Скачать книгу (размер 769 Kb , формат fb2, страниц 152) Аннотация: It is a striking aspect of contemporary western culture that, alongside a decline in traditional religious affiliations, there has been a growing interest in spirituality and the use of the word in a variety of contexts. Indeed, spirituality is sometimes contrasted favorably with religion, which many people see (for good or ill) as an off-putting amalgam of dogma, moralism, institutions,…
Скачать книгу (размер 769 Kb , формат fb2, страниц 152) Аннотация: China's decade-long Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution shook the politics of China and the world. Even as we approach its fiftieth anniversary, the movement remains so contentious that the Chinese Communist Party still forbids fully open investigation of its origins, development, and conclusion. Drawing upon a vital trove of scholarship, memoirs, and popular culture, this Very Short…
Скачать книгу (размер 769 Kb , формат fb2, страниц 152) Аннотация: Defining 'magic' is a maddening task. Over the last century numerous philosophers, anthropologists, historians, and theologians have attempted to pin down its essential meaning, sometimes analysing it in such complex and abstruse depth that it all but loses its sense altogether. For this reason, many people often shy away from providing a detailed definition, assuming it is generally understood…
Скачать книгу (размер 769 Kb , формат fb2, страниц 152) Аннотация: Throughout history plague has been the cause of many major catastrophes. It was responsible for the Black Death of 1348 and the Great Plague of London in 1665, and for devastating epidemics much earlier and much later, in the Mediterranean in the sixth century, and in China and India between the 1890s and 1920s. Today, it has become a metaphor for other epidemic disasters which appear to threaten…
Скачать книгу (размер 850 Kb , формат fb2, страниц 168) Аннотация: The rise and fall of the Roman Republic occupies a special place in the history of Western civilization. From humble beginnings on the seven hills beside the Tiber, the city of Rome grew to dominate the ancient Mediterranean. Led by her senatorial aristocracy, Republican armies defeated Carthage and the successor kingdoms of Alexander the Great, and brought the surrounding peoples to east and…
Скачать книгу (размер 646 Kb , формат fb2, страниц 128) Аннотация: Metaphysics is one of the traditional four main branches of philosophy, alongside ethics, logic and epistemology. It is also an area that continues to attract and hold a fascination for many people yet it is associated with being complex and abstract. For some it is associated with the mystical or religious. For others it is known through the metaphysical poets who talk of love and spirituality.…
Скачать книгу (размер 687 Kb , формат fb2, страниц 136) Аннотация: What is real? has been one of the key questions of philosophy since its beginning in antiquity. It is a question that, due to such films as The Matrix, has also made its way into popular culture. But it is not just a question philosophers ask. It is also asked by scientists when they investigate whether the fundamental constituents of matter are actually 'out there' or just a mere abstraction…
Скачать книгу (размер 728 Kb , формат fb2, страниц 144) Аннотация: Trust is indispensable, yet it can be dangerous. Without trusting others, we cannot function in society, or even stay alive for very long, but being overly-trustful can be a bad strategy too. Trust is pragmatic, but it also has a moral dimension: trustworthiness is a virtue, and well-placed trust benefits us all. In this Very Short Introduction, Katherine Hawley explores the key ideas about trust…
Скачать книгу (размер 769 Kb , формат fb2, страниц 152) Аннотация: Compelling and accessible, this Very Short Introduction challenges the perception of borders as passive lines on a map, revealing them instead to be integral forces in the economic, social, political, and environmental processes that shape our lives. Highlighting the historical development and continued relevance of borders, Alexander C. Diener and Joshua Hagen offer a powerful counterpoint to…
Скачать книгу (размер 157 Kb , формат fb2, страниц 32) Аннотация: Miss Cluck has some exciting news for her class. There is going to be an end-of-term show! All the animals rehearse tirelessly and soon the day of the show arrives. But then — disaster! — Miss Webb and her nursery class who should be coming to watch the show are stuck in the mud. How will the show go on? Boris has an idea. He dashes out (in his superhero costume), finds the stricken tractor, and…
Скачать книгу (размер 565 Kb , формат fb2) Аннотация: Gatsby's mansion on Long Island blazes with light, and the beautiful, the wealthy, and the famous drive out from New York to drink Gatsby's champagne and to party all night long. But Jay Gatsby, the owner of all this wealth, wants only one thing — to find again the woman of his dreams, the woman he has held in his heart and his memory for five long years. The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald's…
Скачать книгу (размер 279 Kb , формат fb2, страниц 56) Аннотация: In Sweden, nobody wants a troll to come into their garden, but how do you stop them? On a lonely road at night in Oman, Abdul's car breaks down and he takes a ride with a stranger, but perhaps it is safer to walk. In England some young people play a scary game, and in Asia, a soldier returns home — at last. Every country in the world has stories about ghosts and spirits and monsters of one kind…
Скачать книгу (размер 320 Kb , формат fb2, страниц 64) Аннотация: France, 1815. Jean Valjean leaves prison after nineteen years. These are dangerous and troubled times, and life is hard. Valjean must begin a new life, but how can he escape his past, and his enemy, Inspector Javert? This story for Bookworms is loosely based on the famous novel Les Miserables by Victor Hugo, one of France's greatest writers. The novel was written in 1862, and the story has been…
Скачать книгу (размер 401 Kb , формат fb2, страниц 80) Аннотация: Right now, all over the world, people are using energy. As we drive our cars, work on our computers, or even cook food on a wood fire, we probably do not stop to think about where the energy comes from. But when the gas is gone and there is no more coal — what then? Scientists are finding new answers all the time. Get ready for the children whose running feet make the energy to bring water to…
Скачать книгу (размер 320 Kb , формат fb2, страниц 64) Аннотация: It's a good place for gold, said people in the 1840s, and they came from all over the world. It's a good place for a prison, said the US government in the 1920s, and they put Al Capone there on the island of Alcatraz. It's a good place for love, said the hippies in the 1960s, and they put flowers in their hair and came to Haight Ashbury. And San Francisco is still a good place — to take a hundred…
Скачать книгу (размер 1 462 Kb , формат fb2, страниц 288) Аннотация: The question of how interaction and corrective feedback affect second language (L2) learning has increasingly attracted the interest of researchers in recent years. This book describes the processes involved in interaction-driven second language learning and presents a methodological framework for studying them. A substantial amount of research on interaction has been carried out over the past…
Скачать книгу (размер 315 Kb , формат fb2, страниц 63) Аннотация: New Horizons is a four-level upper secondary course that sets achievable goals and builds confidence.
Скачать книгу (размер 1 299 Kb , формат fb2, страниц 256) Аннотация: The enormous recent progress in fighting cancer, and the science behind it, is revealed fully for the first time in this book. The disease affects one in three over a lifetime but today more and more people are surviving as a result of the extraordinary and little known advances of science and medicine. Using scientific evidence from world cancer experts, Lauren Pecorino helps us understand the…
Скачать книгу (размер 1 544 Kb , формат fb2, страниц 304) Аннотация: Many people throughout the world inhabit fantastic imaginary worlds in a communal fashion, enthusiastically discussing the fine points of The Lord of the Rings, Star Trek, and Harry Potter, or banding together in online virtual worlds such as World of Warcraft and Second Life. These activities are often dismissed as harmless escapism or bemoaned as pernicious wish-fulfillments that distract from…
Скачать книгу (размер 1 462 Kb , формат fb2, страниц 288) Аннотация: The pioneering moral philosopher Annette Baier presents a series of new and recent essays in ethics, broadly conceived to include both engagements with other philosophers and personal meditations on life. Baier's unique voice and insight illuminate a wide range of topics. In the public sphere, she enquires into patriotism, what we owe future people, and what toleration we should have for killing.…