A Ton of Crap (45 page)

Dialects
There are two types of dialects found in the Finnish language: Western and Eastern. The two dialects are fairly similar, but do have slight differences in diphthongs, rhythms, and vowels. The most obvious distinguishing factor between the two dialects is how the letter
d
is pronounced. Otherwise, much of the same grammar, vocabulary, and phonology are the same.

THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION

The Battle of Yorktown
Though the battle of Yorktown did not end the American Revolution, it was the last major battle fought. On September 5, 1781, the French fleet arrived and defeated the British Navy. The British general, Lord Cornwallis, found his men trapped between the American colonists and the French, and on October 19, 1781, he and his 8,000 troops surrendered. The surrender had a huge impact on the British government, as the war was being lost.

FIGURES OF SPEECH

Other Common Figures of Speech
Other common examples of figures of speech include alliteration, where there is a repetition of the beginning consonant; anaphora, the repetition of a single word or phrase in a sentence; onomatopoeia, the use of words that imitate the sounds they are referring to; and antithesis, which juxtaposes opposite ideas in a single, balanced sentence.

FIBONACCI SEQUENCE

Leonardo Pisano Bogollo’s Rabbits
Leonardo Pisano Bogollo first mentioned the sequence in his book
Liber Abaci
. In it, he examined the growth of an unrealistic rabbit population. Bogollo wondered how many pairs of rabbits would there be in one year if a male and a female rabbit can mate at one-month old, by the end of the second month the female can produce another pair, the rabbits do not ever die, and a new pair is produced every month from the second month on.

GALILEO GALILEI

Copernicanism and Galileo
Galileo was a believer and teacher in Copernicanism, the idea, first posed by Nicolaus Copernicus, that the Earth was not the center of the universe. The ban of Galileo’s book that ended in his house arrest was eventually lifted from the Catholic Church in 1822, and in 1992 the Vatican publicly and formally cleared Galileo of doing anything wrong.

FINNISH

Useful Finnish Phrases
Here are some helpful Finnish phrases to use when traveling to Finland:

Hello.
Terve.

Good morning.
Hyvää huomenta.

Good afternoon.
Hyvää päivää.

Good evening.
Hyvää iltaa.

Yes.
Kyllä.

No.
Ei.

Thank you.
Kiitos.

Do you speak English?
Puhutteko
englantia?

I don’t speak Finnish.
Minä en puhu
suomea.

I don’t understand.
Minä en ymmärrä.

Where’s the toilet?
Missä on WC?

Goodbye.
Näkemiin.

1. Which of the following describes the Battle of Trenton?
   

   1. On Christmas of 1776, Washington led 2,500 soldiers across the Delaware River in a great snowstorm under treacherous conditions for a surprise attack on the British and Hessians.
      
   2. British troops planned to join with other troops along the way to quell the colonists; however, intervention from the French prevented this.
      
   3. The British evacuated Boston.
      
   4. The Shot Heard ’Round the World occurred.
      

2. Which of the following did the Americans lose?
   

   1. Battle of Yorktown
      
   2. Battle of Bunker Hill
      
   3. Battle of Trenton
      
   4. Battle of Saratoga
      

3. Which of the following is a
   metaphor?
   

   1. He’s like a pig.
      
   2. He’s as messy as a pig.
      
   3. He’s a million times messier than a pig.
      
   4. He’s a pig.
      

4. Which of the following is an example of hyperbole?
   

   1. He’s like a pig.
      
   2. He’s as messy as a pig.
      
   3. He’s a million times messier than a pig.
      
   4. He’s a pig.
      

5. What is the next number in the Fibonacci sequence: 0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5…
   

   1. 9
      
   2. 5
      
   3. 7
      
   4. 8
      

6. Which of the following is an example of the Fibonacci sequence in nature?
   

   1. Leaves arranged on a stem
      
   2. The spirals of a pinecone
      
   3. The scales of a pineapple
      
   4. All of the above
      

7. What was one conclusion Galileo came to when he found the satellites orbiting around Jupiter?
   

   1. If satellites rotated around another planet, perhaps the Earth was not the center of the universe as many believed.
      
   2. The satellites were new planets.
      
   3. The satellites were comets.
      
   4. The Earth was the center of the universe, contrary to what others believed.
      

8. With his new telescope, Galileo noticed that the moon:
   

   1. Was smooth and even
      
   2. Was rough and uneven
      
   3. Had a layer of invisible crystal around it
      
   4. Was not made of cheese
      

9. Before the Middle Ages,
   Finnish was:
   

   1. Only a written language
      
   2. Only spoken on the western half
      of the country
      
   3. Only an oral language
      
   4. None of the above
      

10. In Finnish, the most obvious
    distinguishing factor between
    the two dialects is how this letter is pronounced:
    

    1. B
       
    2. G
       
    3. C
       
    4. D
       

ANSWER KEY: a, b, d, c, d, d, a, b, c, d

HISTORY:
The Constitution
The Declaration of Independence, The Articles of Confederation, The Constitutional Convention of 1787, Articles of the Constitution, The Bill of Rights, Amendments to the Constitution

LANGUAGE ARTS:
Literary Terms
Genre, Allegory, Catharsis, Motif, Ambiguity, Metanoia

MATH:
Square Roots
Simplifying Square Roots, Multiplying Square Roots, Adding and Subtracting with Square Roots, Division with Square Roots, Rationalizing Denominators, Higher Index Roots

SCIENCE:
Stephen Hawking
About Stephen Hawking, Theory of Singularity, Work with Black Holes, Unified Field Theory,
A Brief History of Time
, The Thorne-Hawking-Preskill Bet

FOREIGN LANGUAGE:
Icelandic
The Origins, Middle Icelandic, Modern Icelandic, Influences on Icelandic, Phonology, Useful Icelandic Phrases

THE CONSTITUTION

The Declaration of Independence
Before the Constitution was ever written, the Declaration of Independence needed to be drafted, declaring the colonies’ freedom from the British. The Continental Congress met in the summer of 1776 to discuss the writing of the important document, and on June 11, Thomas Jefferson began the first draft. The final draft was submitted to the Continental Congress on June 28, and by July 2, the Continental Congress took a vote regarding their independence. On July 4, the document was released to the public.

LITERARY TERMS

Genre
In literature, a genre is a specific category that literature follows. It is instantly recognizable and follows common conventions pertaining to that genre. Types of genres include nonfiction, in which everything written is true; mystery, in which all stories follow a crime or event that is not solved until the end; and fantasy, which features elements that are not realistic.

SQUARE ROOTS

Simplifying Square Roots
For simplifying square roots, you begin by taking out any perfect squares. For example:

√25 = √5
²
 = 5

When the number is not a perfect square, there might be a perfect square within the number. First you must factor the problem, and then take out the perfect square. For example:

√400 = √100 × 4 = √100 × √4 = 10 × 2 = 20

If there is no perfect square, you break it down to its simplest form. For example:

√98 = √49 × √2 = 7 × √2 = 7√2

STEPHEN HAWKING

About Stephen Hawking
Stephen Hawking is a British mathematician and physicist who has made astounding discoveries in the fields of cosmology, and especially pertaining to understanding how our universe works. Hawking studied physics at Oxford, graduating with a first class honors in 1962. While studying physics in graduate school at Cambridge, Hawking was diagnosed with ALS (also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease), the disease that would leave him wheelchair-bound for the rest of his life.

ICELANDIC

The Origins
Icelandic is a Northern Germanic language, and is actually a dialect of Norwegian. During the ninth century, settlers from Norway came to Iceland, speaking Old Norse. Due to the geographic location of Iceland, over time, the language began to diverge from Norwegian. The language also had influence from other Scandinavian settlers and as a result, the common traits to all of the different languages were reinforced, with the differences disappearing gradually.

THE CONSTITUTION