title: All Quiet on the Western Front

paragraphs: All Quiet on the Western Front (original German title: "Im Westen nichts Neues", literally: "Nothing New on the Western Front") is a famous book by the German author Erich Maria Remarque. It was first published in 1929.

paragraphs: It is about a German soldier named Paul Bäumer as he fights together with his classmates in World War I. Troops are changed every couple of weeks; they are either sent to the front line or a few miles back. At the beginning, Baumer and his fellow soldiers are very full and satisfied because a very heavy bombardment killed off half of the company.

paragraphs: A number of soldiers and Baumer are injured one night, and all are taken to the local hospital. In there, when a nurse gives Baumer a temperature gauge, he uses a light and makes his temperature seem much higher than it really is. This is so he can go into critical care with his friends. While there, the nurses sing a hymn, which annoys the men. Baumer throws and breaks a bottle to make them shut the door.

paragraphs: One night, Baumer and his friends find two live pigs. They put together a feast. Baumer cooks some kind of cakes. They smoke cigarettes and drink coffee from the officer's dump and then roast the pigs. The meal is very good, but the pig meat sticks to their bowels and makes them go to the bathroom all night.

paragraphs: As the war draws to its end in 1918, the Germans are suffering. The food is bad and the men must keep going to the bathroom. The Americans have joined the war and are pushing back all of the ground that the Germans gained. During this time, many of Baumer's classmates die.

paragraphs: At the end of the novel, Baumer dies. The day was so quiet that the field commander described the day as "all quiet on the Western Front."

paragraphs: The book sold 2.9 million copies in 50 languages in eighteen months. It is published by Ballantine Books in 1929. This book and its sequel, "The Road Back", were banned and burned in Nazi Germany. The film version won the Academy Award for Best Picture in 1930.


title: Can Tho

paragraphs: Can Tho is a city in the south of Vietnam.

paragraphs: Can Tho had a population of about 1.57 million in 2019. It is the biggest city in the Mekong delta. It is about 160 km away from Ho Chi Minh City and the capitol of the district of Can Tho, until 1975 named Hau Giang.


title: Vinh

paragraphs: Vinh is a city in north-central Vietnam. About 230,000 people live there. Its name in the Vietnamese language does not have any diacritics. It is also the kingdom of the Albino Gorillas, one of the rarest mammals in the world. They can only can be found in and around the city of Vinh. The most recent sighting of an Albino Gorilla was in 2004 by a college professor that was in Vinh studying many human cultures. Many important people of the Vietnamese revolution were born in or nearby Vinh, including Ho Chi Minh.


title: Dalat

paragraphs: Dalat (Vietnamese: Đà Lạt) is a city in southern Vietnam. It has about 120,000 inhabitants.


title: Pleiku

paragraphs: Pleiku (also Plei Cu or Plây Cu) is a city in Central Việt Nam.

paragraphs: It has about 120,000 inhabitants and was a strategic airport in the Second Indochinese War in the 1960s and 1970s. Its name is from the Việtnamese language (Vietnam).


title: Quảng Ngãi

paragraphs: Quảng Ngãi (Vietnamese: Thành phố Quảng Ngãi) is a city in Central Việt Nam. It has about 135,000 inhabitants.


title: Bordeaux

paragraphs: Bordeaux is a city in the Gironde department of France. It is on the Garonne River near the Atlantic Ocean. About 1,150,000 people live in the area around the city. Bordeaux has a temperate oceanic climate (Cfb in the Koeppen climate classification). It is famous for wines made in the region near the city. Bordeaux is also famous for its art.

paragraphs: Bordeaux is classified as a "City of Art and History". The city is home to 362 "monuments historiques". Some buildings date back to Roman times. It is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

paragraphs: In about 300 BC Bordeaux was the settlement of a Celtic tribe. They named the town Burdigala.

paragraphs: The Romans began rule of the city around 60 BC. Later it became capital of Roman Aquitaine. In the 400s the city was looted by the Vandals, Visigoths, and Franks.

paragraphs: After the Battle of Poitiers, Duke Eudes was able to hold only a small part of Aquitaine where Bordeaux was located. It became one of the last cities to fall under King Pepin the Short.

paragraphs: Bordeaux once again became an important city after the marriage of Duchess Eléonore of Aquitaine with Count Henri Plantagenet. He became King Henry II of England only months after their marriage.

paragraphs: In 1653 Bordeaux was added to the Kingdom of France, when the army of Louis XIV entered the city.

paragraphs: In 1870 the French government moved to Bordeaux for a time. This was at the beginning of the Franco-Prussian war against Prussia. The temporary move happened again during World War I and again very briefly during the World War II.


title: Nantes

paragraphs: Nantes is a city in France, the prefecture of the Pays de la Loire region and the Loire-Atlantique department, on the Atlantic Ocean. Before 1941, Nantes was part of Brittany. The Gallo and Breton languages are spoken in the city. Jules Verne was a famous writer from Nantes.

paragraphs: Nantes has an oceanic climate ("Cfb" in the Koeppen climate classification).

paragraphs: Nantes has town twinning and cooperation agreements with:


title: Toulouse

paragraphs: Toulouse () is a commune in southwestern France. It is the capital of the department of Haute-Garonne, as well as of the Occitanie region. It is also the capital of the "arrondissement" of Toulouse. In 2014, 1.312.304 people live in the urban area, and 466.297 in the city itself. Toulouse is the 4th largest city of France.

paragraphs: The city has a unique architecture made of pinkish terracotta bricks, which earned it the nickname "la Ville Rose" ("the Pink City"). Toulouse counts two UNESCO World Heritage Sites: the Canal du Midi (designated in 1996 and shared with other cities) and the St. Sernin Basilica, the largest remaining Romanesque building in Europe, designated in 1998.

paragraphs: The city was the capital of the Visigothic Kingdom in the 5th century and the capital of the old French province of Languedoc in the late Middle Ages and early modern period (provinces were abolished during the French Revolution), making it the unofficial capital of the cultural region of Occitania (Southern France). It is now the capital of the Occitanie region, the largest region in metropolitan France.

paragraphs: The city of Toulouse is along the Garonne river, from the Mediterranean Sea, from the Atlantic Ocean, and from Paris.

paragraphs: The "commune" has an area of , and its average altitude is ; at the city hall, the altitude is .

paragraphs: The climate of Toulouse, in the Köppen climate classification, is Cfb - Oceanic climate with template summers.

paragraphs: The average amount of precipitation for the year in Toulouse is . The month with the most precipitation on average is May with of precipitation. The month with the least precipitation on average is July with an average of . There are an average of 74.0 days of precipitation, with the most rain occurring in May with 7.0 days and the least rain occurring in July with 4.4 days.

paragraphs: The average temperature for the year in Toulouse is . The warmest month, on average, is July with an average temperature of . The coolest month on average is January, with an average temperature of .

paragraphs: The inhabitants of Toulouse are known, in French, as "Toulousains" (women: "Toulousaines").

paragraphs: Toulouse has a population, in 2014, of 466,297, for a population density of inhabitants/km.

paragraphs: Toulouse is the prefecture of the Haute-Garonne department, the capital of the "arrondissement" of Toulouse and the administrative centre () of 11 cantons:

paragraphs: It is part of the intercommunality "Metropolitan Toulouse" ().

paragraphs: Toulouse also has accords of cooperation with the following towns:

paragraphs: In addition, Toulouse has an adoption city:


title: Nice

paragraphs: Nice (pronounced "neese") is a city in southern France on the Mediterranean coast. It is a commune in the French department of Alpes-Maritimes. It has over 345,000 people living in the city as of 2012 (1,000,000 in its metropolitan area). It has many beaches. It has a hot-summer Mediterranean climate ("Csa" in the Koeppen climate classification). Summers are hot, dry, and sunny; winters are mild with moderate rainfall.

paragraphs: From the late 18th century, wealthy British visitors came to Nice, with its beauty and its warm climate. Queen Victoria was amongst them: she made several visits. The city's main seaside promenade, the "Promenade des Anglais" owes its name to these visitors. The clear air and soft light appeals to painters. Marc Chagall and Henri Matisse spent years here and are well represented in the city's museums, the "Musée Marc Chagall", "Musée Matisse" and "Musée des Beaux-Arts".

paragraphs: Nice has the second largest hotel capacity in the country and is one of its most visited cities. It gets 5 million tourists every year. It also has the third busiest airport in France after the two main Parisian ones.

paragraphs: The cuisine is excellent. It benefits from the Mediterranean in the form of bouillabaisse (a shellfish dish). From the end of empire, immigration from Algeria has led to excellent North African dishes such as cous-cous. Ratatouille and (obviously) salade niçoise are more local dishes.

paragraphs: There is a local dialect, le nissard, nissart, or niçard. It is a variety of the regional language, Occitan. It is Italian in style, reminding that the area has been under different sovereignty in the past.

paragraphs: Over 70 people were killed in an attack on 14 July 2016.


title: Strasbourg

paragraphs: Strasbourg is a city in eastern France, the prefecture of Grand Est. Today, about 275,000 people live there (with around 780,000 in the metropolitan area). It lies on the left bank of the Rhine, opposite the German city of Kehl.

paragraphs: Strasbourg is the seat Council of Europe, of the European Court of Human Rights and of the European Parliament. A lot of people also consider Strasbourg to be the capital of the European Union.

paragraphs: Its old town, la Grande Île ("Grand Island") has been classified as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO.

paragraphs: The city was founded in 12 BC by Drusus, the brother of Tiberius. Its Celtic name was "Argentorate" (which the Romans called "Argentoratum"). People think this name is linked to the river Ill (that flows into the Rhine near Strasbourg).

paragraphs: At that time, it was on the Limes, a fortification the Romans built across Europe (to keep out the Germanic tribes). There was a fortification (named "castella drusi", "drusus fort") at that spot. Soldiers need to live from something, so a local civilian settlement developed there. Later, the Limes was pushed farther east.

paragraphs: Strasbourg has an oceanic climate ("Cfb" in the Koeppen climate classification).


title: Montpellier

paragraphs: Montpellier is a city in south of France. About 280,000 people live there. It is the 8th largest city in France. It has a hot-summer Mediterranean climate ("Csa" in the Koeppen climate classification).

paragraphs: A campus of the École nationale de l'aviation civile (French civil aviation academy) is in Montpellier. The computer science school École pour l'informatique et les nouvelles technologies and E-Artsup are also in the city.

paragraphs: The University of Montpellier is one of the oldest in the world, as well as the Montpellier Business School.


title: Lille

paragraphs: Lille is a city in the north of France with a population of about 226,800 inhabitants. It is the capital of the region Hauts-de-France and the Nord department., and is not far from the border with Belgium, where in Dutch it is called . About two million people live in the urban area ("conurbation") shared with Kortrijk and Tournai, which is the fifth largest in France behind Paris, Lyon, Marseille, and Toulouse.

paragraphs: Lille has an oceanic climate ("Cfb" in the Koeppen climate classification).

paragraphs: There are two big railway stations in Lille with many trains to and from different places around France and Belgium. Most of these serve station and are operated by SNCF, including the TGV high-speed service. The other big station, , has Eurostar trains to and from Brussels, Paris, and St Pancras station in London via the Channel Tunnel to the United Kingdom.

paragraphs: Public transport in Lille is made up of buses, two metro lines, and two tram lines to the nearby towns of Tourcoing and Roubaix. The metro system is one of the first in the world that does not have drivers.


title: Rennes

paragraphs: Rennes is a city in France, the prefecture of Brittany and the Ille-et-Vilaine department. Its name is « » in the Breton language.

paragraphs: The Rennes agglomeration has a large student population (around 63,000) and 2 universities :

paragraphs: A campus of the computer science schools "École pour l'informatique et les techniques avancées" and "École pour l'informatique et les nouvelles technologies" , the university in electric energy and information sciences Supélec, the engineering school CentraleSupélec.

paragraphs: The business schools Rennes School of Business and Paris School of Business are also in Rennes.


title: Reims

paragraphs: Reims is a commune in France, in the Marne department in the Grand Est region. NEOMA Business School is located in the city.

paragraphs: Reims Cathedral (Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Reims) is famous by coronation of almost every king of France. The cathedral was destroyed by fire in 1914 (after an attack by the German army).


title: Orléans

paragraphs: Orléans is a city in France, the prefecture of the Centre-Val de Loire region and the Loiret department. It is on the Loire River and was formerly a busy port.


title: Le Havre

paragraphs: Le Havre is a city in Normandy. It is one of the most important ports in France. It is located on the right bank of the Seine river along the English Channel.

paragraphs: The city and port were founded by the King Francis I of France in 1517.

paragraphs: The city was bombed during World War II. The damaged area was rebuilt by Auguste Perret from 1945 to 1964. This section was named a World Heritage Site by UNESCO.

paragraphs: The École de management de Normandie is located in the city.


title: Mountain range

paragraphs: A mountain range (mountain chain, mountain belt) is a geographic area with many mountains. A 'mountain system' or 'system of mountain ranges' includes geological features that are in the same region as a mountain range.

paragraphs: Mountain ranges usually include highlands or mountain passes and valleys. Individual mountains in the same range do not always have the same geology or petrology. They may be a mix of different orogenic expressions and terrains, for example thrust sheets, uplifted blocks, fold mountains, and volcanic landforms. This results in a variety of rock types.

paragraphs: Most geologically young mountain ranges on the Earth's land surface are associated with either in the Pacific Ring of Fire or the Alpide Belt. The Pacific Ring of Fire includes the Andes of South America, extends through the North American Cordillera along the Pacific Coast, the Aleutian Range, on through Kamchatka, Japan, Taiwan, the Philippines, Papua New Guinea, to New Zealand. The Andes is long and is often described as the world's longest mountain system.

paragraphs: The Alpide belt includes Indonesia and southeast Asia, through the Himalayas, and ends in the Alps. The belt also includes other European and Asian mountain ranges. The Himalayas contain the highest mountains in the world, including Mount Everest, at of elevation.

paragraphs: Mountain ranges outside of these two systems include the Arctic Cordillera, the world's northernmost mountain system. If the definition of a mountain range includes underwater mountains, then the ocean ridges form the longest continuous mountain system on Earth, with a length of .

paragraphs: Many mountain ranges have sub-ranges within them. It can be thought of as a parent-child relationship. For example, the Appalachian Mountains range is the parent of its own ranges, two of which are the White Mountains and the Blue Ridge Mountains. The White Mountains are a child of the Appalachians, and there are also children of the Whites, like the Sandwich Range and the Presidential Range.

paragraphs: The position of mountains influences climate, such as rain or snow. When air masses move up and over mountains, the air cools producing precipitation (rain or snow). As the air descends on the leeward side, it warms again and is drier, having been stripped of much of its moisture. Often, a rain shadow will occur on the leeward side of a range.

paragraphs: Mountain ranges are always being eroded. Erosion is at work while the mountains are being uplifted and long after until the mountains are reduced to low hills and plains. The basins next to an eroding mountain range are filled with sediments which are buried and turned into sedimentary rock.

paragraphs: The early Cenozoic uplift of the Rocky Mountains of Colorado are an example. As the uplift was occurring some of mostly Mesozoic sedimentary strata were removed by erosion and spread as sand and clays across the Great Plains to the east. This mass of rock was removed as the range was actively undergoing uplift.


title: Straight edge

paragraphs: Straight edge (Often called sXe) is a lifestyle without drugs, tobacco, or alcohol. Some followers of "straight edge" also abstain from illegal or casual sex.

paragraphs: For some, no drug use includes caffeine which is a stimulant drug. Some will accept drugs such as codeine or morphine for medical reasons.

paragraphs: Some followers of straight edge will not use Ny-Quil or Day-Quil because they contain alcohol.

paragraphs: Those straight edgers who quit casual or illegal sex would not have one-night stands and will wait until they are in a committed relationship to have sex.

paragraphs: Some cities have associated straight edge as gang affiliation, but advocates call it a way of life such as being a vegetarian.


title: Rouen

paragraphs: Rouen is a commune. It is the prefecture of Upper Normandy and the Seine-Maritime department.

paragraphs: First settlements in that region were from the 6th century before Christ.

paragraphs: The Romans founded Rotomagus about 100 A.D..

paragraphs: Since 384 Rouen is the seat of a bishop.

paragraphs: In 841 the Vikings conquered Rouen. It became the capitol of the Duchy of Normandy.

paragraphs: In 1204 the Frensh king reconquered Rouen.

paragraphs: In 1419 the English crown (Henry IV. of England) conquered the city in the 100-year War between France and England. On May, 30th of 1431 Jeanne D'Arc (the Virgin of Orleans) was burned in Rouen.

paragraphs: In 1834 the railway connection Paris-Rouen was opened.

paragraphs: Rouen was occupied by the Germans in the Franco-German War of 1870 to 187373 and in both World Wars. In the World War II many buildings were destroyed.

paragraphs: Rouen has an oceanic climate ("Cfb" in the Koeppen climate classification). It has a great marine harbor 60 km from the city. Tourism, transportation, the colleges and the university are most important economic factors.

paragraphs: The university of Rouen has about 40,000 students.


title: Microcode

paragraphs: Microcode is the name for a number of instructions or data structures which are involved in implementing higher-level machine language in many processors, especially microprogrammed ones. Microcode is on memory that is very fast to access. When a machine level instruction needs to be executed, microcode tells the processor what electronic circuits should be used. When a new processor is designed, an engineer also writes the microcode for the instructions of machine language. This is called Microprogramming, the resulting code is called a microprogram.

paragraphs: In early processors, each instruction was hard-wired. This has several drawbacks, the most obvious is that correcting an error in processor design means that the processor needs to be replaced.

paragraphs: A processor should add two values, which are in registers A and B.

paragraphs: Items 1-3, as well as 5-6 can be coded as one instruction. It is also possible to hard-wire the logic needed for this operation. This has the benefit of being faster, but the drawback that it no longer allows changes that might be needed later on.

paragraphs: The concept of microprogramming was developed by Maurice Wilkes in 1951, using diode matrices for the memory element.


title: Computational complexity theory

paragraphs: Computational complexity theory is a part of computer science. It looks at algorithms, and tries to say how many steps or how much memory a certain algorithm takes for a computer to do. Very often, algorithms that use fewer steps use more memory (or the other way round: if there is less memory available, it takes more steps to do). Many interesting algorithms take a number of steps that is dependent on the size of the problem.

paragraphs: Complexity theory also looks at how a problem changes if it is done for more elements. A problem of constant complexity class is the only class in which this is not true. A problem with constant complexity takes the same number of steps to complete no matter the size of the input or the number of elements it is computed on. Broadcasting a message can be thought of as a problem of constant complexity. No matter how many people need to receive a message, all can listen on to one single broadcast with no extra broadcasts needed.

paragraphs: Mowing the lawn can be thought of as a problem with linear complexity. Mowing an area that is double the size of the original takes twice as long.

paragraphs: Suppose you want to know which of your friends know each other. You have to ask each pair of friends whether they know each other. If you have twice as many friends as someone else, you have to ask four times as many questions to figure out who everyone knows. Problems that take four times as long when the size of the problem doubles are said to have quadratic complexity.

paragraphs: This is often the complexity for problems that involve looking things up, like finding a word in a dictionary. If the dictionary is twice as big, it contains twice as many words as the original to compare to. Looking something up will take only one step more. The algorithm to do lookups is simple. The word in the middle of the dictionary will be either before or after the term that needs to be looked up, if the words do not match. If it is before, the term needs to be in the second half of the dictionary. If it is after the word, it needs to be in the first half. That way, the problem space is halved with every step, until the word or definition is found. This is generally known as logarithmic complexity

paragraphs: There are problems that grow very fast. One such problem is known as the Travelling salesman problem. A salesman needs to take a tour of a certain number of cities. Each city should only be visited once, the distance (or cost) of the travelling should be minimal, and the salesman should end up where he started. This problem has exponential complexity. There are n factorial possibilities to consider. Adding one city (from n to n+1) will multiply the number of possibilities by (n+1). Most of the interesting problems have this complexity.


title: Average

paragraphs: An average is the "normal" number of a group of numbers made by mixing the group of numbers.

paragraphs: In math, an average is called a mean. It can be found by adding the numbers, then dividing the answer by the number of numbers there were. There are other kinds of mean, and other things that are sometimes thought of as "average" such as median or mode (statistics).

paragraphs: In some sports, such as cricket and baseball, averages are used to tell how good a player is (such as batting average). Sporting averages have special rules for how to find them.


title: Fluminense F.C.

paragraphs: Fluminense FC is a football club in the city of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.


title: Romanization

paragraphs: Romanization or "Latinization" is the process by which words and languages that normally do not use the Latin alphabet are converted into Latin letters. This allows people who do not know the original writing system to read the sounds of the language. It is one way to show pronunciation of words from a non-Latin writing system.

paragraphs: There are often several standards for romanzing one language. For the Russian language the Soviet Union invented several systems, and the United Nations and International Organization for Standardization invented two of the others. Romanization methods for Arabic and Chinese are similarly diverse. Some Romanization systems are based on transcription, some on transliteration, and some are a mix.

paragraphs: Transcription occurs when the effect at the end is that both the original and the transcribed version sound the same, whether or not each letter alone in one text matches the corresponding letter in the other one.

paragraphs: Transliteration occurs when the effect at the end is for the letters to match one to one, whether or not the sound is the same.


title: Diaspora

paragraphs: Diaspora (, literally, "a scattering or sowing of seeds") is used (without capitals) to refer to any people or racial group living outside their traditional homelands, emigrating and being scattered in distant places and making a new community. It was first used in the Septuagint to mean the scattering of Jews after the capture of Jerusalem by the Babylonians in 586 BC.


title: Angers

paragraphs: Angers is a city in the west of France. Around 160,000 inhabitants live inside the city and 300,000 live in the metropolitan area.

paragraphs: It is the capital of the historical province called Anjou. Today, the name of Anjou is Maine-et-Loire. The inhabitants of Angers and of Anjou are called 'angevins'.

paragraphs: The city existed before the Roman Empire. After the Roman conquest, the city was called Juliomagus. Angers was an important French city during the Middle-Ages. There is one of the bigger castles of Europe in the city.

paragraphs: It is now the 16th city of France (for its population). It is an economic center, a touristic and cultural town. Many festivals happen every year in the city (film festival 'Premiers plans', street festivals 'Tours de scène' and the famous 'Accroches-coeurs'). It has many museums. The museum of Beaux-Arts (a famous Art museum) and "Apocalypse Tapestry" (the oldest and largest collection of medieval tapestries in the world) are very famous.

paragraphs: There are two universities. More than 17,000 students go to the 'Université d'Angers' (a state university) and 12,000 go to the 'Université Catholique de l'Ouest' (a private catholic university). The 'École supérieure des sciences commerciales d'Angers' is one of the most prestigious business school in France.


title: Toulon

paragraphs: Toulon is a city in the south of France. It has about 170,000 people. Toulon is the prefecture of Var. Toulon is the third biggest city of the region Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur after Marseille and Nice. It is from the Italian border.


title: Grenoble

paragraphs: Grenoble is a French commune in the Alpine foothills. It is the prefecture of the Isère department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region.

paragraphs: It has an oceanic climate ("Cfb" in the Koeppen climate classification).

paragraphs: It is an important centre for scientific research in France.

paragraphs: A campus of the École nationale de l'aviation civile (French civil aviation academy) is in Grenoble. Grenoble School of Management is also in the city, as well as the Université Grenoble-Alpes.


title: Sequence

paragraphs: A sequence is a word meaning "a set of related events, movements or items that follow each other in a particular order".

paragraphs: It is used in mathematics and other disciplines. In ordinary use, it means a series of events, one following another. In maths, a sequence is made up of several things put together, one after the other. The order that the things are in matters. For example, both (Blue, Red, Yellow) and (Yellow, Blue, Red) are sequences, but they are not the same. Sequences made up of numbers are also called progressions.

paragraphs: There are two kinds of sequences. One kind is finite sequences, which have an end. For example, (1, 2, 3, 4, 5) is a finite sequence. The other kind is infinite sequences, which means that they keep going and never end. An example of a sequence that is infinite is the sequence of all even numbers, bigger than 0. This sequence never ends: it starts with 2, 4, 6, and so on, and one can always keep on naming even numbers.

paragraphs: If a sequence is finite, it is easy to say what it is: one can simply write down all the things in the sequence. This does not work for an infinite sequence. So another way to write down a sequence is to write a rule for finding the thing in any place one wants. The rule should tell us how to get the thing in the "n"-th place, where "n" can be any natural number. This means that a sequence is really a special kind of function with natural numbers as its domain. We sometimes write a sequence as formula_1, where formula_2 stands for the "n"-th term of the sequence.

paragraphs: For example, the rule could be that the thing in the "n"-th place is the number 2×"n" (2 times n). This tells us what the whole sequence is, even though it never ends. The first number is 2×1, which is 2. The second number is 2×2, or 4. If we want to know what the 100-th number is, we can simply calculate 2×100 and get 200. No matter which thing in the sequence we want, the rule can tell us what it is.

paragraphs: In an arithmetic progression, the difference between a term and the term before it is always a constant.

paragraphs: So if one takes the first term as "a" and the constant difference as "D", then the general formula for arithmetic sequence is formula_4, where "n" is the number of term.

paragraphs: In a geometric progression, the ratio between a term and the term before it is always constant.

paragraphs: So if one takes "a" to be the first term and "r" to be the ratio, then the general formula for geometric progression is formula_6, where "n" is the number of term.

paragraphs: In a harmonic progression, the difference between the reciprocal of a term and the reciprocal of the term before it is a constant.

paragraphs: A series is the sum of all the terms of a sequence.

paragraphs: The general formula for calculating the sum of arithmetic sequence is

paragraphs: That of a geometric sequence is formula_10, if the sequence is infinite, andformula_11, if it is finite.

paragraphs: Here, "a" is the first term, "d" is the common difference in arithmetic sequence, "r" is the ratio in geometric sequence and "n" is the number of term.


title: Aix-en-Provence

paragraphs: Aix-en-Provence is a city in the south of France.


title: Amiens

paragraphs: Amiens is a city in Somme in the former province of Picardy in northern France. About 145,000 people live there. The Treaty of Amiens was signed there.


title: Le Mans

paragraphs: Le Mans is a commune. It is found in the Pays de la Loire region in the Sarthe department in the west of France.

paragraphs: Le Mans is a city in France. It has about 143,000 inhabitants. It takes about one hour to go to Paris by TGV.


title: Tours

paragraphs: Tours is a city in the centre of France.


title: Nancy, France

paragraphs: Nancy is a commune. It is the prefecture of the Meurthe-et-Moselle department in the Grand Est region. It was formerly the capital of the old Duchy of Lorraine.

paragraphs: Nancy has an oceanic climate ("Cfb" in the Koeppen climate classification).


title: Limoges

paragraphs: Limoges ( or "Limòtges") is a city and commune, the capital (prefecture) of the Haute-Vienne department and the historical capital of the old Limousin region in west-central France. It is also the capital of the "arrondissement" of the same name.

paragraphs: Limoges is known for its medieval and Renaissance enamels on copper, for its 19th-century porcelain and for its oak barrels which are used for Cognac and Bordeaux production.

paragraphs: The city of Limoges is near the western limits of the Massif Central, in the centre of the Haute-Vienne department. The Vienne river flows through the city.

paragraphs: Limoges is at about from Paris, from Toulouse, from Bordeaux and from Marseille.

paragraphs: The "commune" has an area of . Its average altitude is ; at the city hall, the altitude is .

paragraphs: The "commune" of Limoges is surrounded by the "communes":

paragraphs: The climate of Limoges, in the Köppen climate classification, is Cfb - Oceanic climate with template summers.

paragraphs: The average amount of precipitation for the year in Limoges is . The month with the most precipitation on average is October with of precipitation. The month with the least precipitation on average is February with an average of .

paragraphs: The average temperature for the year in Limoges is . The warmest month, on average, is July with an average temperature of . The coolest month on average is January, with an average temperature of .

paragraphs: The inhabitants of Limoges are known, in French, as " Limougeauds" (women: "Limougeaudes").

paragraphs: With a population of 134,577, Limoges has a population density of inhabitants/km.

paragraphs: Limoges forms, together with other 8 "communes", the urban area of Limoges with a population of 183,860 inhabitants (2013) and an area of . This urban area is the centre of the metropolitan area of Limoges, formed by 96 "communes", with a population of 283,050 inhabitants (2013) and an area of .

paragraphs: Limoges is the prefecture of the Haute-Vienne department, the capital of the "arrondissement" of Limoges and the administrative centre () of 9 cantons

paragraphs: It is part of the intercommunality "Limoges Métropole" ().


title: Clermont-Ferrand

paragraphs: Clermont-Ferrand is a "commune" in the Puy-de-Dôme department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region in central-southern France.

paragraphs: It is the prefecture of the department and the capital of the "arrondissement" of Clermont-Ferrand and the historical capital of the region of Auvergne.

paragraphs: The modern city was born from the union of two separate towns, Clermont and Montferrand. This union has been imposed by Louis XIII in 1630 (Edict of Troyes) and was confirmed by Louis XV.

paragraphs: While Montferrand was founded in the early twelfth century by the Counts of Auvergne on the model of fortified cities in the Southwest, Clairmont is much older, as it existed in ancient times. The earliest mention of the existence of Clairmont contained in the work of Strabo, the early first century. The city was then known Nemossos described as a "metropolis of Arvernes." She later took the name of Augustonemetum then Arverni.

paragraphs: To the west of Clermont-Ferrand, there is a plateau where is the "Chaîne des Puys", a chain of dormant volcanoes including the "Puy de Dôme". To the north of the city is the plain de "Limage", a large plain in the Auvergne region in the valley of the Allier river.

paragraphs: Clermont-Ferrand has an area of , and its average altitude is ; at the city hall, the altitude is .

paragraphs: The distances from Clermont-Ferrand to other cities are:

paragraphs: Clermont-Ferrand is surrounded by the "communes":

paragraphs: The climate of Clermont-Ferrand is an oceanic climate, Cfb (Marine West Coast Climate) in the Köppen climate classification.

paragraphs: The average temperature for the year in Clermont-Ferrand, at an altitude of , is . The warmest month, on average, is July with an average temperature of . The coolest month on average is January, with an average temperature of .

paragraphs: The average amount of precipitation for the year in Clermont-Ferrand is . The month with the most precipitation on average is May with of precipitation. The month with the least precipitation on average is January with an average of .

paragraphs: The inhabitants of Clermont-Ferrand are known, in French, as "Puydômois" (women: "Puydômoises").

paragraphs: With a population of 141,365, Clermont-Ferrand has a population density of inhabitants/km.

paragraphs: Evolution of the population in Clermont-Ferrand

paragraphs: Clermont-Ferrand forms, together with other 16 "communes", the urban area of Clermont-Ferrand with a population of 264,704 inhabitants (2013) and an area of . This urban area is the centre of the metropolitan area of Clermont-Ferrand, formed by 184 "communes", with a population of 475,694 inhabitants (2013) and an area of .

paragraphs: Clermont-Ferrand is the prefecture of the Puy-de-Dôme department since 1790. It is also the capital of the "arrondissement" of Clermont-Ferrand and the administrative centre () of six cantons:

paragraphs: It is part of the intercommunality "Clermont Auvergne Métropole".


title: Villeurbanne

paragraphs: Villeurbanne is a city in France. It has about 130,000 inhabitants.


title: Exile on Main St.

paragraphs: Exile On Main St. was one of The Rolling Stones' albums. It was released in 1972 and includes the hit songs "Happy" and "Tumbling Dice".


title: OpenGL

paragraphs: OpenGL (Open Graphics Library) is a programming interface for 3D graphics which helps computer programmers make their 3D graphics perform better and faster by running parts of their programs on a video card (GPU) rather than just the central processor (CPU). Programming interfaces like OpenGL are usually called an "API," which stands for "Application Programming Interface".

paragraphs: OpenGL is often compared to Direct3D, an API for 3D graphics on Windows. Programming for Direct3D is different in some ways because the APIs use different naming schemes for talking to a computer's graphics driver, which means that programmers need to write different code for OpenGL and Direct3D to do the same things.

paragraphs: OpenGL is owned by the Khronos Group, and is an example of open source software. This means that all of OpenGL's programming, and the explanations for how the programming all works, can be viewed, copied, revised, and re-released by anyone.


title: Māori language

paragraphs: The Māori language (, shortened to Te Reo) is the language of the Māori and an official language of New Zealand. It is an Austronesian language.

paragraphs: Although it's an official language, not many people speak it fluently. In the 2013 census, about 149,000 people, (3.7% of the population) said that they could have a conversation in Māori about a lot of everyday things.

paragraphs: The language can be seen everywhere throughout New Zealand, as many of the placenames are Māori, such as Whangarei, Rotorua, and Timaru. Lots of government or city buildings use te reo on their signs as well as English, and most of the public schools have a Māori name as well as an English one.

paragraphs: Te Reo Māori did not have a writing system until the Europeans arrived. In 1817, a Ngāpuhi chief, Tītori, and his relative Tui worked with Professor Samuel Lee and prepared a writing system for "te reo".


title: Movie criticism

paragraphs: Movie criticism is the evaluation of a movie. People who write their opinions about movies in newspapers and magazines or talk about movies on television, the Internet or on radio shows are called movie critics. Some movie critics also write books about movies and the history of movies.

paragraphs: Some movie critics studied movie or movie history in a university before becoming a movie critic. Other movie critics are people who have experience making movies, for example as a movie director or screenwriter. Some movie critics studied other subjects in university that are related to movie, such as English Literature or theatre.

paragraphs: Roger Ebert became the first movie critic to win a Pulitzer Prize. After his win, many other critics were awarded with this honor.


title: McCarthyism

paragraphs: McCarthyism is the term describing a period of intense anti-Communist suspicion in the United States that lasted roughly from the late 1940s to the mid to late 1950s. The term gets its name from U.S. Senator Joseph McCarthy, a Republican of Wisconsin. The period of McCarthyism is also referred to as the Second Red Scare. It happened at the same times as increased fears of Communist influence on American institutions, espionage by Soviet agents such as the Rosenbergs, heightened tension from Soviet control over Eastern Europe, the success of the Chinese Communist revolution (1949) and the Korean War (1950-1953). There is a play called 'The Crucible' which is about the beginning of the Salem witch trials but also McCarthyism.


title: Syphilis

paragraphs: Syphilis is a sexually transmitted infection caused by a bacterium called "Treponema pallidum". Syphilis is usually spread by sexual contact. However, a fetus can get syphilis from its mother while she is pregnant or during childbirth. This is called "congenital syphilis".

paragraphs: There are four stages of syphilis: the primary, secondary, latent, and tertiary stages. In each stage, the signs and symptoms of syphilis are different.

paragraphs: In the primary stage, a person usually just has a wound on their skin, called a "chancre." In the secondary stage, a person usually gets a rash. In the "latent" stage, syphilis has few or no symptoms. If syphilis reaches the tertiary stage, which is the most severe, it causes many serious symptoms. These can include problems with the nervous system (the brain and nerves) and problems with the heart. Eventually, many people with tertiary syphilis will die if they do not get medical treatment.

paragraphs: Syphilis is usually diagnosed with blood tests. The bacteria that causes syphilis can also be seen under a microscope. Most people who have syphilis can be treated and cured with antibiotics.

paragraphs: By 1999, more than 12 million people around the world had gotten syphilis. More than 90% of these people (10.8 million) lived in the developing world. Syphilis got much less common after penicillin became available in the 1940s. At that time, penicillin was used as a treatment for syphilis, and often cured the disease. However, since 2000, syphilis is becoming more common again.

paragraphs: Syphilis can be a very dangerous disease if it is not treated. Without treatment, 8% to 58% of people with syphilis die from the disease. Syphilis also makes a person two to five times more likely to get Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV).

paragraphs: After a person gets syphilis, the disease begins in the primary stage. A person gets syphilis by having sex with a person who has syphilis. Usually, the person who has syphilis has wounds on their genitals caused by syphilis. Touching these wounds during sex (including oral sex or anal sex) can give a person syphilis.

paragraphs: Later, a chancre (skin sore) usually appears at the place on the body that touched the infected wounds. The chancre can be painful. The most common type of chancre gets bigger and bigger until it becomes an ulcer.

paragraphs: Chancres can appear in places other than the genitals. In women, chancres most often appear on the cervix - the bottom of the uterus. Some people get no chancres at all. Many people who have secondary syphilis (40–85% of women and 20–65% of men) say they never had a chancre during the primary stage.

paragraphs: Around the place where syphilis entered the body, the lymph nodes usually get bigger about 7 to 10 days after the chancre forms. If the person does not get treatment, their wound(s) can last for three to six weeks.

paragraphs: If a person does not get treatment, syphilis will get worse. The secondary stage of syphilis will start about four to ten weeks after the person first got infected. Secondary syphilis can cause many different symptoms. However, the most common three symptoms are:

paragraphs: All of the sores that people get during this stage can spread syphilis. The bacteria lives inside the wounds.

paragraphs: The symptoms of secondary syphilis usually get better after three to six weeks. However, in about 25% of cases (1 out of every 4), these symptoms can return.

paragraphs: In the latent stage of syphilis, a person has no symptoms, but blood tests show that he has syphilis. Latent syphilis is described as either early or late.

paragraphs: If a person with syphilis does not get treatment, the disease can reach the worst stage - tertiary syphilis. Usually this happens about three to 15 years after the person first got infected. Without treatment, one-third of people with syphilis get tertiary disease. People with tertiary syphilis cannot infect other people with syphilis.

paragraphs: There are three different forms of tertiary syphilis.

paragraphs: Gummatous syphilis can happen anywhere from one to 46 years after the person first got syphilis. On average, it happens after 15 years. It causes soft, tumor-like balls of inflammation (swelling), of many different sizes. Usually they appear on the skin, bone, and liver, but they can happen anywhere.

paragraphs: About 15% of people who do not get treated for syphilis get gummatous syphilis.

paragraphs: In neurosyphilis, the syphilis infects the central nervous system (the brain and spinal cord). In some people, neurosyphilis happens soon after they get syphilis. (This is called "early neurosyphilis".) Some of these people have no symptoms of neurosyphilis. Others get syphilitic meningitis, a dangerous infection of the meninges (the protective layers which line the brain and spinal cord).

paragraphs: Neurosyphilis can also appear later, usually four to 25 years after a person first got syphilis. (This is called "late neurosyphilis".) Late neurosyphilis can cause many serious problems. For example:

paragraphs: About 6.5% of people who do not get treated for syphilis get late neurosyphilis.

paragraphs: This type of tertiary syphilis causes problems with the cardiovascular system (the heart and blood vessels). It usually happens 10 to 30 years after the person first got infected with syphilis.

paragraphs: The most common problem it causes is syphilitic aortitis, which affects the aorta. The aorta is the most important artery in the heart; it helps carry blood to the entire body. Syphilitic aortitis can make the aorta become too big. If the aorta is too big, it cannot work correctly.

paragraphs: About 10% of people who do not get treated for syphilis get cardiovascular syphilis.

paragraphs: Congenital syphilis is spread from a mother to her fetus during pregnancy or childbirth.

paragraphs: Two out of every three infants born with syphilis have no symptoms. In the other infants, symptoms can appear as the baby gets older. The most common symptoms are:

paragraphs: If babies with syphilis do not get treated, they can get "late congenital syphilis", which has much more serious symptoms. For example, the child can have seizures, and their body and brain may not grow normally.

paragraphs: Syphilis is caused by the "Treponema pallidum" bacterium. "Treponema pallidum" is a species of bacterium which is shaped like a spiral: a spirochaete. There are different types of "Treponema pallidum" bacteria, which are called subspecies.

paragraphs: Scientists think that "Treponema pallidum" can only live inside humans. The bacterium cannot survive outside a human for more than a few days.

paragraphs: Syphilis is spread mostly by sexual contact or during pregnancy from a mother to her fetus. Syphilis can pass through undamaged mucous membranes, or through damaged skin. Because of this, syphilis can be spread through oral sex, vaginal sex, and anal sex. It can also be spread by kissing, if the person with syphilis has a sore in their mouth.

paragraphs: Only a very small amount of the "Treponema pallidum" bacterium needs to get into a person's body to cause syphilis. However, not everybody who is exposed to primary or secondary syphilis will get the disease.

paragraphs: A person can get syphilis if they get a blood transfusion from someone with the disease. However, many countries test blood donations for syphilis. In countries that do not do this, getting syphilis from a blood transfusion is much more likely.

paragraphs: Scientists think syphilis is usually not spread by sharing needles (using the same needles to inject drugs).

paragraphs: A person cannot get syphilis from sitting on a toilet seat; using a hot tub or a swimming pool; sharing plates, cups, or utensils; sharing clothing; or doing other regular daily activities.

paragraphs: It is hard for doctors to diagnose syphilis just from the signs and symptoms that happen early on, because many diseases can cause skin sores and rashes. Instead, they can diagnose syphilis by doing a blood test, or by looking at the blood under a microscope. Blood tests are used more often, because they are easier to do. However, blood tests cannot tell which stage of syphilis a person has.

paragraphs: , there is no vaccine that prevents syphilis.

paragraphs: Not having sexual contact with a person who has syphilis is one of the best ways to prevent getting syphilis.

paragraphs: If a person does not know if their sexual partner has syphilis, having safer sex can help protect them. For example, using a latex condom the right way lowers the risk of getting a sexually transmitted disease like syphilis. However, even if a person uses a condom, it is still possible for him to get syphilis.

paragraphs: Because of this, the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) says that the best ways to prevent syphilis are:

paragraphs: Congenital syphilis in newborn babies can be prevented by testing mothers for syphilis during early pregnancy and treating women who are infected. By following these steps, in 2015, Cuba became the first country in the world to eradicate the spread of syphilis from Cuban mothers to their babies.

paragraphs: The United States Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) and the World Health Organization say that all pregnant women should be tested for syphilis. If a woman tests positive, her sexual partners (the people she has had sex with) should also be treated.

paragraphs: In most developed countries, congenital syphilis is not common. It still happens once in a while, when women do not get any health care during pregnancy. However, congenital syphilis is much more common in developing countries. Many women in these countries do not get healthcare during pregnancy, and others get healthcare that does not include testing for syphilis. When there are programs that make syphilis testing easier to get, fewer babies get congenital syphilis in these countries.

paragraphs: If people do certain things, they are more likely to get syphilis. Medical professionals say that these people should get tested regularly. For example, the CDC says that men who have sex with men should be tested at least every year. Getting tested regularly helps prevent syphilis from being spread. If a person is tested and finds out that they have syphilis, they are more likely to get treatment, and will not accidentally spread syphilis to other people.

paragraphs: Syphilis is a notifiable disease in many places, including Canada, the countries in the European Union, and the United States. This means that if a healthcare provider (like a doctor or a nurse) knows that a patient has syphilis, the provider has to tell public health authorities that the patient is infected. Public health workers then talk to all of the patient's sexual partners. They tell them someone might have given them syphilis, without telling them who that person is. Doctors might also try to get patients with syphilis to tell their sexual partners to get treatment.

paragraphs: Syphilis that is not complicated can usually be treated and cured by antibiotic medications.

paragraphs: Usually, people need just one dose of penicillin G or azithromycin. If a person cannot take either of these medicines (for example, because they are allergic to them), some other medications work too. For example, Doxycycline and tetracycline are two other possible choices; however, they cannot be used in pregnant women.

paragraphs: The "Treponema pallidum" bacterium has become resistant to many different antibiotics, including macrolides, clindamycin, and rifampin. This means that these antibiotics no longer kill the bacterium.

paragraphs: Once a person is in the later stages of syphilis, the disease is harder to treat.

paragraphs: For example, if a person has neurosyphilis, they need antibiotics that will kill the infection in their central nervous system (their brain and major nerves). However, it is hard for penicillin G to get into the central nervous system. Because of this, a single shot of penicillin - which will usually cure early syphilis - is not enough to cure neurosyphilis. Instead, people with neurosyphilis usually need to be given large doses of penicillin for at least 10 days. Usually, they also need to get the medicine intravenously (through a needle placed into a vein) so it goes more directly to the central nervous system. If a person is allergic to penicillin, other antibiotics like ceftriaxone, doxycycline, or tetracycline can be used, but they have to be given over longer periods of time.

paragraphs: Once a person has late-stage syphilis, treatment will keep their syphilis from getting any worse. However, if syphilis has already damaged the person's body, the treatment will not make that damage go away. At best, treatment can only have a very small effect on the damage that has already happened.

paragraphs: Sometimes, the treatment for syphilis can cause a side effect called the Jarisch-Herxheimer reaction. This reaction usually starts within one hour after treatment begins, and lasts for 24 hours. Its symptoms include fever, muscle pains, headache, and a fast heart rate.

paragraphs: Antibiotic medication breaks open syphilis bacteria to kill them. As the bacteria break open, proteins come out of them. These proteins cause the Jarisch-Herxheimer reaction.

paragraphs: By 1999, syphilis had infected about 12 million people. More than 90% of these people lived in the developing world.

paragraphs: Syphilis causes problems in 700,000 to 1.6 million pregnancies every year. Syphilis can cause a pregnant woman to have a miscarriage, a stillbirth, a premature baby, a baby with congenital syphilis, or a baby that dies before it is a month old. In sub-Saharan Africa, syphilis causes up to 20% of perinatal deaths (deaths that happen soon after a baby is born).

paragraphs: Syphilis used to be very common, and it caused sickness and death all over the world. It was especially very common in Europe during the 18th and 19th centuries. During the early 20th century, syphilis quickly became less common in the developed world, because antibiotics were being used more and more. Syphilis kept becoming less common until the 1980s and 1990s. Since the year 2000, syphilis is getting more common again in the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, and Europe, mostly among men who have sex with men.

paragraphs: In China and Russia, syphilis has gotten more common among heterosexual ("straight") people since the 1990s. Studies say this is because of unsafe sexual practices, like having sex with many different people, prostitution (getting paid to have sex), and not having safer sex to protect against sexually transmitted diseases.

paragraphs: Over the 19th and 20th centuries, the symptoms of syphilis have become less severe (not quite as bad). This is partly because there are more treatments that work well, and if they are given early, syphilis does not get as bad. Also, the bacteria that causes syphilis has become weaker.

paragraphs: If people with syphilis get treated early on, they can usually be cured without the disease causing damage that cannot be fixed. However, syphilis is still very dangerous. It still causes serious problems, and sometimes death, if it is not treated.

paragraphs: Syphilis also makes a person two to five times more likely to get HIV. Confection (having both syphilis and HIV) is common. In some big cities, it happens in as many as 30% to 60% of people with syphilis.

paragraphs: Nobody knows exactly where and how syphilis started. There are two major ideas about where the disease came from.

paragraphs: The first idea is called the "Columbian hypothesis." (A hypothesis is an educated guess about how something happened). This hypothesis says that when Christopher Columbus's crew came back to Europe after exploring the "New World", they brought syphilis back to Europe and spread the disease there.

paragraphs: The other idea is called the "pre-Columbian hypothesis." ("Pre-Columbian" means "before Columbus.") This hypothesis says that syphilis was already in Europe before Columbus, and people just did not realize that the disease existed.

paragraphs: While there is evidence that can be used to say that either of these ideas are right, there is more evidence for the Columbian hypothesis.

paragraphs: The first written records that talk about an outbreak of syphilis in Europe are from 1494-1495. The outbreak happened in Naples, Italy, when France was invading (trying to take over Italy). Because syphilis was spread by French soldiers who were coming back from Italy, at first it was called the "French disease."

paragraphs: The name "syphilis" was first used in 1530 by an Italian doctor and poet named Girolamo Fracastoreo. He used the word "syphilis" as the title of a Latin poem that talked about the damage the disease was causing in Italy. At other times in history, syphilis was also called the "Great Pox".

paragraphs: In 1905, two men named Fritz Schaudinn and Erich Hoffmann discovered that syphilis is caused by the "Treponema pallidum" bacteria. Five years later, Paul Ehrlich created the first treatment that helped treat syphilis (called Salvarsan). After that, scientists started to study penicillin. In 1943, it was officially decided that penicillin worked for syphilis.

paragraphs: This was a major success in the treatment of syphilis. Before penicillin, the treatments used for syphilis were often even worse than the disease. For example, people were treated with mercury (which is poisonous and causes serious health problems), or people were just kept away from everyone else.

paragraphs: From 1932-1972, the United States Public Health Service did a study on syphilis in Alabama. They wanted to see how syphilis got worse when it was not treated. The researchers chose a group of poor African-American sharecroppers, but never told them they had syphilis. Even after the 1940s, when the researchers knew penicillin could cure these people, they refused to let them get treatment or even tell them that penicillin could help them. This study, now called the Tuskegee syphilis experiment, was very important in creating medical ethics.

paragraphs: Many famous people in history may have had syphilis. For example, some people think that Franz Schubert, Arthur Schopenhauer, Édouard Manet, and Adolf Hitler had the disease.


title: Gonorrhea

paragraphs: Gonorrhea is a disease. It is transmitted by having sex. It is among the most widespread sexually transmitted diseases. Gonorrhea is also sometimes called "the clap." Gonorrhea can be cured using antibiotics but the entire course of antibiotics must be used.

paragraphs: Its presence was found up to 700 years ago. At that time, this disease was described by coming from the "Le Clapiers" part of the city of Paris. This part of the city was known to be where prostitutes lived.

paragraphs: It is caused by a bacterium, "Neisseria gonorrheae". Since it is caused by a bacterium, it can be treated with antibiotics. The use of latex condoms when having sex can prevent it from spreading. Sometimes antibiotics do not cure gonorrhea. This is because the bacterium is becoming immune or resistant to the medicine. When this happens, the infection is more difficult to cure.


title: Cichlid

paragraphs: Cichlids (pronounced 'sick-lids') are fishes from the Cichlidae family, in the order "Perciformes".

paragraphs: It is a very large family of fish made up of more than 2500 species.

paragraphs: Cichlids come in many different sizes, from 2.5 centimeters to almost a meter long.

paragraphs: Cichlids are famous for their speciation in East African lakes.


title: Battle of Hastings

paragraphs: The Battle of Hastings (14 October 1066) was a pitched battle between the Anglo-Saxon English and an invading Norman army. The day-long battle ended in the death of the Anglo-Saxon king and a decisive victory for the Normans. William, the Duke of Normandy, was crowned as King William I of England 10 weeks later. The Norman conquest was a major turning point in England's history.

paragraphs: In 1002 Ethelred King of England married Emma, the sister of Richard II, Duke of Normandy. The alliance formed by this marriage had far reaching effects. When King Canute came to the throne of England in 1016, he took Queen Emma of Normandy as his wife. Her two sons by her former marriage fled to Normandy for their own safety. Edward the Confessor the older son stayed in Normandy for many years at the court of the dukes. The last duke who protected him there was his cousin Duke William. Edward became king of England in 1042. in 1052 King Edward, who was childless, made William his heir. In 1065 Harold Godwinson was in Normandy. While he was there he promised Duke William he would support him as successor to the English throne.

paragraphs: On 5 January 1066 Edward the king died. But Harold did not respect his oath to William. The next day, the day of the funeral, Harold Godwinson was crowned king of England. The story was that on his deathbed the king had changed his mind and promised Harold the throne. Harold was not royalty himself and had no legal claim on the throne. For weeks William must have known Edward was dying. But the news of the king's death and Harold's taking the throne must have been a surprise.

paragraphs: When William heard the news that Harold had become king his reaction was swift. He called a meeting of his greatest men. William made plans to gather a large army from all over France. His influence and wealth meant he could mount a large campaign. His first task was to build a fleet of ships to carry his army across the English Channel. Then he started gathering an army. His friendship with Brittany, France, and Flanders meant he did not have to rely only on his own army. He hired and paid soldiers from many parts of Europe. William asked for and got the support of the pope who gave him a banner to carry into battle. At the same time Duke William was planning his invasion so too was Harald Hardrada. The king of England knew both would be coming but he kept his ships and forces in the south of England where William might land.

paragraphs: William may have had as many as 1,000 ships in his invasion fleet. They had favorable winds to leave Normandy on the night of 27 September 1066. William's ship, the Mora, was a gift of his wife, Matilda. It led the fleet to the landing at Pevensey the next morning. As soon as he landed William got news of King Harold's victory over the Norwegian king at Stamford Bridge in the north of England. Harold also received news that William had landed at Pevensey and came south as quickly as he could. The king rested at London for a few days before taking his army to meet William and his French forces.

paragraphs: King Harold's army took up a position on an east-west ridge north of Hastings. The ridge itself was called Senlac Hill. They found the Norman army marching up the valley in front of them. While Harold had more soldiers, they were tired from the from London. William formed his lines at the base of the hill facing the shield wall of the English. He sent his archers halfway up the slope to attack the English. He sent his mounted knights to the left and right to find any weak spots. At first William's knights tried to break through the shield wall with the weight of their horses. But they were attacking uphill and could not gain any speed. Harold's front line simply stood fast and was able to fend off any attacks. William's army began to fall back with rumors of Duke William's death. William removed his helmet so his men could see he was still alive. When William saw that many of Harold's men were following his knights back down the hill, he used a trick he had learned years before. He turned suddenly and charged the oncoming English foot soldiers, who had no chance against mounted knights.

paragraphs: This tactic worked at least two more times during the battle and made Harold's shield wall weaker. Next William used something new. Where his attacks by knights and soldiers had been separate movements he now used them together. Where his archers had not succeeded against the shield wall he had them shoot high into the air so the arrows came down on top of the English. This may be where King Harold was killed by an arrow through his eye. The shield wall finally broke and the Normans were on top of them. By nightfall the English were either dead on the field or being hunted down by William's men. William called his men back and they spent the night camped on the battle field.

paragraphs: The battle was won, but the English still had smaller armies which had not joined King Harold at Hastings. They had lost their king but were still trying to reorganize. William rested his army for five days before moving towards London. His line of march took him through several towns he either captured or destroyed. When William reached London the English resisted for a short time but in the end surrendered.

paragraphs: The Battle of Hastings was a major turning point in English history. William's claim to the throne was strong, and he was able to back it up with force. On Christmas Day in 1066 William was crowned King of England.

paragraphs: Some time later the battle was pictured on a series of panels called the Bayeux Tapestry. His victory at Hastings gave William the nickname he has been known by ever since: 'William the '.


title: Pavo (genus)

paragraphs: The Asiatic peafowl is a kind of bird. They are the genus "Pavo" from the Phasianidae family. They originate from Southeast Asia.

paragraphs: The male is called a "peacock", the female a "peahen".

paragraphs: The males are very colorful, and they have very long "train feathers" (or "tail feathers"), which they can move up like a fan. Females are less colorful, and do not have the long train-feathers. Both the male and the female have a little "crown" of feathers on their head.

paragraphs: Males show their train feathers to court a female peafowl, or to scare other animals away by making them afraid.

paragraphs: Peafowl are omnivorous and eat plant parts, flower petals, seeds, insects, and small vertebrates, like reptiles and amphibians.


title: Reading, Berkshire

paragraphs: Reading (pronounced: "Redding") is a large town in Berkshire in England. It is the largest town in England and the largest settlement in Berkshire. It is home to about 230,000 people. Reading is found in South East England, between London and Bristol. The River Thames goes through the town. Reading replaced Abingdon as the county town of Berkshire in 1867.

paragraphs: TV presenter Chris Tarrant ("Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?") and comedian Ricky Gervais are from Reading, and also actress Kate Winslet, who has a road named after her. Musician Mike Oldfield is also from Reading. Tony Sullivan (local legend) is also a resident in the town. The town has two universities and is famous for its rock festival. Reading is home to Championship football and rugby teams.

paragraphs: There is a large statue of a lion in Forbury Gardens, and local legend has it that the sculptor killed himself by jumping off the top because he had sculpted the legs wrong. The lion is a memorial to soldiers from Berkshire who were killed in Maiwand, (Afghanistan) in a war in 1880.

paragraphs: Reading is the home of a school which used to be a Hospital in World War I and World War II. It is named Redlands Primary School.

paragraphs: Madejski stadium is home to the Reading Football Club whose nickname is "The Royals". They are also known as the "Biscuit Men". The stadium was opened on 22 August 1998.

paragraphs: Reading is the largest town in England. Of course, there are larger cities in England but Reading has not been granted city status and it doesn't have a cathedral.

paragraphs: Also, Reading is home to the Oracle, a huge shopping centre and a large university named University of Reading.

paragraphs: Reading began life as a Saxon Settlement. Reading was originally called Reada Ingas, which means people of Reada. Reada was a Saxon leader in the area with his tribe in the 6th century.

paragraphs: The Normans built a wooden castle in Reading. It was later replaced by a stone castle. The king then demolished the castle in 1152 fearing it might come into the hands of his enemies.

paragraphs: Reading was an important centre in the medieval period, as the site of Reading Abbey, a monastery with strong royal connections

paragraphs: The Huntley and Palmer's biscuit factory was the biggest in the world in 1914 and one factory was built on Kings Road by George Palmer in 1846.

paragraphs: "The Blade" in central Reading is the tallest building in Reading. It is 86 metres tall. It is visible from many places in the town.

paragraphs: Palmer Park was founded by George Palmer and it has a statue of George Palmer in it. Palmer Park was built for his workers to rest and people still enjoy using the park today.

paragraphs: There is a very famous hospital called The Royal Berkshire Hospital. It was opened in 1839.

paragraphs: Lots of schools in Reading took part in "Beat The Street" in 2015.


title: Dozen

paragraphs: A dozen is a unit of measurement. It means twelve (12) items of something. The term goes back to "duodecim", which means 12 in Latin. Humans might have started to count on a base 12 because there are approximately 12 cycles of the moon in one cycle of the sun. In other words, a solar year has 12 months. The first to have used the unit were probably the Mesopotamians.

paragraphs: 12 dozen (144 items) are a gross. 12 gross (1728 items) are called a "great gross".

paragraphs: A great hundred is 120 or ten dozen (a dozen for each finger on both hands).

paragraphs: The dozen is convenient because its multipliers and multiples are convenient: 12 = 3 × 2 × 2, and 360 = 30 × 12. The French word "douzaine" means "about twelve" and is part of a family of words with similar meanings, e.g. "vingtaine" – "about 20" "centaine" – "about 100" etc. A baker's dozen, also known as a long dozen, is thirteen.


title: European sprat

paragraphs: The European sprat is a kind of fish. It is related to the herring. It lives in the ocean, all around Europe. It has about 12% fat in its flesh. It is a source of many vitamins. It is an important fish for commercial fishing, and can be found in many cans in shops. It can also be salted, to preserve it better.


title: The Little Mermaid

paragraphs: "The Little Mermaid" is a literary fairy tale by Hans Christian Andersen. It was first published in Copenhagen, Denmark in 1837 in the third volume of "Fairy Tales Told for Children" with "The Emperor's New Clothes". The tale glorifies suffering and self-denial. There is a statue of The Little Mermaid in the harbor of Copenhagen. The story has been adapted to opera and animated movies.

paragraphs: A mermaid princess swims to the surface of the sea. As it happens, she sees a human prince and falls in love with him. She wants to meet him again; however, she is a mermaid, and her father, who is the king of the sea, would not let her do so. She wants to find a way to win the prince's love, so she goes to the sea witch's cave. She will get an immortal soul if she wins the love of a human. She sacrifices her voice and her tail to the sea witch for two human legs. The prince becomes her companion. But, he falls in love with another person. The mermaid has the chance to return to the sea. She must kill the prince to go back, and so she refuses. She dies, and is transformed into a daughter of the air. She will receive an immortal soul if she does good deeds for three hundred years.

paragraphs: In 1957, Germaine Tailleferre wrote a three act opera with the subject. In 1968, there was a Soviet animated movie. In 1976, a co-production of the Soviet Union and Bulgaria resulted in a live-action movie. In 1989, The Walt Disney Company also made an animated movie. In 2008, Studio Ghibli made a movie inspired by the story called Ponyo.


title: Hans Christian Andersen

paragraphs: Hans Christian Andersen (2 April 1805 – 4 August 1875) was a Danish writer.

paragraphs: Andersen was born in Odense, Denmark. His father was a shoemaker, and his mother washed clothes for customers. The family was poor. When Andersen was 11, his father died. At 14, Andersen left his mother and his home. He moved to Copenhagen.

paragraphs: The king helped Andersen finish his education. Andersen wanted to be an actor or dancer. He did not have the talent for either. He started to write novels, plays, poems, short stories, and travel books. In 1835, he published four fairy tales that were liked by the readers. After this success, he wanted to write more fairy tales.

paragraphs: Andersen's stories were popular all over Europe. He was invited into the homes of rich and powerful people. He fell in love with several men and women. He was in love with singer Jenny Lind. He also fell in love with ballet dancer Harald Scharff.

paragraphs: Andersen was a happy and carefree man. He travelled all over Europe. He wanted to see the sights. He hoped travelling would make him even happier. He always carried a rope with him. He planned to use this rope as a fire escape if needed. In the spring of 1872, Andersen fell off of his bed and did not recover. Soon after that, Andersen showed signs of liver cancer. He died on 4 August 1875 from complications following a fall and from heart cancer


title: Şükrü Saracoğlu Stadium

paragraphs: Fenerbahce Sukru Saracoglu is a football stadium in Istanbul in Turkey. It is home to the club Fenerbahce.


title: Atlantic herring

paragraphs: The Atlantic herring is a kind of herring, a fish. It can be found on both sides of the Atlantic. It can grow up to 45cm in length, weighing more than half a kilogram. It is a swarm fish, meaning many fish come together and form a "school" (or swarm) of fish. Swarms of up to 4 cubic kilometers in size have been measured of "atlantic herring", with an eastimated 4 billion individual fish. Like with so many other fishes though, commercial overfishing is posing a problem. Stocks of herring have been collapsing.

paragraphs: Their natural predators are seals, cod, other large fish as well as some kinds of whales.

paragraphs: The current reason for the overfishing is the need of the Omega Fatty Acid, which helps increase memory, and brain functions.


title: Pelagie Islands

paragraphs: The Pelagie Islands are three islands in the Mediterranean. They are Lampedusa, Linosa and Lampione. They are between Malta and Tunisia. They are part of the African continent but belong to Italy.

paragraphs: Because of deforestation, the islands are very . In the past they lived on agriculture, but nowadays they live on fishing and tourism.


title: Lampedusa

paragraphs: Lampedusa is the largest of the Pelagie Islands. Sicily is 205 km to the north, Tunisia is 113 km to the south. There are no sources of freshwater on the island, so those living there collect rainwater. Fauna and Flora, as well as the climate is similar to what can be found in North Africa.

paragraphs: There is a NATO base on the island. It is also a popular destination for refugees who try to enter the European Union that way.


title: Muscat

paragraphs: Muscat () is the capital and largest city of The Sultanate of Oman. It is the largest city in the mintaqah (governorate) of Muscat. The city of Muscat has a population of 1.28 million people (2015). The official language is Arabic. Muscat is located on the north east coast of Oman. The city is 3,500 km in size.

paragraphs: People started living in the Muscat area about 2300 years ago but the first writings of the city are about 1900 years old in the 1st century CE. Muscat developed into an important city in the 9th century CE because of business and trade at the port. Portugal, Persian (Iran) and Turkey had many wars for control over Muscat from the 1500s to the 1700s. The Al Bu Sa 'id tribe has ruled Muscat since then.

paragraphs: Muscat is a hot and dry city. The average daytime temperature in summer can be as high as 40 °C. The winter is cooler and the average daytime temperature is between 19 °C and 22 °C. There is very little rain with only 10 cm per year.

paragraphs: Muscat has several tourist sites including seven museums, a fort, an old palace and a new opera house. The city has beaches with hotel resorts. People can do many water-sports including dolphin tours in the city's harbour. In 2016, 2.5 million tourists visited Muscat. According to an article in Times Of Oman, almost 500,000 people visited in February alone for the popular Muscat Festival.


title: Ukrainian language

paragraphs: The Ukrainian language (Ukrainian: українська (мова), transliteration: ukrajins'ka mova) is an Eastern Slavic language. This language is a part of the Indo-European language family.

paragraphs: Ukrainian is the second most spoken Slavic language. It is the official language of Ukraine. There are 37 million speakers in Ukraine. Most of them are native speakers. All over the world there are more than 50 million speakers.

paragraphs: The Ukrainian language is written with Cyrillic letters.

paragraphs: Some words are similar to the Polish language.

paragraphs: The Ukrainian alphabet with transliteration and German transcription:


title: Native speaker

paragraphs: A native speaker is someone who learned to speak a language as part of his or her childhood development. A native speaker's language is usually the language their parents speak and/or the language of their country of origin. It is the only language of a monolingual person, and likely the first language of a multilingual person which is acquired naturally in their native environment. It may serve as the basis for their sociolinguistic identity.

paragraphs: A native speaker of a language has the following traits:

paragraphs: Many people who hire language teachers prefer native speakers.


title: Guilty Gear

paragraphs: Guilty Gear is a series of video games made by Arc System Works and Sammy Studios.

paragraphs: The first series has been release on PlayStation, Atlus

paragraphs: is the Publishers of the North America regional. The second game, Guilty Gear X release for PlayStation 2 home console. Release in 2001 in Japan and North America. The third installment (Guilty Gear X2) releases on PlayStation 2 in 2003.


title: Florence Nightingale

paragraphs: Florence Nightingale, OM (12 May 1820 – 13 August 1910), was an English nurse. She helped create the modern techniques of nursing. She became a leader of the team of nurses who helped wounded soldiers during the Crimean War.

paragraphs: She was the first female to receive the Order of Merit, one of the highest honours awarded by the British monarch. As a nurse she was given the name 'The Lady with the Lamp' because at night, she checked on the wounded soldiers and always carried 'The Lamp' with her. Florence Nightingale was a wonderful woman who fought the odds of not living a life expected by her family. She helped make modern nursing possible. Nightingale was a prodigious and versatile writer, and lived to be 90 years old.

paragraphs: In her lifetime she was concerned with spreading medical knowledge. Some of her books were written in simple English so that they could easily be understood by those with poor reading skills. She also was an early user of graphs and diagrams to display data.

paragraphs: Nightingale was helped to understand statistics by her country's leading expert on public statistics, William Farr. He was a founder of medical statistics, and epidemiology. Farr worked with her on all the statistics from the Crimean War, which she publicised in her writing. She proved that more men had died from disease than fighting, a very important piece of information. The disease in question was mostly cholera. Cholera is caused by a bacterium spread by people drinking water contaminated by sewage. Unfortunately, both she and Farr believed the disease was caused by foul air: this was called the miasma theory.

paragraphs: The miasma theory was refuted by John Snow, who discovered the real cause of an outbreak in London. The cause was foul water from a water pump in Broad Street, London. Snow's work was published in 1855, but it was 30 years before the germ theory was generally accepted. Farr publicly acknowledged he was wrong in 1866, but Nightingale never really gave up the miasma idea. London's cholera epidemics stopped once the authorities built sewage treatment plants, delivered cleaner water, and built a system of underground pipes that kept sewage from seeping into the water supply.

paragraphs: Florence Nightingale was born into an upper class British family in 1820 in Florence, Tuscany, Italy. She was named after the town where she was born. The family moved back to London when Florence was a young girl. She was a Unitarian. Although her parents expected her to become a wife and a mother, in 1845 she decided to become a nurse. While she was training she campaigned for better conditions for poor people in Britain.

paragraphs: In 1854 when the Crimean War began, Florence was working in Harley Street in London. After reading many reports about the poor treatment of sick and injured soldiers, she travelled to Crimea to see for herself and discovered the hospitals were crowded and dirty.

paragraphs: She knew Sidney Herbert, who was Secretary of War during the Crimean War and he helped her. At the hospital in Istanbul where the injured soldiers were sent, Florence realized that soldiers died more often from diseases like cholera than from their injuries in war. She used her knowledge of maths and statistics to show the British government that providing better conditions for sick and injured soldiers would help them win the war. She was, however, quite wrong about how cholera spread.

paragraphs: There is a syndrome named after her called "Florence Nightingale Syndrome". It occurs when a soldier falls in love with a nurse. While she was working in Crimea she became known as “The Lady with the Lamp” because she would walk around the hospital in the evening carrying a lamp and check on the soldiers.

paragraphs: When she returned to England she started a school in 1860 for nurses at St. Thomas’ Hospital in London. She wrote her most important book "Notes on Nursing". She was a keen Christian but also believed that pagan and eastern religions also contained genuine worth. She was a strong opponent of discrimination against all types of Christians as well as against non-Christians. Nightingale believed religion helped provide people with the fortitude for arduous good work.

paragraphs: In 1907, Florence Nightingale became the first woman to be awarded the Order of Merit by King Edward VII.

paragraphs: Nightingale died in 1910 in London. There are many statues of her in Britain, including one in Waterloo Place in London and a Florence Nightingale museum, also in London.


title: Apocalypse Now

paragraphs: Apocalypse Now is a 1979 American epic drama movie directed by Francis Ford Coppola.

paragraphs: It tells a fictional story which takes place in the 1960s during the Vietnam War. It tells the story of an Army Captain who is sent on a boat deep into the Cambodian jungle to capture a Special Forces colonel who, it is suggested, has gone insane. It was partly based on Joseph Conrad's novel about a journey down the Congo River, "Heart of Darkness".

paragraphs: It is now thought to be a great movie, but in the making it ran into problems. Its key star Martin Sheen, is on the screen for almost all the movie. He had a breakdown, and a heart attack. Editing the mile plus of film took years. It was unfinished when it was shown in the Cannes Film Festival.

paragraphs: "Apocalypse Now" is today considered to be one of the greatest films ever made. It was nominated for eight Academy Awards at the 52nd Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director (Coppola), and Best Supporting Actor for Robert Duvall. It went on to win for Best Cinematography and Best Sound. It ranked #14 in "Sight & Sound"s greatest films poll in 2012, and #6 in the Director's Poll of greatest films of all time.

paragraphs: The film as now shown on streaming channels is the Director's "Final Cut". This was first shown in 2019 at the Tribeca Film Festival. It runs for 3 hours, 3 minutes.


title: Vojvodina

paragraphs: The Autonomous Province of Vojvodina (Serbian: Аутономна Покрајина Војводина or "Autonomna Pokrajina Vojvodina") is one of the two autonomous provinces in Serbia. It is located in the northern part of the country, in the Pannonian plain. Its capital and the largest city is Novi Sad and the second largest city is Subotica.

paragraphs: Vojvodina is ethnically, culturally and linguistically diverse, with more than 26 different ethnic groups and six official languages.


title: Pennsylvania Station

paragraphs: Pennsylvania Station, or Penn Station, is a name of several railway stations in the United States. The name "Pennsylvania Station" comes from the times when all these stations belonged to the Pennsylvania Railroad and, later, to Penn Central. The stations in New York City, Newark, New Jersey, and Baltimore still have this name. The station in Pittsburgh, although officially known as Union Station, is also called Penn Station by locals. All these stations are currently served by Amtrak.


title: Dan Quayle

paragraphs: James Danforth "Dan" Quayle (born February 4, 1947) was the 44th Vice President of the United States. He served with President George H. W. Bush (1989–1993).

paragraphs: Quayle was born at Methodist Hospital (Called Indiana University Health Methodist Hospital) in Indianapolis, Indiana. His parents were Martha Corinne (née Pulliam) and James Cline Quayle. He has often been incorrectly referred to as "James Danforth Quayle III". In his memoirs, he points out that his birth name was simply James Danforth Quayle. The name Quayle originates from the Isle of Man, where his great-grandfather was born.

paragraphs: His maternal grandfather, Eugene C. Pulliam, was a rich and influential publishing magnate who founded Central Newspapers, Inc., owner of over a dozen major newspapers such as "The Arizona Republic" and "The Indianapolis Star". James C. Quayle moved his family to Arizona in 1955 to run part of the family's publishing business. While his family was very wealthy, Quayle was less rich; his total net worth by the time of his election in 1988 was less than $1 million.

paragraphs: Quayle and his wife are Presbyterians. He currently lives in Paradise Valley, Arizona.


title: Cincinnati

paragraphs: Cincinnati is a city in the southwestern corner of the state of Ohio near the states of Kentucky and Indiana. The city is in Hamilton County, Ohio. Cincinnati is home to major sports teams including the Cincinnati Reds and the Cincinnati Bengals, as well as events like the Cincinnati Masters and the Thanksgiving Day race. The University of Cincinnati traces its foundation to the Medical College of Ohio, which was founded in 1819.

paragraphs: Cincinnati was named after the Roman leader Lucius Quinctius Cincinnatus and was an early major city in the midwestern United States. Many Germans settled in the city and the Over-the-Rhine neighborhood gets its name from the river in Germany. Soap and machine tools are major industries in the area, which is home to the company Procter & Gamble as well as Macy's. Cincinnati's economy and population declined in the late 1900s, but the city is on the upswing. The Over-The-Rhine neighborhood has seen a lot of new businesses and development in recent years.

paragraphs: [[Category:1788 establishments in the United States]]

paragraphs: [[Category:18th-century establishments in the Northwest Territory]]


title: Cable car

paragraphs: A cable car is a type of car that runs on cables above the car. The machines that drive the cables are in the two "winding houses". One winding house is at the bottom and one at the top. It is used much in areas where there are a lot of mountains.

paragraphs: The construction of the longest cable way in the world was finished in 16th October 2010 in Armenia. Its name is Wings of Tatev and has length of 5.7 km.

paragraphs: Some cable cars run on railway tracks, pulled by a cable.


title: Tokusatsu

paragraphs: Tokusatsu is a Japanese word that means "special effects". It is used to talk about television shows and movies that have superheros, giant monsters, and other science fiction and fantastic themes. Some famous tokusatsu features include Godzilla, "Kamen Rider", and "Super Sentai".


title: Snakes on a Plane

paragraphs: Snakes on a Plane (released in Japan as "Snake Flight" (スネーク・フライト)) is a 2006 American action horror crime thriller movie. It was directed by David R. Ellis and it stars Samuel L. Jackson and released to movie theaters by Warner Bros. It is about many snakes on a plane that is traveling from Hawaii to Los Angeles, California.

paragraphs: The snakes attack people on the plane, and Samuel L. Jackson's character, FBI agent Neville Flynn becomes angry at the snakes, so he fights them.

paragraphs: The movie became very popular before it was released because of the title and because of many people talked about it on the Internet.


title: War in Afghanistan (2001–present)

paragraphs: The War in Afghanistan refers to a war waged by the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, The Netherlands, Australia and other countries against the Taliban and Al-Qaeda following the terrorists attacks against USA on September 11, 2001. In 2016, the last NATO troops were withdrawn. 1908 NATO soldiers were killed in Afghanistan: 1,162 American, 313 British and 433 Other Coalition countries' soldiers were killed in this war. More than 15,000 Coalition soldiers were wounded: 6,773 US, 3,954 UK, 1,500 Canadian and over 2,500 other Coalition soldiers. 5,500 Afghan army soldiers and 200 Northern Alliance militants were killed in this war. 378 US civilian contractors were killed and 7,224. British troops left Afghanistan in 2015, after 5 years of training the Afghanistan police to deal with threats from the Taliban.

paragraphs: Formal cessation took place on 28 December 2014 via a ceremony in the city of Kabul thus ending the 13 year long war. Thousands of American and other troops continued helping the Afghan government until December 31, 2016 when they were withdrawn. After security deteriorated, American soldiers returned and over 10,000 were in the country at the end of 2017.


title: Castrato

paragraphs: A castrato (plural "castrati") was a type of male singer with a very high voice. The effect was produced either through castration, or because of some hormonal problems. The word "castrato" literally means castrated. Such singers were very sought after in the early days of the opera. Most of the main soprano roles in operas by Handel and other composers of that time were written for castrati. Nowadays they are almost always sung by female sopranos, since there are no castrati left.

paragraphs: The practice of castrating young boys who had good singing voices was quite common in Italy in the 17th century. When castration is done before puberty, the usual effects of puberty will not happen. These include the vocal cords enlarging and growing bigger, and the voice getting deeper as a consequence.

paragraphs: Even though castration was illegal in many parts of Italy, it was often performed. Many families who were poor had their children castrated because it might give them a better future.

paragraphs: Once a boy was castrated he would go to a special music school where children learned singing and musical instruments. The castrati pupils were given special treatment. They were fussed over and kept warm to stop them from getting colds. When they grew up they hoped to become famous opera singers. A few of them had very successful careers in opera. They were the great stars of their day, and audiences came to the opera to cheer on their favourite singers. Those who were not good enough to make a career in opera joined church choirs instead.

paragraphs: It is impossible now for us to know what these great castrato voices sounded like, but they must have had very powerful voices and many of the singers were very skilled in singing and adding musical ornamentation to the songs. In the 18th century Italian opera became very popular in England. This was largely due to the German-born composer Georg Friderich Händel who moved to England in 1709 and wrote lots of Italian operas. Many singers who sang in London came from Italy, and many were castrati. The most famous one was called Farinelli.

paragraphs: The popularity of castrato singers died out in the 19th century when operas became less artificial and more like real life. By the mid-19th century they were no opera castrati left, although a few castrati still sang in church choirs. The last one, a man called Alessandro Moreschi, died in 1922 aged 64. There is a recording of his voice made in 1902 which can be heard online, but he may not have been a good singer and he was old when he made the recording, so we cannot judge whether the castrato voice was beautiful by that recording.


title: Falsetto

paragraphs: A falsetto voice is a special way of speaking or singing. If a man tries to imitate a woman’s voice he does it by speaking in a falsetto voice. When a man sings with a falsetto voice it sounds high like a soprano. Actors do this sometimes, e.g. Robin Williams in the film "Mrs Doubtfire" or Kevin Clash when voicing the character Elmo in "Sesame Street" and Barry Gibb of the Bee Gees, with his R&B falsetto. Also, Kellin Quinn from the band sleeping With Sirens uses falsetto sometimes.

paragraphs: Women can also use falsetto, but when they do there is not as big of a change in sound from their normal voices as there is in men. When women use falsetto the voice sounds lighter or weaker than it does when they speak or sing normally.

paragraphs: It is like stretching the mouth out into a wide smile and saying 'ee', except it is sung.

paragraphs: When people speak or sing, their vocal cords vibrate. When a man sings falsetto only the edges of his vocal cords vibrate. These produce harmonics. It is similar to playing harmonics on a string instrument by lightly touching the string at a certain point so that only part of the string vibrates. When a man sings falsetto his is usually one octave higher than his normal singing voice. When people sing in falsetto, their voice can be breathy sometimes.

paragraphs: Falsetto singing was used in the days when women were not allowed to sing in churches. Instead, men sang countertenor. Later the popularity of the countertenor disappeared, but in the mid 20th century it became popular again for performing Renaissance and Baroque music. Today the tradition of men singing alto (with countertenor voices) still exists in Britain in cathedral choirs and some church choirs which are all-male choirs. It is not a big, operatic voice, and it blends in well with boys’ treble voices in the acoustic of churches and cathedrals.

paragraphs: Occasionally falsetto can be used for comic effect, as in the roasted swan in the "Carmina Burana" by Carl Orff.


title: Countertenor

paragraphs: A countertenor is a male singer who uses a falsetto voice to sing high notes like a female contralto or mezzo-soprano.

paragraphs: Countertenors were used a lot in the Renaissance and Baroque periods when females were not allowed to sing in church choirs. They did not have big, dramatic voices like castrati, so they were not normally used in opera. People forgot about this way of singing in the 18th and 19th centuries, although male altos continued to sing in English cathedral and church choirs. In the 20th century an English countertenor called Alfred Deller became very famous. He sang many songs from the Baroque period that had been written for the countertenor voice, for example songs by Henry Purcell who sang countertenor himself. Today there is a lot of interest again in using this type of voice for performing early music like Renaissance and Baroque music.