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在线翻译:
szdaily -> Speak Shenzhen -> 
Uzbekistan: naturally irresistible!
    2018-05-15  08:53    Shenzhen Daily

James Baquet

Uzbekistan is another of the “stan” countries, like Afghanistan and Pakistan, so-called because their names end with that syllable. “Stan” is actually derived from a Sanskrit word, “sthana,” meaning “place.” Thus, Uzbekistan means “the place of the Uzbeks,” a Turkic ethnic group that centers in Uzbekistan, but is also found in the surrounding countries: Kazakhstan to the west and north, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan to the east, and Afghanistan and Turkmenistan to the south. Populations of Uzbeks can also be found in Russia and China.

The Uzbeks, who constitute about 84 percent of the population, have generally dominated the area since the 15th century. Prior to that, the region had been occupied successively by Scythian nomads, then the Bactrian, Soghdian and Tokharian states. In 327 B.C., Alexander the Great conquered the part of the Persian Empire that included modern Uzbekistan. The area then became part of the Yuezhi-dominated Kushan Empire in the 1st century B.C., known for its great King Kanishka, a patron of Buddhism. The Islamic Arab conquest came in the 8th century, followed by the Mongols under Genghis Khan in the 13th. Then the Muslim Uzbeks moved in. Today the population is as much as 96 percent Muslim. In 1924, Uzbekistan became a constituent republic of the Soviet Union, and declared independence in 1991.

The Uzbeks speak their own unique Turkic language, close to that of the Uyghurs, though Russian is used for communicating between some ethnic groups and is considered the leading second language. The Tajik language, related to Persian, is spoken in the cities of Bukhara and Samarkand, which have large Tajik populations, and Karakalpak, a Turkic language similar to Kazakh, is spoken in the Republic of Karakalpakstan, an autonomous republic occupying the northwestern portion of Uzbekistan.

Important industries in the Uzbek economy include textiles, food processing, machine building, metallurgy, mining and chemicals. Uzbekistan has the fourth-largest gold deposits in the world, and its annual take puts it among the top 10 gold producers in the world (along with China, Australia, Russia, the United States and others).

Vocabulary:

Which word above means:

1. science of metal work

2. one-of-a-kind

3. following one after another

4. self-governing

5. cloth goods

6. making up part of something

7. therefore, it follows that

8. ancient language of India

9. people who are not settled in town, wanderers

10. that which is taken

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