Phoebe Grant's Fascinating Stories of World Cultures & Customs

Phoebe LLC Grant

Description

This resource book from Allosaurus Publishers will help stimulate the reading comprehension and critical thinking skills of the adolescent reader through 31 fascinating stories on world cultures and their customs.

From the Great Wall of China to the Amazon rainforest and from ancient Rome to modern day Thailand, the reader will become captivated and eager to learn about the multicultural world we live in today.
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Sujets

• Traditions
• Social Science
• Sociologie, société et politique
• Customs

Informations

• Publié par: eBookIt.com
• Date de parution: 21 février 2013
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781456602024
• Langue: English

Extrait

Phoebe Grant's Fascinating Stories of World Cultures & Customs
 
by
Phoebe Grant
 
 
edited by
Phyllis Barkas Goldman
 
 
Published in eBook format by eBookIt.com
http://www.eBookIt.com
 
 
 
Allosaurus Publishers
The Editor wishes to thank all the contributors for their editorial assistance.
Dawn Askew, Lindsay Baird, Paul Brown, and Linda Goldman
Phyllis Barkas Goldman, Founding Editor
Created, Designed, and Printed by the North Carolina Learning Institute for Fitness & Education, Inc.
 
Revised © 2011 by The North Carolina Institute For Fitness & Education, Inc.
P. 0. Box 10245, Greensboro, NC 27404.
 
All rights reserved. This book or any parts thereof may not be reproduced in any form without permission of the publisher. ISBN-13: 978-1-4566-0202-4
 
Please visit our web page: http://www.allosauruspublishers.com
 
Allosaurus Publishers is a division of the North Carolina Learning Institute for Fitness & Education, Inc.
 


"If we have no peace, it is because we have forgotten that we belong to each other."
Mother Teresa
 
 
"We become not a melting pot but a beautiful mosaic. Different people, different beliefs, different yearnings, different hopes, different dreams."
United States 39th President, Jimmy Carter
 
 
"Everyone likes a good story."
Phoebe Grant
 
 

Aborigine Dreamtime in the Outback
Learn about these Australian natives and their beliefs.
Jenny and her mother were looking forward to their vacation in the Australian Outback.
Grandmother Maja was always lots of fun to visit. Maja was not only kind, warm, and funny, but a well-known Aboriginal storyteller. Jenny loved hearing her stories and hoped that she too could become a storyteller one day.
It was a long trip to her grandmother's small town m Australian wilderness. When Jenny and her mother arrived at Maja's cabin, Jenny asked. her grandmother how she had learned Aboriginal storytelling.
Maja replied, "I am so glad you like knowing about my stories. They were first told to me by my father. And they were told to him by his father. It is how the Aborigines learn their history, and how they are taught to respect the earth." She went on to explain the Dreamtime; according to Aboriginal tradition, the Dreamtime was a period in which their ancestors created everything that exists, through their dreams and ideas. For the Aborigines, Dreamtime could happen through private thoughts and sacred ceremonies.
In school, Jenny learned how the Aborigines came from Southeast Asia over 50,000 years ago, into what is now Australia. Groups of people spread across the continent, settling in deserts, rainforests, coastal plains, river banks, and on mountains. The women harvested plants, while the men used spears to hunt animals such as kangaroos, wallabies, birds, and reptiles. Aborigines also learned to throw a boomerang, and to play a wooden horn known as a didgeridoo. Many settlements developed their own languages.
After dinner that night, Jenny, her mother, and Maja set out to town for a gathering, also known as a corroboree. At the corroboree, people ate, sang, and danced. In the evening, several other people told fascinating tales about their ancestors. That night, as Jenny fell asleep, she began to dream.
 
An African Overview
When someone mentions Africa, many people quickly think of the jungle with zebras, giraffes, apes and lions. Africa, however, is not a country. It is a huge continent with 53 countries.
It is home to the world’s longest river, the Nile and the world’s largest desert, the Sahara.
The Atlantic Ocean borders the west side of Africa and the Indian Ocean is on the east.
Egypt is located in northern Africa and is known for having a very amazing civilization. Thousands of years ago, the great Pyramids were built without the use of machinery or the technology we have today.
The Great Pyramid of Khufu was built using 2 million blocks of stone. These structures were built to bury pharaohs and their queens. Egypt is also a part of the Sahara Desert.
Covering the top one-third of Africa, the Sahara is about the size of the United States.
Below the Sahara Desert, is Kenya which is a popular area for tourists taking safaris to see the wildlife. Kenya covers an area about the size of Texas and on Mount Kenya, the second highest peak in Africa, there are glaciers!
The Democratic Republic of the Congo, formerly known as Zaire, is located in the center of Africa and is the third largest country on the continent.
Botswana is further south and is the most progressive and successful country in Africa. Being one of the world's largest diamond producers has boosted the economy in Africa. Tourists also visit here and there are several wild life reserves.
Senegal is in northeast Africa and has a very modern capital city, Dakar. There are skyscrapers, hotels, shopping areas and wonderful beaches. With 250 miles of coastline, the Senegalese are among the biggest fish eaters in the world. Not only are fish a great source of protein, they are a source of income because fishing is a big business.
Many languages are spoken throughout Africa and some countries claim English as their official language. Because Africa is so large, the climate and geography vary across the continent and make each country unique.
  Algeria Egypt Madagascar Sierra Leone Angola Equatorial Guinea Malawi Somalia Benin Eritrea Mali South Africa Botswana Ethiopia Mauritania Sudan Burkina Faso Gabon Mauritius Swaziland Burundi Gambia Morocco Tanzania Cameroon Ghana Mozambique Togo Cape Verde Guinea Bissau Namibia Tunisia Central African Rep. Guinea Niger Uganda Chad Ivory Coast Nigeria Zambia Congo Kenya Reunion Zanzibar Dem. Rep. Congo (Zaire) Lesotho Rwanda Zimbabwe Djibouti Liberia Senegal
 
  Libya Seychelles
 
 
The Amazon River
Read about the amazing creatures in the Amazon.
The Amazon River is responsible for carrying one fifth of the world's fresh water into the salt oceans, more than any other single river.
This river is also the widest river in the world; 6.8 miles from bank to bank.
Nearly all the water that falls into the northern rainforests of South America washes into the Amazon, making the river swell to its record size.
The Amazon river is home to some amazing creatures. The largest freshwater fish in the world, the arapaima, which can weigh as much as 440 pounds, is found only in the Amazon.
The piranha, the most ferocious fish in the world, is also native to the Amazon. Most species of piranha travel around by themselves most of the time. Only at certain times of the year do they get-together in huge schools, making them dangerous to people and other animals in the river. A single piranha has a painful bite, but is not deadly by itself. The jaws of the fish are so sharp that natives living on the banks of the Amazon can catch the fish and use the jaws as scissors!
The giant anaconda lives in and around the Amazon as well. They are the largest snakes in the world, with the biggest being over 29 feet long, and are capable of slithering along the ground, climbing trees and swimming.
Anacondas are not poisonous; instead of venom, they use their powerful bodies to crush their prey or hold them under water until they drown. The anaconda's digestive system works very slowly. If the anaconda has a large meal, like an entire sheep, it can go for months without getting hungry.
During the rainy season, the Amazon floods and rises as much as thirty feet above its dry season levels. Forests near the river are totally submerged, and the leaves, fruit and insects that get washed into the river during the flooding keep the river's creatures alive.
Little fish eat the debris from the flooded forests, and the fish are eaten by bigger creatures, such as the Amazon River dolphin. The river dolphin is now a threatened species because of the loss of trees along the banks of the Amazon. Less debris gets into the river to feed the small fish, and then there are not enough fish to feed the dolphins.
The source of the Amazon River has only recently been discovered. In the year 2000, explorers using satellite photos and global positioning satellites claimed that they had found the start of the Amazon as a small stream flowing from the mountain called Nevado Mismi in Peru. From there on out, countless other streams flowing into it, called tributary rivers, add to the Amazon, making it into a monster of a river by the time it reaches the Atlantic Ocean.
 
Ancient Roman Life
In ancient Rome, similar to the present, the day started out with breakfast. A wealthy Roman might have eaten meat, fruit, vegetables, bread, and honey, while a lower class Roman would have eaten just bread dipped in water.
After breakfast, Romans would get dressed, usually wearing togas. A toga was like a big sheet that wrapped around the body and draped over one shoulder.
Most of the time, Romans would spend quite a bit of time at the m the center of the city. The forum was a type of market where the people of Rome could do their banking, trading, and shopping. Rome participated in trade and these markets were also a place to go to acquire valuables from other places. Cultural events such as public speaking, festivals, and religious ceremonies were also conducted there .
The public bath was another place to which Romans tried to go at least once a day. At the baths, there were hot and cold pools, towels, slaves to wait on you, steam rooms, saunas, exercise rooms, and hair cutting salons. The baths could hold up to 1,500 people. Later in the day, the wealthier Romans would rest while the poorer Romans worked .
Entertainment was also important to the Romans . The ancient Greeks were intent on watching dramas from a grassy hillside outdoors, but the Romans, in their structured society, built special theatres especially for the plays. There were many theatres set up and they were all free to the public, so many people went to see t