title: Japan

paragraphs: Japan (; Romanised as "nihon" or "nippon") is a country in East Asia. It is a group of many islands close to the east coast of Korea, China and Russia. The Pacific Ocean is to the east of Japan and the Sea of Japan is to the west. Most people in Japan live on one of four of the islands. The biggest of these islands, Honshu, has the most people. Honshu is the 7th largest island in the world. Tokyo is the capital of Japan and its biggest city.

paragraphs: The Japanese people call their country "Nihon" or "Nippon", which means "the origin of the Sun" in Japanese. Japan is a monarchy whose head of state is called the Emperor.

paragraphs: The first people in Japan were the Ainu people and other Jōmon people. They were closer related to Europeans or Arabs. They were later conquered and replaced by the Yayoi people (early Japanese and Ryukyuans). The Yayoi were an ancient ethnic group that migrated to the Japanese archipelago mainly from southeastern China during the Yayoi period (300 BCE–300 CE). Modern Japanese people have primarily Yayoi ancestry at an average of 97%. The indigenous Ryukyuan and Ainu peoples have more Jōmon ancestry on the other hand.

paragraphs: The earliest records on Japan are from Chinese documents. One of those records said there were many small countries (in Japan) which had wars between them and later a country, ruled by a queen, became the strongest, unified others, and brought peace.

paragraphs: The Japanese began to write their own history after the 5th and 6th centuries, when people from Korea and China taught Japan about the Chinese writing system. Japan's neighbours also taught them Buddhism. The Japanese changed Buddhism in many ways. For example, Japanese Buddhists used ideas such as Zen more than other Buddhists.

paragraphs: Japan had some contact with the Europeans in the 16th century. The Portuguese were the first Europeans to visit Japan. Later, the Spanish and Dutch came to Japan to trade. Also, they brought Christianity. Japan's leaders welcomed them at first, but because Europeans had conquered many places in the world, the Japanese were scared they would conquer Japan too. So the Japanese did not let the Europeans come into Japan anymore, except in a small area in Nagasaki city. Many Christians were killed. Only the Chinese, Korean and Dutch people were allowed to visit Japan, in the end, and they were under careful control of the Japanese government. Japan was opened for visitors again in 1854 by Commodore Matthew Perry, when the Americans wanted to use Japanese ports for American whale boats. Perry brought steamships with guns, which scared the Japanese into making an agreement with him.

paragraphs: This new contact with Europeans and Americans changed the Japanese culture. The Meiji Restoration of 1868 stopped some old ways and added many new ones. The Empire of Japan was created, and it became a very powerful nation and tried to invade the countries next to it. It invaded and annexed Ryukyu Kingdom, Taiwan, and Korea. It had wars with China and Russia: the First Sino-Japanese War, the Boxer Rebellion, the Russo-Japanese War, and the Second Sino-Japanese War, which grew to become a part of World War II when Japan became allies with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy.

paragraphs: In 1941, Japan attacked Pearl Harbor in Hawaii, a water base of the United States, and destroyed or damaged many ships and airplanes. This started the United States' involvement in World War II. American and Japanese forces fought each other in the Pacific. Once airbases were established within range of the Japanese mainland, America began to win, and started dropping bombs on Japanese cities. America was able to bomb most of the important cities and quickly brought Japan close to defeat. To make Japan surrender, the United States dropped two atomic bombs on the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, killing 150,000 Japanese citizens. Soon after this the Soviet Union began to fight against Japan, and the Japanese army in Manchuria lost. Japan surrendered and gave up all the places it took from other countries, accepting the Potsdam Proclamation. The United States occupied Japan and forced it to write a new constitution, in which it promised to never go to war again.

paragraphs: Japan is a group of islands in the Western Pacific, off the coast of China. The four biggest islands are Honshu, Hokkaido, Shikoku, and Kyushu, and there are about 6,000 smaller islands there. Japan is separated from the Asian continent by the Sea of Japan and the East China Sea. Honshu, which means 'Mainland' in the Japanese language, is the biggest island. Hokkaido is the island north of Honshu. Kyushu is the island west of Honshu. Shikoku is the island to the south-west of Honshu.

paragraphs: In the middle of Japan there are mountains. They cover the middle of the islands and leave a very narrow strip of flat land on most coasts. Many of the mountains are extinct volcanoes, but some are still active. The highest of these mountains is the beautiful, volcano-shaped Mt Fuji (3,776 metres or 12,389 feet high). Japan has many earthquakes, in fact there are about 1500 of these every year. The biggest earthquake recorded in Japan was in 2011 - called '2011 Tohoku Earthquake'. It caused great damage to several power plants forcing Japan to shut down all its nuclear plants. There was nuclear core meltdown which caused a serious health risk to nearby villages and cities.

paragraphs: 90% of the people living in Japan live in just 10% of the land, near the coast. The other 10% of the people in Japan live away from the coast.

paragraphs: Over 10 cities have more than a million people in them. The biggest city in Japan is Tokyo, which is the capital.

paragraphs: The ruling party is the Liberal Democratic Party (Japan) and the prime minister is Yoshihide Suga. The legislature of Japan is called the National Diet.

paragraphs: In the past, the Japanese learned science by way of China or from Europe in the Meiji Era. However, in recent decades Japan has been a leading innovator in several fields, including chemical engineering, nanotechnology, and robotics. There are many technological companies in Japan, and these companies make products for export.

paragraphs: The robot Asimo was made and introduced in 2000. It was manufactured by Honda.

paragraphs: Many things in Japanese culture originated in China, like Go and bonsai.

paragraphs: Japan's traditional food is seafood, rice, miso soup, and vegetables. Noodles and tofu are also common. Sushi, a Japanese food made of cooked rice with vinegar with other ingredients such as raw fish, is popular around the world.

paragraphs: The religion in Japan is mostly Shinto and Buddhist. Due to the tolerant nature of the two main Japanese religions, and the resulting intermixing of the two, many Japanese identify as both Shinto and Buddhist at the same time. There are small numbers of Christians and Muslims, and a few Jews.

paragraphs: When it comes to popular culture, Japan is famous for making video games. Many of the biggest companies that make games, like Nintendo, Namco, and Sega, are Japanese. Other well-known parts of Japanese arts are comics, called manga, and digital animation, or anime. Many people get to know Japanese or how life in Japan is like by reading manga or watching anime on television.

paragraphs: The Ryukyuans and the Ainu both have their own separate cultures, languages and religion.

paragraphs: In Japan there are eight traditional regions:

paragraphs: Since Japan is an island nation, Japan has several problems over territory because maritime boundaries can be hard to protect. These days, Japan is competing for at least 4 different territories. It cannot agree with some neighbouring countries on whether the land belongs to Japan or the other country.

paragraphs: There are several important international airports in Japan. Narita is the major international airport in the Tokyo area. Kansai International Airport serves as the main airport for Osaka, Kobe, and Kyoto. Chūbu Centrair International Airport near Nagoya is the newest of the three. Haneda Airport is close to central Tokyo and is the largest domestic airport in the country.

paragraphs: The Shinkansen is one of the fastest trains in the world and connects cities in Honshu and Kyushu. Networks of public and private railways are almost all over the country. People mostly travel between cities in buses.

paragraphs: Modern Japan is divided into 47 prefectures. Before the Meiji period (1868-1912), the nation was divided into provinces which were consolidated in the prefectural system.

paragraphs: Japan has many traditional sports such as sumo, judo, karate, kyudo, aikido, iaido and kendo. Also, there are sports which were imported from the West such as baseball, soccer, rugby, golf and skiing.

paragraphs: Japan has taken part in the Olympic Games since 1912. It hosted the Olympic Games in 1964, 1972 and 1998. From 1912 until now, Japanese sportspeople have won 398 medals in total.

paragraphs: Professional sports are also popular and many sports such as baseball (see Pacific League and Central League), soccer (see List of Japanese football teams), sumo, American football, basketball and volleyball, are played professionally.


title: Jargon

paragraphs: Jargon is a special way to use words that are shared only by a certain group of people. They do not mean what the dictionary says they mean. They have different meanings to the people using them than their everyday meaning.

paragraphs: For example, the ordinary words "boot", "net", and "web" also have special meanings for users of computers, the Internet, and the World Wide Web. These, and to flame, to ping and many acronyms are part of net jargon.

paragraphs: An "acronym" means that only some of the letters in the word or phrase are used. Often this is the first letter of each word. Other acronyms found online are simply common shorthand.

paragraphs: Usually, more jargon is created over time.

paragraphs: Jargon is also common in the military. It includes phrases like SNAFU.

paragraphs: Jargon can be used by a clique to prevent others from joining or understanding, but it also is often just used because it is shorter.


title: Jupiter

paragraphs: Jupiter is the largest planet in the Solar System. It is the fifth planet from the Sun. Jupiter is a gas giant, both because it is so large and made up of gas. The other gas giants are Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune.

paragraphs: Jupiter has a mass of 1.8986×10 kg. (318 earths). This is twice the mass of all the other planets in the Solar System put together.

paragraphs: Jupiter can be seen even without the use of telescope. It was known to the ancient Romans, who named it after their god Jupiter (Latin: "Iuppiter"). Jupiter is the third brightest object in the night sky. Only the Earth's moon and Venus are brighter.

paragraphs: Jupiter has 79 moons. Of these, around 50 are very small and less than five kilometres wide. The four largest moons of Jupiter are Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto. They are called the Galilean moons, because Galileo Galilei discovered them. Ganymede is the largest moon in the Solar System. It is larger in diameter than Mercury. In 2018 another ten very small moons were discovered

paragraphs: Jupiter is the biggest planet in the Solar System with a diameter of 142,984 km. This is eleven times bigger than the diameter of Earth.

paragraphs: The atmosphere near the surface of Jupiter is made of about 88 to 92% hydrogen, 8 to 12% helium, and 1% other gases.

paragraphs: The lower atmosphere is so heated and the pressure so high that helium changes to liquid. It rains down onto the planet. Based on spectroscopy, Jupiter seems to be made of the same gases as Saturn. It is different from Neptune or Uranus. These two planets have much less hydrogen and helium gas.

paragraphs: The very high temperatures and pressures in Jupiter's core mean scientists cannot tell what materials would be there. This cannot be found out, because it is not possible to create the same amount of pressure on Earth.

paragraphs: Above the unknown inner core is an outer core. The outer core of Jupiter is thick, liquid hydrogen. The pressure is high enough to make the hydrogen solid, but then it melts because of the heat.

paragraphs: Jupiter is twice as massive as all the other planets in the Solar System put together. It gives off more heat than it gets from the sun.

paragraphs: Jupiter is 11 times the width of Earth and 318 times as massive. The volume of Jupiter is 1,317 times the volume of Earth. In other words, 1,317 Earth-sized objects could fit inside it.

paragraphs: Jupiter has many bands of clouds going horizontally across its surface. The light parts are zones and the darker are belts. The zones and belts often interact with each other. This causes huge storms. Wind speeds of 360 kilometres per hour (km/h) are common on Jupiter. To show the difference the strongest tropical storms on Earth are about 100 km/h.

paragraphs: Most of the clouds on Jupiter are made of ammonia. There may also be clouds of water vapour like clouds on Earth. Spacecrafts such as Voyager 1 have seen lightning on the surface of the planet. Scientists think it was water vapour because lightning needs water vapour. These lightning bolts have been measured as up 1,000 times as powerful as those on Earth.

paragraphs: The brown and orange colours are caused when sunlight passes through or refracts with the many gases in the atmosphere.

paragraphs: One of the biggest features in Jupiter's atmosphere is the Great Red Spot. It is a huge storm which is bigger than the entire Earth. It is on record since at least 1831, and as early as 1665. Images by the Hubble Space Telescope have shown as many as two smaller "red spots" right next to the Great Red Spot. Storms can last for hours or as long as hundreds of years in the case of the Great Red Spot.

paragraphs: Jupiter has a magnetic field like Earth's but 11 times stronger. It also has a "magnetosphere" much bigger and stronger than Earth's. The field traps radiation belts much stronger than Earth's Van Allen radiation belts, strong enough to endanger any spacecraft travelling past or to Jupiter. The magnetic field is probably caused by the large amounts of liquid metallic hydrogen in the core of Jupiter. The four largest moons of Jupiter and many of the smaller ones orbit or go around the planet within the magnetic field. This protects them from the solar wind. Jupiter's magnetic field is so large, it reaches the orbit of Saturn 7.7 million miles (12 million km) away. The Earth's magnetosphere does not even cover its moon, less than a quarter of a million miles (400,000 km) away.

paragraphs: Jupiter also has a thin planetary ring system. These rings are difficult to see and were not discovered until 1979 by NASA's Voyager 1 probe. There are four parts to Jupiter's rings. The closest ring to Jupiter is called the Halo Ring. The next ring is called the Main Ring. It is about wide and only thick. The Main and Halo rings of Jupiter are made of small, dark particles. The third and fourth rings, called the "Gossamer" Rings, are transparent (see through) and are made from microscopic debris and dust. This dust probably comes from small meteors striking the surface of Jupiter's moons. The third ring is called the Amalthea Gossamer Ring, named after moon Amalthea. The outer ring, the Thebe Gossamer Ring, is named after the moon Thebe. The outer edge of this ring is about from Jupiter.

paragraphs: The orbit of a planet is the time and path it takes to go around the Sun. In the amount of time it takes for Jupiter to orbit the Sun one time, the Earth orbits the Sun 11.86 times. One year on Jupiter is equal to 11.86 years on Earth. The average distance between Jupiter and the Sun is 778 million kilometres. This is five times the distance between Earth and the Sun. Jupiter is not tilted on its axis as much as Earth or Mars. This causes it to have no seasons, for example summer or winter. Jupiter rotates, or spins around very quickly. This causes the planet to bulge in the middle. Jupiter is the fastest spinning planet in the Solar System. It completes one rotation or spin in 10 hours. Because of the bulge, the length of the equator of Jupiter is much longer than the length from pole to pole.

paragraphs: Jupiter is the third brightest object in the night sky, after the Moon and Venus. Because of that, people have always been able to see it from Earth. The first person known to really study the planet was Galileo Galilei in 1610. He was the first person to see Jupiter's moons Io, Europa, Ganymede and Callisto. This was because he used a telescope, unlike anyone before him.

paragraphs: No new moons were discovered for more than two hundred years. In 1892, astronomer E.E Barnard found a new moon using his observatory in California. He called the moon Amalthea. It was the last of Jupiter's 67 moons to be discovered by human observation through a telescope.

paragraphs: In 1994, bits of the comet Shoemaker Levy-9 hit Jupiter. It was the first time people saw a collision between two Solar System objects.

paragraphs: Seven spacecraft have flown past Jupiter since 1973. These were Pioneer 10 (1973), Pioneer 11 (1974), Voyagers 1 and 2 (1979), Ulysses (1992 and 2004), Cassini (2000) and New Horizons (2007).

paragraphs: The Pioneer missions were the first spacecraft to take close up pictures of Jupiter and its moons. Five years later, the two Voyager spacecraft discovered over 20 new moons. They captured photo evidence of lightning on the night side of Jupiter.

paragraphs: The Ulysses probe was sent to study the Sun. It only went to Jupiter after it had finished its main mission. Ulysses had no cameras so it took no photographs.

paragraphs: In 2006, the Cassini spacecraft, on its way to Saturn, took some very good, very clear pictures of the planet. Cassini also found a moon and took a picture of it but it was too far away to show the details.

paragraphs: The Galileo mission in 1995 was the first spacecraft to go into orbit around Jupiter. It flew around the planet for seven years and studied the four biggest moons. It launched a probe into the planet to get information about Jupiter's atmosphere. The probe travelled to a depth of about 150 km before it was crushed by the weight of all the gas above it. This is called pressure. The Galileo spacecraft was also crushed in 2003 when NASA steered the craft into the planet. They did this so that the craft could not crash into Europa, a moon which scientists think might have life.

paragraphs: NASA have sent another spacecraft to Jupiter called Juno. It was launched on August 5, 2011 and arrived at Jupiter on July 4, 2016. NASA published some results from the Juno mission in March 2018. Several other missions have been planned to send spacecraft to Jupiter's moons Europa and Callisto. One called JIMO (Jupiter Icy Moons Orbiter) was cancelled in 2006 because it cost too much money.

paragraphs: Jupiter has 79 known moons. The four largest were seen by Galileo with his primitive telescope, and nine more can be seen from Earth with modern telescopes. The rest of the moons have been identified by spacecraft. The smallest moon (S/2003 J 12) is only one kilometre across. The largest, Ganymede, has a diameter of 5,262 kilometres. It is bigger than the planet Mercury. The other three Galilean moons are Io, Europa and Callisto. Because of the way they orbit Jupiter, gravity affects three of these moons greatly. The friction caused by the gravity of Europa and Ganymede pulling on Io makes it the most volcanic object in the Solar System. It has over 400 volcanoes, more than three times as many as Earth.

paragraphs: Jupiter's large gravity has had an effect on the Solar System. Jupiter protects the inner planets from comets by pulling them towards itself. Because of this, Jupiter has the most comet impacts in the Solar System.

paragraphs: Two groups of asteroids, called Trojan asteroids, have settled into Jupiter's orbit round the Sun. One group is called the "Trojans" and the other group is called the "Greeks". They go around the Sun at the same time as Jupiter.


title: King

paragraphs: A king is a man who rules a country, because of inheritance. A king usually comes to power when the previous monarch dies, who is usually a family member of his. Sometimes a person may become king due to the previous monarch's abdication, for example George VI. For most of history, most countries were ruled in this way, especially in Europe. Some countries, such as France, are no longer monarchies. Some, such as the United Kingdom, still have a royal family. In some countries, people chose a new king from other people to decide from.

paragraphs: The wife of a king is called a queen. A woman who becomes a ruler because of inheritance is also called a queen.

paragraphs: If a country has a king or a queen, that means it is a monarchy. A country which a king or queen rules is called a kingdom.


title: Knowledge

paragraphs: Knowledge means the things which are true, as opposed to opinion. Information which is correct is knowledge. Knowledge can always be supported by evidence. If a statement is not supported by evidence, then it is not knowledge. The evidence makes it justified; .

paragraphs: Knowledge can refer to a theoretical or practical understanding of a subject. This was the point of Ryle's distinction between "knowing that" and "knowing how". It can be implicit (as with practical skill or expertise) or explicit (as with the theoretical understanding of a subject); it can be more or less formal or systematic. In philosophy, the study of knowledge is called epistemology. The philosopher Plato defined knowledge as "justified true belief". This definition is the subject of the Gettier problems.

paragraphs: All knowledge is a claim to be true, but the claim can be incorrect. The only claims (propositions) which are certainly true are circular, based on how we use words or terms. We can correctly claim that there are 360 degrees in a circle, since that is part of how circles are defined. The point of Aristotle's syllogism was to show that this kind of reasoning had a machine-like form:

paragraphs: But actually, in the real world, not all swans are white.

paragraphs: The most widely accepted way to find reliable knowledge is the scientific method. Yet one thing all philosophers of science agree is that scientific knowledge is just the best we can do at any one time. All scientific knowledge is provisional, not a claim of absolute truth.

paragraphs: Knowledge in religion is different in that it depends on faith, belief and the authority of religious leaders, not on evidence of a scientific or legal kind. There are differing views on whether religious statements should be regarded as knowledge.

paragraphs: In many expressions of Christianity, such as Catholicism and Anglicanism, knowledge is one of the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit.

paragraphs: In the Garden of Eden knowledge is the factor that made humans greedy and treacherous. But in the Book of Proverbs it states: 'to be wise you must first obey the LORD' (9:10).

paragraphs: In Islam, knowledge has great significance. "The All-Knowing" ("al-ʿAlīm") is one of the Names of God, reflecting distinct properties of God in Islam. The Qur'an asserts that knowledge comes from God () and various "hadith" encourage getting knowledge. Muhammad is reported to have said "Seek knowledge from the cradle to the grave" and "Verily the men of knowledge are the inheritors of the prophets". Islamic scholars, theologians and jurists are often given the title "alim", meaning 'knowledgeable'.


title: Kauai

paragraphs: Kauai (Kaua'i in Hawaiian) is the oldest and fourth largest of the main Hawaiian Islands, in the United States. Known also as the "Garden Isle", Kaua'i lies 105 miles (170 kilometers) across the Kaua'i Channel, northwest of Honolulu on O'ahu. It is of volcanic origin. The highest point is Mount Waialeale, at the center of the island, 5,148 feet (1,570 meters) above sea level. The wettest spot on Earth, with average rainfall of 460 inches (11,648 millimeters) a year, is just east of Mount Waialeale. The high yearly rainfall has eroded deep valleys in the central mountain. It has made canyons with many scenic waterfalls.

paragraphs: The city of Lihue, on the island's southeast side, is the seat of Kauai County. It is the main city on the island. Waimea, on the island's southwest side and once the capital of Kauai, was the first place visited by explorer Captain James Cook in 1778. The city is at the head of one of the most beautiful canyons in the world, Waimea Canyon, whose gorge is 900 meters (3,000 feet) deep.

paragraphs: The island of Kauai was featured in Disney's 2002 animated feature film "Lilo & Stitch".


title: Kahoolawe

paragraphs: Kahoolawe is the smallest of the eight main volcanic islands of Hawaii. It is west of Maui and south of Lanai. It is roughly 11 miles long by across (). The highest point, Lua Makika, is above sea level. The island is dry because its low elevation does not cause much rain (orographic precipitation) to fall from the northeastern trade winds.

paragraphs: Kahoolawe was used as a gunfire and bombing target by the United States military during World War II. It was a defense training area by the United States Navy from around 1941 until May 1994. Popular opinion in the state against this practice brought the end to this use. Navy has since been trying to cleanup unexploded ordnance (bombs and explosive shells) from the island. Ordnance is still buried or lying on the ground. Other items have washed down gullies and still other unexploded ordnance is underwater offshore. In 1981, the entire island was included on the National Register of Historic Places.

paragraphs: The island is planned to be given back to the Hawaiian people. In 1993, the U.S. Congress passed a law that "recognized the cultural importance of the island, required the Navy to return the island to the State, and directed the Navy to do an unexploded ordnance (UXO) cleanup and environmental restoration" . The turnover officially occurred on November 11, 2003, but the cleanup has not yet been completed. The U.S. Navy was given $400 million and 10 years to complete the large cleanup task, but this work has gone much slower than planned.

paragraphs: In 1993, the Hawaii State Legislature established the Kahoolawe Island Reserve. It is made up of the whole island and waters out to from shore. By State Law, Kahoolawe and its waters can only be used for Native Hawaiian cultural, spiritual, and subsistence purposes; fishing; environmental restoration; historic preservation; and education. Commercial uses are not allowed. The Legislature also created the Kahoolawe Island Reserve Commission (KIRC) to manage the Reserve while it is held in trust for a "future Native Hawaiian Sovereignty entity" .

paragraphs: After the cleanup is finished, the restoration of Kahoolawe will need ways to control erosion, restore the plant life, recharge the water table, and slowly replace alien plants with native ones. Plans will include methods for damming gullies and reducing rainwater runoff. Non-natives will temporarily stabilize some areas before the permanent planting of native plants.


title: Killing

paragraphs: Killing a living thing is when someone or something ends that life and makes the living thing die. It means causing a death. When a human being kills another human being, it is called murder or homicide, such as manslaughter.

paragraphs: Pesticides and herbicides are poisons for killing bad wild small animals or plants, respectively.

paragraphs: When a soldier kills another in war, it is called "combat". When the state kills a convict sentenced to capital punishment, it is called execution. When someone kills a powerful person it is called assassination. When a person who wants to die kills himself it is suicide, or euthanasia if killed by another. When people kill other people to eat them, it is called cannibalism.


title: Kilometre

paragraphs: The kilometre is a common unit used for longer distances on Earth. The international unit for measuring distances is the metre and a kilometre is 1000 metres. It is used in some countries for measuring road and sea distances. In the UK and the USA, the mile is used more than kilometres for road distances and the nautical mile for sea distances.

paragraphs: It is often used to measure the speed of cars, planes and boats by saying how many kilometres it can travel in an hour. This is shown as km/h.

paragraphs: It is also spelled kilometer. This spelling is used in American English.

paragraphs: One kilometre is 0.6214 miles (3280.84 feet). This means that one mile is 1.6093 kilometres.

paragraphs: One kilometre is the approximate distance a healthy adult human being can walk in ten minutes.


title: Language

paragraphs: Language is the normal way humans communicate. Only humans use language, though other animals communicate through other means.

paragraphs: Human language has syntax, a set of rules for connecting words together to make statements and questions. Language can also be changed, by adding new words, for example, to describe new things. Other animals may inherit a set of calls which have pre-set functions.

paragraphs: Language may be done by speech or by writing or by moving the hands to make signs. It follows that language is "not" just any way of communicating. Even some human communication is not language: see non-verbal communication. Humans also use language for thinking.

paragraphs: When people use the word "language", they can also mean:

paragraphs: UNESCO says that 2,500 languages are at risk of becoming extinct.

paragraphs: All languages share certain things which separate them from all other kinds of communication.

paragraphs: There are many more things in common between languages.

paragraphs: The capacity to learn and use language is inherited. Normally, all humans are born with this capability. "Which" language is learned by a child depends on which language is spoken by the child's community. The "capacity" is inherited, but the particular language is learned.

paragraphs: Children have a special period, from about 18 months to about four years, which is critical for learning the language. If this is seriously disrupted, then their language skills will be damaged. Older people learn differently, so they seldom learn a second language as well as they learn their native language.

paragraphs: Mathematics and computer science use created languages called formal languages (like computer programming languages), but these may or may not be 'true' languages. Mathematics itself is seen as a language by many. Some people consider musical notation to be a way of writing the musical language.

paragraphs: Chinese is the language with the most native speakers in the world, but Chinese is not really a language. It is a close family of dialects, some of which are as different as Romance languages are from one another.

paragraphs: English is often called "the international language", or lingua franca. It is the main second language of the world and the international language of science, travel, technology, business, diplomacy, and entertainment. French had a similar status until the 20th century, and other languages had it at other times.

paragraphs: Some languages are made up so that a lot of people around the world can learn them, without the new languages being tied to any specific country or place. These are called constructed languages. One of the most popular of these languages is Esperanto, which is sometimes called "La Internacia Lingvo," or "The International Language." Another of these languages is called Volapük, which was popular about a hundred years ago but is much less popular now. It has mostly been replaced by languages like Esperanto, Interlingua, and Ido.

paragraphs: Part of the reason that Volapük became unpopular is that some sounds are hard to say for people who speak Spanish or English, two of the most widely spoken languages in the world.


title: Leisure

paragraphs: Leisure (or free time) is when a person can choose what to do. During a person's leisure time, they do not have an obligation to be at school or work at a job. During leisure time, people can do fun activities, family activities, or other non-work activity, such as hobbies.

paragraphs: Common forms of recreation or leisure are:

paragraphs: A vacation or holiday is the setting aside of time specifically for leisure. During their vacation, some people travel to a different region or country, and stay at a hotel so that they can do things they could not do near home. Other people prefer to spend their vacation time at home in their own community.

paragraphs: In rich industrialized countries such as the US and Canada, as well as in most European countries, workers are allowed to stay home on the weekend (usually Saturday and Sunday), and use it as leisure time. People in poorer developing countries usually have less leisure time, as they have to work longer hours and more days per year.


title: Live

paragraphs: Live can be a verb. It rhymes with "give". "To live" means "to be alive" (and not dead). If you live, then you have life.

paragraphs: Live can be an adjective. It rhymes with "five".


title: Life

paragraphs: Life is a biological concept regarding the characteristics, state, or mode that separates a living thing from dead matter.

paragraphs: The word itself may refer to a living being or ongoing processes of which living things are a part of. It may also refer to the period during which something is functional (as between birth and death), the condition of an entity that has been born but yet has to die or that which makes a living thing alive.

paragraphs: The study of life is called biology, and people who study life are called biologists. A lifespan is the average length of life in a species. Most life on Earth is powered by solar energy, the only known exceptions being the chemosynthetic bacteria living around the hydrothermal vents on the ocean floor. All life on Earth is based on the chemistry of carbon compounds, specifically involving long-chain molecules such as proteins and nucleic acid. With water, which is essential, the long molecules are wrapped inside membranes to form cells. This may or may not be true of all possible forms of life in the Universe: it is true of all life on Earth today.

paragraphs: Living organisms can be explained as open systems. They are always changing, because they exchange materials and information with their environment. They undergo metabolism, maintain homeostasis, possess a capacity to grow, respond to stimuli and reproduce.

paragraphs: Through natural selection, they adapt to their environment in successive generations. More complex living organisms can communicate through various means. Many life forms can be found on Earth. The properties common to these organisms—plants, animals, fungi, protists, archaea, and bacteria—are a carbon and water-based cellular form with complex organization and heritable genetic information.

paragraphs: At present, the Earth is the only planet humans have detailed information about. The question of whether life exists elsewhere in the Universe is open. There have been a number of claims of life elsewhere in the Universe. None of these have been confirmed so far. The best evidence of life outside of Earth is are nucleic acids that have been found in certain types of meteorites.

paragraphs: One explanation of life is called the cell theory. The cell theory has three basic points: all living things are made up of cells. The cell is the smallest living thing that can do all the things needed for life. All cells must come from pre-existing cells.

paragraphs: Something is often said to be alive if it:

paragraphs: However, not all living things fit every point on this list.

paragraphs: They do, however, fit the biochemical definitions: they are made of the same kind of chemicals.

paragraphs: The thermodynamic definition of life is any system which can keep its entropy levels below maximum (usually through adaptation and mutations).

paragraphs: A modern definition was given by Humberto Maturana and Francisco Varela in 1980, to which they gave the name "autopoiesis":

paragraphs: Roth commented that "In short, organisms are self-reproducing and self-maintaining, or 'autopoietic', systems". This approach makes use of molecular biology ideas and systems science ideas.


title: Law

paragraphs: Law is a set of rules decided by a particular state meant for the purpose of keeping the peace and security of society.

paragraphs: Courts or police may enforce this system of rules and punish people who break the laws, such as by paying a fine, or other penalty including jail. In ancient societies, laws were written by leaders, to set out rules on how people can live, work and do business with each other. But many times in history when laws have been on a false basis to benefit few at the expense of society, they have resulted in conflict. To prevent this, in most countries today, laws are written and voted on by groups of politicians in a legislature, such as a parliament or congress, elected (chosen) by the governed peoples. Countries today have a constitution for the overall framework of society and make further laws as needed for matters of detail. Members of society generally have enough freedom within all the "legal" things they can choose to do. An activity is "illegal" if it breaks a law or does not follow the laws.

paragraphs: A legal code is a written code of laws that are enforced. This may deal with things like police, courts, or punishments. A lawyer, jurist or attorney is a professional who studies and argues the rules of law. In the United States, there are two kinds of attorneys - "transcriptional" attorneys who write contracts and "litigators" who go to court. In the United Kingdom, these professionals are called solicitors and barristers respectively.

paragraphs: The "Rule of Law" is the law which says that government can only legally use its power in a way the government and the people agree on. It limits the powers a government has, as agreed in a country's constitution. The "Rule of Law" prevents dictatorship and protects the rights of the people. When leaders enforce the legal code honestly, even on themselves and their friends, this is an example of the rule of law being followed. "The rule of law", wrote the ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle in 350 BC, "is better than the rule of any individual."

paragraphs: Culture is usually a major source of the principles behind many laws, and people also tend to trust the ideas based on family and social habits. In many countries throughout history, religion and religious books like the Vedas, Bible or the Koran have been a major source of law.

paragraphs: Civil law is the legal system used in most countries around the world today. Civil law is based on legislation that is found in constitutions or statutes passed by government. The secondary part of civil law is the legal approaches that are part of custom. In civil law governments, judges do not generally have much power, and most of the laws and legal precedent are created by Members of Parliament.

paragraphs: Common law is based on the decisions made by judges in past court cases. It comes from England and it became part of almost every country that once belonged to the British Empire, except Malta, Scotland, the U.S. state of Louisiana, and the Canadian province of Quebec. It is also the predominant form of law in the United States, where many laws called statutes are written by Congress, but many more legal rules exist from the decisions of the courts. Common law had its beginnings in the Middle Ages, when King John was forced by his barons to sign a document called the Magna Carta.

paragraphs: Religious law is law based on religious beliefs or books. Examples include the Jewish Halakha, Islamic Sharia, and Christian Canon law.

paragraphs: Until the 1700s, Sharia law was the main legal system throughout the Muslim world. In some Muslim countries such as Saudi Arabia and Iran, the whole legal systems still base their law on Sharia law. Islamic law is often criticised because it often has harsh penalties for crimes. A serious criticism is the judgement of the European Court that "sharia is incompatible with the fundamental principles of democracy".

paragraphs: The Turkish Refah Party's sharia-based "plurality of legal systems, grounded on religion" was ruled to contravene the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms. The Court decided Refah's plan would "do away with the State's role as the guarantor of individual rights and freedoms" and "infringe the principle of non-discrimination between individuals as regards their enjoyment of public freedoms, which is one of the fundamental principles of democracy".

paragraphs: The history of law is closely connected to the development of human civilizations. Ancient Egyptian law developed in 3000 BC. In 1760 BC King Hammurabi, took ancient Babylonian law and organized it, and had it chiseled in stone for the public to see in the marketplace. These laws became known as the Code of Hammurabi.

paragraphs: The Torah from the Old Testament is an old body of law. It was written around 1280 BC. It has moral rules such as the Ten Commandments, which tell people what things are not permitted. Sometimes people try to change the law. For example, if prostitution is illegal, they try to make it legal.

paragraphs: In democracies, the people in a country usually choose people called politicians to represent them in a legislature. Examples of legislatures include the Houses of Parliament in London, the Congress in Washington, D.C., the Bundestag in Berlin, the Duma in Moscow and the Assemblée nationale in Paris. Most legislatures have two chambers or houses, a 'lower house' and an 'upper house'. To pass legislation, a majority of Members of Parliament must vote for a bill in each house. The legislature is the branch of government that writes laws, and votes on whether they will be approved.

paragraphs: The judiciary is a group of judges who resolve people's disputes and determine whether people who are charged with crimes are guilty. In some jurisdictions the judge does not find guilt or innocence but instead directs a jury, how to interpret facts from a legal perspective, but the jury determines the facts based on evidence presented to them and finds the guilt or innocences of the charged person. Most countries of common law and civil law systems have a system of appeals courts, up to a supreme authority such as the Supreme Court or the High Court. The highest courts usually have the power to remove laws that are unconstitutional (which go against the constitution).

paragraphs: The executive is the governing center of political authority. In most democratic countries, the executive is elected from people who are in the legislature. This group of elected people is called the cabinet. In France, the US and Russia, the executive branch has a President which exists separately from the legislature.

paragraphs: The executive suggests new laws and deals with other countries. As well, the executive usually controls the military, the police, and the bureaucracy. The executive selects ministers, or secretaries of state to control departments such as the health department or the department of justice.

paragraphs: In many jurisdictions the Head of State does not take part in the day-to-day governance of the jurisdiction and takes a largely ceremonial role. This is the case in many Commonwealth nations where the Head of State, usually a Governor almost exclusively acts "on the advice" of the head of the Executive (e.g. the Prime Minister, First Minister or Premier). The primary legal role of the Head of State in these jurisdictions is to act as a check or balance against the Executive, as the Head of State has the rarely exercised power to dissolve the legislature, call elections and dismiss ministers.

paragraphs: The police enforce the criminal laws by arresting people suspected of breaking the law. Bureaucrats are the government workers and government organizations that do work for the government. Bureaucrats work within a system of rules, and they make their decisions in writing.

paragraphs: Lawyers are people who have learned about laws. Lawyers give people advice about their legal rights and duties and represent people in court. To become a lawyer, a person has to complete a two- or three-year university program at a law school and pass an entrance examination. Lawyers work in law firms, for the government, for companies, or by themselves.

paragraphs: Civil society is the people and groups that are not part of government that try to protect people against human rights abuses and try to protect freedom of speech and other individual rights. Organizations that are part of civil society include political parties, debating clubs, trade unions, human rights organizations, newspapers and charities.

paragraphs: "Corporations are among the organizations that use the legal system to further their goals. Like the others, they use means such as campaign donations and advertising to persuade people that they are right. Corporations also engage in commerce and make new things such as automobiles, vaporisers/e-cigarettes, and Unmanned aerial vehicles (i.e. "drones") that the old laws are not well equipped to deal with. Corporations also makes use of a set of rules and regulations to ensure their employees remain loyal to them (usually presented in a legal contract), and that any disobedience towards these rules are considered uncivilized and therefore given grounds for immediate dismissal.


title: L. L. Zamenhof

paragraphs: Ludwik Lejzer Zamenhof (; , ; – ), credited as L. L. Zamenhof and sometimes as the pseudonymous Dr. Esperanto, was an eye doctor, linguist (who creates a language), and scholar who created the international language Esperanto.

paragraphs: Zamenhof was born in 1859 in the town of Białystok, Poland. At the time, Poland was a part of the Russian Empire. Bialystok contained three major groups: Poles, Belorussians, and Yiddish-speaking Jews. Zamenhof thought that one common language would join these groups and stop fights between them.

paragraphs: His first language was said to be Polish. His parents spoke Russian and Yiddish at home. His father was a German teacher, so Zamenhof learned that language from an early age and spoke the language fluently. Later he learned French, Latin, Greek, Hebrew and English. He also had an interest in Italian, Spanish and Lithuanian.

paragraphs: Zamenhof decided that the international language must have a simple grammar and be easier to learn than Volapük, an earlier international language. He attempted to create the international language with a grammar that was rich, and complex. The basics of Esperanto were published in 1887.

paragraphs: His grandson, Louis-Christophe Zaleski-Zamenhof, was an engineer.

paragraphs: He was 14 times nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize between 1907 and 1917.


title: Provinces and territories of Canada

paragraphs: Canada, a country and sovereign state in the northern part of North America, is made up of thirteen administrative divisions: ten provinces and three territories. The different levels of government in Canada are based on the principles of a federation: those of each of the provinces and territories share power with the federal government. The territories' governments have a more limited set of powers versus the federal government than that of the provinces'.

paragraphs: The provinces are in the south of Canada, near the border with the United States. They go from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west. The territories are to the north, where fewer people live, close to the Arctic Circle and Arctic Ocean.

paragraphs: Here is a list of the provinces and territories, and their standard abbreviations, with their capitals (the cities where their governments are based) and largest cities. Canada's national capital, where the federal government meets, is Ottawa.


title: Las Vegas

paragraphs: Las Vegas is a city in the American state of Nevada. There were 640,932 people living in the city in 2015, and more than 2,000,000 people living in the metropolitan area. It is the largest city in Nevada. Las Vegas is also the county seat of Clark County. Carolyn Goodman became the mayor in 2011.Las Vegas and Las Vegans are often stereotypically characterized as fun-loving.

paragraphs: Las Vegas leans to the left. 3 of the 4 congressional districts in Nevada include parts of Las Vegas, and all three congresspeople representing those districts are a.) from Las Vegas and b.) Democrats.

paragraphs: Native Americans, the Paiute tribe, first lived there. It was called "Las Vegas" by the Spanish. The name means "The Meadows" in the Spanish language. They had a lot of these in 1854. The city is known for its dry weather, as is the rest of southern Nevada. It is surrounded by deserts.

paragraphs: The US Army built Fort Baker there in 1864. Las Vegas has springs so people used to stop there for water when they were going to Los Angeles or other places in California.

paragraphs: In 1905, 110 acres owned by William A. Clark, on which he built a railroad to Southern California were auctioned and Las Vegas was founded as a railroad town. Las Vegas officially became a city in 1911.


title: Lanai

paragraphs: Lanai (or Lānaʻi) is sixth largest of the Hawaiian Islands, in the United States. It is also known as the "Pineapple Island". The island is almost a circle in shape and is 18 miles wide in the longest direction. The land area is 140 sq. miles (367 km). It is separated from the island of Moloka'i by the Kalohi Channel to the north.

paragraphs: Lana'i was first seen by Europeans on 25 February 1779 by Captain Clerke, with "HMS Resolution" on the James Cook Pacific Ocean trip. Clerke took command of the ship after Capt. Cook was killed at Kealakekua Bay on February 14, and was leaving the islands for the North Pacific.

paragraphs: In 1922, Jim Dole, the president of Dole Pineapple Company, bought the island of Lana'i. He made a large part of it into the world's largest pineapple plantation.

paragraphs: Tourism on Lana'i started not long ago. That was when the growing of pineapple was slowly coming to an end in the Islands. On Lana'i, you can be with nature and feel the mood of the Hawaiian countryside. Not like nearby O'ahu, the only town (Lana'i City) is small. It has no traffic or shopping centers. Tourists come mainly to relax.

paragraphs: There are three hotels on Lana'i and several golf courses.


title: Leap year

paragraphs: A leap year is a year in which an extra day is added to the Gregorian calendar, which is used by most of the world. While an ordinary year has 365 days, a leap year has 366 days. The extra day, February 29, is added to the month of February. In an ordinary year, February has 28 days, but in a leap year, it has 29 days. The extra day, called a leap day, is the same day of the week as the first day of the month, February 1. Also, in a leap year, the months of January, April, and July all start on the same day of the week.

paragraphs: A leap year comes once every four years. Because of this, a leap year can always be evenly divided by four. For example, 2020 (this year) is a leap year. But a year is a common year if it can be evenly divided by 100 but not by 400. This is why 1600, 2000, and 2400 are leap years, but 1700, 1800, and 1900 are common years.

paragraphs: We have leap years because instead of 365 days, the Earth really takes a few minutes less than 365-1/4 days (365.24219) to go completely around the Sun. Without leap years, the seasons would start one day earlier on the calendar every four years. After 360 years, spring in the Northern Hemisphere and autumn in the Southern Hemisphere (which usually begins on March 21) would begin on December 21 (which is when winter in the Northern Hemisphere and summer in the Southern Hemisphere presently begins).

paragraphs: A number of countries use a lunar calendar (based on the Moon, instead of the Sun, like our solar calendar is). They have leap years when they add an extra lunar month. Different calendars add the extra month in different ways. So a year which has 366 days instead of 365 days where the month of February has 29 days is called a leap year.


title: Leather

paragraphs: Leather is the skin of an animal made into a durable material by tanning. The skins of cows, pigs, and goats are often used to make leather. Skins of snakes, alligators or crocodiles, and ostriches are sometimes used to make fancier leather. Shoes, bags, clothes, and balls are often made of leather. Sometimes people make leather out of whales, ducks, giraffes, and African elephants, but all of these ways of making leather are very simple but can also be very hard and rare sometimes.

paragraphs: The way leather is made is divided into three processes. They are preparing the leather, tanning it, and crusting.

paragraphs: In preparing the leather, many things are done to make it ready for tanning. They include soaking it, removing the hair, liming, deliming, bating, bleaching, and pickling.

paragraphs: Tanning is a process that makes the proteins, especially collagen, in the raw hide stable. It increases the thermal and chemical stability of the animal skins. The difference between fresh and tanned animal skin is that fresh animal skin dries to make it hard and stiff. When water is added to it, it becomes bad. But, animal skin that is tanned dries to make it flexible. It does not become bad when water is added to it.

paragraphs: Crusting is a process that makes the leather thin and lubricates it. Chemicals added when crusting must be set in place. Crusting ends with drying and making the leather soft. It may include splitting, shaving, dyeing, whitening or other methods.

paragraphs: Today, most leather is made from the skin of cattle, which makes up about 65% of all the leather made. Other animals that are used include sheep (about 13%), goats (about 11%), and pigs (about 10%).

paragraphs: Horse skin is used to make strong leather. Lamb and deerskin are used for soft leather. It is used in work gloves and indoor shoes.

paragraphs: Kangaroo leather is used to make things that must be strong and flexible. It is used in bullwhips.

paragraphs: In Thailand, stingray leather is used in wallets and belts. Stingray leather is tough and durable.


title: License

paragraphs: A license (or licence) allows someone to do something that they otherwise are not allowed to do. A person usually has to pay some money, and maybe pass a test to get a license. A license is usually written but it does not have to be. Most kinds of licenses can only be used by the person they were given to. Licenses may be temporary or permanent. Some licenses can not be taken away once they are given. A person with a license is called a licensee.

paragraphs: For example, John has a license to sell vegetables in the market for 10 years from 2010 to 2020. John grants an exclusive license to Jane to sell vegetables for 4 years from 2012 to 2016. Here, John will be referred as "licensor" and Jane will be referred as "licensee".

paragraphs: In many countries, if a person tries to do something without the correct license to do it, he might have to pay a fine or go to prison.

paragraphs: There are many different types of licenses.

paragraphs: The laws of most countries say that people are only allowed to drive cars if they have a driver's license. If a person does not have a license, they may have to pay a fine if they are caught by the police. In many countries, a person must take a test and pay money to get a license. The test would check that they know the road rules, and have the skill to drive a car.

paragraphs: Other licenses give permission to shoot animals (often called a hunting license). The hunting license usually says when a person may hunt. A hunter may have to pass a test to show that he understands the rules about hunting.

paragraphs: In the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland, if someone has a television set, they must buy a "television licence" every year.

paragraphs: Copyright is a law that gives the owner of a creative work the right to decide what other people can do with it. A person or a company can give a license to a copyright that they own. So in order for another person to use an owner's copyright they need permission from the owner. For example, when someone buys computer software, they also need a license from the creator of the software (a copyright owner) allowing the buyer to use the software.

paragraphs: "License" is a verb and "licence" is a noun. "Licensing sessions" were the meetings of magistrates which decided about giving licences to sell alcohol.

paragraphs: In American English there is no difference in spelling between the verb "to license" meaning to give permission, and the noun "a license" meaning the permission to do something.

paragraphs: A degree in medicine is a qualification showing a person has successfully studied medicine. It is awarded for life. A licence to practice medicine is a legal permission to do so within the territory covered by the licensing authority. The licence may be taken away under certain situations.


title: Link

paragraphs: A link, also hyperlink in computing, is a part of a chain. A chain is made of many pieces of metal; each piece is a link.

paragraphs: Today, people also use the word link in a new way. The World Wide Web on the Internet is made of many different Web pages. The computer software that people use to make these pages (HTML) lets us go to other pages in a very fast and easy way.

paragraphs: The person who makes the web page can tell the computer to show a word or a picture on the Web page as a link. This means that when we click on the link with our computer mouse, the computer will show us the new page we want to see. Most links are blue, but they can be any color.

paragraphs: The color of the link will change to dark blue when clicked as the web browser recognises it in the browser's cache. Unless the cache is cleared, the link will always stay dark blue.

paragraphs: There are many ways in making a link on a web page. The process is different for different internet software.

paragraphs: In .htm and .html files, a link can be created using this code:

paragraphs: WikiSyntax like MediaWiki uses a simpler way of making links. To create a link to another page of the same website:

paragraphs: <nowiki>Link text</nowiki> or just <nowiki>Page name</nowiki>.

paragraphs: <nowiki>Link text</nowiki>, <nowiki></nowiki>, or just <nowiki>http://www.example.com</nowiki>.

paragraphs: BB code is used in forum software. To create a link:

paragraphs: <nowiki>[url]http://www.example.com[/url]</nowiki>, or <nowiki>[url=http://www.example.com]Link text[/url]</nowiki>


title: Library

paragraphs: A library is a place where many books are kept. Most libraries are public and let people take the books to use in their home. Most libraries let people borrow books for several weeks. Some belong to institutions, for example, companies, churches, schools, and universities. Also a person's bookshelves at home can have many books and be a library. The people who work in libraries are librarians. Librarians are people who take care of the library.

paragraphs: Other libraries keep famous or rare books. There are a few "Copyright libraries" which have a copy of every book which has been written in that country. Some libraries also have other things that people might like, such as magazines, music on CDs, or computers where people can use the Internet. In school they offer software to learn the alphabet and other details.With the spread of literacy, libraries have become essential tools for learning. Libraries are very important for the progress and development of a society.Libraries are collections of books and other informational materials. People come to libraries for reading, study or reference. Libraries contain a variety of materials. They contain printed materials, films, sound and video recordings, maps, photographs, computer software, online databases, and other media.

paragraphs: A library is not a bookstore (a store that sells books).

paragraphs: The prime purpose of a library is to provide access to knowledge and information. To fulfil this mission, libraries preserve a valuable record of culture. Then they pass down this to the coming generations. Therefore, they are an essential link between the past, present and future.

paragraphs: People use libraries to work. They also use library resources to learn about personal interests. Sometimes, they get recreational media such as films and music. Students use libraries to study.

paragraphs: Libraries help the students to develop good reading and study habits. Public officials use libraries for research and public issues. The libraries provide information and services that are essential for learning and progress.

paragraphs: Many places have a public library, where anybody can join if they live in the area. With a library card, people can borrow books and take them home for several weeks. It does not cost money to get a library card at most public libraries.

paragraphs: Books are kept on shelves in a special order so they are easy to find. Public libraries have lot of books on various topics including story books and many others. Many public libraries have books and CDs about learning English. Stories are kept in alphabetical order by the last name of the person who wrote them, the author. Books about other things are often given a special number, that refers to what they are about. They are then put on the shelf in number order. One number system used by many libraries is the Dewey decimal system.

paragraphs: Many colleges and universities have large academic libraries. These libraries are for the use of college students, professors, and researchers. Academic libraries are used mainly for doing research like studying the solar system or how earthquakes happen. These libraries do not have the same types of books you would find in a public library. They usually do not have fiction books or books for children (unless they are being studied). Academic libraries can have many books, sometimes more than a million.

paragraphs: Special libraries are those libraries that are not public libraries or academic libraries. They are usually small. Many times a special library holds books on a particular subject or even a special kind of book. Some special libraries keep just old books or books by Shakespeare. A special library can be owned by a business for use only by that business. For example, Disney World in Orlando has its own library that is not open to the public but for the use of the people who work for the company.

paragraphs: A librarian is a person who works in a library. Librarians help people find books and information. They can teach people how to find books and use the library. A professional librarian is a person who went to school to study library science. They can earn a degree called a Masters in Library Science.

paragraphs: The earliest known library was discovered in Iraq and belonged to the ancient civilization in Sumer. They didn't use paper books but instead wrote everything on clay tablets using a style of writing called cuneiform. These tablets are over 5,000 years old. The Library of Alexandria, in Egypt, was the largest and most important library of the ancient world. It was destroyed when the Romans conquered Egypt in 30 BC. Rome’s first public library was established by Asinius Pollio who was a lieutenant of Julius Caesar. Eventually Rome would build 28 public libraries within the city. When the Roman Empire fell in 330 AD, many books went east to the city of Byzantium where a large library was built. Other libraries were built in monasteries and public homes.

paragraphs: Libraries began to appear in many Islamic cities, where science and philosophy survived after the fall of the Roman Empire. Christian monks and Islamic libraries exchanged books to copy.


title: Like

paragraphs: 1. We can use to like to say that we find a thing is good:

paragraphs: 2. We can use like for "the same as" or "nearly the same as":

paragraphs: 3. We can also use like for "the same way as":

paragraphs: 4. In a question, we can use like to ask people to talk about a thing, or to say if they find it good or not:

paragraphs: 5. We can also use like as "for example":

paragraphs: 6. In British and American English young people, when talking, have recently started using like as an extra word in the middle of sentences. Sometimes they use it to report what someone said, especially when mimicking the way they said it. This should never be used in writing:

paragraphs: As works in the same way as example 2 - comparing two things using either the word "like" or the word "as" is called making a simile ("As big as an elephant"). It may be better to use the word "as" for this to stop confusion with example 1.


title: Political divisions of China

paragraphs: There are twenty-three provinces, four municipalities, five autonomous regions and two special administrative regions in the People's Republic of China. The island of Taiwan is claimed as a province by the People's Republic of China (PRC), but it is not under their control. Taiwan is an island known as Republic of China (Taiwan).

paragraphs: There are 23 provinces in the People's Republic of China.

paragraphs: <nowiki>*</nowiki> The island of Taiwan is claimed as a province by the People's Republic of China (PRC), but it is not under their control. Taiwan is an island known as Republic of China (Taiwan).

paragraphs: There are 4 municipalities in the People's Republic of China. "Municipality" is the common English name for the Chinese "zhíxiáshì", meaning a city directly controlled by the national government.

paragraphs: There are 5 autonomous regions in the People's Republic of China. "Autonomous region" is the common English name for the Chinese "zìzhìqū", meaning an area with greater levels of self-government to accommodate minority groups.

paragraphs: There are 2 special administrative regions in the People's Republic of China. "Special administrative region" is the common English name for the Chinese "tèbié xíngzhèng qū", meaning an area under special administration as a result of treaties that returned former European colonies to Chinese control.


title: Legislature

paragraphs: Legislature is a word that comes from the Latin language, meaning "those who write the laws." A legislature is therefore a group of people who vote for new laws, for example in a state or country.

paragraphs: Each person in the legislature is usually either elected or appointed. The constitution of that state or country usually tells how a legislature is supposed to work.

paragraphs: In many countries, the legislature is called a Parliament, Congress, or National Assembly. Sometimes there are two groups of members in the legislature. This is called a ""bicameral"" legislature. A unicameral legislature has only one group of members.

paragraphs: A country, district, city, or other small area may also have something like a legislature. These are often called councils, and they make smaller laws for their areas.


title: Linear algebra

paragraphs: Linear algebra is a branch of mathematics. It came from mathematicians trying to solve systems of linear equations. Vectors and matrices are used to solve these systems. The main objects of study currently are vector spaces and linear mappings between vector spaces. Linear algebra is useful in other branches of mathematics (e.g. differential equations and analytic geometry). It can also be applied to the real world in areas such as engineering, physics and economics.

paragraphs: Linear algebra describes ways to solve and manipulate (rearrange) systems of linear equations.

paragraphs: For example, consider the following equations:

paragraphs: These two equations form a system of linear equations.

paragraphs: It is linear because none of the variables are raised to a power.

paragraphs: The graph of a linear equation in two variables is a straight line.

paragraphs: This is because it makes all of the original equations valid, that is, the value on the left side of the equals sign is exactly the same as the value on the right side for both equations.

paragraphs: Linear algebra uses a system of notation for describing system behavior, called a matrix. For the previous example, the coefficients of the equations can be stored in a coefficient matrix.


title: London

paragraphs: London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, and is the largest urban area in Greater London. The River Thames travels through the city.

paragraphs: London is the biggest city in western Europe, and the world's largest financial centre.

paragraphs: London is about 2,000 years old. London was founded by the Romans. It was called "Londinium" by the Romans. London was also called "Lunnainn" in Scottish Gaelic, "Llundain" in Welsh and "Londain" in Irish.

paragraphs: For a long time, London was a small city. All its people lived inside the walls that were built by the Romans. This area is still called the City of London. There were many villages around the city. Gradually, more people came to live there. Then, step by step, the villages joined together into one huge city.

paragraphs: London is one of the world's most important cities for business, finance and politics. It is also important for culture, media, entertainment, fashion and art.

paragraphs: The population of London is 8.63 million. Most people in London are British. However, London also has many immigrants. These people come from many different countries. They speak many different languages and have different religions and cultures. There are also many people from different countries who stay in London on business. Many people visit London as tourists. They may see the famous "Sights of London". These sights include palaces, churches and museums.

paragraphs: The Romans built the city of "Londinium" along the River Thames in the year AD 43 The name "Londinium" (and later 'London') came from the Celtic language of the Ancient Britons. In the year AD 61, the city was attacked and destroyed. Then the Romans rebuilt the city, and London became an important trading hub.

paragraphs: After the decline of the Roman Empire, few people remained in London. This was partly because the Anglo-Saxon people of Sub-Roman Britain were primarily agricultural. Once the Romans had gone, trade with Continental Europe dwindled. In the 9th century, more people started living in London again. It became the largest city in England. However, it did not become the capital city of England until the 12th century.

paragraphs: After the railways were built, London grew very big. Greater London has 33 London Boroughs (neighbourhoods) and a mayor. The old City of London is only a square mile in size but has its own Lord Mayor.

paragraphs: Another famous old part of Greater London is Westminster, which was always a different city from the City of London. In Westminster is Westminster Abbey (a cathedral), The Palace of Westminster (the Houses of Parliament, with Big Ben), and 10 Downing Street (where the Prime Minister lives).

paragraphs: London has an oceanic, or temperate climate. It is not usually very hot or cold. It is often cloudy.

paragraphs: London has many celebrations, festivals and events.

paragraphs: London has five major business districts: the City, Westminster, Canary Wharf, Camden & Islington and Lambeth & Southwark.

paragraphs: The London Stock Exchange is the most international stock exchange and the largest in Europe.

paragraphs: London's largest industry is finance. This includes banks, stock exchanges, investment companies and insurance companies The Bank of England is located in London and is the second oldest bank in the world.

paragraphs: London has many professional services such as law and accounting firms.

paragraphs: The British Broadcasting Company (BBC), which has many radio and TV stations, is in London.

paragraphs: Tourism is one of London's biggest industries. London is the most visited city in the world by international tourists with 18.8 million international visitors per year. Within the UK, London is home to the ten most-visited tourist attractions. Tourism employed about 350,000 full-time workers in London in 2003. Tourists spend about £15 billion per year.

paragraphs: A growing number of technology companies are based in London.

paragraphs: London is a major retail centre, and in 2010 had the highest non-food retail sales of any city in the world, with a total spend of around £64.2 billion. The UK's fashion industry, centred on London, contributes tens of billions to the economy.

paragraphs: For the 19th and much of the 20th centuries London was a major manufacturing centre (see Manufacturing in London), with over 1.5 million industrial workers in 1960. Many products were made in London including ships, electronics and cars. Nowadays, most of these manufacturing companies are closed but some drug companies still make medicine in London.

paragraphs: London has twin and sister city agreements with these cities:

paragraphs: London also has a "partnership" agreement with Tokyo, Japan.

paragraphs: The city has a huge network of transport systems including trains, metros (underground) and five main airports.

paragraphs: The Victorians built many train systems in the mid-19th century (1850s). Their main stations are in London, and the lines go to every part of Great Britain. There were originally five major companies but the five companies became a national rail network in modern times.

paragraphs: There are five airports, though only one is actually in London (London City Airport). There is the London end of the LondonBirmingham canal, which was important to the industrial 19th century. The most used airport is Heathrow International Airport although it is actually outside the city.

paragraphs: The metro or London Underground is a system of electric trains which are in London, United Kingdom. It is the oldest underground railway in the world. It started running in 1863 as the "Metropolitan Railway". After the opening the system was copied in many other cities, for example New York and Madrid. Even though it is called "the Underground" about half of it is above the ground. The "Tube" is a slang name for the London Underground, because the tunnels for some of the lines are round tubes running through the ground. The Underground has got 274 stations and over 408 km of track. From 2006–2007 over 1 billion passengers used the underground.


title: Litre

paragraphs: A litre (international spelling) or liter (American spelling) is one of the metric units of volume. It is not an SI unit.

paragraphs: One litre is the volume of 1000 cubic centimetres, that is a cube of 10 × 10 × 10 centimetres (1000 cm). One litre of water at has the mass of exactly one kilogram. This results from the definition given in 1795, where the gram was defined as the weight of one cubic centimetre of melting ice.

paragraphs: For smaller volumes, the decilitre is used: 10 dl = one litre.

paragraphs: For smaller volumes, the centilitre is used: 100 cl = one litre.

paragraphs: For smaller volumes, the millilitre is used: 1000 ml = one litre.

paragraphs: The capital letter "L" is preferred by some people as the small "l" can look like the number one "1".

paragraphs: The metric system was first introduced in France in 1791. That system did not have its own unit of capacity or volume because volume can be measured in cubic metres. In 1793 work to make the metric system compulsory in France was started by the Temporary Commission of Republican Weights and Measures. Due to public demand, the commission said that the cubic metre was too big for everyday use. They said that a new unit based on the old cadil should be used instead. One cadil was to be 0.001 cubic metres. This was equivalent to a cube with sides 10 cm. The "cadil" was also known as the "pinte" or the "litron". The "pinte" had been an old French unit of measure of capacity. In 1795 the definition was revised. The "cadil" was given the name "litre".

paragraphs: In 1795 the kilogram was defined to be exactly one litre of water at 4 °C. In 1799 the kilogram was redefined. The new definition said that the kilogram was the mass of the "kilogram des archives". In 1901 scientists measured the volume of one litre of water at 4 °C very carefully. They found that it occupied about  dm. The BIPM redefined the litre as being "exactly" the volume of one kilogram of water at 4 °C.

paragraphs: In 1960 the SI was introduced. The BIPM changed the definition of the litre back to "one dm". The litre is not part of SI. The BIPM defined the litre as a "Non-SI unit accepted for use with the SI". This was because it is used in many countries. The BIPM said that the litre should not be used for very accurate work.

paragraphs: According to SI rules, the symbol for the litre should be "l". This is because the litre was not named after somebody whose name was "Litre". However the symbol "l" and the number "1" are easily confused. In 1979 the BIPM made an exception for the symbol for the litre. They said that people could use either "L" or "l" as its symbol.


title: Lime

paragraphs: Lime is a green fruit, and the tree fruit itself. They are citrus fruits similar to lemons. Limes are rich in vitamin C. Sailors from Britain were given lemon or lime juice to stop them falling ill with scurvy. This is how they got the nickname "Limey".

paragraphs: Limes are small, round and bright green. If they stay on the tree for a long time they turn yellow. Then they look like small round lemons.

paragraphs: Lime juice is used in cooking and in drinks. Lime oils are often used in perfumes, used for cleaning, and used for aromatherapy.

paragraphs: Lime tastes acidic and bitter. Lime juice is also made from limes.


title: Mathematics

paragraphs: Mathematics is the study of numbers, shapes and patterns. The word comes from the Greek word "μάθημα" (máthema), meaning "science, knowledge, or learning", and is sometimes shortened to maths (in England, Australia, Ireland, and New Zealand) or math (in the United States and Canada). The short words are often used for arithmetic, geometry or simple algebra by students and their schools.

paragraphs: Mathematics is useful for solving problems that occur in the real world, so many people besides mathematicians study and use mathematics. Today, some mathematics is needed in many jobs. People working in business, science, engineering, and construction need some knowledge of mathematics.

paragraphs: Mathematics solves problems by using logic. One of the main tools of logic used by mathematicians is deduction. Deduction is a special way of thinking to discover and prove new truths using old truths. To a mathematician, the reason something is true (called a proof) is just as important as the fact that it is true, and this reason is often found using deduction. Using deduction is what makes mathematics thinking different from other kinds of scientific thinking, which might rely on experiments or on interviews.

paragraphs: Logic and reasoning are used by mathematicians to create general rules, which are an important part of mathematics. These rules leave out information that is not important so that a single rule can cover many situations. By finding general rules, mathematics solves many problems at the same time as these rules can be used on other problems. These rules can be called theorems (if they have been proved) or conjectures (if it is not known if they are true yet). Most mathematicians use non-logical and creative reasoning in order to find a logical proof.

paragraphs: Sometimes, mathematics finds and studies rules or ideas that we don't understand yet. Often in mathematics, ideas and rules are chosen because they are considered simple or neat. On the other hand, sometimes these ideas and rules are found in the real world after they are studied in mathematics; this has happened many times in the past. In general, studying the rules and ideas of mathematics can help us understand the world better. Some examples of math problems are addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, calculus, fractions and decimals. Algebra problems are solved by evaluating certain variables. A calculator answers every math problem in the four basic arithmetic operations.

paragraphs: These theorems have interested mathematicians and people who are not mathematicians.

paragraphs: These are theorems and conjectures that have greatly changed mathematics.

paragraphs: Progress in understanding the nature of mathematics also influences the way mathematicians study their subject.

paragraphs: Mathematics in history, and the history of mathematics.

paragraphs: There is no Nobel prize in mathematics. Mathematicians can receive the Abel prize and the Fields Medal for important works.

paragraphs: The Clay Mathematics Institute has said it will give one million dollars to anyone who solves one of the Millennium Prize Problems.

paragraphs: There are many tools that are used to do mathematics or to find answers to mathematics problems.


title: March

paragraphs: March is the third month of the year in the Gregorian calendar, coming between February and April. It has 31 days. March is named after Mars, the Roman god of war.

paragraphs: March always begins on the same day of the week as November, and additionally, February in common years. March always ends on the same day of the week as June.

paragraphs: In ancient Rome, March was called Martius. It was named after the war god (Mars) and the Romans thought that it was a lucky time to begin a war. Before Julius Caesar's calendar reform, March was the first month of the year in the Roman calendar, as the winter was considered to be a monthless period.

paragraphs: March is one of seven months to have 31 days. March begins on the same day of the week as February in common years and November every year, as each other's first days are exactly 4 weeks (28 days) and 35 weeks (245 days) apart respectively. March ends on the same day of the week as June every year, as each other's last days are exactly 13 weeks (91 days) apart.

paragraphs: In common years, March starts on the same day of the week as June of the previous year, and in leap years, September and December of the previous year. In common years, March finishes on the same day of the week as September of the previous year, and in leap years, April and December of the previous year.

paragraphs: In years immediately before common years, March starts on the same day of the week as August of the following year, and in years immediately before leap years, May of the following year. In years immediately before common years, March finishes on the same day of the week as August and November of the following year, and in years immediately before leap years, May of the following year.

paragraphs: In leap years, the day before March 1 is February 29. This determines the position of each day of the year from there on. As an example, March 1 is usually the 60th day of the year, but in a leap year is the 61st day.

paragraphs: In terms of seasons, March is one of two months to have an equinox (the other is September, its seasonal equivalent in both hemispheres), with daylight and darkness of roughly the same number of hours, halfway between the December and June solstices. In the Northern Hemisphere, spring starts in this month, while it is autumn in the Southern Hemisphere.

paragraphs: The official start of either season is March 1, though the equinox can fall on March 20 or 21, occasionally on March 19. The northern spring equinox marks the start of the Iranian New Year and Baha'i New Year. It is from the March 21 date that Easter's date is calculated, on the Sunday after the first full moon in spring, meaning it can fall between March 22 and April 25 in Western Christianity.


title: May

paragraphs: May is the fifth month of the year, coming between April and June. It has 31 days. The month of May might have been named for the Roman goddess Maia, or more likely the Roman goddess of fertility Bona Dea, whose festival was held in May.

paragraphs: May never begins or ends on the same day of the week as any other month.

paragraphs: May's flower is the Lily of the Valley. Its birthstone is the emerald. The meaning of the emerald is success in love.

paragraphs: May comes between April and June and is the fifth month of the year in the Gregorian calendar. It is one of seven months to have 31 days. In the older Roman calendar, May was the third month of the year. It is a spring month in the Northern Hemisphere and an autumn month in the Southern Hemisphere. In each hemisphere, it is the seasonal equivalent of November in the other. May is likely to have been named after the Roman goddess Maia, though there is a theory that May might have its name from the Latin "Maiores", meaning "Seniors". The same theory suggests that June would then be named from "Iuniores", meaning "Juniors".

paragraphs: No other month in any year, common or leap year, begins nor ends on the same day of the week as May.

paragraphs: In common years, May starts on the same day of the week as August of the previous year, and in leap years, March and November of the previous year. In common years, May finishes on the same day of the week as August and November of the previous year, and in leap years, March and June of the previous year. In leap years and years immediately after that, May starts on the same day of the week as February of the previous year.

paragraphs: Every year, May both starts and finishes on the same day of the week as January of the following year, as each other's first and last days are exactly 35 weeks (245 days) apart. In years immediately before common years, May starts on the same day of the week as October of the following year, and in years immediately before leap years, April and July of the following year. In years immediately before common years, May finishes on the same day of the week as February and October of the following year, and in years immediately before leap years, July of the following year.

paragraphs: In the Northern Hemisphere, May is in late Spring, and May Day on May 1 and Walpurgis Night, during the night of April 30 to May 1, are symbolic of the transition from winter to summer. In the Southern Hemisphere, it is in autumn, and comes just before the Antarctic winter, when emperor penguins breed there.

paragraphs: Special devotions to the Virgin Mary take place in May.