[...]... Why doesn 't the Queen rule En glan d? England (and the rest of the UK) has been ruled by a parliament of elected officials sin ce the m id-13th century 22 : No rthe rn Ireland cons ists of the six coun ties of Ulster and is , s itua ted in the north-east of Ireland It cove rs 14,139 sq km i (5,459 sq mil es), abou t a sixth of the total area of th e island It is mostl y rural w ith in du stry centred... er of one of the deadliest disasters in m od ern history An undersea earthquake occur red ab out 8 a m local tim e This trigg ered a se ries of leth al tsunamis that sprea d throu ghout j the Indian Ocean Waves up to 30 m (90 ft) devastated the shores of Ind on esia, Sri Lank a, So uth Ind ia, Th ailand and othe r cou n tries 10% of the world' s population lives under threat from active volcanoes Often... world if measured from the floor of the ocean w here it was formed It is 4165 m (13,677 It) above sea level, but over 5177 m (17,000 It) lies under the water 50 this volcanic mountain is over 9137 m (30,000 It) tall! 27 ~ m rness e e usually think of wilderness as an area of land unchanged by people Many areas of wilderness or near-wilderness exist around the world and form an important part of. .. in height Mountains cover 20% of the world' s land surface and more than half the world' s fresh water originates in mountains There are mountains on every continent, under the sea and even on Mars! M ou ntains are formed over m illions of ye ars by volcanoes, eros ion an d disturbances in th e Earth's cr us t TIle Earth's crust is m ade up of six m assive plates When two of these p lates collide, th... lowlands Vast natural resources and a culture of enterprise make the USA one of the world' s richest nations, the home of many global businesses such as Ford, McDonald's, Microsoft and Disney T The people Th e United Stat es has one of the w or ld's most di ver se p opulati ons, w ith immigra nt s from all ove r th e wo rld Thousands of years ag o, Asians crosse d the Berin g Stra it from As ia and po p... 2005) was the cos tliest and one of the deadliest hurricanes in the history of the United States It was the sixth-strongest Atlantic hurricane ever recorded 17 acific Oc n he Pacific Ocean is the largest ocean in the world, covering 65% of the Earth's surface At almost 70 million sq miles (180 million sq km), it is considerably larger than the entire land area of the whole world! Th e Pacific Ocean s tretches... only part w hic h rem ain ed of th e or iginal landscape What is the oldes t national p ark in the w orld? Wilderness is the name of a city in S outh Africa Ye llowsto ne N ational Park in the US The firsL nature reserve in the world was in Sri l anka in the 3rd century BC In what year w as the WorldWide Fund for Nature (World Wildlife Fund in th e US) for m ed ? More than 10% of the E arth's land mass... ing and con tracting in the heat of th e day an d cold of th e nigh t This causes th e surface of rocks to break off in to tin y fragm ents, w hich becom e sa nd As th e sa nd is blown about, new roc k surfaces are expose d and the process continues Camels How can camels go so long wi thout water w hen other ani ma ls cannot? Alth ough camels don't have to dr ink ve ry often, perha ps only once a week,... to Antarctica, and from the western coas ts of No rth and South Americ a across thousands of sm all islands to New Zealand , Australi a, Japan and mainland Asia Peaceful sea? Pacific is from th e Latin wo r d s for 'Pea ce ' H ow ever th e Pacific is not always peaceful Many typhoon s pound the island s of the Pa cific The are a is full of volca noes an d ofte n affected by ea rth quakes Tsunamis cau... shallower waters of the con tinental shelves off the coas ts of Austra lia an d New Zealand, petroleum and natural gas are extrac ted, and pearls are harv ested along the coasts of Australia, Japan, Papua New Guinea and the Philippines During the 1800s Charles Darwin' s research on hi s five-yea r voyage on the HMS Beagle br ou ght hi m fame as a geo logist and au thor He studie d the theory of evolu tio . become the world& apos;s second most pop ular non-alcoholic beverage after tea. Coffee accoun ts for 63% of Ethiop ia's exports and abo ut 25% of the po pu lation depends on coffee for its. jus t 10% of the world& apos; s needs. If· S tretc hin g from the frozen Arctic Ocean to the Equatorial islands of Indonesia, Asia is the world& apos;s largest continent. It contains the world& apos;s highest. ext remes of tem per atur e in deserts mean that the rocks are continually expanding and contracting in the heat of the day and cold of the night. This causes the sur face of rocks to break off into