the-french-artist/wikipedia_20220301.simple_sentence_split huggingface dataset:
County Tipperary' is really two counties, Tipperary North Riding and Tipperary South Riding.
The towns Cork, Galway, Limerick, and Waterford are now separated from the countryside areas of their counties.
So the Republic of Ireland now has thirty-four "county-level" units.
But for sports, culture etc.
people normally talk about the original 32 counties and 4 provinces.
"County" is one name for gun (郡), which is a part of a prefecture.
Other names for gun are "rural district", "rural area" or "district".
People do not like to use "district" because the usual translation of "district" is choume (丁目).
Today, "counties" have no political power or organisation use.
Postal services use it.
After New Zealand ended its provinces in 1876, they began using a county system as in other countries.
They used it until 1989.
During the second half of the 20th century, many people went to the country counties from nearby cities.
Because of this, sometimes they put the two together, making a "district" (e.g. Rotorua).
Or sometimes they changed the name to "district" (e.g. Waimairi) or "city" (e.g. Manukau).
In 1974 they had a big change; they made the organisation the same all over New Zealand.
Today the country has cities and districts, but no counties.
Norway has 19 Counties (singular fylke, plural fylker, literally "folk").
Until 1972, Bergen was a county, but today it is a municipality in the county of Hordaland.
All counties have municipalities (singular kommune, plural kommuner).
Each county has an assembly (fylkesting).
Norwegians choose the people in the assembly every 4 years.
The counties work with high schools and roads, etc.
Some people, and political parties, such as the Conservatives, Høyre, want the end of the counties.
Others want to make some of them into larger regions.
In English we normally call the Polish second-level organisation unit powiat a "county" or "district".
The smaller units of Romania are called  judeţ (plural: judeţe).
This name comes from jude, a judge of a city.
Today Romania has 40 counties and the capital, Bucharest has a separate status.
We sometimes call the units of Serbia (okrug) counties, but more often we call them districts.
In 1634 the old provinces in Sweden had a new name: counties.
Today there are 21 Counties, and in each County there are Municipalities.
The Swedish name is Län.
See also List of counties of the United Kingdom
In the United Kingdom there are 92 traditional counties (also known as shires), 86 in Great Britain and 6 in Northern Ireland.
The British counties are different ages.
In England, in Anglo-Saxon times, Shires were units for getting taxes.
They usually had a town at their centre.
People called these towns the shire town.
The shires had the same name as their shire town (for example Bedfordshire).
Later people called these towns the county town.
The name "county" came from the Normans, from a Norman word for an area under a Count (lord).
In 1539 Wales got thirteen counties.
The counties in Scotland are this age or older.
The county boundaries (borders) of England are different today.
In medieval times, some important cities got the status of counties, for example London, Bristol and Coventry.
Some small places, e.g. Islandshire, were also counties.
In 1844, a lot of these small places returned to their old counties.
The name "county" is also used in 48 of the 50 states of the United States, for the next government unit smaller than the state.
Louisiana uses the name parishes and Alaska uses boroughs.
The U.S. Census Bureau lists 3,141 counties or organisation units of this sort.
The power of the county government is very different in every state.
In New England, counties are mostly for law.
In Connecticut, Massachusetts and Rhode Island, they have no governmental use; they are only geographic names.
Most power is in the New England town.
In other places than New England, counties are for the police, water, gas and electricity, libraries, statistics and birth certificates.
County sheriffs are the head of the police in some states, for areas outside of cities and towns.
Other places have "County Police" and county sheriffs are for law.
Each county has a county seat, usually the biggest town, where the county offices are.
New York University, also known as NYU, is a research university in New York City.
It is the largest private university in the United States, and is highly regarded in the nation as well as around the world.
In 2020, it was ranked as the 11th best university in the United States by the QS World University Rankings: USA, and as the 28th best university in the world by U.S. News & World Report.
In addition, NYU is highly ranked in the fields of Law, Medicine, Mathematics, Business, Psychology, Communications, Performing Arts, Film, Economics, and Philosophy.
The university was founded as University of the City of New York in 1831 by a prominent group of New York City residents led by then United States Secretary of the Treasury, Albert Gallatin.
The school was officially renamed New York University in 1896.
37 Nobel Prize winners have been produced by NYU, the 12th most in the United States and 19th most in the world.
Three heads of state attended NYU: Ma Ying-jeou of the Republic of China, Ephraim Katzir of Israel, and Guillermo Endara of Panama.
Many American politicians also attended NYU, including Bill de Blasio, Carol Bellamy, and Rudy Giuliani.
Many successful actors and movie directors attended NYU, including Martin Scorcese, Angelina Jolie, Alec Baldwin, Spike Lee, Ang Lee, Mahershala Ali, Woody Allen, and Adam Sandler.
Other famous alumni include the creator of the polio vaccine Jonas Salk, singer Lady Gaga, Twitter founder Jack Dorsey, author Suzanne Collins, and former special counsel Robert Mueller.
In addition to its main campus in New York City, NYU also has degree-granting campuses in Abu Dhabi and Shanghai.
NYU Abu Dhabi has produced more Rhodes Scholars per student than any other university in the world.
Colleges and universities in New York City
Bees are flying insects of the Hymenoptera, which also includes ants, wasps and sawflies.
There are about 20,000 species of bees.
Bees collect pollen from flowers.
Bees can be found on all continents except Antarctica.
Honeybees, including the Africanized honeybee.
Bumblebees: 250 species in the Apidae family.
Stingless bees: 550 species in the Meliponini.
Solitary bees: solitary in the sense that every female is fertile, and usually lives in a nest she builds herself.
There are quite a few of these, for example the carpenter bees, leafcutter bees and mason bees (and there are others).
The European honey bee (called Apis mellifera by biologists), is kept by humans for honey.
Keeping bees to make honey is called beekeeping, or apiculture.
Flowers were pollinated by insects such as beetles long before bees first appeared.
Bees are different because they are specialized as pollination agents.
Their body and behavior  make pollination easier.
Bees are generally better at the task than other pollinating insects such as beetles, flies, butterflies and pollen wasps.
The appearance of such floral specialists is believed to have driven the adaptive radiation of the angiosperms, and, in turn, the bees themselves.
Bees, like ants, evolved from wasps.
The ancestors of bees were wasps in a family which preyed on other insects.
The switch from insect prey to pollen may have come from the capture of prey insects that were covered with pollen when they were fed to the wasp larvae.
Similar behaviour could be switched to pollen collection.
This same evolutionary scenario has occurred within the vespoid wasps, where the group known as "pollen wasps" also evolved from predatory ancestors.
A recently reported bee fossil, of the genus Melittosphex, is considered "an extinct lineage of pollen-collecting Apoidea, sister-group to the modern bees", and dates from the Lower Cretaceous (~100 mya).
Features of its morphology  place it clearly within the bees.
It still has two ancestral traits of the legs which betray its origin.
The issue is still under debate, and the phylogenetic relationships among bee families are poorly understood.
Bee bodies
Like other insects, the body of a bee can be divided into three parts: the head, thorax (the middle part), and abdomen (the back part).
Also like other insects, bees have three pairs of legs and two pairs of wings.
Many bees are hairy and have yellow and black or orange and black warning colors.
Many bees have stings (like a hollow needle) on the rear of their bodies.
If they get confused, angry, or scared they may sting, and inject venom, which hurts.
Once a worker bee has stung it dies after a short while, but other types of bee and wasp can sting again.
Some people are allergic to bee stings and may even die from them.
Social bees
Some bees are eusocial insects; this means they live in organized groups called colonies.
Honey bees, the kind of bee used in beekeeping, are eusocial.
The home of a bee colony is called a hive.
One hive has only one queen.
There are three kinds of bees in a honey bee colony.
A queen bee is the most important bee in the colony because she will lay the eggs.
The queen bee only uses her stinger to sting other queen bees.
The queen is usually the mother of the worker bees.
She ate a special jelly called royal jelly from when she was young.
Worker bees are females too, and they are the bees that collect pollen from flowers and will fight to protect the colony.
Workers do a waggle dance to tell the others where they have found nectar; Karl von Frisch discovered this.
Drone bees (males) mate with the queen bee so that she can lay eggs.
The only function of the male drone is to mate.
They do no other work in the hive.
In haplodiploid species, females develop from fertilized eggs and males from unfertilized eggs.
Because a male has only one copy of each gene, his daughters (which are diploid, with two copies of each gene) share 100% of his genes and 50% of their mother's.
Therefore, they share 75% of their genes with each other.
It is unclear whether this system is necessary for eusociality.
Monogamy (queens mating singly) is the ancestral state for all eusocial species so far known, so it is likely that haplodiploidy contributed to the evolution of eusociality in bees.
Africanized honeybee
Symbols of Kansas
Dragonflies are flying insects of the order Odonata.
There are about 5,300 species of dragonfly.
The adults eat other flying insects.
Dragonflies have large compound eyes, which is their main sense organ.
They have four  strong transparent wings, and a long body.
Dragonflies are usually found around lakes, ponds, streams and wetlands.
They are predators which eat mosquitoes, and other small insects such as flies, bees, ants, and butterflies.
Their larvae, known as 'nymphs', are aquatic.
They are also carnivorous.
Because their legs are adapted to grab prey in the air, they are not adapted for moving on land.
Once they perch, they rarely use their legs for walking.
Dragonflies have been around for 300 million years.
In the rain forests of the Carboniferous and Permian periods, some species had wingspans of over .
Oxygen levels were quite high at that time.
Dragonflies and damselflies
Dragonflies are in one suborder of the Odonata, and their relatives, the damselflies, are in another suborder.
Some people mistake the damselfly for the dragonfly, because they look similar.
Adult damselflies have thinner, more delicate bodies than those of dragonflies.
This you can see even when they are flying.
When at rest, most damselflies hold their wings together above the body.
Most dragonflies hold their wings horizontally.
The eyes of dragonflies are larger, and touch each other.
The eyes of damselflies are separated.
Many damselflies live in groups close to a river.
Taken together, these points are usually enough to distinguish the two groups.
Female dragonflies lay eggs in or near water, often on plants.
When laying eggs, some species go under the water to lay their eggs on a good surface.
The eggs then hatch into nymphs.
While in the nymph stage they eat mosquito larvae and other things.
Most of a dragonfly's life is spent in the nymph form, beneath the water's surface.
It is quite active.
It can extend its jaws in front of its mouth to catch prey.
Tiny vertebrates such as tadpoles and fish are part of its diet.
Some nymphs even hunt on land.
They draw water in and out of their rectum.
They can move fast by squirting water out of the anus.
They also have gills in their rectum.
Larvae
The larval stage of large dragonflies may last as long as five years.
In smaller species, this stage may last between two months and three years.
When the larva is ready to metamorphose into an adult, it climbs up a reed or other emergent plant.
Exposure to air causes the larva to begin breathing.
The skin splits at a weak spot behind the head and the adult dragonfly crawls out of its old larval skin, pumps up its wings, and flies off to feed on midges and flies.
The adult stage of larger species of dragonfly can last as long as five or six months.
Dragonflies experience incomplete metamorphosis: the nymphs (called naiads) swim and live underwater, like fish.
The female dragonfly lays her fertilized eggs near or right in the water.
The naiads – which do not look much like dragonflies at all – hatch and immediately take to the water.
While living in the water, the naiads eat as many aquatic insects as possible, as well as other small creatures like tadpoles and minnows.
Hidden among the plants, a naiad will lie in wait for prey to swim by.
It can then squeeze water out of the rear of its abdomen like a jet stream.
This moves the naiad forward very quickly, allowing it to snatch its prey with its powerful jaws.
Some naiads even have a long lower jaw that can shoot out and grab prey.
Naiads live in the water for weeks (or even years in some species) and undergo a series of moults to grow.
When a naiad is ready for its final moult, it finds a stick or other object sticking out of the water.
It use this to crawl out of the water, and wait for its exoskeleton to dry.
As the exoskeleton cracks open at the seam, the adult dragonfly crawls out.
Eyesight
Dragonflies have tremendous eyesight.
Their compound eyes are very large and have up to 50,000 individual lenses.
Their eyes wrap around the top of the head.
As a result, they have a wide field of vision: they can see almost everywhere at once.
Sight is by far their most important sense, used to catch flies and avoid birds.
In flight the adult dragonfly can move in six directions; upward, downward, forward, back, and side to side.
They can also hover quite well in midair, and then they can take off at speeds of up to .
Scientists discovered dragonflies can move each of their four wings independently which gives them their flying abilities.
Dragonflies bend and twist their wings to cause little whirlwinds that move the air even faster over the upper part of the airfoil, reducing air pressure even more than most flying animals can.
This gives them a lot of lift, even in the face of powerful winds.
The flight style of different families  of dragonfly is one of their distinguishing features.
It gives rise to some terms which are widely used by dragonfly observers:
Hawkers (family Aeshnidae).
They are among the largest and  fastest flying dragonflies.
The adults live mostly in the air, and even mate in flight.
They have large and powerful wings, and can fly forwards or backwards or hover like a helicopter.
The wings are always extended horizontally.
Skimmers or perchers are the very large family Libellulidae.
There are several flight styles amongst its genera.
The genus Sympetrum lives in the northern hemisphere and has 50 species.
It breeds in ponds and searches over meadows.
There are at least 100 other genera.
Cruisers (family Macromiidae).
They usually fly over bodies of water (and roads) straight down the middle.
They have green eyes which just barely meet at the top of the head.
Females of this family lack an ovipositor at the end of the abdomen and lay their eggs by dipping the abdomen in the water as they fly over.
Some dragonflies adjust their resting position to prevent overheating.
They may use a handstand-like position to prevent overheating on sunny days.
The abdomen is raised until its tip points at the sun, minimizing their surface area exposed to the heat.
The position is called the obelisk posture.
The species that do this are called 'perchers'; they are "sit and wait" predators which spend much of their time keeping still.
There are predators which eat dragonflies.
The birds known a bee-eaters do regularly take dragonflies.
Also, despite their good eyesight, dragonflies apparently cannot see spiders' webs, so they get caught there.
WIND is the flow of gases.
On Earth, wind is mostly the movement of air.
In outer space, solar wind is the movement of gases or particles from the sun through space.
The strongest winds seen on a planet in our solar system are on Neptune and Saturn.
Short bursts of fast winds are called gusts.
Strong winds that go on for about one minute are called squalls.
Winds that go on for a long time are called many different things, such as breeze, gale, hurricane, and typhoon.
Wind can move land, especially in deserts.
Cold wind can sometimes have a bad effect on livestock.
Wind also affects animals' food stores, their hunting and the way they protect themselves.
Sunlight drives the Earth's atmospheric circulation.
The resulting winds blow over land and sea, producing weather.
A High pressure area (that makes an anticyclone) near a low pressure system (that makes a cyclone), makes air move from the high pressure to the low pressure to try to even out the pressures.
The Coriolis effect causes the winds to spiral around.
A big difference in pressure can make high winds.
In some storms, such as hurricanes, typhoons, cyclones, or tornadoes, it can cause winds faster than 200 mph (320 kilometres per hour ).
This can damage houses and other buildings, and can kill people.
Wind can also be caused by the rising of hot air, or the falling of cool air.
When hot air rises, it creates a low pressure underneath it, and air moves in to equalize the pressure.
When cold air drops (because it is denser or heavier than warm air), it creates a high pressure, and flows out to even out the pressure with the low pressure around it.
The wind is usually invisible, but rain, dust, or snow can show how it is blowing.
A weathervane can also show you where the wind is coming from.
The Beaufort scale is a way to tell how strong the wind is.
It is used at sea, when no land can be seen.
High winds can cause damage depending on how strong they are.
Sometimes gusts of wind can make poorly made bridges move or be destroyed, like the Tacoma Narrows Bridge in 1940.
Electric power distribution can fail because of wind, even if its speed is as low as .
This happens when tree branches damage power lines.
No kind of tree can resist hurricane-force winds, but trees with roots that are not very deep can be blown over more easily.
Trees such as eucalyptus, sea hibiscus, and avocado are brittle (easy to break) and are damaged more easily.
Trade winds
The trade winds  are  the prevailing pattern of easterly surface winds found in the tropics, within the lower portion of the Earth's atmosphere.
They occur in the lower section of the troposphere near the Earth's equator.
The trade winds blow predominantly from the northeast in the Northern Hemisphere.
They blow from the southeast in the Southern Hemisphere.
They are stronger during the winter and when the Arctic oscillation is in its warm phase.
Trade winds have been used by captains of sailing ships to cross the world's oceans for centuries.
They enabled European empire expansion into the Americas.
They also allowed trade routes to become established across the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.
The doldrums are in the equatorial region.
It is a wind belt where air is warm, with little pressure variations.
Winds are light there.
Another name for doldrums is Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ)
In outer space
Wind in outer space, called solar wind, is very different from a wind on earth.
This wind is caused by the sun, or other stars, and it is made up of particles that came out of the star's atmosphere.
Like solar wind, the planetary wind is made up of light gases that have come out of planets' atmospheres.
Meteorology Guides: Forces and Winds – Instructional module from the University of Illinois
Names of Winds – A list from Golden Gate Weather Services
Wind Atlases of the World – Lists of wind atlases and wind surveys from all over the world
Winds of Mars: Aeolian Activity and Landforms – Paper with slides that illustrate the wind activity on the planet Mars
Classification of Wind Speeds
Wind-speed chart
The Bibliography of Aeolian Research
A vertebrate is an animal with a spinal cord surrounded by cartilage or bone.
The word comes from vertebrae, the bones that make up the spine.
Animals that are not vertebrates are called invertebrates.
Vertebrates include birds, fish, amphibians, reptiles, and mammals.
The parts of the vertebrate skeleton are:
Braincase: A braincase or cranium protects the brain.
Vertebrae: A series of short, stiff vertebrae are separated by joints.
This internal backbone protects the spinal cord.
The joints between the vertebrae let the backbone bend.
Bones: support and protect the body's soft tissues and provides points for muscle attachment.
Gill arches: Gill arches in the pharynx of fish and some amphibians support the gills.
In the majority of vertebrates some of the arches have evolved into other organs, such as jaws.
Examples of vertebrates are mammals, birds, and fish.
A few tens of thousands of species have been identified.
The term "fish" is used to describe at least four different kinds of vertebrates.
Distinctions
Vertebrates dominate amongst the animals in virtually all environments.
They include the largest animals in each main ecosystem, though not the largest living things (because that would include trees).
They are the only animals which have an adaptive immune system.
These two facts may be connected.
Taxonomy and classification
Subphylum Vertebrata
Agnatha (jawless vertebrates)
Myxini
Hyperoartia (lampreys)
†Conodonta
†Pteraspidomorphi
†Thelodonti
†Anaspida
†Galeaspida
†Pituriaspida
†Osteostraci
Gnathostomata (jawed vertebrates)
†Placodermi (Paleozoic armoured forms)
Chondrichthyes (cartilaginous fish)
†Acanthodii (Paleozoic "spiny sharks")
Osteichthyes (bony fish)
Actinopterygii (ray-finned fish)
Sarcopterygii (lobe-finned fish)
Coelacanthimorpha (coelacanths)
Dipnoi (lungfish)
Tetrapoda (four-limbed vertebrates)
Amphibia (amphibians)
Amniota (amniotic eggs)
Sauropsida (reptiles and birds)
Lepidosauria (lizards, snakes and tuatara)
Testudines (turtles)
Archosauria (archosaurs)
Crocodilia (crocodilians)
†Pterosauria (pterosaurs)
Dinosauria (dinosaurs)
Aves (birds)
Synapsida (mammal-like tetrapods)
Mammalia
Tunicates and not cephalochordates are the closest living relatives of vertebrates
Some animals live in a social structure where the most powerful male in the group is decided by either fights or very aggressive battles that sometimes end in death (in the wild).
The current alpha male must defend his position from younger members.
When he is too old or not strong enough to win, he loses his position in the group.
Sometimes, he will die or be forced to leave the group.
The result of this is that the alpha male usually has more opportunity to mate with the available females.
This system developed because strong males will produce young which have a better chance for survival.
Apes: chimpanzees, gorillas and orangutans
Alpha male can also refer to a high-ranked human in a group.
This may be in a business setting or sometimes in other competitive areas, like sports.
However, this is an extension by metaphor: humans do not have the same mating system as other social mammals.
One reason is that the oestrous cycle in humans is different.
This has the result that females may be sexually receptive at almost any time.
Also, humans generally pair off, and alpha males do not have exclusive rights over all females in a group, except in rare circumstances.
Singapore, officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign country as well as a city-state.
It is an island state at the southern end of the Malay Peninsula in Asia, between the Straits of Malacca and the South China Sea.
Singapore is about one degree of latitude () north of the equator.
About 5.70 million people live in Singapore.
About 3.31 million are citizens.
Most of them are ethnically Chinese, Malay, or Indian, as well as a smaller number of other Asians.
Present-day Singapore was founded in 1819 by Stamford Raffles as a trading post of the British Empire.
During the Second World War, Singapore was taken over by Japan in 1942, but returned to British control after Japan surrendered in 1945.
Singapore started to govern itself in 1959, and in 1963 became part of the new federation of Malaysia, together with Malaya, North Borneo, and Sarawak.
Political and social differences led to Singapore being removed from the federation two years later, then becoming an independent country on its own.
Most Singaporeans are bilingual.
The symbolic national language of Singapore is Malay.
Other official languages of Singapore are English, Mandarin and Tamil.
English is the language of choice because everyone in Singapore knows and uses it.
It is the first language taught in schools and the language used by the government and in court.
Students are also usually taught the language of their ethnicity.
This means that the Chinese will learn Mandarin, Malays will learn Malay, and so on.
Students can also choose to learn a third language in secondary school.
Singapore is also known as a "Garden City" or a "City in a Garden".
This is because there are plants everywhere, making it look like a garden.
Singapore has one of the highest standards of living in the world, with very good education, healthcare, housing, and very low corruption.
It is also known for having many strict rules and punishments, including fines.
This is why it is also sometimes jokingly called a "fine" city.
The government says this has helped Singapore be a very safe country.
Singapore is one of the founding members of ASEAN.
Before 1819
Singapore's name comes from 'Singa Pura', which means Lion City in Sanskrit.
Many people around the world understand "Lion City" to refer to Singapore.
There is some debate about who founded Singapore.
According to the Malay Annals, a Sumatran prince called Sang Nila Utama landed on Temasek (Singapore's old name) and saw a Lion which is called 'Singa' in Malay.
Thus he gave the island a new name, 'Singapura'.
However, Sang Nila Utama was likely mistaken, as lions never existed in Singapore.
It is believed that the "lion" was actually a Malayan Tiger, which also exists in neighbouring Malaysia.
While now extinct in Singapore it used to be present back then.
1819 to 1942
Few people lived in Singapore at the beginning of the 19th century.
British governor Stamford Raffles arrived in Singapore on 28 January 1819 and wanted to set up a British trading town.
At the time, the island was then ruled by Tengku Abdul Rahman, the Sultan of Johor, who the Dutch and the Bugis from Sulawesi had controlled.
However, the Sultanate was weakened by infighting: the Temenggong (Chief Minister) of Tengku Abdul Rahman, as well as his officials, supported the Sultan's elder brother Tengku Long, who was living in exile in Riau.
With the Temenggong's help, Raffles managed to secretly bring Tengku Long back into Singapore.
Raffles offered to recognize Tengku Long as the true Sultan of Johor, under the title of Sultan Hussein, as well as giving him $5000 per year and another $3000 to the Temenggong; in return, Sultan Hussein would give the British the right to establish a trading post on Singapore.
An official treaty was signed on 6 February 1819.
In 1824, another treaty with the Sultan led to the entire island becoming under the British.
In 1826, Singapore became part of the Straits Settlements.
Singapore became the regional capital in 1836.
Before Raffles arrived, there were only about a thousand people living on the island, mostly Malays along with a handful of Chinese.
By 1860, the population had grown to over 80,000, more than half being Chinese.
The country was given colony status in 1867.
Later, in the 1890s, when the rubber industry became established in Malaya and Singapore, the island became a global center for sorting rubber and exporting them.
Singapore was not really affected by the First World War (1914–18), as the conflict did not spread to Southeast Asia.
The only significant event during the war was the 1915 Singapore Mutiny by Muslim soldiers from British India, who were garrisoned in Singapore.
After hearing news that they were to be sent to fight the Ottoman Empire in Europe, a Muslim state, the soldiers killed their officers and several British civilians before the mutiny was stopped by non-Muslim troops arriving from Johore and Burma.
After World War I, the British built the large Singapore Naval Base as part of the defensive Singapore strategy.
First announced in 1921, the construction of the base went at a slow pace until the Japanese invasion of Manchuria in 1931.
Costing $60 million and not fully completed in 1938, it was the largest dry dock in the world, the third-largest floating dock, and had enough fuel tanks to support the entire British navy for six months.
The base was defended by heavy naval guns stationed at Fort Siloso, Fort Canning and Labrador Park, as well as a Royal Air Force airfield at Tengah Air Base.
Winston Churchill called Singapore the "Gibraltar of the East", and military discussions often referred to the base as just "East of Suez".
However, the main fleet was in Europe, and the British did not have enough money to build a second fleet to protect their Asian colonies.
The plan was for the Home Fleet to sail quickly to Singapore in the event of an emergency.
As a result, after World War II broke out in 1939, the fleet was busy defending Britain from Germany, leaving Singapore open for a Japanese invasion.
Due to the weak defenses of the country, the Japanese attacked Singapore and easily took control of the colony on 15 February 1942.
Up to 60,000 British soldiers surrendered on that day, and Churchill called it "the worst disaster and largest capitulation in British history".
There were a lot of losses by both the British and the rest of the Empire, with a total of nearly 85,000 people captured.
About 5,000 were killed or injured, many from Australia and India.
People of Singapore went through hard times during the Japanese rule, until the surrender of the Japanese in September of 1945.
Many people were tortured or killed by the Japanese as they did not follow the rules properly or because they were suspected of going against the Japanese.
The Japanese also targeted the Chinese the most; between 5,000 and 25,000 Chinese were killed, now known as the Sook Ching massacre.
The most notable anti-Japanese force was Force 136, headed by Lim Bo Seng.
Its purpose was to encourage and supply resistance movements in the enemy-occupied territory and occasionally mount sabotage operations.
The hard times during World War II made the people think that the British were not as strong as before.
Therefore, many people were supportive of independence once the British had returned.
A few years after the war, In 1963, Singapore joined with Malaya, Sabah and Sarawak to form the new nation of Malaysia.
Malaysia is a country with many races.
In Malaya, only the Malays have special benefits.
For example, the Malays could get university education more easily than other races.
As most people in Singapore are Chinese, Singapore wanted equality for all the people of Malaysia.
Singapore also wanted a common market to be set up so that goods to Malaysia would not be taxed.
However, this was not done and caused arguments between the state government of Singapore and the federal government of Malaysia.
After Independence
At first, many people thought Singapore's independence would not last.
In 1967, Singapore helped to start the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and in 1970 it joined the Non-Aligned Movement.
Lee Kuan Yew was in charge of the country as Prime Minister of Singapore and saw it become very developed.
In 1990, Goh Chok Tong replaced Lee Kuan Yew as prime minister, while Lee Kuan Yew became Senior Minister.
When Goh Chok Tong was Prime Minister, Singapore went through the 1997 Asian financial crisis, the 2003 SARS outbreak and terrorist threats by Jemaah Islamiyah.
In 2004, Lee Hsien Loong, the son of Lee Kuan Yew, took over as Prime Minister.
Goh Chok Tong became the Senior Minister, and Lee Kuan Yew became the Minister Mentor of Singapore.
Singapore is a parliamentary republic with a Westminster system of unicameral parliamentary government representing constituencies.
Its constitution states representative democracy as its political system.
Singapore is ranked regularly as one of the least corrupt countries in the world, according to Transparency International.
The Cabinet has executive power, and is led by the Prime Minister, and the President.
The president is elected through popular vote, and has some veto powers for a few big decisions such as the use of the national reserves and the appointment of judges, but otherwise occupies a post with little power.
The Parliament serves as the legislative branch of government.
Members of Parliament (MPs) are made up of elected, non-constituency and nominated members.
Elected MPs are voted into parliament on a "first-past-the-post" (plurality) system and represent either single-member or group-representation constituencies.
Elections are free, and the People's Action Party has won control of Parliament with large majorities in every election since self-governance in 1959.
In the most recent parliamentary elections in 2020, the largest opposition, led by the Workers' Party, increased its representation in the House to 10 elected MPs out of 93.
The legal system of Singapore is based on English common law, however with large and important local differences.
Trial by jury was removed in 1970 leaving judicial judgement done completely and only by judgeship.
Singapore has laws that include corporal punishment in the form of caning for rape, rioting, vandalism, and some immigration crimes.
There is a mandatory death penalty for murder, and for certain drug-trafficking and firearms offences.
In a 2008 survey, international business executives believed Singapore had the best judicial system in Asia.
Buddhism is the most common religion in Singapore.
Other common religions include: Christianity, Islam, Taoism, and Hinduism.
Students in Singapore go through six years of compulsory primary school, which ends with all students taking a Primary School Leaving Examination (PSLE).
Then, depending on their results in the PSLE, students are streamed into "Special", "Express", "Normal (Academic)", and "Normal (Technical)" groups.
The amount of time a student spends studying in Secondary school (4–5 years) depends on their group.
Students are taught in English and their mother tongue, which can be Chinese, Malay or Tamil.
Secondary school students may also choose to study a third language such as:
Malay special programme – For non-Malay speakers
Chinese special programme – For non-Chinese speakers
Students can take a third language as it increases their chances in getting an overseas scholarship and can improve their examination grades, especially in the GCE Ordinary Level ("O" Levels), which are Secondary students take after their five or four years of education.
However, only some students can qualify to take a third language.
After their "O" Levels, students can choose to go to a polytechnic, which is a place where students can study for 3 years for a diploma or to a junior college where students study for 2 years to receive an "A" Level.
Students can also go to Institutes of Technical Education (ITE), where students study for two years to receive a "National ITE Certificate" (NITEC).
This certificate is only recognized in Singapore.
Students who go to ITE usually continue their education at a polytechnic.
The Singapore government has chosen four official languages: English, Malay, Chinese (Mandarin), and Tamil.
English is the primary language.
Singapore English is the main language in Singapore.
English is the first language of the nation, but it is not the most common.
English is the second most commonly spoken language among Singaporeans.
The most commonly spoken language amongst Singaporeans in their homes is Chinese (51%), followed by English (32%), Malay (13%) and Tamil (7%).
This means that 32% of Singaporeans are native English speakers.
Most of the rest of the people speak it as a second language.
However, English has the largest total number of speakers including native and second language speakers.
Mandarin Chinese is the second most common.
Almost 40% of people in Singapore are foreign.
Most foreigners come from Asia.
The country where most foreigners come from are Malaysia, its closest neighbor.
In 2009, there may have been 350,000 Malaysians working in Singapore.
Many Chinese-speaking foreigners and Chinese-speaking Singaporeans work in services.
Thus, Chinese is the main language of many workers such as hawkers, retail assistants, hairdressers, etc.
in Singapore today.
Singaporean English mainly comes from British English.
The forms of English spoken in Singapore range from Standard English to a pidgin called Singlish.
The Singapore government and many Singaporeans are against using Singlish.
There is a "Speak Good English" campaign each year.
Public schools and in the media also have rules against Singlish.
There are many Singapore accents in English because of the many languages and identities of people in the city.
Languages can even change over the generations and children may speak different languages and have different accents from their mother.
For example, in a Singaporean Chinese family, the grandmother might speak Hokkien as her first language.
Differently, the mother might speak Mandarin as her first language and Hokkien/English as her second languages, while the grandson might speak English as his first language and Mandarin as his second language.
Before independence in 1965, Hokkien, a Chinese dialect, was the common language among the Chinese laborers.
Malay and English were used to communicate between the different ethnic groups.
After independence in 1965, English became the first language of the nation and replaced Hokkien and Malay as the one shared language.
Today, most younger Singaporeans have English as their first language or are fluent in English.
Malay is a national language of Singapore because of the history of the city.
However, less than 20% of Singaporeans can read and write in Malay.
Malay is still used at home by most Malay Singaporeans.
The Malay used in Singapore (Bahasa Melayu) is closer to the language in Malaysia than the language in Indonesia.
However, there are differences between the Malay in Singapore and in Malaysia.
The national anthem "Majulah Singapura" is sung in Malay.
Many people speak Chinese – Mandarin and other Chinese dialects – in Singapore.
Just over 50% of Singaporeans speak it at home, so it is the most common language in homes.
Singaporean Mandarin is based on simplified Chinese and it is similar to the system used in mainland China.
The forms of Mandarin spoken in Singapore range from Standard Mandarin to a pidgin known as Singdarin.
Besides Mandarin, many southern Chinese dialects are also spoken in Singapore.
Hokkien used to be a lingua franca among the Singaporean Chinese so many older Singaporeans still understand Hokkien.
The most common Chinese dialects spoken by Singaporeans are the Hokkien, Hainan, Teochew and Cantonese.
However, Chinese dialects other than Mandarin are not allowed in the media, so these dialects are quickly dying out.
Most younger Singaporeans do not speak them anymore.
Tamil, a South Indian language, is spoken by about half of Indians in Singapore.
That is about 5% of all Singaporeans.
However, North Indian languages such as Hindi and Punjabi are also spoken by a small group of Singaporean Indians in Singapore.
Singapore has many kinds of people and immigrants from many places.
Therefore, Singaporean culture has often been described as a mix of cultures – European, Malay, Chinese, Indian and Peranakan.
Also, foreigners are 42% of the population in Singapore and they are part of changing Singaporean culture.
Dining is an important part of life in Singapore.
Singaporean food is an example of the many different cultures in the country.
It is also an example of mixing among cultures.
British, Chinese, Indian, Malay, Tamil, and Indonesian styles of cooking all mix together.
It is especially known for its sea food.
Typical Singaporean food includes: Satay, Nasi lemak, Chilli crab, Kaya toast, and Hainanese chicken rice, Laksa, Fish Head Curry, Hokkien Prawn Meeand Char Kway Teow.
MediaCorp, the state-owned media corporation, operates all seven local broadcast television channels in Singapore.
It also runs 13 radio stations of the total 18 radio stations in Singapore.
Radio and television stations are all owned by government controlled companies.
However, one radio transmitter in Singapore is not controlled by the government.
That is the Far Eastern Relay Station of the BBC World Service.
Print media of Singapore includes 16 newspapers and several magazines.
National flower
The national flower of Singapore is Vanda Miss Joaquim.
It is a type of orchid and it is a hybrid orchid.
This makes Singapore the only nation in the world to have a hybrid as a national flower.
It was chosen because it was part of the effort to create national pride and identity.
Singapore has a strong and free economy that supports a large middle class.
The city state is a global shipping and logistics hub and many multinational firms have their offices in Singapore.
The national airline, Singapore Airlines, has a large global network which brings tourists and business travelers alike, to the city.
The airline has often been ranked as the world's best airline.
Singapore also has a port located at the south of Singapore, called Keppel Harbour.
It is one of the busiest ports around the world with many ships coming in to trade in a single day.
Singapore also has another port on Jurong Island.
Singapore's currency is the Singapore dollar.
The short name for the Singapore dollar is SGD.
Brunei dollar can be used in Singapore, because they have the same value.
Singapore is made up of 63 islands, including the main island, which is known as Singapore Island to most people, but is also known as Pulau Ujong.
There are two man-made connections to Johor, Malaysia: the Johor–Singapore Causeway in the north, and the Tuas Second Link in the west.
Jurong Island, Pulau Tekong, Pulau Ubin and Sentosa are the largest of Singapore's smaller islands.
The highest natural point is Bukit Timah Hill at .
About 23% of Singapore's land area are forest and nature reserves.
Urbanisation has removed most primary rainforest, with Bukit Timah Nature Reserve the only significant remaining forest.
Even though there is very little primary rainforest left, there are more than 300 parks and four nature reserves in Singapore.
There are also many trees planted all over Singapore and almost fifty per cent of the country is covered by trees and plants.
Because of this, Singapore is also commonly known as the 'Garden City'.
Singapore, being a small country, has been reclaiming land from the sea around the island.
The first time Singapore started to reclaim land was in the 1960s.
The total land area of Singapore at that time was 581.5 km2 and it has increased to 730 km2 in the 2010s, which is an increase of about 20% in total land area.
It may grow by another  by 2030.
Some land reclamation projects involve joining together smaller islands to make larger islands with more uses, like Jurong Island.
Singapore uses the landfill method to reclaim the sea at the south of the country, but polders have been recently used too.
The country's rapid reclamation projects has made disputes with its neighbouring countries, Malaysia and Indonesia.
Singapore is hot and wet all year round.
It has a tropical rainforest climate (Af in the Köppen climate classification), which means there are no seasons (spring, summer, autumn and winter) in Singapore.
There is the most rain at the end of the year, and the temperature is usually around 20 °C to 35 °C.
Relations with other countries
Singapore has diplomatic relations with 175 other Sovereign states.
Singapore's foreign policy is to maintain a secure environment in Southeast Asia as well as the countries near Southeast Asia.
A basic rule is the political and economic stability in Southeast Asia.
Singapore is part of the ASEAN (Association of the South East Asian nations) network, which is an organisation that unites all Southeast Asian countries.
Member countries of ASEAN work with and help other countries in ASEAN.
Singapore is one of the countries that founded ASEAN, and is the most developed country among them all.
Singapore is also part of the Commonwealth of Nations, which is for countries that used to be under the British's rule.
Chinese New Year (Chinese Festival) – 2 days
Vesak Day (Buddhist Festival)
Hari Raya Puasa (Malay Festival)
Deepavali (Indian Festival)
Hari Raya Haji (Malay Festival)
Even though it is a small country, Singapore holds many world records with its buildings and people.
Some are:
Singapore has one of the best infrastructure qualities in the world.
Buses, trains, and taxis are easily found.
Most of Singapore are well-connected by a railway system known as the Mass Rapid Transit, or MRT in short.
There are also taxi companies like Comfort Cabs, Silver Cab, SMRT Taxis, CityCab and Premier Taxi.
There is one telephone number to call a taxi, of which the closest taxi from any company will respond.
Apps such as Grab and Gojek as an alternative to taxi companies are also available.
The Singapore Changi Airport is the main airport of Singapore.
It is in the east of Singapore, with a total of four terminals with airlines flying to many different parts of the world.
It has also received many awards for being the best airport in the world.
A Skytrain service is also available at the airport.
The airport is in Changi.
It is on a 13 square kilometres (5.0 sq mi) site which was reclaimed from the sea.
Singapore Food Guide
Singapore's gateway website
Interactive map of Singapore
Speak good English movement
1963 establishments in Asia
Johannesburg is the largest city in South Africa.
It is the capital of the Gauteng Province.
It was founded on October 4, 1886 and has the JSE Securities Exchange, which is the largest stock exchange in Africa.
Johannesburg houses the tallest office block in Africa, the Carlton Centre (50 stories) and the tallest tower, the Hillbrow Tower (270 metres, or 90 stories).
The city is nicknamed Egoli or Jozi, which means "place of gold", for the large gold deposit at Witwatersrand.
The Johannesburg Zoo was established in 1904, and historically, it has been owned and run by the city of Johannesburg.
It houses the only two polar bears in Africa.
Johannesburg is not seen as a tourist centre in South Africa, but rather as a commercial centre.
It only snows in Johannesburg once or twice in a century.
Nelson Mandela died there on 5 December 2013, aged 95.
He was also given the "Freedom of the City" award.
1886 establishments
1880s establishments in South Africa
It is usually eaten in the morning.
The word comes from two other words; "break" ("end") and fast ("not eating for a long time").
Definition: [1463] from break (v.) + fast (n.).
déjeuner "to breakfast," from L. dis-jejunare "to break the fast."
In the United States, people usually eat pancakes, waffles, toast, eggs or bagels for breakfast.
In Canada, people usually eat maple cured bacon, fried potatoes, maple-infused beans, eggs, toast, pancakes and maple syrup or hot oatmeal for breakfast.
In the United Kingdom a large breakfast was often, and still is sometimes, served.
Usually this would be bread, tea, egg, bacon, ham, fruits, baked beans on toast and sometimes vegetables.
This pattern of heavy eating has greatly changed in recent years.
Most people do not do manual work nowadays.
In France, people usually eat a very light meal; often bread and coffee with milk.
Again, this depends on what kind of work is done (usually by the father of the household).
In Asia, most people eat rice instead of bread.