AcharyaChanakya/simple-wikipedia huggingface dataset:
Cancer can affect anybody at any age. Most types of cancer are more likely to affect people as they get older. This is because as a person's DNA gets older, their DNA may become damaged, or damage that happened in the past may get worse. One type of cancer that is more common in young men, rather than older people, is testicular cancer (cancer of the testicles).
Cancer is one of the biggest and most researched causes of death in developed countries. The study of cancer and its treatment is called oncology.
Cancer is one of the most common causes of death around the world. It causes about 12.5% (or one out of every eight) of all deaths worldwide, according to the World Health Organization.
Different types of cancer have different causes. Some things are known to cause cancer in a specific body part; other things are known to be able to cause many different types of cancer. For example, using tobacco (smoked or smokeless) can cause many types of cancers, such as lung, mouth, tongue, and throat cancers. Other things that are known to be able to cause cancer - or make a person more likely to get cancer - include: radiation including sunlight and X-rays in large or many doses, and exposure to radiation (for example in a nuclear power plant); chemicals and materials used in building and manufacturing (for example, asbestos and benzene); high-fat or low-fiber diets; air and water pollution; eating very little fruits and vegetables; obesity; not enough physical activity; drinking too much alcohol; and certain chemicals commonly used at home. Some cancers can also be caused by viruses. Many people who are exposed to these things do get cancer - but some do not.
There are many different kinds of cancers. Some of the most common are:
There is no sure cure for cancer. It can only be cured if all of the cancerous cells are cut out or killed in place. This means that the earlier the cancer is treated, the better the chances are for a cure (because the cancer cells may not have had enough time to copy themselves and spread so much that the person cannot be cured).
There are a few different types of treatments that are used to try to kill cancer cells. These treatments are:
There are a few reasons why treating cancer is complicated. For example:
Many, many people in many countries study cancer and work on finding treatments. There has been some good progress in finding treatments, and many cancers are treated with success. Along with looking for different medical treatments to treat cancer, some studies also look for things that people with cancer can do themselves to try to make themselves healthier. For example, one study showed that if a person with lymphedema (a swelling of the arm linked to breast cancer) lifts weights, he may be able to fight his cancer better than somebody who does not lift weights.
Cancer has been around for many thousands of years. Today, a lot of the medical terms used to describe cancer come from ancient Greek and Latin. For example, the Latinized Greek word carcinoma is used to describe a malignant tumor - a tumor made up of cancer cells. The Greeks also used the word "karkinos", which would be translated by Aulus Cornelius Celsus into the Latin word "cancer". The prefix 'carcino' is still used in medical words like carcinoma and carcinogenic. A famous Greek doctor, Galen, helped create another word that is very important to medicine today by using the word ""onkos"" to describe "all" tumours. This is where the word oncology, the branch of medicine that deals with cancer, comes from.
Hippocrates (a very famous ancient doctor who is often called the father of modern medicine) named many kinds of cancer. He called benign tumours (tumors that are not made up of cancer cells) "oncos". In Greek, "onkos" means 'swelling'. He called malignant tumours "karkinos". This means crab or crayfish in Greek. He used this term because he thought that if a solid malignant tumor was cut into, its veins looked like a crab: "the veins stretched on all sides as the animal the crab has its feet, whence it derives (gets) its name". Hippocrates later added "-oma" (Greek for 'swelling') after the word 'carcinos'. This is how the word "carcinoma" came about.
Because the ancient Greeks did not believe in opening up dead bodies to study them, Hippocrates was only able to describe and make drawings of tumors he saw from the outside of the body. He drew tumors that had been on the skin, nose, and breasts.
Hippocrates and other doctors at that time treated people based on the humor theory. This theory said that there were four types of fluid in the body (black, yellow bile, blood, and phlegm). Doctors tried to figure out whether these four "humors" (or body fluids) were in balance. They would then use treatments like blood-letting (cutting the patient and letting him bleed so that he would lose blood); laxatives (giving the patient foods or herbs to make him go to the bathroom), and/or changing the patient's diet. The doctors thought that these treatments would work to get the patient's four humors back into the right balance. The humor theory treatment was popular until the 19th century (the 1800s), when cells were discovered. By this time, people had realized that cancer can happen anywhere in the body.
The oldest known document that talks about cancer was discovered in Egypt and is thought to be from about 1600 B.C. The document talks about using surgery to treat eight cases of ulcers of the breast. These were treated by cauterization - by burning them - using a tool called "the fire drill". The document also says about cancer, "There is no treatment".
Another very early type of surgery used to treat cancer was written about in the 1020s. In "The Canon of Medicine", Avicenna (Ibn Sina) said that treatment should involve cutting out all diseased tissue. This included the use of amputation (removing a part of the body completely) or removing veins that ran in the direction of the tumor. Avicenna also suggested that the area that had been treated should be cauterized (or burned) if needed.
In the 16th and 17th centuries (the 1500s and 1600s), doctors started to be allowed to dissect bodies (or cut them open after death) in order to figure out the cause of death. Around this time, there were many different ideas about what caused cancer. The German professor Wilhelm Fabry believed that breast cancer was caused by a clot of milk in the part of a woman's breast that produces milk. The Dutch professor Francois de la Boe Sylvius believed that all disease was caused by chemical processes. He thought that cancer, in particular, was caused by acidic lymph. Nicolaes Tulp, who lived at the same time as Sylvius, believed that cancer was a poison that slowly spreads and was contagious.
A British surgeon named Percivall Pott was the first person to figure out one of the real causes of cancer. In 1775, he discovered that cancer of the scrotum was a common disease among chimney sweeps (people who cleaned out chimneys). Other doctors started studying this topic and coming up with other ideas about what causes cancer. Doctors then started working together and coming up with better ideas.
In the 18th century (the 1700s), many people started to use the microscope, and this made a big difference in helping doctors and scientists understand more about cancer. Using the microscope, scientists were able to see that the 'cancer poison' spread from one tumor through the lymph nodes to other sites ("metastasis"). This was first made clear by the English surgeon Campbell De Morgan, between 1871 and 1874.
Before the 19th century (the 1800s), using surgery to treat cancer usually had bad results. Doctors did not understand how important hygiene (or keeping things clean) is for preventing disease, especially after surgery. Because things were not kept clean during or after surgery, patients often got infections and died. For example, one well-known Scottish surgeon, Alexander Monro, kept records and found that 58 patients out of every 60 who had surgery for breast tumors died within the next two years.
In the 19th century, surgical hygiene got better because of asepsis. Doctors realized that dirtiness and germs cause infections, so they started to keep things cleaner and do things to kill germs in order to prevent their patients from getting infections. It became more common for people to survive after having surgery. Surgical removal of the tumor (taking the tumor out of the body by doing surgery) became the first-choice treatment for cancer. For this kind of treatment to work, the surgeon doing the operation had to be very good at removing tumors. (This meant that even if people had the same kind of cancer, they could get very different results, with some getting good treatment that worked and others getting treatment that did not work, because of differences in how good different surgeons were.)
In the late 1800s, doctors and scientists started to realize that the body is made up of many kinds of tissues, which in turn are made up of millions of cells. The discovery started the age of cellular pathology (studying cells to learn about diseases and figure out what is wrong with the body).
In the 1890s, French scientists discovered radioactive decay. Radiation therapy became the first cancer treatment that worked and did not involve surgery. It required a new multi-disciplinary approach to cancer treatment (people doing different jobs were working together to treat patients). The surgeon was no longer working by himself - he worked together with hospital radiologists (people who gave and read X-rays) to help patients. This team approach meant changes in how they worked. The different people on the team had to communicate with each other and work together, which they were not used to doing. It also meant that treatment had to be done in a hospital rather than at the patient's home. Because of this, patients' information had to be put together into files kept at the hospital (called "medical records"). Because this information was now being kept and written down, scientists were able to do the first statistical patient studies using numbers to study questions like how many people who have a certain type of cancer or get a certain treatment survive.
Another important step forward in understanding cancer happened in 1926, when Janet Lane-Claypon published a paper on cancer epidemiology. (Epidemiology is a field of study which looks at how common a disease is, what patterns the disease takes in different kinds of people, and what this means for understanding and treating the disease.) This historic paper was a comparative study, which tries to find out what causes a disease by looking at a group of people who have the disease and figuring out how they are different from another group that does not have the disease. Lane-Clayton's study looked at 1000 people who all had the same background and lifestyle (or way of living): 500 people with breast cancer and 500 control patients (people without breast cancer). These people were the same in many ways, but some got breast cancer and some did not. To figure out what might be causing certain people to get breast cancer, the study looked at what was different about these people when they were compared to (or looked at alongside) the people who did not get cancer.
Lane-Clayton's study was published by the British Ministry of Health. Her work on cancer epidemiology was continued by Richard Doll and Austin Bradford Hill. They used the same ways of studying cancer as Lane-Clayton, but they looked at a different kind of cancer: lung cancer. In 1956, they published their results in a paper called "Lung Cancer and Other Causes of Death In Relation to Smoking. A Second Report on the Mortality of British Doctors" (also called the British doctors study). Later, Richard Doll left the London Medical Research Center (MRC), and started the Oxford unit for Cancer epidemiology in 1968. By using computers, this unit was able to do something new and very important: it brought together large amounts of cancer data (pieces of information about cancer). This way of studying cancer is very important to cancer epidemiology today, and it has also been very important in shaping what we now know about cancer and what the rules and laws about the disease and public health are today. Over the past 50 years, many different people have done a lot of work to collect data from different doctors, hospitals, areas, states, and even countries. This data is used to study whether different kinds of cancer are more or less common in different areas, environments (for example, in big cities compared to the countryside), or cultures. This helps people who study cancer to figure out what makes people more or less likely to get different kinds of cancer.
Before World War II, doctors and hospitals were getting better at collecting (or getting and keeping) data about their patients who had cancer, but it was rare for this data to be shared with other doctors or hospitals. This changed after WWII, when medical research centers found out that different countries had very different number of cases of cancer. Because of this, many countries created national public health organizations (which studied public health issues in an entire country). These national public health organizations began to bring together health data from many different doctors and hospitals. This helped them figure out some of the reasons why cancer was so much more common in certain places. For example, in Japan, people studying cancer found out that people who had survived the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki had bone marrow that was completely destroyed. This helped them realize that diseased bone marrow could also be destroyed with radiation, which was a very important step in figuring out that leukemia (a blood cancer) can be treated with bone marrow transplants.
Since World War II, scientists have kept finding better cancer treatments. However, there are some things that still need to get better. For example, while there are good treatments for many kinds of cancer, there are still no treatments for certain kinds of cancer, or for some cancers once they progress (or get worse) to a certain stage of the disease. Also, the cancer treatments that do exist are not all standardized (there is not one agreed-upon way of giving every treatment which is used each time the treatment is given). Cancer treatments are also not available everywhere in the world. People need to keep studying cancer epidemiology and forming international partnerships (where different countries work together) to find cures and make cancer treatments available everywhere.
Photography is a way of making a picture using a camera. A person who makes pictures using a camera is called a "photographer". A picture made using a camera is called a photograph or photo. Photography became popular in the middle 19th century with Daguerreotype. Later wet plate and dry plate methods were invented. Most photography in the 20th century was on photographic film and most in the 21st uses digital cameras.
A "camera" is, in its simplest form, like a box with a hole in front of it. There is a special piece of glass in front of the hole called a lens. To take a photograph of something, the lens makes a small picture of the object inside the box. The lens does this by focusing light. A lens in a camera works like a lens in glasses (spectacles) or a magnifying glass. One type of camera called the Pinhole camera has no lens but uses a very small hole to focus light.
To make a photograph with a camera the "shutter release" button is pressed. Pressing the button opens the "shutter". The shutter is like a door. It covers the hole in the camera box. The shutter is behind the lens. When the shutter is closed no light can enter the camera box. When the shutter is open light can enter the camera. When the button is pressed the shutter opens and then closes. This happens very fast. The amount of time the shutter stays open for is called the "shutter speed". The shutter speed can change between 1/1000th of a second (0.001 s) to a few seconds. Normally the time taken for the shutter to open and close is far less than 1 second.
Some cameras have an "aperture ring". It controls how much light enters the camera box.
The photograph in a camera may be made on film or, if it is a digital camera, using an electronic sensor.
The picture the lens makes is recorded on photographic film. Film is placed inside the camera box. Light coming through the lens, aperture and open shutter shines on the film. Photographic film is coated with chemicals that react when light shines on it. Letting light shine on the film is called "exposing" the film.
There are many different types of photographic film. There are films for taking colour photographs and films for taking black and white photographs. There are different sizes of film. The most common size is "35 mm". It is called 35 mm because the width of the film is 35 millimetres.
Another difference between films is how sensitive they are to light. Films have a code number, called an "ISO number". The number tells how fast a film reacts when light shines on it.
Once the film has been exposed it is "processed". Processing has to be done in total darkness or the film will be exposed too much and the picture will be lost. The picture will become to transparent and the image will not appear as it was when the picture was taken. Processing stops the film reacting to light any more. After the film has been processed the picture can be seen on the film.
A photographic "print" is a photograph made on paper. A light sensitive paper is used. The picture on the film is placed in an "enlarger". An enlarger is a machine that shines light through the film and makes a bigger picture on the light sensitive paper. A chemical reaction happens in the paper, which turns the areas hit with light black when the paper is 'developed'. (The more light, the darker the area.) "Developing" makes the picture appear on the paper – now it is a photograph. Then the paper is put into other chemicals that make it not sensitive to light any more. This is called "fixing". Last, the paper is washed so that there are no more chemicals on it and then dried. Then it is finished.
Digital photography uses a digital camera. Sometimes it is called "digital imaging". Like other cameras a digital camera has a lens, aperture, and shutter. The picture the lens makes is recorded by a light-sensitive electronic sensor. A digital camera does not use photographic film to record a picture. Digital photographs are stored in storage devices such as SD cards. They can later be transferred to a computer. Paper prints can also be made from digital pictures. Digital cameras are also not expensive to use, as there is no film to buy.
One of the most important things when taking a photograph is focusing the lens. If the lens is not focused well, the photograph will be blurry. Autofocus cameras focus automatically when the shutter release is pressed. There are also "manual" focus cameras (usually older ones).
Three other things are important when taking a photograph. These control how bright or dark the photograph will be. The brighter you have it the more transparent the picture comes out, if you have it to bright the whole screen can turn out to be all white, if the camera settings are set to be to dark, well, then the picture will come out to dark. So it really depends on how you want the picture, some cameras automatically come in with the setting at 50%, this is most recommended if you want to take a normal picture, but if you want to adjust the settings, it is recommended to keep it between 45% and 75%.
A slower shutter speed, a bigger aperture, and faster film/higher ISO sensor all make a brighter picture. A faster shutter speed, a smaller aperture, and a slower film/lower ISO sensor all make a darker picture. A good picture is not too bright and not too dark. When it is too bright it would be called "overexposed". An automatic camera changes these things by itself when the shutter release is pressed.
Camera typesThough there are many types of cameras, all include five indispensable components: (1) the camera box, which holds and protects the sensitive film from all light except that entering through the lens; (2) film, on which the image is recorded, a light-sensitive strip usually wound on a spool, either manually or automatically, as successive pictures are taken; (3) the light control, consisting of an aperture or diaphragm and a shutter, both often adjustable; (4) the lens, which focuses the light rays from the subject onto the film, creating the image, and which is usually adjustable by moving forward or back, changing the focus; and (5) the viewing system, which may be separate from the lens system (usually above it) or may operate through it by means of a mirror.
An acronym is a word whose letters are the first letters of other words. People often create a short acronym that means the same thing as a much longer phrase (set of words). This is faster and shorter to say then the long phrase.
Examples of acronyms are:
An acronym usually must be able to be spoken as word. Other abbreviations such as ASAP (as soon as possible), USA (the United States of America), ECU (European Currency Unit), FBI (Federal Bureau of Investigation), NBA (National Basketball Association) have combinations of letters that are not pronounced as a single word. People just say the letters, one after another.
These three-letter acronyms, and some more obscure four-letter ones such as ISDN are more often called initialisms.
The word "acronym" comes from the Greek acro ‘extreme’ and onymus ‘name’.
The world's longest acronym, according to the "Guinness Book of World Records" is NIIOMTPLABOPARMBETZHELBETRABSBOMONIMONKONOTDTEKHSTROMONT (). It is 56 letters long (54 in Cyrillic). It is from the "Concise Dictionary of Soviet Terminology" and means "the Laboratory for Shuttering, Reinforcement, Concrete and Ferroconcrete Operations for Composite-monolithic and Monolithic Constructions of the Department of Technology of Building Assembly Operations of the Scientific Research Institute of the Organization for Building Mechanization and Technical Aid of the Academy of Building and Architecture of the USSR."
Radio wave
Radio waves make up part of the electromagnetic spectrum. These waves are packets of energy with differing wavelengths, similar to visible light waves, X-rays or gamma rays, except longer.
A radio wave, like other electromagnetic waves, is similar to an ocean surface wave or any other type of wave. Both types of wave have a hill and valley shape, repeating over and over. A wavelength is measured as the distance from the top of one crest to the top of its neighboring crest. While the wavelength of visible light is very very small, less than one micrometer and much less than the thickness of a human hair, radio waves can have a wavelength from a couple centimeters to several meters. They also have a radio frequency.
The smallest radio waves are called microwaves. Shortwaves are not quite so small. There are also medium and long waves. Antennas designed to send and receive radio waves are usually similar in size to the wavelength they are to use. Many radio antennas (like those on cars) are made long because they receive signals of FM radio (a few meters, several feet) or AM radio (hundreds of meters, about a thousand feet).
Manmade radio waves have been used since the 19th century for communication. Radar was developed in the 20th century, using radio waves to 'see' distant objects by bouncing waves off an object and seeing how long it takes for the waves to return. Radios also use these waves to send and receive information.
Radio waves from other planets were first discovered in the 1930s by Karl Guthe Jansky, working for Bell Laboratories. Bell was detecting noise (electronics) on radio channels, and had Jansky try to find the source of this static, or interference. After identifying noise that came from lightning, he spent much time looking into the remainder. Surprisingly, some of the interference was coming from space! This discovery eventually led astronomers to look at radio waves along with light waves to find things in the sky. These radio astronomers use giant Radio telescopes, shaped like satellite dishes, to gather and study the waves.
Radio waves are used for many things today. Broadcasting and communications satellites and mobile phones and many computers communicate by radio waves.
A bridge is a structure to cross an open space or gap. Bridges are mostly made for crossing rivers, valleys, or roads. Nowadays most big bridges are made to carry vehicles but people have also walked across bridges for thousands of years. Bridges called highway overpasses carry a road over another road.
Military bridges are portable, so that they may be easily moved to where they are needed. This makes them much more complex than most civilian bridges.
The first man-made bridges were probably made from cut wood or stones. Some stone bridges have lasted thousands of years. In recent centuries large bridges are made mostly of steel. They do not last as long. Many bridges are in a state of disrepair.
There are five major structural types of bridges:
Mysticism is the belief that people can "directly" experience God or true reality, rather than through books, ritual or other people. People who practice this are called "mystics".
Mystics exist within most religions, though not all people who practice religions are mystics. Mystics may experience visions or dreams, or hear God as a voice.
Some examples of Hindu mystics:
Some examples of Christian mystics:
Islamic Mysticism is known as "Tassawuf" (or Sufism) and a detailed list of Muslim Sufi mystics is given on the Sufism page.
Some examples of Jewish mystics:
Some examples of Buddhist mystics:
Ontario is a province of Canada. It is in the eastern half of Canada, between Manitoba and Quebec. Ontario has the most people of any province, with 13,150,000 in 2009, and is home to the biggest city in Canada, Toronto, which is also the capital of the province. In the eastern part of the province, placed on the border with Quebec, is Ottawa, the capital of Canada, located on the Ottawa River.
Ontario also has the second largest land area, with 1,076,395 km²; only Quebec is larger by size. (Nunavut and Northwest Territories are also larger, but are called "territories" and not "provinces"). The province has one of the longest borders with the United States and there are several border crossings including the one at Niagara Falls. Along this border are 4 large lakes called Lake Ontario, Lake Erie, Lake Huron, and Lake Superior. They each are partly in Ontario and partly in the United States, and the border runs through them, but not Lake Michigan, which is entirely in the United States. These five lakes are together are called the Great Lakes.
There are a number of symbols that represent the province of Ontario. The flag is red with the British Union Jack in the top left corner and the provincial shield is on the right hand side of the flag. The provincial bird is the loon, and the provincial flower is the trillium. It has three flower petals and it is usually white but some times is pink or purple.
Ontario became part of Canada when it was created in 1867. Before 1840, it was known as Upper Canada, which was a colony in the British Empire. Between 1840 and 1867 it was known as Canada West. The government of Ontario sits at Queen's Park in Toronto. The leader of the government is called the "Premier", and the current Premier is Doug Ford. There is also a Lieutenant Governor who represents the Queen, and the current Lieutenant Governor is Elizabeth Dowdeswell.
Ontario is very large, so sometimes people break it into two. The two parts are called Northern Ontario and Southern Ontario. Most of the people in Ontario live in the south, and that is where the big cities are. The big cities in Southern Ontario are Toronto and the rest of the Greater Toronto Area, Ottawa and the National Capital Region, Hamilton, London, Windsor, and Sarnia. The cities in the north are smaller. In the far north of Ontario hardly any people live at all, and there are no roads or railways making it difficult to even get to those places.
Much of Ontario gets lots of snow in the winter. In the summer, it can get very hot in the south parts. In some big cities, there is smog in the summer.
Manitoba
Manitoba is a province of Canada. It lies roughly in the centre of Canada.
Manitoba is the 6th largest province with area. It has the fifth largest number of people, with 1,379,584 in 2020. People from Manitoba are called "Manitobans".
People have been living in Manitoba for thousands of years. Both the Hudson's Bay Company from England and many people from France moved to Manitoba during the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries. It became part of the Northwest Territories in 1869. The Red River Rebellion, which was started by Louis Riel, began in Manitoba.
Manitoba became part of Canada on 12 May 1870. It included only the southern part which is nearest to the United States. But parts of the Northwest Territories were added to Manitoba later on.
The capital of Manitoba is the city of Winnipeg. Other large cities in Manitoba include Steinbach and Brandon.
The people of Manitoba elected a legislature. The leader of the government, who is called the "Premier", is the leader of the largest party in the legislature. There is also a Lieutenant Governor, who represents the Queen. Right now, the premier of Manitoba is Greg Selinger and the Lieutenant Governor is Philip S. Lee.
The main political parties in Manitoba are the New Democratic Party, the Progressive Conservative Party of Manitoba, and the Liberal Party.
Head of government
The head of government is the leader of the executive branch of a nation's government. This is not always the same person as the head of state. Official titles for heads of government include Premier or Prime Minister.
For example, in the United States, the president is both the head of state and the head of government. In the Republic of Ireland the president is the head of state but the Taoiseach is the head of government. In most modern monarchies the king (or queen) is the head of state but not the head of government, as is the case of Japan and the UK, for example.
The head of state of some countries has no power over law and justice, for example, the Bundespresident of Germany.
Saskatchewan
Saskatchewan (; "") is a province in Canada. About 1 million people live in Saskatchewan. Most of its population lives in the southern part of the province. The primary industry in Saskatchewan is agriculture (farming).
Saskatchewan is known for its wide horizons. The land is very flat in the south, so you can sometimes see far away. Not all the land is flat prairie. There are beautiful scenic woodlands and forests in the central and northern regions and parklands with lakes for fishing. The province is marked by and named after the North and South Saskatchewan rivers that run through it. The province is nicknamed "The Land of Living Skies".
Saskatchewan was founded on September 1, 1905, the same date that Alberta was founded. The province's colors are gold, red, green, white, brown, yellow, and black. Gold for the wheat, red for the Prairie Lily which is the provincial flower, green for the forests, white for the snow, brown for the fresh cut fields, yellow for the canola and sunflowers, and black for the coal and oil.
The largest city in Saskatchewan is Saskatoon, followed by the province's capital, Regina. Saskatchewan is (approximately) a quadrilateral (four-sided object) bounded on the west by Alberta, on the north by the Northwest Territories, on the east by Manitoba, and on the south by the American states of Montana and North Dakota.
Classical music is a very general term which normally refers to the standard music of countries in the western world. It is music that has been composed by musicians who are trained in the art of writing music (composing) and written down in music notation so that other musicians can play it. Classical music may also be described as "art music" though it was not good in classical period that term also Includes types of serious modern music which are not classical. Classical music differs from pop music because it is not made just in order to be popular for time or just to be a commercial success. It is different from folk music which is generally made up by ordinary members of society and learned by future generations by listening, dancing and copying.
The word “classic” tends to mean: an art which is so good that it will always be enjoyed by future generations. It is something that has become a model for future artists. The period of Ancient Greece and Rome is known as the Classical Period because, many centuries later, people looked back to those ancient civilizations and thought they were perfect. In recent European history the 18th century was known as the Classical Period because musicians, artists, writers and philosophers were inspired by the art forms of the Classical Period of Ancient Greece and Rome. Something that is a “classic” is therefore something that will always be remembered as something great. Famous books such as the novels of Charles Dickens are called "classics". “Classical music” therefore tends to mean music that will not be forgotten soon after it is written, but is likely to be enjoyed by many future generations.
Although people sometimes think of classical music as the opposite of pop music, it can still be very popular. Like all kinds of music, classical music can be in many different moods: happy, sad, scary, peaceful, thoughtful, simple etc. Mozart wrote his serenades and divertimentos to entertain people at parties. Classical pieces of music can be quite short, but they can also be very long, like a big, musical story. A symphony by Mahler or Shostakovich can last for nearly an hour, and an opera is a whole evening’s entertainment.
Classical music is also different from jazz because true jazz is improvised. However, the differences are not always obvious. Classical music has often been inspired by jazz, and jazz by classical music. George Gershwin wrote music which is both jazz and classical. Classical music, too, can be improvised. The great composers Bach, Mozart and Beethoven often improvised long pieces of music on the organ, harpsichord or piano. Sometimes they wrote these improvistions down. They were, in effect, compositions which were composed in one go.
In Western countries a vast amount of music was written for Christian worship in churches and cathedrals. This is called “sacred” (religious) music. All other music is “secular” music. The word “secular” means things that are not sacred. Sacred and secular music have influenced one another in many ways during the course of music history. Secular music was largely influenced by dance, and this in turn changed the style of scared music. For example: the church music of the 16th century composer Giovanni da Palestrina has nothing to do with dance music, but both the sacred and secular music of Johann Sebastian Bach two centuries later is full of dance rhythms. At some times in music history there have been different styles of composing for sacred and for secular music. Claudio Monteverdi uses two different styles for his church and for his non-church music. When composers were experimenting with new ways of writing music they usually did this with secular music, and sacred music caught up later.
The term "classical music" was not used until the early 19th century. People then started talking about classical music in order to praise the great composers such as Bach, Mozart and Beethoven. In the 20th century many different ways of composing were used, including music played by electronic instruments or very modern music using strange sounds (experimental or "avant garde" music), for example the music of John Cage. Some people feel that this kind of music cannot really be described as "classical music".
Classical music can be for instruments or for the voice. The symphony orchestra is the most common group of instruments for the playing of classical music. It has four families of instruments: the string instruments which include the violins, violas, cellos and piano, the woodwind instruments which include flutes, oboes,clarinets and bassoons together with related instruments of different sizes, the brass instruments: trumpet, trombone, tuba and French horn, and percussion instruments which nearly always includes timpani as well as many other possible instruments which are hit or shaken. This is very different from a typical rock band which has a drummer, a guitarist, one or two singers and an electric bass and keyboard. Instruments that play classical music are not normally amplified electronically.
The same applies to the voice. Singers may be sopranos, altos, tenors or basses, depending on their vocal range. Their voices are not amplified. Opera singers, in particular, have to develop very powerful voices which will be heard over the orchestra and project right to the back of an opera house.
The instruments used in classical music developed at different times. Some of the earliest were known in Medieval music. The trombone and the triangle have hardly changed for hundreds of years, but the violin family developed from folk instruments such as fiddles and gradually replaced the viols to form the basis of the modern orchestra. This was happening by the beginning of the 17th century, which was the time when opera was invented.
In general, musical instruments have become louder as concert halls have become bigger. Violins are louder than viols. Modern violins are louder than the early 17th century violins, largely because of they have metal strings instead of gut strings. The piano developed from the clavichord which was very quiet indeed. Woodwind instruments developed from Renaissance instruments, while the clarinet was invented in the middle of the 18th century, and the saxophone and tuba came even later. Modern trumpets sound much brighter than the straight trumpets of the 18th century.
Most popular music is based on song form, but classical music has many different forms, some of which can be used over a long time span to make big compositions. Classical music can have many forms, including the symphony, concerto, oratorio, opera, sonata, fugue or any combination of dance movements such as suites. In many of the longer compositions, short tunes are developed and changed during the course of the piece. Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony is a good example of a piece which develops from just four notes into a large piece lasting about half an hour.
People who want to be good at performing classical music have to practice hard for many years. They normally have formal training at a music college or conservatoire and have lessons from well-known music teachers.
Classical musicians often spend a lot of time thinking carefully about pieces of music, especially about pieces of music that they perform. They study such things as harmony and counterpoint to help them understand the way that the composers were thinking when they put the piece together. When they look at pieces of music in this way this is called “musical analysis”. People who specialize in thinking and writing about music may become professors or lecturers of music at universities.
Classical music is often heard in popular culture. It is used as background music for movies, television programs, advertisements and even for mobile phone ringing tones. Most people in the Western world recognize many classical tunes, possibly without even realizing it. Some classical pieces of music have become enormously popular, e.g. the song "Nessun dorma" from Giacomo Puccini's opera "Turandot" which was sung by the three tenors Luciano Pavarotti, Plácido Domingo and José Carreras, and used as the theme tune for the 1990 Soccer World Cup. This made many people who had never been interested in opera start to become curious about it.
The history of classical music really started in the late Middle Ages. Music written for the church was almost always vocal (singing), because instruments were thought to be wicked. This is because the devil played them, and because they were used for dancing. There was a lot of dance music, but most of it is lost because it was never written down.
Medieval composers who are remembered today include Léonin, Pérotin and Guillaume de Machaut
The Renaissance was from the 15th century until the 17th century. This period saw a massive increase in the composition of music, both sacred and secular. Many great cathedrals had been built in Europe and composers wrote music for them, mostly vocal music. Secular music also became extremely popular, especially songs and madrigals, which would sometimes be accompanied by instruments.
The greatest composers of this period include: Giovanni da Palestrina, Orlando di Lasso, Thomas Tallis and William Byrd.
The Baroque period was from about the 17th century until the mid-18th century. This was the time when the modern orchestra was formed, more or less as we know it. It was also the time when opera was invented. Most musicians worked either for the church or for rich people who had their own orchestras. Many of them also started to work for opera houses.
The greatest composers of this time include: Claudio Monteverdi, Heinrich Schütz, Henry Purcell, Antonio Vivaldi, George Frideric Handel, Johann Sebastian Bach, Domenico Scarlatti and Georg Philipp Telemann
The years between 1760 - 1825 was known as the Classical period. Composers thought a lot about the forms of their pieces and were influenced by the classical art of the Ancient Greeks and Romans. The symphony was invented and various forms of chamber music including the string quartet.
The greatest composers include: Joseph Haydn, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Christoph Willibald Gluch, and Ludwig van Beethoven.
From 1820 to 1910 was known as the Romantic period. Composers continued to use the forms that had been invented in the 18th century, but they also thought that personal feeling and emotion were very important. Music for orchestra sometimes told a story (programme music). Musicians who played their instruments brilliantly (such as Paganini) were worshipped like heroes. Beethoven and Schubert belong, in many ways, to this period as well as to the Classical period. It was a time when there were a lot of changes in society. After the wars that Napoleon had waged, there were not so many ruling aristocratic families. There was a lot of feeling of nationalism as countries united. 19th century music is often nationalistic: composers wrote music that was typical of their own country.
Some of the greatest composers include: Ludwig van Beethoven, Franz Schubert, Hector Berlioz, Frédéric Chopin, Robert Schumann, Felix Mendelssohn, Anton Bruckner, Johannes Brahms, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Edward Elgar, Gustav Mahler and Richard Strauss.
What is known as 20th century classical music (or “modern music”) is music from about 1910 onwards. At this time many composers felt that everything had already been done by the composers of the past, so they wanted to find new ways of composing. Claude Debussy, Arnold Schoenberg and Igor Stravinsky, in particular, found new ways of writing music which was not necessarily tonal (in any particular key). Classical music was influenced by jazz, especially with American composers. Later in the century people such as Pierre Boulez and Karlheinz Stockhausen experimented in many other ways, including with electronic music (tape recorders etc.). Today’s composers have combined some of these ideas to develop their own styles.
Some of the most important composers are: Claude Debussy, Jean Sibelius, Maurice Ravel, Arnold Schoenberg, Igor Stravinsky, Béla Bartók, Aaron Copland, Benjamin Britten, Dmitri Shostakovich, Leonard Bernstein, Philip Glass, Dmitri Kabalevsky, James MacMillan, Judith Weir, Peter Maxwell Davies
It has never been possible to say exactly what is meant by “classical music”. Many different kinds of music influence one another. Since 1970 it has been even harder to make clear dividing lines between rock, pop, classical, folk, jazz and world music. This shows that classical music, like other kinds of music, continues to develop and reflect the society from which it comes.
The New Grove Dictionary of Music & Musicians, ed. Stanley Sadie; 1980;
SNAFU or snafu is an acronym that the United States Military first used. Civilians now use it as well. It stands for Situation Normal: All (Fucked/Fouled/Francis) Up.
In modern times, it means a situation that was occurring normally but then suddenly began to go wrong. For example:
"The general's visit this week-end went well until we hit a snafu. Everything went wrong after that."
Snafu is used mostly as a noun. It can also be used as a verb but usually in the passive sense. For instance, someone would say:
"The general's visit this week-end went well until it snafued. Everything went wrong after that."
But they would probably not say:
"The general's visit this week-end went well until we snafued it."
Atlanta is the capital and largest city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is one of the South's largest cities. Atlanta is known as a major business city. It is the home of Coca-Cola Company, CNN, AT&T, and Home Depot, as well as many other Fortune 500 companies. Coca-Cola, which is made in Atlanta, is drunk all over the world and its factory is a favorite tourist destination. CNN is also a big tourist attraction. Atlanta's airport, called Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport, is the busiest airport in the world. Atlanta is near the center of Georgia and is on the Chattahoochee River.
Atlanta was built on Cherokee Native American land. It was called Terminus until 1843, when the name was changed to Marthasville. In 1845 the name was changed again to Atlanta.
During the American Civil War, Atlanta was where several battles happened. Some of the battles were the Battle of Peachtree Creek, the Battle of Atlanta, and the Battle of Ezra Church. The city was burnt down and almost entirely destroyed. After the war, the city was built again, and got a nickname because it was built so fast: "the Phoenix City", after the bird which burns itself then rises from the ashes in old myths. A picture of the bird is on the city seal.
Atlanta became the state capital in 1868.
There have been racial problems in Atlanta. During riots in 1906, at least 12 people died and more than 70 other people were hurt. In 1913, a Jewish man named Leo Frank was tried in court for raping and killing a girl in a factory where he worked. He was found guilty, but then the government decided not to execute him because not everyone was convinced he had done it. This upset people who thought he had killed the girl, and there were more riots in 1915 and Frank was lynched (hanged with a rope until he died).
In the 1930s, the Great Depression came to Atlanta. Many people did not have jobs and were hungry. The city government was almost out of money and the Coca-Cola company gave the city some money to help. In 1935, the government built the first federal housing project in the United States.
Atlanta's airport is named Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport. It is the busiest airport in the world. Delta Air Lines is an airline that has its main office in Atlanta, and it uses Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport for many of its flights.
Turner Broadcasting, which broadcasts CNN, has their main office in Atlanta. The Coca Cola Company also has their main office in Atlanta.
The City of Atlanta is home to two colleges. Georgia Institute of Technology, or Georgia Tech for short, and Georgia State University.
Niccolò Machiavelli (3 May 1469 – 21 June 1527) was a Florentine Renaissance man, statesman, and writer. He was a diplomat and government official in the Medici period of the Florentine Republic. Machiavelli is best known for writing about political philosophy. He also wrote poetry, plays, carnival songs, history books, military science books, and some of the best-known personal letters in the Italian language. His best known book is "The Prince" from 1513. It was not published until 1532, which was five years after he died.