instruction:
Generate the answer for a given question. The question requires common knowledge of English. Make sure that the answer is in detail, long, consistent with the context, and requires general knowledge of English. To be less repetitive, please vary your language for each question. Give a proper explanation to answer, and if necessary, provide the definition of various terms. And conclude your answer if it's long. If you have used other resources (e.g., Merriam Webster's.) to answer the question, include citations in your answer. You don't need to paraphrase the context of your resources, but make sure that your answer is consistent and complete.
question:
What's the difference between 'successive' and 'consecutive'?.
answer:
First note that successive appears as a synonym of consecutive in dictionaries. (see Merriam Webster's entry here). Now compare these examples that I chose at random and extracted from the Corpus of Contemporary American English (COCA): Consecutive 'his unprecedented string of consecutive appearances' 'has own the best actor Emmy two consecutive times' 'named person of the year for the second consecutive time' 'account balance remains overdrawn for seven consecutive days' 'the Irish made six consecutive NCAA Tournaments' Successive 'on successive laps, Chris passed three cars' 'analysts say that successive governments failed to' 'dramatic walk-off style in successive victories against the Seattle Mariners' 'simultaneous and successive cognitive processes' 'who have challenged successive military governments' Here is what I observe in the examples (I hope I was lucky in my random choice of them): In the examples that use consecutive, the fact that the events happened in a row without interruption seems to be something that the author wanted to emphasize. However, in the examples that use successive, the fact that the events occur after each other with no interruption seems to play a secondary role. Notice that you can remove successive from some of these sentences and the meaning is not affected too much. If you remove consecutive, the impact is in general higher.


question:
I'm struggling to recall this word. If I recall correctly, it's of French origin. My search has so far been fruitless. The nearest equivalent I came up with was the idiom pulling strings but that is obviously English and not a single word. pull strings / wires (a) to use one's influence or authority, usually in secret, in order to bring about a desired result. (b) to gain or attempt to gain one's objectives by means of influential friends, associates, etc.: He had his uncle pull strings to get him a promotion.
answer:
sinecure: sinecure (sini-kyoor, sini-) n. A position or office that requires little or no work but provides a salary. n. Archaic An ecclesiastical benefice not attached to the spiritual duties of a parish. More at Wordnik from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition


question:
This is similar to a palindrome but, instead of a word/sentence that reads the same forwards and backward, is there a word for words/sentences that read the same right side up and upside-down? See picture below where the word 'yeah' is written in cursive:.
answer:

That is called an ambigram. It is a typographical design that can be read in more than one direction. ambigram noun A typographical design consisting of text modified in such a way that it can be read in multiple orientations, as in mirror image, inverted, or when rotated. (ODO) Famously (?) used in Dan Brown's Angels and Demons.