely resembles the term school in American English, in that it can refer to a university-level or post-graduate school as well as to a primary or secondary school. For example, in the Ottoman Empire during the Early Modern Period, madaris had lower schools and specialised schools where the students became known as danismends. The usual Arabic word for a university, however, is (jamiah). The Hebrew cognate midrasha also connotes the meaning of a place of learning; the related term midrash literally refers to study or learning, but has acquired mystical and religious connotations.

Answer the following questions:
1. what is the article mainly about?
2. what does the word literally mean?
3. can it be private school?
4. what language does it come from?
5. are all students in madaris Muslim?
6. is it generally considered a religious school in the west?
7. what levels of school does it cover?
8. what is the Arabic word for University?
9. is modern curriculum offered in madrasa?
10. what are some Arabic languages that are mentioned?
A:
1. Madrasa
2. Any type of educational institution,
3. Yes
4. Arabic
5. No
6. Yes
7. university-level or post-graduate school as well as to a primary or secondary school
8.
9. Yes
10. Urdu, Bengali, Hindi, Persian, Turkish, Azeri, Kurdish, Indonesian, Malay and Bosnian / Croatian.