1.
Chinese name
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Chinese personal names are names used by those from mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan, and the Chinese diaspora overseas. Prior to the 20th century, educated Chinese also utilized a courtesy name or style name called zi by which they were known among those outside of their family and closest friends. From at least the time of the Shang dynasty, the Han Chinese observed a number of naming taboos regulating who may or may not use a given name. In general, using the given name connoted the speakers authority, peers and younger relatives were barred from speaking it. Owing to this, many historical Chinese figures – particularly emperors – used a half-dozen or more different names in different contexts and those possessing names identical to the emperors were frequently forced to change them. Although some terms in the ancient Chinese naming system, such as xìng and míng, are used today, they were used in different. Commoners possessed only a name, and the modern concept of a surname or family name did not yet exist at any level of society.3 billion citizens. In fact, just the top three – Wang, Li, and Zhang – cover more than 20% of the population. This homogeneity results from the majority of Han family names having only one character. Chinese surnames arose from two separate traditions, the xìng and the shì. The original xìng were clans of royalty at the Shang court, the shì did not originate from families, but denoted fiefs, states, and titles granted or recognized by the Shang court. Apart from the Jiang and Yao families, the original xìng have nearly disappeared, xìng is now used to describe the shì surnames which replaced them, while shì is used to refer to maiden names. The enormous modern clans sometimes share ancestral halls with one another, nonetheless, however tenuous these bonds sometimes are, it remains a minor taboo to marry someone with the same family name. In modern mainland China, it is the norm that a woman keeps her name unchanged. A child usually inherits his/her fathers surname, though the law explicitly states that a child may use either parents or the grandparents. It is also possible, though far less common, for a child to both parents surnames. In the older generations, it was common for a married woman to prepend her husbands surname to her own. This practice is now almost extinct in mainland China, though there are a few such as the name change of Gu Kailai, but survives in some Hong Kong, Macau
2.
Chinese surname
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Chinese surnames are used by Han Chinese and Sinicized ethnic groups in Mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau, Malaysia, Taiwan, Korea, Singapore, Vietnam and among overseas Chinese communities. In ancient times two types of surnames existed, namely xing or lineage names, and shi or clan names, Chinese family names are patrilineal, passed from father to children. Women do not normally change their surnames upon marriage, except in places with more Western influences such as Hong Kong, traditionally Chinese surnames have been exogamous. The colloquial expressions laobaixing and bǎixìng are used in Chinese to mean ordinary folks, prior to the Warring States period, only the ruling families and the aristocratic elite had surnames. Historically there was also a difference between clan names or xing and lineages names or shi, Xing were surnames held by the noble clans. They generally are composed of a nü radical which has taken by some as evidence they originated from matriarchal societies based on maternal lineages. Another hypothesis has been proposed by sinologist Léon Vandermeersch upon observation of the evolution of characters in oracular scripture from the Shang dynasty through the Zhou, the female radical seems to appear at the Zhou period next to Shang sinograms indicating an ethnic group or a tribe. This combination seems to designate specifically a female and could mean lady of such or such clan, prior to the Qin Dynasty China was largely a fengjian society. In this way, a nobleman would hold a shi and a xing, after the states of China were unified by Qin Shi Huang in 221 BC, surnames gradually spread to the lower classes and the difference between xing and shi blurred. Many shi surnames survive to the present day, according to Kiang Kang-Hu, there are 18 sources from which Chinese surnames may be derived, while others suggested at least 24. The following are some of the sources, Xing, These were usually reserved for the central lineage of the royal family. Of these xings, only Jiang and Yao have survived in their form to modern days as frequently occurring surnames. Royal decree by the Emperor, such as Kuang, state name, Many nobles and commoners took the name of their state, either to show their continuing allegiance or as a matter of national and ethnic identity. These are some of the most common Chinese surnames, name of a fief or place of origin, Fiefdoms were often granted to collateral branches of the aristocracy and it was natural as part of the process of sub-surnaming for their names to be used. An example is Di, Marquis of Ouyangting, whose descendants took the surname Ouyang, there are some two hundred examples of this identified, often of two-character surnames, but few have survived to the present. Names of an ancestor, Like the previous example, this was also a common origin with close to 500 or 600 examples,200 of which are two-character surnames, often an ancestors courtesy name would be used. For example, Yuan Taotu took the character of his grandfathers courtesy name Boyuan as his surname. Sometimes titles granted to ancestors could also be taken as surnames, seniority within the family, In ancient usage, the characters of meng, zhong, shu and ji were used to denote the first, second, third and fourth eldest sons in a family
3.
Queens
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Queens is the easternmost and largest in area of the five boroughs of New York City. Coterminous with Queens County since 1899, the borough of Queens is the second-largest in population, with a census-estimated 2,339,150 residents in 2015, approximately 48% of them foreign-born. Queens County also is the second-most populous county in the U. S. state of New York, behind the borough of Brooklyn. Queens is the fourth-most densely populated county among New York Citys boroughs, if each of New York Citys boroughs were an independent city, Queens also would be the nations fourth most populous city, after Los Angeles, Chicago, and Brooklyn. Queens is the most ethnically diverse area in the world. Queens was established in 1683 as one of the original 12 counties of New York and it was named after the Portuguese Princess Catherine of Braganza, Queen of England, Scotland, and Ireland. It became a borough of New York City in 1898, and from 1683 until 1899, Queens has the most diversified economy of the five boroughs of New York City It is home to JFK International Airport and LaGuardia Airport. These airports are among the busiest in the world, causing the airspace above Queens to be the most congested in the country, attractions in Queens include Flushing Meadows Park, Citi Field, the US Open tennis tournament, Kaufman Astoria Studios, Silvercup Studios, and Aqueduct Racetrack. European colonization brought Dutch and English settlers, as a part of the New Netherland colony, First settlements occurred in 1635 followed by early colonizations at Maspeth in 1642, and Vlissingen in 1643. Other early settlements included Newtown and Jamaica, however, these towns were mostly inhabited by English settlers from New England via eastern Long Island subject to Dutch law. After the capture of the colony by the English and its renaming as New York in 1664, the Flushing Remonstrance signed by colonists in 1657 is considered a precursor to the United States Constitutions provision on freedom of religion in the Bill of Rights. The signers protested the Dutch colonial authorities persecution of Quakers in what is today the borough of Queens, originally, Queens County included the adjacent area now comprising Nassau County. It was a county of New York State, one of twelve created on November 1,1683. The county was named after Catherine of Braganza, since she was queen of England at the time, the county was founded alongside Kings County, and Richmond County. On October 7,1691, all counties in the Colony of New York were redefined, Queens gained North Brother Island, South Brother Island, and Huletts Island. On December 3,1768, Queens gained other islands in Long Island Sound that were not already assigned to a county, Queens played a minor role in the American Revolution, as compared to Brooklyn, where the Battle of Long Island was largely fought. Queens, like the rest of Long Island, remained under British occupation after the Battle of Long Island in 1776 and was occupied throughout most of the rest of the Revolutionary War. Under the Quartering Act, British soldiers used, as barracks, even though many local people were against unannounced quartering, sentiment throughout the county remained in favor of the British crown
4.
New York City
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The City of New York, often called New York City or simply New York, is the most populous city in the United States. With an estimated 2015 population of 8,550,405 distributed over an area of about 302.6 square miles. Located at the tip of the state of New York. Home to the headquarters of the United Nations, New York is an important center for international diplomacy and has described as the cultural and financial capital of the world. Situated on one of the worlds largest natural harbors, New York City consists of five boroughs, the five boroughs – Brooklyn, Queens, Manhattan, The Bronx, and Staten Island – were consolidated into a single city in 1898. In 2013, the MSA produced a gross metropolitan product of nearly US$1.39 trillion, in 2012, the CSA generated a GMP of over US$1.55 trillion. NYCs MSA and CSA GDP are higher than all but 11 and 12 countries, New York City traces its origin to its 1624 founding in Lower Manhattan as a trading post by colonists of the Dutch Republic and was named New Amsterdam in 1626. The city and its surroundings came under English control in 1664 and were renamed New York after King Charles II of England granted the lands to his brother, New York served as the capital of the United States from 1785 until 1790. It has been the countrys largest city since 1790, the Statue of Liberty greeted millions of immigrants as they came to the Americas by ship in the late 19th and early 20th centuries and is a symbol of the United States and its democracy. In the 21st century, New York has emerged as a node of creativity and entrepreneurship, social tolerance. Several sources have ranked New York the most photographed city in the world, the names of many of the citys bridges, tapered skyscrapers, and parks are known around the world. Manhattans real estate market is among the most expensive in the world, Manhattans Chinatown incorporates the highest concentration of Chinese people in the Western Hemisphere, with multiple signature Chinatowns developing across the city. Providing continuous 24/7 service, the New York City Subway is one of the most extensive metro systems worldwide, with 472 stations in operation. Over 120 colleges and universities are located in New York City, including Columbia University, New York University, and Rockefeller University, during the Wisconsinan glaciation, the New York City region was situated at the edge of a large ice sheet over 1,000 feet in depth. The ice sheet scraped away large amounts of soil, leaving the bedrock that serves as the foundation for much of New York City today. Later on, movement of the ice sheet would contribute to the separation of what are now Long Island and Staten Island. The first documented visit by a European was in 1524 by Giovanni da Verrazzano, a Florentine explorer in the service of the French crown and he claimed the area for France and named it Nouvelle Angoulême. Heavy ice kept him from further exploration, and he returned to Spain in August and he proceeded to sail up what the Dutch would name the North River, named first by Hudson as the Mauritius after Maurice, Prince of Orange
5.
Stuyvesant High School
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Stuyvesant High School /ˈstaɪvəsənt/, commonly referred to as Stuy /ˈstaɪ/ or Stuyvesant, is one of nine specialized high schools in New York City, United States. Operated by the New York City Department of Education, these schools offer tuition-free accelerated academics to city residents, Stuyvesant is a college preparatory science, technology, engineering, and mathematics focused liberal arts high school. Admission to Stuyvesant involves passing the Specialized High Schools Admissions Test, each November, about 30,000 eighth and ninth graders take the 2 1⁄2-hour exam, and roughly 800 students, or 2. 7% of applicants, are accepted to Stuyvesant each year. Stuyvesant High School is named after Peter Stuyvesant, the last Dutch governor of New Netherland before the colony was transferred to England in 1664, the school was established in 1904 as a manual training school for boys, hosting 155 students and 12 teachers. In 1907, it moved from its location at 225 East 23rd Street to a building designed by C. B. J. Snyder at 345 East 15th Street. The building, built in 1905 for $1.5 million, the school became renowned for excellence in math and science, and enrollment continued to grow so that by 1919, admission began to be restricted based on scholastic achievement. Stuyvesant went on a double session plan in 1919 to accommodate the number of students, with some students attending in the morning and others in the afternoon. All students studied a full set of courses and these double sessions ran until 1956. The school implemented a system of entrance examinations starting in 1934, the examination program was later expanded to include the newly founded Bronx High School of Science, and was developed with the assistance of Columbia University. During the 1950s, the building underwent a $2 million renovation to update its classrooms, shops, libraries, in 1956, a team of six students designed and began construction of a cyclotron, and a low-power test of the device succeeded six years later. A later attempt at full-power operation, however, knocked out the power to the school, prior to 1969, Stuyvesant did not accept female students. That year,14 girls were admitted to Stuyvesant and 12 enrolled at the start of September, by 2002, female enrollment had grown to 42%. The act called for an exam to be administered for admission to Brooklyn Tech, Bronx Science. The school building, meanwhile, deteriorated over the years. S, during the 2003–4 school year, Stuyvesant celebrated the 100th anniversary of its founding with a full year of activities. Construction on the new ten-floor, $150 million building located in Lower Manhattan began in 1989, the new building was designed by Cooper, Robertson & Partners. When it opened in 1992, the building was New York Citys first new school building in ten years and. The new building is 0.5 miles from the site of the World Trade Center, the school was evacuated during the attack. Although the smoke coming from the World Trade Center engulfed the building at one point, there was no structural damage to the building
6.
Ling Woo
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Ling Woo is a fictional character in the US comedy-drama Ally McBeal, portrayed by Chinese-American actress Lucy Liu. A Mandarin-speaking Chinese-American lawyer, Ling has been described as cold and ferocious, at the time, she was the most famous and only significant representative of Asian women on US television. Thus, the portrayal of Ling Woo attracted much attention in the US. Ally McBeal is an American television series created by David E. Kelley which ran on the Fox network from 1997 to 2002, Ling Woo was a character written by Kelley specifically for actress Lucy Liu after she failed to secure the role of Nelle Porter in the show. Woo appeared for the first time in the season as a client suing a Howard Stern-like talk show host named Wick. She was suing because Wicks programs contributed to sexual harassment in her workplace, Wick claimed Woo brought suit because she had a slutty little Asian thing going, and Woo said that she wanted to sleep with Wick because if she did, she would kill him. The character proved to be a hit, and Liu was signed on as a regular for the series, Ling became a lawyer with the firm by pressuring Richard Fish, the firms senior partner, to hire her services as counsel. She remained a regular on the show until 2001, when her role was reduced to four episodes in the upcoming season, Lings employment history changes that season when the Governor of Massachusetts offers Ling a job as judge after Ling complimented her twin babies. Woo is a graduate of Cornell Law School where she was editor of the Law Review, Asian women are rarely given prominent roles on American television. In 1994 Margaret Cho had a brief prime-time show called All American Girl, when the show aired, there had not been another Asian-American-centered show or an Asian main character at the time the Ling character was created. Unlike the 1970s depictions of docile East Asian women on TV, Lings character was the opposite, but still a classic stereotype, that of the Dragon Lady. At the time, she was the only significant representative of Asian women on television in the United States and she remains the most memorable Asian TV character of the 1990s. Ling Woos character has described as the antithesis of Ally McBeals. For example, Woo is portrayed as evil, McBeal as good, Woo growls, at the same time, Woos verbal assaults present a fantasy of authority that appeals to even McBeal. Shes my hero, says McBeal, shes vicious, I disagree with almost everything she says, she treats me like dirt, Ling brings to mind the geisha, the unreadable Oriental, and the dragon lady. Describing her as fearsome, devouring, vicious, cool, and with an exotic sexuality, Georgia State University professor Greg Smith sees Woo as a stereotype of Asian women and her character was frequently used to examine matters related to gender definition and topics. Ling is the major character in Ally McBeal who does not have a story for the origin of her particular neurosis. She is exempt from the focus given to others in the series
7.
Ally McBeal
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Ally McBeal is an American legal comedy-drama television series, originally aired on Fox from September 8,1997 to May 20,2002. The series, set in the fictional Boston law firm Cage and Fish, on her first day Ally is horrified to find that she will be working alongside her ex-boyfriend Billy Thomas —whom she has never gotten over. To make things worse, Billy is now married to fellow lawyer Georgia, the triangle among the three forms the basis for the main plot for the shows first three seasons. For example, bitter divorce litigation of a client might provide a backdrop for Allys decision to break up with a boyfriend, legal arguments were also frequently used to explore multiple sides of various social issues. Cage & Fish, the law firm where most of the characters work, is depicted as a highly sexualized environment symbolized by its unisex restroom. The show used vivid, dramatic fantasy sequences for Allys and other characters wishful thinking, the series also featured regular visits to a local bar where singer Vonda Shepard regularly performed. Notes In Australia, Ally McBeal was aired by the Seven Network from 1997 to 2002, in 2010, it was aired repeatedly by Network Ten. Seymore Walsh, a stern judge often exasperated by the eccentricities of the Cage & Fish lawyers, whats unusual about this continuing storyline is that Ally McBeal and The Practice aired on different networks. Bobby Donnell, the character of The Practice played by Dylan McDermott, was featured heavily in both this crossover and another Ally McBeal episode, These are the Days. Regular Practice cast members Lara Flynn Boyle and Michael Badalucco each had a cameo in Ally McBeal, upon premiering in 1997, the show was an instant hit, averaging around 11 million viewers per episode. The shows second season saw an increase in ratings and soon became a top 20 show, however, Downeys character was written out after the end of the season due to the actors troubles with drug addiction. The first two seasons, as well as the fourth, remain the most critically acclaimed and saw the most awards success at the Emmys, SAG Awards, in 2007 Ally McBeal placed #48 on Entertainment Weeklys 2007 New TV Classics list. Ally McBeal was a heavily music-oriented show, Vonda Shepard, a virtually unknown musician at the time, was featured continually on the show. Her song Searchin My Soul became the theme song. Many of the songs Shepard performed were established hits with lyrics that paralleled the events of the episode, including Both Sides Now, Hooked on a Feeling and Tell Him. Besides recording background music for the show, Shepard frequently appeared at the ends of episodes as a performing at a local piano bar frequented by the main characters. On rare occasions, her character would have conventional dialogue, a portion of Searchin My Soul was played at the beginning of each episode, but remarkably the song was never played in its entirety. Several of the characters had a musical leitmotif that played when they appeared, two compilation albums from the show featuring Shepard were also released in 2000 and 2001
8.
Charlie's Angels (film)
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Charlies Angels is a 2000 American action comedy film based on the television series of the same name created by Ivan Goff and Ben Roberts. Unlike the original series, which had dramatic elements, the film featured more comical elements than were seen in the series, John Forsythe reprised his role as the unseen Charlies voice from the original series. Making cameo appearances are Tom Green and LL Cool J, a sequel, entitled Full Throttle, was released in 2003. Natalie Cook, Dylan Sanders and Alex Nuncy are the Angels, Charlie uses a speaker in his offices to communicate with the Angels, and his assistant Bosley works with them directly when needed. Charlie assigns the Angels to find Eric Knox, a genius who created a revolutionary voice-recognition system and heads his own company. Knox is believed to have been kidnapped by Roger Corwin, who runs a company called Redstar. The Angels infiltrate a party held by Corwin and spot the Creepy Thin Man who was seen on the surveillance videos during Knoxs kidnapping and they chase and fight the Creepy Thin Man. After the Angels reunite Knox with his business partner Vivian Wood, the Angels infiltrate Redstar headquarters, fool the security system, and plant a device in the central computer that will enable them to explore it remotely. They retire for the night after giving Bosley the laptop computer that communicates with the Redstar computer, Knox shoots at Dylan, seemingly killing her, but she escapes unharmed. Natalie and Alex are also attacked, and Corwin is murdered by the Creepy Thin Man, when the Angels regroup together, all uninjured, Charlies offices are blown up. With help from Dylans current boyfriend The Chad, the Angels approach the lighthouse where Knox is holding Bosley prisoner. Seeing the opportunity to finally meet Charlie in person, they enter the house that Knox had targeted the missile at. He remotely congratulates the Angels on a job well done through another speaker, Charlie tells them that Knoxs father was undercover, however, he was discovered and he was killed by someone else but not Charlie. When he speaks to the Angels unseen again by telephone on the beach, Dylan then suspects that she might be seeing him nearby talking into a cell phone, but she doesnt tell the group. Jones Alex Trebek as Himself Karen McDougal as Roger Corwins girlfriend Melissa McCarthy as Doris Released October 24,2000, Charlies Angels received generally positive reviews from critics, some action scenes, the humor of the film and the performances of Diaz and Murray were highly praised. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has a 67% Fresh rating based on 141 reviews, at Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from film critics, it has a rating score of 52, indicating mixed or average reviews. The moment you see Cameron Diaz flying in the air, and you know that she is incapable of flying in the air and you realize that it is done using wires. I mean, Charlies Angels was great, but it was almost satirical, Charlies Angels was released on both VHS and DVD on 27 March 2001
9.
O-Ren Ishii
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The following is a list of characters from the film Kill Bill. Written and directed by Quentin Tarantino, the film was released in two parts, Kill Bill, Volume 1 in 2003 and Kill Bill, Volume 2 in 2004. However, The Bride survived, but was put into a coma for four years as a result of the attack, upon finally awakening she plots her vengeance against the killers. The Bride, is the protagonist of the film and she abandons her life as a hired assassin for the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad upon realizing she is pregnant with Bills child, denying him the right of fatherhood to preserve her unborns future. This action provokes the attacks on her and her loved ones and its ensuing revenge and her code name while working for DVAS was Black Mamba. Bill is the main antagonist of the film and he is the founder and leader of the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad, to which The Bride formerly belonged, and also her former lover. Because the code names of the members are all referring to venomous snakes and he and the four remaining Deadly Vipers attempt to kill her after she learns she is carrying Bills child and leaves him without warning. Some time after the massacre, the squad has disbanded, when Bill finds out The Bride isnt dead but instead is getting married, he and the deadly vipers ascend on her at her rehearsal wedding. When Sofie Fatale is in care within a Tokyo hospital, Bill visits her, telling her that the Brides daughter is alive, and under his care. The Bride, after killing Vernita Green, Budd and blinding Elle, travels to Bills villa, finding out in while holding a pistol that her daughter is alive, and called B. B. After an evening with Bill and B. B, the Bride kills Bill with the Five-Point-Palm-Exploding-Heart-Technique, cottonmouth, is a half-Japanese, half-Chinese-American woman. An anime flashback showed her father in a U. S. Army uniform wearing the rank of sergeant major fighting the assassins. Though once a member of the Deadly Vipers, she became the head of the Tokyo Yakuza, with Bills help, and possessed her own bodyguard army. While sitting in a room apart from the guests, O-Ren hears a sound outside the room. She orders Gogo to take a look, however, Gogo finds nothing, during the battle, O-Ren mocks The Bride as a silly Caucasian girl who likes to play with samurai swords. After resuming their fight, O-Ren receives a wound and apologizes for her remark, The Bride accepts. O-Ren utters with her dying breath That really was a Hattori Hanzo sword, copperhead, is a member of the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad who took part in the massacre at the Two Pines Wedding Chapel. She is second on The Brides Death List Five, four years after the massacre, she is depicted living a normal life under the alias of Jeannie Bell
10.
Kill Bill
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Kill Bill is an American two-part martial arts film series, and the fourth film overall that was written and directed by Quentin Tarantino. The original four-hour cut, retitled Kill Bill, The Whole Bloody Affair, was screened at cinemas in 2011. Tarantino has discussed the possibility of a third Kill Bill film, Kill Bill, Volume 1 was released in theaters on October 10,2003. In the United States and Canada, Volume 1 was released in 3,102 theaters, Volume 1 was the widest theatrical release of Tarantinos career to date, and it was also his highest-grossing opening weekend to date. Outside the United States and Canada, Kill Bill, Volume 1 was released in 20 countries, by November 2,2003, it had made $31 million in the 20 countries. Kill Bill, Volume 1 grossed a total of $70 million in the United States and Canada, the film follows a character initially identified as The Bride, a former assassin seeking revenge on her ex-colleagues who massacred members of her wedding party and tried to kill her. Kill Bill, Volume 2 was released in theaters on April 16,2004, Volume 2s opening weekend gross was higher than Volume 1s, and the equivalent success confirmed the studios financial decision to split the film into two theatrical releases. Volume 2 attracted more female theatergoers than Volume 1, with 40% of the audience being female, outside of the United States and Canada, Volume 2 was released in 20 countries over the weekend of April 23,2004. It grossed an estimated $17.7 million and ranked first at the box office. Volume 2 grossed a total of $66.2 million in the United States and Canada, the film follows The Bride pursuing Bills brother Budd and confronting Elle Driver, a fellow student of Pai Mei. She eventually catches up with Bill himself, screenings of the complete film began on March 27,2011 at the New Beverly Cinema. This was verified to be the print that premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in 2003. The print shown at the New Beverly even retained the French subtitles necessary for screening an English-language film at the Cannes festival, Tarantino told Entertainment Weekly in April 2004, that he was planning a sequel, Oh yeah, initially I was thinking this would be my Dollars Trilogy. I was going to do a new one every ten years, but I need at least fifteen years before I do this again. Ive already got the whole mythology, Sofie Fatale will get all of Bills money, shell raise Nikki, wholl take on The Bride. Nikki deserves her revenge every bit as much as The Bride deserved hers, according to Bloody-Disgusting. com, details emerged around 2007 about two possible sequels, Kill Bill, Volumes 3 and 4. The article adds that the installment of the popular kung fu action films concerns a cycle of reprisals. At the 2006 Comic Con, Tarantino said that after the completion of Grindhouse, one will be an origin story about Bill and his mentors, and the other will be an origin starring The Bride
11.
Payback (1999 film)
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Payback is a 1999 American neo-noir crime film written and directed by Brian Helgeland in his directorial debut, and starring Mel Gibson, Gregg Henry, Maria Bello and David Paymer. In 2006 Helgeland issued a directors cut that differs substantially from the released by the studio. In a filthy kitchen of an underground abortionist, a former medical doctor puts on surgical gloves. Face down on the table is a barely conscious Porter. The doctor pours whiskey on Porters back to sterilize the area, Porter narrates that he had $70,000 taken from him and that is what he was going to get back. After Lynn shot Porter and the two left him for dead, Val rejoined the Outfit, a criminal organization, using $130,000 of the heist money to repay an outstanding debt. Porter is intent on reclaiming his $70,000 cut, Porter first tracks down and confronts his wife Lynn, who has at this point become a prostitute out of shame of shooting him. After seeing how low she has sunk into drugs and prostitution, Porter takes pity on Lynn and confines her to her bedroom, Porter enlists the help of a call girl, named Rosie, who is affiliated with the Outfit. Porter once served as her driver, during which time they had a one-night stand. Lynns jealousy and the fact that Porter had cheated on her with Rosie led to her, the sadistic Resnick is seeing a dominatrix named Pearl, who has connections of the Chinese triads, when Porter violently re-enters his life. Resnick goes to the Outfit to explain why Porter is demanding $70,000, told to handle it himself, Resnick tries to, but is shot and executed by Porter in Rosies apartment as Porter catches him abusing Rosie when Porter returns to collect his forgotten cigarettes. Porter then kills three of the Outfits hit squad henchmen, including their leader, Philip, who have been sent by Carter, their immediate superior with the Outfit, to Stitch this mutt up. That evening, Porter confronts Carter in his office and threatens to kill him if he refuses to pay his $70,000, Carter explains to Porter that he is only an underboss and is not authorized to make any financial decisions. Porter then makes Carter phone the top mob boss in the organization to take the issue with the top man, Porter hears the refusal of the top mob boss Bronson on the phone, so he carries out his threat and shoots Carter dead. With the aid of Rosie, he kidnaps Bronsons son Johnny and he arranges for Hicks and Leary to be busted by their own colleagues in Internal Affairs by planting Learys fingerprints on the gun Porter used to kill Resnick. He pick-pockets Hickss badge, then leaves it with the gun in the hand of Resnicks dead body, the next day, Bronson and his mob associate Fairfax join the hunt to take him down. Porter is captured by the Outfits men after a chain of events and a shootout involving Stegman, as well as Pearl and triads. Porter is locked inside a car trunk and taken by Bronson and his men to an apartment that had previously been rigged by the Outfits man, Philip, after his captors meet an explosive demise, Porter is picked up by Rosie
12.
Chicago (2002 film)
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Chicago is a 2002 American musical crime comedy film based on the musical of the same name, exploring the themes of celebrity, scandal, and corruption in Chicago during the Jazz Age. The film stars Catherine Zeta-Jones, Renée Zellweger and Richard Gere, Chicago centers on Velma Kelly and Roxie Hart, two murderesses who find themselves in jail together awaiting trial in 1920s Chicago. Velma, a vaudevillian, and Roxie, a housewife, fight for the fame that will keep them from the gallows. Directed and choreographed by Rob Marshall, and adapted by screenwriter Bill Condon, with music by John Kander and lyrics by Fred Ebb, Chicago won six Academy Awards in 2003, the film was critically lauded, and was the first musical to win Best Picture since Oliver. In 1924, Roxie Hart sees star Velma Kelly perform at a Chicago theater, wanting stardom for herself, she begins an affair with Fred Casely, who claims to know the manager. After the show, Velma is arrested for killing her husband Charlie and sister Veronica, a month later, Casely admits to Roxie that he has no showbiz connections and just wanted her body. She convinces her husband, Amos, to take the blame, as Amos confesses to the detective, Roxie fantasizes that she is singing a song devoted to her husband. However, when the detective brings up evidence that Roxie and Casely were having an affair, Amos recants, ambitious District Attorney Harrison announces he will seek the death penalty. At Cook County Jail, Roxie is sent to Murderess Row, Roxie meets her idol Velma, but her friendship is rudely rebuffed. She learns the backstories of the women there, including Velma Kelly. On Mortons advice, Roxie engages Velmas lawyer, the brilliant Billy Flynn, the press believe the story, praised by the public as a tragic heroine, Roxie becomes an overnight sensation. Meanwhile, Kitty Baxter, a heiress, is arrested for murdering her husband. To Velmas surprise, Roxie quickly steals back the fame by claiming to be pregnant. Amos is ignored by the press, and Flynn, to create sympathy for Roxie, convinces him that the child is Caselys. Roxie over-confidently fires Flynn, believing she can now win on her own, however, when Katalin Helinszki, a Hungarian woman from Murderess Row is hanged, she realizes the gravity of the situation and rehires Flynn. Roxies trial begins, and Billy turns it into a spectacle with the help of the sensationalist newspaper reporters. Billy discredits witnesses, manipulates evidence, and even stages a public reconciliation between Amos and Roxie when she says the child is his. The trial seems to be going Roxies way until Velma appears with Roxies diary, Billy discredits the diary, implying that Harrison was the one who planted the evidence
13.
Kung Fu Panda (franchise)
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The Kung Fu Panda franchise from DreamWorks Animation consists of three films, Kung Fu Panda, Kung Fu Panda 2 and Kung Fu Panda 3. The first two were distributed by Paramount Pictures, while the film was distributed by 20th Century Fox. Three shorts, Secrets of the Furious Five, Kung Fu Panda Holiday Special and Kung Fu Panda, a television series for Nickelodeon television network, Kung Fu Panda, Legends of Awesomeness, premiered in the fall of 2011. Although his status is initially doubted, Po proves himself worthy as he strives to fulfill his destiny and learn about his past with his new friends. Po, a clumsy, overweight panda, is a kung fu fanatic who lives in the Valley of Peace and works in his goose father Mr. Pings noodle shop, unable to realize his dream of learning kung fu. Everyone in the valley expects the Dragon Warrior to be one of the Furious Five—Tigress, Monkey, Mantis, Viper, to everyones surprise, Oogway chooses Po, who had accidentally stumbled into the tournament arena after arriving late. Refusing to believe that Po can be the Dragon Warrior, Shifu subjects Po to torturous training exercises in order to him into quitting. Determined to change himself into someone he himself can respect, Po perseveres in his training and befriends the Furious Five, who had previously mocked Po for his lack of skill in kung fu. Po soon learns that he must fight Tai Lung, a kung fu warrior who has escaped from prison to take revenge for being denied the Dragon Scroll. However, Shifu discovers that Po is capable of martial arts when motivated by food, after his training is complete, Po is given the Dragon Scroll, which he discovers to be blank. However, Po realizes that the key to limitless power lies within himself, allowing him to defeat Tai Lung, Po now lives his dream as a kung fu master and protects the Valley of Peace alongside the Furious Five. However, he is thrown into conflict when he begins having flashbacks of his mother. Shortly after, Po and the Five are sent on a mission to stop the evil peacock Lord Shen from using a newly developed weapon, Po achieves inner peace, which allows him to destroy Shens new weapon, defeat Shen, and accept Mr. Ping as his father. However, during the last scene of the movie it shows Pos biological father realizing his son is alive, while struggling with this new responsibility, Po rejoices upon reuniting with his biological father, Li. Po eventually discovers that Li had deceived him because the pandas had forgotten at all about how to manipulate the Chi and he just wanted to protect his son from Kai, much to Pos disappointment. Once making amends with his father, Po joins forces with the pandas to make a stand against Kai, mastering the power of Chi in the occasion, after returning to the Valley of Peace, Po spends his days spreading the teachings of Chi. DreamWorks Animation CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg has said that it is possible that perhaps the series will see three more sequels after Kung Fu Panda 3, bringing it to a six-film series. On January 13,2016, Collider asked the filmmakers of Kung Fu Panda 3 about the possibility of a fourth film, co-director Jennifer Yuh Nelson said, It’s one at a time
14.
Southland (TV series)
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Southland is an American television crime drama series created by writer Ann Biderman and produced by Warner Bros. It originally aired on NBC for one season from April 9 to May 21,2009, and then on TNT for four additional seasons from March 2,2010, to April 17,2013. On August 27,2009, shortly before its premiere, NBC moved the opening of its second season to October 23,2009. On October 8,2009, NBC announced that the series had been canceled, on November 2,2009, TNT announced it had purchased the rights to Southlands original seven episodes, as well as six completed episodes from its second season. Southland began airing on TNT on January 12,2010, on April 26,2010, TNT announced it had picked up Southland for a ten-episode third season to begin airing on January 4,2011. TNTs renewal of the show included a budget cut and corresponding cast reduction. Southland was renewed for a fourth season on March 22,2011. The series was renewed for a fifth season which began airing February 13,2013. On May 10,2013, TNT announced that Southland had been canceled after five seasons, Southland takes a raw and authentic look at Los Angeles and the lives of the LAPD officers who police it. The shows first season centers on the experiences and interactions of LAPD patrol officers and detectives, after its first season on NBC, Southland moved to TNT network. The second season placed less emphasis on the ensemble cast, instead focusing more on the Adams, Sherman, Cooper and Bryant characters, also, the weekly stories centered more on how crimes came together, with fewer serialized story lines. The series was created by Emmy Award-winning writer Ann Biderman, who began her writing career on the first season of police drama NYPD Blue. The series executive producers are Biderman, Christopher Chulack, and John Wells, Wells and Chulack, both also Emmy Award winners, had previously worked together on critically acclaimed medical drama ER and emergency services drama Third Watch. Many other crew members had worked with Wells and Chulack on these series. Wells and Biderman also write for the series and Chulack is a regular director, Biderman left her executive producer position after the second season but continued to write for the series third season. Ex-police officer Angela Amato Velez served as a producer and writer for the first season. Dee Johnson also served as a producer and writer for the first season, she had previously worked with Wells. Diana Son served as a producer and writer for the second season, she had previously worked on the crime drama Law & Order
15.
Dr. Watson
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John H. Watson, known as Dr. Watson, is a fictional character in the Sherlock Holmes stories by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and was the narrator in the original stories. Watson is Sherlock Holmess friend, assistant and sometime flatmate, and he is described as the typical Victorian-era gentleman, unlike the more eccentric Holmes. He is astute, although he can never match his friends deductive skills, Watson has been adapted in various films, television series, video games, comics, and radio programmes, retaining his role as Holmess friend and confidant. In Conan Doyles early rough plot outlines, Sherlock Holmess sidekick was named Ormond Sacker before Conan Doyle finally settled on John Watson and he was probably inspired by one of Doyles colleagues, Dr. James Watson. In the words of William L. De Andrea, Watson also serves the important function of catalyst for Holmess mental processes, any character who performs these functions in a mystery story has come to be known as a Watson. Dr. Watsons first name is mentioned on only four occasions, part one of the very first Sherlock Holmes story, A Study in Scarlet, is subtitled Being a reprint from the Reminiscences of John H. Watson, M. D. Late of the Army Medical Department, the preface of the collection His Last Bow is signed John H. Watson, M. D, and in The Problem of Thor Bridge, Watson says that his dispatch box is labelled John H. Watson, M. D. With his health ruined, he was given a daily pension of 11 shillings and 9 pence for nine months. In 1881, Watson is introduced by his friend Stamford to Sherlock Holmes, concluding that they are compatible, they subsequently move into the flat. When Watson notices multiple eccentric guests frequenting the flat, Holmes reveals that he is a consulting detective, Watson witnesses Holmess skills of deduction on their first case together, concerning a series of murders related to Mormon intrigue. When the case is solved, Watson is angered that Holmes is not given any credit for it by the press, when Holmes refuses to record and publish his account of the adventure, Watson endeavours to do so himself. In time, Holmes and Watson become close friends, in The Sign of the Four, John Watson becomes engaged to Mary Morstan, a governess. In The Adventure of the Blanched Soldier, Holmes mentions that Watson had at that time deserted me for a wife, at the beginning of A Study in Scarlet, Watson states he had neither kith nor kin in England. Holmes estimates the watch to have a value of 50 guineas, so H. Watson, Holmes deduced from the watch that Watsons brother was a man of untidy habits—very untidy and careless. He was left with good prospects but threw away his chances, lived for time in poverty with occasional short intervals of prosperity and finally. Throughout Doyles novels, Watson is presented as Holmess biographer and you should publish an account of the case. If you wont, I will for you, Holmes suavely responds, You may do what you like, Doctor. Therefore, the story is presented as a reprint from the reminiscences of John H. Watson, in the first chapter of The Sign of Four, Holmes comments on Watsons first effort as a biographer, I glanced over it
16.
Elementary (TV series)
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Elementary is an American procedural drama series that presents a contemporary update of Sir Arthur Conan Doyles character Sherlock Holmes. The series was created by Robert Doherty and stars Jonny Lee Miller as Sherlock Holmes, the series premiered on CBS on September 27,2012. The series is set and filmed primarily in New York City, the show follows Holmes, a recovering drug addict and former consultant to Scotland Yard, as he assists the New York City Police Department in solving crimes. His indifference to police procedure often leads to conflict with Captain Thomas Gregson and he is accompanied by Dr. Joan Watson, who initially acts as his sober companion. She is a surgeon and was hired by Sherlocks father to help him in his rehabilitation. They eventually begin to work together on his cases, and she becomes Holmes apprentice, the series also features Holmes ongoing conflict with his nemesis Jamie Moriarty. Other supporting roles include Jon Michael Hill as Detective Marcus Bell, Rhys Ifans as Sherlocks brother, Mycroft Holmes, before the series premiered, it was met with some criticism given it followed closely on the heels of the BBCs modern adaptation Sherlock. After the premiere, it was picked up for a full season, the season two premiere was partly filmed on location in London. The series has since been received by critics, who have praised the performances, writing. On March 25,2016, CBS renewed the series for a fifth season, formerly a successful surgeon until she lost a patient, Watson views her current job as another opportunity to help people. However, Sherlock is nothing like her previous clients and he informs her that none of her expertise as an addiction specialist applies to him and that he has devised his own post-rehab regimen – resuming his work as a police consultant in New York City. Watson has no choice but to accompany her new charge on his jobs. Over time, Sherlock finds her medical background helpful, and Watson realizes she has a talent for investigation. Sherlocks police contact, Captain Thomas Gregson, knows from previous experience working with Scotland Yard that Sherlock is brilliant at solving cases, the investigative group also includes Detective Marcus Bell, an investigator with sharp intuition and intimidating interrogation skills. Although initially skeptical of Holmes and his methods, Bell begins to recognize Sherlock as an asset to their investigations. Jonny Lee Miller as Sherlock Holmes, A former Scotland Yard consultant who now lives in New York City after completing drug rehabilitation there for addiction-related problems in the United Kingdom, Holmes is a deductive genius with a variety of unusual interests and enthusiasms that assist him in his investigations. Feeling that the more interesting cases are in America, he stays in New York. He contacts an old associate, Captain Thomas Gregson of the NYPD to resume his previous work as a consulting detective and he is forced by his father to live with Dr. Joan Watson, his sober companion who provides him with aftercare
17.
Disney Fairies
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Disney Fairies is a Disney franchise created in 2005. The franchise is built around the character of Tinker Bell from Walt Disneys 1953 animated film Peter Pan, the characters are referred to within stories as Neverland fairies. That was the beginning of fairies, the fairies generally reside in the Home Tree, a towering, massive tree located in the very heart of Pixie Hollow in Neverland. Various groups of work and live nearby as well. Most of the characters are young and female, but older, taller. The males are referred to as sparrow men, though the term fairies is used to refer to both female and male fairy characters. Blaze is a baby firefly that joins Tinker Bell on her quest to find the mystical Mirror of Incanta that grants only one of three wishes, bobble is a tinker-talent sparrowman and Clanks best friend. He is small, very slender, and hand-sized with red hair, bright eyes, pointy ears, fair skin and wears water drop goggles, a leafy sleeveless top. His real name is Phineas T. Kettletree, Esquire and he has a Scottish accent, bolt is one of the dust-talent sparrow men. Buck is a new animal sparrow man of Welsh descent and he is small, slender, and hand-sized with brown hair, green eyes, fair skin, and pointy ears and wears an orange sports shirt. Chloe is a new garden fairy of Thai descent and she is small, slender, and hand-sized with brown hair, brown eyes, fair skin, and pointy ears. She wears a pink dress and leggings. Clank is a tinker-talent sparrow man and he has black hair and dark brown eyes, fair skin, pointy ears and wears a leafy sleeveless top and shorts. He speaks with a Cockney accent, dewey is the Keeper of all fairy knowledge. He is small, portly, and hand-sized with white hair and mustache, aqua eyes, fair skin, and pointy ears and wears a coat, spectacles. Dr. Martin Griffiths is a British insect scientist and Lizzys father and he is slender with fair skin, brown hair and eyes. He wears a green vest, a shirt, and a black bowtie. He is the main antagonist of the third film, elizabeth “Lizzy” Griffiths is a pretty 9-year-old British girl and the scientists daughter
18.
Tinker Bell (film series)
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Tinker Bell is a computer animated fantasy film series produced by DisneyToon Studios as part of the Disney Fairies franchise. Voices of Mae Whitman, Raven-Symoné, Lucy Liu, America Ferrera, Kristin Chenoweth, a fifth title, Pixie Hollow Games, was supposed to be based on all four seasons, but it was released before Secret of the Wings and scaled down. A sixth film, titled The Pirate Fairy, was released April 1,2014, followed by the release of a seventh film Tinker Bell, the series is a spin-off of and prequel to Peter Pan and its sequel, Return to Never Land. Tinker Bell is born from the first laugh of a baby and she learns that her talent is to be one of the tinkers, the fairies who make and fix things. Two other tinker fairies, Bobble and Clank, teach her their craft, Tink is thrilled and cant wait to go to the mainland for spring. While out working, she meets Silvermist, a fairy, Rosetta, a garden fairy, Iridessa, a light fairy, and Fawn. After meeting them, she notices Vidia, a fairy who immediately dislikes her because of her unusually strong talent. Vidia challenges her to prove shell be able to go to the mainland, and Tink creates several inventions, but Tinker Bell soon learns from Queen Clarion that only nature-talent fairies visit the mainland. She tries her hand at nature skills—making dewdrops with Silvermist, lighting fireflies with Iridessa, meanwhile, Bobble and Clank cover for Tink when questioned by Fairy Mary, the tinker fairy overseer. When Tinker Bell returns, she tries to explain, but Mary simply responds that she knows, on the beach, Tinker Bell finds parts of a music box and figures out how to put them together. But Tinker Bell still wants to go to the mainland and she asks Rosetta if shell still teach her to be a garden fairy, but Rosetta says that tinkering is Tinker Bells talent. As a last resort, Tinker Bell asks Vidia for help in becoming a garden fairy, Vidia craftily tells her that capturing the sprinting thistles would prove her worth. However, once she sees Tink making progress, she lets the captured thistles loose, Tink decides to leave, but after talking with the dust-keeper Terence about how important his job is, she realizes the importance of a tinker. Tinker Bell redeems herself by inventing machines that quicken the process of decorating flowers, ladybugs and this allows the other fairies to get back on schedule, thus saving the arrival of spring. Vidia is punished for prompting her to cause the chaos, Tinker Bell is given the task of delivering the music box to its original owner. The narrator ends by saying that when lost toys are found or a broken clock starts to work, the fairies are getting ready for the season of leaves, Halloween, Thanksgiving, and pumpkins, autumn. Every eight years they create a new fall scepter to hold a precious moonstone and this moonstone will create blue pixie dust that will restore the Pixie Dust Tree. It is the tinker fairies turn to create the new scepter, Tinker Bell gets her friend Terrence to help with the scepter project, but she has trouble coping with Terence because he tries too hard to be helpful
19.
Traditional Chinese characters
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Traditional Chinese characters are Chinese characters in any character set that does not contain newly created characters or character substitutions performed after 1946. They are most commonly the characters in the character sets of Taiwan, of Hong Kong. Currently, a number of overseas Chinese online newspapers allow users to switch between both sets. In contrast, simplified Chinese characters are used in mainland China, Singapore, the debate on traditional and simplified Chinese characters has been a long-running issue among Chinese communities. Although simplified characters are taught and endorsed by the government of Mainland China, Traditional characters are used informally in regions in China primarily in handwriting and also used for inscriptions and religious text. They are often retained in logos or graphics to evoke yesteryear, nonetheless, the vast majority of media and communications in China is dominated by simplified characters. Taiwan has never adopted Simplified Chinese characters since it is ruled by the Republic of China, the use of simplified characters in official documents is even prohibited by the government in Taiwan. Simplified characters are not well understood in general, although some stroke simplifications that have incorporated into Simplified Chinese are in common use in handwriting. For example, while the name of Taiwan is written as 臺灣, similarly, in Hong Kong and Macau, Traditional Chinese has been the legal written form since colonial times. In recent years, because of the influx of mainland Chinese tourists, today, even government websites use simplified Chinese, as they answer to the Beijing government. This has led to concerns by residents to protect their local heritage. In Southeast Asia, the Chinese Filipino community continues to be one of the most conservative regarding simplification, while major public universities are teaching simplified characters, many well-established Chinese schools still use traditional characters. Publications like the Chinese Commercial News, World News, and United Daily News still use traditional characters, on the other hand, the Philippine Chinese Daily uses simplified. Aside from local newspapers, magazines from Hong Kong, such as the Yazhou Zhoukan, are found in some bookstores. In case of film or television subtitles on DVD, the Chinese dub that is used in Philippines is the same as the one used in Taiwan and this is because the DVDs belongs to DVD Region Code 3. Hence, most of the subtitles are in Traditional Characters, overseas Chinese in the United States have long used traditional characters. A major influx of Chinese immigrants to the United States occurred during the half of the 19th century. Therefore, the majority of Chinese language signage in the United States, including street signs, Traditional Chinese characters are called several different names within the Chinese-speaking world
20.
Simplified Chinese characters
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Simplified Chinese characters are standardized Chinese characters prescribed in the Table of General Standard Chinese Characters for use in mainland China. Along with traditional Chinese characters, it is one of the two character sets of the contemporary Chinese written language. The government of the Peoples Republic of China in mainland China has promoted them for use in printing since the 1950s and 1960s in an attempt to increase literacy and they are officially used in the Peoples Republic of China and Singapore. Traditional Chinese characters are used in Hong Kong, Macau. Overseas Chinese communities generally tend to use traditional characters, Simplified Chinese characters may be referred to by their official name above or colloquially. Strictly, the latter refers to simplifications of character structure or body, character forms that have existed for thousands of years alongside regular, Simplified character forms were created by decreasing the number of strokes and simplifying the forms of a sizable proportion of traditional Chinese characters. Some simplifications were based on popular cursive forms embodying graphic or phonetic simplifications of the traditional forms, some characters were simplified by applying regular rules, for example, by replacing all occurrences of a certain component with a simplified version of the component. Variant characters with the pronunciation and identical meaning were reduced to a single standardized character. Finally, many characters were left untouched by simplification, and are identical between the traditional and simplified Chinese orthographies. Some simplified characters are very dissimilar to and unpredictably different from traditional characters and this often leads opponents not well-versed in the method of simplification to conclude that the overall process of character simplification is also arbitrary. In reality, the methods and rules of simplification are few, on the other hand, proponents of simplification often flaunt a few choice simplified characters as ingenious inventions, when in fact these have existed for hundreds of years as ancient variants. However, the Chinese government never officially dropped its goal of further simplification in the future, in August 2009, the PRC began collecting public comments for a modified list of simplified characters. The new Table of General Standard Chinese Characters consisting of 8,105 characters was promulgated by the State Council of the Peoples Republic of China on June 5,2013, cursive written text almost always includes character simplification. Simplified forms used in print have always existed, they date back to as early as the Qin dynasty, One of the earliest proponents of character simplification was Lubi Kui, who proposed in 1909 that simplified characters should be used in education. In the years following the May Fourth Movement in 1919, many anti-imperialist Chinese intellectuals sought ways to modernise China, Traditional culture and values such as Confucianism were challenged. Soon, people in the Movement started to cite the traditional Chinese writing system as an obstacle in modernising China and it was suggested that the Chinese writing system should be either simplified or completely abolished. Fu Sinian, a leader of the May Fourth Movement, called Chinese characters the writing of ox-demons, lu Xun, a renowned Chinese author in the 20th century, stated that, If Chinese characters are not destroyed, then China will die. Recent commentators have claimed that Chinese characters were blamed for the problems in China during that time
21.
Standard Chinese
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Its pronunciation is based on the Beijing dialect, its vocabulary on the Mandarin dialects, and its grammar is based on written vernacular Chinese. Like other varieties of Chinese, Standard Chinese is a language with topic-prominent organization. It has more initial consonants but fewer vowels, final consonants, Standard Chinese is an analytic language, though with many compound words. There exist two standardised forms of the language, namely Putonghua in Mainland China and Guoyu in Taiwan, aside from a number of differences in pronunciation and vocabulary, Putonghua is written using simplified Chinese characters, while Guoyu is written using traditional Chinese characters. There are many characters that are identical between the two systems, in English, the governments of China and Hong Kong use Putonghua, Putonghua Chinese, Mandarin Chinese, and Mandarin, while those of Taiwan, Singapore, and Malaysia, use Mandarin. The name Putonghua also has a long, albeit unofficial, history and it was used as early as 1906 in writings by Zhu Wenxiong to differentiate a modern, standard Chinese from classical Chinese and other varieties of Chinese. For some linguists of the early 20th century, the Putonghua, or common tongue/speech, was different from the Guoyu. The former was a prestige variety, while the latter was the legal standard. Based on common understandings of the time, the two were, in fact, different, Guoyu was understood as formal vernacular Chinese, which is close to classical Chinese. By contrast, Putonghua was called the speech of the modern man. The use of the term Putonghua by left-leaning intellectuals such as Qu Qiubai, prior to this, the government used both terms interchangeably. In Taiwan, Guoyu continues to be the term for Standard Chinese. The term Putonghua, on the contrary, implies nothing more than the notion of a lingua franca, Huayu, or language of the Chinese nation, originally simply meant Chinese language, and was used in overseas communities to contrast Chinese with foreign languages. Over time, the desire to standardise the variety of Chinese spoken in these communities led to the adoption of the name Huayu to refer to Mandarin and it also incorporates the notion that Mandarin is usually not the national or common language of the areas in which overseas Chinese live. The term Mandarin is a translation of Guānhuà, which referred to the lingua franca of the late Chinese empire, in English, Mandarin may refer to the standard language, the dialect group as a whole, or to historic forms such as the late Imperial lingua franca. The name Modern Standard Mandarin is sometimes used by linguists who wish to distinguish the current state of the language from other northern. Chinese has long had considerable variation, hence prestige dialects have always existed. Confucius, for example, used yǎyán rather than colloquial regional dialects, rime books, which were written since the Northern and Southern dynasties, may also have reflected one or more systems of standard pronunciation during those times
22.
Pinyin
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Pinyin, or Hànyǔ Pīnyīn, is the official romanization system for Standard Chinese in mainland China, Malaysia, Singapore, and Taiwan. It is often used to teach Standard Chinese, which is written using Chinese characters. The system includes four diacritics denoting tones, Pinyin without tone marks is used to spell Chinese names and words in languages written with the Latin alphabet, and also in certain computer input methods to enter Chinese characters. The pinyin system was developed in the 1950s by many linguists, including Zhou Youguang and it was published by the Chinese government in 1958 and revised several times. The International Organization for Standardization adopted pinyin as a standard in 1982. The system was adopted as the standard in Taiwan in 2009. The word Hànyǔ means the language of the Han people. In 1605, the Jesuit missionary Matteo Ricci published Xizi Qiji in Beijing and this was the first book to use the Roman alphabet to write the Chinese language. Twenty years later, another Jesuit in China, Nicolas Trigault, neither book had much immediate impact on the way in which Chinese thought about their writing system, and the romanizations they described were intended more for Westerners than for the Chinese. One of the earliest Chinese thinkers to relate Western alphabets to Chinese was late Ming to early Qing Dynasty scholar-official, the first late Qing reformer to propose that China adopt a system of spelling was Song Shu. A student of the great scholars Yu Yue and Zhang Taiyan, Song had been to Japan and observed the effect of the kana syllabaries. This galvanized him into activity on a number of fronts, one of the most important being reform of the script, while Song did not himself actually create a system for spelling Sinitic languages, his discussion proved fertile and led to a proliferation of schemes for phonetic scripts. The Wade–Giles system was produced by Thomas Wade in 1859, and it was popular and used in English-language publications outside China until 1979. This Sin Wenz or New Writing was much more sophisticated than earlier alphabets. In 1940, several members attended a Border Region Sin Wenz Society convention. Mao Zedong and Zhu De, head of the army, both contributed their calligraphy for the masthead of the Sin Wenz Societys new journal. Outside the CCP, other prominent supporters included Sun Yat-sens son, Sun Fo, Cai Yuanpei, the countrys most prestigious educator, Tao Xingzhi, an educational reformer. Over thirty journals soon appeared written in Sin Wenz, plus large numbers of translations, biographies, some contemporary Chinese literature, and a spectrum of textbooks
23.
Voice acting
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Voice acting is the art of doing voice-overs or providing voices to represent a character or to provide information to an audience or user. Voice acting is also done for small handheld audio games, performers are called voice actors or actresses, voice artists, or voice talent. Their roles may also involve singing, although a voice actor is sometimes cast as the characters singing voice. Voice acting is recognised in Britain as a specialized dramatic profession, Voice artists are also used to record the individual sample fragments played back by a computer in an automated announcement. The voices for animated characters are provided by voice actors, for live action productions, voice acting often involves reading the parts of computer programs, radio dispatchers, or other characters who never actually appear on screen. With a radio drama or CD drama, there is freedom in voice acting, because there is no need to match a dub to the original actors. In the context of voice acting, narration is the use of commentary to convey a story to an audience. A narrator is a character or a non-personal voice that the creator of the story develops to deliver information to the audience. The voice actor who plays the narrator is responsible for performing the lines assigned to the narrator. In traditional literary narratives, narration is a story element, in other types of narratives, such as plays, television shows, video games. One of the most common uses for voice acting is within commercial advertising, the voice actor is hired to voice a message associated with the advertisement. This has different subgenres, television, radio, cinema, the subgenres are all different styles in their own right. Voiceover used in commercial adverts also is the area of voice acting where de-breathing is used. De-breathing means artificially removing breaths from the recorded voice and this is done to stop the audience being distracted in any way from the commercial message that is being put across. Dub localization is a type of voice-over and it is the practice of voice-over translation altering a foreign language film, art film or television series by voice actors. Voice-over translation is an audiovisual translation technique, in which, unlike in Dub localization, actor voices are recorded over the audio track. This method of translation is most often used in documentaries and news reports to translate words of foreign-language interviewees, automated dialogue replacement is the process of re-recording dialogue by the original actor after the filming process to improve audio quality or reflect dialogue changes. ADR is also used to change original lines recorded on set to clarify context, improve diction or timing, in the UK, it is also called post-synchronization or post-sync
24.
American Broadcasting Company
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The network is headquartered on Columbus Avenue and West 66th Street in Manhattan, New York City. There are additional offices and production facilities elsewhere in New York City, as well as in Los Angeles and Burbank. Since 2007, when ABC Radio was sold to Citadel Broadcasting, ABC originally launched on October 12,1943, as a radio network, separated from and serving as the successor to the NBC Blue Network, which had been purchased by Edward J. Noble. It extended its operations to television in 1948, following in the footsteps of established broadcast networks CBS, in the mid-1950s, ABC merged with United Paramount Theatres, a chain of movie theaters that formerly operated as a subsidiary of Paramount Pictures. Leonard Goldenson, who had been the head of UPT, made the new television network profitable by helping develop, in 1996, most of Capital Cities/ABCs assets were purchased by The Walt Disney Company. The television network has eight owned-and-operated and over 232 affiliated television stations throughout the United States, most Canadians have access to at least one U. S. ABC News provides news and features content for radio stations owned by Citadel Broadcasting. In the 1930s, radio in the United States was dominated by three companies, the Columbia Broadcasting System, the Mutual Broadcasting System and the National Broadcasting Company. The last was owned by electronics manufacturer Radio Corporation of America, in 1938, the FCC began a series of investigations into the practices of radio networks and published its report on the broadcasting of network radio programs in 1940. The report recommended that RCA give up control of either NBC Red or NBC Blue, at that time, the NBC Red Network was the principal radio network in the United States and, according to the FCC, RCA was using NBC Blue to eliminate any hint of competition. Once Mutuals appeals against the FCC were rejected, RCA decided to sell NBC Blue in 1941, the newly separated NBC Red and NBC Blue divided their respective corporate assets. Investment firm Dillon, Read & Co. offered $7.5 million to purchase the network, Edward John Noble, the owner of Life Savers candy, drugstore chain Rexall and New York City radio station WMCA, purchased the network for $8 million. Due to FCC ownership rules, the transaction, which was to include the purchase of three RCA stations by Noble, would require him to resell his station with the FCCs approval, the Commission authorized the transaction on October 12,1943. Soon afterward, the Blue Network was purchased by the new company Noble founded, Noble subsequently acquired the rights to the American Broadcasting Company name from George B. Meanwhile, in August 1944, the West Coast division of the Blue Network, both stations were then managed by Don Searle, the vice-president of the Blue Networks West Coast division. The ABC Radio Network created its audience slowly, the network also became known for such suspenseful dramas as Sherlock Holmes, Gang Busters and Counterspy, as well as several mid-afternoon youth-oriented programs. S. From Nazi Germany after its conquest, to pre-record its programming, while its radio network was undergoing reconstruction, ABC found it difficult to avoid falling behind on the new medium of television. To ensure a space, in 1947, ABC submitted five applications for television station licenses, the ABC television network made its debut on April 19,1948, with WFIL-TV in Philadelphia becoming its first primary affiliate
25.
Asian Americans
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Asian Americans are Americans of Asian descent. The term refers to a group that includes diverse populations who have ancestral origins in East Asia, Southeast Asia, or South Asia. This includes people who indicate their race on the census as Asian or reported entries such as Asian Indian, Chinese, Filipino, Korean, Japanese, Vietnamese, and Other Asian. Asian Americans with no other ancestry comprise 4. 8% of the U. S. population, although migrants from Asia have been in parts of the contemporary United States since the 17th century, large-scale immigration did not begin until the mid-18th century. Nativist immigration laws during the 1880s-1920s excluded various Asian groups, eventually prohibiting almost all Asian immigration to the continental United States, after immigration laws were reformed during the 1940s-60s, abolishing national origins quotas, Asian immigration increased rapidly. Analyses of the 2010 census have shown that Asian Americans are the fastest growing racial or ethnic minority in the United States, starting in the first few years of the 2000 decade, Asian American earnings began exceeding all other racial groups for both men and women. For example, in 2008 Asian Americans had the highest median household income overall of any racial demographic, in 2012, Asian Americans had the highest educational attainment level and median household income of any racial demographic in the country. In 2015, Asian American men were the highest earning racial group as they earned 117% as much as white American men, once country of birth and other demographic factors are taken into account, Asian Americans are no more likely than non-Hispanic whites to live in poverty. As with other racial and ethnicity based terms, formal and common usage have changed markedly through the history of this term. Prior to the late 1960s, people of Asian ancestry were referred to as Oriental, Asiatic. Today, Asian American is the term for most formal purposes, such as government and academic research. The most commonly used definition of Asian American is the US Census Bureau definition, which all people with origins in the Far East, Southeast Asia. This is chiefly because the census definitions determine many government classifications, notably for equal opportunity programs, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, Asian person in the United States is sometimes thought of as a person of East Asian descent. In vernacular usage, Asian is often used to refer to those of East Asian descent or anyone else of Asian descent with epicanthic eyefolds. This differs from the U. S. Census definition and the Asian American Studies departments in many universities consider all those of East, before 1980, Census forms listed particular Asian ancestries as separate groups, along with white and black or negro. Asian Americans had also been classified as other, in 1977, the federal Office of Management and Budget issued a directive requiring government agencies to maintain statistics on racial groups, including on Asian or Pacific Islander. The 1980 census marked the first classification of Asians as a large group, by the 1990 census, Asian or Pacific Islander was included as an explicit category, although respondents had to select one particular ancestry as a subcategory. The 2000 census onwards separated the category into two separate ones, Asian American and Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander, the definition of Asian American has variations that derive from the use of the word American in different contexts
26.
TNT (U.S. TV network)
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TNT is an American basic cable and satellite television channel that is owned by the Turner Broadcasting System division of Time Warner. As of July 2015, TNT is available to approximately 94.259 million cable, satellite and telco households in the United States. The channel launched at 8 p. m. Eastern Time on October 3,1988 with a performance of The Star Spangled Banner. Its inaugural telecast was the 1939 classic film Gone with the Wind and it was said that the movie was chosen as the channels first program because it was Turners favorite movie. It would also serve as the first program aired on sister channel Turner Classic Movies, incidentally, Gone With the Wind had its premiere held in Atlanta, Georgia, Turners hometown and the headquarters of the channels corporate parent, Turner Broadcasting System. The city served as the setting for the film, TNT was initially a vehicle for older movies and television shows, but slowly began to add original programming and newer reruns. At one point, Monday Nitro was regularly the highest-rated weekly program on cable television, the program beat Monday Night Raw, the flagship show of the World Wrestling Federation, in the ratings for 83 consecutive weeks from 1996 to 1998. The channel was known for its late night programming. One such program was MonsterVision, a Saturday night B movie showcase that aired from 1993 to 2000 It featured a Godzilla movie marathon at the end of every month. This running joke culminated in a Friday the 13th all-night Halloween marathon in 1998, the Rudy and Gogo World Famous Cartoon Show, which ran from 1995 to 1997, was an original childrens program on the channel featuring classic Warner Bros. MGM, and Popeye shorts, hosted by a pair of a marionette. In 1998, TNT dropped all of its cartoons, relegating those shows to Cartoon Network. Most of the series and shorts that were dropped would also serve as the core of Boomerang. During the 1990s, TNT scheduled an afternoon block that included Due South, Kung Fu, The Legend Continues, Lois & Clark, The New Adventures of Superman. In 1998, TNT took over production of the fifth and final season of Babylon 5 from the Prime Time Entertainment Network after the syndication block ceased operations. The following year, TNT produced the Babylon 5 spinoff series Crusade, in 2001, TNT debuted what became its most successful original series at the time, Witchblade, which ran for two seasons, ending in 2002. On June 12,2001, TNT underwent a rebrand, with the introduction of a new logo designed by Trollbäck + Company as well as a new slogan. The slogan emphasized the new focus on dramatic programming, including sports and off-network syndicated dramas such as Law & Order, NYPD Blue, ER
27.
Sherlock Holmes
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Sherlock Holmes is a fictional private detective created by British author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. All but one are set in the Victorian or Edwardian periods, though not the first fictional detective, Sherlock Holmes is arguably the most well-known, with Guinness World Records listing him as the most portrayed movie character in history. Auguste Dupin is generally acknowledged as the first detective in fiction and served as the prototype for many that were created later, Conan Doyle once wrote, Each is a root from which a whole literature has developed. Where was the story until Poe breathed the breath of life into it. Conan Doyle repeatedly said that Holmes was inspired by the figure of Joseph Bell, a surgeon at the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh. Like Holmes, Bell was noted for drawing conclusions from minute observations. However, he wrote to Doyle, You are yourself Sherlock Holmes. Sir Henry Littlejohn, Chair of Medical Jurisprudence at the University of Edinburgh Medical School, is cited as an inspiration for Holmes. Littlejohn, who was also Police Surgeon and Medical Officer of Health in Edinburgh, One is thought to be Francis Tanky Smith, a policeman and master of disguise who went on to become Leicesters first private detective. Another might be Maximilien Heller, by French author Henry Cauvain and it is not known if Conan Doyle read Maximilien Heller, but in this 1871 novel, Henry Cauvain imagined a depressed, anti-social, polymath, cat-loving, and opium-smoking Paris-based detective. Details about Sherlock Holmess life, except for the adventures in the books, are scarce in Conan Doyles original stories, nevertheless, mentions of his early life and extended family paint a loose biographical picture of the detective. An estimate of Holmess age in His Last Bow places his year of birth at 1854 and his parents are not mentioned in the stories, although Holmes mentions that his ancestors were country squires. In The Adventure of the Greek Interpreter, he claims that his grandmother was sister to the French artist Vernet, without clarifying whether this was Claude Joseph, Carle. Mycroft has a civil service position as a kind of human database for all aspects of government policy. He lacks Sherlocks interest in investigation, however, preferring to spend his time at the Diogenes Club. Holmes says that he first developed his methods of deduction as an undergraduate, his earliest cases, the two take lodgings at 221B Baker Street, London, an apartment at the upper end of the street, up seventeen steps. Holmes worked as a detective for twenty-three years, with physician John Watson assisting him for seventeen and they were roommates before Watsons 1887 marriage and again after his wifes death. Their residence is maintained by their landlady, Mrs. Hudson, most of the stories are frame narratives, written from Watsons point of view as summaries of the detectives most interesting cases
28.
Crime film
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Crime films are a genre of film that focus on crime. The stylistic approach to a crime film varies from realistic portrayals of real-life criminal figures, films dealing with crime and its detection are often based on plays rather than novels. Agatha Christies stage play Witness for the Prosecution was adapted for the big screen by director Billy Wilder in 1957, the film starred Marlene Dietrich and Charles Laughton and is a classic example of a courtroom drama. In a courtroom drama, a charge is brought against one of the main characters, another major part is played by the lawyer representing the defendant in court and battling with the public prosecutor. He or she may enlist the services of an investigator to find out what really happened. However, in most cases it is not clear at all whether the accused is guilty of the crime or not—this is how suspense is created. Often, the private investigator storms into the courtroom at the very last minute in order to bring a new and this type of literature lends itself to the literary genre of drama focused more on dialogue and little or no necessity for a shift in scenery. The auditorium of the theatre becomes an extension of the courtroom, in Witness for the Prosecution, Leonard Vole, a young American living in England, is accused of murdering a middle-aged lady he met in the street while shopping. His wife hires the best lawyer available because she is convinced, or rather she knows, another classic courtroom drama is U. S. playwright Reginald Roses Twelve Angry Men, which is set in the jury deliberation room of a New York Court of Law. Eleven members of the jury, aiming at a verdict of guilty. The popularity of TV brought about the emergence of TV series featuring detectives, investigators, special agents, lawyers, in Britain, The Avengers about the adventures of gentleman agent John Steed and his partner, Emma Peel, achieved cult status. In Germany, Derrick became a household word, breaking Bad character Walter White is a methamphetamine drug manufacturer, this offered a different approach whereby the protagonist is the criminal instead of being the detective. Crime films may fall under several different subgenres and these include, Crime comedy - A hybrid of crime and comedy films. Mafia comedy looks at organized crime from a comical standpoint, humor comes from the incompetence of the criminals and/or black comedy. Examples include Analyze This, The Pope of Greenwich Village, Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, In Bruges, tower Heist and Pain & Gain. Crime drama - A combination of crime and dramatic films, examples include such films as Straight Time and Badlands. Crime thriller - A thriller in which the characters are involved in crime, either in its investigation, as the perpetrator or, less commonly. While some action films could be labelled as such for merely having criminality and thrills, the emphasis in this genre is the drama, examples include Untraceable, Silence of the Lambs, Heat, Seven, Witness, Memories of Murder, The Call, and Running Scared
29.
The Walt Disney Company
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The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney, is an American diversified multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate, headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios in Burbank, California. It is the second largest media conglomerate in terms of revenue. Disney was founded on October 16,1923 – by brothers Walt Disney, the company also operated under the names The Walt Disney Studio and then Walt Disney Productions. Taking on its current name in 1986, it expanded its operations and also started divisions focused upon theater, radio, music, publishing. In addition, Disney has since created corporate divisions in order to more mature content than is typically associated with its flagship family-oriented brands. The company is best known for the products of its studio, Walt Disney Studios. Disneys other three divisions are Walt Disney Parks and Resorts, Disney Media Networks, and Disney Consumer Products. The company has been a component of the Dow Jones Industrial Average since May 6,1991, Mickey Mouse, an early and well-known cartoon creation of the company, is a primary symbol and mascot for Disney. In early 1923, Kansas City, Missouri, animator Walt Disney created a film entitled Alices Wonderland. After the bankruptcy in 1923 of his previous firm, Laugh-O-Gram Studios, Disney moved to Hollywood to join his brother, Walt and Roy Disney formed Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio that same year. More animated films followed after Alice, in January 1926, with the completion of the Disney studio on Hyperion Street, the Disney Brothers Studios name was changed to the Walt Disney Studio. The distributor owned Oswald, so Disney only made a few hundred dollars, Disney completed 26 Oswald shorts before losing the contract in February 1928, due to a legal loophole, when Winklers husband Charles Mintz took over their distribution company. After failing to take over the Disney Studio, Mintz hired away four of Disneys primary animators to start his own animation studio, Snappy Comedies. In 1928, to recover from the loss of Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, Disney came up with the idea of a character named Mortimer while on a train headed to California. The mouse was later renamed Mickey Mouse and starred in several Disney produced films, ub Iwerks refined Disneys initial design of Mickey Mouse. Disneys first sound film Steamboat Willie, a cartoon starring Mickey, was released on November 18,1928 through Pat Powers distribution company and it was the first Mickey Mouse sound cartoon released, but the third to be created, behind Plane Crazy and The Gallopin Gaucho. Disney used Pat Powers Cinephone system, created by Powers using Lee De Forests Phonofilm system, Steamboat Willie premiered at B. S. Mosss Colony Theater in New York City, now The Broadway Theatre. Disneys Plane Crazy and The Galloping Gaucho were then retrofitted with synchronized sound tracks, Disney continued to produce cartoons with Mickey Mouse and other characters, and began the Silly Symphonies series with Columbia Pictures signing on as Symphonies distributor in August 1929
30.
Jackson Heights, Queens
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Jackson Heights is a neighborhood in the northwestern portion of the borough of Queens in New York City. The neighborhood is part of Queens Community Board 3, Jackson Heights is neighbored by North Corona to the east, Elmhurst to the south, Woodside to the west, northern Astoria to the northwest, and East Elmhurst to the northeast. The main ZIP code of Jackson Heights is 11372, according to the 2010 United States Census, the neighborhood has a population of 108,152. The Jackson Heights name comes from Jackson Avenue, the name for Northern Boulevard. John C. Jackson built the road across what is now Jackson Heights in 1859, the Jackson Avenue name is retained by this major road in a short stretch between Queens Plaza and Queens–Midtown Tunnel in Long Island City. The place was not particularly high, but the name heights showed that the place was meant to be exclusive. Until 1916, the area was called Trains Meadow, but contrary to the name and it is suspected that it was corrupted from drain. The first land purchase of 128 acres was completed in 1910, Jackson Heights was a planned development laid out by the Queensboro Corporation beginning in about 1916, and residents came after the arrival of the Flushing Line into Jackson Heights in 1917. The community was planned as a place for middle- to upper-middle income workers from Manhattan to raise their families. The Queensboro Corporation coined the name garden apartment to convey the concept of apartments surrounded by a green environment, targeted toward the middle class, the Queensboro Corporation-based the new apartments off of similar ones in Berlin. These new apartments were to share garden spaces, have ornate exteriors and features such as fireplaces, parquet floors, sun rooms, and built-in bathtubs with showers, and be cooperatively owned. In addition, the corporation divided the land into blocks and building lots, as well as installed streets, sidewalks, and power, water, and sewage lines. Although land for churches was provided, the apartments themselves were limited to white Anglo-Saxon Protestants, while excluding Jews, Blacks, and perhaps Greeks and Italians. The Laurel apartment building on 82nd Street at Northern Boulevard was the first of the Queensboro Corporation buildings in Jackson Heights, the Greystones on either side of 80th Street between 37th and 35th Avenues were completed in 1918 with a design by architect George H. Wells. There was leftover unused space, which was converted to parks, gardens and this was followed by the 1919 construction of the Andrew J. Thomas-designed Linden Court, a 10-building complex between 84th Street, 85th Streets, 37th Avenue, and Roosevelt Avenue. The Hampton Gardens, the Château, and the Towers followed in the 1920s, the Château and the Towers, both co-ops on 34th Avenue, had large, airy apartments and were served by elevators. At first purely decorative, the gardens in later developments included paved spaces where people could meet or sit. The Queensboro Corporation started the Ivy Court, Cedar Court, and Spanish Gardens projects, all designed by Thomas, the Queensboro Corporation advertised their apartments from 1922 on
31.
New York (state)
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New York is a state in the northeastern United States, and is the 27th-most extensive, fourth-most populous, and seventh-most densely populated U. S. state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south and Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Vermont to the east. With an estimated population of 8.55 million in 2015, New York City is the most populous city in the United States, the New York Metropolitan Area is one of the most populous urban agglomerations in the world. New York City makes up over 40% of the population of New York State, two-thirds of the states population lives in the New York City Metropolitan Area, and nearly 40% lives on Long Island. Both the state and New York City were named for the 17th-century Duke of York, the next four most populous cities in the state are Buffalo, Rochester, Yonkers, and Syracuse, while the state capital is Albany. New York has a diverse geography and these more mountainous regions are bisected by two major river valleys—the north-south Hudson River Valley and the east-west Mohawk River Valley, which forms the core of the Erie Canal. Western New York is considered part of the Great Lakes Region and straddles Lake Ontario, between the two lakes lies Niagara Falls. The central part of the state is dominated by the Finger Lakes, New York had been inhabited by tribes of Algonquian and Iroquoian-speaking Native Americans for several hundred years by the time the earliest Europeans came to New York. The first Europeans to arrive were French colonists and Jesuit missionaries who arrived southward from settlements at Montreal for trade, the British annexed the colony from the Dutch in 1664. The borders of the British colony, the Province of New York, were similar to those of the present-day state, New York is home to the Statue of Liberty, a symbol of the United States and its ideals of freedom, democracy, and opportunity. In the 21st century, New York has emerged as a node of creativity and entrepreneurship, social tolerance. On April 17,1524 Verrazanno entered New York Bay, by way of the now called the Narrows into the northern bay which he named Santa Margherita. Verrazzano described it as a vast coastline with a delta in which every kind of ship could pass and he adds. This vast sheet of water swarmed with native boats and he landed on the tip of Manhattan and possibly on the furthest point of Long Island. Verrazannos stay was interrupted by a storm which pushed him north towards Marthas Vineyard, in 1540 French traders from New France built a chateau on Castle Island, within present-day Albany, due to flooding, it was abandoned the next year. In 1614, the Dutch under the command of Hendrick Corstiaensen, rebuilt the French chateau, Fort Nassau was the first Dutch settlement in North America, and was located along the Hudson River, also within present-day Albany. The small fort served as a trading post and warehouse, located on the Hudson River flood plain, the rudimentary fort was washed away by flooding in 1617, and abandoned for good after Fort Orange was built nearby in 1623. Henry Hudsons 1609 voyage marked the beginning of European involvement with the area, sailing for the Dutch East India Company and looking for a passage to Asia, he entered the Upper New York Bay on September 11 of that year
32.
Civil engineer
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The term civil engineer was established in 1750 to contrast engineers working on civil projects with the military engineers, who worked on armaments and defenses. Over time, various sub-disciplines of civil engineering have become recognized, other engineering practices became recognized as independent engineering disciplines, including chemical engineering, mechanical engineering, and electrical engineering. In some places, an engineer may perform land surveying, in others, surveying is limited to construction surveying. Civil engineers generally work in a variety of locations and conditions, many spend time outdoors at construction sites so that they can monitor operations or solve problems onsite. The job is typically a blend of in-office and on-location work, in many countries, civil engineers are subject to licensure. In some jurisdictions with mandatory licensing, people who do not obtain a license may not call themselves civil engineers, in Belgium, Civil Engineer is a legally protected title applicable to graduates of the five-year engineering course of one of the six universities and the Royal Military Academy. Their speciality can be all fields of engineering, civil, structural, electrical, mechanical, chemical, physics and this use of the title may cause confusion to the English speaker as the Belgian civil engineer can have a speciality other than civil engineering. In fact, Belgians use the adjective civil in the sense of civilian, traditionally, students were required to pass an entrance exam on mathematics to start civil engineering studies. This exam was abolished in 2004 for the Flemish Community, but is organised in the French Community. Today the degree spans over all fields within engineering, like engineering, mechanical engineering, computer science, electronics engineering. A civil engineer is the most well-known of the two, still, the area of expertise remains obfuscated for most of the public. A noteworthy difference is the courses in mathematics and physics, regardless of the equivalent masters degree. This is because the educational system is not fully adopted to the international standard graduation system. Today this is starting to change due to the Bologna process, a Scandinavian civilingenjör will in international contexts commonly call herself Master of Science in Engineering and will occasionally wear an engineering class ring. At the Norwegian Institute of Technology, the tradition with an NTH Ring goes back to 1914, in Norway, the title Sivilingeniør will no longer be issued after 2007, and has been replaced with Master i teknologi. In the English translation of the diploma, the title will be Master of Science, since Master of Technology is not a title in the English-speaking world. The extra overlapping year of studies have also been abolished with this change to make Norwegian degrees more equal to their international counterparts, in Spain, a civil engineering degree can be obtained after four years of study in the various branches of mathematics, physics, mechanics, etc. The earned degree is called Grado en Ingeniería Civil, further studies at a graduate school include masters and doctoral degrees
33.
Beijing
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Beijing is the capital of the Peoples Republic of China and the worlds third most populous city proper. It is also one of the worlds most populous capital cities, the city, located in northern China, is governed as a direct-controlled municipality under the national government with 16 urban, suburban, and rural districts. Beijing is the second largest Chinese city by population after Shanghai and is the nations political, cultural. It is home to the headquarters of most of Chinas largest state-owned companies, and is a hub for the national highway, expressway, railway. The citys history dates back three millennia, as the last of the Four Great Ancient Capitals of China, Beijing has been the political centre of the country for much of the past eight centuries. Beijing was the largest city in the world by population for much of the second millennium A. D, the city is renowned for its opulent palaces, temples, parks, gardens, tombs, walls and gates. Its art treasures and universities have made it centre of culture, encyclopædia Britannica notes that few cities in the world have served for so long as the political headquarters and cultural centre of an area as immense as China. Siheyuans, the traditional housing style, and hutongs, the narrow alleys between siheyuans, are major tourist attractions and are common in urban Beijing. The city hosted the 2008 Summer Olympics and was chosen to host the 2022 Winter Olympics, many of Beijings 91 universities consistently rank among the best in China, of which Peking University and Tsinghua University are ranked in the top 60 universities in the world. Beijings Zhongguancun area is known as Chinas Silicon Valley and Chinas center of innovation. According to the 2016 InterNations Expat Insider Survey, Beijing ranked first in Asia in the subcategory Personal Finance Index, expats live primarily in urban districts such as Dongcheng and Chaoyang in the east, or in suburban districts such as Shunyi. Over the past 3,000 years, the city of Beijing has had other names. The name Beijing, which means Northern Capital, was applied to the city in 1403 during the Ming Dynasty to distinguish the city from Nanjing, the English spelling is based on the pinyin romanisation of the two characters as they are pronounced in Standard Mandarin. Those dialects preserve the Middle Chinese pronunciation of 京 as kjaeng, the single Chinese character abbreviation for Beijing is 京, which appears on automobile license plates in the city. The official Latin alphabet abbreviation for Beijing is BJ, the earliest traces of human habitation in the Beijing municipality were found in the caves of Dragon Bone Hill near the village of Zhoukoudian in Fangshan District, where Peking Man lived. Homo erectus fossils from the date to 230,000 to 250,000 years ago. Paleolithic Homo sapiens also lived more recently, about 27,000 years ago. Archaeologists have found neolithic settlements throughout the municipality, including in Wangfujing, the first walled city in Beijing was Ji, a city from the 11th to 7th century BC
34.
Shanghai
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Shanghai is the most populous city proper in the world, with a population of more than 24 million as of 2014. As one of the four direct-controlled municipalities of the Peoples Republic of China, it is a financial centre and transport hub. Located in the Yangtze River Delta in East China, Shanghai sits on the edge of the mouth of the Yangtze in the middle portion of the eastern Chinese coast. The municipality borders the provinces of Jiangsu and Zhejiang to the north, south and west, as a major administrative, shipping and trading city, Shanghai grew in importance in the 19th century due to trade and recognition of its favourable port location and economic potential. The city was one of five treaty ports forced open to foreign trade following the British victory over China in the First Opium War, the subsequent 1842 Treaty of Nanking and 1844 Treaty of Whampoa allowed the establishment of the Shanghai International Settlement and the French Concession. The city then flourished as a center of commerce between China and other parts of the world, and became the financial hub of the Asia-Pacific region in the 1930s. However, with the Communist Party takeover of the mainland in 1949, trade was limited to other socialist countries, and the citys global influence declined. In the 1990s, the reforms introduced by Deng Xiaoping resulted in an intense re-development of the city, aiding the return of finance. The two Chinese characters in the name are 上 and 海, together meaning Upon-the-Sea. The earliest occurrence of this dates from the 11th-century Song Dynasty, at which time there was already a river confluence. There are disputes as to exactly how the name should be understood, Shanghai is officially abbreviated 沪 in Chinese, a contraction of 沪渎, a 4th- or 5th-century Jin name for the mouth of Suzhou Creek when it was the main conduit into the ocean. This character appears on all motor vehicle license plates issued in the municipality today, another alternative name for Shanghai is Shēn or Shēnchéng, from Lord Chunshen, a third-century BC nobleman and prime minister of the state of Chu, whose fief included modern Shanghai. Sports teams and newspapers in Shanghai often use Shen in their names, such as Shanghai Shenhua F. C. Huating was another early name for Shanghai. In AD751, during the dynasty, Huating County was established at modern-day Songjiang. Today, Huating appears as the name of a hotel in the city. The city also has various nicknames in English, including Pearl of the Orient, during the Spring and Autumn period, the Shanghai area belonged to the Kingdom of Wu, which was conquered by the Kingdom of Yue, which in turn was conquered by the Kingdom of Chu. During the Warring States period, Shanghai was part of the fief of Lord Chunshen of Chu and he ordered the excavation of the Huangpu River. Its former or poetic name, the Chunshen River, gave Shanghai its nickname of Shen, two important events helped promote Shanghais development in the Ming dynasty
35.
Arnis
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Arnis, also known as Kali or Eskrima, is the national sport and martial art of the Philippines. It is also known as Estoque, Estocada and Garrote, in Luzon they may go by the name of Arnis de Mano. The indigenous martial art that the Spanish encountered in 1610 was not yet called Arnis at that time, kuntaw and Silat are separate martial arts that are also practiced in the Philippine Archipelago. Arnis also includes combat, joint locks, grappling and weapon disarming techniques. Although in general, emphasis is put on weapons for these arts, some systems put empty hands as the primary focus, for all intents and purposes, arnis, eskrima and kali all refer to the same family of Filipino weapon-based martial arts and fighting systems. Both Arnis and Eskrima are loans from Spanish, Arnis comes from arnés and it is said to derive from the armor costumes used in Moro-moro stage plays where actors fought mock battles using wooden swords. For, even armed with those, experience shows the difficulty of resisting the single used in this way. Eskrima is a Filipinization of the Spanish word for fencing, esgrima and their cognate in French is escrime and is related to the English term skirmish. Kali has multiple theories on its origin, One theory is that the word comes from tjakalele and this is supported by the similarities between tjakalele and eskrima techniques, as well as Mindanaos proximity to Indonesia. According to Guro Dan Inosanto, Kali is a portmanteau of the Cebuano words kamot, meaning hand, in the Ilocano language, kali means to dig and to stab. There exist numerous similar terms of reference for martial arts such as kalirongan, kaliradman and these may be the origin of the term kali or they may have evolved from it. According to Grandmaster Vic Sanchez, the Pangasinense term Kalirongan means Karunungan ng Lihim or Wisdom of Secret or Wisdom of Kali, in their book Cebuano Eskrima, Beyond the Myth however, Dr. Pedro de San Buenaventura. The term calis in various forms was present in these old Spanish documents in Ilocano, Ibanag, Kapampangan, Tagalog, Bicolano, Waray, Hiligaynon and Cebuano. As Arnis was an art practiced by the peasant or commoner class. While the same can be said of many arts, this is especially true for Arnis because almost all of its history is anecdotal, oral or promotional. It has other influences as well, as settlers and traders travelling through the Malay Archipelago brought the influence of silat as well as Chinese, Arab, some of the population still practice localized Chinese fighting methods known as kuntaw. It has also theorized that the Filipino art of Arnis may have roots in India. Silambam, a stick/staff based ancient martial art of India influenced many martial arts in Asia like Silat, as such, Arnis may share ancestry with these systems — some Arnis moves are similar to the short stick and other weapon based fighting styles of Silambam
36.
New York University
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New York University is a private nonprofit research university based in New York City. Founded in 1831, NYU is considered one of the worlds most influential research universities, University rankings compiled by Times Higher Education, U. S. News & World Report, and the Academic Ranking of World Universities all rank NYU amongst the top 32 universities in the world. NYU is a part of the creativity, energy and vibrancy that is Manhattan, located with its core in Greenwich Village. Among its faculty and alumni are 37 Nobel Laureates, over 30 Pulitzer Prize winners, over 30 Academy Award winners, alumni include heads of state, royalty, eminent mathematicians, inventors, media figures, Olympic medalists, CEOs of Fortune 500 companies, and astronauts. NYU alumni are among the wealthiest in the world, according to The Princeton Review, NYU is consistently considered by students and parents as a Top Dream College. Albert Gallatin, Secretary of Treasury under Thomas Jefferson and James Madison, declared his intention to establish in this immense, a system of rational and practical education fitting and graciously opened to all. A three-day-long literary and scientific convention held in City Hall in 1830 and these New Yorkers believed the city needed a university designed for young men who would be admitted based upon merit rather than birthright or social class. On April 18,1831, an institution was established, with the support of a group of prominent New York City residents from the merchants, bankers. Albert Gallatin was elected as the institutions first president, the university has been popularly known as New York University since its inception and was officially renamed New York University in 1896. In 1832, NYU held its first classes in rented rooms of four-story Clinton Hall, in 1835, the School of Law, NYUs first professional school, was established. American Chemical Society was founded in 1876 at NYU and it became one of the nations largest universities, with an enrollment of 9,300 in 1917. NYU had its Washington Square campus since its founding, the university purchased a campus at University Heights in the Bronx because of overcrowding on the old campus. NYU also had a desire to follow New York Citys development further uptown, NYUs move to the Bronx occurred in 1894, spearheaded by the efforts of Chancellor Henry Mitchell MacCracken. The University Heights campus was far more spacious than its predecessor was, as a result, most of the universitys operations along with the undergraduate College of Arts and Science and School of Engineering were housed there. NYUs administrative operations were moved to the new campus, but the schools of the university remained at Washington Square. In 1914, Washington Square College was founded as the undergraduate college of NYU. In 1935, NYU opened the Nassau College-Hofstra Memorial of New York University at Hempstead and this extension would later become a fully independent Hofstra University. In 1950, NYU was elected to the Association of American Universities, in the late 1960s and early 1970s, financial crisis gripped the New York City government and the troubles spread to the citys institutions, including NYU
37.
University of Michigan
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The University of Michigan, frequently referred to simply as Michigan, is a public research university in Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States. Founded in 1817 in Detroit as the Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania,20 years before the Michigan Territory became a state, in 1821, the university was officially renamed the University of Michigan. It moved to Ann Arbor in 1837 onto 40 acres of what is now known as Central Campus, the University was a founding member of the Association of American Universities. Considered one of the foremost research universities in the United States, Michigans body of living alumni comprises more than 540,000 people, one of the largest alumni bases of any university in the world. Besides academic life, Michigans athletic teams compete in Division I of the NCAA and are known as the Wolverines. They are members of the Big Ten Conference, the University of Michigan was established in Detroit on August 26,1817 as the Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania, by the governor and judges of Michigan Territory. Judge Augustus B. Woodward specifically invited The Rev. John Monteith and Father Gabriel Richard, Monteith became its first President and held seven of the professorships, and Richard was Vice President and held the other six professorships. Concurrently, Ann Arbor had set aside 40 acres in the hopes of being selected as the state capital, but when Lansing was chosen as the state capital, the city offered the land for a university. What would become the university moved to Ann Arbor in 1837 thanks to Governor Stevens T. Mason, the original 40 acres was the basis of the present Central Campus. The first classes in Ann Arbor were held in 1841, with six freshmen, eleven students graduated in the first commencement in 1845. By 1866, enrollment increased to 1,205 students, many of whom were Civil War veterans, Women were first admitted in 1870. U-M also became the first American university to use the method of study. Among the early students in the School of Medicine was Jose Celso Barbosa, who in 1880 graduated as valedictorian and he returned to Puerto Rico to practice medicine and also served in high-ranking posts in the government. In 1920 the university reorganized the College of Engineering and formed a committee of 100 industrialists to guide academic research initiatives. The university became a choice for bright Jewish students from New York in the 1920s and 1930s. Because of its standards, U-M gained the nickname Harvard of the West. During World War II, U-Ms research supported military efforts, such as U. S. Navy projects in proximity fuzes, PT boats, and radar jamming. After the war, enrollment expanded rapidly and by 1950, it reached 21,000, as the Cold War and the Space Race took hold, U-M received numerous government grants for strategic research and helped to develop peacetime uses for nuclear energy
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Ann Arbor, Michigan
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Ann Arbor is a city in the U. S. state of Michigan and the county seat of Washtenaw County. The 2010 census recorded its population to be 113,934, the citys population was estimated at 117,070 as of July 2015 by the U. S. Census Bureau. The Ann Arbor Metropolitan Statistical Area includes all of Washtenaw County, the city is also part of the larger Detroit–Ann Arbor–Flint, MI Combined Statistical Area with a population of 5,318,744. Ann Arbor was founded in 1824, named for wives of the villages founders, the University of Michigan moved from Detroit to Ann Arbor in 1837, and the city grew at a rapid rate in the early to mid-20th century. During the 1960s and 1970s, the city gained a reputation as a center for left-wing politics, Ann Arbor became a focal point for political activism and anti-Vietnam War movement, as well as various student movements. Ann Arbor is home to the University of Michigan, one of the foremost research universities in the United States, the university shapes Ann Arbors economy significantly as it employs about 30,000 workers, including about 12,000 in the medical center. The citys economy is centered on high technology, with several companies drawn to the area by the universitys research and development infrastructure. In about 1774, the Potawatomi founded two villages in the area of what is now Ann Arbor, Ann Arbor was founded in 1824 by land speculators John Allen and Elisha Walker Rumsey. On 25 May 1824, the plat was registered with Wayne County as Annarbour. Allen and Rumsey decided to name it for their wives, both named Ann, and for the stands of Bur Oak in the 640 acres of land purchased for $800 from the federal government at $1.25 per acre. The local Ojibwa named the settlement kaw-goosh-kaw-nick, after the sound of Allens sawmill, Ann Arbor became the seat of Washtenaw County in 1827, and was incorporated as a village in 1833. The Ann Arbor Land Company, a group of speculators, set aside 40 acres of undeveloped land and offered it to the state of Michigan as the site of the state capital, but lost the bid to Lansing. In 1837, the property was accepted instead as the site of the University of Michigan, since the universitys establishment in the city in 1837, the histories of the University of Michigan and Ann Arbor have been closely linked. Throughout the 1840s and the 1850s settlers continued to come to Ann Arbor, while the earlier settlers were primarily of British ancestry, the newer settlers also consisted of Germans, Irish, and African-Americans. In 1851, Ann Arbor was chartered as a city, though the city showed a drop in population during the Depression of 1873. It was not until the early 1880s that Ann Arbor again saw robust growth, with new immigrants coming from Greece, Italy, Russia, Ann Arbor saw increased growth in manufacturing, particularly in milling. Ann Arbors Jewish community also grew after the turn of the 20th century, during the 1960s and 1970s, the city gained a reputation as an important center for liberal politics. Ann Arbor also became a locus for left-wing activism and anti-Vietnam War movement, during the ensuing 15 years, many countercultural and New Left enterprises sprang up and developed large constituencies within the city
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Chi Omega
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Chi Omega is a womens fraternity and the largest member of the National Panhellenic Conference. Chi Omega has over 180 active collegiate chapters and over 240 alumnae chapters, Chi Omegas national headquarters is located in Memphis, Tennessee. Chi Omega was founded April 5,1895 at the University of Arkansas by Ina May Boles, Jean Vincenheller, Jobelle Holcombe, and Alice Simonds, with the help of Dr. Charles Richardson. It first expanded in Fall 1898 with Chi chapter at Jessamine College, located in Nicholasville, Kentucky and Hellmuth Ladies College, located in London, both chapters were transferred to other schools in 1903. By its 10th anniversary, in 1905, and with the support of Alumnae and Dr. Richardson, Chi Omega joined the National Panhellenic Conference in 1903. From 1947-1973, Chi Omegas headquarters were in the home of two alumnae in Cincinnati, Ohio. In 1973, Chi Omega moved to the 33rd floor of Carew Tower, Chi Omega was the first womens Fraternity to have an Executive Office in an Office Building. In 1986, the Chi Omega Executive Office was moved to the 31st floor of the office building, Carew Tower, until their move to the present location in Memphis. Chi Omega Fraternity members have supported philanthropy since the inception in 1895. In the late 1990s, the leadership in Chi Omega researched opportunities for a partnership with a national philanthropy, the Make-A-Wish Foundation has been chosen as Chi Omegas official philanthropy since 2002. Despite being an organization, Chi Omega only refers to itself as a womens fraternity instead of a sorority. As such, Chi Omega is the largest womens organization in the world with over 330,000 initiates and 180 collegiate chapters. The 300, 000th member was initiated in 2013, the ethos of the fraternity is embodied in a document known as the Chi Omega Symphony, composed in 1904 by Ethel Switzer Howard of the Xi Chapter at Northwestern University. Chi Omegas crest was adopted in 1902, centered on the crest is a white carnation, with the Chi to the left and the Omega to the right of the flower. Above these symbols are both the skull and crossbones and the owl mascot, beneath the carnation are the five letters, Rho, Beta, Upsilon, Eta and Sigma. The symbol is surrounded by a laurel wreath, the badge of Chi Omega was regulated and adopted in 1906, allowing only fourteen pearls or diamonds, no other stones to be used. It is a monogram of the Greek letter Chi superimposed over Omega and that badge is to be worn only when wearing professional clothing, above all other pins and over the heart. Both badge and crest may only be used or worn by initiated members, the fraternitys day-to-day business activities are overseen by the Governing Council, which consists of five elected alumnae, volunteer members, who are elected every two years
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Bachelor's degree
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A bachelors degree or baccalaureate is an undergraduate academic degree awarded by colleges and universities upon completion of a course of study lasting three to seven years. In some institutions and educational systems, some bachelors degrees can only be taken as graduate or postgraduate degrees after a first degree has been completed. The term bachelor in the 12th century referred to a knight bachelor, by the end of the 13th century, it was also used by junior members of guilds or universities. By folk etymology or wordplay, the word came to be associated with bacca lauri in reference to laurels being awarded for academic success or honours. An honours degree generally requires an academic standard than a pass degree. In most African countries, the university systems follow the model of their former colonizing power, for example, the Nigerian university system is similar to the British system, while the Ivorian system is akin to the French. The degree is typically identical to the program of Frances universities, bachelors degree programs cover most of the fields in Algerian universities, except some fields, such as Medicine and Pharmaceutical Science. Bachelors degrees at the University of Botswana normally take four years, the system draws on both British and American models. Degrees are classified as First Class, Second Class Division One, Second Class Division Two and Third as in English degrees, but without being described as honours. The main degrees are named by British tradition, but in recent years there have been a numbers of degrees named after specific subjects, such as Bachelor of Library, in Morocco, a bachelors degree is referred to as al-ʾijāzah. The course of study takes three years, which are divided into two cycles. The first cycle comprises the first, or propaedeutic, year, after successfully completing their first two years, students can pursue either theoretical specialization or professional specialization. The second cycle is one long, after whose completion students receive the licence détudes fondamentales or the licence professionnelle. This academic degree system was introduced in September 2003, University admission is extremely competitive, with attendant advantages and disadvantages. Nonetheless, it takes four to five years to complete a bachelors degree, in cases of poor performance, the time limit is double the standard amount of time. For example, one may not study for more than 10 years for a five-year course, students are normally asked to leave if they must take longer. B. Arch. and other specialized undergraduate degrees, such as B. Eng, Science undergraduate degrees may require six months or a semester dedicated to SIWES but it is usually mandatory for all engineering degrees. A semester for project work/thesis is required, not excluding course work, the classifications of degrees, first-class, second-class, third-class and a pass
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