title: Céline Dion

text: She was born in the town of Charlemagne, Quebec, Canada. She is the youngest of 14 children. Her parents were television personality Thérèse Dion (1927–2020) and businessman Adhémar Dion (1923–2003). When she was 12 years old, her brother sent a recording to a manager named René Angélil. With his help, she released her first album in 1981, and her first English album in 1990. In 2007, she performed a show with Elvis Presley, which was arranged on the computer with old images from Elvis shows. It had been arranged for the TV show "American Idol".


title: Céline Dion

text: Dion first had international recognition in the 1980s. She won both the 1982 Yamaha World Popular Song Festival and the 1988 Eurovision Song Contest where she represented Switzerland.


title: Céline Dion

text: She has sold the most albums in the world for a female artist. For that, she received a special World Music Award in 2004. She has also sold the most French albums with 7 million copies. Dion is the best-selling Canadian artist of all time.


title: Céline Dion

text: On December 30, 1994, Dion married her manager René Angélil. They have three sons: René-Charles Angélil (born on January 25, 2001), and twins Eddy Angélil and Nelson Angélil (born on October 23, 2010). René died on January 14, 2016 from cancer. Her older brother, Daniel, died from cancer two days later, on what would have been Angélil's 74th birthday.


title: Céline Dion

text: In 2018, Dion released the song "Ashes", which appears on the soundtrack to the film "Deadpool 2", starring fellow Canadian Ryan Reynolds.


title: Hispaniola

text: Hispaniola is an island in the Caribbean Sea. It is the second largest island (after Cuba) of the West Indies, east of Cuba and west of Puerto Rico.


title: Hispaniola

text: The Republic of Haiti occupies the western three-eighths, the Dominican Republic the rest. Hispaniola is one of two Caribbean islands in which there are two countries; the other is Saint Martin.


title: Hispaniola

text: When Columbus arrived to America, some groups of native people, coming from northern South America, had lived in the Caribbean Islands since a very long time. That movement from South America to the Caribbean islands was not continuous but it happened in several waves during almost twelve centuries.


title: Hispaniola

text: Archeological studies suggests that those people from South America came to the Caribbean islands during four periods.


title: Hispaniola

text: The first period began around 5000 B.C. For most Caribbean islands, this period ended around 2000 years ago except in Cuba and Hispaniola where there were some small populations in western Cuba and southwestern Hispaniola when the Europeans arrived to these islands. They were called Ciboney or Siboney by the Taínos, meaning "man that lives among rocks" ("Ciba" means stone and "eyeri" man).


title: Hispaniola

text: The second group was the Igneri, the first Arawak Indians to come to the Caribbean Islands. They displaced the Ciboney people and, later, they were displaced by another group of Arawak Indians, the Taínos. Taínos occupied all the Greater Antilles (Cuba, Jamaica, Hispaniola and Puerto Rico) and they developed a culture different from the culture of the Arawaks of South America. They were the first people that the Spanish met in the Americas.


title: Hispaniola

text: The fourth and last group was the Carib. The Carib were also Arawaks but with a different language. Even if they used to go to Puerto Rico and the Hispaniola to fight against the Taínos, they lived only in the Lesser Antilles when Columbus got to America.


title: Hispaniola

text: At the moment when the Spanish came to the Hispaniola, most of the island was occupied by Taínos; only in the western tip of the Southern Peninsula (in modern Haiti), there were some small groups of Ciboney In the northeastern part of the island (Samaná Peninsula and north of the Northern mountain range), there was a group called Ciguayos, and sometimes Macorix, with the same culture of the Taínos but a different language. It seems that they were Carib that took the Taíno culture. They were the first Indians that fought against the Europeans.


title: Hispaniola

text: Christopher Columbus arrived to the island on December 5, 1492, naming it as La Española, meaning "The Spanish Island". When Peter Martyr d'Anghiera wrote in latin about this island, he wrote "Hispaniola", meaning "Small Spain"; that was not correct. Because the book of Anghiera was translated into English very soon, the name Hispaniola is the most used in English-speaking countries and in scientific works.


title: Hispaniola

text: For centuries, other names were used for the island. The most common were "Santo Domingo Island" (the Dominican constitution still uses that name) and "Haiti".


title: Hispaniola

text: Hispaniola was the only island that Columbus visited in all his four travels to the Americas. He saw the island for the first time on December 5, 1492 but he stayed on his ship during the night; the next day, he went to land. The Spaniards spent the rest of December traveling along the north coast of Haiti; on December 12, Columbus took possession of the island in the name of the King and Queen of Spain and named the island as "La Española".


title: Hispaniola

text: On Christmas Eve, December 24, the main ship ("Santa María") was badly damaged. The next day, Christmas Day, Columbus gave orders to use the wood of the ship to build a small fort on what is now Môle Saint-Nicolas, Haiti. That fort was named "La Navidad" ("Navidad" means Christmas) and was the first European building on American soil. Columbus left 39 men there because there was not space in the other two ships for all the people.


title: Hispaniola

text: From "La Navidad", they traveled east along the north coast of the island and in Samaná they had a small fight with some natives ("Ciguayos", not Taíno Indians) and named the bay as "Golfo de las Flechas" (Gulf of the Arrows), but now is called "Samaná Bay". From there, they went back to Spain.


title: Hispaniola

text: In 1493, Columbus found, when he returned in his second trip, that "La Navidad" was destroyed by the Indians and all Spaniards killed. Then he went to the east, founding the first European city in the American continent, near the present city of Puerto Plata; he named the city "La Isabela" in honor of Queen Isabella of Castile. The first Catholic mass in America was celebrated at La Isabela on January 6, 1494. From La Isabela, Columbus sent groups of persons to explore and take control of the island.


title: Hispaniola

text: Because La Isabela was an unhealthy site, Bartholomew Columbus, brother of Christopher, established a new city, "La Nueva Isabela" (The New Isabela) on the south coast of the island, on the left side of the Ozama river. Because a hurricane destroyed the city, it was built again but on the right side of the river and with the new name of Santo Domingo. It is the oldest permanent European city in the Americas.


title: Hispaniola

text: The Taíno population of the island decreased very fast because a combination of new diseases, like smallpox, and abuses by the Spaniards. Even if some black slaves were brought from Spain since 1501, the colony began to import African slaves when the colony began to grow sugar cane, around 1516, to produce sugar.


title: Hispaniola

text: Spain kept conquering new regions of the Americas and, for the Spanish people, those new regions were more interesting because there was more gold; the population of the island grew very slowly. By the early 17th century, the island and its smaller neighbors (above all, the Tortuga island) became places often visited by Caribbean pirates. In 1606, the king of Spain gave the order that all inhabitants of Hispaniola had to move close to the city of Santo Domingo, to avoid interaction with pirates and Protestant people. This resulted in French, British and Dutch pirates establishing bases on the abandoned north and west coasts of the island.


title: Hispaniola

text: In 1665, the presence of French people on the island had the official approval of the French king Louis XIV and he named Bertrand d'Ogeron as the governor of the western part of Hispaniola (in French, Saint-Domingue). By the Treaty of Ryswick, Spain gave the western third of the island to France and kept the eastern part. The development of the French "Saint-Domingue" was very fast, both in wealth and population, and it became the richest colony in the Caribbean. The eastern, Spanish colony of "Santo Domingo" remained poor and with a very low population.


title: Hispaniola

text: The island of Hispaniola has an area of . There are two countries: the Republic of Haiti is in the western part of the island and the Dominican Republic in the eastern part. These two countries are separated by an artificial border, except in the northern and southern extremes where they are separated by the rivers Dajabón and Pedernales, respectively.


title: Hispaniola

text: The island is separated from Cuba by the Windward Passage (81 km from Punta Maisí in Cuba to Cape Saint-Nicolas in Haiti), from Jamaica by the Jamaica Channel ( from Point Morante in Jamaica to Cape Irois in Haiti) and from Puerto Rico by the Mona Channel, as from Punta Higüero in Puerto Rico to Punta de Agua in the Dominican Republic.


title: Hispaniola

text: The maximun length, east to west, is from Cape Engaño to Cape Irois. The maximum width, north to south, is from Cape Isabela to Cape Beata. The highest point of the island, and of the Caribbean is Duarte Peak ("Pico Duarte") in the Dominican Republic with ; the lowest point is in the Enriquillo Lake, which is about under sea level.


title: Hispaniola

text: The Hispaniola is an island with many mountains, and the highest peaks of the West Indies are here. The chains of mountains show a direction northwest-southeast, except in the Southern peninsula (in Haiti) where they have a direction west-east. The mountains are separated by valleys with the same general direction.


title: Hispaniola

text: The sources of the longest rivers of Hispaniola are in the mountains of the "Cordillera Central" (Dominican Republic) - "Massif du Nord" (Haiti).


title: Hispaniola

text: The largest lake of the Hispaniola, and of the West Indies, is the "Lake Enriquillo". It is in the "Hoya de Enriquillo" with an area of 265 km². There are three small islands within the lake. It is around 40 meters below sea level and is a saline lake with a higher concentration of salt than the sea water.


title: Hispaniola

text: The second largest lake, "Étang Saumâtre" (also known as "Lake Azuei"), is close to Lake Enriquillo but in Haiti, in the "Cul-de-Sac". It is also a saline lake with an area of around 170 km².


title: Hispaniola

text: Others lakes are "Rincón" (fresh water, area of 28.2 km²), "Oviedo" (brackish water, area of 28 km²), "Redonda" "Limón", "Étang de Miragoâne".


title: Hispaniola

text: Hispaniola has a tropical climate but modified by elevation and the "trade winds" (winds that come from the northeast, from the Atlantic Ocean). At sea level, the average temperature is 25 °C, with small changes from one season to another. In the highest mountains, the temperature in winter can be as low as 0 °C.


title: Hispaniola

text: There are two wet seasons: April-June and September-November. The most dry period is from December to March.


title: Hispaniola

text: Rainfall varies greatly; eastern regions, like the Samaná Peninsula, get an average of over 2,000 mm in a year, but less than 500 mm fall in the southwest (Hoya de Enriquillo - Cul-de-Sac).


title: Hispaniola

text: Hispaniola has a total population, estimated for July 2013, of 20,113,564 inhabitants, for a density of 263 inhabitants per km².


title: Hispaniola

text: In Haiti, 95% of the population belongs to the black ethnic group, and in the Dominican Republic it is about 70% of the population.


title: Hispaniola

text: In the Dominican Republic, only Spanish is spoken (except for groups of immigrants) even if Haitian Creole is gaining importance because the massive immigration from Haiti. Both French and (Haitian) Creole are spoken in Haiti, and both are official languages.


title: Hispaniola

text: In both countries, the main religion is Roman Catholicism. Protestant groups are important, more in Haiti (15% of the population) than in the Dominican Republic (5%).


title: Hispaniola

text: The most important cities in the island are Santo Domingo (capital of Dominican Republic), Port-au-Prince (capital of Haiti), Santiago (Dominican Republic), Carrefour (Haiti).


title: Carbon cycle

text: The carbon cycle is the way carbon is stored and replaced on Earth. Some of the main events take hundreds of millions of years, others happen annually.


title: Carbon cycle

text: The main ways that carbon gets into the carbon cycle are volcanoes, and the burning of fossil fuels like coal and gas. Through most of history, volcanoes were the biggest source of carbon to the carbon cycle, but in the last hundred years, people burning fossil fuels have been adding about a hundred times more CO to the air than volcanoes. That is, for every ton of CO added to the air by volcanoes, about 100 tons of CO have been added to the air by people through combustion.


title: Carbon cycle

text: The main way carbon gets taken out of the atmosphere is by photosynthesis by living organisms. Some of this gets released as they die and decompose, but a proportion gets buried in sediment. This is shown in the diagram. Sediment turns to rock, and it is the carbonate rocks like limestone which contain the now-solid CO. Some of the carbon from plants also becomes part of the soil, where it can stay for a long time before decomposing.


title: Carbon cycle

text: Another process takes CO out of the air. Weathering by rain washes out CO in the form of dilute carbonic acid. This reacts with rock, helping to dissolve and destroy it. This also ends up as sediment.


title: Carbon cycle

text: Some CO is also dissolved in the ocean. Right now, the oceans are taking in more CO than they are releasing, every year. However, this is making the oceans more acidic.


title: Carbon cycle

text: The store of carbon in sedimentary rock is far greater than the CO in the atmosphere (this is not shown in the diagram). Eventually it returns to the air as oceanic plates subduct in plate tectonics. At the margins of plate boundaries (and some other places) volcanoes form and spew out CO. This completes the cycle.


title: Carbon cycle

text: The carbon cycle is a process where carbon is recycled through the ecosystem. The concentration of carbon in living matter (18%) is almost 100 times greater than its concentration in the earth (0.19%). So living things extract carbon from their nonliving environment. For life to continue, this carbon must be recycled. See the diagram for a detailed look at the carbon cycle. An example of a route carbon takes in this cycle is carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is absorbed by plants and used in photosynthesis to produce sugars which the plant uses for energy. When the plant dies, it decomposes and the carbon stored in the plant will, over millions of years, form into coal (a fossil fuel). The coal is burnt and gives off carbon dioxide which goes into the atmosphere.


title: Carbon cycle

text: At the moment, the carbon cycle, and how human activity is affecting it, is a big topic in international news. Fossil fuels are a non-renewable resource which means that they cannot be replaced easily. Our use of fossil fuels has nearly doubled every 20 years since 1900. This release of carbon dioxide contributes to the greenhouse effect and acid rain.


title: Carbon cycle

text: The carbon cycle was discovered by Joseph Priestley and Antoine Lavoisier, and popularized by Humphry Davy.


title: Maginot Line

text: The Maginot Line (, ) was a long line of walls, forts, and armed defenses that the French built after the First World War. It is named after André Maginot, who was the French Minister of war when it was built. The Maginot Line was made of a number of fortifications and bunkers, close to the French border to Germany, Belgium, Luxembourg and Italy. Today, the fortifications towards Italy are commonly called Alpin Line. The Maginot Line was built between 1930 and 1940.


title: Maginot Line

text: The plan was that the French army would have time to get ready and go north to Belgium and win any battle with the German army there. In the Second World War the German army and French army met in the Ardennes (forest) in Belgium. The French army lost, opening the way to German victory in the Battle of France.


title: Illuminati

text: The Illuminati (the “enlightened ones”) was a late 18th century German political secret society. Adam Weishaupt, a Bavarian philosopher and lawyer, started the secret society on the 1st of May 1776 at the University of Ingolstadt . In 1785 it was outlawed in Bavaria.


title: Illuminati

text: Originally, they opposed superstition, prejudice, religious influence over public life, and abuses of state power. They supported women’s education and gender equality.


title: Illuminati

text: Later, other groups formed using the same name. There is no evidence that these present-day groups have any significant power or influence. They promote themselves using the Bavarian Illuminati to attract membership.


title: Violin Concertos (Mozart)

text: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart wrote at least five violin concertos between 1773 and 1776 in Salzburg, Austria, most likely for his own use as concertmaster of the Archbishop of Salzburg's orchestra.


title: Violin Concertos (Mozart)

text: This concerto is scored for violin solo, 2 oboes, 2 horns and strings, and was composed in Salzburg on April 14, 1773 or 1775. The date is uncertain. There are three movements: Allegro moderato; Adagio; Presto.


title: Violin Concertos (Mozart)

text: All three movements are written in sonata form, a form reserved by classical composers for their more serious works. The second movement is marked Adagio, a more intense tempo than Mozart's usual Andantes.


title: Violin Concertos (Mozart)

text: The D major concerto is scored for violin solo, 2 oboes, 2 horns, and strings. It was written in Salzburg and dated June 14, 1775. It consists of three movements: Allegro moderato; Andante; (Rondeau) Allegro.


title: Violin Concertos (Mozart)

text: This concerto is scored for violin solo, 2 oboes, 2 horns, and strings. It was composed in Salzburg and is dated September 12, 1775. It consists of three movements: Allegro; Adagio; (Rondeau) Allegro.


title: Violin Concertos (Mozart)

text: The fourth concerto in D major is scored for violin solo, 2 oboes, 2 horns, and strings. It was composed in Salzburg, and is dated October 1775. The autograph of the score is kept in Biblioteka Jagiellońska, Kraków.


title: Violin Concertos (Mozart)

text: The fifth concerto in A major is scored for violin solo, 2 oboes, 2 horns, and strings. It was written in Salzburg and is dated December 20, 1775. It consists of three movements: Allegro aperto; Adagio; (Rondeau) Tempo di Menuetto.


title: Violin Concertos (Mozart)

text: A sixth concerto, in E flat major, was at one time attributed to Mozart but is now attributed instead to Johann Friedrich Eck.


Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport is an airport near Washington, D.C.. It is in Arlington County, Virginia. It is the commercial airport closest to Washington, D.C. The Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority (MWAA) is in control of the airport. It is named after 40th President of the United States Ronald Reagan.


title: Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport

text: Flights into and out of DCA cannot be longer than . This rule is used to limit the number of aircraft over Washington. It causes most of the air traffic to be sent to the Washington Dulles International Airport which is larger and further from the city. There are some exceptions to this rule. In 2010, the airport served about 18.1 million passengers. Reagan National is a focus city for American Airlines. They are the airport's largest carrier. The American Airlines Shuttle has air shuttle service to LaGuardia Airport in New York City and Logan International Airport in Boston, Massachusetts. Delta Air Lines' Delta Shuttle also has air shuttle service to LaGuardia. These shuttle flights leave Reagan International about once an hour. An exception to this rule permits 20 long-haul flights a day. Most are from the west coast: non-stops from Seattle, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Portland Oregon. However, San Juan Puerto Rico is also part of this group. These exemptions were created in 2003 and 2012.


text: Hoover Field, which opened in 1926, was the first major terminal in the Washington area and was located on a piece of land close to where the Pentagon stands today. The airport had one runway that crossed a local street, which meant that tarmac workers had to stop automobile traffic during take-offs and landings. The next year, Washington Airport, another privately operated field,was opened next to it. In 1930, the economic turmoil caused by the Great Depression caused the two terminals to join to form Washington-Hoover Airport. Washington-Hoover Airport's initial field was in a poor and undesirable location. On one side of the airport was U.S. Route 1, an important highway in the D.C. area. The highway had electrical wires running alongside it, meaning that it posed as a threat to planes that landed and took off from the field. Additionally, there was also a smokestack that was dangerously close and in the way of one of the runway. A dump was also very close to the airport.


text: Thirty-seven studies done between 1926 and 1938 showed the need for a better airport. However, due to a law that did not allow the federal government to build airports, it could not be considered or planned for. On top of this, Congress refused to even attempt to make plans for a new airport. President Franklin D. Roosevelt, knowing this information, grew tired of waiting on Congress, and moved forward with attempting to create the new airport, which he could do on the technicality that he was allowed to spend money when Congress was not in session. He used that power to spend $15 million to construct a new airport that better served the nation's capital, and construction on Washington National Airport broke ground in 1938. Congress did not think that what FDR did was legal, but did not stop the construction from being built.


text: The airport today sits south of Washington, D.C., parallel to U.S. Route 1. The eastern side of the airport had to be enlarged to make room for the runways, so developers filled in a small section of the Potomac River to make room for them. The western part of the airport was once part of a large Virginia plantation, known as . For many years the plantation house was near where the airport parking lot stands today, but in 1930, the house burned down. In 1998, efforts to preserve the site of where the house once stood were made by the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority, and a small exhibit of the house exists today in Terminal 1 of the airport.


text: The airport opened on June 16, 1941. In 1945, Congress passed a law that said that the airport was in Virginia but under the control of the federal government.


text: The location of the runways is limited by the location of the airport. It has not changed much over time. One of the few changes was made in 1956. The fourth runway was closed. It was an east-west runway. It is now used just for moving aircraft and for parking them. The terminal building was made larger in 1958. The North Terminal was added. The two buildings were connected in 1961. A United Airlines building was built in 1965. Facilties for American Airlines were built in 1968. A commuter terminal was built in 1970.


text: Although the airport has been made larger, there have been efforts to limit this. Because of the use of jet aircraft and the amount of traffic, Congress passed the Washington Airport Act of 1950. This caused the opening of Dulles Airport in 1962. Problems with noise caused noise restrictions to be made. This happened before jet aircraft use began in 1966. The Federal Aviation Administration put restrictions on National and four other airports in 1969 to limit problems with high amounts of traffic.


text: In 1984, Secretary of Transportation Elizabeth Dole created a group to look into moving control of National and Dulles Airports from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to a local group. The selected group(s) could use the money the airports made to pay make them better. The group felt that it would be better for one agency to be in control of both airports. The other choice was to have Virginia control Dulles and the District of Columbia control National. In 1987, Congress gave control of the airport from the FAA to the new Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority (MWAA). This groups choices were still under the control of a Congressional review panel. The constitutionality of the review panel was later challenged in the Supreme Court. The Court has twice said that it was not constitutional. Even after this, Congress still takes control of the airports.


text: In 1998, some friends of Ronald Reagan wanted to name things in all 50 states after him. They wanted a law that would change the name of the airport to "Ronald Reagan Airport". Democratic Congressmen thought it would be better to change the name of the building of the Bureau of the Public Debt instead. They said that the airport was already named after George Washington. Congress chose to change the name of the airport to "Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport". Because of the length of the name, many people call it "National Airport". Congress did not give money to make new signs with the new names. Because of this, it took time for the name to be used commonly. The name of the airport's Metro station is still "National Airport". In early 2001, a letter signed by 24 members of Congress asked that WMATA change the name of the station. A policy from 1987 says that if a group wants to change the name of a station that they must pay the cost of changing the signs and maps. The price to make these changes was thought to be $400,000. Because of this, the name was not changed. This caused Republican Congressman Bob Barr of Georgia to say they would not give money to the agency unless the station was renamed. Congress ultimately voted to require the renaming on November 30. According to the General Manager at the time, Richard A. White, Metro paid to rename the station.


text: On the afternoon of January 13, 1982, after some very cold weather and a morning of blizzard conditions, Air Florida Flight 90 crashed on take-off. It had been waiting forty-nine minutes on a taxiway and took off with ice and snow on the wings. The Boeing 737 aircraft could not gain altitude. Less than from the end of the runway, the airplane hit the 14th Street Bridge. It cut off the tops off vehicles and fell through the ice covering the Potomac River. The weather and traffic caused problems with helping the people on the plane. With the help of people in the cars, a United States Park Service police helicopter crew, and one of the plane's passengers who later died, five people on the plane were saved. The other 74 people on the plane died. Four people in the vehicles on the bridge also died.


text: "This article uses public domain material from websites or documents of the Air Force Historical Research Agency."


title: Allegory

text: An allegory is a term for a figure of speech. It is a story or picture with a hidden meaning. The characters in allegories are symbols which represent particular ideas. The story has a figurative meaning, not just a literal one.


title: Allegory

text: Allegory is an example of rhetoric, but an allegory does not have to be a story in language. It may be something to look at, such as a painting or sculpture.


title: Allegory

text: An allegory is like a long metaphor. People have to use their imagination to understand what it is trying to say. A fable or parable is a short allegory with one basic idea (a moral).


title: Allegory

text: Sometimes people say that stories have meanings which the author, in fact, did not intend. For instance, many people have suggested that "The Lord of the Rings" was an allegory for the World Wars, but, in fact, it was written well before the outbreak of World War II, and J.R.R. Tolkien said that it was not an allegory. In this way people sometimes change the author’s ideas. Sometimes they do it for their own political reasons.


title: Allegory

text: Allegory has been a favourite form in the literature of nearly every nation. It is often used as a way of criticizing things or people where it would not be possible to do so directly.


title: Allegory

text: In classical literature Plato and Ovid wrote allegories. Dante Alighieri wrote allegories in "The Divine Comedy". In the Middle Ages "Everyman" was a morality play. John Bunyan’s "The Pilgrim's Progress" tells the story of a man trying to lead a Christian life. Jonathan Swift wrote "Gulliver's Travels", which tells about the strange customs of (made-up) faraway countries, but he was really criticizing things about his own country, the United Kingdom. "Animal Farm" by George Orwell is another example of an allegory, this time of the Soviet Union during Josef Stalin's era and the Russian Revolution. Some of the characters can be directly linked to figures during that time.


title: Allegory

text: Songs may also include allegories. "Waist Deep In The Big Muddy" tells a story of American soldiers in the 1800s, ordered by their commander to march into the Mississippi River, which they could never cross on foot. In truth, it told the story of soldiers fighting in the Vietnam War in the 1960s, and being expected to do the white guy's bidding.


title: Allegory

text: Allegories still continue to be popular today. Pictures, movies and plays can be allegories. William Golding’s novel "Lord of the Flies" also has allegorical meaning. "Star Trek" used a great deal of allegory, to look at social conditions and moral values in the present, while telling stories based in the future. Alien races were often a reflection of Earth's own races and countries.


title: Allegory

text: Allegorical artworks include Sandro Botticelli's "La Primavera (Allegory of Spring)" and Jan Vermeer's "The Allegory of Painting".


title: Independent politician

text: In politics, an Independent is someone who is not a member of any political party. Independents can have a centrist opinion on what they want to do when they are elected, or they may have extreme opinions that are very different from what other parties have. Also, there are some politicians who may choose to contest an election by themselves as an Independent candidate even if they used to be a member of a political party, because they do not want to follow their party's political ideology. Some Independents may create their own political party just to take part in an election.


title: Central America

text: Central America (, or "Centroamérica" ) is the central geographic region of the continent known as the Americas. It goes from Mexico in the north-west, to Panama in the south-east. It also comprises the Caribbean Sea and its countries.


title: Central America

text: Central America has an area of . It is almost 0.1% of the Earth's surface. This is a list of the countries in Central America, from the largest to the smallest:


title: Central America

text: While Nicaragua is the largest country in area, of Central America, Guatemala has the largest population by country in Central America, with more than 14 million people and they also have the most populated city in Central America, being Guatemala City.


title: Central America

text: Six of the seven countries have Spanish as their official language, with Belize being the non-Spanish speaking country, as their official language is English, although there are now at least 195,597 (62.8%) of people in Belize who speak Spanish.


title: Central America

text: Central America has an area of . It is almost 0.1% of the Earth's total surface. In 2009 the population was estimated at 41,739,000. It has a density of 77 people per square kilometer or 206 people per square mile.


title: Central America

text: Central America has many unique features that go from the north-western borders of Belize and Guatemala to the Isthmus of Panama. There it connects to the Colombian Pacific Lowlands in South America.


title: Central America

text: Central America is an area of some 524,000 square kilometres. The Pacific Ocean is on the southwest, the Caribbean Sea to the northeast, and the Gulf of Mexico to the north. Most of Central America rests on the Caribbean Plate.


title: Central America

text: The 1976 Guatemala earthquake killed 23,001 people. Managua, the capital of Nicaragua, was devastated by earthquakes in 1931 and 1972. The last one killed about 5,001 people. Three earthquakes hit El Salvador. The first one in 1986 and two in 2001. An earthquake devastated northern and central Costa Rica in 2009. It killed at least 35 people. In Honduras a powerful earthquake happened in 2009.


title: Central America

text: Volcanic eruptions are common. In 1968 the Arenal Volcano in Costa Rica erupted. This killed at least 87 people. The 3 villages of Tabacon, Pueblo Nuevo, and San Luis were buried under ash.


title: Central America

text: Central America has many mountain ranges; the longest are the Sierra Madre de Chiapas, the Cordillera Isabelia and the Cordillera de Talamanca. Most of the population of Honduras, Costa Rica and Guatemala live in valleys, between mountains. Valleys are also suitable for the production of coffee, beans and other crops.


title: Central America

text: Central America is part of the Mesoamerican Biodiversity hotspot, boasting 7% of the world's biodiversity. As a bridge between North and South America, Central America has many species from the Nearctic and the Neotropic ecozones. However the southern countries (Costa Rica and Panama) of the region have more biodiversity than the northern countries (Guatemala and Belize), meanwhile the central countries (Honduras, Nicaragua and El Salvador) have least biodiversity. The table shows current statistics for the seven countries:


title: House of Windsor

text: The House of Windsor is the current Royal House of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and each of the other Commonwealth realms. The older part is a branch of the Saxe-Coburg and Gotha line of the House of Wettin, while the newer part is a branch of the Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg line of the House of Oldenburg.


title: House of Windsor

text: Queen Victoria married Prince Albert, son of Duke Ernst I of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. Therefore her descendants are members of the ducal family of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha with the house name of Wettin. Victoria's son Edward VII and his son George V reigned as members of this house. But during World War I there was a lot of hatred of anything German. A lot of this feeling was stirred up by newspapers. People with German names were beaten up, and shops with German names had their windows broken. Even the Royal Family were accused of supporting Germany. On 17 July 1917 George V ordered the Royal Family to give up their German titles, and change German-sounding titles and house names for English-sounding versions. Prince Louis Battenberg became Lord Louis Mountbatten. The Duke of Teck became the Marquis of Milford Haven and the name of the royal house, and the royal surname was changed to Windsor, after the town of Windsor and Windsor Castle.


title: House of Windsor

text: When he heard about the change of name, German Emperor William II joked that he wanted to see Shakespeare's play "The Merry Wives of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha".


title: House of Windsor

text: In April 1952, Queen Elizabeth II said that her descendants will keep name and House of Windsor, the House of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg through their father, born Prince Philip of Greece and Denmark, a line of the House of Oldenburg.


title: House of Windsor

text: On 8 February 1960, the Queen decided instead to keep the House and Family of Windsor but that their personal surname is ""Mountbatten-Windsor"". Mountbatten is the surname adopted by Prince Philip before his marriage, an anglicization of his mother's family name of Battenberg.


title: House of Windsor

text: The next in line for the throne is Prince William; if so he may be known as King William V of the United Kingdom.


title: Common year starting on Saturday

text: This is the calendar for any common year starting on Saturday, January 1 (dominical letter B). Examples include 1977, 1983, 1994, 2005, 2011, 2022 (the current year), and 2033 in the Gregorian calendar,


title: Common year starting on Saturday

text: or Julian years 2017 and 2023 (see bottom tables). The question mark for the ISO week before week 1 is due to ambiguity based on whether or not the previous year was a leap year. If it was, then that week is week 53, if it was a common year then it is week 52.


title: Common year starting on Saturday

text: This common year is one of three common years that have only one Friday the 13th, the others being Common year starting on Wednesday and Common year starting on Friday. The Friday the 13th in this common year is in May. This characteristic is shared with a Leap year starting on Friday.


title: Common year starting on Saturday

text: In this common year, Martin Luther King Jr. Day is on January 17, Valentine’s Day is on a Monday, Presidents Day is on its latest possible date, February 21, St. Patrick’s Day is on a Thursday, Mother’s Day is on its earliest possible date, May 8, Memorial Day is on May 30, Father’s Day is on June 19, Independence Day is on a Monday, Labor Day is on September 5, Columbus Day is on October 10, Halloween is on a Monday, Veterans Day is on a Friday, Thanksgiving is on November 24, and Christmas is on a Sunday.


title: Schutzstaffel

text: The Schutzstaffel ( (SS) or better known as the SS was a large security and military organization controlled by the National Socialist German Workers Party (Nazi Party) in Germany. "SS" was sometimes written in Runic as , and this symbol was put on the SS flag and insignia. It was formed in 1925 in Weimar Germany or better known as the Weimar Republic . In 1934 the SS became powerful after the execution of the head of the Sturmabteilung (SA) leader Ernst Röhm in Night of the Long Knives .


title: Schutzstaffel

text: The SS played a major part in The Holocaust. For example, they ran the Nazi concentration camps and death camps, where they killed millions of people. After World War II, judges at the Nuremberg Trials ruled that the SS was an illegal criminal organization. The judges also said that the SS was the organization that had done most of the Holocaust.


title: Schutzstaffel

text: The SS was created in the 1925 to guard Nazi leader Adolf Hitler. ("Schutzstaffel" means "Protection Squadron" in German). From 1929 to 1945, Heinrich Himmler led the SS. During that time, the SS grew from a small paramilitary unit to one of the largest and most powerful organizations in Nazi Germany.


title: Schutzstaffel

text: The Nazis saw the SS as a special unit, like the Praetorian Guard (which used to guard Roman emperors). To be chosen for the SS, a person had to be racially "pure". This meant they had to prove that all their ancestors were "Aryan". They also had to be completely loyal to the Nazi party. They could never ask questions or disagree with anything the SS did.


title: Schutzstaffel

text: The SS had two different parts. The "Allgemeine-SS" ("General SS") were the Nazis' police. The "Waffen-SS" ("Armed SS") were special units of soldiers in Nazi Germany's military. The Waffen-SS became known for fierce fighting and brutality against civilians and prisoners of war. Its units helped crush the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, where Polish Jews tried to fight back against the Nazis. Waffen-SS units also killed many American prisoners of war during the Battle of the Bulge in 1944.


title: Schutzstaffel

text: The SS was militaristic but not military. It had its own rank system, insignia, and uniforms. This made the SS different from the German military, the Nazi party, and people who worked in the German government.


title: Schutzstaffel

text: As the Nazi party gained more and more power in Germany, it gave control of more important jobs (like law enforcement) to the SS. Many SS organizations became as powerful as parts of the government. The Nazi party decided that to help it keep its power, it needed to give the SS two even more important jobs. One of these was to create and run the Sicherheitsdienst ("SD"), the Nazi security and intelligence service. The other was to control the "Geheime Staatspolizei" ("Gestapo"): the SS secret police. Because it was in charge of so many important things, the SS could do almost anything it wanted.


title: Schutzstaffel

text: As the SS's leader, Heinrich Himmler used the SS to put the Final Solution into action. The SS Einsatzgruppen murdered many civilians, mostly Jews, in the countries controlled by Nazi Germany during World War II. The SS was in charge of creating and running concentration camps and death camps (camps where people were sent to be killed). In these camps, millions of prisoners died from many causes, including murder, starvation, disease, freezing to death, and being experimented on by Nazi doctors like Josef Mengele.


title: Schutzstaffel

text: After the war, the judges at the Nuremberg Trials decided the SS was a criminal organization (a group that was created only to commit crimes). They ruled that the SS had committed war crimes and crimes against humanity. They also said that the SS was the organization that had carried out most of the Holocaust.


title: Murder of Linda Andersen

text: Linda Andersen was murdered by her two teenage daughters, Sandra and Elizabeth Andersen, on January 18, 2003 in Mississauga, Ontario, Canada. The names in this article are aliases, for legal reasons.


title: Murder of Linda Andersen

text: Sandra and Elizabeth Andersen were each sentenced to 10 years in prison in 2005. Neither sister served their full-time prison sentence: Sandra Andersen was released to a halfway house in 2009 and Elizabeth Andersen was released in 2010. Since they were under-aged at the time of the murder, the Canadian government is protecting the sisters' true identities and has issued the Andersen sisters with aliases. Linda Andersen's murder case was broadcast on the television series "Deadly Women" in 2010, and was the subject of Bob Mitchell's book 'The Class Project: How to Kill a Mother: The True Story of Canada's Infamous Bathtub Girls'. In 2014, a crime drama, Perfect Sisters, was released, which was additionally based on the murder of Linda Andersen.


title: Murder of Linda Andersen

text: According to police reports, Sandra and Elizabeth Andersen, aged 16 and 15 respectively, had become irritated of their mother "wasting. money on alcohol". Linda also had abusive relationships with men which also caused unrest for the girls. They were also unhappy that their friends had "better things like swimming pools and clothes". Because of their discontent, the sisters began to search on the Internet for ways to kill their mother. Elizabeth and Sandra Andersen believed that by killing their mother, they would be entitled to insurance money. This compensation, the sisters resolved, would be spent on a trip to Europe with their friends as well as a large house, with a backyard filled with marijuana. The sisters decided to drown Linda Andersen, because they believed it would be "fast and spectacular".


title: Murder of Linda Andersen

text: After formulating a murder plan, Elizabeth and Sandra Andersen informed their friends, who both encouraged the sisters and laughed at the idea of murdering Linda Andersen.


title: Murder of Linda Andersen

text: During lunch time on January 18 2003, Sandra and Elizabeth began giving their mother liquor in order to get her drunk. Their plan was to make Linda fully inebriated so that she could not resist their attack. Linda was also given pain killers by her daughters, to slow down her heartbeat. Sandra and Elizabeth then waited for the drugs to work. While waiting, the sisters communicated with their friends online, one of whom ended their conversation with the phrase "well good luck - wear gloves".


title: Murder of Linda Andersen

text: Sandra and Elizabeth Andersen filled the family bathtub with water and took Linda Andersen to the bathroom. Linda had difficulty getting into the bathtub, because of the mixture of vodka and pills she had been given. After putting gloves on, Sandra and Elizabeth gave their mother a massage. Within minutes, according to police reports, Sandra Andersen instructed her mother to lay on her stomach so that she could scrub her back. Sandra Andersen instantly pulled her mother's head down and did not let go. After four minutes, Sandra Andersen released her mother's head and found Linda Andersen to be dead. After having killed their mother, Sandra and Elizabeth Andersen went with their friends to a nearby restaurant where they celebrated their victory. Later that night, Sandra and Elizabeth Andersen called 9-1-1 and informed them that they had found their mother laying in the bathtub.


title: Murder of Linda Andersen

text: The 9-1-1 operator told Sandra and Elizabeth Andersen to take their mother out of the bathtub and to perform CPR. The Andersen sisters cried over the phone, telling the operator that Linda Andersen could not be resuscitated. When police arrived, they believed Sandra and Elizabeth Andersen's story.


title: Murder of Linda Andersen

text: A year after the murder, Sandra and Elizabeth Andersen held a party. Sandra, who was drunk, told a male at the party about the murder of Linda Andersen that both she and Elizabeth had committed. She then told a guy that liked her that her mothers death might have not been an accident. He felt suspicious which later led him to the police to report what he was told. Sandra and Elizabeth Andersen were subsequently arrested, tried and sentenced to 10 years in prison. They were released in 2009 and 2010 respectively.


title: Murder of Linda Andersen

text: The older sister, Sandra Andersen, was released to a halfway house in 2009, whilst the younger sister, Elizabeth Andersen, was released a year later. The girls' father unsuccessfully attempted to have Elizabeth Andersen released earlier so that she could complete her sentence under house arrest in their hometown. Since both Sandra and Elizabeth Andersen were under the age of 18 at the time of the murder, their identities have been protected under Canadian law. After release, Sandra Andersen was accepted to the University of Waterloo with a $2000 scholarship; Elizabeth Andersen traveled to Ottawa with the intention of applying to university.


title: Megalodon

text: The megalodon was the largest shark of all time. Its scientific name is Otodus megalodon. It lived from the early Miocene to the Pliocene epochs, 23 to 3.6 million years ago (mya). It is not closely related to the present-day great white shark.


title: Megalodon

text: Megalodon had teeth, which are among the largest ever found, over long. Nicolaus Steno was the first to recognize the teeth as those of a giant shark. Paleontologists calculate that the shark was up to long with average length of 17 meters (56 feet) It weighed up to 48-103 metric tons.


title: Megalodon

text: Fossil records of "O. megalodon" indicate that it occurred in deep to tropical latitudes. Before the formation of the Isthmus of Panama, the seas were relatively warmer. This would have made it possible for the species to live in all the oceans of the world.


title: Megalodon

text: "O. megalodon" lived in many marine environments (i.e. continental shelf waters, coastal upwelling, swampy coastal lagoons, sandy littorals, and offshore deep water environments), and moved from place to place. Adult "O. megalodon" were not abundant in shallow water environments, and mostly lurked offshore. "C. megalodon" may have moved between coastal and oceanic waters, at different stages in its life.


title: Megalodon

text: Megalodon hunted large and medium-sized whales, attacking the bony areas, such as chest, fins, or tail. This would stop the whale, or it could kill quickly with a fatal bite to the chest region. The megalodon bite is considered one of the strongest bites in the animal kingdom’s history.


title: Megalodon

text: Its great size, high-speed swimming capability, and powerful jaws coupled with formidable killing apparatus, made it an apex predator eating a range of fauna.


title: Megalodon

text: Fossil evidence is that "C. megalodon" preyed on cetaceans (i.e., dolphins, small whales, and "Odobenocetops", and large whales, (including sperm whales, bowhead whales, and rorquals pinnipeds, porpoises, sirenians, and giant sea turtles.


title: Megalodon

text: Marine mammals were regular prey targets for megalodon. Many whale bones have been found with clear signs of large bite marks (deep gashes) made by teeth that match those of megalodon, and various excavations have revealed megalodon teeth lying close to the chewed remains of whales, and sometimes in direct association with them. Fossil evidence of interactions between megalodon and pinnipeds also exist. In one interesting observation, a megalodon tooth was found lying very close to a bitten earbone of a sea lion.


title: Megalodon

text: Megalodon is now considered to be a member of the family Otodontidae, genus "Otodus". Megalodon's older classification into "Carcharodon" was due to dental similarity with the great white shark. Most authors now think this is due to convergent evolution. The great white shark is more closely related to the extinct broad-toothed mako ("Isurus hastalis") than to megalodon. The dentition in those two sharks is similar, whereas megalodon teeth have much finer serrations than great white shark teeth. The great white shark is more closely related to the mako shark ("Isurus" spp.), with a most recent common ancestor about 4 mya. Those who still think megalodon and the great white shark are more closely related, argue that the differences between their dentition are minute and obscure.


title: English Civil War

text: The English Civil War happened in the middle 17th century. The term civil war is a war where the sides involved in the fighting are from the same country.


title: English Civil War

text: At the centre, there was a struggle between King Charles I and the Parliament of England over how England should be ruled. The King wanted to rule without Parliament telling him what to do. At first Parliament wanted to reduce the King's power, but later it decided that the country did not need a king. King Charles's supporters were known as the Royalists, and were nicknamed "Cavaliers". Parliament's supporters were known as the Parliamentarians, and were nicknamed "Roundheads".


title: English Civil War

text: From 1639 to 1653, there was fighting in England, Scotland and Ireland, three separate countries that were ruled by the same king. The fighting that took place in each of these countries broke out at different times and for different reasons. In England, it lasted from 1642 to 1651. Some people think of this as one big war, while others think of it as three separate wars: the First English Civil War (1642-46), the Second English Civil War (1648) and the Third English Civil War (1649-51). The wars are also sometimes known as the Wars of the Three Kingdoms, including the Bishops' Wars in Scotland in 1639 to 1640 and the Irish Rebellion from 1641 to 1653.


title: English Civil War

text: The Parliamentarians won the war. Charles I was captured, put on trial and in 1649 he was executed. His son Charles II then tried to take over the country, but lost and escaped abroad. As a result, the three kingdoms spent 11 years without a king. For most of this time, they were run by Oliver Cromwell, a former Parliamentarian general. After Cromwell's death, the monarchy was restored under Charles II. However, kings were never as powerful as they had been before the war.


title: English Civil War

text: In the 17th century, the king had a lot of power over England with one exception: he could only raise taxes if the English Parliament agreed to it. This was because Parliament represented the gentry (middle class), and no king could raise taxes without the help of the gentry. Scotland and Ireland also had parliaments, but with not nearly as much power. When King James VI of Scotland inherited the throne (becoming James I of England), he disliked having to work with parliament. He was more used to ruling in Scotland, where the king was far more powerful. James I also spent more money than previous kings and queens.


title: English Civil War

text: Both James I and his son Charles I believed in the "divine right of kings", meaning that they believed that God gave kings the right to do anything they wanted over their lands. But there was a difference between the two: James I accepted that he could not get what he wanted all the time, whereas Charles I always wanted to get his own way.


title: English Civil War

text: After becoming king in 1625, Charles I quickly got into arguments with members of Parliament. From 1629 to 1640, he shut Parliament down and ruled without it. This was legal, as long as he did not raise taxes. He used some legal tricks to raise money without bringing back Parliament. For example, he used "ship money", a tax that had been paid by coastal towns in times of war. Charles I started charging it to all towns when there was no war. This was unpopular, but judges decided that it was legal. The period from 1629 to 1640 was known as the "Eleven Years' Tyranny" by the king's enemies.


title: English Civil War

text: In the previous century, the Protestant Reformation and England's break with the Catholic Church had encouraged new ideas and struggles. In England, there was movement called the Puritans, because they wanted a "pure" religion. They believed that the Church of England was too much like the Roman Catholic Church it had broken away from. In particular, they did not want the church to have bishops. There was a similar movement in Scotland. The Church of Scotland also had bishops, but it had many differences with the Church of England.


title: English Civil War

text: On the other hand, Charles I and Archbishop William Laud tried to change the Church of England. They brought back incense, bells and decorations to churches. These were things that were found in Catholic churches. This worried the people who hated Catholicism, especially the Puritans. Charles I also married a French princess, Henrietta Maria, who was a Catholic.


title: English Civil War

text: In 1637, Charles I tried to introduce a new prayer book in Scotland that was very similar to the English Book of Common Prayer, without asking Scotland's Parliament or church. Many Scots hated the prayer book, seeing it as an attempt to change the religion of their country. Riots broke out in Edinburgh, and unrest spread throughout Scotland. A rebellion movement began in Scotland, which became known as the Covenanters.


title: English Civil War

text: In 1639, the rebellion led to the Bishops' Wars in Scotland. The war cost so much money that the King called a new Parliament in England to raise taxes. But the members of Parliament did not want to work with Charles, and instead they complained about the king's actions (such as ship money) during the "Eleven Years' Tyranny". He shut Parliament down again, but the King struggled to stop the Covenanters without new taxes. Another problem was that many English people agreed with the Covenanters and did not want to help fight them. The Covenanter army invaded England and marched into Northumberland and County Durham. They refused to leave unless they were paid money.


title: English Civil War

text: To raise that money, the King had no choice but to call another Parliament. This became known as the "Long Parliament". Over two-thirds of the elected members of the Long Parliament were opposed to the king. John Pym was their leader. The Long Parliament passed laws to stop the king from shutting it down and removed many of the king's allies. They even had his friend Earl of Strafford executed.


title: English Civil War

text: In 1641, a rebellion broke out in Ireland. The rebellion was caused by Irish Catholics who were fearful of the Protestants in the Long Parliament and the Scottish Covenanters. The King now needed money to fight this rebellion, which strengthened Parliament. Parliament would also take control of the army in 1642.


title: English Civil War

text: In January 1642, Charles I marched into Parliament with guards, to arrest five members of Parliament (including Pym) who disagreed with him. The five men found out he was coming and escaped. No king had ever entered the main chamber of Parliament before, and many members were shocked he would do this. It was disaster for Charles. He failed to catch his enemies, and many members of Parliament who had not been enemies of the king became afraid of him. They decided that the only way to protect themselves was a raise an army against the King.


title: English Civil War

text: In mid-1642, both sides started travelling around the country to gather supporters and weapons. On 22 August, King Charles raised the royal flag in Nottingham. By doing this, he was announcing that he was at war with Parliament.


title: English Civil War

text: The King found more support in the countryside, poorer parts of the country and northern and western England. Parliament found more support in most cities, ports, richer parts of the country and southern and eastern England. People who were secretly Catholic mostly supported the King. The Royal Navy and most Puritans supported Parliament. Some areas supported Parliament because of local problems, such as the land drainage works in The Fens.


title: English Civil War

text: The Royalist armies were led by Prince Rupert, the King's nephew. The Parliamentarian armies were at first led by the Earl of Essex. The Royalists decided they would try to fight the Parliamentarians quickly, and so went to meet them in Warwickshire. The first major battle was the Battle of Edgehill in October 1642. The battle ended in a draw. The King tried to return to London but was blocked by the Parliamentarian army. He moved with his armies to Oxford, where he had more loyal followers.


title: English Civil War

text: The first year of the war went fairly well for the Royalists. They strengthened their control over the north and west. Their progress was slower in the Midlands, though they did capture Lichfield. After mid-1643, the Parliamentarians started to do better. They won battles in Lincolnshire, in the east and at Newbury to the west of London.


title: English Civil War

text: King Charles made a deal with the Irish rebels to stop the fighting in Ireland, freeing up soldiers that could fight for him. Parliament made a deal with the Scottish Covenantors, who would help them. Parliament were also helped by a talented army leader called Oliver Cromwell. He led a cavalry (horse riders) unit called the "Ironsides". The Ironsides were better organised than most cavalry units, which made them far better at fighting.


title: English Civil War

text: Helped by the Scots and the Ironsides, Parliament won a major victory the Battle of Marston Moor in July 1644. They took control of northern England. The Royalists were weakened but not yet defeated. They won the Battle of Lostwithiel in Cornwall, defeating Essex's soldiers. They also managed to fight to a draw at a second Battle of Newbury in October.


title: English Civil War

text: In 1645, Parliament organised its soldiers into the New Model Army. The Earl of Essex was replaced by Sir Thomas Fairfax. Oliver Cromwell became Fairfax's deputy. The New Model Army was better organised than any army that had come before it. They defeated the King's largest army at the Battle of Naseby in June 1645. Most of the Royalist soldiers at Naseby were taken prisoner.</small> King Charles escaped Naseby but left behind his baggage, which had letters inside them. The Parliamentarians opened them and found out that the King was trying to get help from the Irish Catholics and from Catholic countries. The King lost support because of this.


title: English Civil War

text: The other main Royalist army was defeated at the Battle of Langport in Somerset, one month later. The Parliamentarians took control of South West England, where they had been weak. King Charles tried to gather his remaining supporters in the Midlands. Many fortress towns in the area from Oxford to Newark-on-Trent were still loyal to him. In May 1646, Charles met a Scottish army in Nottinghamshire. The Scots took him prisoner.


title: English Civil War

text: Although the Parliamentarians had won, they were divided on how to run the country. One big argument was over religion. Most members of Parliament wanted a Presbyterian national church. The New Model Army favoured allowing local churches to run themselves without there being a national church. The defeated Royalists supported the existing Church of England, though some were secretly Catholic. Parliament and the Army both tried to win support of the King and the Scottish Presbyterians. King Charles was in prison and was passed between the groups. He refused to make a deal with any of them, because he believed that only he had the right to rule over England. He pretended he was interested in making a deal while he planned to take back control of the country. The divisions became worse when Parliament tried to disband the New Model Army.


title: English Civil War

text: A second war broke out when some Scottish Presbyterians (called the Engagers) and some English Presbyterians allied with the King. They agreed to support him in return for making the English and Scottish churches into Presbyterian churches. The Scots invaded England, while Royalist rebellions broke out in various parts of England. Some of the rebellions were defeated very easily. The rebellions in Wales, Kent, Essex and Cumberland were stronger but were put down by the New Model Army. The Royalists and Scots were defeated at the Battle of Preston in August 1648.


title: English Civil War

text: The New Model Army was in control. In an event called "Pride's Purge", army Colonel Thomas Pride removed all members of Parliament who had not supported the Army. Only 75 members were left. The Army put them in charge of the country, and this Parliament was called the Rump Parliament.


title: English Civil War

text: The Rump Parliament decided they would not work with King Charles any more. They put him on trial. On 27 January 1649, the trial found him guilty of treason and called him a "tyrant, traitor, murderer and public enemy". He was beheaded three days later.


title: English Civil War

text: Many historians say that the execution of King Charles was an important moment in English history, and even in the history of the Western World. No European monarch had ever been put on trial by their own people before. Other countries in Europe said the execution was wrong, but they did not do much else. Not all Parliamentarians supported the execution. Fairfax thought it was wrong. He resigned as leader of the New Model Army, and was replaced by Oliver Cromwell.


title: English Civil War

text: The next king would have been Charles' son Prince Charles, the future King Charles II. Parliament announced instead that England would become a republic, called the Commonwealth of England. However, Prince Charles could still become King of Scotland.


title: English Civil War

text: The third English Civil War was actually more of a fight between Scottish and English armies, and much of it was fought in Scotland.


title: English Civil War

text: In 1649, the Marquess of Montrose started a rebellion in Scotland in support of King Charles II. Rather than support Montrose, Charles decided to ally with the Scottish Covenantors. They feared the Commonwealth of England would stop Scotland from having a Presbyterian church. Montrose was defeated by Scottish armies in April 1650. In June, Charles landed in Scotland and signed an agreement with the Scottish Covenantors.


title: English Civil War

text: Cromwell travelled to Scotland and arrived the following month. Over the next year, he took control of the main parts of Scotland. When Charles fled to England, Cromwell followed him, leaving George Monck to finish winning the war in Scotland. When this was done, Scotland became part of the Commonwealth of England.


title: English Civil War

text: Charles' army marched across England to the western regions where the Royalists had the most support. However, they could not find as many supporters as they wanted. Cromwell found them and defeated them at the Battle of Worcester on 3 September 1651. Charles fled to The Netherlands. He would not return until 1660.


title: English Civil War

text: The Irish rebellion that started in 1641 would continue until 1652. It was mainly fought by Irish Catholics against armies of the English Parliamentarians, Scottish Covenantors and Protestant settlers in Ireland. At first the rebels fought English Royalist armies as well, but this mostly stopped after September 1843. Seven months after the rebellion began, the rebels created their own government in Kilkenny. This was known as the Irish Catholic Confederation.


title: English Civil War

text: In 1649, Oliver Cromwell went to Ireland and put down their rebellion. Cromwell was remembered in Ireland as a brutal invader, particularly because of the large numbers of people killed at the Siege of Drogheda. Some fighting continued in Ireland until 1653.


title: English Civil War

text: The wars left England, Scotland and Ireland all as part of the Commonwealth of England, one of the few countries in Europe without a monarch. After the wars ended, Cromwell disbanded the Rump Parliament and took over the country. He chose to be "Lord Protector" rather than King, because he did not think the country needed another king. His government was called "the Protectorate" or "the Commonwealth". The period from 1649 to 1660 is also called the English Interregnum (meaning gap between kings).


title: English Civil War

text: Oliver Cromwell ruled the country until he died in 1658. Cromwell's son, Richard, took over as Lord Protector. However, the Army did not think he was a good ruler. After seven months, the Army removed Richard, and in May 1659 it re-installed the Rump Parliament. However, the Army did not get on with the Rump Parliament either and disbanded it a second time. There were fears that England would not have a proper government.


title: English Civil War

text: George Monck, a key leader in the Army, arranged for a new Parliament to be elected. On 8 May 1660, the new Parliament decided to restore the monarchy with Charles II as the king. He returned to England later that month. This event is known as the English Restoration. Scotland and Ireland went back to being separate countries and the pre-war churches returned.


title: English Civil War

text: Although the monarchy returned, the Civil War had long-lasting effects. The war made it clear that an English monarch could not rule without the support of Parliament. The law was not changed to limit the monarch's power (this was done after the 1688 Glorious Revolution). Historians consider the Civil War to be a stage in England and Scotland's long journeys from rule by one king to becoming a democracy.


title: English Civil War

text: In Ireland, the defeat of the rebellion strengthened the power of the Protestants. This was one of the reasons why Ireland would be ruled by Protestants from the late 17th century until the 20th century, even though most Irish people were Catholic.


title: English Civil War

text: The English Civil War was fought with "pike and shot" tactics. These were used in most wars from the late 15th century to the late 17th century. Armies were divided into three main groups:


title: English Civil War

text: At first, the Royalists had a better cavalry. Their riders were faster and more skilled. Prince Rupert had fought in the Eighty Years War in The Netherlands and used the lessons learned there to improve his cavalry. However, sometimes the Royalist cavalry failed to work as a team. At the Battle of Edgehill, many of them decided to chase fleeing soldiers or steal from the Parliamentarian baggage wagons. The Royalists might have won this battle if their cavalry had stayed together.


title: English Civil War

text: Cromwell's "Ironside" cavalry were slower but worked better as a team. They helped the Parliamentarians win some key battles. The Parliamentarians sometimes had a problem that pikemen would run away when cavalry charged at them. Cromwell and Fairfax trained them to stay in place.


title: Bismuth

text: Bismuth is a chemical element. It is element 83 on the periodic table and its symbol is "Bi". Its atomic mass is 209. It is only slightly radioactive. The radioactivity is minimal so it is typically seen as nonradioactive. Bismuth is only naturally found as one isotope, which is the almost nonradioactive one. Its radioactivity was predicted by scientists and proven by analyzing the metal. It is in Group 15 on the periodic table.


title: Bismuth

text: Bismuth is a silver metal with a pink tinge to it. This pink color is because of its oxide coating. Bismuth is a post-transition metal. It is one of the strongest diamagnetic metals. It is almost as heavy as lead. It is quite brittle. It can make crystals with a shiny surface. Its melting point is quite low: , which is normal for post-transition metals. As a liquid it is denser and has a smaller volume than as a solid. Another chemical that does this is water. It does not conduct electricity or heat very well.


title: Bismuth

text: Bismuth is somewhat similar to antimony. Bismuth makes a thin coating of bismuth(III) oxide when it is in air. This makes the colors on the crystals. It does not oxidize any more than the oxide layer. It burns when powdered with a bright blue flame, making yellow bismuth(III) oxide fumes. Bismuth also reacts with sulfur, when molten. Bismuth reacts with nitric acid to make bismuth(III) nitrate and concentrated sulfuric acid to make bismuth(III) sulfate and sulfur dioxide. It reacts with halogens to make bismuth(III) halides but with fluorine it makes bismuth(V) fluoride unless the fluorine is diluted.


title: Bismuth

text: Bismuth forms chemical compounds in two main oxidation states: +3 and +5. +3 is more common. +3 compounds are weak oxidizing agents and are normally light yellow. +5 compounds are strong oxidizing agents. Bismuthates are the most common +5 compounds. Bismuth(V) fluoride is another +5 compound. Bismuth(V) oxide is an unstable red solid. Bismuth sulfide is a common ore of bismuth. Bismuthine, a bismuth hydride, is very unstable and only can be made at very cold temperatures. Bismuth makes many oxy- compounds like bismuth oxychloride. These compounds are made when bismuth halides dissolve in water.


title: Bismuth

text: Bismuth(V) oxides (+5 compounds) are very strong oxidizing agents. Its chemical formula is BiO. It is a scarlet red solid. It decomposes to bismuth(III) oxide and oxygen easily. It is made by electrolysis of bismuth(III) oxide in a hot concentrated alkali like sodium hydroxide.


title: Bismuth

text: Bismuth was known since ancient times. It was confused with tin and lead, though. No one is credited for discovering bismuth. In the 1500s, people started realizing that bismuth was different than tin or lead.


title: Bismuth

text: Bismuth is not very common in the earth. It is only about twice as common as gold. Bismite, a bismuth oxide mineral, and bismuthinite, a bismuth sulfide, are two common ores. Bismuth is sometimes found as a metal, too.


title: Bismuth

text: Bismuth and its minerals are too rare to be mined. They are gotten by "secondary extraction". It is normally found in lead metal. The lead metal is purified by electrolysis, leaving the bismuth behind as a sludge on the bottom of the container. The copper is taken out of the sludge and the bismuth is purified by being reduced in a furnace and all the impurities are filtered out.


title: Bismuth

text: Bismuth can also be recycled. This is difficult in many places because bismuth is used for things like bullets, solder, and stomach medicine that get scattered all over and cannot easily be gotten again.


title: Bismuth

text: Bismuth is used in alloys with very low melting points. Some of them melt in hot water. They are also found in solder that does not have lead in it. It can make alloys with other metals to make them more malleable. It is also used in bullets to replace lead. In some places lead bullets are outlawed as birds eat them and get lead poisoning. It is also used in alloys for plumbing. It is used in fishing sinkers.


title: Bismuth

text: Bismuth is used in some medicines such as Pepto-Bismol. This medicine has bismuth subsalicylate in it. It is also used as an internal deodorant and to treat eye infections and peptic ulcers.


title: Bismuth

text: Bismuth oxychloride is used in cosmetics. Bismuth telluride is used in electronic thermometers. Another compound is used in superconductors and becomes a superconductor at a high temperature. It can be used as a pigment and in fireworks to make crackling sounds. It is used in the nuclear fuel of a nuclear reactor.


title: Bismuth

text: Bismuth is much less toxic than other heavy metals. This is why it is replacing lead in many things. It does not add up in the body like other heavy metals do. A very large amount of bismuth can poison the kidneys and liver, though. Because its oxide does not dissolve in water, it is considered safe for the environment.


title: Arithmetic

text: In mathematics, arithmetic is the basic study of numbers. The four basic arithmetic operations are addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division, although other operations such as exponentiation and roots are also studied in arithmetic.


title: Arithmetic

text: Most people learn arithmetic in primary school, but some people do not learn arithmetic and others forget the arithmetic they learned. Many jobs require a knowledge of arithmetic, and many employers complain that it is hard to find people who know enough arithmetic. A few of the many jobs that require arithmetic include carpenters, plumbers, mechanics, accountants, architects, doctors, and nurses. Arithmetic is needed in all areas of mathematics, science, and engineering.


title: Arithmetic

text: Some arithmetic can be carried out mentally. A calculator can also be used to perform arithmetic. Computers can do it more quickly, which is one reason Global Positioning System receivers have a small computer inside.


title: Absolute monarchy

text: An Absolute monarchy is a form of monarchy where one person, usually called a monarch holds absolute power. It is in contrast to constitutional monarchy, which is restrained or controlled by other groups of people. Controllers may be an entity such as clergy, lawmakers, social elites or a written constitution.


title: Absolute monarchy

text: One nation though, The Kingdom of Denmark-Norway, had the absolute rule of the monarch written in a constitution named "The King's Law" (Kongeloven).


title: Absolute monarchy

text: A significant number of monarchs were previously absolute rulers within their kingdom, but after the French Revolution (end-18th century) it became ever more common for monarchs to be limited by a constitution.


title: Absolute monarchy

text: Nowadays, there are a few Absolute monarchies that have been preserved. Some of these remaining absolute monarchies can be found among Arab countries.


title: Slovak language

text: Slovak is the language spoken in Slovakia, a country in Central Europe. It is a language from Slavic language family. It is very similar to Czech, and Czechs and Slovaks understand each other quite well when they speak their own language. Polish and Sorbian are also quite similar. All of them belong to the western branch of Slavic languages. Slovak is spoken by more than 5 million people.


title: Slovak language

text: The letters ď, ľ, ň, and ť are called “soft consonants” and are pronounced with the blade of the tongue at the roof of the mouth.


title: Slovak language

text: Signs over a vowel show that the vowel is pronounced long: á, é, í, ó, ý ú. A long vowel is never followed in the next syllable by a short vowel.


title: Slovak language

text: The letters b, d, ď, dz, dž, g, h, z, ž are voiceless when they are at the end of a word (for example, 'd' will sound like 't').


title: Slovak language

text: The accent is always on the first syllable of the word. That is different from Russian, for example, in which the stress can be anywhere.


title: Slovak language

text: Like other Slavic languages, Slovak is difficult for English-speakers to pronounce., especially because several consonants often come together. In the sentence: “Strč prst skrz krk!” there is not one single vowel (it means: “Stick a finger through your neck!”)!


title: Slovak language

text: The grammar is similar to Russian, but there are some differences. Slovak, unlike Russian, has a separate word for “to be”:


title: Slovak language

text: There are three genders in Slovak, therefore it is important to know whether a noun is masculine, feminine or neuter. There is no article to make it obvious (unlike in German), but it changes the adjective's ending.


title: Slovak language

text: Like many other European languages, Slovak verbs agree with the person, and there are different forms for 'I', 'you', 'he', etc. Verbs have different aspects to show whether or not the action is complete. There are also different cases that show how a word is used in a sentence. Different prepositions use different cases. All of that makes grammar quite complicated for English-speakers.


title: 5

text: 5 (V) is a common year of the Julian calendar which started on a Thursday. According to the Gregorian calendar, it started on a Saturday. It was known as the "Year of the Consulship of Messalla and Cinna". It was the 5th year of the 1st century.


title: 5

text: It is one of only seven years to use just one Roman numeral. The seven are 1 AD (I), 5 AD (V), 10 AD (X), 50 AD (L), 100 AD (C), 500 AD (D), and 1000 AD (M).


title: Water vapor

text: Water vapor is water that is in the form of a vapor, or gas. It is a part of the water cycle. When liquid water is heated to boiling point, 100 degrees Celsius (212 F), it turns into vapor. Water vapor can also be produced directly from ice; this is called sublimation. Steam is water vapor, but clouds are liquid water. The amount of water vapor in air is called humidity and it affects weather conditions. In the cold, breathing out causes the water vapor in the breath to freeze.


title: Jessica Biel

text: Biel became known for her early television role of Mary Camden in the long-running family drama series "7th Heaven". She is perhaps best known for appearing in several Hollywood movies. These include "Summer Catch", the remake of "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre" and "The Illusionist".


title: Jessica Biel

text: Biel is also known for her beauty and is considered a sex symbol. In 2005 Esquire magazine declared her the "Sexiest Woman Alive". In 2007 she was voted number 1 in a poll by Stuff magazine.


title: Jessica Biel

text: In 2012, she married singer Justin Timberlake. Their son, Silas Randall Timberlake, was born on April 11, 2015.


title: Feeling Good

text: "Feeling Good" (or "Feelin' Good") is a jazz ballad. It was written by English composers Anthony Newley and Leslie Bricusse for the musical "The Roar of the Greasepaint – The Smell of the Crowd". It was first performed on stage in 1964 by Cy Grant on the UK tour and by Gilbert Price in 1965 with the original Broadway cast.


title: Feeling Good

text: Nina Simone recorded "Feeling Good" for her 1965 album "I Put a Spell on You". The ballad was then performed again and covered by Michael Bublé and Muse, along with others throughout the years. The song has been also sampled in other recording artists' music.


title: Feeling Good

text: In addition to Buble and Muse, the song has been covered by Sammy Davis Jr., Traffic, John Coltrane, George Michael, Victory, Eels, Joe Bonamassa, Eden, Black Cat Bones, Bassnectar, Sophie B. Hawkins, Leslie West, Avicii, Chlöe and Lauryn Hill. It was performed by John Legend as part of the Celebrating America performance marking the inauguration of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris on January 20th 2021.


title: Mid-Atlantic States

text: The Mid-Atlantic States (also called "Middle Atlantic States" or simply "Middle East") is a region in the Northeastern United States and form one of the nine geographic divisions within the United States that are officially recognized by the United States Census Bureau. The division consists of three states: New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania. This definition corresponds with the region's traditional definition as the section of the Atlantic Seaboard between New England and the South. However, many people consider the Mid-Atlantic to be the states south of the Northeast, centered in Delaware, Maryland.


title: Mid-Atlantic States

text: The traditional Mid-Atlantic States comprise the most densely-populated of the nine U.S. regions, and anchor the megalopolis which runs from Boston to Washington, D.C.. The southeastern part of New York State, eastern Pennsylvania, and all of New Jersey combine to form the bulk of the "moral region" of the Metropolis, according to socio-political geographers James Patterson and Peter Kim, co-authors of the 1991 book "The Day America Told The Truth". (Metropolis begins in the southern Connecticut suburbs of New York City and stretches along the Eastern seaboard to the northern Virginia suburbs of Washington, D.C.). The book classifies the remainder of New York State and Pennsylvania in the Rust Belt.


title: Catherine Deneuve

text: Catherine Deneuve (born 22 October 1943) is a French actress. She is the daughter of two well-known actors. She has two sisters; Françoise Dorléac (1942-1967) and Sylvie (born 1946), also both actresses, the former was killed in a car accident. She has a maternal half-sister, Danielle (born 1937).


title: Catherine Deneuve

text: She began acting on movies as a teenager. Her first major role is in Jacques Demy's 1964 movie "Les Parapluies de Cherbourg". She has since then worked with some of the greatest movie directors, notably Roman Polanski's in "Repulsion" (1965), and Luis Buñuel's in "Belle de Jour" (1967) and "Tristana" (1970) and François Truffaut's in "Le Dernier Métro" (1982). She made a commercial for the perfume "Chanel No 5". She is a close friend of fashion designer Yves Saint Laurent.


title: Catherine Deneuve

text: She married British photographer David Bailey from 1965 to 1972. She has had relationships with movie director Roger Vadim (1928-2000), with whom she had a son, Christian Vadim (born 1963), and Italian actor Marcello Mastroianni (1924-1996), with whom she had a daughter, Chiara Mastroianni (born 1972). Both her children are actors.


title: One Piece

text: It is the story of the Strawhat Pirates, led by captain Monkey D. Luffy, on their adventures in Grand Line. The main theme is Monkey D. Luffy's dream to find the One Piece, a grand treasure that the King of the Pirates, Gold Roger left behind. One Piece seems to take place in a world with one continent, many different islands, and a vast and large sea filled with monsters, pirates and treasure. "One Piece" is serialized in "Weekly Shōnen Jump". The most successful movies are "Strong World" and "One Piece Film Z".


title: One Piece

text: Monkey D. Luffy is the main character and is captain of the Strawhat Pirates. His other name is 'Straw Hat Luffy'. He ate a Devil Fruit called the "Gum-Gum No Mi" fruit when he was 7 years old, giving him the power to stretch like rubber. His Strawhat was given by Shanks. His older brother is Ace.


title: One Piece

text: Zoro was a former pirate hunter but turned into a pirate when he joined Luffy. His another name is 'Pirate Hunter Zoro'. When he was little he was the greatest warrior in his dojo, next to Kuina, the teacher's daughter, who was frustrated that girls were not able to become great swordsmen. Zoro points out that it does not matter if you are a boy or girl. They then make a promise to one another that one of them will be the greatest swordsman, or swordwoman, of all time. The very next day Kuina dies after falling down some stairs. Zoro then takes her sword so he can fulfill their dream.


title: One Piece

text: Sanji is an amazing cook, with very good culinary skills. He is also a martial artist (who uses his feet only) that falls in love with almost every girl he sees. His other name is 'Black Leg Sanji'. His dream is to find 'The All Blue', and as a cook he values his hands greatly. Because of a period of starvation in his early life (while in the company of owner of the Baratie, Zeff), Sanji will always feed someone who is hungry. He is 21 years old. He is a smoker.


title: One Piece

text: Nami was a thief who stole from pirates. She is a navigator of the Strawhat Pirates now. Her other name is 'Cat Burglar Nami'. She is 20 years old. Her sister is Nojiko. She is from Kokoyashi. She likes oranges, and respected her late foster mother, Bellemere.


title: One Piece

text: Usopp is a great sniper but a coward who lies often. His epithet was 'King Of Snipers: Sogeking (Sniper King)' but was changed to 'God ussop. His weapon is a slingshot, and he has excellent aim. Luffy officially made him the crew's sniper after he had perfect aim on his first try at shooting a cannon, destroying an island in one blow (which also happened to be the island where Yosaku and Johnny were resting). His father is Yasopp, a sniper on Shank's crew.


title: One Piece

text: Chopper is a blue-nosed reindeer that ate a devil fruit which gave him the ability to become partly human. His epithet is 'Cotton Candy Lover Chopper'. He is the doctor of the straw hat crew, and has a habit of "hiding behind objects" in a way where he is completely visible.


title: One Piece

text: Robin, formerly member of the crime organization Baroque Works, joins the crew after being saved by Luffy. Her epithet is "Devil Child Nico Robin". She ate a devils fruit that lets her create Replications of her body parts on any surface she wants.


title: One Piece

text: Franky is a cyborg and a ship craftsman. His epithet is 'Cyborg Franky'. His body runs on Cola, although using other liquids can give amusing results. Franky's usual attire consists of swimming pants and some kind of T-shirt, even in freezing conditions. His usual phrase is "SUPER!"


title: One Piece

text: Once time, "The king of Pirates", Gold Roger got all things in the world. He said he left a big treasure, 'One Piece'. Many pirates wish for 'One Piece' and fight each other. 'Golden Age of Piracy' came!


title: One Piece

text: A boy living in Fusha town, Monkey D Luffy, made friends with Red hair Shanks. Shanks is a pirate staying in the town. Luffy was attacked by pirates. One day, Luffy ate a Devil Fruit called the "Gum-Gum" fruit, giving him the power to stretch like rubber, but he can't swim. After a while, Luffy made bandits angry, so they threw him into the sea. Luffy was nearly eaten by big fish, but Shanks helped him at the cost of his arm. When Shanks leave the town, Luffy was given his straw hat. The straw hat is Shanks's trend mark. Luffy promised him to become a great pirate and see him again.


title: One Piece

text: After 10 years, Luffy is 17 years old and he trained a lot. He leaves his town, Fusha town to be the king of pirates. But soon, he met with a disaster, then he met Koby. Koby's dream is to be a marine, but unfortunately he stays in Alvida's ship. Alvida is a female pirate and a big angry woman. Koby can't escape the ship and works on the ship. Luffy beats Alvida and helps Koby, then he goes to Shellstown with him.


title: Cenwalh of Wessex

text: Cenwalh, also spelled Coenwalh (died 672), was a King of Wessex. He reigned from 643 until he was exiled by King Penda of Mercia in 645. Restored to his kingdom in 648 he reigned until his death. He was a pagan king until his exile in East Anglia when, like his father, he became a Christian.


title: Cenwalh of Wessex

text: Cenwalh was the son of King Cynegils. When his father died in 643 Cenwalh succeeded him as king of Wessex. He married a sister of Penda of Mercia who was the power in the region at that time. When Cenwalh her (set her aside) in favor of another wife, Penda invaded Wessex. Penda drove Cenwalh into exile in East Anglia. He remained in East Anglia for three years with King Anna of East Anglia. There he learned about Christianity and was baptised. While in exile, Wulfhere, the son of Penda, took a great deal of territory away from Wessex. He gave the Isle of Wight to Aethelwalh, King of Sussex.


title: Cenwalh of Wessex

text: Cenwalh was restored to his kingdom . How he was allowed to return is not recorded. Nor is it recorded who ruled Wessex in his absence. But an entry in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle for the year 648 seems to indicate it might have been Cuthred, the son of Cwichelm. Cenwalh gave Cuthred three thousand hides of land (300–450 square miles) of land at Ashdown in Berkshire. This may have been most, if not all, of Berkshire. This was much larger than an estate a king might give a family member. Cenwalh seems to have left the Thames river basin as a result of pressure from Mercia. That made Berkshire his northern frontier with Mercia.


title: Cenwalh of Wessex

text: When Bishop Birinus died in 650, Cenwalh invited Agilbert, a Frankish monk to come to Wessex as the new bishop of Dorchester. But after some time Cenwalh grew tired of not being able to understand the bishop, who apparently did not speak the Anglo-Saxon language. Cenwalh created a new diocese at Winchester in 660 and made Wine the first bishop. Agilbert took offense at not being consulted and returned to Gaul. Wine was later expelled by Cenwalh and went to King Wulfhere of Mercia. Bede stated that Wine purchased the see (diocese) of London from Wulfhere. This left Wessex without a bishop. Cenwalh sent appeals to Agilbert to return to Wessex. Agilbert turned Cenwalh down saying his current duties as bishop of Paris prevented his return. But he sent his nephew Leutherius in his place. Cenwalh sent Leutherius to Theodore, Archbishop of Canterbury for consecration. Leutherius was welcomed in Wessex as the new bishop of Winchester.


title: Cenwalh of Wessex

text: In 652 Cenwalh was fighting at Bradford on Avon. Who he was fighting against is not entirely clear. But the Welsh were there led by Morgan Mwyfawr. At least one chronicle calls it a civil war implying he was also fighting other West Saxons. In 658 he defeated the British at Penselwood. He defeated them a second time at Postbury. By 661 he had regained control over Somerset. But Mercia was constantly pushing into his territory. It was also in 661 that Wulfhere of Mercia controlled all lands north of the Thames including the abbey at Dorchester. This was one reason Cenwalh created the new diocese at Winchester which was further away from Mercian control. Cenwalh's territory in the mid-660s was significantly reduced by the Mercians. Cenwalh died in 672. After his death his widow, Queen Seaxburh, did what she could to hold Wessex together.


title: English as a second language

text: Each of these acronyms means roughly the same thing. In each, the learners already have another native or "mother" language, and they want to learn English as well.


title: English as a second language

text: The teaching of English as a second language has a long history. For example, the official introduction of English into India's education system began in 1835.


title: English as a second language

text: English as a second language is the single most popular subject in the world, after mathematics. English is a very important language in business. Many people study English as a foreign language, because they want a better job. English is also very important in education. Many pages on the internet are in English.


title: English as a second language

text: Many people who can not go to English language classes study on the internet, using websites like BBC Learning English.


title: English as a second language

text: Many people study English in a country where the people speak English. This way, many students learn to listen and speak English better.


title: English as a second language

text: There are many English exams. These English exams are important for learners. They may show how well a person can use English. It is very difficult to compare different English exams. Every exam is a little different. Read Testing English as a foreign language for more information.


title: English as a second language

text: Global Scale of English (GSE) is a test for learners of English as a second or foreign language. The GSE is a list of can-do statements based on the Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR) for English. Learners' abilities are rated on a 10-to-90 point scale for each of the four basic skills (speaking, listening, reading, and writing). A learner reaches a level on the scale when she or he can correctly perform 50% of the can-do tasks at that level. The education company Pearson PLC developed the scale.


title: English as a second language

text: Teaching English as a foreign language (TEFL) is referred to the practice of teaching the English language to the students with different first languages. It is taught in the state school system or privately with a language school or with a tutor. TEFL can also take place in an English-speaking country for people who have immigrated there.


title: English as a second language

text: TEFL teachers may be native or non-native speakers of English. Other forms of TEFL are TESL ("Teaching English as a second language"), TESOL ("Teaching English to speakers of other languages"), and ESL ("English as a second language").


title: English as a second language

text: Additional types of TEFL certification include: CTBE (Certificate in Teaching Business English), CTYL (Certificate in Teaching Young Learners), CTO (Certificate in Teaching Online).


title: Linda McCartney

text: Lady Linda Louise Eastman See McCartney (September 24, 1941 - April 17, 1998) was the first wife of musician Paul McCartney. She was the mother of artists Heather McCartney and Mary McCartney, fashion designer Stella McCartney, and musician James McCartney. Her father was attorney Lee Eastman, whose law partner was his son (Linda's brother) John Eastman. Her mother was Louise Linder, who was an heiress to a department store fortune.


title: Linda McCartney

text: Linda grew up in Scarsdale, New York, and attended Sarah Lawrence College. She enjoyed music, and sang girl group songs with friends. When The Beatles became famous in America, she attended one of their concerts. She never considered a musical career.


title: Linda McCartney

text: Linda married got married to a geologist, John See, and they had a daughter, named Heather. See wanted to move to Africa to work, and take his wife and daughter. Linda did not want to go, and they were divorced. She became a photographer, and took pictures for magazines and the press.


title: Linda McCartney

text: Before long, she began to photograph rock bands and singers. She became well known for this. The Rolling Stones once made her the exclusive photographer for one of their public appearances. In time, she visited England, to photograph the pop stars there.


title: Linda McCartney

text: Linda had been attracted most of all to John Lennon of the Beatles when she first saw them. In person, though, she was charmed more by another Beatle, Paul McCartney, when they met. McCartney was engaged to actress Jane Asher, but she wanted to wait to have children, and McCartney did not. Their engagement ended. McCartney loved to spend time with Linda's daughter Heather, and the three of them seemed to make a family. Linda and Heather moved into McCartney's home during 1968.


title: Linda McCartney

text: Late, in 1968, Linda became pregnant. She and McCartney were married, and had a baby (named Mary after McCartney's own mother) the next year. During this same time, the Beatles were growing apart. They had business problems, and no longer had the same kinds of plans or hopes. Linda hoped her father and brother, whose clients were mostly entertainment personalities, could help solve the business problems. The fact that they were her family (and now McCartney's, by marriage) did not put the other Beatles at ease. They chose Allen Klein to represent them instead. Klein and the Eastmans did not get along, and this caused further problems. The Beatles began to break up late in 1969.


title: Linda McCartney

text: Besides the band's problems, Paul McCartney and John Lennon had grown apart personally. Lennon divorced his first wife Cynthia in 1968, and started a relationship with Japanese artist Yoko Ono. They were also married in 1969. Lennon and Ono spent as much time as possible together, and McCartney often felt out of place. McCartney and Linda also spent a lot of time together, but separated to work on their own projects. Linda and Yoko did not get along well, but each supported their men, and encouraged them to believe in themselves. Later, some fans blamed one or both women for breaking up the Beatles, but their role was not crucial to that. It was one of many factors that drove the band apart.


title: Linda McCartney

text: Paul McCartney suffered from depression for a time, when the Beatles ended. It had been his longtime band, made up of good friends, and he had lost both. He turned to his family for comfort. Linda and their children were always there. McCartney and Lennon argued in the media, and Linda also took verbal jabs at Lennon and Yoko Ono. Surprisingly, when they met in person, everyone usually acted in a completely different way, and were kind to each other.