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1． Denmark: The Kingdom of Denmark, almost
surrounded by water, is situated in northwestern Europe, consisting
of a peninsula and 482 nearby islands. It is the smallest of the Scandinavian
countries with a population of 5,127,000 and Copenhagen as its capital.
We call the people of Denmark Danes. The official language of Denmark
is Danish. During the Second World War Denmark was occupied by Germany.
It recovered rapidly after the war. As a charter member of the U.N.
in 1945, it broke a long tradition of neutrality by joining the North
Atlantic Treaty Organization in 1949 and the European Economic Community
in 1972. In the late 1980s Denmark allowed its military forces to decline
below NATO requirements.
Denmark is famous for its butter, cheese, bacon,
ham, and other processed foods. The people of Denmark are prosperous,
and they have one of the world’s highest standards of living, a highly
developed state education system, and advanced social security schemes.
2. The normal way of writing a date in America
is to write the month first, then the day, and then the year. For example,
let us take the date December 5, 1944. To abbreviate the date, one would
write it as 12/5/44. But in the European countries, the day comes first,
then the month and then the year. So December 5, 1944 would be abbreviated
5/12/44. In China the year comes first, then the month, then the day.
It would be 44/12/5. These differences can cause a lot of confusion.
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