What is Geometry?

   Geometry is the branch of mathematics concerned with the properties and relationships of points, lines, surfaces, solids, and angles. Geometry may be thought of as the science of space. Indeed, just as arithmetic is used to deal with experiences involving the counting process, so geometry is used to describe and relate experiences that involve space.
   The fundamental ideas of geometry are suggested by everyday experiences. Thus, the experience of where an object is leads to the idea of an exact, fixed location. This is the intuitive idea to which the term "point" refers. Many physical objects suggest the idea of a point. Examples include the corner of a block, the tip of a pencil, or a dot on a sheet of paper. Such things are called models or representations or pictures of points, although they show only approximately the idea in mind. Similarly, the set of points suggested by a tightly stretched string, the edge of a desk, or a flagpole is called a line segment. The physical objects that suggest line segments are called models, or representations, of segments. If a segment is extended indefinitely in one direction, it is called a ray, and if extended indefinitely in both directions, it is called a line. Similarly, the word "plane" is used to describe a flat surface like a floor, desktop, or chalkboard, but it is imagined as extending indefinitely in all directions. This means that a plane has no edges just as a line has no ends.
   The study of geometric figures that lie in one plane is often called plane geometry. The study of figures not all in one plane may be called solid geometry. Frequently, however, no distinction is made, and plane geometry and solid geometry are studied together as parts of the same course.

What is Cancer?

   The tiny "bricks" our bodies are built of are called cells. A single one of these cells is too small to be seen without a microscope. Once in a while some cells somewhere in a person's body go on a rampage. They begin to grow and multiply very fast. In time they begin crowding other cells and stealing food the other cells need. They cause the disease which is called cancer.
   Cancer used to be incurable. But now many people who have cancer get well. If it is discovered in time, the chances of curing it are very good. One reason why everyone should go to a doctor for a yearly checkup is to make sure no cancer cells are starting to grow.
   Many doctors are at work in hospitals, universities, and laboratories trying to learn what causes cancer. When the cause is known, doctors will be better able to prevent and cure cancer.

Canary bird

   No cage birds are more popular than canaries. They are named for the Canary Islands, the home of their wild ancestors. There are still wild canaries on these islands.
   Canaries became cage birds more than 400 years ago. They were taken from their home islands to many other parts of the world. People liked them as pets because they were good singers. Today there are about 50 varieties of canaries.
   Canaries raised in the Harz Mountains in Germany became famous long ago as good singers. Great care is taken in training them. They are really given singing lessons. Music is played for them. Besides, the young birds are kept with older birds that sing especially well.
   A mother canary lays four or five blue eggs. The father bird does not help sit on them, but he helps with the feeding of the baby birds that hatch.
   Canaries are not short-lived pets. Many live to be 15 or 16 years old.

Who was Anne Frank?

   Anne Frank was a German-Dutch diarist. Born Frankfurt am Main, Germany, June 12, 1929. Died Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, Germany, 1945.
   Anne Frank's diary, published as The Diary of a Young Girl (Het Achterhuis, 1947), is one of the most moving accounts of personal courage to come out of World War II. It records the invincible spirit of a young Jewish girl who endured many of the horrors of war and who died a tragic death before the age of 16.
   The diary of Anne Frank is an account of her experiences while hiding from German troops during the war. When the Nazis invaded the Netherlands, the Frank family and four other people were hidden by Christian friends in a tiny apartment at the rear of an Amsterdam office building. For two years, Anne recorded the fears and emotional conflicts of people crowded together in secrecy. However, much of the diary describes humorous or joyful moments, including birthday celebrations and her first experience of falling in love. Many of the passages concern Anne's growing up, the discoveries she makes about herself and other people, and the beauty of life.
   Anne and the others in the group were discovered in 1944 and shipped to Westerbork prison in the Netherlands. After another move to Auschwitz concentration camp, the Franks were separated. Anne was sent to Bergen-Belsen, where she died of typhus. Her diary was made into a Pulitzer Prize play by Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett in 1956 and into a motion picture in 1959.

What is Folklore?

   Folklore, the things that make up the traditional culture of a people throughout its history. Folklore is usually handed down from one generation to another by word of mouth or by performance, rather than by writing. The forms of folklore that are mainly perpetuated through language include legends, myths, fairy tales, and poems, as well as proverbs, riddles, and figures of speech. Among the types that are passed down through action are music, dance, art, drama, rituals, crafts, cookery, and children's games. There is also a body of traditional practices and beliefs concerned with scientific or supernatural phenomena, which includes medicine, witchcraft, and prediction.
   Folklore is as old as human culture. It is created informally by a group of people for themselves, and it reflects their patterns of thought and behavior. Although a certain tale or custom may be created by an individual, its original author is not known and it is regarded as anonymous. As it passes from one generation to another, it is usually so modified that it can be considered the product of the community.
   Because folklore is preserved in memory, actual performance, and oral tradition, it rarely has a fixed form. Instead, it usually has an approximate pattern. The telling of a folktale or the performance of a folk activity may vary from group to group or even from one individual to another within the same group. Thus, there are often several versions of a folktale, folk dance, or folk song. Modifications are made not only to suit the tastes of a particular audience, but also to express the creative impulses of the tellers or performers. This flexibility distinguishes folklore from more cultivated literary or artistic creations.
   Folk materials are often used by writers, musicians, and artists in their works. For example, the ancient folk legend of a man who sold his soul to the Devil has been used and elaborated by many writers, including the English dramatist Christopher Marlowe in his play Doctor Faustus (about 1589), the German poet Johann Wolfgang von Goethe in his dramatic poem Faust (1808-1832), and the German novelist Thomas Mann in his book Doctor Faustus (1947). The story was also the basis of the famous opera Faust by the 19th-century French composer Charles Gounod.

What is functionalism (architecture)?

   In design, functionalism is the concept that objects or buildings should be planned in accordance with their actual uses, rather than for the sake of appearance. In a functional design the utilitarian requirements of a building or an object are not concealed by ornamentation. The modern practice is to keep the decoration a secondary factor and to make it-harmonize with the uses of the object or structure. To a large extent, modern architecture and the design of modern furniture and other objects are based on the principles of functionalism.
   The well-known functionalist motto "Form follows function" was originated by the late -19th-century architect Louis Sullivan. His approach was adopted and further developed by his student Frank Lloyd Wright and by such noted architects as Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Walter Gropius, and Le Corbusier. Each has designed buildings of great geometric simplicity that integrate function with appearance.

What is fumigation?

   Fumigation is the use of gases, vapors, smoke, or fumes to drive out or kill harmful organisms. Fumigation is used to rid houses, office buildings, and warehouses of insects, mice, and other pests.    In agriculture it is used to destroy worms, insects, weeds, and fungi in the soil.
   Usually the area to be fumigated is sealed off and filled with a poisonous substance called a fumigant. The most widely used fumigants are gases, but liquids or solids that readily give off poisonous vapors are also used. Soil may be fumigated with applicators that inject a liquid under the surface. Common fumigants are formaldehyde and cyanide or chlorine compounds.
   Many fumigants are explosive, some are harmful to plants, and most are dangerous to inhale or swallow. Fumigants often are most safely handled by trained exterminators.