Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves

Ali Baba was such a poor man that he had only had one shoe for his two feet. Even the mice in his house were hungry.

One day, his wife said, " We have no food in the house. No rice. No potatoes. Go and collect leaves in the forest so that I can make a soup."

Ali was lazy man. He looked for leaves for about ten minutes and then he climbed a tree to sleep. He was afraid of wolves. When he woke up, he was surprised to see forty thieves on forty horses. They stopped in front of a big rock.

Taken from prezi.com

"Open Sesame!" shouted the leader. A door on the rock opened. The thieves carried sacks full of gold into the cave. When they had finished, the leader shouted.

"Close Sesame!" and the door closed. As soon as the thieves had disappeared Ali Baba jumped down from the tree, said, "Open Sesame" and went into the cave.

There were shelves all around the walls. The shelves were full of sacks. And the sacks were full of gold. Ali took a sack home with him.

Unfortunately, one of the thieves saw Ali's footprints on the sand. He followed them to Ali's home. He took out his knife and made a cross on the door.

"Now I shall know which house it is," he said. He rode off to get the other thieves. But Ali had seen the thief. He and his wife took brooms and swept away the footprints. Then he made crosses on every door at the street. When the forty thieves arrived they had their knives between their teeth. But they couldn't find either Ali – or the gold. And Ali and his wife lived happily ever after.

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What is a Kangaroo?

Taken from www.theverge.com

A kangaroo is an animal that is only found in Australia, although it has a smaller relative, called a wallaby, which live on the Australian island of Tasmania and also in New Guinea.

Kangaroos eat grass and plants. They have short front legs. However, they have very long and strong back legs and tail. These are used for sitting up and jumping. Kangaroo have been known to make forward jumps of over eight meters and also can leap across fences more than  three meters. They also can run at speeds of over 45 kilometers per hour.

The largest kangaroos are the Great Grey Kangaroo and the Red Kangaroo. Adults grow to a length of 1.60 meters and weigh over 90 kilos.

Kangaroos are marsupials. This means that the female kangaroo has an external pouch on the front of her body. A baby kangaroo is very tiny when it is born, and it crawls at once into this pouch where it spends its first five months of life.

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ASEAN (Association of South East Asia Nations)

Adanya persamaan nasib sebagai negara yang pernah dijajah menimbulkan perasaan setia kawan yang kuat di kalangan bangsa-bangsa Asia Tenggara. Pengalaman tersebut kemudian mendorong bangsa-bangsa di Asia Tenggara untuk menghindari segala bentuk upaya pendominasian oleh negara lain. 

Adapun latar belakang berdirinya ASEAN adalah:

• Berakhirnya konfrontasi yang timbul di Asia Tenggara antara Indonesia, Malaysia, dan Filipina.

• Persamaan nasib akibat ditindas bangsa penjajah.

• Persamaan dalam bidang kebudayaan, bahasa, tata krama, dan pola kehidupan.

• Persamaan letak geografis yang strategis dalam percaturan politik dan ekonomi internasional.

Foto dari: www.asean.org

Berdasarkan persamaan dan latar belakang masing-masing negara, para pemimpin Asia Tenggara saat itu berusaha menciptakan perdamaian, kemajuan, dan kemakmuran di kawasan Asia Tenggara. Bangsa-bangsa di Asia Tenggara bersepakat untuk membentuk sebuah organisasi regional yang kemudian disebut dengan nama ASEAN (Association of South Asia Nations). Mereka merealisasikan kesepakatan tersebut dalam Deklarasi Bangkok yang ditandatangani pada tanggal 8 Agustus 1967 oleh Adam Malik (Indonesia), Tun Abdul Razak (Malaysia), Narcisco Ramos (Filipina), S. Rajaratman (Singapura), dan Thanat Koman (Thailand).

Sampai saat ini ASEAN memiliki sebelas negara anggota, yaitu:

1. Filipina (negara pendiri ASEAN)

2. Indonesia (negara pendiri ASEAN)

3. Malaysia (negara pendiri ASEAN)

4. Singapura (negara pendiri ASEAN)

5. Thailand (negara pendiri ASEAN)

6. Brunei Darussalam bergabung pada (7 Januari 1984)

7. Vietnam bergabung pada (28 Juli 1995)

8. Laos bergabung pada (23 Juli 1997) (Laos dan Myanmar bergabung pada waktu yang sama)

9. Myanmar bergabung pada (23 Juli 1997) (Laos dan Myanmar bergabung pada waktu yang sama)

10. Kamboja bergabung pada (16 Desember 1998)

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Oprah Winfrey

foto dari www.dailymail.co.uk

People throughout the world know Oprah Winfrey's name. But this was not always the case. Oprah was born in 1954 to Vernita Lee and Vernon Winfrey. She was poor and had an unstable family. She went to live with her grandmother. By her grandmother, she was taught to read at a very young age. She also began reciting poems and other pieces in front of her church congregation. Oprah's grandmother called her "gifted". Oprah didn't know exactly what that meant, but she thought it must mean she was special.

At the age of 19, Oprah got a job as a reporter for a radio station in Nashville. During this time, Oprah won beauty pageants and entered college at Tennessee State University. In 1976, Oprah hosted a television show in Baltimore. It was a success, Oprah stayed with the show for eight years. She left to start her own show in Chicago. In 1986, Oprah began the show entitled, "The Oprah Winfrey Show". It was a huge success and ran for 25 years.

But Oprah has not just been a television personality; she has been an advocate for those in need. She gives out millions of dollars and has set up a network to raise money for the less fortunate. She has also pushed the importance of literacy and set up a book club to encourage reading. She continue to have huge success across the world.

Source: Clark, Sarah Kartchner. 2012. Daily Warms Up Reading Grade 4. Westminster, USA: Teacher Created Resources.

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Perumusan Pancasila: Sidang Pertama BPUPKI

Sidang Pertama BPUPKI

Dalam sidang pertama, tanggal 29 Mei 1945, ketua Badan Penyelidik Usaha-usaha Persiapan Kemerdekaan Indonesia, dr. Radjiman Wedyodiningrat, mengajukan pertanyaan kepada anggota BPUPKI, "Negara Indonesia yang akan kita bentuk, apa dasarnya?"


Sebagai tanggapan atas pertanyaan itu, para anggota BPUPKI mengemukakan pendapatnya mengenai dasar Indonesia Merdeka. Tiga orang mendapatkan kesempatan untuk mengemukakan pendapatnya, yaitu Muhammad Yamin, Soepomo, dan Soekarno.


Muhammad Yamin mengusulkan dasar negara, sebagai berikut:
1. Ketuhanan Yang Maha Esa
2. Kebangsaan persatuan Indonesia
3. Rasa kemanusiaan yang adil dan beradab
4. Kerakyatan yang dipimpin oleh hikmat kebijaksanaan dalam permusywaratan perwakilan
5. Keadilan sosial bagi seluruh rakyat


Dalam pidato pada 31 Mei 1945, Soepomo mengemukakan pokok-pokok pikiran seperti berikut:
1. Negara Indonesia Merdeka hendaknya merupakan negara nasional yang bersatu dalam arti totaliter atau integralistik.
2. Setiap warganya dianjurkan agar takluk kepada Tuhan, tetapi urusan agama hendaknya terpisah dari urusan negara dan diserahkan kepada golongan-golongan agama yang bersangkutan.
3. Dalam susunan pemerintahan negara, harus dibentuk suatu Badan Permusywaratan, agar pimpinan negara dapat bersatu jiwa dengan wakil-wakil rakyat secara terus-menerus.
4. Sistem ekonomi Indonesia hendaknya diatur berdasarkan asas kekeluargaan, sistem tolong menolong, dan sistem kooperasi.
5. Negara Indonesia yang berdasar atas semangat kebudayaan yang berdasar atas semangat kebudayaan Indonesia yang asli, dengan sendirinya akan bersifat Negara Asia Timur Raya.


Pada 1 Juni 1945, Soekarno menyampaikan pidato tentang dasar negara. Pidato ini dikenal dengan sebutan "Pidato Lahirnya Pancasila". Dalam pidato ini, Soekarno menawarkan agar Indonesia Merdeka bukan negara agama dan bukan pula negara sekuler, tetapi negara yang berdasarkan Pancasila. Rumusan Pancasila ang diusulkan oleh Soekarno adalah:
1. Kebangsaan
2. Internasionalisme
3. Mufakat dan Demokrasi
4. Kesejahteraan Sosial
5. Ketuhanan Yang Maha Esa


Sumber: Saptono. 2007. Pendidikan Kewarganegaraan SMP Kelas VIII. Jakarta: PT. Phibeta Aneka Gama.

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