Dedicated to Peoples Liberation Army on the occasion of its 87th founding anniversary
Long live the great unity of the Chinese people!
Long live the People's Republic of China!
Long live the Central People's Government!
Long live the PLA
The World's A Stage: Puppets, Identity, and Politics in Taiwan by Dr. Robin Erik Ruizendaal
In 2006, glove puppet theatre was chosen as the symbol that could best represent Taiwan in a national opnion poll by the government information office. Puppet theater is viewed as an expression of Taiwansese grass-roots culture and the puppets symbolize far more than the characters they represent. This lecture will chart the historical and political development of puppet theater in Taiwan, from the 16th century to the 21th century, from the stage performance to the television screen and its role as a symbol of a distinct Taiwanese identity. This lecture will include power point presentation, as well as demonstration of different Taiwanese puppet types.
Dr. Ruizendaal is the Director of Lin Liu-Hsin Puppet Theatre Museum, Managing/Artistic Director of Taiyuan Puppet Theatre Company, and a PhD in Sinology from Leiden University (the Netherlands). Robin Ruizendaal is widely acknowledged as an authority on contemporary Asian puppet shows. He spares no effort promoting international puppet shows in Taiwan, and works created or directed by him often show great originality and initiative. Under the influence of a varied background, Ruizendaal puts his professional skills at creating and directing puppet theatre art into full play. His works have been translated into 13 languages and staged in more than 20 cities in the world. The works he has been involved in include The Box, The Second Goodbye, Silk Road, Marco Polo, The Marriage of Mouse, Liao, the Chivalrous Thief, You are My Mother and Pilgrim.
Shijiazhuang
Shijiazhuang, formerly romanized Shihkiachwang, is the capital and largest city of North China's Hebei Province. Administratively a prefecture-level city, it is about 263 kilometres southwest of Beijing, and it administers 8 districts, 2 county-level cities, and 12 counties.
At the 2013 census, it had a total population of 12,763,700, with 4,303,700 in the central area comprising the 7 districts and the county of Zhengding largely conurbated with the Shijiazhuang metropolitan area as urbanization continues to proliferate. Shijiazhuang's total population ranked twelfth in mainland China.
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Shenyang | Wikipedia audio article
This is an audio version of the Wikipedia Article:
00:02:01 1 History
00:02:32 1.1 Ancient era
00:04:10 1.2 Manchu capital
00:06:03 1.3 Russian and Japanese influence
00:07:46 1.4 Warlord Era and Japanese occupation
00:10:29 1.5 Post-World War II
00:12:05 2 Old City
00:17:33 3 Geography
00:19:51 3.1 Environment
00:21:43 3.2 Climate
00:23:02 4 Administrative divisions
00:24:10 4.1 Districts
00:24:19 4.1.1 Shenhe District
00:26:54 4.1.2 Heping District
00:28:53 4.1.3 Dadong District
00:29:50 4.1.4 Huanggu District
00:30:45 4.1.5 Tiexi District
00:32:48 4.1.6 Hunnan District
00:35:12 4.1.7 Sujiatun District
00:36:06 4.1.8 Shenbei New District
00:36:57 4.1.9 Yuhong District
00:38:19 4.1.10 Liaozhong District
00:39:31 4.2 Satellite city
00:39:40 4.2.1 Xinmin City
00:41:06 4.3 Rural counties
00:41:15 4.3.1 Faku County
00:42:24 4.3.2 Kangping County
00:43:31 5 Demographics
00:44:40 6 Economy
00:47:55 7 Transportation
00:48:29 7.1 Rail
00:53:42 7.2 Road
00:58:43 7.3 Airport
00:59:40 7.4 Public transport
01:01:41 8 Healthcare
01:03:06 9 Military
01:04:23 10 Culture
01:04:32 10.1 Shenyang dialect
01:05:16 10.2 Art
01:06:07 10.3 Museums
01:07:20 10.4 Sports
01:08:28 10.5 Religion
01:10:59 10.6 Cuisine
01:11:56 11 Notable people
01:13:33 12 Tourism
01:13:42 12.1 Attractions
01:16:12 12.2 Shopping areas
01:18:00 13 Research and education
01:18:28 13.1 Research institutes
01:19:40 13.2 High schools
01:20:25 13.3 International schools
01:21:33 13.4 Universities
01:23:22 13.5 Defunct universities
01:24:25 14 International relations
01:24:35 14.1 Foreign consulates
01:24:57 14.2 Twin towns – Sister cities
01:25:31 15 In media
01:25:51 16 See also
01:26:11 17 Notes
Listening is a more natural way of learning, when compared to reading. Written language only began at around 3200 BC, but spoken language has existed long ago.
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Speaking Rate: 0.9833092095585021
Voice name: en-GB-Wavenet-D
I cannot teach anybody anything, I can only make them think.
- Socrates
SUMMARY
=======
Shenyang ([ʂə̀n.jǎŋ]; Chinese: 沈阳), formerly known by its Manchu name Mukden or Fengtian (Chinese: 奉天; pinyin: Fèngtiān), is the provincial capital and the largest city of Liaoning Province, People's Republic of China, as well as the largest city in Northeast China by urban population. According to the 2010 census, the city's urban area has 6.3 million inhabitants, while the total population of the Shenyang municipality, which holds the administrative status of a sub-provincial city, is up to 8.1 million. Shenyang is also the center city of one of the major metropolitan areas in China, the Greater Shenyang Metro Area, with a total population over 23 million. The city’s region includes the ten metropolitan districts of Shenyang proper, the county-level city of Xinmin, and two counties of Kangping and Faku.
In the 17th century, Shenyang was conquered by the Manchu people and briefly used as the capital of the Qing dynasty. The Battle of Mukden took place in 1905 as part of the Russo-Japanese War. Japan's subsequent victory allowed them to increase their influence on Shenyang; the Mukden Incident led the Japanese to further invade and occupy the rest of Northeast China, creating the puppet state of Manchukuo. Shenyang remained a Kuomintang stronghold after Japan's defeat, but was captured by the communists in 1948.
Along with its nearby cities, Shenyang is an important industrial center in China, and serves as the transportation and commercial hub of China's northeast—particularly with Japan, Russia and Korea. A center of heavy industry in China since the 1930s, and the spearhead of the Chinese central government's Northeast Area Revitalization Plan, the city has been diversifying its industry, including expanding into the service sector. Growing industries include software, automotive and electronics.
Second Sino-Japanese War | Wikipedia audio article
This is an audio version of the Wikipedia Article:
Second Sino-Japanese War
Listening is a more natural way of learning, when compared to reading. Written language only began at around 3200 BC, but spoken language has existed long ago.
Learning by listening is a great way to:
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Now learn the vast amount of general knowledge available on Wikipedia through audio (audio article). You could even learn subconsciously by playing the audio while you are sleeping! If you are planning to listen a lot, you could try using a bone conduction headphone, or a standard speaker instead of an earphone.
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The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing.
- Socrates
SUMMARY
=======
The Second Sino-Japanese War was a military conflict fought primarily between the Republic of China and the Empire of Japan from July 7, 1937, to September 2, 1945. It began with the Marco Polo Bridge Incident in 1937 in which a dispute between Japanese and Chinese troops escalated into a battle.
China fought Japan with aid from the Soviet Union and the United States. After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, the war merged with other conflicts of World War II as a major sector known as the China Burma India Theater. Some scholars consider the start of the full-scale Second Sino-Japanese War in 1937 to have been the beginning of World War II. The Second Sino-Japanese War was the largest Asian war in the 20th century. It accounted for the majority of civilian and military casualties in the Pacific War, with between 10 and 25 million Chinese civilians and over 4 million Chinese and Japanese military personnel dying from war-related violence, famine, and other causes.
The war was the result of a decades-long Japanese imperialist policy to expand its influence politically and militarily in order to secure access to raw material reserves, food, and labor. The period after World War I brought about increasing stress on the Japanese polity. Leftists sought universal suffrage and greater rights for workers. Increasing textile production from Chinese mills was adversely affecting Japanese production. The Great Depression brought about a large slowdown in exports. All of this contributed to militant nationalism, culminating in the rise to power of a militarist fascist faction. This faction was led at its height by the Hideki Tojo cabinet of the Imperial Rule Assistance Association under edict from Emperor Hirohito. In 1931, the Mukden Incident helped spark the Japanese invasion of Manchuria. The Chinese were defeated and Japan created a new puppet state, Manchukuo; many historians cite 1931 as the beginning of the war. The view has been adopted by the PRC government. From 1931 to 1937, China and Japan continued to skirmish in small, localized engagements, so-called incidents.
Initially the Japanese scored major victories, capturing both Shanghai and the Chinese capital of Nanking in 1937. After failing to stop the Japanese in the Battle of Wuhan, the Chinese central government was relocated to Chongqing (Chungking) in the Chinese interior. By 1939, after Chinese victories in Changsha and Guangxi, and with Japan's lines of communications stretched deep into the Chinese interior, the war reached a stalemate. The Japanese were also unable to defeat the Chinese communist forces in Shaanxi, which waged a campaign of sabotage and guerrilla warfare against the invaders. While Japan ruled the large cities, they lacked sufficient manpower to control China's vast countryside. During this time, Chinese communist forces launched a counter offensive in Central China while Chinese nationalist forces launched a large scale winter offensive.
On December 7, 1941, the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, and the following day the United States declared war on Japan. The United States began to aid China by airlifting material over the Himalayas after the Allied defeat in Burma that closed the Burma Road. In 1944 Japan launched the invasion, Operation Ichi-Go, that conquered Henan and Changsha. However, this failed to bring about the surrender of Chinese forces. In 1945, the Chinese Expeditionary Force resumed its advance in Burma and completed the Ledo Road linking India to China. At the same time, China launched large counteroffensives in South China and retook West Hunan and Guangxi.
Despite continuing to occupy part of China's territory, Japan eventually surrendered on September 2, 1945, to Allied forces following the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the Soviet invasion of Japanese-held Manchuria. The remaining Japanese occupation forces (excluding Manchuria) for ...
Hebei | Wikipedia audio article
This is an audio version of the Wikipedia Article:
00:01:44 1 History
00:07:56 2 Geography
00:09:16 2.1 Climate
00:09:51 3 Administrative divisions
00:10:42 3.1 Urban areas
00:10:51 4 Politics
00:11:25 5 Economy
00:13:09 5.1 Economic and technological development zones
00:13:25 6 Demographics
00:14:44 6.1 Religion
00:16:52 7 Culture
00:18:36 8 Notable individuals
00:19:12 9 Media
00:19:24 10 Transportation
00:21:36 11 Tourism
00:23:56 12 Sports
00:24:30 13 Education
00:27:41 14 See also
Listening is a more natural way of learning, when compared to reading. Written language only began at around 3200 BC, but spoken language has existed long ago.
Learning by listening is a great way to:
- increases imagination and understanding
- improves your listening skills
- improves your own spoken accent
- learn while on the move
- reduce eye strain
Now learn the vast amount of general knowledge available on Wikipedia through audio (audio article). You could even learn subconsciously by playing the audio while you are sleeping! If you are planning to listen a lot, you could try using a bone conduction headphone, or a standard speaker instead of an earphone.
Listen on Google Assistant through Extra Audio:
Other Wikipedia audio articles at:
Upload your own Wikipedia articles through:
Speaking Rate: 0.9550108284721958
Voice name: en-GB-Wavenet-B
I cannot teach anybody anything, I can only make them think.
- Socrates
SUMMARY
=======
Hebei (河北; alternately Hopeh) is a province of China in the North China region. The modern province was established in 1911 as Chihli Province (Zhili Province). Its capital and largest city is Shijiazhuang. Its one-character abbreviation is 冀 (Jì), named after Ji Province, a Han dynasty province (zhou) that included what is now southern Hebei. The name Hebei literally means north of the river, referring to its location entirely to the north of the Yellow River.The modern province Chili Province was formed in 1911, when the central government dissolved the central governed area of Chihli, which means Directly Ruled (by the Imperial Court) until it was renamed as Hebei in 1928. A common alternate name for Hebei is Yānzhào (燕趙), after the state of Yan and state of Zhao that existed here during the Warring States period of early Chinese history.
Beijing and Tianjin Municipalities, which border each other, were carved out of Hebei. The province borders Liaoning to the northeast, Inner Mongolia to the north, Shanxi to the west, Henan to the south, and Shandong to the southeast. Bohai Bay of the Bohai Sea is to the east. A small part of Hebei, Sanhe Exclave, consisting of Sanhe, Dachang Hui Autonomous County, and Xianghe County, an exclave disjointed from the rest of the province, is wedged between the municipalities of Beijing and Tianjin.
With a population of over 74 million people, Hebei is China's sixth most populous province. The Han majority comprise 96% of the population, followed by a minority of Manchu, Hui and Mongol peoples.
World War II | Wikipedia audio article
This is an audio version of the Wikipedia Article:
World War II
Listening is a more natural way of learning, when compared to reading. Written
language only began at around 3200 BC, but spoken language has existed long ago.
Learning by listening is a great way to:
- increases imagination and understanding
- improves your listening skills
- improves your own spoken accent
- learn while on the move
- reduce eye strain
Now learn the vast amount of general knowledge available on Wikipedia through
audio (audio article). You could even learn subconsciously by playing the audio
while you are sleeping! If you are planning to listen a lot, you could try using
a bone conduction headphone, or a standard speaker instead of an earphone.
You can find other Wikipedia audio articles too at:
In case you don't find one that you were looking for, put a comment.
This video uses Google TTS en-US-Standard-D voice.
SUMMARY
=======
World War II (often abbreviated to WWII or WW2), also known as the Second World War, was a global war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. The vast majority of the world's countries—including all the great powers—eventually formed two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis. A state of total war emerged, directly involving more than 100 million people from over 30 countries. The major participants threw their entire economic, industrial, and scientific capabilities behind the war effort, blurring the distinction between civilian and military resources. World War II was the deadliest conflict in human history, marked by 50 to 85 million fatalities, most of whom were civilians in the Soviet Union and China. It included massacres, the genocide of the Holocaust, strategic bombing, premeditated death from starvation and disease, and the only use of nuclear weapons in war.Japan, which aimed to dominate Asia and the Pacific, was at war with China by 1937—though neither side had declared war on the other. World war is generally said to have begun on 1 September 1939, with the invasion of Poland by Germany and subsequent declarations on Germany by France and the United Kingdom. From late 1939 to early 1941, in a series of campaigns and treaties, Germany conquered or controlled much of continental Europe, and formed the Axis alliance with Italy and Japan. Under the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact of August 1939, Germany and the Soviet Union partitioned and annexed territories of their European neighbours, Poland, Finland, Romania and the Baltic states. Following the onset of campaigns in North Africa and East Africa, and the fall of France in mid 1940, the war continued primarily between the European Axis powers and the British Empire. War in the Balkans, the aerial Battle of Britain, the Blitz, and the long Battle of the Atlantic followed. On 22 June 1941, the European Axis powers launched an invasion of the Soviet Union, opening the largest land theatre of war in history. This Eastern Front trapped the Axis, most crucially the German Wehrmacht, into a war of attrition. In December 1941, Japan launched a surprise attack on the United States and European colonies in the Pacific Ocean. Following an immediate U.S. declaration of war against Japan, supported by one from Great Britain, the European Axis powers quickly declared war on the U.S. in solidarity with their Japanese ally. Rapid Japanese conquests over much of the Western Pacific ensued, perceived by many in Asia as liberation from Western dominance and resulting in the support of several armies from defeated territories.
The Axis advance in the Pacific halted in 1942 when Japan lost the critical Battle of Midway; later, Germany and Italy were defeated in North Africa and then, decisively, at Stalingrad in the Soviet Union. Key setbacks in 1943, which included a series of German defeats on the Eastern Front, the Allied invasions of Sicily and Italy, and Allied victories in the Pacific, cost the Axis its initiative and forced it into strategic retreat on all fronts. In 1944, the Western Allies invaded German-occupied France, while the Soviet Union regained its territorial losses and turned toward Germany and its allies. During 1944 and 1945 the Japanese suffered major reverses in mainland Asia in South Central China and Burma, while the Allies crippled the Japanese Navy and captured key Western Pacific islands.
The war in Europe concluded with an invasion of Germany by the Western Allies and the Soviet Union, culminating in the capture of Berlin by Soviet troops, the suicide of Adolf Hitler and the German unconditional surrender on 8 May 1945. Following the Potsdam Declaration by the Allies on 26 July 1945 and the refusal of Japan to surrender under its terms, the United States dropped atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on 6 and 9 August respectively. With an invasion of the Japanese archipelago imminent, the possibility of additional a ...
Hebei | Wikipedia audio article
This is an audio version of the Wikipedia Article:
Hebei
00:01:27 1 History
00:07:41 2 Geography
00:08:58 2.1 Climate
00:09:33 3 Administrative divisions
00:10:16 3.1 Urban areas
00:10:25 4 Politics
00:10:58 5 Economy
00:12:41 5.1 Economic and technological development zones
00:12:58 6 Demographics
00:14:17 6.1 Religion
00:16:26 7 Culture
00:18:11 8 Notable individuals
00:18:47 9 Media
00:18:59 10 Transportation
00:21:11 11 Tourism
00:23:32 12 Sports
00:24:06 13 Education
00:27:18 14 See also
Listening is a more natural way of learning, when compared to reading. Written language only began at around 3200 BC, but spoken language has existed long ago.
Learning by listening is a great way to:
- increases imagination and understanding
- improves your listening skills
- improves your own spoken accent
- learn while on the move
- reduce eye strain
Now learn the vast amount of general knowledge available on Wikipedia through audio (audio article). You could even learn subconsciously by playing the audio while you are sleeping! If you are planning to listen a lot, you could try using a bone conduction headphone, or a standard speaker instead of an earphone.
You can find other Wikipedia audio articles too at:
You can upload your own Wikipedia articles through:
The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing.
- Socrates
SUMMARY
=======
Hebei (河北; formerly romanised as Hopeh) is a province of China in the North China region. The modern province was established in 1911 as Zhili Province or Chihli Province. Its one-character abbreviation is 冀 (Jì), named after Ji Province, a Han dynasty province (zhou) that included what is now southern Hebei. The name Hebei literally means north of the river, referring to its location entirely to the north of the Yellow River.The modern province Chili Province was formed in 1911 after the central government dissolved the central governed area of Chihli, which means Directly Ruled (by the Imperial Court) until it was renamed as Hebei in 1928.
Beijing and Tianjin Municipalities, which border each other, were carved out of Hebei. The province borders Liaoning to the northeast, Inner Mongolia to the north, Shanxi to the west, Henan to the south, and Shandong to the southeast. Bohai Bay of the Yellow Sea is to the east. A small part of Hebei, Sanhe Exclave, consisting of Sanhe, Dachang Hui Autonomous County, and Xianghe County, an exclave disjointed from the rest of the province, is wedged between the municipalities of Beijing and Tianjin.
A common alternate name for Hebei is Yānzhào (燕趙), after the state of Yan and state of Zhao that existed here during the Warring States period of early Chinese history.
Destroyer | Wikipedia audio article
This is an audio version of the Wikipedia Article:
00:02:36 1 Origins
00:05:20 1.1 Early designs
00:07:08 1.2 Torpedo gunboat
00:10:41 2 Development of the modern destroyer
00:13:10 2.1 Subsequent improvements
00:16:51 3 Early use and World War I
00:19:52 3.1 Early combat
00:23:51 4 1918–1945
00:30:27 4.1 Later combat
00:32:16 5 Post-World War II
00:34:05 6 Operators
00:46:52 7 Future development
00:52:53 8 Preserved destroyers
00:56:48 9 See also
Listening is a more natural way of learning, when compared to reading. Written language only began at around 3200 BC, but spoken language has existed long ago.
Learning by listening is a great way to:
- increases imagination and understanding
- improves your listening skills
- improves your own spoken accent
- learn while on the move
- reduce eye strain
Now learn the vast amount of general knowledge available on Wikipedia through audio (audio article). You could even learn subconsciously by playing the audio while you are sleeping! If you are planning to listen a lot, you could try using a bone conduction headphone, or a standard speaker instead of an earphone.
Listen on Google Assistant through Extra Audio:
Other Wikipedia audio articles at:
Upload your own Wikipedia articles through:
Speaking Rate: 0.876600018846327
Voice name: en-US-Wavenet-A
I cannot teach anybody anything, I can only make them think.
- Socrates
SUMMARY
=======
In naval terminology, a destroyer is a fast, maneuverable, long-endurance warship intended to escort larger vessels in a fleet, convoy or battle group and defend them against smaller powerful short-range attackers. They were originally developed in the late 19th century by Fernando Villaamil for the Spanish Navy as a defense against torpedo boats, and by the time of the Russo-Japanese War in 1904, these torpedo boat destroyers (TBDs) were large, swift, and powerfully armed torpedo boats designed to destroy other torpedo boats. Although the term destroyer had been used interchangeably with TBD and torpedo boat destroyer by navies since 1892, the term torpedo boat destroyer had been generally shortened to simply destroyer by nearly all navies by the First World War.Before World War II, destroyers were light vessels with little endurance for unattended ocean operations; typically a number of destroyers and a single destroyer tender operated together. After the war, the advent of the guided missile allowed destroyers to take on the surface combatant roles previously filled by battleships and cruisers. This resulted in larger and more powerful guided missile destroyers more capable of independent operation.
At the start of the 21st century, destroyers are the global standard for surface combatant ships, with only two nations (United States and Russia) operating the heavier class cruisers, with no battleships or true battlecruisers remaining. Modern guided missile destroyers are equivalent in tonnage but vastly superior in firepower to cruisers of the World War II era, and are capable of carrying nuclear tipped cruise missiles. At 510 feet (160 m) long, a displacement of 9,200 tons, and with armament of more than 90 missiles, guided missile destroyers such as the Arleigh Burke-class are actually larger and more heavily armed than most previous ships classified as guided missile cruisers.
Some European navies, such as the French, Spanish, or German, use the term frigate for their destroyers, which leads to some confusion.
Destroyer | Wikipedia audio article
This is an audio version of the Wikipedia Article:
Destroyer
00:02:10 1 Origins
00:04:28 1.1 Early designs
00:06:00 1.2 Torpedo gunboat
00:09:01 2 Development of the modern destroyer
00:11:07 2.1 Subsequent improvements
00:14:14 3 Early use and World War I
00:16:49 3.1 Early combat
00:20:10 4 1918–1945
00:25:47 4.1 Later combat
00:27:20 5 Post-World War II
00:28:52 6 Operators
00:39:44 7 Future development
00:44:50 8 Preserved destroyers
00:48:00 9 See also
Listening is a more natural way of learning, when compared to reading. Written language only began at around 3200 BC, but spoken language has existed long ago.
Learning by listening is a great way to:
- increases imagination and understanding
- improves your listening skills
- improves your own spoken accent
- learn while on the move
- reduce eye strain
Now learn the vast amount of general knowledge available on Wikipedia through audio (audio article). You could even learn subconsciously by playing the audio while you are sleeping! If you are planning to listen a lot, you could try using a bone conduction headphone, or a standard speaker instead of an earphone.
You can find other Wikipedia audio articles too at:
You can upload your own Wikipedia articles through:
The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing.
- Socrates
SUMMARY
=======
In naval terminology, a destroyer is a fast, maneuverable long-endurance warship intended to escort larger vessels in a fleet, convoy or battle group and defend them against smaller powerful short-range attackers. They were originally developed in the late 19th century as a defense against torpedo boats, and by the time of the Russo-Japanese War in 1904, these torpedo boat destroyers (TBDs) were large, swift, and powerfully armed torpedo boats designed to destroy other torpedo boats. Although the term destroyer had been used interchangeably with TBD and torpedo boat destroyer by navies since 1892, the term torpedo boat destroyer had been generally shortened to simply destroyer by nearly all navies by the First World War.Before World War II destroyers were light vessels with little endurance for unattended ocean operations; typically a number of destroyers and a single destroyer tender operated together. After the war, the advent of the guided missile allowed destroyers to take on the surface combatant roles previously filled by battleships and cruisers. This resulted in larger and more powerful guided missile destroyers more capable of independent operation.
At the start of the 21st century, destroyers are the global standard for surface combatant ships, with only two nations (United States and Russia) operating the heavier class cruisers, with no battleships or true battlecruisers remaining. Modern guided missile destroyers are equivalent in tonnage but vastly superior in firepower to cruisers of the World War II era, and are capable of carrying nuclear tipped cruise missiles. At 510 feet (160 m) long, a displacement of 9200 tons, and with armament of more than 90 missiles, guided missile destroyers such as the Arleigh Burke-class are actually larger and more heavily armed than most previous ships classified as guided missile cruisers.
Some European navies, such as the French, Spanish, or German, use the term frigate for their destroyers, which leads to some confusion.
The Second World War | Wikipedia audio article
This is an audio version of the Wikipedia Article:
00:06:35 1 Chronology
00:08:42 2 Background
00:08:50 2.1 Europe
00:13:48 2.2 Asia
00:15:18 3 Pre-war events
00:15:28 3.1 Italian invasion of Ethiopia (1935)
00:16:51 3.2 Spanish Civil War (1936–1939)
00:18:15 3.3 Japanese invasion of China (1937)
00:20:11 3.4 Soviet–Japanese border conflicts
00:21:17 3.5 European occupations and agreements
00:25:46 4 Course of the war
00:25:55 4.1 War breaks out in Europe (1939–40)
00:30:23 4.2 Western Europe (1940–41)
00:35:21 4.3 Mediterranean (1940–41)
00:38:21 4.4 Axis attack on the Soviet Union (1941)
00:43:42 4.5 War breaks out in the Pacific (1941)
00:49:59 4.6 Axis advance stalls (1942–43)
00:52:21 4.6.1 Pacific (1942–43)
00:56:31 4.6.2 Eastern Front (1942–43)
00:58:26 4.6.3 Western Europe/Atlantic and Mediterranean (1942–43)
01:01:22 4.7 Allies gain momentum (1943–44)
01:07:42 4.8 Allies close in (1944)
01:12:45 4.9 Axis collapse, Allied victory (1944–45)
01:19:14 5 Aftermath
01:26:16 6 Impact
01:26:25 6.1 Casualties and war crimes
01:30:39 6.2 Genocide, concentration camps, and slave labour
01:34:04 6.3 Occupation
01:36:42 6.4 Home fronts and production
01:39:00 6.5 Advances in technology and warfare
01:44:35 7 See also
01:44:44 8 Notes
Listening is a more natural way of learning, when compared to reading. Written language only began at around 3200 BC, but spoken language has existed long ago.
Learning by listening is a great way to:
- increases imagination and understanding
- improves your listening skills
- improves your own spoken accent
- learn while on the move
- reduce eye strain
Now learn the vast amount of general knowledge available on Wikipedia through audio (audio article). You could even learn subconsciously by playing the audio while you are sleeping! If you are planning to listen a lot, you could try using a bone conduction headphone, or a standard speaker instead of an earphone.
Listen on Google Assistant through Extra Audio:
Other Wikipedia audio articles at:
Upload your own Wikipedia articles through:
Speaking Rate: 0.8254195237048937
Voice name: en-AU-Wavenet-A
I cannot teach anybody anything, I can only make them think.
- Socrates
SUMMARY
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World War II (often abbreviated to WWII or WW2), also known as the Second World War, was a global war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. The vast majority of the world's countries—including all the great powers—eventually formed two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis. A state of total war emerged, directly involving more than 100 million people from over 30 countries. The major participants threw their entire economic, industrial, and scientific capabilities behind the war effort, blurring the distinction between civilian and military resources. World War II was the deadliest conflict in human history, marked by 50 to 85 million fatalities, most of whom were civilians in the Soviet Union and China. It included massacres, the genocide of the Holocaust, strategic bombing, premeditated death from starvation and disease, and the only use of nuclear weapons in war.Japan, which aimed to dominate Asia and the Pacific, was at war with China by 1937, though neither side had declared war on the other. World War II is generally said to have begun on 1 September 1939, with the invasion of Poland by Germany and subsequent declarations of war on Germany by France and the United Kingdom. From late 1939 to early 1941, in a series of campaigns and treaties, Germany conquered or controlled much of continental Europe, and formed the Axis alliance with Italy and Japan. Under the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact of August 1939, Germany and the Soviet Union partitioned and annexed territories of their European neighbours, Poland, Finland, Romania and the Baltic states. Following the onset of campaigns in North Africa and East Africa, and the fall of France in mid 1940, the war continued primarily between the European Axis powers and the British Empire. War in the Balkans, the aerial Battle of Britain, the Blitz, and the long Battle of the Atlantic followed. On 22 June 1941, the European Axis powers launched an invasion of the Soviet Union, opening the largest land theatre of war in history. This Eastern Front trapped the Axis, most crucially the German Wehrmacht, into a war of attrition. In December 1941, Japan launched a surprise attack on the United States as well as European colonies in the Pacific. Following an immediate U.S. declaration of war against Japan, supported by one from Great Britain, the European Axis powers quickly declared war on the U.S. in solidarity with their Japanese ally. Rapid Japanese conquests over much of the Western Pacific ensued, perceived by many in Asia as ...