FACTS

Banana
This giant herb, the banana, which springs from an underground stem (rhizome), leads to bunches of 50-150 individual fruits (fingers) grouped in clusters (hands) of 10-20. This happens only once as each plant produces only one bunch of fruit (technically, a berry).


Backgammon
Backgammon's various names have been Vibhitika, Royal Game of Ur, Senet, oder Senat, 12-Linien-Spiel, Ludus Duodecim Scriptorum, Alea, Tabula, Tric-Trac, Jacquet, Nard oder Nardshir, T'shu-p'u, Swan liu, Sugoroku, Tavla, Tabli, Plakato, Acey Deucy, and Toccadille.


AtlanticThe surface waters of the North Atlantic having a higher salinity than that of any other ocean; the ocean grows wider at a rate of about 1.5 inches a year.


Asia, Cultures and Religions
Asia is the birthplace of all the world's major religions -- but only Christianity developed outside Asia. Asia is the birthplace of the world's earliest civilizations such as Sumer, China, and India -- largely isolated from each other and the rest of the world by barriers of deserts, mountains, and oceans -- so these cultures developed independently for thousands of years.



Aristotle
After the death of Alexander the Great, who had been his pupil, Aristotle felt himself in danger and left Athens for the island of Euboea in order to save the Athenians from sinning twice against philosophy -- referring to Socrates as the earlier victim.




National Aquarium
The National Aquarium originally built at Woods Hole, Massachusetts, in 1873, was relocated to Washington, DC in 1888 and is the oldest public aquarium in the United States.



Apple Trees
The production of consistent apple trees is not easy as the seeds resemble their parents no more than human daughters resemble mothers. Without the technique of grafting, each tree in the world would constitute its own variety, distinct from every other.



Anatomy and PhysiologyPhysiology was first used by the Greeks as a term to describe a philosophized inquiry into the nature of things, but the term as applied to activities of healthy humans only came about in the 16th century. Anatomy is more about identifying organs and body parts (structure), while physiology studies how they work (processes and functions).




Frogs and Toads
In general, frogs are more active and like water more than toads -- and have webbed feet while toads have little or no webbing.



Alphabetization
Words can be alphabetized two ways -- word-by-word or letter-by-letter. In the former, a shorter word will precede all others beginning with the same letters even if the word is followed by another word -- and in the latter all letters are taken as a sequence, with hyphens and spaces ignored.



J, V, O
J was the last letter included in our alphabet and only with the influence of Noah Webster, and other dictionaries of his time, did J and V gain full acceptance. O is the oldest letter of our alphabet.


Crocodile
Of all reptile brains, the crocodile brain is the most highly developed and they are the last living link with the dinosaur-like reptiles of prehistoric times and the nearest living relative to the birds.


Lichens
Lichens are part-algae and part-fungus. The algae in lichens make food and the fungus wraps around the algae to protect it from the sun.


Alaskan Flag
The Alaskan flag of Polaris (the North Star) and Ursa Major (Great Bear) was designed by a 13-year-old orphan boy -- with the dark-blue background symbolizing the Alaskan sky and ubiquitous forget-me-not flowers of spring.



African Languages

Africa is by far the most linguistically diverse continent, with approximately 2000 languages by some counts. Some 50 African languages have more than half a million speakers each. Tonality - tones based on pitch levels to indicate semantic or grammatical distinction - is a common feature of indigenous African languages.




Adolescence
From a biological perspective, adolescence should be the best time of life. Most physical and mental functions are at their peak. It is the time when foods taste best, appetite is heartiest, sleep is sweetest, and music is most seductive.



Adjectives
Adjectives have no inflections aside from the determiners . The endings -er and -est denote degrees of comparison and are regarded as noninflectional suffixes (English is the only European language to employ uninflected adjectives).