title: Agustín Ross Cultural Centre

paragraphs: Casino Agustín Ross Edwards (), now Agustín Ross Cultural Centre, is a historic casino building. It is in Agustín Ross Avenue, in front of Ross Park, in Pichilemu, Chile. The building was built in the late 1800s. In 1906 the first Chilean casino was built there. It was closed in 1932 and converted into a hotel which was open until the 1980s. The building is now Pichilemu's cultural centre.

paragraphs: The casino is named after Agustín Ross Edwards, a Chilean writer, member of parliament, minister and politician. He was part of the powerful family Ross Edwards, which founded the newspaper "El Mercurio" years earlier. Based on his european experience, Ross bought a place named ""La Posada"" (English: "The Inn") or Petren Fund in 1885. At that time, it was just some barracks with thick walls with a ground of 300 hectares.

paragraphs: The old Ross Casino was constructed in the late 1800s by Ross himself. It contained the first mail and telegraph service and a big store. The building had three floors, and was raised using imported materials. In January 20, 1906, the first Chilean casino was opened in that building. The Ross Casino worked until 1932, when the permission was cancelled, allowing just the newly constructed Viña del Mar Casino to work. After the closing of the Ross Casino, the building was converted into a hotel was which functioned until the 1980s.

paragraphs: The old casino (1905) and its gardens (1885) are an important part of the city. It was named Historic Monument by the National Monuments Council on February 25, 1988, by the supreme decree N° 100.

paragraphs: Ross was also the administrator of the great Juana Ross de Edwards fortune, the Nancagua Hacienda, near the city of same name. He designed an urban set of high environmental value and landscape, transforming ""La Posada"" to a hotel ("Great Hotel Pichilemu", later "Hotel Ross", or "Ross Hotel").

paragraphs: Ross also built several chalets, terraces, embankments, stone walls, a balcony in front of the beach and several large houses with imported building materials and furniture from France and England. Additionally, he put up a park and a forest of more than 10 hectares. Ross turned Pichilemu into a summer resort town for rich people from Santiago. He, however, could not build a dock for the city, as he had planned.

paragraphs: In 1935, the Ross successors ceded to the Illustrious Municipality of Pichilemu all the Ross constructions (streets, avenues, squares, seven hectares of forests, the park in front of the hotel, the perrons and the terraces) under condition that the municipality hold them for recreation and public access.

paragraphs: The Cultural Centre was severely damaged after the February 2010 Chile earthquake. The library that it hosted was completely destroyed. After the 2010 Pichilemu earthquake, the Cultural Centre suffered structural damage, but Roberto Córdova, Mayor of Pichilemu, said that it was repairable.


title: Australia national rugby union team

paragraphs: The Australia national rugby union team, nicknamed the Wallabies are the national rugby union side of Australia. The first Australian teams played against the British Lions at the Sydney Cricket Ground on 24 June 1899. The Australians won the game 13-3. In 1908, the Australians went to the United Kingdom, France and North America to play. They needed a name and someone suggested the "Rabbits", but the team did not like it and chose the "Wallabies" instead. A wallaby is a small mammal from Australia, very similar to a kangaroo. Until the 1980s, only teams playing overseas were called the Wallabies; when they played in Australia they were called Internationals. Now the national team is called the Wallabies all the time.


title: Sparrow

paragraphs: A sparrow is a member of the genus "Passer". They are small passerine birds which belong to the family "Passeridae". They are also known as old-world sparrows. Sparrows often make their nests near houses or buildings. This means they are one of the easiest birds to see in the wild.

paragraphs: The genus has about 30 species around the world. The best known of these is the house sparrow, "Passer domesticus".

paragraphs: Some authorities place other genera in the sparrow group: "Petronia", the rock sparrows; "Carpospiza", the pale rockfinch; and "Montifringilla", the snowfinches.

paragraphs: Sparrows are small birds. They are between 11–18 centimeters long. They can weigh between 13–42 grams. They are usually brown and gray. They have short tails and small, strong beaks. Most sparrows eat seeds or small insects. Sparrows are social birds and they live in flocks (groups).

paragraphs: The house sparrow ("Passer domesticus") is a species of sparrow. It lives all over the world. It originally lived only in Europe and Asia. However, people travelled to new places and the house sparrow went to those places too. It is now the bird with the widest distribution. This means it lives in the most places. The species has about 50 subspecies.

paragraphs: Sparrows can be seen on every continent on earth. A long time ago, they lived only in Europe, Asia and Africa. However, people traveled to Australia, North America and South America, and now sparrows are seen there too. The house sparrow is seen in every continent. In Australia, there are no sparrows in Western Australia, as they have not been able to travel across the deserts that separate that state from the eastern states. The government employs people to hunt and destroy any sparrows that might arrive.

paragraphs: The house sparrow was introduced to America in the late 19th century. It was introduced on purpose. It was imported by several people, including Eugene Schieffelin, who was a wealthy New York City admirer of Shakespeare. He wanted to introduce to America all the birds mentioned in the works of Shakespeare. Two of these species were great successes: starlings and house sparrows. He organized a society for the importation of foreign birds, incorporated in Albany.

paragraphs: Some ornithologists thought the "Estrildid finches" were in the same family as sparrows. However, they are now in a different family, the Estrildidae.

paragraphs: There is also a group called 'American sparrows', or New World sparrows. These are also in a different family, the Emberizidae (buntings).

paragraphs: The 'hedge sparrow' (also known as the dunnock) "Prunella modularis" is also not a true sparrow. It is only called a sparrow because a long time ago, people called all small, brown birds 'sparrows'. The name is still used today because it is a tradition.

paragraphs: The house sparrow is small bird. It is between 14–18 centimeters (5.5–7.1 in) long. It weighs between 24–39.5 grams (0.85–1.4 oz). Females are smaller than males.

paragraphs: Male and female house sparrows are different colors. The male is brown, gray and white. It has a black throat. The female and young house sparrows are brown and dark yellow or cream. They have streaks (stripes) on their heads and wings.

paragraphs: The house sparrow lives close to humans, often near human houses in towns or cities. It also lives near farms and makes a nest in a bush or small tree. It can have two or three broods per year. This means it has two or three sets of eggs and chicks each year.

paragraphs: Nest sites are varied, though cavities are preferred. Nests are most frequently built in the eaves and other crevices of houses. Holes in cliffs and banks, or tree hollows, are also used. A sparrow sometimes digs out its own nests in sandy banks or rotten branches. More often it uses the nests of other birds, such swallows' nests in banks and cliffs, and old tree nest holes. It often uses deserted nests. Sometimes it takes over active nests by driving away or killing the occupants. Tree hollows are more commonly used in North America than in Europe. This puts the sparrows in competition with bluebirds and other North American cavity nesters so the native bird population declines.

paragraphs: The number of house sparrows in the United Kingdom has gone down, perhaps because their hedgerow habitat has shrunk. They are now 'endangered' in the United Kingdom. However, in other countries, the bird is still very common. Hedges are necessary to the bird because predators cannot usually get at their nests. They would have no defence against magpies (for example) if face-to-face.


title: Couch

paragraphs: A couch, sofa or settee is a kind of furniture that is designed to seat more than one person. It usually has a place to rest your arm on each side. Couches are normally found in the living room or in front of the TV.

paragraphs: In the 17th and 18th centuries, a couch was thought as a long, upward seat for resting on. One end would slope up high enough to provide a place for the head to rest.

paragraphs: Some late 18th-century kinds of couches had an arm running partly down one side, and this type continued to be made in England. In Greek places, there were flowing designs with all kind of elegant colors. Many of them had scrolled ends and short legs. The couch was later taken over by the overstuffed sofa during the Victorian age.

paragraphs: Because the couch is usually set in front of the TV, it is the main place where people usually sit and watch it. Lazy people would eventually seem to be stuck to it all the time. This person, a person who does not do a lot of physical activity, was called a "couch potato". This was also because potatoes do not move at all, and does not do anything but just sits there. This may also be considered as slang. Couch came from the word "couche", which means, "a bed, lair," or from the word "coucher", which means "to lie down."

paragraphs: The most common types of couches in homes are the "love seats" for two, or the "sofa" for more than two. Other couches include the "divan" or the ""fainting couch"", which usually does not have a back. Couches are usually bought in a set together with cushions, which give them a bouncey and decorative comfortable touch.


title: Jena Lee

paragraphs: Jena Lee (born 29 July, 1987 in Chile) is a French singer.

paragraphs: She was adopted by a French family at the age of nine months. In 2007, Jena Lee met Sulee B Wax, who was interested in her work. At this point in time Lee wrote the song "Some Share". The song was used in an album by Sherifa Luna. Jena Lee wrote six out of the thirteen songs that are on Sherifa Luna's album.

paragraphs: In 2008, Jena Lee won the Urban Music Nation contest by Skyrock. Her first single "J'aimerais Tellement" was released in April 2009 along with a music video. It was at the top of the French single charts for eleven weeks. It had the highest number of downloads in November 2009.


title: Sinik

paragraphs: Sinik (real name Thomas Gerard Idir; born on 26 June 1980) is a famous French rapper. His parents are Algerian. Thomas was four years old when his parents moved to Bergères in France.


title: Porridge

paragraphs: Porridge is a food which is made with a cereal, usually oats. The oats are boiled in water or milk, or both. It is usually served hot in a bowl or dish. Some people add things to their porridge such as sugar or syrup. In Scotland salt is often added.

paragraphs: Porridge is a traditional food in many countries in Northern Europe. It is usually eaten for breakfast. In some countries barley or other grains may be used. Porridge is cooked in saucepans or in a microwave. Traditionally, it was cooked in large metal kettles over hot coals. Porridge was often served as food for prisoners in prisons. This is why in English there is a slang expression "doing porridge" which means "being in prison". Porridge is also given to people who are ill because it is nourishing and easy to eat.

paragraphs: Semolina and gruel are foods which are quite similar to porridge. Semolina is usually served as a pudding (a dessert). Gruel is a similar but thinner concoction to porridge. It is semi-liquid and usually drunk rather than eaten. Oliver Twist, in the famous book by Charles Dickens, was given gruel to eat.

paragraphs: Historically, heavy foods were eaten because most work was manual. Before the industrial revolution, men and women doing hard work needed more calories per day than they need today. At any rate this applies to countries which are highly mechanized. Porridge is a good example of the heavy calorie-laden food which has gradually gone out of favour.

paragraphs: In 1775, Dr. Samuel Johnson wrote that oats were "A grain which in England is generally given to horses, but in Scotland supports the people".


title: Fresnel lens

paragraphs: A Fresnel lens is an optical lens, which was originally developed for Lighthouses. It is named after its inventor, French physicist Augustin-Jean Fresnel. The name is pronounced /freɪˈnɛl/ (fray-NELL), the 's' is silent. Before Fresnel, Buffon and Condorcet proposed a similar design, as a way to make large burning lenses.

paragraphs: The design allows the construction of lenses of large aperture and short focal length without the weight and volume of material that would be required in conventional lens design. Compared to earlier lenses, the Fresnel lens is much thinner. More light can pass through. Lighthouses that use these kind of lenses can be seen from farther away.


title: Giacomo Meyerbeer

paragraphs: Giacomo Meyerbeer (born near Berlin, 5 September 1791; died Paris, 2 May 1864) was a famous German-born opera composer. He was the most important composer of French Grand opera during the 1830s and 1840s. Although he was tremendously popular in his day, his music is not often played now.

paragraphs: Meyerbeer was born into a rich Jewish family in Tasdorf (now a part of Rüdersdorf), near Berlin. His father owned large sugar refineries in Berlin and in Italy. His mother also came from a rich family. Her father had been important in Germany’s struggle to be free of the French in 1812 when Napoleon was trying to conquer much of Europe. Giacomo’s mother did a lot of good work trying to help people who were wounded during the Napoleonic wars.

paragraphs: Many famous people came to the house where Giacomo’s family lived. Some of the visitors were from the royal Prussian court, including the future King Friedrich Wilhelm IV. The naturalist and explorer Alexander von Humboldt also visited them quite often.

paragraphs: The first piano teacher the boy had was Franz Lauska, who also taught the royal princes. He also had lessons in composition. Meyerbeer first played in public in 1801 playing Mozart's Piano Concerto in D Minor in Berlin. He wrote his first opera in 1810. In the same year he went to Darmstadt to study with the well-known music theorist Abbé Vogler. There he met the young Carl Maria von Weber who was also a pupil of Vogler. He left Vogler in 1811 and tried to get some work in Munich. In 1813 he found he had been offered a job as court composer to the Grand Duke of Hessen. Vogler had probably recommended him for the job. At this time Meyerbeer was better known as a pianist than as a composer. He travelled to London to hear an important pianist based there, namely J.B.Cramer. There he met other famous pianists such as Kalkbrenner and Ferdinand Ries.

paragraphs: In 1816 Meyerbeer went to Italy. He wanted to learn about Italian opera and collect Italian folksongs. While he intended at first to stay only three months, he stayed most of the next nine years. He made some trips back to Germany and Austria during this time. He composed several operas which became very popular. People started to compare him with the famous Rossini. However, in Germany people were not interested in his music. He took his opera "Il crociato in Egitto" to London and then to Paris, where it was a success. The opera is remembered now for being the last opera ever to have a part for a castrato singer.

paragraphs: He was becoming well-known now. Spontini asked him to compose an opera for Berlin. He became friends, in Paris, with the librettist Eugène Scribe who had a lot of influence in the French theatre.

paragraphs: From 1825 onwards Meyerbeer spent his life travelling about Europe. He was often in Paris and in Berlin, but did not live in either of these places. He stayed in hotels or private houses wherever he went. One reason why he travelled was because of his health. His wife also had bad health, so they often went to spa towns to try to get better. He also travelled about to watch productions of his operas, and to hear young singers.

paragraphs: When Carl Maria von Weber died, he left an opera, "Die drei Pintos", unfinished. It was sent to Meyerbeer in the hope that he would finish it, but he did not seem interested. In the end Mahler finished it many years later.

paragraphs: Meyerbeer made changes to "Il crociato in Egitto" and turned it into a grand opera for the Opéra in Paris. He changed it from an Italian to a French opera, composing extra dance music and a new overture. He was determined to be famous in Paris.

paragraphs: In 1826 he married his cousin. They had two children, but they both died when they were very small.

paragraphs: In 1828 Daniel Auber, a famous French composer of the time, had composed a very popular opera called "La muette de Portici". It was the first French grand opera. Meyerbeer realized he could not become really popular by turning his Italian operas into French grand opera, so he took his comic opera "Robert le Diable" and changed it into a grand opera. Audiences loved it. Within three years it had been performed in 77 theatres in 10 different countries. Many composers made their own arrangements of some of the tunes from the opera. He was given many honours: the Chevalier of the Legion d’honneur, the title of Prussian Hof Kapellmeister (Director of Music at the Royal Court), and was made a member of the Prussian Academy of Arts and a member of the French Institute.

paragraphs: Meyerbeer realized that anything else he wrote would have to be really good. In 1836 he produced another opera "Les Huguenots". This too was extremely popular.

paragraphs: In 1842 he went to Boulogne to improve his health. There he met Wagner who asked him for financial help to stage his operas "Rienzi" and "The Flying Dutchman". Meyerbeer lent him money, but stopped giving him money when he heard that Wagner was secretly criticizing him.

paragraphs: When Spontini died Meyerbeer was made Generalmusikdirektor in Berlin. His opera "Les Huguenots" had at first been forbidden in Germany, but now it was allowed to be performed. As court composer he wrote a grand opera called "Ein Feldschlag in Schlesien" ("A Battle in Silesia"), but it never became internationally famous. The main part in the opera was sung by Jenny Lind.

paragraphs: In 1849 he returned to Paris. He wrote several works together with Scribe, whom Meyerbeer described as the best living librettist, and who was one of his closest friends. His opera "Le prophète" (for which Scribe again wrote the words) earned him a lot of money. The great contralto Pauline Viardot-Garcia sang the main part.

paragraphs: Scribe died in 1861. Meyerbeer worked very hard to try to finish his last opera, "L’Africaine". Napoleon III said he wanted the opera to be ready by the winter of 1862-63, but it was not ready until 1864. The work was being rehearsed for its first performance when Meyerbeer suddenly died, without having had the chance to revise it, the way he revised most of his other pieces.

paragraphs: Meyerbeer’s body was taken to Berlin where it was buried in the Jewish cemetery in a vault that belonged to his family.

paragraphs: Meyerbeer was always more popular in France than in Germany. His operas are about the society of wealthy people. The sounds he made with his orchestra are often deliberately harsh. In this he is like Beethoven in his final years, and Berlioz. Sometimes he used new instruments such as the bass clarinet and the saxophone. He always thought carefully about what his singers were capable of when writing his music. He enjoyed working with different singers, among them Velluti, who was the last of the great operatic castrati. He took great trouble to give his singers rests during the opera so that they would still be in good voice for the climax of the story. He liked scenes with large crowds. He composed his dance music, in particular, very carefully. Often he would throw it away and start again if the dancers were not happy with it.

paragraphs: Besides his operas he also wrote orchestral pieces for special occasions. He also wrote some songs for performance in the salon.

paragraphs: Meyerbeer was one of the richest men in Europe. This is why some people hated him.

paragraphs: Meyerbeer’s operas were very popular in the middle of the 19th century, but by the end of the century they had gone out of fashion. From 1933 to 1945 his music was banned in Germany by the Nazis because he was Jewish. Today there is some interest again, but nothing like the huge popularity he had in his lifetime.


title: Grand opera

paragraphs: Grand Opera is a term which is used to describe an opera with continuous music. It is a kind of opera that was popular in the 19th-century. Grand operas are usually divided into four or five acts. There have large casts (many singers taking part) and large orchestras. There is a lot of scenery. The story is dramatic. It is usually a story about a hero from history. The term "Grand Opera" has often been used to describe the Paris Opéra from the late 1820s to around 1850, and sometimes to describe the Paris Opéra itself.

paragraphs: In a broader sense "Grand Opera" can be any large-scale opera from European countries. During the 1830s and 1840s Giacomo Meyerbeer was thought to be the greatest composer of Grand Opera.


title: Lake Lucerne

paragraphs: Lake Lucerne is a lake in central Switzerland. It is the fourth largest lake in the country. The German name is Vierwaldstättersee which means: "Lake of the Four Forested Cantons".

paragraphs: It is possible to travel all the way round the side of the lake by road. There are several tunnels on the way. It is very popular with tourists. There are many hotels by the lake.


title: Die Feen

paragraphs: Die Feen ("The Fairies") is an opera in three acts by Richard Wagner. The German libretto was written by the composer. He was adapting a story by Carlo Gozzi called "La donna serpente".

paragraphs: "Die Feen" was the first opera that Wagner finished. However, it was never performed during his lifetime. It has never become popular, although the overture is sometimes played. The music shows the influence of Carl Maria von Weber and other composers of the time. It also shows some musical ideas that Wagner was to develop later in his life in his famous operas. The fairy tale atmosphere in the story is also an idea that he uses in his later operas which deal with fantasy stories. The idea of being saved (redemption) is also an important idea that he used in later operas.


title: Rienzi

paragraphs: Rienzi is an opera by Richard Wagner. Its full title is Rienzi, der Letzte der Tribunen ("Rienzi, the Last of the Tribunes"). It is one of the earliest operas Wagner wrote. There are five acts. Wagner wrote the libretto himself, using the story from a novel by Edward Bulwer-Lytton. It was composed between 1838 and 1840] It was first performed at the Hofoper, Dresden on 20 October 1842. It was the first time Wagner had a success as an opera composer.

paragraphs: The story of the opera is set in Rome and is based on the life of Cola di Rienzi (1313–1354), a medieval Italian populist figure who manages to trick the nobles and their followers. He helps the people to get power. At first he is very popular, but then he has to use force against the nobles, and the Church turns against him. In the end the ordinary people burn the Capitol where Rienzi and his friends are sheltering.


title: Chess tournament

paragraphs: A chess tournament is a competition between chess players. It can take one of these forms:

paragraphs: Since the first international chess tournament in London, 1851, chess tournaments have become a standard form of competition among regular players.


title: The Flying Dutchman

paragraphs: Der fliegende Holländer ("The Flying Dutchman") is an opera by Richard Wagner. Wagner wrote the libretto himself. The story comes from the legend of the "Flying Dutchman", which is about the captain of a ship. It is his fate that he has keep sailing the sea, without ever going on to land, until Judgment Day.

paragraphs: The most important idea in the story as told by Wagner is redemption through love. It was a favourite idea of Wagner, who used it a lot in his later operas.

paragraphs: Wagner conducted the first performance at the Semper Oper in Dresden, in 1843. It is an early opera of Wagner, but it shows his mature style. It is very different from the previous opera "Rienzi" which is still quite similar to operas that other composers were writing. In "Der fliegende Holländer" the drama is very important. Wagner uses a number of leitmotifs: musical ideas associated with particular characters and themes in the story. The leitmotifs are all introduced in the overture. We hear the famous leitmotif of the ocean and then those of the Dutchman and of Senta, the girl he falls in love with.

paragraphs: Wagner originally wrote "Der fliegende Holländer" to be performed without any breaks (intermission). Sometimes it is performed like that today, but Wagner also made a version with three acts.


title: Tannhäuser

paragraphs: Tannhäuser und der Sängerkrieg auf Wartburg (En: "Tannhäuser and the Singers' Contest at Wartburg") is a three-act opera with words and music by Richard Wagner. It was Wagner's fifth opera. He worked on it between 1842 and 1845. It was first performed at the Dresden Royal Opera on 19 October 1845 with Wagner conducting. The opera was a success. It became hugely popular in Germany.

paragraphs: In 1859, "Tannhäuser" was the first Wagner opera to be performed in the United States of America. By 1861, the opera had been performed many times in Germany when Wagner was asked to revise the work for the Paris Opéra. Despite his best efforts, Wagner failed. He was not popular. Anti-Wagner riots broke out. He withdrew the work. It was not staged again in France until 1895. Meanwhile, the opera opened the second season of the Metropolitan Opera in New York City in November 1884.

paragraphs: Wagner was in Paris completing "The Flying Dutchman" when he began thinking about writing another opera. A friend suggested Tannhäuser as a subject. Wagner did not like the tale. Back in Germany however, he gathered materials by Tieck, Heine, and others about Tannhäuser. Vacationing in Bohemia, he had a change of heart. He began preparing an outline for "Tannhäuser". Returning home to Dresden, he immersed himself in the tale. He completed the opera in October 1845. He conducted the first performance that month at the Royal Opera House.

paragraphs: His Venus said, "You are a genius, but you write such eccentric stuff that it is impossible to sing." His Tannhäuser was completely baffled. The audience was puzzled. The reception was lukewarm. Wagner began revisions at once. The second performance played to a near empty house. In 1859, Wagner offered "Tannhäuser" to the Paris Opéra. They wanted it sung in French. They also wanted a ballet in the second act. This so the Jockey Club had time to finish dinner and arrive at the Opéra just in time to ogle the dancers. Wagner refused to move the ballet from the first act to the second act. There were complaints. Jockey Club members interrupted the performance whenever possible. It was a disaster.

paragraphs: The opera disappeared from the French stage for 34 years. A few years after the Jockey Club incident, Wagner began revising the Paris version. He produced a sophisticated sound version that was superior to the first draft. Though there are several set pieces in the opera, the opera is closer to Wagner's vision of complete independence from such set pieces. "Tannhäuser" is on the threshold of the leitmotif, and the diminishing of the sound power of the orchestra in favor of the sung word.

paragraphs: Wagner's sources for the opera are spread over 600 year time span. In 1391, and again at the beginning of the 15th century, tales were in circulation about a paradise within a German mountain and a traveler who idles with a Sybil before heading to Rome for the Pope's forgiveness. The "Song of Tannhäuser" of 1515 combines moralizing with the adventures of an historical Minnesinger named Danhuser, Tanhuser, or Tannenhauser. This Minnesinger's songs told of erotic love and its opposite, holy love.

paragraphs: Wagner was an insatiable reader, always on the alert for material that could be adapted to an opera. For "Tannhäuser", he combined elements not only from traditional tales but material from C. J. L. Lukas's "Essay" (1838) on the character of Tannhäuser and Ludwig Tieck's "Faithful Eckart" (1799). Ludwig Bechstein's "Thuringian Legends" (1835) included the story of the song contest. Wagner was familiar with the song contest through E. T. A. Hoffmann's "Serapion Brothers", Friedrich de la Motte-Fouque's drama "The Singers Dispute in the Wartburg" (1828), and Wagensil's "Nuremberg Chronicle"."

paragraphs: The story is about the struggle between sacred love and profane love, and redemption (salvation) through love. The story is based on the historical character of Tannhäuser, about whom very little is known except the myths about him. It is also about the myth of Venus, but it also deals with the medieval Minnesinger (minstrel). Half of the opera takes place in a historical setting, and half takes place in the mythological Venusberg.

paragraphs: The critics took Wagner to task for his historical inaccuracies. First, the real Tannhauser was only a boy at the supposed time of the song contest. Secondly, they regarded Wagner's Elisabeth with scorn: Wagner had made the character an amalgamation of several historical women.

paragraphs: Cuts to the original were made almost immediately because the singers were not capable of understanding and thus acting their roles. The Prelude to Act 3 was cut from 155 bars to 92. In the original final scene, neither Elisabeth or Venus appeared on stage. The audience was puzzled.

paragraphs: The original final scene was retained until the 13th performance in 1847. Wagner then recast the final pages to make Venus visible on stage. The Venusberg did not appear however. This new ending disturbed the audience because they were used to the older version. Wagner had also cut the pilgrim's chorus, further antagonizing the audience. Another version was made restoring the chorus.

paragraphs: The first performance outside Dresden occurred at Weimar. This production demonstrated to small theaters that they could stage the opera. Other productions took place in Schwerin, Breslau, Prague, Wiesbaden, and other small houses. The opera played in New York in 1859. It played in London (in Italian) in 1876. In Vienna, Johann Strauss performed excerpts in 1853. The first Austrian staging occurred at Graz in 1854. Vienna mounted the opera in 1857. The opera was performed at the Vienna court opera in 1875. In 1860, the Paris Opera wanted the work in a revised version in French. Wagner made extensive revisions for Paris.


title: New York State Route 199

paragraphs: New York State Route 199 (NY 199) is a road in the Hudson Valley of New York, United States. It is long, and goes from near Kingston to Millerton. In between, NY 199 crosses over the Hudson River over a bridge and passes through the communities of Red Hook and Pine Plains. Part of the road was part of the Ulster and Delaware Turnpike. NY 199 was named in 1930.


title: New York State Route 9G

paragraphs: New York State Route 9G (NY 9G) is a road in Dutchess County, New York, United States. It starts at US 9 in Poughkeepsie and follows the Hudson River as it goes north. It crosses Route 9 just north of Rhinebeck and ends in Hudson.


title: Kennedy Center Honors

paragraphs: Every year, the Kennedy Center gives its Kennedy Center Honors to artists. These artists have contributed to American culture. Most of these artists were performers, such as actors, dancers, and musicians. Some of these artists were movie directors, play writers, and songwriters. Most of the recipients have been American. The President of the United States usually attends the awards ceremony. The Honors are given in Washington, D.C. at the Kennedy Center Opera House.

paragraphs: From 1978 until 2002, the ceremony was hosted by Walter Cronkite. Since 2003, it has been hosted by Caroline Kennedy.


title: The Vicar of Wakefield

paragraphs: The Vicar of Wakefield is a novel by Oliver Goldsmith. It was written in 1761 and 1762. It was published in 1766. The book was very popular. The novel tells of the Primrose family.


title: Cypripedioideae

paragraphs: Lady's slipper orchids are the orchids in the subfamily Cypripedioideae. They are special because of their slipper-shaped pouches on their flowers. The pouch traps insects so that they must climb up past the modified stamens, where they get or give pollen, fertilizing the flower.

paragraphs: Some people think this subfamily should be different from the Orchidaceae as a family Cypripediaceae.

paragraphs: A lady slipper orchid has a deep pocket that is actually a bee trap. When a bee crawls down into the flower to get the nectar, the pocket on the flower closes shut. Because of this, the bee is stuck for a while, wiggling and squirming, getting pollen all over itself.

paragraphs: The bee finally finds a small opening near the top of the orchid, and it gets out so that it can get trapped inside another lady slipper, where it will give that pollen to the other lady slipper's stigma.

paragraphs: The lady's slipper is also known in the United States of America as the "moccasin flower", because it looks like a shoe or moccasin.


title: Pandita Ramabai

paragraphs: Pandita Ramabai (23 April 1858, Karnataka- 5 April 1922) was an Indian Christian who tried to change many things in India. A poet and scholar, she tried hard to improve (make better) the lives of women in India. She wrote many books, such as her popular "The high

paragraphs: -Caste Indian Woman", which showed the troubles of child wives and women in India.

paragraphs: She was born in Gangamoola, in the Mala village, in Karkala Taluk, in the Karnataka State of India. Her father's name was Ananta Shastri. She lost her parents (Laxmi Bai) early. She travelled to Kolkata with her brother. There, she received (got) a Pandita and a Sarasvathi Award for her expertise in Sanskrit Poetry. Born in the home of an important scholar named Brahmin, Pandita Ramabai had more freedom than many Indian women. Her father taught her and her mother to read Sanskrit writing. She then began to study Christianity in India, and later in England. She decided that it was the best religion; that she should be a Christian. However, she had not yet received Jesus into her "heart". Ramabai later said,

paragraphs: Shortly after her "true conversion", Pandita Ramabai began a faith mission for the girls and widows of India. Pandita and her helpers began a school and prayed for what they needed every day. When a great famine came to India, Pandita went to and saved widows and girls from death or abuse.

paragraphs: Soon she had over a thousand women and girls at the mission. Helping this many people during a time of great famine was very hard, but Pandita wrote in her autobiography,

paragraphs: Every day, Pandita Ramabai and her helpers taught the women to read and write, showed them cleanliness, and helped them prepare for a job. She also taught them about Jesus. She opened Ashrams at Pune, Mumbai. She established a Christian High school at Gulbarga, (now at Karnataka) and her daughter Manorama was the principal. Manorama studied in the United States and traveled to Australia.


title: Synthesis

paragraphs: Synthesis means to bring ideas together, or to make something out of parts which were independent. It is the opposite of analysis.


title: Ruy Lopez

paragraphs: The Ruy Lopez, also called the "Spanish Opening", is an ancient chess opening. It is named after the Spanish clerk Ruy Lopez who invented the method. These are the opening moves:

paragraphs: The Ruy Lopez is one of the most common and well liked openings, with many ways to play it. It has always been popular in master chess. Something to know about it is that it does not threaten the black e5 pawn:

paragraphs: For this reason White usually plays a longer-term strategy, starting


title: Triathlon

paragraphs: A triathlon is a sport that consists of three different events one after another without resting in between. Usually, they are swimming, cycling, and running. Triathlon has been in the Olympic Games since 2000. One of the hardest and most famous triathlons is the Ironman Triathlon, which involves swimming two miles, biking a hundred miles, and then running a marathon.


title: Continuous function

paragraphs: A mathematical function is called continuous if, roughly said, a "small change" in the input only causes a "small change" in the output. If this is not the case, the function is discontinuous. Functions defined on the real numbers, with one input and one output variable, will show as an "uninterrupted line (or curve)". They can be drawn "without lifting the pen off of the page". The definition given above was made by Augustin-Louis Cauchy.

paragraphs: Karl Weierstraß gave another definition of continuity: Imagine a function "f", defined on the real numbers. At the point formula_1 the function will have the value formula_2. If the function is continuous at formula_1, then for every value of formula_4 no matter how small it is, there is a value of formula_5, so that formula_6, means that formula_7. We can put this another way, given a point close to formula_1 (called x), the "absolute value" of the difference between the two values of the function can be made increasingly small, if the point x is "close enough" to formula_1.

paragraphs: There are also special forms of continuous, such as "Lipschitz-continuous". A function is Lipschitz-continuous if there is a formula_10 with formula_11 for all x,y ∈ (a,b).

paragraphs: A basic way to know if a function is continuous is to use a pencil or your finger. Then, start at the left of the function. Then, move your finger along the path of the function. If you ever need to lift your finger or pencil to keep following the function, then you know it is not continuous. This is because, by lifting your finger, you have "jumped" from one section of the function to another. That means you made a very small movement but the function changed very much. This is what the first sentence of this article is talking about.


title: Peter Falk

paragraphs: Peter Michael Falk (September 16, 1927 - June 23, 2011) was an American actor. His best known role was Columbo in the tv series of the same name.

paragraphs: Falk was born in Manhattan on September 16, 1927. He was Jewish. He grew up in Ossining, New York. He earned a degree in political science from the New School for Social Research. He then earned his Master's degree in public administration at Syracuse University.

paragraphs: He appeared in a number of Broadway plays including: "The Prisoner of Second Avenue", "The Passion of Josef D", "Diary of a Scoundrel", and "Saint Joan". Falk won four Emmy Awards playing the police detective Columbo, and one for "The Dick Powell Theatre". He was nominated for seven other Emmy awards. Falk also received two Academy Award nominations for the films "Murder Inc." and "Pocketful of Miracles".

paragraphs: Falk was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease. He died in his Beverly Hills, California home on the morning of June 23, 2011.


title: Claude Choules

paragraphs: Claude Choules (3 March 1901 – 5 May 2011) was a British-Australian World War I veteran who served in the Royal Navy.

paragraphs: Born in Wyre Piddle, son of Harry & Madeline (née Winn), near Pershore, Worcestershire, Choules joined the Royal Navy as a young man in 1916, and served aboard the Naval Training Ship HMS Circe at Plymouth. In 1917, he joined the battleship HMS "Revenge", which was the flagship of the First Battle Squadron. While serving aboard her, Choules witnessed the surrender of the German Imperial Navy at the Firth of Forth in 1918, ten days after the Armistice, and was also to witness the scuttling of the German fleet in Scapa Flow.

paragraphs: During World War II, Choules was the Acting Torpedo Officer of Fremantle and also the Chief Demolition Officer on the western side of the Australian continent. He was tasked with sabotaging Fremantle harbors and related oil storage tanks in the event of a Japanese invasion.

paragraphs: He died on 5 May 2011 in Perth, Western Australia at 110 years old.


title: Florence Green

paragraphs: Florence Green (19 February 1901 – 4 February 2012) was a British supercentenarian. She was the last surviving veteran of World War I. Green was born in London and moved to King's Lynn in 1920 after her marriage to Walter, a railway worker who died in 1970.

paragraphs: She joined up in September 1918, two months before the end of the war. She served as a waitress in the officers' mess at RAF Marham and also at Narborough airfield. She was the last living British veteran following the death of Claude Choules.

paragraphs: She was West Norfolk's oldest resident, the second oldest person in Norfolk and one of the 30 oldest people in Britain.

paragraphs: She had a son and two daughters, as well as four grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren.

paragraphs: Florence Green died in her sleep two weeks before her 111th birthday in a care home in King's Lynn, Norfolk.


title: John Babcock

paragraphs: John Henry Foster "Jack" Babcock (23 July 1900 – 18 February 2010) was the last living Canadian veteran who fought in the First World War. He became an American citizen in 1946.

paragraphs: Born on July 23, 1900, Mr. John “Jack” Babcock grew up on a farm near Kingston, Ontario as part of a family of 13 children. When he was quite young, his father died in a tree-cutting accident. Despite this devastating loss, Mr. Babcock went on to bravely serve his country in the First World War before moving to the United States where he settled in Spokane, Washington.

paragraphs: He was 15 years old when he joined the 146th Battalion of the Canadian Expeditionary Force in Sydenham (near Kingston), Ontario. A few months later, he arrived in England. He was transferred to reserve battalions and ended up with the Boys Battalion in 1917, waiting until he turned 18 to go to the front lines. The war ended first. Mr. Babcock would later move to the United States, where he served in the United States Army from 1921 to 1924. Mr. Babcock married Dorothy after losing his first wife, Elsie, in the late 1970s.

paragraphs: Mr. Babcock read voraciously and, in recent years, completed his high school degree via correspondence courses. He had also taken local college courses. He could recite the alphabet backwards without hesitation and spell out his name in Morse code. He enjoyed travelling with his wife and taking daily walks to keep in good shape. He took up flying lessons and became a pilot when he was 65!

paragraphs: In April 2008, the Minister of Veterans Affairs awarded Mr. Babcock a Minister of Veterans Affairs Commendation. Later that year, a small ceremony was held in May at Mr. Babcock’s home, where his Canadian citizenship was reinstated. Another accolade came in September 2008 when the Royal Canadian Regiment Association honored Mr. Babcock with the honorary title of regimental patriarch. This was the first time the title of regimental patriarch was given in Canada.


title: Frank Buckles

paragraphs: Frank Buckles (1 February 1901– 27th February 2011) was the last living American veteran who fought in World War I.

paragraphs: Buckles was born in Bethany, Missouri. He enlisted in the U.S. Army at the beginning of America's involvement in World War I in April 1917. Only 16 years old at the time, Buckles was asked by his recruiter to show a birth certificate. Later Buckles said of that event, "“I was just 16 and didn’t look a day older. I confess to you that I lied to more than one recruiter. I gave them my solemn word that I was 18, but I’d left my birth certificate back home in the family Bible. They’d take one look at me and laugh and tell me to go home before my mother noticed I was gone. Somehow I got the idea that telling an even bigger whopper was the way to go. So I told the next recruiter that I was 21 and darned if he didn’t sign me up on the spot! I enlisted in the Army on the 14th of August 1917.""

paragraphs: Before being accepted into the United States Army, he was turned down by the Marine Corps due to his slight weight.

paragraphs: In 1917, Buckles was sent to Europe on the RMS Carpathia, which had rescued RMS Titanic survivors five years earlier. During the war Buckles served in England and France, driving ambulances and motorcycles for the Army's 1st Fort Riley Casualty Detachment.

paragraphs: After the Armistice in 1918, Buckles escorted prisoners of war back to Germany. Following his discharge in 1919, he attended the dedication of the Liberty Memorial in Kansas City, Missouri, in honor of those Americans who died in World War I. While there, he met General John "Black Jack" Pershing, commander of all U.S. forces in France during the war.

paragraphs: In the 1940s Buckles worked for a shipping company in Manila, Philippines. He was captured by the Japanese in 1942 and spent the next three and a half years in the Los Baños prison camp.

paragraphs: He became malnourished, with a weight below 100 lb, and developed beriberi, yet led his fellow inmates in calisthenics. He was rescued on February 23, 1945.

paragraphs: He died on 27 February 2011 at 110 years old.


title: Józef Kowalski

paragraphs: Jozef Kowalski (2 February 1900 - 7 December 2013) was the last Polish veteran who served just after the First World War. He is the oldest verified military veteran in the world, following the death of Gertrude Noone.

paragraphs: He fought in the Polish-Soviet War that was linked to the First World War. It lasted from 1919 to 1921. He is the only living person who is known to have definitely fought in that war.

paragraphs: He lived in Tursk, near Sulęcin, in a care home. He died on 7 December 2013, aged 113.


title: Stanley Lucas

paragraphs: Stanley Lucas (15 January 1900 - 21 June 2010) was a British supercentenarian. He was the oldest living man in Europe at the time of his death. He was also the third-oldest man in the world. Lucas was born at Morwenstow UK and had two brothers and two sisters. In 1908 his family moved to Marhamchurch where Lucas lived until 1948. Lucas married Ivy Nancekivell in 1926 and took over the family farm. Lucas was a breeder of Devon cattle and Devon longwool sheep and started a dairy farm in the early 1940s. In 1948 he moved to live with his family at Poughill, where he continued to live after Ivy's death in 1963. Lucas was a member of Bude Town Council from 1959–1970, as well as vice chairman. His daughter said, "He has worked hard in his working life and was a teetotaller and non-smoker and since he has been elderly has been well cared for". He died on 21 June 2010 in Bude, England at the age of 110.


title: Michelle Keegan

paragraphs: Michelle Elizabeth Keegan (born 3 June 1987) is a British actress. She was born in Stockport, Greater Manchester. She is best known for playing Tina McIntyre in "Coronation Street".


title: David Jason

paragraphs: Sir David John White, OBE, (born 2 February 1940), known professionally as by his stage name David Jason, is an English actor, comedian, voice actor, screenwriter and television producer; He is best known for his roles as Del Boy in the BBC and GOLD comedy series sitcom "Only Fools and Horses and Detective Insepctor Jack Frost in A Touch Of Frost, Granville in Open All Hours and Still Open All Hours, and Pop Larkin in The Darling Buds of May, as well as voicing Mr. Toad in The Wind in the Williows and the title character of DangerMouse and Count Duckula; His last original was Del Boy was in 2014 and Frost in 2010."

paragraphs: Jason was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 1993, and knighted in 2005, both for services to drama. He won the British Comedy Awards Lifetime Achievement Award in 2001, and the BAFTA Academy Fellowship Award in 2003.

paragraphs: Jason lived with his long term girlfriend, actress Myfanwy Talog, for eighteen years until her death from breast cancer in 1995. At age 61, Jason and 41 year old girlfriend Gill Hinchcliffe had a baby girl in 2001. They married in 2005.

paragraphs: David Jason has a total of twenty-three awards between 1986 and 2003. His hit comedy show, "Only Fools and Horses" won many of these awards, and was also nominated many times. His crime drama, A Touch of Frost, has also won and been nominated many times. "Porterhouse Blue", "The Second Quest", "All the King's Men" and "A Bit of a Do" have won David Jason one award each.


title: Karl Malden

paragraphs: Karl Malden (22 March 1912 – 1 July 2009) was an American actor. He worked in acting from the 1930s to 2000. He won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role in "A Streetcar Named Desire". He was also in other classic movies, such as "On the Waterfront", "One-Eyed Jacks" and "Patton". He is perhaps best known for his role on television in the series "The Streets of San Francisco" during the 1970s.

paragraphs: He was born Mladen Sekulovich in Chicago. He grew up in Gary, Indiana. His family was Serbian. In 1938, he married Broadway actress Mona Greenberg. The two would remain married until Malden's death in 2009. Greenberg died in July 2019.

paragraphs: At one time he served as president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Among other awards he won during his lifetime was an Emmy Award for his role in "Fatal Vision". He was also given a Life Achievement Award by the Screen Actors' Guild in 2003.

paragraphs: Malden died in Los Angeles at the age of 97.


title: John Campbell Ross

paragraphs: John Campbell Ross (11 March 1899 - 3 June 2009) was the last living Australian World War I veteran.

paragraphs: Born in Newtown, Victoria, a suburb of Geelong, Ross served as a wireless operator in the First Australian Imperial Force, enlisting in January 1918, but never left Australia or saw active service. He later went on to serve in the Second World War as a corporal with the 20th Battalion, Volunteer Defence Corps.

paragraphs: His wife, Irene (née Laird), had been deceased by several decades before Jack Ross's death. He is survived by a son, Robert, a daughter, Peggy Ashburn, four grandchildren- Janette, Heather, Kay, and John - and nine great-grand children.

paragraphs: On 11 November 1998, Jack Ross had been awarded the 80th Anniversary Armistice Medal to mark the end of World War I. Jack also had been awarded the Centenary Medal for doing his share to the Australian society in the 100 years since the federation.

paragraphs: The death of William Evan Allan in October 2005 left Ross as the last Australian digger from World War I. However Claude Choules, a World War I veteran who served for Britain, lived in Western Australia. Ross became Australia's oldest man at the age of 108, on 12 June 2007, upon the death of Frank Scarrabelotti. Following the death of 112 year old E. Beatrice Riley, he was verified as the oldest person in Australia.

paragraphs: Ross celebrated his 110th birthday with chocolates and cake and a commemorative letter from the Prime Minister of Australia Kevin Rudd.

paragraphs: As a civilian, Ross worked for Victorian Railways until he retired in 1964. Ross died peacefully in his sleep at approximately 4 am. at the Golden Oaks Nursing Home in Bendigo on 3 June 2009, aged 110.


title: Bill Stone

paragraphs: William Frederick "Bill" Stone (born 23 September 1900 - 10 January 2009) was a British veteran of World War I who served in the Royal Navy. He died on 10 January 2009.


title: Norman Wisdom

paragraphs: Sir Norman Joseph Wisdom (4 February 1915 – 4 October 2010) was an English comedian, singer, songwriter, actor and musician.


title: Lazare Ponticelli

paragraphs: Lazare Ponticelli (born 7 December 1897 - 12 March 2008) was a French World War I veteran.

paragraphs: In August 1914, after the start of World War I, Ponticelli joined the 1st Régiment de Marche of the French Foreign Legion at 16 years old. He had to lie about his age as he was still to young to join the army. His older brother, Céleste Ponticelli, had also joined the regiment.Ponticelli said that France had done much for him, and being in the army was his way of showing his thanks. He fought at Soissons in Picardy, northeast France and at Douaumont, near Verdun. Ponticelli worked digging burial pits and trenches.

paragraphs: Ponticelli was not a French citizen and in May 1915, when Italy entered the war, he was forced into the Italian Army by conscription. Even though he tried to stay with his French regiment, he had to become part of the 3rd Alpini Regiment. Ponticelli fought against the Austro-Hungarian Army at Mount Piccolo on the Austria–Italy border. At his new job as a machine gunner, Ponticelli was wounded by a shell during an assault on an Austrian mountain. He was sent back to his job after rest in Naples.

paragraphs: Once, his regiment stopped fighting the Austrians for three weeks. The armies, who mostly spoke the same language, traded loaves of bread for tobacco and took pictures of each other. His commanders found out about this, and moved the regiment to another area.


title: Fire ant

paragraphs: Fire ants are stinging ants. They are also called "ginger ants" and "tropical fire ants". They evolved in South America, but have become a major pest in North America. They are known for a painful sting. This sting uses a base not an acid.

paragraphs: In 1918, fire ants were accidentally moved into the United States of America by a ship from South America. They were moved in large amounts of dirt. The ships brought heavy things like machines from the US to South America. They brought back light things like crops. The dirt was ballast make the ships more stable. The dirt sometimes had fire ants in it.

paragraphs: In the United States, fire ants have no natural predators or competitors. They became an invasive species. Native animals are not adapted to these ants. Fire ants are very aggressive. Their colonies can have many queens unlike many other ant species. Because of this, fire ants have spread very fast. By 1965, fire ant mounds spread on the south eastern coast and as far west as Texas. Today they are found in at least 10 southern states. There is a separate group of fire ants living in California.

paragraphs: Fire ants have done a lot of harm as they have spread across the United States. Because they are attracted to electrical currents, they chew through wires. This makes shorts in electrical circuits. Fire ants have also disturbed the natural balance of native ecosystems. In some places, they have killed off 70% of the native ant species and 40% of other native insect species.

paragraphs: Each year, about 25,000 people go for medical help because of painful bites from fire ants. Fire ants attack in groups when disturbed. People often get many bites. Fire ant bites are usually not dangerous. Some people are allergic to fire ants. They may go into shock. This is called anaphylaxis. This can kill them.

paragraphs: The fire ants are growing in the US 80 years after they came there. About 157 chemicals, like ammonia, gasoline, parts of manure, and insect-killing pesticides, are used against fire ants. However, none of them were very helpful. By 1995, the government had allowed only one fire-ant bait for people to use a lot.


title: Fulgurite

paragraphs: Fulgurites are a rare type of natural glass made when lightning hits silica-rich minerals that are commonly in sand, soil, and some rocks. "Tubular fulgurites" are found in places with a lot of silica, like beaches or deserts. Lightning makes a tubular fulgurite when a bolt goes through the sand and melts silica into a liquid. The liquid silica cools and hardens quickly, leaving behind a thin glassy tube, usually with a rough outer surface and a smooth inner surface. Underground, a fulgurite may be shaped like the roots of a tree, branching out with many arms that trace the zigzagging path of the lightning bolt. They are quite delicate, with walls no thicker than 1-2 mm. Some of the largest fulgurites are removed from the ground in many pieces and then glued back into their original shape.


title: St. Patrick's Cathedral (New York)

paragraphs: Saint Patrick's Cathedral is a decorated Neo-Gothic-style Catholic cathedral church in the United States. It is the seat of the archbishop of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York, and a parish church, located on the east side of Fifth Avenue between 50th and 51st Streets in midtown Manhattan, New York City, New York. It faces Rockefeller Center.


title: Sindhi food

paragraphs: Sindhi food refers to the food of the Sindhi people who live in Pakistan. The daily food in most Sindhi households consists of wheat-based flat-bread (phulka) and rice accompanied by two dishes, one gravy and one dry.

paragraphs: There are food that are served during special occasions, such as during Diwali a Bahji with seven vegetables is made. If someone gets chicken pox and after it is gone, it is common to make an offering and make 'mitho lolo'.

paragraphs: Vermicelli is served on both Eids. On special religious occasions, mitho lolo, accompanied with milk is given to the poor.

paragraphs: This section provides the translations between Hindi, Sindhi and English (British and American) cooking terms. There occasional even in Sindhi for instance Hyderabadi Sindhi will refer to an egg as 'bedo' however Sindhis from other parts will refer to it as 'ando'.


title: The Musical Offering

paragraphs: The Musical Offering (German title Musikalisches Opfer or Das Musikalische Opfer), BWV 1079, is a collection of several pieces of music by Johann Sebastian Bach. It consists of canons, fugues, ricercars and a trio sonata. All the music is based on a tune made up by King Frederick II of Prussia (Frederick the Great). Bach dedicated the work to him.

paragraphs: The idea for this music started at a meeting between Bach and Frederick II on 7 May 1747. One of Bach’s sons, Carl Philipp Emanuel, was one of the king’s court musicians. The king wanted to show Johann Sebastian Bach a new instrument that had recently been invented. This was the piano. The king invited Bach to his palace at Potsdam.

paragraphs: During the visit the king gave Bach a theme and asked him to write a 3 part fugue based on it. Bach was good at improvisation so he made up a 3 part fugue. The king wondered whether he could make up a 6 part fugue. That would be very difficult, and people thought he was joking, but Bach said he would think about it.

paragraphs: Two months later, after he had gone home to Leipzig, Bach made up a six-voice fugue based on the king’s theme. He put it together with other compositions based on the theme and sent them to the king. This music became known as the “Musical Offering”. We do not know what the king thought of it.

paragraphs: At the top of the music Bach wrote some Latin words: "Regis Iussu Cantio Et Reliqua Canonica Arte Resoluta" (this means: “the theme given by the king, with additions, resolved in the canonic style”). The first letters of these words spell out the word "ricercar", which was a form of music well-known at the time.

paragraphs: "The Musical Offering" consists of a collection of ricercars, canons, fugues and a trio sonata. The trio sonata was written for flute, violin and basso continuo, but most of the other music does not show what instruments should play it. They are often played on keyboard instruments, or as chamber music by small groups of instruments. Bach did not show what order he wanted the pieces to be played in.

paragraphs: Bach also put riddles at the top of some of the pieces. Some of these riddles have been explained, but some have more than one solution. One of these "riddle canons", "in augmentationem" (i.e. augmentation) has notes which get longer and longer. Bach wrote: "Notulis crescentibus crescat Fortuna Regis" (“may the fortunes of the king increase like the length of the notes”). Another one is a modulating canon which ends a tone higher than it starts. Bach wrote over the music: "Ascendenteque Modulationis ascendat Gloria Regis" (“as the modulation rises, so may the King's glory”).

paragraphs: Several composers have made arrangements of some of the music from the “Musical Offering”. In 1935, Anton Webern arranged Bach’s six-part ricercar for orchestra. In 1980 Sofia Gubaidulina used the Royal Theme of the "Musical Offering" in her violin concerto. She turns the notes into a Russian Orthodox hymn.


title: Dedication

paragraphs: Dedication can mean: the act of consecrating (making holy) a religious building such as a temple or church.

paragraphs: Dedication can also mean the writing at the beginning of a book or piece of music in which the author or composer says that it was written for a particular person. For example: a composer may write a piece of music for a particular musician and dedicate it to them. An author may dedicate a book to someone they love or respect. A book or a piece of music may be dedicated to the person who has paid them to write it. This may be a rich person such as king.


title: Boomslang

paragraphs: A boomslang is a large, venomous snake found in Africa. Its name means "tree snake" in Dutch and Afrikaans.

paragraphs: Boomslangs eat small animals like chameleons, frogs, and birds, but they also eat eggs. Like all snakes, boomslangs do not chew they swallow everything whole.

paragraphs: The venom (poison) of boomslangs disrupts the clotting of your blood, and this can kill you. After a bite, you can sometimes feel a headache, nausea and sleepiness. If you think you may have been bitten by a boomslang, you should get an antidote. This does not happen often, as boomslangs only bite humans when they feel attacked. This snake can make you bleed from all the holes in your body including your hair pores.


title: Fire engine

paragraphs: A fire engine is a vehicle that is designed to help in fighting fires. A fire engine carries hoses, a pump, a water tank and breathing equipment. It will also have rescue equipment, such as ladders, ropes and cutting tools, and usually first aid kits as well. A fire engine brings firefighters to the scene from the fire station. It will also have sirens and flashing lights to warn traffic along the way.

paragraphs: In the Middle Ages, the only way to fight a fire was with buckets of water. In the 16th century, hand-powered pumps were invented. In the 19th century, the design of these pumps was improved, so that horses could wheel them to the scene. Later, steam power was used to turn both the pumps and the wheels. The first modern fire engine was invented in 1905 by Knox Automobile in Springfield, Massachusetts.

paragraphs: Special types of fire service vehicles include:


title: Ice cream sandwich

paragraphs: An ice cream sandwich is a type of frozen desert that is made by putting ice cream in between two cookies or pieces of cake (called "sandwiching"). It is often made with vanilla ice cream between two pieces of chocolate cake, but sometimes is made with other flavours instead.

paragraphs: The flavours mostly used in an ice cream sandwich is vanilla, chocolate, and strawberry.


title: Mycenaean culture

paragraphs: The Mycenaean culture (~1600–1100) was an early Greek culture during the Bronze Age, on the Greek mainland and on Crete.

paragraphs: The name Achaean was used by Homer to describe them, and occurs in the Iliad. The term we use is derived from Mycenae, which is an important archaeological site about 90 km from Athens. Other important Mycenaean sites are at Athens, Thebes, Tiryns and Pylos. The epic poems of Homer, the Iliad and the Odyssey, are Mycenaean in origin.

paragraphs: The earlier Minoans traded but did not conquer. The Mycenaeans traded and conquered.

paragraphs: Mycenaean is the oldest known form of the Greek language. It was spoken on the Greek mainland and on Crete in the Mycenaean period, 16th to 12th centuries BC. The language is written on clay tablets in a script called Linear B. Most of these tablets were found in Knossos in central Crete, and in Pylos in the southwest of the Peloponnese. Other tablets have been found at Mycenae itself, Tiryns and Thebes and at Chania in Western Crete.

paragraphs: For a long time no-one could translate the tablets. At last, in 1952 Michael Ventris deciphered the script. He showed that the language was an early form of Greek.

paragraphs: The texts on the tablets are mostly lists and inventories. There are no stories, myths or poetry, but they give us some idea of the people who made them.

paragraphs: By the late thirteenth century BC mainland Greece witnessed a wave of destruction. The Mycenaean sites declined, and the people moved to refuge settlements. This is the so-called Greek Dark Ages; little or no writing is found until the 8th century BC. See Ancient Greece for this and later periods.

paragraphs: Old Hittite and Mycenaean Greek are both Indo-European languages. The oldest Hittite texts are slightly earlier than the earliest Mycenaean texts, but Greek is the oldest surviving Indo-European language.

paragraphs: The somewhat younger Linear B tablets suggest that the people called "Mycenaeans" might have been Achaeans. No written source found at a Mycenaean site reveals what they called themselves. In the "Iliad", the residents of the Peloponnesus and nearby islands are often called "Achaeans". There is mention of the "Ahhiyawa" in Hittite sources from the Late Bronze Age, which suggests itself that the Mycenaeans could possibly be "Achaeans". The "Tawagalawa Letter", written by an unnamed Hittite king (14th–13th century BC) to the king of "Ahhiyawa", treats him as an equal. The letter suggests that Miletus ("Millawanda") was under his control and refers to an earlier 'Wilusa' episode" involving hostility by "Ahhiyawa". Ahhiya(wa) has been identified with the Achaeans of the Trojan War and the city of Wilusa with the legendary city of Troy. However the exact relationship of the term "Ahhiyawa" to the Achaeans is hotly debated by scholars, even after the discovery that Mycenaean Linear B is an early form of Greek. The written forms of the two languages are quite different.


title: Manna

paragraphs: Manna, sometimes spelled mana, is the name of a food which, according to the Pentateuch of the Bible, the Israelites ate while they were traveling 40 years in the desert after leaving Egypt, which God provided because they had nothing to eat. Every morning they would gather the white flakes that covered the ground. It is said to have a sweet taste. When they got tired of manna, God gave them quail (bird).

paragraphs: Manna was called the "bread of heaven" because it seemed to come from Heaven, according to the Bible. Some suggest that they were a type of locust; some say that it was the sap of a tree which is known to satisfy hunger. In the Mishna, it is said that it was made during twilight of the sixth day of Creation.


title: Clara Barton

paragraphs: Clarissa Harlowe "Clara" Barton (December 25, 1821 – April 12, 1912) was an American teacher, nurse, and humanitarian. During the American Civil War, she was in charge of the agency to find missing Union soldiers. She also headed several hospitals in Virginia. She is best remembered for organizing the American Red Cross.

paragraphs: Clara was born on December 25, 1821 in Oxford, Massachusetts. She was the youngest child of Sarah Stone and Stephen Barton. In her youth, Barton was timid and sensitive, which made household life difficult for Barton.

paragraphs: Clara's father was an important member of the town; he served as the town's moderator, ran a decent farm, and were well-known members of the town's church. Clara shared a special bond with her father. Both of them were adventurous and patriotic. Clara's father often told her stories about war, and they pretended to fight each other in fake battles.

paragraphs: Clara's mother was said to be a very beautiful woman. She was married at the age of seventeen, and by the time she was twenty she had already given birth to four children. She was very practical (good with her hands) and taught Clara many chores around the house. Her mother was strict and would not even let Clara have a toy doll. However, Clara's mother taught her many important things. She was a very strong and determined woman, and was full of common sense, traits that were both passed on to Clara.

paragraphs: Clara's four siblings were all older than she was. Her oldest sister, Dorothy, was seventeen years old when Clara was born; her oldest brother, Stephen, was fifteen; her younger brother, David, was thirteen; and her younger sister, Sally, was ten. She learned many skills from her siblings. Her sisters taught her how to read before she was even three years old. Stephen taught her mathematics, and David taught her how to ride a horse.

paragraphs: As a child, Clara liked to pretend she was a nurse. She took care of sick and injured animals. When she was eleven, her brother David fell off the roof of a barnhouse. This incident had a large effect on Clara, who helped nurse her brother. David suffered a severe injury to his head, and he was close to death for two years. For two years Clara took care of her brother, hardly leaving his bedside. She learned many medical practices, including bloodletting, giving medicine, and applying leeches. Though she didn't realize it, Clara had discovered her talent and love of nursing. After David was treated, Clara felt anxious and restless. She began becoming depressed because she had nothing to do. She tried being a weaver at her brother David's mill, but she quit and looked for a new job.

paragraphs: One day, a phrenologist visiting the Barton household told Barton's parents to teach in a school so she could overcome her extreme shyness. Barton was first terrified of this, but she soon taught a class of forty girls and boys in a local school. Barton impressed the children, who were barely younger than she was, and she felt happy at earning their respect. After her school received an award for discipline, Barton received many job offers. She asked for and received the same pay for teaching as male teachers, which was uncommon at the time. Barton taught at the school for ten years.

paragraphs: When she was thirty, Barton enrolled at the Clinton Liberal Institute in New York. After graduating, two schoolmates, Charles and Mary Norton, invited her to live with their family in Hightstown, New Jersey. Barton began teaching in the local school, and then began starting free public schools like the ones in Massachusetts. The school was very successful, and many new teachers were hired and a new building was built. A man was hired to run the school, and he received a salary almost twice as high as Barton's salary. Barton was angry at this treatment, and she left to find a new job in Washington D.C.

paragraphs: Barton spent the next five years of her life in the US capital, her first job being a clerk for the government. Department of the Interior records say that she became a clerk in 1855, which makes her the first female to work for the government. Barton was appointed a position in the US patent office. She even received the same pay as the other workers, receiving $1400 a year. The other workers were very angry about this; they "spat on the floor", "blew smoke in her face", insulted her, and made slanderous remarks about her. Many of these men lost their jobs because of this behavior.

paragraphs: Barton quit working and lived in Glen Echo, Maryland. She wrote a book about herself called "The Story of My Childhood."

paragraphs: She died at the age of 91 years old from Tuberculosis on April 12, 1912.


title: Phase change

paragraphs: A phase change is a change in the states of matter. For example, a solid may become a liquid. This phase change is called melting. When a solid changes into a gas, it is called sublimation. When a gas changes into a liquid, it is called condensation. When a liquid changes into a solid, it is called solidification. When a gas changes into a solid, it is called deposition . When a liquid changes into gas, it is called evaporation. Phase changes are usually caused by changes in temperature or pressure.

paragraphs: As the states of matter change from solid to liquid to gas, respectively, their composition changes as well. For example, in a solid, the bonds are stronger than hydrogen bonds. That allows the solid substance to have a definite volume and shape. However, when the heat is added to the solid and it melts to become a liquid, the bonds are considerably weaker, and in water, are simply hydrogen bonds. A liquid has a definite volume but not a definite shape, and it thus takes the shape of the container in which it is. When "more" heat is added, the liquid substance evaporates and becomes a gas, which has no bonds at all. Gas is simply a formless collection of particles that tends to expand in all directions at the same time in order to occupy its full container. If a gas is not confined, the space between the particles will continue to increase. A gas has neither a definite volume nor a definite shape.

paragraphs: In this pattern, solid to liquid to gas, heat is being added in order to provoke the phase change. In the other "direction," gas to liquid to solid, heat is being released through the phase change.

paragraphs: It often helps to think of an ice cube when thinking of phase changes. An ice cube is a solid, and when heated up, it becomes liquid water. When heated up some more, it becomes water vapor, which is a gas.


title: Barn

paragraphs: A barn is a building found on a farm. It is used for holding livestock, such as horses. It can also be used to hold grain or tools.


title: Horace Mann

paragraphs: Horace Mann (1796-1859) was an educator and politician who helped set up the first public schools in the United States. He did this in the state of Massachusetts. Mann personally visited every school in the state to inspect it. He later became the first president of Antioch College in Ohio. “Our means of education,” he stated, “are the grand machinery by which the ‘raw material’ of human nature can be worked up into inventors and discoverers, into skilled artisans and scientific farmers.”


paragraphs: The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People or NAACP (pronounced N-double-A-C-P) is a civil rights organization in the United States, created for the advancement of black people by means of following judicial policies.


title: Kim Kyusik

paragraphs: Kim Kyu-sik (, 1881 - 1950) was a Korean politician, ambassador, poet, and academic.

paragraphs: He was the first and second Vice President of the Provisional Government of the Republic of Korea. He was also minister of education and foreign affairs in the same government.

paragraphs: He was a graduate of the American Roanoke College and also Princeton University.

paragraphs: Kim Kyusik was born in Pusan. He was kidnapped to North Korea in 1950, where he was assassinated in Manpo the same year.


title: Chang Myun

paragraphs: Chang Myun(, August 28, 1899 – June 4, 1966) was 2nd, 7th Prime Minister of South Korea, 4th Vice President of South Korea. His nickname was Unsuk (, hanja:雲石).

paragraphs: He was a special ambassador to the Vatican 1948. In 1949, United States Ambassador to South Korea, May 1950 2nd Prime Minister of South Korea. 1956 to 1960 4th Vice President of South Korea. Seventh Prime Minister in August 1960. On 16 May 1961, he was kicked out, By Park Chung hee's coup d'état.

paragraphs: Chang Myon was born in Incheon in 1899. He was born to a Catholic family. After graduating high school, he was Studied depart in the United States. After returning, he worked as an educator. Dongseong High School teachers, Principal. Geseong Elementary School Principal.

paragraphs: August 15, 1945 Independence, he moved into politics. October 1948 was sent to UN, to represent of South Korea, after, December 1948 Special Ambassador to the Vatican, Ambassador to the United States. Prime Minister of South Korea November 23, 1950 to April 23, 1952.


title: Stomach cancer

paragraphs: Stomach cancer, or gastric cancer, is a kind of cancer from any part of the stomach. Stomach cancer causes about 800,000 deaths worldwide per year. Odds of survival is 5 to 15%. The life span of someone with stomach cancer is five to fifteen years. This is because this type of cancer can spread faster than other cancers.

paragraphs: Most stomach cancer is caused by "Helicobacter pylori" infection. Diet foods are not proven causes, but some foods, such as smoked foods, salted fish and meat, and pickled vegetables are associated with a higher risk.


title: Bembridge

paragraphs: "Bembridge" is a village on the Isle of Wight. It is the village which is farthest to the east on the island. According to the 2001 census of the United Kingdom it had a population of 3,848. The large population (for a village) means that some people have said that it has the biggest population of any village in the United Kingdom. Many of the most rich people who live on the Isle of Wight live in Bembridge.

paragraphs: The villages of Bembridge and Yaverland were once a separate island, off the coast of the rest of the Isle of Wight. There was a channel of water called Brading Haven, which separated the two islands. Before the time in which Queen Victoria was the queen of the United Kingdom, the village of Bembridge only had a few huts and farm houses. It was only when a church was built in 1827 that the village started to grow.

paragraphs: The most old buildings in the village are found close to the church in the north of the village. In this part of the village there are a number of shops, pubs (places to buy and drink alcohol), and restaurants (places to buy food). There is also the village hall (a place for meetings, sales and events).

paragraphs: In the south of the village there is an area which is called 'Land End'. It is a more modern part of the village and has its own shops. In this part of the village there is a lifeboat station. There are two schools in Bembridge, one is for children of ages 4–8, and the other is for children of ages 9–13.


title: United States Secret Service

paragraphs: The United States Secret Service (which is often just called the Secret Service in the United States) is part of the United States government. Part of its job is to investigate when people make fake money. (Making fake money is called counterfeiting). However, the United States Secret Service is more well known for protecting important government leaders. Secret Service agents work as bodyguards and protect people like the President, Vice President, members of the United States Cabinet, people who are running for high office, and the family members of these people, and leaders from other countries who are visiting the United States. There are other people whom the Secret Service protects, too. A United States President would never be seen in public without Secret Service agents protecting him or her at all times.

paragraphs: It is often not easy to recognize Secret Service agents, because they often dress to blend in wherever they are. This means that they will often be dressed the same way as everybody else in a crowd.

paragraphs: They employ about a total of 5,000 people.

paragraphs: The United States Secret Service was created in 1865 to stop counterfeiters. It did not start protecting the President until after President William McKinley was shot and killed in 1901. In 1902, President Theodore Roosevelt became the first President of the United States to be protected by Secret Service agents. Since then, every president has received Secret Service Protection. In 1981 when Ronald Reagan was shot, Timothy McCarthy became one of four Secret Service agents to take a bullet of a President.

paragraphs: The Secret Service used to be part of the Treasury Department, but is now part of the Department of Homeland Security.


title: The Grand Inquisitor

paragraphs: "The Grand Inquisitor" is a parable told by Ivan to Alyosha in Fyodor Dostoevsky's novel "The Brothers Karamazov" (1879-1880). Ivan and Alyosha are brothers; Ivan questions the possibility of a kind, caring God. If there is a kind God, Ivan argues, why do people suffer, especially children?

paragraphs: "The Grand Inquisitor" is an important part of the novel and one of the most famous parts of it because of its ideas about humans and Gods, and because of its mysteriousness.

paragraphs: Dostoevsky's notebooks show that he had the idea of "The Grand Inquisitor" after he saw it in a play by Friedrich Schiller, "Don Carlos" (1785-1787).


paragraphs: The Matthew Shepard Act, officially called the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act, is an Act of Congress that was passed on October 22, 2009, and signed into law by President Barack Obama on October 28. The act adds crimes that are committed because of the victims gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or disability to the 1969 federal hate-crime law.

paragraphs: The Act is the first federal law that gives legal protection to people who are transgender.


title: Pōhutukawa

paragraphs: The Pōhutukawa is a New Zealand native tree which grows mainly on the coast of the North Island. It is evergreen and has bright red flowers. These flowers appear between November and January, during the Southern hemisphere summer. Because it is red and green during Christmas, it is often called the New Zealand Christmas tree.

paragraphs: The Pōhutukawa is endangered, meaning that there are not many left. This is because possums eat the leaves of the trees, killing them. Project Crimson is a group trying to stop this happening.


title: North Island

paragraphs: The North Island is one of the two main islands of New Zealand. It is separated from the South Island by Cook Strait. The island is in area, making it the world's 14th-largest island. It has a population of 3,287,600 (June 2009). Its Māori name is "Te Ika a Māui".

paragraphs: Twelve cities are in the North Island. The biggest is Auckland, New Zealand's largest city. Wellington, the capital, is at the southern end of the island. About 76% of New Zealand's population live in the North Island.


title: South Island

paragraphs: The South Island is the larger of the two major islands of New Zealand. It is separated from the North Island by Cook Strait. The South Island covers 151,215 square kilometres (58,384 sq mi) and has a temperate climate. It is also known by its Māori name, "Te Wai Pounamu".

paragraphs: The South Island is sometimes called the "mainland", because it is 33% bigger than the North Island. Only 24% of New Zealand's population live in the South Island.


title: New Zealand English

paragraphs: New Zealand English is the English spoken in New Zealand. The words are mostly the same as in British English, but are pronounced (spoken) differently.

paragraphs: Some words are only found in New Zealand English. These include "dairy" (corner shop; small grocery shop), "bach" (small holiday house, usually by the beach), and "heaps" (lots of, i.e "I ate heaps of pavlova last Christmas").


title: Cook Strait

paragraphs: Cook Strait is the body of water between the North and South Islands of New Zealand. It connects the Tasman Sea on the west with the South Pacific Ocean on the east.

paragraphs: The strait is named after James Cook, who was the first European commander to sail through it. The strait has an average depth of 128 metres (420 feet). The weather and tide patterns are often very strange there. The most common way to get across is by ferry.


title: Tasman Sea

paragraphs: The Tasman Sea is the sea between Australia and New Zealand. It was named after Dutch explorer Abel Tasman. It is about 2000 kilometres (1250 miles) across, and 2800 km from north to south. The sea is part of the south Pacific Ocean. It is sometimes called "The Ditch" by Australians and New Zealanders.


title: Bailiff

paragraphs: A bailiff is a governor, a legal officer for the government. There are many different kinds of bailiffs, and they have different jobs. The word comes from the Latin word, "baiulivus".

paragraphs: The word was first used in England for the king's officers, such as sheriffs and mayors. It was also the title for the chief officer of a hundred. The sheriff looked after an area called his bailiwick. Bailiff is kept as a title by the chief magistrates of various towns and the keepers of royal castles, such as the High Bailiff of Westminster, and the Bailiff of Dover Castle. In a medieval manor, a bailiff was in charge of the farming.


title: Kelly Kelly

paragraphs: Barbara Jean Blank (born January 15, 1987 in Jacksonville, Florida) is an American female professional wrestler, model and dancer. She is best known for working with World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) for seven years using the ring name Kelly Kelly. During her time in WWE she was a one time WWE Divas Champion. Kelly Kelly used to have a weekly segment known as Kelly's Exposé where she would dance for the WWE Universe.

paragraphs: In 2006, while working as a model, Blank was seen by World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) official John Laurinaitis, who was interested in signing her to a contract. As a result, WWE contacted her modeling agency and invited her to their developmental territory, Ohio Valley Wrestling (OVW), for a try-out. Despite having no previous wrestling experience she was offered a contract, which she signed in May 2006. Even after being called up to the main roster she continued to fly back and forth to OVW's base city Louisville, Kentucky once a week to work shows; first as a ring announcer and referee, then as a wrestler. One of her first matches took place at the September 6 OVW TV tapings where she participated in a Women's battle royal won by ODB.

paragraphs: Blank debuted for the ECW brand as Kelly Kelly. Originally, she was to be named just 'Kelly', but her ring name was expanded to 'Kelly Kelly' by Vince McMahon. She made her debut on the first episode of the weekly television program on June 13, 2006, becoming the youngest Diva on the WWE roster. Her character, an exhibitionist, was introduced performing a striptease for the crowd. The next week, while performing another striptease, Kelly was interrupted by her on-screen boyfriend, Mike Knox, who came to the stage and covered her with a towel before dragging her backstage. Her stripping became a weekly segment known as "Kelly's Exposé" and usually followed the same routine; Kelly would dance and strip until she was interrupted by Knox who was upset by her exhibitionism and showing off her body to others. Knox began forcing Kelly to accompany him to ringside so he could keep an eye on her, making her his "de facto" valet. As a result, she found herself involved in the feud developing between Mike Knox and partner Test with Tommy Dreamer and his partner The Sandman, including being inadvertently hit with a cane by Sandman when Knox used her as a shield. She made her ECW in-ring debut on the August 22, 2006 episode of "ECW on Sci-Fi" in a losing effort as part of a six-person mixed tag team match which saw herself, Knox, and Test lose to Dreamer, Sandman and Torrie Wilson, in what was the last match of the feud.

paragraphs: Following this feud, Kelly and Knox were moved into a storyline with CM Punk in September, in which Kelly was shown to have developed a liking for Punk and Knox was shown to be increasingly protective and jealous. During the next month, Kelly continuously flirted with Punk and was shown watching his matches from the crowd, until Knox stopped her. Subsequently, Kelly's character dressed as Punk for ECW's Halloween Costume Contest, enraging Knox and leading to a match between the two, during which Kelly cheered for Punk. At December to Dismember, Kelly and Knox took on the team of Ariel and Kevin Thorn in a mixed tag team match, during which Knox refused to tag in before abandoning Kelly, leaving her to be beaten badly by Ariel. On the following episode of "ECW", Kelly defeated Ariel with a roll-up on her first ECW singles match, after which Knox made his way to the ring with flowers only to throw them in Kelly's face and perform his signature swinging reverse STO on her, ending their relationship and giving her a scripted injury—removing her from the program for six weeks.

paragraphs: She returned to television on January 16, 2007 and cut a promo announcing she was newly single and bringing back "Kelly's Exposé". The following week, she joined forces with Layla and Brooke to form Extreme Exposé. The trio performed a weekly dance segment on "ECW" for the next several months, as a successor to Kelly's Exposé segment. In June 2007, The Miz was moved to the brand, prompting a storyline in which all three members of Extreme Exposé were attracted to him. When Kelly shifted her attentions towards Balls Mahoney, Layla, Brooke, and The Miz openly mocked her, and The Miz later prevented her from going on a date with Mahoney, stating that he owned her contract and would fire her if she did so. On November 1, Brooke was released from her WWE contract, and Extreme Exposé dissolved as a group, leaving Kelly and Layla to enter an ongoing rivalry with more active wrestling roles. On the October 29 episode of "Raw", Kelly won a battle royal to earn a match against the WWE Women's Champion, Beth Phoenix. After the match however, Kelly was attacked by Phoenix and lost the subsequent match between the two the following week on "Raw". Kelly continued to feud with Layla, and they were on opposite sides of a 10-Diva tag team match at Survivor Series, which Kelly's team won. In December, Layla formed an alliance with Victoria, which expanded to include Lena Yada in January 2008, and Kelly continued to feud with the trio. At WrestleMania XXIV, Kelly was a 'lumberjill' for the Divas' tag team lumberjill match. The following month, Kelly was part of the losing team in a five-on-five Divas match at the Backlash pay-per-view. Kelly Kelly was released from her WWE contract on September 28, 2012.


title: Deadmau5

paragraphs: deadmau5 pronounced "dead mouse", (real name: Joel Zimmerman) (born January 5, 1981 in Niagara Falls, Ontario) is a Grammy-nominated and Juno winning Canadian electro and progressive house producer, DJ, and performer.

paragraphs: He has released 8 albums and made a cameo on the TV show Gossip Girl. Furthermore he has made tracks like "Arguru" and "Not Exactly", which have been featured on many compilation CD's and on Armin van Buuren's A State Of Trance radio show.

paragraphs: deadmau5 has worked together with DJs like: Kaskade, MC Flipside, Rob Swire of Pendulum and Knife Party, and Steve Duda under the BSOD alias.

paragraphs: The name deadmau5 started when Zimmerman found a dead mouse in his computer, while he was replacing his video card. He talked with people in chat rooms, and people started connecting him with this story. In the end, Zimmerman called himself deadmau5, as a shorter version of "dead mouse".

paragraphs: In an interview with Irish Daily Star, he mentioned that he didn't like being referred to as a DJ. He was quoted as saying:

paragraphs: He later said that he was sorry for his comment and said that the interview was bad, and it did not express his opinion about DJs correctly:

paragraphs: deadmau5 previously dated American model Lindsey Evans but they broke up in September 2011. He then dated tattoo artist Kat Von D in and they broke up in November 2012 however deadmau5 proposed to her on Twitter and she accepted. In June 2013, Von D announced that had ended their engagement.

paragraphs: On July 30, 2010 deadmau5 collapsed on stage 50 minutes into his set and doctors said he was suffering from exhaustion and vomiting. Due to this, deadmau5 was forced to cancel his next nine shows for recovery.


title: Leeroy Jenkins

paragraphs: Leeroy Jenkins is the name of someone who was in the game World of Warcraft. He made a video which was put onto Youtube which some people think is very good. He has become known around the world and even has his own Achievement on World of Warcraft for pretending to be him in the video. His name is often spelt wrong as Leroy Jenkins who is a different person.

paragraphs: The video which made Leeroy so famous shown him and his friends, doing a friendly activity known as a Raid in World of Warcraft, but this activity is hard to do, so the leader of the group that Leeroy is with has to explain what to do. But Leeroy is not around for the explanation, and when he comes back, he ends up running in the area, shouting his own name as he goes, which begins the activity, and ruining the plan which his friends made. This causes everyone to panic, and no-one knows what to do, and so, everyone dies. Everyone blames Leeroy for this, and says "At least I got chicken."

paragraphs: Leeroy has become very well known and his name is now used by people to show that they are running in but have no idea what to do. These people should be avoided, as they may cause you to die as well, as the video shows. Because of this, people now consider the video to be a Lesson.


title: Billy Corgan

paragraphs: William Patrick "Billy" Corgan, Jr. (born March 17, 1967) is an American singer and musicians. He is the singer and guitarist for the American band The Smashing Pumpkins. Corgan and James Iha formed the band in 1988.


title: Dark Horse (album)

paragraphs: Dark Horse is the sixth studio album by Canadian rock band Nickelback. The album was released on November 18, 2008. Seven singles came from the album, including "Gotta Be Somebody", "If Today Was Your Last Day", "I'd Come for You", "Burn It to the Ground", and "Something in Your Mouth".


title: Duncan Keith

paragraphs: Duncan Keith (born July 16, 1983 in Winnipeg, Manitoba) is a Canadian professional ice hockey defencemen for the Chicago Blackhawks of the National Hockey League (NHL). He was picked by the Blackhawks with the fifty-fourth overall pick in the 2002 NHL Entry Draft. He played college hockey at the Michigan State University.

paragraphs: He was chosen along with Brent Seabrook and Jonathan Toews to play for Team Canada in the 2010 Winter Olympics.

paragraphs: He won the Stanley Cup with the Chicago Blackhawks in 2010 and was also awarded the 2010 Norris Trophy. On June 24, 2013, He won his second Stanley Cup with the Blackhawks after they defeated the Boston Bruins 4 games to 2 in the 2013 Stanley Cup Finals.


title: A minor

paragraphs: A minor (usually shortened to Am) is a minor scale based on A, which is made up of the pitches A, B, C, D, E, F, G, and A. The harmonic minor scale raises the G to G. Its key signature has no sharps or flats ("see below:" Scales and keys).

paragraphs: Its relative major is C major, and its parallel major is A major. A scale in both A minor and C major can be played on a piano or other keyboard instrument using only the white keys.

paragraphs: Changes needed for the melodic and harmonic versions of the scale are written in with accidentals when needed.

paragraphs: Most of the time key signatures were cancelled whenever the new key signature had fewer sharps or flats than the old key signature, in modern popular music, this is only done when C major or A minor replace another key.


title: You, Me and Dupree

paragraphs: You, Me and Dupree is a 2006 American comedy movie. It was produced by Mary Parent, Scott Stuber and Owen Wilson. It was directed by Anthony Russo and Joe Russo.

paragraphs: The movie is about newlyweds Carl and Molly Peterson (played by Matt Dillon and Kate Hudson). After Carl's best man and friend Randolph Dupree (Owen Wilson) loses his job and apartment, the couple allow him to move in. Dupree overstays his welcome.


title: Butters' Bottom Bitch

paragraphs: "Butters' Bottom Bitch" is the ninth episode of the thirteenth season of "South Park". It first started on the Comedy Central in the United States on October 16, 2009.

paragraphs: In this episode, Butters pays $5 and gets his first kiss from Sally, a girl on the playground. Seeing this Butters opens a "kissing company" and becomes a pimp. After rumors swirl Sergeant Yates of the Park County Police goes undercover as a female prostitute named "Yolanda" and went on undercover stings. Hearing that Butters is a respectful pimp, real prostitutes begin to join Butters' company. Sergeant Yates then joins Butters' company but Yolanda's pimp, Keyshone appears outside and asks Yolanda to marry him and (s)he says yes. Butters' decides to quit his pimping because he thought it would interfere with "true love".


title: Eazy-E

paragraphs: Eric Lynn Wright (September 7, 1964 – March 26, 1995), better known by his stage name Eazy-E, was an American rapper and actor. He rose to fame with the Rap group N.W.A. and is one of the founders of the "Gangsta rap" subgenre. He usually rapped about guns, drugs, relations between residents and the police, and sexual activity.

paragraphs: On March 26, 1995 Eazy-E died of AIDS-related pneumonia.

paragraphs: He was buried at Rose Hills Memorial Park in Whittier, California.

paragraphs: During his career, Eazy-E released 2 studio albums and 3 EPs:


title: Tyranni

paragraphs: Tyranni is a suborder of passerine birds. They are also known as the suboscines. There are about 1,000 species in this suborder. Most of them live in South America.

paragraphs: These birds are different to the passeri (songbirds) because they have a different syrinx. This is part of the bird's voice box which makes bird song. Scientists have also done studies on DNA and fossils to show that the tyranni suborder is different to the passeri suborder.

paragraphs: The tyranni suborder can be split into three infraorders: Acanthisittides, Eurylaimides, and Tyrannide.

paragraphs: The first group, the Acanthisittidae, are also known as the New Zealand "wrens". At the moment, scientists are unsure whether they should belong to the tyranni or not. Some scientists think they are too different and they should be in their own suborder.

paragraphs: The Eurylaimides contains two superfamilies: the Eurylaimoidea and the Pittoidea. The Euryaimoidea contains three families. They are also known as the Old World suboscines. Most of them live in tropical places around the Indian Ocean. One species, the Broad-billed Sapayoa, lives in the Americas. The three families are:

paragraphs: The Tyrannides contain all sub-oscine birds from the Americas, except the Broad-billed Sapayoa: