The text is designed primarily for students who are continuing in the Chinese Bilingual Pilot Program, ESEA Title VII, at the seventh grade level. This text was written because there is an insufficient amount of Chinese bilingual materials in the area of social studies at the junior high school level. The two emphases of the Multicultural Social Studies Series are (1) Social Studies: geography, people, climate, and culture of the countries; and (2) Chinese Language Arts: vocabulary, reading and writing skills, oral language development and comprehension. This is the first book in the Multicultural Social Studies Series which also includes volumes on Asia, Latin America and Africa. These books are to be used in conjunction with the World Studies Inquiry Series. The same topics are covered in the World Studies Inquiry Series, which contain pictures and discussion of the subject matter in depth. There is a maximum of 200 words per lesson and 25 lessons per text. Main ideas were extracted from the World Studies Inquiry Series and rewritten in a form suitable for Chinese bilingual students. Each lesson has main terms listed bilingually, explanations in Chinese, questions for discussion and follow-up activities. Answers to questions are located in the back of the book. (Author/CFM)