202 résultats pour "appearance"
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Excerpt from Sense and Sensibility - anthology.
was just arrived, and quitted not his hold till he had seated her in a chair in the parlour. Elinor and her mother rose up in amazement at their entrance, and while the eyes of both were fixed on him with an evident wonder and a secret admiration whichequally sprung from his appearance, he apologised for his intrusion by relating its cause, in a manner so frank and so graceful, that his person, which wasuncommonly handsome, received additional charms from his voice and expression. Had he bee...
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Comedy
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INTRODUCTION
Laurel and Hardy
Stan Laurel, in overalls, and Oliver Hardy, left, formed one of the most popular comedy teams in motion-picture history.
The elements and techniques of comedy are diverse and differ from culture to culture. More than tragedy or serious drama, comic entertainment is controlled by socialconventions that define the boundaries of acceptable humor and topics that are taboo or off-limits for humor. What is considered funny in one place and time may beforbidden culturally or viewed as infantile or in poor taste in another. Virtually every component of human behavior is subject to comic treatment. This includes bodilyfunc...
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Puppets
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INTRODUCTION
Punch and Judy
Punch and Judy are characters in an English hand puppet show that first appeared in 1662.
Rod puppets are controlled by rods attached to their limbs, heads, and bodies. Although the traditional rod puppets of Belgium and Sicily are worked from above, likemarionettes, most contemporary rod figures are operated from below. In theaters, rod puppeteers are frequently concealed from view by drapery or stage flats (fabric stretched across frames). On television and in films, rod and hand puppeteers usually hold their figures either above their heads or in front of their faces. In the lat...
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Indian Music
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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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Human Evolution.
Strepsirhines are the most primitive types of living primates. The last common ancestors of strepsirhines and other mammals—creatures similar to tree shrews andclassified as Plesiadapiformes—evolved at least 65 million years ago. The earliest primates evolved by about 55 million years ago, and fossil species similar to lemursevolved during the Eocene Epoch (about 55 million to 38 million years ago). Strepsirhines share all of the basic characteristics of primates, although their brains are notpa...
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Human Evolution - biology.
classified as Plesiadapiformes—evolved at least 65 million years ago. The earliest primates evolved by about 55 million years ago, and fossil species similar to lemursevolved during the Eocene Epoch (about 55 million to 38 million years ago). Strepsirhines share all of the basic characteristics of primates, although their brains are notparticularly large or complex and they have a more elaborate and sensitive olfactory system (sense of smell) than do other primates. B Haplorhines B1 Tarsiers T...
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Antarctica - geography.
The geographic South Pole lies near the center of the continent in East Antarctica. This point is where all map lines of longitude converge at the southern end ofEarth’s axis of rotation. Distinct from the geographic south pole is the south magnetic pole, where the lines of force of Earth’s magnetic field emerge vertically,arching upward over the planet to enter Earth again at the north magnetic pole. The south-seeking end of a compass needle points to the south magnetic pole. Thesouth magnetic...
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Dog Family - biology.
muzzles, long and bushy tails, and large ears. Many foxes hunt by stalking prey and then leaping on it with a distinctive, stiff-legged pounce. Once thought to besolitary animals, foxes are now known to live in groups of up to six individuals. The remaining canids are each highly distinctive. Raccoon dogs and bush dogs are the least doglike canids in appearance. Raccoon dogs, found in eastern Asia, havestubby legs, a stout body, short ears, shaggy fur, and a black face mask that resembles a racc...
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Penguin - biology.
B Parents and Offspring Once female penguins lay their eggs, both the parents incubate the eggs. The incubation period varies according to species, ranging from 33 days for the little penguinto about 63 days for the emperor penguin. In most medium-sized penguins incubation takes 35 to 38 days. The incubation routine is highly variable among penguinspecies, although in general both sexes participate in incubation and feeding of young. Male and female Adélie penguins take turns incubating their e...
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William Shakespeare
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INTRODUCTION
William Shakespeare (1564-1616), English playwright and poet, recognized in much of the world as the greatest of all dramatists.
Shakespeare’s reputation today is, however, based primarily on the 38 plays that he wrote, modified, or collaborated on. Records of Shakespeare’s plays begin toappear in 1594, when the theaters reopened with the passing of the plague that had closed them for 21 months. In December of 1594 his play The Comedy of Errors was performed in London during the Christmas revels at Gray’s Inn, one of the London law schools. In March of the following year he received payment for two playsthat had been per...
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William Shakespeare.
Shakespeare’s reputation today is, however, based primarily on the 38 plays that he wrote, modified, or collaborated on. Records of Shakespeare’s plays begin toappear in 1594, when the theaters reopened with the passing of the plague that had closed them for 21 months. In December of 1594 his play The Comedy of Errors was performed in London during the Christmas revels at Gray’s Inn, one of the London law schools. In March of the following year he received payment for two playsthat had been per...
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Jane Austen.
years later.) Mansfield Park is Jane Austen’s most ambitious novel—in length, in variety of characterization, and in the scope of its theme. It centers on the effects of upbringing on personal morality in three families—the middle-class Bertrams, the fashionable Crawfords, and the impoverished Prices. Austen has been praised for her presentation ofthe complex relations between the members of the families, but as in Sense and Sensibility, she frustrates the expectations of her readers that the...
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William Shakespeare
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INTRODUCTION
William Shakespeare
English playwright and poet William Shakespeare, who lived in the late 1500s and early 1600s, is regarded as the greatest
dramatist in the history of English literature.
Avon, Warwickshire, a prosperous town in the English Midlands. Based on this record and on the fact that children in Shakespeare’s time were usually baptized two orthree days after birth, April 23 has traditionally been accepted as his date of birth. The third of eight children, William Shakespeare was the eldest son of John Shakespeare, a locally prominent glovemaker and wool merchant, and Mary Arden, thedaughter of a well-to-do landowner in the nearby village of Wilmcote. The young Shakespeare...
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Eagle - biology.
States, is a member of this group found only in North America. It is named for its snow-white head. However, the name bald does not refer to a lack of feathers but comes instead from an outdated word meaning marked with white, as in piebald. The adult bald eagle is blackish brown, with a white head and tail. Its bill, legs, and feet are bright yellow. The bill, which is longer and heavier than the gray bill of golden eagles, is useful for piercing the skin of fish. Bald eagles vary in size....
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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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Suicide.
C Sociological Theories Most social scientists believe that a society’s structure and values can influence suicide rates. French sociologist Émile Durkheim argued that suicide rates are related tosocial integration —that is, the degree to which an individual feels part of a larger group. Durkheim found suicide was more likely when a person lacked social bonds or had relationships disrupted through a sudden change in status, such as unemployment. As one example of the significance of social bond...
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Evolution - biology.
genetic diversity to extinction. Sexual reproduction ensures that the genes in a population are rearranged in each generation, a process termed recombination. Although the combinations of genes inindividuals change with each new generation, the gene frequency, or ratio of different alleles in the entire population, remains relatively constant if no evolutionaryforces act on the population. One such force is the introduction of new genes into the genetic material of the population, or gene pool...
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God.
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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...
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Excerpt from Bleak House - anthology.
patience, courage, hope; so overthrows the brain and breaks the heart; that there is not an honourable man among its practitioners who would not give—who does notoften give—the warning, 'Suffer any wrong that can be done you, rather than come here!' Who happen to be in the Lord Chancellor's court this murky afternoon besides the Lord Chancellor, the counsel in the cause, two or three counsel who are never inany cause, and the well of solicitors before mentioned? There is the registrar below...
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Seal (mammal) - biology.
remote lakes by swimming thousands of kilometers up rivers from the Arctic Ocean. A few other species such as ringed seals and harbor seals have been found livingyear-round in lakes and rivers near the coasts of Russia, Canada, and Alaska. IV DIET OF SEALS Most seals eat fish and sometimes squid. The leopard seal, an Antarctic species, may have the most diverse diet of all, commonly hunting penguins and other seabirds,smaller seals, as well as fish, squid, krill (small shrimplike crustaceans),...
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Diseases of Animals.
infected animal. It may also spread in milk or in garbage that contains contaminated meat. Typical symptoms include blisters that appear on the mouth and feet;animals may become lame when their hooves degenerate. Canine distemper is a highly contagious disease caused by the paramyxovirus, which is transmitted in discharges from the nose and eyes. Symptoms begin with fever,malaise, and nasal and ocular discharges and may progress to convulsions and other nervous system disorders. Parvoviruses aff...
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Colour and qualia
Faced with the dilemmas posed by subjective colour for physicalist doctrine, some philosophers opt for eliminativism, the doctrine that subjective colour is not a genuine, or real, phenomenon after all. On this view the source of the puzzle is a conceptual confusion; a tendency to extend our judgments concerning objective colour, what appear to be intrinsic properties of the surfaces of physical objects, onto the properties of our mental states. Once we see that all that is happening ‘inside'...
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Chinese Literature
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INTRODUCTION
Chinese Literature, writings of the Chinese people, with a continuous history of more than 3,000 years.
(Huang) River basin region in the north. The verses are in lines of four characters (or syllables) and use rhyme and alliteration (repetition of the initial letter). Confuciusquoted them in his works. Because he described them as “without depraved thoughts,” all the verses in the Shi jing have been treated as moral allegories. (4) The Li ji (Book of Ritual ) contains detailed discussions of the principles of conduct at court and in private ceremonies. Although the Han dynasty and later ruler...
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Chinese Literature
I
INTRODUCTION
Chinese Literature, writings of the Chinese people, with a continuous history of more than 3,000 years.
(Huang) River basin region in the north. The verses are in lines of four characters (or syllables) and use rhyme and alliteration (repetition of the initial letter). Confuciusquoted them in his works. Because he described them as “without depraved thoughts,” all the verses in the Shi jing have been treated as moral allegories. (4) The Li ji (Book of Ritual ) contains detailed discussions of the principles of conduct at court and in private ceremonies. Although the Han dynasty and later ruler...
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Diabetes Mellitus.
Once diabetes is diagnosed, treatment consists of controlling the amount of glucose in the blood and preventing complications. Depending on the type of diabetes, thiscan be accomplished through regular physical exercise, a carefully controlled diet, and medication. Individuals with Type 1 diabetes must receive insulin, often two to four times a day, to provide the body with the hormone it does not produce. Insulin cannot be takenorally, because it is destroyed in the digestive system. Consequent...
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Rhinoceros - biology.
Male and female rhinos have a similar physical appearance, although male rhinos are usually larger than females, with the size difference varying between species. Inthe wild, some rhinos probably live into their late 40s, and they have survived into their 30s in captivity. IV TYPES OF RHINOCEROSES Until recently, mammalogists divided the rhinoceros family into three subfamilies, each with different characteristics. Scientists now believe that living rhinos belong to asingle subfamily, although...
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Beetle - biology.
cut, or crush prey. Beetles that consume nectar from flowers use tubelike mouthparts to suck up nectar like a primitive straw. C Thorax The thorax, the body region behind the head, consists of three segments that provide attachments for the legs and wings. Each segment of the thorax carries a pair oflegs. The middle segment also bears the stiff wing sheaths called elytra, and the hind segment holds the membranous hind wings. D Legs Beetles have six jointed legs, each leg with five parts. The f...
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Vitamin.
Vitamin B 1, or thiamine, promotes the metabolism of carbohydrates, enabling these nutrients to release their energy. Thiamine also plays a role in the functioning of the nervous system, muscles, and heart. The body does not store thiamine and people who are malnourished may develop thiamine deficiency. Mild thiamine deficiency cancause fatigue, muscle weakness, and loss of appetite. Severe thiamine deficiency causes beriberi, a disease characterized by muscle weakness, swelling of the heart,and...
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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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Plant - biology.
B1 Vacuoles Vacuoles are membrane-bound cavities filled with cell sap, which is made up mostly of water containing various dissolved sugars, salts, and other chemicals. B2 Plastids Plastids are types of organelles, structures that carry out specialized functions in the cell. Three kinds of plastids are important here. Chloroplasts contain chlorophyllsand carotenoid pigments; they are the site of photosynthesis, the process in which light energy from the sun is fixed as chemical energy in the b...
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From Uncle Tom's Cabin - anthology.
the evils of slavery from sketches like these, is not the half that could be told, of the unspeakable whole. In the northern states, these representations may, perhaps, be thought caricatures; in the southern states are witnesses who know their fidelity. What personalknowledge the author has had, of the truth of incidents such as here are related, will appear in its time. It is a comfort to hope, as so many of the world's sorrows and wrongs have, from age to age, been lived down, so a ti...
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Planetary Science - astronomy.
III ORIGINS AND COMPOSITIONS OF PLANETS Astronomers believe that planetary systems are formed of elemental materials that were created in the interiors of giant stars. Some of this material comes from giantstars that shed material into space as they age. Most of the matter to form planets, however, comes from stars that explode as supernovas and spread debris enrichedwith the heavier chemical elements into space. According to the currently accepted views, the most likely first stage in the evo...
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Glacier.
covered. In spring the snow cover begins to melt in the lower reaches, exposing the ice surface. As temperatures increase, the melting moves up the glacier. Thesnowline is the highest position the melting reaches during the year. Firn is old granular snow. The firn limit may not exactly coincide with the annual snowline since insome years rapid melting leaves behind firn patches below the snowline. Some glaciers exhibit features called ice streams and icefalls. Ice streams are valley glaciers th...
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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...
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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...
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Amphibian (animal) - biology.
strong enough to kill potential predators. C Hearing, Vision, and Vocalizations Amphibians rely on their senses to find food and evade predators. Amphibians lack external ears but have well-developed internal ears. Hearing is most acute in frogs,which typically have a middle ear cavity for transferring sound vibrations from the eardrum, or tympanum, to the inner ear. Frogs and toads also use their keen hearingin communicating with one another. Using a true voice box, or larynx, and a large, exp...
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Literary Criticism
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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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Prints and Printmaking
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INTRODUCTION
Prints and Printmaking, pictorial images that can be inked onto paper, and the art of creating and reproducing them.
Bewick’s The SkylarkBritish engraver Thomas Bewick’s The Skylark is part of his History of British Birds (2 vols., 1797 and 1804). Bewick wasthe first artist to demonstrate the full potential of wood engraving and is renowned for his fine natural history illustrations.Each illustration shows some of the bird’s natural habitat.Folio Society, London/Bridgeman Art Library, London/New York Historically, the wood engraving was chiefly used for illustrations in magazines and books. It is similar to th...
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Animal Behavior - biology.
The first motor program analyzed in much detail was the egg-rolling response of geese. When a goose sees an egg outside its nest, it stares at the egg, stretches itsneck until its bill is just on the other side of the egg, and then gently rolls the egg back into the nest. At first glance this seems a thoughtful and intelligent piece ofbehavior, but it is a mechanical motor program; almost any smooth, rounded object (the sign stimulus) will release the response. Furthermore, removal of the egg on...
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Human Nutrition.
is one of the most preventable types of cancer. Nutritionists caution that most Americans need to eat more complex carbohydrates. In the typical American diet, only 40 to 50 percent of total calories come fromcarbohydrates—a lower percentage than found in most of the world. To make matters worse, half of the carbohydrate calories consumed by the typical American comefrom processed foods filled with simple sugars. Experts recommend that these foods make up no more that 10 percent of our diet, bec...
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Mythology.
Across cultures, mythologies tend to describe similar characters. A common character is the trickster. The trickster is recklessly bold and even immoral, but through hisinventiveness he often helps human beings. In Greek mythology, Hermes (best known as the messenger of the gods) was a famous trickster. In one version of acharacteristic tale, Hermes, while still an infant, stole the cattle of his half-brother Apollo. To avoid leaving a trail that could be followed, Hermes made shoes from thebark...
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Technology.
loose soil in this region, known as the Fertile Crescent, was easily scratched for planting, and an abundance of trees was available for firewood. By 5000 BC, farming communities were established in areas known today as Syria, Turkey, Lebanon, Israel, Jordan, Greece, and the islands of Crete and Cyprus. Agricultural societies in these places constructed stone buildings, used the sickle to harvest grain, developed a primitive plowstick, and advanced their skills inmetalworking. Trade in flint al...
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Radar.
gathers the weak returning radar signals and converts them into an electric current. Because a radar antenna may both transmit and receive signals, the duplexerdetermines whether the antenna is connected to the receiver or the transmitter. The receiver determines whether the signal should be reported and often does furtheranalysis before sending the results to the display. The display conveys the results to the human operator through a visual display or an audible signal. B1 The Antenna The rec...
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American Literature: Drama
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INTRODUCTION
American Literature: Drama, literature intended for performance, written by Americans in the English language.
American plays, while still a minority, began to appear in the theater repertory in the 19th century. Although American plays were still styled after British models, theirsubject matter came to be based on specifically American incidents or themes. In the United States as in Britain, many plays reflected the influence of romanticism , a European literary and artistic movement. Melodrama, with its outpourings of emotion, was the most prevalent dramatic form in the 19th century. Gothic melodramas...
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Television.
A charge-coupled device (CCD) can be much smaller than a camera tube and is much more durable. As a result, cameras with CCDs are more compact and portablethan those using a camera tube. The image they create is less vulnerable to distortion and is therefore clearer. In a CCD, the light from a scene strikes an array ofphotodiodes arranged on a silicon chip. Photodiodes are devices that conduct electricity when they are struck by light; they send this electricity to tiny capacitors. Thecapacitors...
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New Brunswick - Geography.
Grand Lake, the largest lake in New Brunswick, is in the lowlands, east of Fredericton. Most other lakes are located in the northern and southwestern parts of NewBrunswick. D Climate New Brunswick has a continental climate that is moderated by maritime influences in the coastal areas. As a result, coastal regions are slightly warmer in the winter andslightly cooler in the summer than are interior regions. Annual temperature variations are large, with the January mean usually at least 25 to 28°C...
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New Brunswick - Canadian History.
Grand Lake, the largest lake in New Brunswick, is in the lowlands, east of Fredericton. Most other lakes are located in the northern and southwestern parts of NewBrunswick. D Climate New Brunswick has a continental climate that is moderated by maritime influences in the coastal areas. As a result, coastal regions are slightly warmer in the winter andslightly cooler in the summer than are interior regions. Annual temperature variations are large, with the January mean usually at least 25 to 28°C...
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Antarctica - Geography.
The maximum area of sea ice surrounding Antarctica each winter varies from year to year. A marked decline during the 1970s appears to have reversed in more recentdecades, except in the Antarctic Peninsula area. This area has lost almost 40 percent of its sea ice since the start of the 1980s. Sea ice is important to marine life. Krillfeed on algae that live under the sea ice and are released when the ice melts in spring and summer. In turn, many marine animals feed on krill. Emperor penguinsbreed...
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Arizona - geography.
of the Mogollon Rim, the Little Colorado draws very little water from a relatively large watershed, usually containing a mere trickle of water in its riverbed. The ColoradoRiver’s principal tributary is the Gila River, which flows all the way across the southern part of the state from New Mexico to the California border. From the mountainsand plateaus of central Arizona, the Gila River receives the Salt, Agua Fria, and Hassayampa rivers. The Salt River is itself fed by the Verde River. The Gila...