882 résultats pour "great"

• Excerpt from Coriolanus - anthology.

  For that, “Forgive our Romans.” O, a kissLong as my exile, sweet as my revenge!Now, by the jealous queen of heaven, that kissI carried from thee, dear, and my true lipHath virgined it e'er since. You gods! I pray,And the most noble mother of the worldLeave unsaluted. Sink my knee i'th'earth;He kneels Of thy deep duty more impression showThan that of common sons. VOLUMNIA. O, stand up blest!He rises Whilst with no softer cushion than the flintI kneel before thee, and unproperlyShow duty as mistak...

• From Julius Caesar - anthology.

  Let but the commons hear this testament—Which, pardon me, I do not mean to read—And they would go and kiss dead Caesar's wounds,And dip their napkins in his sacred blood,Yea, beg a hair of him for memory,And, dying, mention it within their wills,Bequeathing it as a rich legacyUnto their issue.FIFTH PLEBEIAN : We'll hear the will. Read it, Mark Antony. ALL THE PLEBEIANS : The will, the will! We will hear Caesar's will. ANTONY : Have patience, gentle friends, I must not read it. It is not meet you...

• Crafts.

  VI POTTERY Ceramic objects can be molded completely by hand or thrown (shaped) on a potter's wheel, a device with a rotating horizontal disk. When the clay hardens, it is fired ina high-temperature oven, or kiln, to strengthen it. To make the object waterproof, glazes may then be applied and the piece fired again. Although hand construction iseasy to master, throwing on the potter's wheel requires practice. Several simple tools are used by potters, including sponges, trimming tools, wooden sha...

• George Frideric Handel I INTRODUCTION Handel's Water Music In addition to his popular operas and oratorios, German-born composer George Frideric Handel wrote music in the 1700s for the church and for royal celebrations.

  During the 1720s and 1730s Handel worked primarily as a composer and producer of operas for the London stage. This extremely productive phase of his career beganwith the opening of the Royal Academy of Music in London in 1719. The Royal Academy was founded with the support of the king and aristocratic subscribers for theproduction of Italian operas. Its directors sent Handel to continental Europe to hire some of the world’s greatest singers. Handel was not the only composer writingoperas for Aca...

• Leonardo da Vinci.

  Leonardo's stylistic innovations are even more apparent in The Last Supper, in which he represented a traditional theme in an entirely new way. Instead of showing the 12 apostles as individual figures, he grouped them in dynamic compositional units of three, framing the figure of Christ, who is isolated in the center of the picture.Seated before a pale distant landscape seen through a rectangular opening in the wall, Christ—who has just announced that one of those present will betrayhim—repres...

• Thermodynamics I INTRODUCTION Thermodynamics, field of physics that describes and correlates the physical properties of macroscopic systems of matter and energy.

  Carnot EngineThe idealized Carnot engine was envisioned by the French physicist Nicolas Léonard Sadi Carnot, who lived during theearly 19th century. The Carnot engine is theoretically perfect, that is, it converts the maximum amount of energy intomechanical work. Carnot showed that the efficiency of any engine depends on the difference between the highest andlowest temperatures reached during one cycle. The greater the difference, the greater the efficiency. An automobileengine, for example, wou...

• Chiang Kai-shek - History.

  Even one of Chiang's allied commanders, Zhang Xueliang, who had been expelled from Manchuria after the Mukden Incident, came to doubt the wisdom of Chiang'sapproach. In 1936 Zhang held Chiang prisoner in Xi'an until Chiang agreed to join the Communists in an allied front against Japan. Chiang later denied making anyagreement. On July 7, 1937, near the Marco Polo Bridge on the outskirts of Beijing, a Chinese patrol and Japanese troops on a training exercise clashed, and full-scalewar broke out be...

• Unemployment.

  set up to monitor the economy and provide advice to the president and Congress. Between 1945 and 1990 nine cyclical swings in unemployment occurred; all weresmaller than the 1930s depression. During this period the unemployment rate was as low as 2.9 percent (1953) and as high as 9.7 percent (1982). Because of cutbacksin the unemployment insurance program and changes in the nature of employment during the 1980s, however, only 37 percent of jobless workers received benefits in1990. Fears that the...

• Leonardo da Vinci I INTRODUCTION Leonardo da Vinci Leonardo da Vinci was known not only as a masterful painter but as an architect, sculptor, engineer, and scientist.

  and conservation program made use of the latest technology to reverse some of the damage. Although much of the original surface is gone, the majesty of thecomposition and the penetrating characterization of the figures give a fleeting vision of its vanished splendor. The Virgin of the RocksThe Virgin of the Rocks by Leonardo da Vinci was actually painted twice. The first version, done in 1485, wascommissioned to be an altarpiece but was evidently rejected. That painting now hangs in the Louvre,...

• Rembrandt I INTRODUCTION Rembrandt (1606-1669), Dutch baroque artist, who ranks as one of the greatest painters in the history of Western art.

  of his collection of art and antiquities, taken before an auction to pay his debts, showed the breadth of Rembrandt's interests: ancient sculpture, Flemish and ItalianRenaissance paintings, Far Eastern art, contemporary Dutch works, weapons, and armor. Unfortunately, the results of the auction—including the sale of hishouse—were disappointing. These problems in no way affected Rembrandt's work; if anything, his artistry increased. Some of the great paintings from this period are The Jewish Brid...

• Wetland.

  Other plants and animals have special adaptations suited for living in a wet environment. Most emergent plants have air spaces in their stems that enable oxygen to betransported to roots that grow in sediments with no oxygen. Some of the trees that grow in swamps form a set of roots above the soil surface or above the water thatallows them to get oxygen to the lower roots. In saltwater wetlands, specialized cells can limit the amount of salt that enters a plant, or specialized organs can excrete...

• John Tyler.

  A “His Accidency” Tyler was summoned to Washington, D.C., as acting president. The Constitution seemed unclear as to whether Tyler should now merely assume the duties of thepresident until new elections were held, or whether he should in fact assume the office of president. Tyler chose the latter view and on April 6 had himself sworn in aspresident. This procedure, later taken for granted, exposed Tyler to much censure and abuse. Throughout his term, Whigs and Democrats alike denounced his acti...

• John Tyler

  A “His Accidency” Tyler was summoned to Washington, D.C., as acting president. The Constitution seemed unclear as to whether Tyler should now merely assume the duties of thepresident until new elections were held, or whether he should in fact assume the office of president. Tyler chose the latter view and on April 6 had himself sworn in aspresident. This procedure, later taken for granted, exposed Tyler to much censure and abuse. Throughout his term, Whigs and Democrats alike denounced his acti...

• Miami (Florida) - geography.

  VI EDUCATIONAL AND CULTURAL INSTITUTIONS Colleges and universities in the area include the University of Miami, Florida International University, Barry University, St. Thomas University, and Florida MemorialCollege. Miami-Dade Community College, one of the nation’s largest two-year colleges, has six campuses in the region. Leading museums include the Historical Museumof Southern Florida, the Miami Museum of Science, the Miami Art Museum, the Lowe Art Museum on the campus of the University of M...

• Connecticut Yankee - anthology.

  This missionary knight's name was La Cote Male Taile, and he said that this castle was the abode of Morgan le Fay, sister of King Arthur, and wife of King Uriens,monarch of a realm about as big as the District of Columbia—you could stand in the middle of it and throw bricks into the next kingdom. “Kings” and “Kingdoms”were as thick in Britain as they had been in little Palestine in Joshua's time, when people had to sleep with their knees pulled up because they couldn't stretch outwithout a passp...

• Heat (physics) I INTRODUCTION Heat Loss from a House A thermograph shows the large amount of heat lost through a house's windows during winter.

  Theoretically, the molecules of a substance would exhibit no activity at the temperature termed absolute zero. See Molecule. III TEMPERATURE SCALES Five different temperature scales are in use today: the Celsius scale, known also as the Centigrade scale, the Fahrenheit scale, the Kelvin scale, the Rankine scale, andthe international thermodynamic temperature scale ( see Thermometer). The Celsius scale, with a freezing point of 0° C and a boiling point of 100° C, is widely used throughout the...

• Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

  yearly visited a book written in a hieroglyphic script on golden plates buried in a nearby hill; the book’s location, he said, had been disclosed to him by an angel. In 1830he completed the translation of these plates, “by the gift and power of God,” and published the Book of Mormon, which he believed to be a religious record of theancient inhabitants of North America. On April 6, 1830, he organized the Church of Christ, soon known by its present title, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-daySa...

• Henry VIII I INTRODUCTION Henry VIII (1491-1547), king of England (1509-1547), the image of the Renaissance king as immortalized by German artist Hans Holbein, who painted him hands on hips, legs astride, exuding confidence and power.

  that was completed by 1540. The crown then took possession of all their property, paying small pensions to the approximately 10,000 monks and nuns who weredeprived of their homes. In a reversal of roles, many towns were forced to assist the same people who had once provided charity to the less fortunate. To pay for hiscontinued wars, Henry sold the former monastic lands to nobles and gentry, who thereby gained an interest in the success of Henry’s reformation and becamedependent upon the king. T...

• Henry VIII.

  that was completed by 1540. The crown then took possession of all their property, paying small pensions to the approximately 10,000 monks and nuns who weredeprived of their homes. In a reversal of roles, many towns were forced to assist the same people who had once provided charity to the less fortunate. To pay for hiscontinued wars, Henry sold the former monastic lands to nobles and gentry, who thereby gained an interest in the success of Henry’s reformation and becamedependent upon the king. T...

• Henry VIII .

  that was completed by 1540. The crown then took possession of all their property, paying small pensions to the approximately 10,000 monks and nuns who weredeprived of their homes. In a reversal of roles, many towns were forced to assist the same people who had once provided charity to the less fortunate. To pay for hiscontinued wars, Henry sold the former monastic lands to nobles and gentry, who thereby gained an interest in the success of Henry’s reformation and becamedependent upon the king. T...

• Wireless Communications.

  were large, heavy units. After the invention of the transistor in 1948, radios shrank in size to small handheld radio transceivers. Public two-way radios with severalfrequency options are widely available as well. Usually limited in range to a few miles, these units are great aids for such mobile professionals as construction workers,film crews, event planners, and security personnel. Simpler two-way radios, called walkie-talkies, have been popular children’s toys for years. Most walkie-talkiesb...

• Sailing.

  the sails sweep across the decks of the vessel from one side to the other, and also because of the danger of breaking spars. In wild jibing, control can be lostmomentarily and, if the seas are high, a small boat can broach —that is, veer on its side with danger of swamping or capsizing. An unintentional jibe in a heavy wind frequently has enough force to break the masts of a vessel. When jibing intentionally, careful sailors always haul in on the boom while turning, so that the boom willtravel...

• Courts in the United States.

  The term circuit derives from the original structure of these courts. Under the Judiciary Act of 1789, trials of certain cases were required to be held before three-judge circuit courts consisting of two Supreme Court justices and the federal trial judge in the district court. In addition to their regular duties, Supreme Court justices were required to ride circuit, traveling from district to district within their assigned circuit, often covering great distances. In 1891 Congress establishe...

• Golf. I INTRODUCTION Golf, outdoor game in which individual players use specially designed

  caddie or caddy. (Caddies, once an integral feature of the game, have now been replaced on many courses by motorized carts and pull carts.) In England the game was made popular by the attention given it by James VI of Scotland, later James I of England, and his son Charles I. In the 18th century the first golf associations were established. They included the Honourable Company of Edinburgh Golfers (founded 1744) in Edinburgh, Scotland;the Saint Andrews Society of Golfers (1754) in Saint Andrew...

• Gemstones.

  In the late 1960s a method was developed for “growing” diamonds by heating a diamond particle to a high temperature and subjecting it to methane gas. The gasdecomposes into carbon atoms, which adhere to the diamond crystal. The crystal structure of the enlarged diamond is identical to that of a natural diamond. Diamondsof about 1 carat (200 mg or 0.007 oz) have been produced by this method, but their cost is still considerably higher than that of naturally occurring diamonds. Sapphires are made...

• God. I INTRODUCTION God, the center and focus of religious faith, a holy

  C Islam Islam arose as a powerful reaction against the ancient pagan cults of Arabia, and as a consequence it is the most starkly monotheistic of the three biblically rootedreligions. The name Allah means simply “the God.” He is personal, transcendent, and unique, and Muslims are forbidden to depict him in any creaturely form. The primary creed is that “There is no god but Allah, and Muhammad is the apostle of Allah.” Allah has seven basic attributes: life, knowledge, power, will, hearing, se...

• Herman Melville.

  information in Omoo , but various religious groups condemned both books for their unfavorable comments on the work and insensitivity of missionaries in the South Seas. Mardi is a philosophical allegory framed by another adventure at sea. The book’s hero, accompanied by characters representing the intellect, poetry, history, and philosophy, searches the world for universal truth. The book is filled with descriptions—intended as allegories—of human customs, religions, governments, and historical...

• Native American Literature I INTRODUCTION Leslie Marmon Silko Native American writer Leslie Marmon Silko is perhaps best known for her first novel, Ceremony (1977), a coming-of-age story about a young man of mixed Native American and white ancestry.

  SequoyahNative Americans did not use a complex written language before the immigration of Europeans to the Americas. In theearly 1820s the Cherokee leader Sequoyah developed an alphabet and written language for his native tongue. ManyCherokee learned the new written language readily, and in 1828 they published the first Native American newspaper,written in both Cherokee and English.THE BETTMANN ARCHIVE Before Native Americans came into contact with Europeans, many tribes supplemented the spoken...

• Arabic Literature I INTRODUCTION Arabic Literature, literature written in the Arabic language, from the 6th century to the present.

  The life of the Prophet Muhammad also generated its own literary sources, primary among which is the hadith. The hadiths were a collection of the Prophet's sayings and actions, transmitted through a chain of authorities said to go back to Muhammad himself. The two most famous collections of hadiths are those of al-Bukhari andMuslim in the 9th century. These works provide a wealth of information covering all aspects of a Muslim's life, from prayer to personal, social, and business conduct. The...

• Benjamin Harrison (1833-1901).

  homesteaders against pressure from the powerful railroads. He fought vigorously for Civil War veterans, supported high taxes on imports (called tariffs), payments todisabled and opposed the Chinese Exclusion Act, which stopped Chinese immigration to the U.S. for 10 years ( see Immigration: From 1840 to 1900 ). He also introduced 101 special pension and relief bills in six years. Harrison's name was well known by the Republican National Convention in 1884. In spite of this, Congressman and forme...

• Benjamin Harrison (1833-1901) - Histoire

  homesteaders against pressure from the powerful railroads. He fought vigorously for Civil War veterans, supported high taxes on imports (called tariffs), payments todisabled and opposed the Chinese Exclusion Act, which stopped Chinese immigration to the U.S. for 10 years ( see Immigration: From 1840 to 1900 ). He also introduced 101 special pension and relief bills in six years. Harrison's name was well known by the Republican National Convention in 1884. In spite of this, Congressman and forme...

• Military Religious Orders .

  Hospitalers’ charitable functions were playing a secondary role to their military duties. Successes in war defending the Holy Land enriched the order with vast gifts ofproperty in Europe and Palestine. In the 12th century the Hospitalers acquired three impressive fortresses in Palestine at Krak des Chevaliers, Belvoir, and Margat. Atthe height of their power in the 13th century, the Hospitalers regularly supplied 500 knights to defend the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem against the Empire. The Crusad...

• Isaac NewtonIINTRODUCTIONIsaac Newton (1642-1727), English physicist, mathematician, and natural philosopher, considered one of the most important scientists of all time.

  B Calculus (Newton’s “Fluxional Method”) In 1669 Newton gave his Trinity mathematics professor Isaac Barrow an important manuscript, which is generally known by its shortened Latin title, De Analysi . This work contained many of Newton’s conclusions about calculus (what Newton called his “fluxional method”). Although the paper was not immediately published, Barrowmade its results known to several of the leading mathematicians of Britain and Europe. This paper established Newton as one of the...

• Isaac Newton.

  B Calculus (Newton’s “Fluxional Method”) In 1669 Newton gave his Trinity mathematics professor Isaac Barrow an important manuscript, which is generally known by its shortened Latin title, De Analysi . This work contained many of Newton’s conclusions about calculus (what Newton called his “fluxional method”). Although the paper was not immediately published, Barrowmade its results known to several of the leading mathematicians of Britain and Europe. This paper established Newton as one of the t...

• Venus (planet) - astronomy.

  level winds circle the planet at 360 km/h (225 mph), making a complete rotation in only four days. These winds are said to super-rotate because they travel muchfaster than the rotation of the planet itself. These high-speed winds cover the planet completely, blowing toward the west at virtually every latitude from equator topole. The motions of descending probes, however, have shown that the bulk of Venus’s tremendously dense atmosphere, closer to the planet’s surface, is almoststagnant. From th...

• Stress (psychology).

  blood flow is diverted from the internal organs and skin to the brain and muscles. Breathing speeds up, the pupils dilate, and perspiration increases. This reaction issometimes called the fight-or-flight response because it energizes the body to either confront or flee from a threat. Another part of the stress response involves the hypothalamus and the pituitary gland, parts of the brain that are important in regulating hormones and many otherbodily functions. In times of stress, the hypothal...

• Scramble for Africa.

  additional territorial grabs. The most significant of these rules stated that colonial powers were obligated to notify each other when they claimed African territory.Further, subsequent “effective occupation” of the claimed area was necessary for the claim to remain valid. Through it all, as Europeans negotiated their rights toAfrican territory, not a single African was present. Once the conference was over, it was clear that a European Scramble for African territories was underway. Southern Afr...

• Musical I INTRODUCTION George Gershwin American pianist, songwriter, and composer George Gershwin was one of the most important figures in popular song in the 1920s and 1930s.

  C Extravaganzas Another predecessor of musical comedy, the extravaganza, evolved soon after the American Civil War (1861-1865) from traditional English pantomime. Extravaganzaswere typically based on fairy tales and Mother Goose. They introduced some of the elements—songs, dances, and comedy combined with spectacular stage sets andeffects—that American musical comedy later became known for. The first and most famous extravaganza show was The Black Crook (1866), often described as America’s fi...

• William Howard Taft.

  considered him an ideal successor. Because Roosevelt himself was satisfied that Taft's election would ensure that his reform programs were continued, he used hisinfluence with each state's Republican Party to get Taft the nomination. As a result, Taft became the Republican candidate on the first ballot. He was elected president in1908 with a popular vote of 7,675,320 to 6,412,294 for Nebraska editor and Democratic candidate William Jennings Bryan, and an electoral vote of 321 to Bryan's 162.Alth...

• William Howard Taft

  considered him an ideal successor. Because Roosevelt himself was satisfied that Taft's election would ensure that his reform programs were continued, he used hisinfluence with each state's Republican Party to get Taft the nomination. As a result, Taft became the Republican candidate on the first ballot. He was elected president in1908 with a popular vote of 7,675,320 to 6,412,294 for Nebraska editor and Democratic candidate William Jennings Bryan, and an electoral vote of 321 to Bryan's 162.Alth...

• Primate - biology.

  The primate order includes a handful of species that live entirely on meat (carnivores) and also a few that are strict vegetarians (herbivores), but it is composed chieflyof animals that have varied diets (omnivores). The carnivorous primates are the four species of tarsiers, which live in Southeast Asia. Using their long back legs, thesepocket-sized nocturnal hunters leap on their prey, pinning it down with their hands and then killing it with their needle-sharp teeth. Tarsiers primarily eat in...

• Relativity - astronomy.

  beta, for example, might be as large as 0.5, and the mass of the electron doubled. The mass of a rapidly moving electron could be easily determined by measuring thecurvature produced in its path by a magnetic field; the heavier the electron, the greater its inertia and the less the curvature produced by a given strength of field ( see Magnetism). Experimentation dramatically confirmed Einstein's prediction; the electron increased in mass by exactly the amount he predicted. Thus, the kinetic ener...

• Plate Tectonics.

  ridges. The Mid-Atlantic Ridge is an underwater mountain range created at a divergent plate boundary in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. It is part of a worldwidesystem of ridges made by seafloor spreading. The Mid-Atlantic Ridge is currently spreading at a rate of 2.5 cm per year (1 in per year). The mid-ocean ridges today are60,000 km (about 40,000 mi) long, forming the largest continuous mountain chain on earth. Earthquakes, faults, underwater volcanic eruptions, and vents, oropenings, along...

• George Herbert Walker Bush.

  Lebanon. More troubling was the disclosure that agents operating under direct White House supervision used profits from the arms sales to buy weapons for thecontras, a group of anti-government Nicaraguan rebels, despite an explicit congressional ban on such aid. Bush later claimed that he opposed the arms-for-hostagesdeal, but offered little evidence to back his claims ( see Iran-Contra Affair). C 1988 Presidential Election While the Reagan-Bush program helped produce prosperity for the wealth...

• George Herbert Walker Bush - USA History.

  Lebanon. More troubling was the disclosure that agents operating under direct White House supervision used profits from the arms sales to buy weapons for thecontras, a group of anti-government Nicaraguan rebels, despite an explicit congressional ban on such aid. Bush later claimed that he opposed the arms-for-hostagesdeal, but offered little evidence to back his claims ( see Iran-Contra Affair). C 1988 Presidential Election While the Reagan-Bush program helped produce prosperity for the wealth...

• From "Resistance to Civil Government" - anthology.

  intending it, as God. A very few—as heroes, patriots, martyrs, reformers in the great sense, and men—serve the state with their consciences also, and so necessarily resist it for the most part; and they are commonly treated as enemies by it. A wise man will only be useful as a man, and will not submit to be “clay,” and “stop a holeto keep the wind away,” but leave that office to his dust at least: “I am too high born to be propertied,To be a second at control,Or useful serving-man and instr...

• Pablo Picasso.

  Color juxtapositions—between blue and orange, for instance—are intentionally strident and unharmonious. The representation of space is fragmented and discontinuous. While the left side of the canvas is largely Iberian-influenced, the right side is inspired by African masks, especially in its striped patterns and oval forms. Suchborrowings, which led to great simplification, distortion, and visual incongruities, were considered extremely daring in 1907. The head of the figure at the bottom right,...

• International Law.

  merchants), modernized the rights of neutrals during maritime war, and required blockades to be effective. The Declaration of Paris also initiated the practice of allowingnations other than the original signatories to accede (become a party to) to an agreement. In 1864 a conference convened in Geneva, Switzerland, at the invitation of the Swiss government. The conference approved a convention for the proper treatment ofwounded soldiers on the battlefield and the protection of medical personnel;...

• Supernova - astronomy.

  The term hypernova has been proposed for an extremely massive core-collapse supernova—possibly more than 100 times the mass of the Sun. A hypernova is thought to form a black hole. Just before it explodes, a hypernova may release a huge burst of gamma rays in a jet from the rotating black hole at its center. These jets mayexplain the so-called long gamma-ray bursts detected by astronomers. According to some researchers, massive stars with over 40 solar masses may sometimescollapse directly int...

• Wars of Yugoslav Succession.

  of Yugoslav succession was over. In January 1992 members of the European Community (EC; after 1993 the European Union, EU) recognized Slovenia’s independencealong with that of Croatia. The United States and other countries did so shortly thereafter. IV THE WAR IN CROATIA As the Yugoslav army withdrew from Slovenia in July 1991, a second and far more serious conflict erupted in Croatia. But the road to war in Croatia began more than ayear earlier. In April and May 1990 the Croatian Democratic U...