A male chicken is called a rooster or a cock(erel). A female chicken is called a hen; a young chicken is called a chick. Like other female birds, hens lay eggs. The eggs hatch into chicks.
When raising chickens, a farmer needs a chicken coop (like a little house) for the chickens to roost (sleep) in. They also need a run or yard where they can exercise, take dust baths, eat and drink. The chickens also need to be protected from predators such as foxes. Fences are often used for this.
Chickens can also be farmed intensively. This lets farms make a lot of chicken meat and eggs.
Chickenpox has nothing to do with chickens. When chickenpox was first described, people thought that the pox spots looked like chickpeas placed upon the skin. The Latin word for chick peas is "cicer". That is the original word that chickenpox got its name from.
Chickens are well known for their eggs. Many people eat them for their breakfast. The eggs can be prepared in many different ways.
Because of the low cost, chicken meat (also called "chicken") is one of the most used kinds of meat in the world. Americans eat 8 billion chickens every year. Some popular dishes with chicken are: Buffalo wings, butter chicken, chicken rice, chicken balls, chicken pot pie, chicken soup, fried chicken (see picture), roasted chicken and tandoori chicken.
There are different cuts of chicken. Chicken meat can also be bought whole. The leanest part is known as the breast. Sliced pieces of the breast are known as the tender(loin). There is also wings, thighs, and legs (also known as drumsticks).
In some parts of the world people breed chickens to fight. They bet money on which of two birds will win. In many places this is illegal.
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Floppy disk
The floppy disk (or a 3 1/2 floppy for today's standard) is a removable magnetic storage medium. Floppy disks are used for moving information between computers, laptops or other devices. Some early digital cameras, electronic music instruments and older computer game consoles use floppy disks. Floppy disks are inserted in to a floppy disk drive or simply floppy drive to allow data to be read or stored.
Floppy disks store much less data than a CD-ROM disk or USB flash drive. A normal 3½ inch disk can store 1.44 megabytes of data. This is usually enough for simple text documents.
A special type of floppy disk was made in the late 1980s. It could store 2.88 MB of data. They did not become popular. Larger size floppy disks became available in the 1990s. The two most popular were the Zip drive and the Jaz drive, both made by Iomega.
Floppy disk technology has been around since the early 1970s (the 8-inch floppy was the first). Today, floppy disks have been replaced by other storage media, like USB flash drives. Floppy disks and drives are no longer manufactured, but are still widely-available as new old stock.
A floppy drive (often called drives “A” and “B” on a computer running DOS or Windows) can be connected to or installed in a personal computer (PC). It is the part of a computer that reads and writes the disk that can be removed. A disk, often called a "floppy disk", is used to store files and carry them from one computer to another by using the floppy drive. The floppy drive reads the disk (or diskette) and the user is then able to open and change the files saved on the disk.
Nat King Cole
Nathaniel Adams Coles, professionally known as Nat King Cole, (March 17, 1919 - February 15, 1965) was an American jazz musician, singer and songwriter. He was born in the southern city of Montgomery, Alabama. His father was a Christian minister. Millions of Nat King Cole’s recordings were sold while he was alive. He died of cancer of the lung in February, 1965. He was only forty-five years old. People around the world still enjoy listening to the music of one of America’s greatest performers of popular and jazz music.
When Cole was four years old, his parents moved the family to North Chicago, Illinois. His younger brother was Freddy Cole. He learned to play the piano when he was very young. His mother was the only piano teacher he ever had. He gave his first public performance when he was four. By the time he was twelve, Cole was playing piano at his father’s church. His father was pastor of the First Baptist church in North Chicago, Illinois for 29 years.
Cole played piano in New York City and Los Angeles, California when he was a young man. In 1937, he formed a group that played jazz music. Oscar Moore played the guitar and Wesley Prince played the bass. The trio reportedly did not need a drummer because Cole’s piano playing kept the beat so well. They named the group, The King Cole Trio. At the same time, Cole also changed his name into Nat King Cole. The trio soon became very popular. Nat sang some songs, but mostly played the piano.
By the middle 1940s, Nat King Cole was beginning to be known as a popular singer as well as a jazz piano player. He was one of the first musicians to record with new Capitol Records.
The first song he recorded for Capitol was “Straighten Up and Fly Right.” He wrote the song. The words were based on his father’s teachings. The song became one of the biggest hits of 1943. It sold more than 500,000 copies.
Nat recorded hundreds of songs. Some of the most popular include “Sweet Lorraine,” “Nature Boy,” “Those Lazy-Hazy-Crazy Days of Summer,” “When I Fall in Love,” and “Mona Lisa.” In 1950, the American film industry gave him an award for his recording of “Mona Lisa.” That song made him famous as a singer.
Nat King Cole also acted in movies. The best known one is "Saint Louis Blues". He played the part of the jazz composer W.C. Handy. He also appeared in a movie about himself called "The Nat King Cole Story".
In the 1950s, he sang with some of the best known orchestras of the time.
He received many awards during his life. He also received many more after his death. One was a 1990 Grammy Award for lifetime achievement.
By 1956, Nat King Cole was known internationally. He signed an agreement to perform at the Sands Hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Cole often performed in places that only admitted white people. Black leaders did not like this about him. Cole said he tried to take legal action against those places but often failed.
Cole earned more money and moved to California. He bought a house in an area where white people lived. At that time, many white Americans did not want to live near blacks. White home owners nearby protested the purchase of a house by a black family. Cole and his family refused to leave and lived in the house without problems.
Cole was the first black man to have his own television program. His program began on NBC Television in 1956. NBC agreed to support "The Nat King Cole Show" for a while. It hoped American companies would pay to sell their products on the program. However, major companies were not willing to advertise on a program that had a black performer. They believed that white people in the southern part of the United States would not buy their products. Many Americans watched the show, but NBC stopped production after a year.
Nat King Cole was married two times. In 1936, he married a dancer, Nadine Robinson. Their marriage failed. In 1948, he married Maria Ellington. They had three children. They also adopted and raised two other children.
Nat’s daughter, Natalie followed her father as a singer. She recorded many songs after her father died. In 1991, Natalie Cole recorded an album called "Unforgettable". It contains 22 of Nat King Cole’s songs, including the song “Unforgettable.” Modern technology made it possible to mix her voice with a recording of her father singing the same song.
Voice of America