... practice long before the region became Muslim. The nomadic, pre-Islamic, Turkic tribes frequently engaged in warfare, and Turkic women often fought side-by-side with the men and otherwise enjoyed considerable equality; Turkish culture prized girls, and mediatory prayers often requested the birth of a female. ... religious teaching to bring harems into existence. Islam, meanwhile, actually improved women's status, as it guaranteed the greater property rights than those enjoyed by their European counterparts; and it limited to four the number of wives a man could marry. It is not known when...

• Word Count: 1508
• Approx Pages: 6
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... peasant family near Canton (Guangzhou) and educated in Hawaii, where he converted to Christianity. He returned to China and led an unsuccessful rebellion in Canton in 1894. A decade later he forged a union between several Chinese groups, called the Revolutionary Alliance Society. The alliance advocated freeing China from foreign control, overthrowing the Manchu dynasty, and providing for the people's welfare. Its ... . Their request was denied, precipitating the May Fourth Movement, which grew out of a student uprising in China. The movement's leaders demanded modernization through educat...

• Word Count: 1178
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... loyalty, and conscience are more important than social advancement, wealth, and class. Dickens establishes the theme and shows Pip learning this lesson, largely by exploring ideas of ambition and self-improvement. Ambition and self-improvement take two forms in Great Expectations "moral and social; these motivate Pip ... Through her connection with the Rivers, she acquires the status of belonging to a long-established county family, and she reinforces this upward move by marrying into the landed gentry. As Jane meets with new experiences, solves complex problems and emotional tangles, and...

• Word Count: 1152
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... Michael his one student with great potential and knew immediately that he must learn discipline while testing his love of the art. Bertolodo's trial by fire would be a difficult one for the young artist but in the end, he proved his dedication and the true apprenticeship began. During ... with Cortessina but instead he discovered that a contract was signed and for a political marriage. Finally, he was confident that his artwork would be admired by all, instead his fellow artists became jealous and envious; a former friend, Torrigiani, even broke his nose in a rage. As if Michael's troub...

• Word Count: 1898
• Approx Pages: 8
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... guesstimates place the blues as chiefly arising in three regions: Texas, Georgia/the Carolinas, and, most notably, Mississippi (especially the Delta area), possibly as soon as the 1890s but definitely by the early 1900s. The blues piano, however, developed in a parallel but different course--the players could only go where the pianos were, namely whorehouses and barrelhouses. Blues piano fermented ... Waters (né McKinley Morganfield), the wailing Elmore James, and the ultra-relaxed Jimmy Reed. Adding fuel to the fire, the aptly nicknamed Howlin' Wolf (Chester Burnett) also relocated fro...

• Word Count: 1753
• Approx Pages: 7
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... human rights framework (www.amnestyusa.org/stopviolence/about.html). As anthropologist Sheila Dauer, Director of Amnesty International USA's Women's Program says, "By providing the global human rights framework for the struggle, Amnesty International will show how international human rights standards cut across national boundaries, cultures and ... to increase governmental and international accountability. While asserting the widespread prevalence of the problem, it argues that its particular manifestations are shaped by factors such as ethnicity, class, age, sexual orientation, disabili...

• Word Count: 9630
• Approx Pages: 39
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... the empire. And for all the company's attempts to discourage interloping, more and more free-lance adventurers kept flocking in from Europe, equipped with forged trading passes and a hunger for a quick killing. The threat that most unsettled the English, however, came from the French, who in the ... own private fiefdom. For decades, father and son were a constant menace to the British presence in the south, now and then setting fire to the country houses on the outskirts of Madras and leading their mercenary lootywallahs on one pillaging expedition after another. Not far away, ... quit...

• Word Count: 5127
• Approx Pages: 21
• Grade Level: Undergraduate