Lidl supermarkets and Kaufland hypermarkets are part of the Schwarz Group which is one of the largest grocery retailers in Europe. It is based in Neckarsulm, Germany.
Asian Games
The Asian Games are a multi-sport event, held every four years between competitors from all nations of Asia.
Newton Mearns
Newton Mearns is a small town near Glasgow in Scotland. About 22,000 people live there. Since 1996 it has been part of the East Renfrewshire area.
NBA Finals
The NBA Finals, previously known as the NBA World Championship Series until 1987, is the championship series of the National Basketball Association, played under a best-of-seven playoff format. The team who wins the Eastern Conference Finals earns one of the two places in the championship round, with the other place for the team that wins the Western Conference Finals to win the Larry O’ Brien Trophy, which is named after the former commissioner. This event has been played at the end of every NBA and BAA season in history. The first was held in 1947.
The Open Championship
The Open Championship - often known as the British Open outside the United Kingdom and Ireland - is the oldest of the four major championships in men's golf. The event is hosted annually by one of several prestigious golf clubs in the United Kingdom and is administered by The R&A regardless of its location. The next tournament, in 2013, will take place at Muirfield in Scotland.
Viennese waltz
A Viennese waltz (Valse in French, Walzer in German) is a music and dance which started in Vienna in the late 18th century. It is a ballroom dance in 3/4 time. It is the most famous of all dance forms. It became extremely popular during the 19th century, and is still danced today. Many famous composers wrote waltzes for piano or for orchestra. The rhythm of the waltz can be heard in lots of music, not just in pieces which are called a 'waltz'.
It is difficult to know exactly when the waltz started. The word comes from a German word “walzen” which means “to turn”. This is because the dancers turn around as they spin round the dance floor. There were German dances called Ländler which were simpler than the minuet and popular amongst ordinary people. The waltz developed from these dances. Schubert wrote many pieces called 'Ländler'. He also started to use the title 'Waltz'. Beethoven wrote 30 variations on a waltz that had been composed by Anton Diabelli.
Many people thought that the new dance was bad. This was because the dancing couples stood very close to one another and held one another in their arms (in the old minuet they held hands politely). Some people thought that it was very immoral and wrote angry letters to the newspapers saying that it was the end of civilised society. However, the waltz continued to be popular, and many dance halls were opened where people could waltz.
Composers became interested in the music of the waltz. Weber wrote a piece called 'Invitation to the Dance'. It has a main tune, then a set of variations, and at the end it comes back to the first tune. This form became a common way of writing a group of waltzes. Two composers in Vienna who became well known for their waltzes were Joseph Lanner (1801–1843) and Johann Strauss (1804–1849), but the most famous of all was one of Strauss’s sons, also called Johann. Father and son are sometimes called Johann Strauss I and Johann Strauss II. The son is often called the 'King of the Waltz'. He wrote many waltzes which are still very popular today. On New Year’s Day the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra always give a concert which can be seen worldwide on television. They play lots of Strauss waltzes. The most famous one is called 'The Blue Danube' (German: 'An den schönen, blauen Donau').
In the Romantic period there was hardly a composer who was not influenced by the waltz. Chopin wrote about 15 piano waltzes, some of them are very fast, some are slower and more melancholy (sad). Brahms wrote 16 waltzes for piano duet. Many composers wrote waltzes in their operas, especially when the story is about people dancing at a party. The waltz was used a lot in operettas and ballets. Tchaikovsky wrote lots of waltz music in "Swan Lake", "Sleeping Beauty" and "The Nutcracker". Even Wagner, whose music is mostly very serious, wrote a waltz in his opera "Parsifal ". The rhythm of the waltz can be heard in a lot of orchestral music, e.g. Berlioz’s "Symphonie Fantastique". The great composers Anton Bruckner and Gustav Mahler preferred to use the old German Ländler in their symphonies.
Although the 19th century was the greatest period of the waltz, people continued to write and dance waltzes in the 20th century. In his opera "Der Rosenkavalier" (1909) the German composer Richard Strauss (no relation of Johann Strauss) the story is about Vienna in the old days, and so he uses the waltz to create the feeling of a time that was past. The waltz continued to be used in a lot of operettas, e.g. by Franz Léhar in "The Merry Widow ". The French composer Maurice Ravel wrote waltzes, including a brilliant piece for orchestra which was simply called "La Valse". Like Richard Strauss in "Der Rosenkavalier", Ravel was trying to describe the music of a century ago. "La Valse" is a piece which lasts about 20 minutes in one continuous movement. Lots of different instruments have a share in playing many different tunes.
The Viennese waltz is one of the five dances in international ballroom dance. It is the only one not invented in the early 20th century. It is the only one where the figures which competitors dance is restricted. Only nine figures are permitted by the World Dance Council.
Thus in this dance marking is influenced entirely by the actual dancing, and the value of choreography is almost nil.
Musk deer
Musk deer are a group of even-toed ungulate mammals. They form the family Moschidae. There are four species of musk deer, but they are all very similar. Musk deer are more primitive than true deer.
Musk deer are about 90 centimeters long and about 60 centimeters high with a tail length of 4-6 centimeters. They weigh about 10 kilograms. Musk deer usually have dark brown fur. Males have long upper canine teeth (called tusks), which can be up to 7 cm long. Musk deer do not have antlers. Male musk deer also have a musk gland.
Musk deer live in the mountain forests of Asia, Russia, China, and the Korean Peninsula. They live in the mountains, mostly at heights of 2500 to 3500 meters. They live in dense forests.
Musk deer are mostly active at night. Musk deer eat grass and moss; in winter they also eat twigs and lichen.
Musk deer live alone. They only come together to mate. If two male musk deer meet, they fight, during which they can seriously hurt each other with their tusk-like teeth.
The female gives birth to 1-2 babies. A musk deer baby has spots on its fur.
Male musk deer have a gland that produces musk. Musk is used to make perfumes and soap, and it is also used in Traditional Chinese medicine. One musk gland has about 25 to 30 grams of musk. Musk deer have been hunted and killed for its musk. Because of this, musk deer have become fewer and endangered.
Another method is to catch a living musk deer, take its musk, and let it go free again. This method takes more time, so it is not used often. There are also musk deer farms.
FIBA Basketball World Cup
The FIBA Basketball World Cup, known as the FIBA World Championship from 1950 through 2010, is a world basketball tournament for men's national teams held once every four years by the International Basketball Federation (FIBA). After the 2014 FIBA World Cup, the tournament will move to a new four-year cycle to avoid conflict with the FIFA World Cup. To that end, no tournament will be held in 2018; the FIBA World Cup will resume in 2019.
The current champions are Spain. They defeated Argentina 95-75 in the 2019 tournament at the Cadillac Center in Beijing, China.
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