Passage I

Culled from Encyclopedia Britannica

The field of international relations emerged at the beginning of the 20th

century largely in the West and in particular in the United States as
that country grew in power and influence. Whereas the study of international
relations in the newly founded Soviet Union and later in communist China
was stultified by officially imposed Marxist ideology, in the West the field
flourished as the result of a number of factors: a growing demand to find less-
dangerous and more-effective means of conducting relations between
peoples, societies, governments, and economies; a surge of writing and
research inspired by the belief that systematic observation and inquiry could
dispel ignorance and serve human betterment; and the popularization of
political affairs, including foreign affairs. The traditional view that foreign
and military matters should remain the exclusive preserve of rulers and
other elites yielded to the belief that such matters constituted an important
concern and responsibility of all citizens. This increasing popularization of
international relations reinforced the idea that general education should
include instruction in foreign affairs and that knowledge should be advanced
in the interests of greater public control and oversight of foreign and military
policy.

Passage II

Culled from Investopedia

Accounting is one of the key functions of almost any business. It may be

handled by a bookkeeper or an accountant at a small firm, or by sizable
finance departments with dozens of employees at larger companies. The
reports generated by various streams of accounting, such as cost accounting
and managerial accounting, are invaluable in helping management make
informed business decisions.

The financial statements that summarize a large company’s operations,

financial position, and cash flows over a particular period are concise and
consolidated reports based on thousands of individual financial transactions.
As a result, all accounting designations are the culmination of years of study
and rigorous examinations combined with a minimum number of years of
practical accounting experience.

Passage III
Culled from biography.com
PMuhammad was the prophet and founder of Islam. Most of his early life was spent
as a merchant. At age 40, he began to have revelations from Allah that became the
basis for the Koran and the foundation of Islam. By 630 he had unified most of
Arabia under a single religion. As of 2015, there are over 1.8 billion Muslims in the
world who profess, “There is no God but Allah, and Muhammad is his prophet.”
Muhammad was born around 570, AD in Mecca (now in Saudi Arabia). His father
died before he was born and he was raised first by his grandfather and then his
uncle. He belonged to a poor but respectable family of the Quraysh tribe. The family
was active in Meccan politics and trade.
Many of the tribes living in the Arabian Peninsula at the time were nomadic, trading
goods as they crisscrossed the desert. Most tribes were polytheistic, worshipping
their own set of gods. The town of Mecca was an important trading and religious
center, home to many temples and worship sites where the devoted prayed to the
idols of these gods. The most famous site was the Kaaba (meaning cube in Arabic).
It is believed to have been built by Abraham (Ibrahim to Muslims) and his son Ismail.
Gradually the people of Mecca turned to polytheism and idolatry. Of all the gods
worshipped, it is believed that Allah was considered the greatest and the only one
without an idol.
In his early teens, Muhammad worked in a camel caravan, following in the
footsteps of many people his age, born of meager wealth. Working for his uncle, he
gained experience in commercial trade traveling to Syria and eventually from the
Mediterranean Sea to the Indian Ocean. In time, Muhammad earned a reputation
as honest and sincere, acquiring the nickname “al-Amin” meaning faithful or
trustworthy.

Passage IV
Culled from Britannica
Library science, refers to the principles and practices of library operation and
administration, and their study. Libraries have existed since ancient times, but only
in the second half of the 19th century did library science emerge as a separate field
of study. With the knowledge explosion in the 20th century, it was gradually
subsumed under the more general field of information science.
By the second half of the 19th century, Western countries had experienced such a
proliferation of books of all sorts that the nature of the librarian’s work was
radically altered; being well-read was no longer a sufficient characteristic for the
post. The librarian needed some means of easy and rapid identification as well as
strong organizational and administrative skills, and the necessity for specialized
training soon became clear. One of the earliest pioneers in library training in the
United States was Melvil Dewey (q.v.), who established the first training program
for librarians in 1887. These training programs in the United States evolved into
graduate programs in library education accredited by the American Library
Association (ALA; founded 1876).

Passage V
Culled from Department of Economics Website, University of Buffalo
Economics is a social science with stakes in many other fields, including political
science, geography, mathematics, sociology, psychology, engineering, law,
medicine and business. The central quest of economics is to determine the most
logical and effective use of resources to meet private and social goals. Production
and employment, investment and savings, health, money and the banking system,
government policies on taxation and spending, international trade, industrial
organization and regulation, urbanization, environmental issues and legal matters
(such as the design and enforcement of property rights), are just a sampling of the
concerns at the heart of the science of economics.
[IT] studies the implications of individual human action, and is key to a person’s
financial health. Personal resources are scarce, too! One can always use another
dollar, hour of time, or new skill. Achieving the most satisfactory allocation of one’s
resources is crucial, and studying allocation problems improves one’s ability to
make both daily and life-long decisions. Some examples of common day-to-day
economics questions include: Should I pay cash, borrow or sign a lease to get that
new car? Should I take out a home-equity loan or invest in the stock market? Should
I open a 401K plan now or wait until next year? Economists understand how to
make these decisions in their own lives, and can advise others on a personal or
professional level.
[It also] studies how the economy behaves as a whole, including inflation, price
levels, rate of growth, national income, gross domestic product and changes in
employment rates. Some of the important questions American economists try to
answer include: “In a nation as rich as the U.S., why are so many people under-
employed?” and “Who determines how much money is circulating in the U.S.?”
From politicians to educators to journalists to urban planners, a thorough
understanding of macroeconomics has a strong impact on leadership skills,
decision-making and the ability to plan for a flourishing social future. To meet this
need, the Department of Economics has designed a multidisciplinary curriculum
that prepares students to maneuver seamlessly from one area of focus to another.
Passage VI
The roots of criminology trace back to a movement to reform criminal justice and
penal systems more than 200 years ago. The first collection and use of crime
statistics in the 19th century then laid the groundwork for generations of
increasingly sophisticated tools and methods, leading to our modern use of
descriptive statistics, case studies, typologies, and predictive analytics.

18th-century origins of criminal theory

Cesare Beccaria’s “On Crime and Punishments,” published in 1764, called for fitting
the punishment to the severity of the crimes, as explained by the National Criminal
Justice Reference Service.

Punishments for crimes should be “public, prompt, necessary, the minimum

possible under the given circumstances, and established by law.”
Punishments are intended to deter the offender from further criminal activity.
Severity is based on the level of harm caused by the offense rather than the intent
of the offender.
The legal reference website JRank highlights the work of Beccaria and Jeremy
Benthem: The motivation for people’s choices is to seek pleasure or avoid pain.
Punishment for a crime should deter potential choices to break the law by ensuring
that the pain of potential punishment is greater than the pleasure derived from
committing the crime. This idea spurred the first efforts in the U.S. and Europe to
codify and standardize the law.