aspiration

title: Aspiration

text: Aspiration is a feature in languages where saying a consonant gives out a puff of air. For example, if you dangle a piece of paper in front of your mouth, you will see it move if you say an aspirated, or breathy, consonant. If the paper does not move, the consonant it is unaspirated, or not breathy. In English, voiceless stops and fricatives the beginning of a word are aspirated, which are the sounds 'p', 't', 'k', and 'ch' (which are written as /p/, /t/, /k/, /t͡ʃ/ in the IPA in the same order). In the IPA, aspirated sounds can be written with an ʰ symbol afterwards, as in /pʰ/, /tʰ/, /kʰ/, and /t͡ʃʰ/. For example, the first sound in the words "pick", "tick", "kick", and "chick" are aspirated. In IPA, they are written as /pʰɪk/, /tʰɪk/, /kʰɪk/, and /t͡ʃʰɪk/ in the same order. However, voiceless stops and fricatives that appear after the first sound are unaspirated. For example, while the /p/ in "pit" is aspirated, the /p/ in "spit" and the /p/ in "tip" are not, so they would not be marked with an ʰ symbol afterwards. Below are more examples of aspiration. English has no aspirated voiced sounds, but Hindi has them. They are normally written with an 'h' after the consonant letter. An example of this is the name Bhattacharya, in which 'bh' is an aspirated 'b' sound, so it would be written as /bʱ/ in IPA. In Mandarin Chinese, there are no voiced stops, fricatives, or affricates and so the only way to tell them apart is by aspiration. In Pinyin, aspirated sounds are written like voiceless sounds in English and so the sounds /pʰ/, /tʰ/, and /kʰ/ are written as 'p', 't', and 'k' in the same order. However, unaspirated sounds are written like voiced sounds in English and so the sounds /p/, /t/, and /k/ are written as 'b', 'd', and 'g' respectively. For example, the word "Gaokao" would be written in IPA as /kau̯.kʰau̯/. In Wade-Giles, aspirated stops, fricatives, and affricates are written with an apostrophe after the letter instead of Pinyiin's use of a different letter and so "Gaokao" would be written as "Kaok'ao" in Wade-Giles.

isa: feature


astringent

title: Astringent

text: An astringent is a chemical that causes skin tissue to contract. It can be used to heal wounds and acne.


bag

title: Bag

text: A bag is a kind of soft container. It can hold or carry things. It may be made from cloth, leather, plastic, or paper. Many bags are disposable but some are made to use for a long time. A bag may have one or two handles or a shoulder strap. Bags come in different shapes and sizes depending on how they will be used. A small bag that can be carried with a single hand is sometimes called a handbag, purse, or pocketbook. Children can suffocate, or stop breathing and die, when they put certain kinds of bags over their heads, due to having the supply of oxygen cut off.


bier

title: Bier

text: A bier is a flat frame, traditionally wooden but sometimes made of other materials, used to carry a corpse for burial in a funeral procession. In antiquity it was often simply a wooden board on which the dead was placed covered with a shroud (cloth used for burial). In modern times, however, the corpse is almost never carried on the bier without being first placed in a coffin, though the coffin is sometimes kept open.

isa: frame


bola

title: Bolas

text: Bolas (from Spanish bola, "ball", also known as boleadoras) are a throwing weapon made of weights on the ends of interconnected cords, designed to capture animals by entangling their legs. They are used by the gauchos in South America today, but have been found in excavations of pre-Hispanic settlements, especially in Patagonia, where indigenous peoples used them to catch guanaco and ñandu.


breath

title: Breathing

text: Breathing is moving air in and out of the lungs. The air going in and out is called breath. If a person cannot breathe, they will die. Breathing helps people do two very important things: # Get oxygen into the body. Every part of the body needs oxygen to survive. The only way humans can get oxygen is to breathe it in. # Get carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) out of the body. When the body makes energy, carbon dioxide gets left over. The body needs to get rid of extra carbon dioxide, because too much of it is poisonous. The only way humans can get rid of carbon dioxide is to breathe it out. When a person breathes in, they bring air into their lungs. Air has oxygen in it. The oxygen goes from the lungs into the person's bloodstream. When oxygen goes into the bloodstream, extra carbon dioxide comes out and goes into the lungs. This is called gas exchange: basically, oxygen and carbon dioxide are changing places. Oxygen is now in the bloodstream, which can carry that oxygen around to every part of the body. Also, carbon dioxide is now in the lungs, where it can be breathed out. Adults breathe about 18 times a minute, which is more than 25,000 times a day. Children breathe even faster.


canto

title: The Cantos

text: The Cantos are a major work of modernist poetry by American poet Ezra Pound. They were written over many years, 1917-1970. They are controversial because of Pound's support for Mussolini while he lived in Italy.

isa: work


cavy

title: Caviidae

text: Caviidae are a group of rodents that live in South America. Some Caviidae are guinea pigs and capybaras.

isa: rodent


cheesecake

title: Cheesecake

text: A cheesecake is a dessert cake made of cheese (usually cream cheese but sometimes ricotta), eggs, and sugar. It often has a graham cracker crumb crust, sometimes held together by melted butter. The filling has a very heavy, smooth texture. It sometimes has sour cream to make it easier to shape and may have fruit flavoring such as strawberry, blueberry, or lemon. It is often topped with fresh fruit or chocolate.

isa: cake


confluence

title: Confluence

text: Confluence means the meeting of two or more waterways. It usually means the point where a smaller river joins a more major river.


crossroads

title: Crossroads

text: Crossroads is a movie from 2002 with starring Britney Spears in her first major movie role.


distraction

title: Distraction

text: Distraction is the process of trying to change or get the attention of an individual or group from one area to another. This is done so that people can move from one place to another without the target noticing the person. Distraction in humans is caused by: the lack of ability to pay attention; lack of interest in the object of attention; or the great intensity, novelty or attractiveness of something other than the object of attention. Any behaviour which is human has its origin in the deep past. One principle is that animals adapt to regular features of their environment. So most animals learn their environment in detail. This reduces the chance of their being surprised. A standard observation is that a predator moves when its target is distracted. Behaviours related to this are strongly inherited. When discovery is almost certain, prey may drop body parts (for example, their tail), play possum (play dead) or just run away. Some lizard tails are programmed to wriggle a bit when they are dropped.

isa: process


dodge

title: Dodge

text: Dodge is an American automobile, SUV and truck maker. They are based in Auburn Hills, Michigan. Dodge was created by brothers Horace and John Dodge in 1900. Dodge was sold to Chrysler in 1928. In 2009 Dodge announced it would spin-off the Ram division making it its own brand.


explanation

title: Explanation

text: An explanation is an attempt to answer the question "why". Asked of a person, it is a question about motive: "why did you do this?". Asked of a natural event, it is a question about natural causes (causation). In science, an explanation is the link between an event which is a cause, and a second event, which is an effect. The phrase "cause and effect" refers to this. The relationship between the two events is known as causality. The philosopher Mario Bunge said, "We do not rest content with finding facts but wish to know why they should occur rather than not". As a general rule, explanations move from what we know to what we do not know. This is important because it explains why different kinds of people may need different explanations. "A child, a lay person and an expert may need different explanations of the same thing, since what is already familiar to them will differ". The asking of questions depends on language, and is peculiar to humans. It starts very soon after a child learns how to speak. A kind of game which young children play with adults is the 'why game'. Every parent gets the experience of their child asking a never-ending stream of why questions, until at last the adult says "Well, it just is!" There can be plenty of argument about whether or not an explanation is appropriate, and if so, whether it is correct. If one asks why the sun gives out heat and light, to say "because it is daytime" is not appropriate, even if it might indeed be daytime. The real answer was not known until the 20th century. Before then peoples like the ancient Egyptians thought it was caused by a god (Aten).


federation

title: Federation

text: A federation is a union of a number of self-governing states or regions, which are joined together under a central government. The central government is not able to do a lot of things that central government in more centralized states can. These things are done by the states (or regions) in a federalized state. The United States of America is a federation. The federal (central) government has the highest executive role. However, state governments can exercise any powers as long as those powers are not assigned to the federal government (by the United States Constitution) and if those powers are not prohibited by the states themselves. Australia became a Federation in 1901. After the 1971 civil war, Pakistan became a Federation adopted in the 1973 Constitution of Pakistan. Other examples of federal states are Austria, Belgium (since 1993), Canada, Germany, Russia and Switzerland.

isa: union


fleet

title: Chesil Beach

text: Chesil Beach, sometimes called Chesil Bank, in Dorset, southern England is one of three major shingle structures in Britain. Its name is derived from the Old English ceosel or cisel, meaning "gravel" or "shingle". It is a kind of offshore barrier which has joined the mainland with Portland Bill. The lagoon between the chesil and the mainland is called The Fleet or The Fleet Lagoon. The shingle beach is 18 miles long (29km), 220 yards wide (200m) and 50 feet high (15m). The beach and the Fleet are part of the Jurassic Coast, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and the location for a book, On Chesil Beach by Ian McEwan. At the eastern end of the beach at the village of Chiswell, against the cliffs of the Isle of Portland, the beach curves round sharply to form Chesil Cove. This part of the beach protects the low-lying village from flooding. Westwards the shingle forms a straight line along the coast, enclosing the Fleet, a shallow tidal lagoon. The lagoon is 9½ feet (3m) at its deepest. p99 The beach provides shelter from the prevailing winds (from the west) and waves for the town of Weymouth and the village of Chiswell, which would otherwise probably not exist Varying with the Bank's unbroken increase in height, to , above mean high water, the size of the flint and chert shingle varies from pea-sized at the north-west end (by West Bay) to orange-sized at the south-east end (by Portland). It is said that smugglers who landed on the beach in the middle of the night could judge "exactly where they were" by the size of the shingle.

isa: structure


gulag

title: Gulag

text: The Gulag was a vast network of "slave labor" camps run by the Soviet Union from the 1920s to the 1950s. Ever since the Soviet Union was founded in 1917, it imprisoned people who spoke out against it or were otherwise dangerous. Imperial Russia in previous decades had a similar system of prison camps. But the Soviet Union camp system grew to be one of the largest prison systems in existence. The Soviet camp-system was set up under Vladimir Lenin. It reached its peak during Joseph Stalin's rule from the 1930s to the early 1950s. The Gulag was run at first by the GPU (State Political Directorate), later by the NKVD and in the last years by the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MVD). The internment system grew rapidly, reaching a population of 100,000 in the 1920s. According to Nicolas Werth, the yearly mortality rate in the Soviet concentration camps varied, reaching 5% (1933) and 20% (1942–1943) and dropped in the post-war years to about 1 to 3% per year at the beginning of the 1950s. Soviet leaders believed it was right to put these people to work and make their labor and goods part of the national economy. In fact, two out of every hundred workers in the Soviet Union were gulag prisoners. By 1936, there were 5,000,000 prisoners in the gulags.


hedge

title: Hedge

text: A hedge or hedgerow is a close-knit row of shrubs and sometimes tree species. They were usually planted and "trained" to form a barrier. They marked the boundary of an area, and so were a sign of possession. Livestock farmers use them to prevent cattle straying out of fields. Animals which cannot usually be contained in fields (hill sheep for example) need a man and dog to look after them, which is an expense. Hedges were much more common before modern agriculture. Modern crop farming uses machines to gather the crop, and so hedges have almost disappeared in some areas. When hedges are first laid, they are usually all of one species. But over hundreds of years, the number of species in a hedge gradually increases, and often includes fully-grown trees. There are many hedges in Europe which have been there for 500 or a thousand years. Making hedges into ornaments is a skill called topiary. Sometimes, hedges are made into mazes. Hedges are vitally important to small birds and mammals. In the modern world they play the role which thick forest undergrowth would have played in an ancient ecology. The nests in a hedge or thicket often cannot be got at by larger predators. Obviously tiny birds like robins or finches choose safe places to nest, and if they cannot, then their brood is unlikely to survive.


humour

title: Humorism

text: Humorism, or humoralism, was a system of medicine about the makeup and workings of the human body. It was a belief that too much or too little of any of four distinct body fluids in a person directly influenced their temperament and health. The humoralist system of medicine is highly individualistic. Each individual patient was made up of their own unique combination of humors. It resembled an early holistic approach to medicine linking mental and physical processes. From Hippocrates onward, the humoral theory was adopted by Greek, Roman and Persian physicians. It became the most commonly held view of the human body among early physicians until the coming of modern medical research in the nineteenth century. It has not been used in medicine since then.


improvisation

title: Improvisation

text: Improvisation is the art of performing without a script or rehearsal.

isa: art


individual

title: Individual

text: Individual can be an adjective or a noun. As an adjective, a living thing that is individual is not in a group (by him/her/itself). An object that is individual is for only one person or thing (not shared by a group). Something that is individual can also be different from anyone else (unique). *Some students learn better with tutors because they get individual attention. *He has a very individual taste in music. As a noun, an individual is only one person or thing, not a group. An individual can also mean someone who is different from anyone else (one a kind). *The rights of individuals *A strange individual


leash

title: Leash

text: A leash or lead is a strap used to control the movement of an animal,. It is normally connected to a collar, harness or halter to control a pet, Leashes are commonly used on dogs during walks and other times when the pet is outside the owner's home or property. It is used to make sure the animal does not wander away from its owner. A leash can also be used on toddlers and other small children to prevent them from wandering away from their parents or guardians during outings.

isa: strap


mat

title: Mat

text: A mat is a most likely flat object (normally soft) to wipe your feet/shoes off. It can also mean a few other things like a small piece of cork, card, or fabric placed on a table or other surface to protect it from the heat or moisture of an object placed on it. In a different form called matted it can mean almost completely different things.

isa: object


mother

title: Mother

text: A mother (also called mom, mum and mommy) is a female parent. A mother gives birth to babies after pregnancy. Pregnancy is usually nine months. If a woman raises an adopted or biological child, then she is a mother as well. Adopted children are also part of that person's family. Also see Maternal insult.

isa: parent


mud

title: MUD

text: In terms of computer games, a MUD (short for Multi-User Dungeon, Multi-User Dimension or Multi-User Domain) is a multiplayer online game that is usually completely text-based.

isa: game


octave

title: Octave

text: An octave is the distance between two musical notes that have the same letter name. If a musician sings or plays a scale (‘do-re-mi-fa-sol-la-si-do’) the first and last ‘do’ are an octave apart. It is called an ‘octave’ because there are eight notes in a scale (‘octo’ is Latin for ‘eight’). If a musician sings or plays the first two notes of the song “Somewhere over the rainbow” (i.e. the word ‘Somewhere’) these two notes are an octave apart. Two notes that are an octave apart sound very similar, almost like the same note. The scientific reason for this is that the top note vibrates twice as fast. For example: if someone plays Middle C on a piano, a hammer hits the Middle C strings inside and makes them vibrate 256 times a second. The C an octave higher will vibrate 512 times a second. Young children who learn the piano will not be able to stretch an octave with one hand, if their hands are too small. Most adults can stretch an octave easily (playing one note with the thumb, and the other with the little finger).

isa: note


offspring

title: Offspring

text: In biology, offspring are the young creation of living organisms. They may be produced by a single organism or, in the case of sexual reproduction, two organisms. Collective offspring may be known as a brood or progeny. In a more general way, 'brood' implies a set of simultaneous offspring, such as the chicks hatched from one clutch of eggs. Progeny is a more general word.

isa: creation


oregano

title: Oregano

text: Oregano (Origanum vulgare), also known as wild marjoram, is a species of Origanum. It is native to Europe, the Mediterranean region and southern and central Asia. It is a perennial herb. It can grow to 20–80 cm tall. Its leaves are opposite each other. They are 1–4 cm long. The flowers are purple. They can grow 3–4 mm long. The name of the plant comes from the Greek origanon [ὀρίγανον]: oros [ὄρος] “mountain” and the verb ganousthai [γανοῦσθαι] “delight in”.


pack

title: Backpack

text: A backpack (also called rucksack, knapsack, pack, Haversack, or Bergen) is a bag put on somebody's back. It usually has two straps that go over the shoulders. It is used to carry things in it, and it often has many pocket s or compartments to carry things. People often use backpacks when camping, hiking, or other activity where they need to carry many things. Backpacks are also used in the military by soldiers. When used in school they are called bookbags or school bags. Large backpacks, used to carry loads over 10 kg (22 lbs), and smaller sports backpacks, usually offload the biggest part of their weight onto padded hip belts. This leaves the shoulder straps mainly for keeping the load in place. This makes it easier to carry heavy loads, because the hips are stronger than the shoulders. It also improves agility and balance, because the load lies closer to the center of mass of the person wearing it. In the distant past, backpacks were used to carry hunters' larger catches. If the hunts were even larger, the hunters would butcher their prey into pieces and hand out the pieces to other hunters. The hunters would then carry smaller pieces separately. The bag would be made up of animal skin and sewn together by animal intestines. They would then be woven together tightly to make a firm material. Some backpacks are specialized to carry a particular thing, such as fluids or a laptop computer.


park

title: Park

text: A park is an open place in a city or town for nature. There are often trees, benches, statues, and ponds in a park. Some parks built in big cities are very large. These can have fountains or picnic areas. A park is an open area,often found with trees,benches,statues,etc. There is also lots of nature around, such as flowers, animals, trees, and much more. It is mostly used for recreational activities such as walking, exercising, cycling, playing,etc. A play park can even have swings,slides and some adventurous activities. Sometimes, countries or regions set up national parks. These are usually large areas of land. Those areas are made to protect the habitats of animals. Very often, a special permit is necessary to enter. Building things in the park is usually forbidden, or needs a special permit. An example of a national park is Yellowstone National Park. A park can also be an amusement park or water park in which the rides and shows are the main attractions.

isa: place


partisan

title: Partisan

text: A partisan is an armed fighter, who is not part of the regular troops of a country or state. The term comes from Italian, where it meant member of a political party. There is no separate legal status for partisans in international law. The law of war uses four criteria to legally define someone as a prisoner of war, if the person is captured: # There is someone at the head of the organisation, who assumes liability # They can be identified by a sign or mark, which is visible from far away # They carry their weapons openly # They adhere to the customs and laws of war, during their operation. In 1977, there were two additional protocols: They clarified that it is sufficient to carry the weapons openly only on some occasions, to be titled armed combatant.

isa: fighter


partner

title: Partnership

text: A partnership is when two or more people work together to complete a task. Those people are partners. Some partnerships are created by a legal contract. Partners may share a business together for the profit of each other. If one business partner ends up making money they both share the profit. Some partners are not individuals but corporations or other groups.


passer

title: Sparrow

text: A north American sparrow is a member of the genus Passer. They are small passerine birds which belong to the family Passeridae. They are also known as old-world sparrows. Sparrows often make their nests near houses or buildings. This means they are one of the easiest birds to see in the wild. The genus has about 30 species around the world. The best known of these is the house sparrow, Passer domesticus. Some authorities place other genera in the sparrow group: Petronia, the rock sparrows; Carpospiza, the pale rockfinch; and Montifringilla, the snowfinches.


pistachio

title: Pistachio

text: The pistachio (Pistacia vera) is a small tree from the family Anacardiaceae (also known as the Cashew family). It is well known for its seeds that are eaten as food. It is native to the Middle East and Central Asia.

isa: tree


pointer

title: The Pointer

text: The Pointer is a 1939 American animated short film produced by Walt Disney Productions. It was released by RKO Radio Pictures on July 21, 1939. The short was directed by Clyde Geronimi and animated by Fred Moore, Frank Thomas, Lynn Karp, Seamus Culhane, Ollie Johnston, Preston Blair, Lester Norvi, John Lounsbery, Claude Smitha, Art Palmer, and Josh Meador.


prism

title: Prism (optics)

text: A prism is a special piece of glass, crystal, or plastic that bends light. The light bends (or refracts) because it moves slower in the glass, crystal or plastic than it does in air. If different colors of light move at different speeds, each color bends a different amount. This is dispersion and it splits the light into a band of different colors called a spectrum. This spectrum has the same colors as a rainbow does, because rainbows are made the same way, by bending light. They happen when light is bent by tiny drops of water floating in the air. If the light does not come out when you shine it into the prism, it is called internal reflection. Some prisms are used to disperse light. Binoculars also use prisms, to reflect light. This lets the tubes of the binoculars be short. Some cameras use a prism to send light to the viewfinder, so the photographer can see what will be photographed.

isa: glass


recoil

title: Recoil

text: Recoil or kick (sometimes incorrectly called kickback ) is the tendency of a firearm to move backwards and at the same time the muzzle of the gun to rise when fired. This is a reaction to the explosive force of a bullet leaving the barrel of a firearm. A handgun shooter feels the recoil in the hands and arms. A rifle or shotgun shooter feels most of the recoil in his or her shoulder.

isa: tendency


renegade

title: Rage Against the Machine

text: Rage Against the Machine, sometimes known as RATM or Rage, is a rock band from Los Angeles, California. Rage Against the Machine are known for mixing funk, hip-hop, metal and rock music. They are also known for their left-wing political opinions. The band members have been the same since they started in 1991. The band members are rapper Zack de la Rocha, guitarist Tom Morello, bassist Tim Commerford and drummer Brad Wilk. Morello, Commerford and Wilk also made Audioslave with Chris Cornell. RATM released their first album in 1992. It was called Rage Against the Machine. The album sold a lot of copies and reached number 40 on the Billboard 200 music chart. The band did not do another album until Evil Empire in 1996. The band's third album, The Battle of Los Angeles, was released in 1999. Shortly after, in 2000, the band released a covers album named Renegades.

isa: band


revolver

title: Revolver

text: A revolver is a type of gun. Revolvers are repeating firearms with a cylinder that spins. Revolvers have several chambers each holding one cartridge. Most are handguns, but other types of weapons also use revolving cylinders. They are also called revolving guns, though revolver is used far more often. The first revolvers date back to late 1500s in Europe. It was not until the 1700s or 1800s, however, they became affordable. Revolvers are sometimes used by law enforcement agencies. On some occasions, these guns can be reset by one hand, then loaded with the other.

isa: gun


sac

title: Sauk people

text: The Sac or Sauk are a group of Native Americans of the Eastern Woodlands culture group. They lived mostly in the region of what is now Green Bay, Wisconsin. This was when they were first met by the French in 1667. They have three federally recognized tribes, together with the Meskwaki (Fox), in Iowa, Oklahoma and Kansas.


subway

title: The Subways

text: The Subways are an English rock band. They are from Welwyn Garden City, Hertfordshire. They were formed in 2002. It consists of Billy Lunn, Charlotte Cooper, and Camille Phillips. The band's name comes from a time when brothers Billy Lunn and Josh Morgan and Charlotte Cooper used to hang around the local subway underpass which ran underneath a Welwyn Garden City roundabout.


teacake

title: Teacake

text: Teacake is a term used for a variety of baked goods. Tea refers to the popular beverage to which these baked goods are an accompaniment.


tern

title: Tern

text: Terns are seabirds in the family Laridae. They are normally found near the sea, rivers, or wetlands. They are slender, lightly built birds with long, forked tails, narrow wings, long bills, and short legs. Most species are pale grey above and white below, with a contrasting black cap to the head, but some have dark plumage for part of the year. Terns breed in noisy colonies and lay their eggs on bare ground with little or no nest material. Marsh terns make floating nests from the vegetation in their wetland habitats, and a few species build simple nests in trees, on cliffs or in crevices. Most species feed on fish caught by diving from flight, but the marsh terns are insect-eaters, and some large terns may take small land vertebrates. Many terns are long-distance migrants, and the Arctic tern may see more daylight in a year than any other animal.


terror

title: Reign of Terror

text: The Reign of Terror or simply The Terror was a period of about 11 months during the French Revolution, led by Maximilien de Robespierre. During this time, French people who did not support the revolution were executed at the guillotine. The Reign of Terror was announced on 5 September, 1793. A Revolutionary Tribunal decided who would be killed. This happened more and more often in June and July of 1794, a period called la Grande Terreur (The Great Terror). On 17 July 1794, sixteen nuns attracted much attention by singing a religious song as they were being executed for treason. The Terror ended ten days later, when several important leaders of the Reign of Terror were executed, including Saint-Just and Robespierre. The Terror took the lives of between 18,500 to 40,000 people. Robespierre died due to the Thermidorian Reaction against the Jacobins, by being executed with the guillotine. This was a revolt against the revolution otherwise called a counter-revolution. Robespierre was one of the last to be guillotined, after the 21 followers.