1490 résultats pour "most"
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Aegean Civilization - USA History.
warlike. The styles are also more formal and geometric than those of earlier examples, anticipating the art of classical Greece. A typical Mycenaean city had, at its center, the fortress palace of the king. The cities were fortified with massive structures of unevenly cut stones, known as Cyclopeanwalls. The Linear B tablets from this time include names of Greek gods, such as Zeus, and contain detailed records of royal possessions. The gold masks, weapons, andjewelry found by Schliemann at the r...
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Suriname (country) - country.
Tongo, a Creole language. Also known as Taki-Taki, Sranang Tongo includes elements of several languages and is the vehicle for most interethnic communication. Otherlanguages spoken in Suriname include Hindi, Javanese, Chinese, English, and French. Small numbers of Native Americans still speak indigenous languages. The main religions in Suriname are Christianity, Islam, and Hinduism. The majority of Christians are Roman Catholics, and members of the Moravian Church predominateamong Protestants. E...
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Extinction (biology) - biology.
III ROLE OF MASS EXTINCTION IN EVOLUTION Historically biologists—most famous among them British naturalist Charles Darwin—assumed that extinction is the natural outcome of competition between newlyevolved, adaptively superior species and their older, more primitive ancestors. These scientists believed that newer, more highly evolved species simply drove less well-adapted species to extinction. That is, historically, extinction was thought to result from evolution. It was also thought that this...
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Buenos Aires (city) - geography.
The city has produced or nurtured many of the most prominent Spanish-language writers of the 20th century, including Jorge Luis Borges, Julio Cortázar, and ManuelPuig. Buenos Aires has long been one of the primary centers of Spanish-language publishing and printing, and it is home to major publishing companies. It supports theoldest English-language daily newspaper in Latin America, the Buenos Aires Herald, published since 1876. The arts have a long, rich history in Buenos Aires. This is mani...
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Michelangelo
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INTRODUCTION
Michelangelo (1475-1564), Italian painter, sculptor, architect, and poet whose artistic accomplishments exerted a tremendous influence on his contemporaries and on
subsequent European art.
(17 ft) tall, was carved from a block of stone that another sculptor had left unfinished. Michelangelo drew on the classical tradition in depicting David as a nude,standing with his weight on one leg, the other leg at rest ( see contrapposto). This pose suggests impending movement, and the entire sculpture shows tense waiting, as David sizes up his enemy and considers his course of action. While David reveals Michelangelo's expert knowledge of anatomy (he had been dissecting corpses for about...
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Michelangelo.
(17 ft) tall, was carved from a block of stone that another sculptor had left unfinished. Michelangelo drew on the classical tradition in depicting David as a nude,standing with his weight on one leg, the other leg at rest ( see contrapposto). This pose suggests impending movement, and the entire sculpture shows tense waiting, as David sizes up his enemy and considers his course of action. While David reveals Michelangelo's expert knowledge of anatomy (he had been dissecting corpses for about...
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Solar System - astronomy.
dwarf planets according to the IAU because they have rounded shapes from their own gravity but have not cleared their neighborhoods in space of other objects—bothorbit through the Kuiper Belt, a region beyond Neptune containing thousands of small icy bodies. Pluto and Eris are composed of layers of ice around a rocky core.Ceres qualifies as a dwarf planet because it is spherical but is found in the asteroid belt, a zone between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter that contains thousands of smallrocky...
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Digestive System.
The stomach, located in the upper abdomen just below the diaphragm, is a saclike structure with strong, muscular walls. The stomach can expand significantly to storeall the food from a meal for both mechanical and chemical processing. The stomach contracts about three times per minute, churning the food and mixing it with gastricjuice. This fluid, secreted by thousands of gastric glands in the lining of the stomach, consists of water, hydrochloric acid, an enzyme called pepsin, and mucin (the...
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Montréal - geography.
requires children of immigrants to be educated in French. As a result, French-language schools became increasingly multiethnic. With four universities, Montréal is one of the leading centers of higher education in Canada. There are two English-language institutions: McGill University (1821) andConcordia University (1974). Their French-language counterparts are the Université de Montréal (1876) and the University of Québec at Montréal (1969). Both private andstate universities are funded by the p...
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Butterflies.
When the change is complete, the adult butterfly splits the chrysalis. The insect unfolds its wings andpumps blood and air into them. It spreads out the wings until they dry and harden. The beautifulbutterfly then flies off to slurp nectar from flowers. Most butterflies live only one or two weeks. BUTTERFLY RELATIVES Butterflies are closely related to moths, another type of insect. One difference between butterflies andmoths is how their antennae look. Butterflies have knobs called clubs on the...
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Maya Civilization.
destruction was directed mostly at temples in the ceremonial precincts; it had little or no impact on the economy or population of a city as a whole. Some city-states didoccasionally conquer others, but this was not a common occurrence until very late in the Classic period when lowland civilization had begun to disintegrate. Until thattime, the most common pattern of Maya warfare seems to have consisted of raids employing rapid attacks and retreats by relatively small numbers of warriors, most o...
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Maya Civilization - History.
destruction was directed mostly at temples in the ceremonial precincts; it had little or no impact on the economy or population of a city as a whole. Some city-states didoccasionally conquer others, but this was not a common occurrence until very late in the Classic period when lowland civilization had begun to disintegrate. Until thattime, the most common pattern of Maya warfare seems to have consisted of raids employing rapid attacks and retreats by relatively small numbers of warriors, most o...
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London (England) - geography.
D The East End and Docklands The East End, beyond the City of London and the Tower, has long been the home of London’s docks and immigrants. It has frequently been characterized by slums, poverty,and crime. This is the area where the notorious criminal Jack the Ripper prowled. Some portions, such as Bethnal Green, were slums during the Victorian period. Manypoorer immigrants and working-class Londoners still reside in the East End, but its weekend street markets are very popular, especially Pet...
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Blood.
substances. For example, a person who is blood type A positive will not make antibodies against the A or Rh markers, but will make antibodies against the B marker,which is not on that person’s own red blood cells. If blood containing the B marker (from types B positive, B negative, AB positive, or AB negative) is transfused into thisperson, then the transfused red blood cells will be rapidly destroyed by the patient’s anti-B antibodies. In this case, the transfusion will do the patient no good a...
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Iran-Iraq War - History.
The Iranian offensives of 1982 set a pattern that continued for the rest of the war. Exploiting their superiority in numbers, Iran sent its Revolutionary Guard on theattack, supported by regular military forces. Outnumbered Iraqi forces inflicted heavy losses on the Iranians but ultimately fell back. As soon as the initial Iranian thrusthad exhausted itself, however, the Iraqi army exploited Iranian disorganization and lack of equipment to retake much of the lost territory. As the war continued,...
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Monkey (animal) - biology.
traveling in troops, often take turns acting as sentinel, making specific alarm calls to alert their companions to approaching danger. In trees, monkeys have other waysof outwitting their enemies. Capuchins, for example, sometimes fend off inquisitive predators by urinating on them from high above or by jumping up and down tomake dead branches fall on the predators. Most monkeys can breed at any time of the year, so their troops often contain young of many different ages. Courtship is typically...
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Birds.
Birds need much less sleep than people do. One seabird, called the sooty tern, can fly for years bytaking “naps” that last only a few seconds. Most birds that live on land are active during the day and sleep at night. Owls are just the opposite.They sleep during the day and hunt at night. Birds usually sleep in shrubs, on tree branches, in holes in trees, or on the ground. Most ducks sleep onthe water. Many birds sleep while they are standing. MATING AND BREEDING Many kinds of birds have only on...
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Duck - biology.
from water. When ducks feed they push their tongue against the top of their mouth to squeeze water through the lamellae, leaving the food behind. Mergansers arefish-eating ducks with slender bills that are notched on the edges like the blade of a saw. These saw-toothed beaks help the ducks catch and hold their slippery prey. VI COURTSHIP AND REPRODUCTION Ducks form pairs long enough to mate, but most species find new mates each year. In a few species, including buffleheads and whistling ducks,...
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Valley.
Except in mountainous terrain, rivers are almost always flanked by floodplains. Floodplains are flat wide deposits of alluvium, river-deposited sediment, on either side of the river channel. During floods, a river overflows its banks and spreads out the sediment near the river to form a floodplain. Floodplains of large rivers, such as thoseof the Mississippi River, can be flat areas tens of kilometers across. River channels migrate back and forth across their floodplains as alluvium is repeate...
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Valley - Geography.
Except in mountainous terrain, rivers are almost always flanked by floodplains. Floodplains are flat wide deposits of alluvium, river-deposited sediment, on either side of the river channel. During floods, a river overflows its banks and spreads out the sediment near the river to form a floodplain. Floodplains of large rivers, such as thoseof the Mississippi River, can be flat areas tens of kilometers across. River channels migrate back and forth across their floodplains as alluvium is repeate...
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Excerpt from Measure for Measure - anthology.
PROVOST. Who's there? Come in. The wish deserves a welcome. DUKE. Dear sir, ere long I'll visit you again. CLAUDIO. Most holy sir, I thank you. ISABELLA. My business is a word or two with Claudio. PROVOST. And very welcome. Look, signor, here's your sister. DUKE. Provost, a word with you. PROVOST. As many as you please. DUKE. Bring me to bear them speak, where I may be concealed. Duke and Provost retire CLAUDIO. Now, sister, what's the comfort? ISABELLA. Why,As all comforts are: most good, most...
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Beijing - geography.
other polluting materials contributes to the city’s severe air and water pollution. V EDUCATION AND CULTURE Beijing has more colleges and universities than any other Chinese city. The most prominent institutions are Peking University, founded in 1898; and Tsinghua University,founded in 1911, which is the most prestigious scientific and technical institution in the country. Both institutions are located in the northwest suburbs, an areaassociated with higher education and research. Also in this...
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Fishing.
directly to the spool and turns the spool one rotation at a time. C Fishing Lines Fishing lines serve as the link between the angler’s reel and the lure or bait. The most popular line used for sportfishing is monofilament nylon line, which is strong anddurable and has a certain amount of stretch, which helps when an angler sets the hook. The line comes in a variety of strengths, from 2-pound test to more than 100-pound test. (Pound test is the amount of pressure that can be put on a line before...
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Track and Field.
VI RUNNING EVENTS Running events are competitions that test athletes’ quickness, speed, and endurance. Athletes win running races by completing the distance or course in the leastamount of time. A Sprints The shortest running events, called sprints or dashes, are the premier events at a track-and-field meet. The outdoor sprints consist of the 100-meter, 200-meter, and400-meter events. Sprints contested at indoor meets include the 50-meter, 60-meter, 200-meter, and 400-meter events. Past champ...
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Popular Music
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INTRODUCTION
Satchmo Sings "Back O' Town Blues"
One of the founders of instrumental jazz music, American Louis Armstrong, known as Satchmo, also profoundly influenced
vocal jazz and popular song.
disseminating popular music until the 1920s remained printed sheet music. By the late 19th century, the music-publishing business was centralized in New York City,particularly in an area of lower Manhattan called Tin Pan Alley. “After the Ball” (1892) by Charles K. Harris, the first popular song to sell 1 million copies—in this case, ofsheet music—inspired rapid growth in the music-publishing industry. Composers were hired to rapidly produce popular songs by the dozens, and the techniques ofFost...
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Jakarta - geography.
voluntary movement of families to Indonesia's less populated islands). Jakarta is a magnet for migrants from other areas of Indonesia; during the late 1980s an estimated 250 migrants arrived daily. Most were between the ages of 15 and39 years, many with six years of education or less. There is also a significant number of commuters and seasonal migrants who work in government, manufacturing,and services. In addition, many of these temporary residents are engaged in informal employment as drivers...
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Snake (reptile).
in their heads that conduct sound. They are able to hear low-frequency sounds and to sense vibrations that travel through the ground or water. The majority of snakeshave good eyesight, especially for detecting moving objects, although most burrowing snakes can only distinguish between light and dark. Pit vipers, boas, and pythons have an unusual adaptation for detecting warm-blooded prey and predators. On the heads of these snakes are small pits lined with cellsthat are extremely sensitive to he...
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Rap
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INTRODUCTION
Jay-Z
Rapper Jay-Z rose to popularity with such albums as Vol.
Run-DMCTypically in rap music, vocalists recite rhyming lyrics in time to a beat that may be sampled from prerecorded music byother groups. Black youths developed rap music on the streets of inner cities in the United States during the 1970s, butthe style has expanded to include a wider variety of performers and audiences. The rap group Run-DMC, shown here, wasa powerful early influence in the genre. The group helped bring rap music into the mainstream when it released “WalkThis Way” (1986), a s...
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Indian Music
I
INTRODUCTION
Classical Dance of South India
The southern Indian kathakali is a dance drama that dates from the 17th century.
Sangita Ratnakara, was written in the 13th century. However, subsequent writers tended to focus on the emotional connotations of individual ragas, associating them with moods, performance times, colors, and deities, and grouping them in terms of families. The modern theoretical system began in the 16th century, when ragasbegan to be classified according to scale—72 in the Karnāṭak system and 10 principal ones in the Hindustani. The 72 mela, as the Karn āṭak scales are called, are derived thro...
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Confucian philosophy, Chinese
occupies a pre-eminent place in the history of Chinese philosophy. The core of Confucian thought lies in the teachings of Confucius (551-479 BC) contained in the Analects ( Lunyu ), along with the brilliant and divergent contributions of Mencius (372?-289 BC) and Xunzi ( fl. 298-238 BC), as well as the Daxue (Great Learning) and the Zhongyong (Doctrine of the Mean), originally chapters in the Liji (Book of Rites). Significant and original developments, particularly along a quasi-metaphysica...
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Sudan - country.
B Principal Cities and Political Divisions The principal city is Khartoum, the capital; other major cities include Omdurman and Khartoum North, major industrial centers, and Port Sudan, a seaport on the RedSea. Sudan is divided into 26 states. C Religion and Language About 70 percent of the people of Sudan are Muslims, some 15 percent are Christians, and most of the remainder follow traditional religions. The people of northernSudan are predominantly Sunni Muslims (Sunni Islam). Most of the pe...
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Croatia - country.
III PEOPLE OF CROATIA The total population of Croatia at the time of the 1991 census was 4,784,265; a 2008 estimate was 4,491,543. During and after the war ethnic Serbs fled Croatia whileethnic Croats moved in. Croatia’s population growth rate in 2008 was -0.04 percent, despite population gains due to immigration. Croatia’s natural population growthrate, which measures births and deaths, has been negative since 1998. Life expectancy at birth was 75 years in 2008. The population density in 2008...
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Library (institution).
rooms, special galleries for exhibitions, auditoriums for lectures or concerts, computer rooms, children’s rooms, photocopy rooms, and classrooms. A3 Lending Materials As part of their mission to provide information resources to the community, public libraries allow users to borrow items from their collections for limited amounts of time.To be eligible to borrow public library materials, a user must register her or his name, address, and other basic information with the local library’s circulat...
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Jazz
I
INTRODUCTION
Joshua Redman
Saxophonist Joshua Redman, a graduate of Harvard University, became a fast-rising star in jazz in the 1990s.
performed a highly produced, jazz-inspired form of blues that was popular in traveling minstrel shows and vaudeville. Thisexample is from the song “St. Louis Blues,” written by American composer and trumpet player W. C. Handy in 1914 andrecorded by Smith in 1925."St. Louis Blues" performed by Bessie Smith, from The Riverside History of Classic Jazz (Cat.# Riverside RB-005) Riverside Records under master license to Fantasy, Inc. All rightsreserved./Frank DriggsCollection/Archive Photos Jazz is ro...
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Health Insurance.
needs services. Essentially, individuals make regular payments to the plan rather than having to pay especially large sums at any one time in the event of sudden illnessor injury. In this way, the group as a whole funds expensive treatments for those few who need them. Many people believe that in addition to providing financial stability, health insurance can promote good health. Supporters of this idea claim that by lowering thepersonal cost of services, insurance induces individuals to seek he...
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Fungus - biology.
Many fungi can reproduce by the fragmentation of their hyphae. Each fragment develops into a new individual. Yeast, a small, single-celled fungus, reproduces bybudding, in which a bump forms on the yeast cell, eventually partitioning from the cell and growing into a new yeast cell. V CLASSIFICATION OF FUNGI Scientists have long disagreed about how to classify fungi, and the classification systems are still developing. The first description of fungi was published in 1729 byItalian botanist Pier...
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Electoral College.
III HISTORY OF THE ELECTORAL COLLEGE A Origins One thing is clear about the political theory underpinning the electoral college: The framers of the Constitution could not agree on one. From the outset, the framerswere uncertain about how the president should be chosen. Meeting in the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 1787, the framers originally decidedto have Congress choose the president, and that there should be no popular vote to elect the president. Then the Con...
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Literary Criticism
I
INTRODUCTION
Literary Criticism, discussion of literature, including description, analysis, interpretation, and evaluation of literary works.
IV THE 17TH AND 18TH CENTURIES The climate of criticism changed with the arrival on the literary scene of such giants as Miguel de Cervantes, Lope de Vega, and Pedro Calderòn in Spain; WilliamShakespeare, Ben Jonson, and John Milton in England; and Pierre Corneille, Jean Baptiste Racine, and Molière in France. Most of these writers specialized or excelled indrama, and consequently the so-called battle of the ancients and moderns—the critical comparison of Greek and Roman authors with more rece...
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Kenya - country.
threatens fish and other water life in the lake by depriving them of oxygen. Kenya is well known for its game parks—including Masai Mara Game Park and Tsavo National Park in the south, and Marsabit National Reserve in the north—whichattract large numbers of tourists and much revenue. Conservation of wildlife within reserves has thus received high priority. About 13 percent (2007) of Kenya’s totalland is protected. There are 229 (2004) threatened species in Kenya. Threatened habitats include the...
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Albania - country.
Joining the international community in its concern over the degradation of the environment, Albania is party to international agreements concerning biodiversity, climatechange, and wetlands. III THE PEOPLE OF ALBANIA In 2008 Albania’s population estimate was 3,619,778, resulting in an average density of 132 persons per sq km (342 per sq mi). More and more people have left ruralareas for urban ones, particularly in the northern districts, such that in 2005 some 45 percent of the population live...
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Cancer (medicine).
unable to repair the DNA damage, p53 instructs the cell to undergo programmed cell death, or apoptosis , putting a stop to runaway cell division before it starts. Programmed cell death is a normal part of cell life and is tightly controlled by many genes, primarily p53. In a cancerous cell, one or more mutations prevent these genes from doing their jobs. When mutated, p53 allows a cell to continue to divide, even with damaged DNA.This can lead to additional mutations in proto-oncogenes or tumor...
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Cambodia - country.
The population of Cambodia is 14,241,640 (2008 estimate). Population growth per year is estimated at 1.8 percent, one of the highest rates in Asia. The rate of infantmortality is also high. The population density is 81 persons per sq km (209 per sq mi), with the densest concentrations on the heavily cultivated central plain. Themountainous regions of the country, where malaria is widespread, are thinly populated, as are the poorly watered northern provinces. During the late 1970s, under thebruta...
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Birth Control.
without a prescription and used alone or with a condom, diaphragm, or cervical cap. Spermicides used alone must be inserted deep into the vagina before each act ofintercourse and a woman should not douche for six to eight hours after intercourse. With typical use, spermicides used alone are effective in preventing pregnancyabout 74 percent of the time. They may cause an allergic reaction such as irritation of the vagina or penis. B Intrauterine Device The intrauterine device (IUD) is a small pl...
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Louisiana - geography.
lakes are on the Red River and its tributaries. In addition, small oxbow lakes are numerous in the Mississippi Alluvial Plain. Oxbow lakes are formed when a river cutsthrough the neck of one of its loops, or meanders, thus establishing a shorter course and leaving the former loop as a lake separate from the river. Louisiana also hassome artificially created reservoirs. C Coastline Louisiana’s long and irregular coastline extends along the Gulf of Mexico from the Pearl River on the east to the S...
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Louisiana - USA History.
lakes are on the Red River and its tributaries. In addition, small oxbow lakes are numerous in the Mississippi Alluvial Plain. Oxbow lakes are formed when a river cutsthrough the neck of one of its loops, or meanders, thus establishing a shorter course and leaving the former loop as a lake separate from the river. Louisiana also hassome artificially created reservoirs. C Coastline Louisiana’s long and irregular coastline extends along the Gulf of Mexico from the Pearl River on the east to the S...
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Wisconsin (state) - geography.
-6° C (22° F) in the southeast, along the Lake Michigan shore. During winter extremely cold weather persists for several weeks at a time. C2 Precipitation Average annual precipitation ranges from 700 to 800 mm (28 to 32 in). Rainfall is generally heaviest during the spring and summer, and snowfall is generally moderatein the south, but can be quite heavy in the north. Thunderstorms, sometimes accompanied by devastating tornadoes, are common in spring and summer, particularly inthe southern part...
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Wisconsin (state) - USA History.
-6° C (22° F) in the southeast, along the Lake Michigan shore. During winter extremely cold weather persists for several weeks at a time. C2 Precipitation Average annual precipitation ranges from 700 to 800 mm (28 to 32 in). Rainfall is generally heaviest during the spring and summer, and snowfall is generally moderatein the south, but can be quite heavy in the north. Thunderstorms, sometimes accompanied by devastating tornadoes, are common in spring and summer, particularly inthe southern part...
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Belarus - country.
In the last complete census conducted in the Soviet Union in 1989, the population of Belarus was 10,151,806; a 2008 estimate was 9,685,768, giving the country apopulation density of 47 persons per sq km (121 per sq mi). The most notable demographic trend since the 1950s has been the steady migration of the population fromthe villages to urban centers, and the correspondent aging of the population remaining in the rural areas. In 1959 urban residents accounted for 31 percent of thepopulation; in...
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Obesity.
of a day, contributing to the development of obesity. V TREATMENTS FOR OBESITY Obesity can become a chronic lifelong condition caused by overeating, physical inactivity, and even genetic makeup. No matter what the cause, however, obesity can beprevented or managed with a combination of diet, exercise, behavior modification, and in severe cases, weight-loss medications and surgery. A Diets The most common and conservative treatment for obesity utilizes a nutritionally balanced, low calorie diet...
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Easter.
Many Easter traditions originated long before the beginning of the Christian era. Like Christmas, which is related to pre-Christian winter festivals, Easter is connected inmany ways with early pagan rituals that accompanied the arrival of spring. Easter is also associated with the Jewish festival of Passover. A Easter Eggs The Easter egg is associated with beliefs of particularly ancient origin. The egg was an important symbol in the mythologies of many early civilizations, including those ofIn...