the-french-artist/wikipedia_20220301.simple_sentence_split huggingface dataset:
In many countries a company or business can ask the courts for bankruptcy protection to try and protect the business so that the creditors cannot destroy all of the physical capital and goodwill by breaking it apart and moving it away.
The aim of this is provide is more time for the business to reorganise itself and to work out a new deal between the owners and the people the business owes money.
In many countries this is called going into administration.
Debt slavery
Often a creditor threatens a debtor with debt slavery in many parts of the world.
In some cases the debtor does not know that they have a right to go bankrupt.
This is a human rights problem in some countries.
Also, some creditors continue to harass a debtor even though bankruptcy laws say they should not, hoping that the debtor will pay them money that they do not deserve.
Bankruptcy in the United States falls mostly under federal law, Title 11 of the United States Code (Bankruptcy Code).
The types of bankruptcy available in the United States are named after the primary divisions, or "chapters", of that law.
The person or business that files a bankruptcy case is known as the debtor.
When a bankruptcy case is filed, a trustee is chosen by the court.
The trustee has authority over the property of the bankrupt person or business and may use some of the debtor's assets to pay the creditors.
After a bankruptcy is filed, creditors are notified that they are to stop trying to collect money directly from the debtor and are to make claims for payment to the bankruptcy court.
The most common form of bankruptcy is the Chapter 7 Bankruptcy, which can be filed by businesses or individuals.
It is also called liquidation bankruptcy because some of a debtor's property may be sold (liquidated) to satisfy creditors.
When a business is in debt which it cannot pay, it may ask or be forced to file bankruptcy in court under Chapter 7.
This usually makes a company stop doing business.
Employees often lose their jobs when company files for chapter 7.
Chapter 11 bankruptcy is a complicated type of bankruptcy that reorganizes the debtor's finances, usually reducing the amount of debt owed and changing debt repayment terms.
A Chapter 11 bankruptcy case allows a business to keep running while it finds ways to reduce and arrange payment of its debts.
Almost all Chapter 11 bankruptcies are filed by businesses.
Ordinary people do not usually file Chapter 11 bankruptcy, because a Chapter 13 bankruptcy will almost always be cheaper and easier for them.
Chapter 13 is the most popular form of bankruptcy in the United States for ordinary people.
In a Chapter 13 bankruptcy some of your debts may be forgiven (discharged), but you will have to pay back a portion of your debt.
The debt repayment plan is supervised by the bankruptcy court and usually lasts for three to five years.
Businesses cannot file for Chapter 13 bankruptcy.
Other bankruptcy chapters
Chapter 9 bankruptcy allows municipalities, smaller units of government such as cities and towns, to restructure their debts.
Chapter 12 bankruptcy is a special type of bankruptcy for family farms and fishermen.
It combines elements of Chapter 11 and Chapter 13 bankruptcy to allow smaller farms and fishing businesses to stay open while they restructure their debts.
Breakfast sausage is a type of fresh pork sausage made from seasoned ground meat mixed with bread crumbs.
Breakfast sausage has a blander flavor than many other types of sausage, such as British or Italian-style sausages.
Using breakfast sausages
Breakfast sausages are not cured or smoked like other types of sausages, which means that they have to be cooked soon after they are purchased (unless they are frozen).
Uncooked sausages should be stored in the refrigerator or the freezer.
Individuals handling them should wash their hands in hot soapy water, because uncooked pork is unhealthy for humans.
Pork sausages have to be heated until all of the meat inside is cooked.
They are usually fried or grilled in a pan until they are browned and served at breakfast, often with cooked eggs, pancakes, and toasted bread.
Breakfast sausages are also used in other dishes, such as "toad in the hole" a cooked batter dish.
Types of breakfast sausages
Different types made from pork and beef mixtures as well as poultry can now be found.
There are also vegetarian types that use textured vegetable protein in place of meat.
Breakfast sausages are available in patties or slices from a large roll, or in weiner-like links of different lengths and thickness.
A browser is a name given to any animal, usually a herbivorous mammal, which eats leaves and shrubs rather than grass.
It is contrasted with grazers, which eat grass.
The keeping of bees is usually, and has been in the past, for honey.
That is becoming less true.
Instead, it is more used for crop pollination and other products.
These are wax and propolis.
There is only one queen bee in each hive and she is bigger than the rest.
She lays all the eggs, which makes all the other bees in the hive her daughters and sons.
However, they do not control the hive.
Types of beekeeping
The largest beekeeping operations are agricultural businesses that are operated for profit.
Some people also have small beekeeping operations that they do as a hobby.
Urban beekeeping is a growing trend, and some have found that "city bees" are actually healthier than "rural bees" because there are fewer pesticides and greater biodiversity.
British English or UK English is the dialect of the English language spoken in the United Kingdom.
It is different in some ways from other types of English, such as American English.
British English is widely spoken throughout most countries that were historically part of the British Empire.
Use in other countries
American English is used in the United States.
In Canada, the accent sounds extremely similar to American English but with few exceptions (see Canadian English).
Canada has mixed the spelling rules of American and British English to form its own spelling rules.
All members of the Commonwealth of Nations learn British English, while American English is often learnt in the Americas, Japan and South Korea.
The United Kingdom and Ireland use British layout keyboards, while Australia, South Africa, Canada, New Zealand and the US use American layout keyboards.
In continental Europe, English as a second language is sometimes taught in American English, except in Scandinavia and the Netherlands where British English is taught.
In the United Kingdom, the spelling remains the same but the pronunciation varies with local dialect.
For example, a person from a place near London may not pronounce his "r"s the same as a person from Scotland.
Across the country, the accent is different.
For instance, in Liverpool, people may speak with a "Scouse" accent, in Birmingham with a "Brummie" accent and in London with a "Cockney" accent.
Many of the British English rules are also used in other countries outside of the United Kingdom.
Most of those countries are members of the Commonwealth of Nations.
In British English, "dock" refers to the water in the space between two "piers" or "wharfs".
In American English, the "pier" or "wharf" could be called a "dock", and the water between would be a "slip".
British English – American English
accelerator – throttle
autumn – fall
biscuit – cookie
bonnet – hood (of a car)
boot – trunk (of a car)
bum – butt
caravan – trailer, mobile home
chips – French fries
courgette – zucchini
crisps – chips
face flannel – washcloth
flat – apartment
football – soccer
garden – yard
handbag – purse
jumper – sweater
lift – elevator
lorry – truck
manual gearbox – stick shift
metro, underground, tube – subway
motorway – freeway
mum – mom
nappy – diaper
number plate – license plate
pants - underpants
pavement – sidewalk
pram – stroller
petrol – gas or gasoline
phone box - phone booth
post – mail, mailbox
railway – railroad
shopping trolley – shopping cart
take-away – take-out
trousers – pants - Only Superman wears his pants outside of his trousers
torch – flashlight
tram – streetcar
British and American English differences
Being is also a present tense part of to be
The word being means a living person or animal. ‘
Human being’ means the same as ’person’.
Men, women, and children are human beings.
Some people write stories or make movies about beings from other planets.
Most religions talk about supernatural beings, for example spirits, angels, devils, gods, or God.
Beijing is the capital of the People's Republic of China.
The city used to be known as Peking.
It is in the northern and eastern parts of the country.
It is the world's most populous capital city.
The city of Beijing has played a very important role in the development of China.
Many people from different cities and countries come to Beijing to look for better chances to find work.
Nearly 15 million people live there.
In 2008 Beijing hosted the Summer Olympic Games, and will host the 2022 Winter Olympic Games.
It will be the only city to host both.
Beijing is well known for its ancient history.
Since the Jin Dynasty, Beijing has been the capital of several dynasties (especially the later ones), including the Yuan, Ming, and Qing.
There are many places of historic interest in Beijing.
The Mandarin Chinese name of the city is Běijīng, which means "The Northern Capital".
It got this name when the Yongle Emperor of the Ming family of rulers moved most of his government from Nanjing ("The Southern Capital") in the early 1400s.
In Chinese, Beijing's name is written  Today, people spell it "Beijing" because they use the pinyin way of spelling, which shows what the name should sound like in Mandarin.
People used to spell it "Peking" because that was the spelling used by some of the first people from Europe to visit the Ming and write home about it; the Jesuits' work was made popular by their French brother Du Halde.
It then became the official Chinese Postal Map spelling around 1900 and continued to be used until pinyin became more popular.
The center of Beijing was settled in the 1st millennium BC.
In those days, the Kingdom of Yan (燕, Yān) set up their capital where Beijing is today.
They called it Ji (蓟, Jì).
After the Kingdom of Yan was destroyed, the city became smaller, although it was still an important place.
Beijing became more important again in the 10th century, when the Jin dynasty set its capital there.
This city was destroyed by Mongol forces in 1215.
Then in 1267, Mongols built a new city on the north side of the Jin capital, and called it "Great Capital" (大都, Dàdū), which was the beginning of modern Beijing.
When Kublai Khan the Mongolian monarch, set up the Yuan dynasty, this city became his capital.
The Yuan Dynasty, Ming Dynasty and Qing dynasty all made Beijing their capital.
When the Qing dynasty lost power and the Republic of China was set up, the new Republic moved its capital from Beijing to Nanjing.
When the People's Republic of China seized power, Beijing became the capital of China again.
Special places
The Great Wall of China (Chángchéng), in the mountains between Beijing and the grasslands of Mongolia
The Forbidden City (Gùgōng), the most important home of the emperors of Ming and Qing China
Tian'anmen Square (Tiān'ānmén Guǎngchǎng), surrounded by China's most important government buildings and museums
Jingshan & Beihai Parks, the hill overlooking the Forbidden City and the lake beside it, with many temples
The Summer Palace (Yìhéyuán) and Old Summer Palace (Yuánmíng Yuán), the more natural home of the last Qing emperors and what is left of an older one
Prince Gong's Mansion, a very nice old house for one of the Qing princes
The Imperial Ancestral Temple (Tàimiào), where the emperors remembered the earlier people in their families
The Temple of Heaven (Tiāntán) and Temple of the Earth (Dìtán), important places for China's old national religion
The Temples of the Sun and the Moon, other important places for China's old national religion
The Temple of Confucius and Imperial Academy, important places for China's old kind of education
Niujie Mosque, a place for Beijing's Muslims and one of the city's oldest buildings
The National and Urban Planning Museums
Olympic Green, the park left from the 2008 Beijing Olympics
Marco Polo Bridge, a very old bridge across the main river west of town
Ming Tombs, where many Ming emperors were buried
Zhoukoudian, caves in the mountains west of town where people lived long, long ago
Beijing is the education center of People's Republic of China.
More than 500 famous universities of China are in Beijing.
They also include 5 of the top universities: Peking University, Tsinghua University, China People University, Beijing Normal University, and Beihang University.
Beijing is also education center of China for teaching Chinese as a foreign language.
The standard Chinese pronunciation is based on Beijing dialect, so over 70% foreigners who want to study Chinese go to Beijing for their studies.
Beijing Travel
Beijing Travel Guide
Voyage Pékin
Photos of Beijing
Olympic cities
Provinces of China
A bottle is a container used to carry liquids.
Bottles can have many different sizes.
Bottles are usually made of glass or plastic.
Usually, Beer bottles are made of glass, and soft drinks are made of plastic.
The word berry is used for many different kinds of small fruits that have many seeds and can be used as food.
Some examples are raspberry, strawberry, sutberry, lingonberry and blueberry.
When botanists talk about berries, they mean a simple fruit produced from a single ovary.
They sometimes call this true berry, to distinguish it from false berries.
By that statement of how words are used, grapes or tomatoes are true berries.
The berry is the most common type of soft fruit in which the entire ovary wall gets to the right stage of development of the pericarp which can be taken as food.
The flowers of these plants have an upper ovary with one or more carpels.
The seeds are inside the soft body of the ovary.
Berries are small, sweet, bright colored fruits.
Due to this, they are able to bring more animals towards them and spread their seeds.
Some fruits that are called berries in English are not true berries by the use of words above.
These include raspberries, strawberry, sutberry, blackberries, cranberries, and boysenberries.
Some true berries do not have berry in their name.
These include tomatoes, bananas, eggplants, guavas, pomegranates and chillies.
Pumpkins, cucumbers, melons, oranges and lemons are also berries that have slightly different structure and may be called by different names (pepo for pumpkins, cucumbers, and melons, or hesperidium for oranges and lemons).
Boiling, heating a liquid to the point where it turns into gas
Boil, a type of Staphylococcal infection
The hair that grows on the upper lip of some men is a mustache.
When a man has hair only below the lower lip and above the chin, it is called a soul patch.
Some men have a lot of hair and a big beard, and some have very little.
In the modern world, many men shave part or all of their beards, or cut their beard so it does not get very long.
Women with hirsutism will also have beards.
Facial hair
In light, black is lack of all color.
In painting, however, the black pigment is the combination of all colors.
In heraldry, black is called "sable".
It is the opposite of white.
Origin of black
The word "black" comes from Old English blæc ("black, dark", also, "ink"), from Proto-Germanic *blakkaz ("burned"), and from Proto-Indo-European *bhleg-.
Black is the darkest color/tone on a scale.
Black in science
In science, an object that is black absorbs the light that hits it.
Because these objects do not reflect any light, the human eye can't see any color coming from that object.
The brain then sees these objects as black.
A way to create black objects is to mix pigments.
A pigment works by reflecting only the color of the pigment.
For example, a blue pigment absorbs all colors except blue.
By mixing pigments in the right quantities, black can be made.
Meaning of black
Black is associated with power, elegance, formality, safety, birth, male, and mystery.
Black is a dark color, the darkest color there is.
Black, along with gray and white, is a neutral color.
This means that it is not a hot color or a cool color.
Black is a color seen with fear and the unknown (black holes).
It can have a bad meaning (blackbird, black bunny) or a good meaning ('in the black', 'black is beautiful').
Black can stand for strength and power.
It can be a formal, elegant, and high-class color (black tie, black Mercedes, black man).
Black clothing is dark in emo and goth subculture.
Bubonic plague is the best-known form of the disease plague, which is caused by the bacterium Yersinia pestis.
The name bubonic plague is specific for this form of the disease, which enters through the skin, and travels through the lymphatic system.
The plague was spread by fleas on rats.
This method of spreading disease is a zoonosis.
If the disease is left untreated, it kills about half its victims in three to seven days.
The bubonic plague was the disease that caused the Black Death, which killed tens of millions of people in Europe, in the Middle Ages.
Different kinds of the same disease
There are different kinds of Bubonic plague.
The most common form of the disease is spread by a certain kind of flea, that lives on rats.
Then there is an incubation period which can last from a few hours to about seven days.
Pneumonic plague
This happens when the bacterium can enter the lungs.
About 95% of all people with this form will die.
Incubation period is only one to two days.
The abortive form
This is the most harmless form.
It will result in a small fever.
After that, the victim's body produces antibodies that protect against all forms of the disease for a long time.
The first recorded epidemic was in the Eastern Roman Empire (Byzantine Empire), It was called the Plague of Justinian after emperor Justinian I, who was infected but survived through extensive treatment.
The pandemic resulted in the deaths of an estimated 25 million (6th century outbreak) to 50 million people (two centuries of recurrence).
During the 1300s, this epidemic struck parts of Asia, North Africa, and Europe.
Almost a third of the people in Europe died of it.
Unlike catastrophes that pull communities together, this epidemic was so terrifying that it broke people's trust in one another.
Giovanni Boccaccio, an Italian writer of the time, described it: "This scourge had implanted so great a terror in the hearts of men and women that brothers abandoned brothers, uncles their nephews, sisters their brothers, and in many cases wives deserted their husbands.
But even worse,... fathers and mothers refused to nurse and assist their own children".
Local outbreaks of the plague are grouped into three plague pandemics, whereby the respective start and end dates and the assignment of some outbreaks to either pandemic are still subject to discussion.
The pandemics were:
the first plague pandemic from 541 to ~750, spreading from Egypt to the Mediterranean (starting with the Plague of Justinian) and northwestern Europe
the second plague pandemic from ~1331 to ~1855, spreading from Central Asia to the Mediterranean and Europe (starting with the Black Death), and probably also to China
the third plague pandemic from 1855 to 1960, spreading from China to various places around the world, notably India and the West Coast of the United States.
Globally about 600 cases of plague are reported a year.
In 2017 the countries with the most cases include the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Madagascar, and Peru.
The transmission of Y. pestis by fleas is well known.
Fleas are the vector.
The flea gets the bacteria as they feed on an infected animal, usually a rodent.
Several proteins then work to keep the bacteria in the flea's digestive tract.
This is important for the survival of Y. pestis in fleas.
In the 20th century, some countries did research on the bacteria that causes bubonic plague, in order to use it for biological warfare.
Samples of this bacteria are carefully controlled.
There is much paranoia (fear) about it.
Dr. Thomas C. Butler, a US expert in this organism was charged in October 2003 by the FBI with various crimes.
This happened after he said he lost samples of Yersinia pestis.
This is the bacteria that causes bubonic plague.
The FBI did not find the samples.
They do not know what happened to them.
Zoonoses
Biology  is the science that studies life, and living things, and the evolution of life.
Living things include animals, plants, fungi (such as mushrooms), and microorganisms such as bacteria and archaea.
The term 'biology' is relatively modern.
It was introduced in 1799 by a physician, Thomas Beddoes.
People who study biology are called biologists.
Biology looks at how animals and other living things behave and work, and what they are like.
Biology also studies how organisms react with each other and the environment.
It has existed as a science for about 200 years, and before that it was called "natural history".
Biology has many research fields and branches.
Like all sciences, biology uses the scientific method.
This means that biologists must be able to show evidence for their ideas and that other biologists must be able to test the ideas for themselves.
"What are the characteristics of this living thing?" (
comparative anatomy)
"How do the parts work?" (
physiology)
"How should we group living things?" (
classification, taxonomy)
"What does this living thing do?" (
behaviour, growth)
"How does inheritance work?" (
genetics)
"What is the history of life?" (
palaeontology)
"How do living things relate to their environment?" (
ecology)
The word biology comes from the Greek word βίος (bios), "life", and the suffix -λογία (logia), "study of".
Algalogy
Carcinology
Evolution / Evolutionary biology
Genetics / Genomics
Grammminology/ Agrostology
Helminthology
Hydrobiology
Human biology / Anthropology / Primatology
Lichenlogy
Mammalology
Microbiology / Bacteriology
Mycology / Lichenology
Palaeontology
Parasitology
Science-related lists
Botany is the study of plants.
It is a science.
It is a branch of biology, and is also called plant biology.
It is sometimes called phytology.
Scientists who study botany are called botanists.
They study how plants work.
Branches of botany
Agronomy—Application of plant science to crop production
Bryology—Mosses, liverworts, and hornworts
Forestry—Forest management and related studies
Horticulture—Cultivated plants
Micropaleontology—Pollen and spores
Mycology—Fungi
Paleobotany—Fossil plants
Phycology—Algae
Phytochemistry—Plant secondary chemistry and chemical processes
Phytopathology—Plant diseases
Plant anatomy—Cell and tissue structure
Plant ecology—Role of plants in the environment
Plant genetics—Genetic inheritance in plants
Plant morphology—Structure and life cycles
Plant physiology—Life functions of plants
Plant systematics—Classification and naming of plants
Recent trends
University departments of botany are often now merged into a wider group of specialities, including cell biology, genetics, ecology, cytology, palaeontology and other topics.
This gives students and research workers access to a wider education and a wider range of research techniques.
Notable botanists
Theophrastus, Hellenistic philosopher, wrote books, systematized botanical descriptions.
Ibn al-Baitar (d. 1248), Andalusian-Arab scientist, author of one of the largest botanical encyclopedias.
Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon (1707–1788) was a French naturalist, Intendant of the Jardin du Roi ('King's Garden').
Buffon published thirty-five volumes of his Histoire naturelle during his lifetime, and nine more volumes were published after his death.
Luther Burbank (1849–1926), American botanist, horticulturist, and a pioneer in agricultural science.
Charles Darwin (1809–1882) wrote eight important books on botany after he published the Origin of Species.
Al-Dinawari (828–896), Kurdish botanist, historian, geographer, astronomer, mathematician, and founder of Arabic botany.
Conrad Gessner (1516–1565) was a Swiss naturalist and bibliographer.
Joseph Dalton Hooker (1817–1911), English botanist and explorer.
Second winner of Darwin Medal.
Carl Linnaeus (1707–1778), Swedish botanist, physician and zoologist who laid the foundations for the modern scheme of Binomial nomenclature.
He is known as the father of modern taxonomy, and is also considered one of the fathers of modern ecology.
Gregor Mendel (1822–1884), Augustinian priest and scientist, and is often called the father of genetics for his study of the inheritance of traits in pea plants.
John Ray (1627–1705) was an English naturalist, the father of English natural history.
G. Ledyard Stebbins (1906–2000) was an American botanist and geneticist.
He was one of the leading evolutionary biologists of the 20th century.
Eduard Strasburger (1844–1912) was a Polish-German professor who was one of the most famous botanists of the 19th century.
Nikolai Vavilov (1887–1943) was a Russian botanist and geneticist.
He  showed how and where crop plants evolved.
He studied and improved wheat, corn, and other cereal crops.
Belgium, officially the Kingdom of Belgium (Dutch: Koninkrijk België, German: Königreich Belgien, French: Royaume de Belgique), is a federal state in Western Europe.
Belgium has an area of .
Around 11 million people live in Belgium.
It is a founding member of the European Union and is home to its headquarters.
The capital city of Belgium is Brussels, where the European Union, NATO and other famous organisations are based.
Flanders is the name of the northern half of Belgium, just south of the Netherlands.
Most of the people in this region, called the Flemish people, speak Dutch.
Wallonia is the name of the southern half of Belgium, just north of France.
Here, most of the people, the Walloons, speak French.
There is a small part of Wallonia next to the border with Germany where the people speak German.
The Brussels-Capital Region, where the capital of Brussels is found, is in the middle of the country, but surrounded by Flanders on all sides.
It used to be Dutch-speaking, but today French is mostly spoken, with some Dutch.
The population is about 60% Dutch-speaking, 39% French-speaking, and 1% German-speaking (the so-called Deutschbelgier).
To look after all these groups, Belgium has a complicated system of government.
The name 'Belgium' comes from Gallia Belgica.
This was a Roman province in the northernmost part of Gaul.
Before Roman invasion in 100 BC, the Belgae, a mix of Celtic and Germanic peoples, lived there.
The Germanic Frankish tribes during the 5th century brought the area under the rule of the Merovingian kings.
A slow shift of power during the 8th century led the kingdom of the Franks to change into the Carolingian Empire.
The Treaty of Verdun in 843 divided the region into Middle and West Francia.
They were vassals either of the King of France or of the Holy Roman Emperor.
The Eighty Years' War (1568–1648) divided the Low Countries into the northern United Provinces and the Southern Netherlands.
Southern Netherlands were ruled by the Spanish and the Austrian Habsburgs.
This made up most of modern Belgium.
After the campaigns of 1794 in the French Revolutionary Wars, the Low Countries were added into the French First Republic.
This ended Austrian rule in the area.
Adding back the Low Countries formed the United Kingdom of the Netherlands.
This happened at the end of the First French Empire in 1815.
The Belgian Revolution was in 1830.
Leopold became king on  1831.
This is now celebrated as Belgium's National Day.
The Berlin Conference of 1885 gave control of the Congo Free State to King Leopold II.
Millions of Congolese people were hurt or killed, mostly to make rubber, and Leopold became very wealthy.
In 1908 the Belgian state took control of the colony after  a scandal about the deaths.
Germany invaded Belgium in 1914.
This was part of World War I.  The opening months of the war were very bad in Belgium.
During the war Belgium took over Ruanda-Urundi (modern-day Rwanda and Burundi).
After the War, the Prussian districts of Eupen and Malmedy were added into Belgium in 1925.
The country was again invaded by Germany in 1940 and under German control until 1944.
After World War II, the people made king Leopold III leave his throne in 1951.
This is because they thought he helped the Germans.
Belgium joined NATO as a founding member.
In 1960 the Belgian Congo stopped being under Belgian rule.
Two years later Ruanda-Urundi also became free.
Government and politics
Flemish Region (or Flanders)
Walloon Region (or Wallonia)
Flemish Community
French Community of Belgium
Belgium has had its own monarchy since 1831.
King Albert II left the throne on July 21, 2013 and the current king is Philippe.
In Belgium, the government is elected.
Between mid-2010 and late 2011, after no clear result in the election, Belgium had no official government, until Elio Di Rupo became Prime Minister.
Flanders and Wallonia both also have their own regional governments, and there is a notable independence movement in Flanders.
Alexander De Croo is currently the Prime Minister.
Belgium is next to France, Germany, Luxembourg and the Netherlands.
Its total area is 33,990 square kilometers.
The land area alone is 30,528 km².
Belgium has three main geographical regions.
The coastal plain is in the north-west.
The central plateau are part of the Anglo-Belgian Basin.
The Ardennes uplands are in the south-east.
The Paris Basin reaches a small fourth area at Belgium's southernmost tip, Belgian Lorraine.
The coastal plain is mostly sand dunes and polders.
Further inland is a smooth, slowly rising landscape.
There are fertile valleys.
The hills have many forests.
The plateaus of the Ardennes are more rough and rocky.
They have caves and small, narrow valleys.
Signal de Botrange is the country's highest point at 694 metres (2,277 ft).
Belgium is divided into three Regions.
Flanders and Wallonia are divided into provinces.
The third Region, Brussels is not part of any province.
The Belgian Armed Forces have about 46,000 active troops.
In 2009 the yearly defence budget was $6 billion.
There are four parts: Belgian Land Component, or the Army; Belgian Air Component, or the Air Force; Belgian Naval Component, or the Navy; Belgian Medical Component.
Science and technology
Adding to science and technology has happened throughout the country's history.
cartographer Gerardus Mercator, anatomist Andreas Vesalius, herbalist Rembert Dodoens and mathematician Simon Stevin are among the most influential scientists.
Chemist Ernest Solvay and engineer Zenobe Gramme gave their names to the Solvay process and the Gramme dynamo in the 1860s.
Bakelite was formed in 1907–1909 by Leo Baekeland.
A major addition to science was also due to a Belgian, Georges Lemaître.
He is the one who made the Big Bang theory of the start of the universe in 1927.
Three Nobel Prizes in Physiology or Medicine were awarded to Belgians: Jules Bordet in 1919, Corneille Heymans in 1938 and Albert Claude together with Christian De Duve in 1974.
Ilya Prigogine was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1977.
Two Belgian mathematicians have been awarded the Fields Medal: Pierre Deligne in 1978 and Jean Bourgain in 1994.
Fine arts
There have been many additions to painting and architecture.
Several examples of major architectural places in Belgium belong to UNESCO's World Heritage List.
In the 15th century the religious paintings of Jan van Eyck and Rogier van der Weyden were important.
The 16th century had more styles such as Peter Breughel's landscape paintings and Lambert Lombard's showing of the antique.
The style of Peter Paul Rubens and Anthony van Dyck was strong in the early 17th century in the Southern Netherlands.
During the 19th and 20th centuries many original romantic, expressionist and surrealist Belgian painters started.
These include James Ensor and other artists in the Les XX group, Constant Permeke, Paul Delvaux and René Magritte.
The sculptor Panamarenko is still a remarkable figure in contemporary art.
The artist Jan Fabre and the painter Luc Tuymans are other internationally known figures in contemporary art.
Belgian contributions to architecture were also in the 19th and 20th centuries.
Victor Horta and Henry van de Velde were major starters of the Art Nouveau style.
In the 19th and 20th centuries, there were major violinists, such as Henri Vieuxtemps, Eugène Ysaÿe and Arthur Grumiaux.
Adolphe Sax invented the saxophone in 1846.
The composer César Franck was born in Liège in 1822.
Newer music in Belgium is also famous.
Jazz musician Toots Thielemans and singer Jacques Brel have made global fame.
In rock/pop music, Telex, Front 242, K's Choice, Hooverphonic, Zap Mama, Soulwax and dEUS are well known.
In the heavy metal scene, bands like Machiavel, Channel Zero and Enthroned have a worldwide fan-base.
Belgium has several well-known authors, including the poet Emile Verhaeren and novelists Hendrik Conscience, Georges Simenon, Suzanne Lilar and Amélie Nothomb.
The poet and playwright Maurice Maeterlinck won the Nobel Prize in literature in 1911.
The Adventures of Tintin by Hergé is the best known of Franco-Belgian comics.
Many other major authors, including Peyo, André Franquin, Edgar P. Jacobs and Willy Vandersteen brought the Belgian cartoon strip industry a worldwide fame.
Belgian directors include André Delvaux, Stijn Coninx, Luc and Jean-Pierre Dardenne.
Well-known actors include Jan Decleir and Marie Gillain.
Successful films include Man Bites Dog and The Alzheimer Affair.
Belgium is famous for beer, chocolate, waffles and french fries.
French fries were first made in Belgium.
The national dishes are "steak and fries with salad", and "mussels with fries".
Other local fast food dishes include a Mitraillette.
Brands of Belgian chocolate and pralines, like Côte d'Or, Guylian, Neuhaus, Leonidas, Corné and Galler are famous.
Belgium makes over 1100 varieties of beer.
The Trappist beer of the Abbey of Westvleteren has repeatedly been rated the world's best beer.
The biggest brewer in the world by volume is Anheuser-Busch InBev, based in Leuven.
Since the 1970s, sports clubs are organised separately by each language community.
Association football is one of the most popular sports in both parts of Belgium, together with cycling, tennis, swimming and judo.
With five victories in the Tour de France and many other cycling records, Belgian Eddy Merckx is said to be one of the greatest cyclists of all time.
Jean-Marie Pfaff, a former Belgian goalkeeper, is said to be one of the greatest in the history of football (soccer).
Belgium and The Netherlands hosted the UEFA European Football Championship in 2000.
Belgium hosted the 1972 European Football Championships.
Kim Clijsters and Justine Henin both were Player of the Year in the Women's Tennis Association.
The Spa-Francorchamps motor-racing circuit hosts the Formula One World Championship Belgian Grand Prix.
The Belgian driver, Jacky Ickx, won eight Grands Prix and six 24 Hours of Le Mans.
Belgium also has a strong reputation in motocross.
Sporting events held each year in Belgium include the Memorial Van Damme athletics competition, the Belgian Grand Prix Formula One, and a number of classic cycle races such as the Tour of Flanders and Liège–Bastogne–Liège.
The 1920 Summer Olympics were held in Antwerp.
Official website of Belgian monarchy
Official website of the Belgian federal government
Belgian Telephone directory
Belgium Travel Guide
Brussels map
Current monarchies
Dutch-speaking countries
French-speaking countries
Brazil (officially called Federative Republic of Brazil; how to say: ) is a country in South America.
It is the world's fifth largest country.
The country has about 209 million people.
The capital of Brazil is Brasília.
Brazil was named after brazilwood, which is a tree that once grew very well along the Brazilian coast.
The first people to come to Brazil came around 9,000 B.C. That group of indigenous people is often called the South American Indians and probably came from North America.
They practiced hunting, foraging, and farming.
Over thousands of years, many different indigenous peoples were living there.
Pedro Álvares Cabral was the first European to see Brazil.
He saw it in 1500.
He was from Portugal and the Portuguese kingdom claimed Brazil.
Soon, Portugal colonized Brazil and created colonies all along the coastline.
They began to import black slaves from Africa and force them to work.
Because of the violence of the slave masters, many of these slaves would run away into the forest and create their own communities called quilombos.
In the late 1500s and early 1600s, the Dutch and the French tried to take land in Brazil.
Dutch, French, and Portuguese started moving inland further than the Treaty of Tordesillas said they could.
This caused some fights with the Spaniards (people from Spain) and indigenous peoples in the area.
In 1822, Brazil claimed to be its own country and not a part of Portugal anymore.
Soon there was civil war.
Meanwhile, the quilombos survived and Brazil was bringing in more slaves than any other country in the Americas, even though many countries were beginning to legally abolish slavery.
This led to an increase in slave revolts, especially in the 1860s and 1880s, which forced the government to change the system in order to keep the country stable.
Slavery was legally abolished in 1888.
In 1889, there was a military coup, and Pedro II had to leave the country.
In 1889, Brazil became a republic.
The only people who could vote were people who owned land.
There were some uprisings in the 1920s because some people thought the government was unfairly helping coffee growers.
Brazil joined the Allies during World War II.
During the 1960s, the military leader Castelo Branco overthrew the government and created a dictatorship that was supported by the United States.
It was very anti-communist and they imprisoned, tortured, or killed many people on the left.
Since then, the country has become more democratic, but some people feel that there are still big problems in health, education, crime, poverty and social inequality.
Brazil is the only country in South America that speaks Portuguese.
Some people in Brazil speak German dialects.
That came from German immigrants.
2% of Brazilians speak German as their first language.
Yiddish is spoken by the elders of the Jewish community.
Other people in Brazil speak their ancestors' languages like Italian, Japanese, Polish, Ukrainian, French, Russian, Lithuanian, Chinese, Dutch and Korean.
Spanish or "Portunhol", a mix of Portuguese and Castilian (Spanish) is spoken at some of the borders.
Indigenous languages as Guarani and Aymará are the first languages of a small number of Brazilians.
Brazil has the world's largest rainforest, the Amazon Rainforest.
It makes up 40% of the country's land area.
Brazil also has other types of land, including a type of savanna, called cerrado, and a dry plant region named caatinga.
The most important cities are Brasília (the capital), Belém, Belo Horizonte, Curitiba, Florianópolis, Fortaleza, Goiânia, Manaus, Porto Alegre,  Recife, Rio de Janeiro, Salvador, São Paulo (the biggest city) and Vitória.
Other cities are at List of largest cities in Brazil.
North: Acre, Amazonas, Rondônia, Roraima, Pará, Amapá, Tocantins
Northeast: Maranhão, Pernambuco, Ceará, Piauí, Rio Grande do Norte, Paraíba, Alagoas, Sergipe, Bahia
Centre-West: Goiás, Mato Grosso, Mato Grosso do Sul, Distrito Federal/ Federal District
Southeast: São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Espírito Santo, Minas Gerais
South: Paraná, Santa Catarina and Rio Grande do Sul
The country is the fifth-largest in the world by area.
It is known for its many rainforests and jungles.
It is next to every country in South America except Chile and Ecuador.
People/culture
Brazil is the largest country in South America and the fifth largest in the world.
Its people are called Brazilians or Brasileiros (In Portuguese).
The people include citizens of Portuguese or other European descent who mainly live in the South and Southeast, Africans, Native Americans, Arabs, Gypsies and people of mixed ancestry.
Brazil also has the largest Japanese community outside Japan.
Other East Asians follow the Japanese group.
The Amazon River flows through Brazil, it is the 2nd longest river in the world (after the Nile).The current President of Brazil is Jair Messias Bolsonaro.
Two major sporting events were held in Brazil recently: the 2014 FIFA World Cup and the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.
1825 establishments in South America
Chemistry is a branch of  science that deals with chemical elements and compounds, and how they work together and change.
In other words, chemistry is the branch of science that study fundamental properties of matter and chemical reactions.
Before 1600, people studied substances to figure out how to do things such as turn lead into gold, but no one managed to do that.
This was called alchemy.
After 1600, using the scientific method alchemists became chemists.
Chemists separated the air into many parts and isolated the noble gases from it.
They also processed special minerals from a mine in Sweden to get rare earth metals.
Radioactivity was also discovered.
Today chemists have discovered 118 different elements.
Some are very common, like oxygen.
Many are very rare and expensive, like platinum.
Some cannot be found on earth and can only be made in labs, like rutherfordium.
Since the 1920s, the increased understanding of physics has changed chemists' theories about chemical reactions.
With smaller and faster computers, chemists have built better tools for analyzing substances.
These tools have been sent to study chemicals on Mars.
Police also use those tools to study evidence from crime scenes.
Types of chemistry
There are several types of chemistry.
Analytical chemistry looks at which  chemicals are in things.
For example, looking at how much arsenic is in food.
Organic chemistry looks at things that have carbon in them.
For example, making acetylene.
Inorganic chemistry looks at things that do not have carbon in them.
One example is making an integrated circuit.
Theoretical chemistry tries to explain chemical data with mathematics and computers.
A large area of chemistry is polymer chemistry.
This looks at plastics.
One example is making nylon.
Because plastics are made of carbon, polymer chemistry is part of organic chemistry.
Another area is biochemistry.
This looks at the chemistry of living things.
An example would be seeing how arsenic poisons people.
Biochemistry is also part of organic chemistry.
There are many other small branches of chemistry.
Concepts of chemistry
The basic unit of an element is called an atom.
An atom is the smallest building block that you can cut an element into without the element breaking down (turning into a lighter element, for example through nuclear fission or radioactive decay).
A chemical compound is a substance made up of two or more elements.
In a compound, two or more atoms are joined together to form a molecule.
The tiniest speck of dust or drop of liquid, that one can see is made up of many millions or billions of these molecules.
Mixtures are substances where chemicals are mixed but not reacted.
An example would be mixing sand and salt.
This can be undone again to produce salt and sand separately.
Chemical compounds are changed by a chemical reaction.
An example would be heating sodium bicarbonate, common baking soda.
It will make water, carbon dioxide, and sodium carbonate.
This reaction cannot be undone.
One very important concept in chemistry is that different atoms interact with one another in very specific proportions.
For example, two hydrogen atoms interacting with one oxygen atom lead to the water molecule, H2O.  This relationship is known as the "Law of constant proportions" and leads to the idea of "stoichiometry", a term that refers to the ratios of different atoms in chemical compounds.
For example, in water, there are always exactly 2 hydrogen atoms to 1 oxygen atom.
In carbon dioxide, there are exactly 2 oxygen atoms for 1 carbon atom.
These relationships are described using chemical formulas such as H2O  (two hydrogen atoms and one oxygen atom) and CO2 (one carbon atom and two oxygen atoms).
Because atoms of different elements react with one another in very specific proportions but atoms of different elements have different weights, chemists often describe the number of different elements and compounds in terms of the number of "moles".
A "mole" of any element contains the same number of atoms:  602,214,150,000,000,000,000,000 atoms.
The atomic mass of an element can be used to see how much of the element makes a mole.
For example, the atomic mass of copper is about 63.55.
That means about 63.55 grams of copper metal has a mole of atoms.
The atomic mass of chlorine is about 35.45.
That means 35.45 grams of chlorine has a mole of atoms in it.
Moles can be used to see how many molecules are in chemical compounds, too.
Copper(II) chloride is an example.
CuCl2 is its chemical formula.
There is one copper atom (63.55) and two chlorine atoms (35.45 · 2 = 70.90).
Add all the molar masses of the elements together to get the molar mass of the chemical compound (63.55 + 70.90 = 134.45).
That means in 134.45 grams of copper(II) chloride, there is one mole of copper(II) chloride molecules.
This concept is used to calculate how much chemicals are needed in a chemical reaction if no reactants (chemicals that are reacted) should be left.
If too much reactant is used, there will be some reactants left in the chemical reaction.
Acids and bases are common chemicals.
Acids release H+ ions when in water, and bases release OH− ions when in water.
Acids can react with bases.
The H+ ion is taken from the acid by the base.
This makes water, H2O. A salt is also made when an acid and a base react together.
An example would be reacting hydrochloric acid (HCl) and sodium hydroxide (NaOH).
Hydrochloric acid releases H+ and Cl- ions in water.
The base releases Na+ and OH- ions.
The H+ and the OH- react to make water.
There is a solution of sodium chloride (NaCl) left.
Sodium chloride is a salt.
Usefulness
Chemistry is very useful in everyday life and makes up the foundation of many branches of science.
Most objects are made by chemists (people who do chemistry).
Chemists are constantly working to find new and useful substances.
Chemists make new drugs and materials like paints that we use every day.
Many chemicals are harmless, but there are some chemicals that are dangerous.
For example, mercury(II) chloride is very toxic.
Chromates can cause cancer.
Tin(II) chloride pollutes water easily.
Hydrochloric acid can cause bad burns.
Some chemicals like hydrogen can explode or catch fire.
To stay safe, chemists experiment with chemicals in a chemical lab.
They use special equipment and clothing to do reactions and keep the chemicals contained.
The chemicals used in drugs and in things like bleach have been tested to make sure they are safe if used correctly.
List of common elements
Chemical compound, a chemical combination of two or more chemical elements
Compound word, a word made from two or more other words
Computer science deals with the theoretical foundations of computation and practical techniques for their application.
There are many different areas in computer science.
Some areas consider problems in an abstract manner, while some need special machines, called computers.
Common tasks for a computer scientist
While computers can do some things easily (like simple math, or sorting out a list of names from A-to-Z), computers cannot answer questions when there is not enough information, or when there is no real answer.
Also, computers may take too much time to finish long tasks.
For example, it may take too long to find the shortest way through all of the towns in the USA - so instead a computer will try to make a close guess.
A computer will answer these simpler questions much faster.
Answering the question
Algorithms are a specific set of instructions or steps on how to complete a task.
For example, a computer scientist wants to sort playing cards.
There are many ways to sort them - by suits (diamonds, clubs, hearts, and spades) or by numbers (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, Jack, Queen, King, and Ace).
By deciding on a set of steps to sort the cards, the scientist has created an algorithm.
The scientist then needs to test whether this algorithm works.
This shows how well and how fast the algorithm sorts cards.
A simple but slow algorithm is: pick up two cards and check whether they are sorted correctly.
If they are not, reverse them.
Then do it again with another two, and repeat them all until they are all sorted.