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Earthquake is a sudden movement in Earth’s crust which produces vibration. These vibrations may be detectable only by sensitive instruments called seismographs, or else they may kill thousands as they destroy cities. Many earthquakes are caused when rocks move along faults. Severe earthquakes are most common near the edges of the «plates» in the Earth’s crust, such as around the Pacific Ocean, along the mid-Atlantic ridge and in the Mediterranean and South- West Asian regions. They occur when the plates move. So me earthquakes are caused by volcanic action, explosions and other factors, Earthquakes under the sea trigger off huge waves called tsunamis.

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Pride and Prejudice, by far the most popular of all Jane Austen’s novels, requires no detailed description. Jane Austen said of it that it «is rather too light, and bright, and sparkling; it wants shade,» and this is perhaps the reason for its popularity. The precision and vivacity of style carry the reader through the novel with ease and spirit; there is a sparkling life about the characters and rainwashed freshness about the scenery which combine to make this gayest of Jane Austen’s novels, in spite of deeper overtones which emerge when Charlotte Lucas agrees to marry Mr. Collins or when Lydia is discovered to have run off with Wickham with no prospect of marriage. The speed and ski ii with which the author moves into the story is remarkable.

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A recent opinion poll discovered that many people were very concerned about the amount of sex and violence depicted in movies, television shows, and popular music. This poll also discovered, however, that most people thought that individuals should take responsibility to correct the problems. The vast majority favored such solutions as tighter parental supervision, warning labels on records, and voluntary self-restraints by entertainment companies. Only 27 per cent favored government censorship. At the same time, there was growing concern about the impact of television on children. Research has shown that by the time our children reach age 18, they have spent more time watching television than in school. The problem was that our television system was attuned to the marketplace. Children are treated as a market to be sold to advertisers at so much money per thousand eyeballs.

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A book has just been published to help parents to deal with their children’s naughty behavior at home. The author, Dr James Bruno, says that the first positive discipline technique is for parents to remain calm because nervous parents don’t get good results. Parents who cannot often remain calm find that their children stop taking any notice of them. The second challenge is to know how to correct bad behavior in an effective way. For instance, punishing children by preventing them from watching their favorite TV program is not an ideal solution. Dr Bruno believes parents should establish clear rules for children to follow. If children refuse to follow these, they know they will be disciplined. Finally, the most effective way of encouraging good behavior is to give positive feedback as often as possible, to show that it is not only naughtiness that attracts attention.

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Tea had a reputation for being both safe and almost always beneficial. However, scientists are now suggesting that tea may not be as safe as we had previously believed. Tea contains caffeine, and caffeine has been linked to sleeplessness and to the unpleasant jumpy feeling some people get when stressed. More seriously, there is a link between miscarriages, and pregnant women are advised to reduce their intake of tea until after their baby is born. Due to its critical side-effects, some people who like tea choose to be safer and drink a beverage from which the caffeine has been removed, decaffeinated tea, but many claim that it simply doesn’t taste right. The reasonable thing to do is probably moderation; continue to enjoy a cup of tea, but don’t have too many!

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Panda is the name for two nocturnal Asian mammals: the red panda and the giant panda. The red panda, also known as lesser panda and cat bear, is found at high elevations in the Himalayas. It resembles a raccoon but has a longer body and tail and a more rounded head. Its thick fur is rust color to deep chestnut, with black on the under parts, limbs, and ears. The red panda spends much of its time in trees but feeds on the ground, eating primarily bamboo leaves but also fruit and roots. The giant panda superficially resembles a bear. The body is chiefly white, and the limbs are brownish black, with the dark color extending up over the shoulder. The ears and eye patches are black. Giant pandas live in restricted areas of the high mountain bamboo forests of central China; their diet consists entirely of bamboo shoots. Rare in the wild, they produce young poorly when they are not in their natural environment. Giant pandas are protected by law in China.

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Stonehenge is an ancient monument situated about ten miles north of Salisbury in England. It was built about 4500 years ago, but by whom and for what purpose remains a mystery. The builders must have known of geometry. They may have been influenced by the Mycenaeans, whose architecture was similar. Some of the stones must have been brought from West Wales, over 135 miles away. These stones weigh more than fifty tons. They may have been brought on rafts and rollers. Experts say that it must have taken 1500 men more than five years to transport them. Stonehenge was probably built in three stages. First, settlers from continental Europe built a temple for sun worship. Later the «Beaker» people added the stone circles. Finally, people of the Wesse Culture transformed Stonehenge into an observatory. They could calculate the exact time of Midsummer and Midwinter and of equinoxes.

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In the 1920s, new technology allowed filmmakers to attach to each film a soundtrack of speech, music and sound effects synchronized with the action on the screen. These sound films were initially distinguished by calling them talking pictures, or talkies. The next major step in the development of cinema was the introduction of color. While the addition of sound to film revolutionized the medium, quickly driving out silent movies, color was adopted more gradually. The public was relatively indifferent to color photography as opposed to black-and-white. But as color processes improved and became as affordable as black-and-white film, more and more movies were filmed in color after the end of World War II, as the industry in America came to view color an essential to attracting audiences in its competition with television, which remained a black-and-white medium until the mid-60s. By the end of the 1960s, color had become the norm for filmmakers.

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An ultralight airplane is very different from a conventional airplane. It looks like a lawn chair with wings, weighs no more than 254 pounds, flies up to 60 miles an hour, and carries about 5 gallons of fuel. Most ultralights are sold as kits and take about 40 hours to assemble. Flying an ultralight airplane is so easy that a pilot with no experience can fly one. Accidents are rarely fatal or even serious because the ultralight lands so slowly and gently and carries very little fuel. Some models now have parachutes attached, while others have parachute packs which pilots can wear.

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The Great Hanshin earthquake, or the Kobe earthquake as it is more commonly known overseas, was an earthquake in Japan that measured 7.2 on the Japanese Scale. It occurred on January 17, 1995 at 5:46 am 52 seconds in the southern part of Hyogo Prefecture and lasted for approximately 20 seconds. The epicenter of the earthquake was on the northern end of Awaji Island, near the cosmopolitan city of Kobe with a population of 1.5 million. A total of 6,433 people, mainly in the city of Kobe, lost their lives. Additionally, it caused approximately ten trillion yen in damage. It is listed in the Guinness Book of Records as the costliest natural disaster. It was the worst .earthquake in Japan since the Great Kanto earthquake in 1923, which claimed 140,000 lives.

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