Limericks

What is a limerick?
A limerick is a form of poetry/poem. It consists of five lines with the rhyme scheme AABBA. Meaning that the first, second and last lines rhyme while the third and fourth lines rhyme. The first, second and fifth lines are usually longer than the third and fourth. The last line in most limericks are humorous.

Examples of Limericks

1. There was a Young Lady whose chin

Resembled the point of a pin:

So she had it made sharp,

And purchased a harp,

And played several tunes with her chin.

2.  I Wish that my Room had a Floor! 

I don't so Much Care for a Door, 

But this Crawling Around

Without Touching the Ground

Is Getting to be Quite a Bore! 

3. There once was a wonderful star

Who thought she would go very far

Until she fell down 

And looked like a clown

She knew she would never go far.

4. There was once a fellow named Tim,

Whose dad never taught him to swim 

He fell off a dock, 

And sunk like a rock,

And that was the end of him.

5. There once was a young lady named bright

Whose speed was much faster than light

She set out one day

In a relative way

And returned on the previous night.

6. There was once a spotted brown cow,

Who lives in the pasture now.

She makes chocolate milk,

As smooth as silk,

And I don't know exactly how.

7. There once was a little brown cat.

That cat was sitting on my door mat,

It looked very hungry,

So I gave it some curry, 

And now that cat looks fat. 

8. There was an old man called Greg,

Who tried to break open an egg,

He kicked it around

But fell on the ground,

And found that he had broken a leg.

9. There was a young ghost called Doreen 

Who's name wasn't scary or mean.

She changed it to Boo,

And now it is true 

She's frightened by herself on Halloween.

10. There once was a turkey named Chummy,

Mom thought that he might be quite yummy.

He waddled away,

On thanksgiving day

But still ended up in my tummy!

BONUS

Plant's Fun Facts

1.  An average strawberry has about 200 seeds. And it is the only fruit that bears its seeds on the outside.

2.  An average pomegranate have more than 1000 seeds.

3.  The largest flower in the world is the titan arums. The size of each flower is about 10 feet high and 3 feet wide i.e. even bigger than an elephant.

4.  Apple is 25% air, that is why it floats on water.

5.  Water from cactus has higher density compared with tap water, but it is safe for drinking.

6.  Most of the flowers have patterns of lines on their petals. This act as guide for insects to move towards the glands which produce nectar.

7.  Bamboo is the fastest-growing woody plant in the world; it can grow 35 inches in a single day.

8.  The word pineapple comes from European explorers who thought the fruit combined the look of a pinecone with flesh like that of an apple. Pineapples are the only edible members of the bromeliad family.

9.  Even though certain parts of tulips are toxic, petals have been used as food during the Second World War.

10.  Olive branch is a symbol of peace. People were using olive branch during the history to declare truce by giving it to their enemies. Olive branches were also used for crowning of the champions on the Olympic Games in the past.

11.  A sunflower looks like one large flower, but each head is composed of hundreds of tiny flowers called florets, which ripen to become the seeds.

12.  From a botanical standpoint, avocados and pumpkins are fruits, not vegetables, because they bear the plants' seeds.

13.  Some plants are carnivorous. They eat insects.

14.  No species of wild plant produces a flower or blossom that is absolutely black, and so far, none has been developed artificially.

15.  Rice symbolizes life and fertility. It is often thrown above the heads of newlyweds after wedding ceremony to ensure happy life filled with children.

BONUS

Egyptian History Part 10

VALLEY OF THE KINGS

Deep in the limestone hills to the north-west of Deir el Bahri (opposite the city of Luxor, Egypt) is a remote valley. Here the pharaohs of the 18th, 19th and 20th Dynasties chose their eternal resting place. Thutmose I was the first pharaoh to excavate a tomb in the barren valley.

Egyptian Valley of the Kings

EGYPTIAN HIEROGLYPHICS

Over 5000 years ago, the ancient Egyptians wrote things down using a picture writing called hieroglyphics. The people who did the actual writing were called scribes. Hieroglyphics were used mostly in craving inscriptions on the walls of tombs and temples. The term “Hieroglyphics” means a “scared craving”.

Examples of Egyptians hieroglyphic

Hieroglyphics engraved on a tomb

Wetlands

What is a habitat?
A habitat is a place where an organism lives. It is the area or the type of environment in which a particular kind of animal or plant usually lives.

What is a community?
A community is made up of different populations of organisms living together.

What is an ecosystem?
An ecosystem consists of different communities of living organisms interacting with one another and their environment. It is a group of living and non living parts of an environment that function together as a unit.

What is a wetland?
Wetlands are areas where land and water meet and have characteristics of both aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems. Wetlands can usually be found along the shorelines of seas, lakes, rivers and lagoons. 

A wetland provides food for the different kinds of animals living within it. Some of these animal live in the wetland for all their life cycle, and others are visitors that come to the wetland to eat, hunt or raise their young.

Types of wetlands
The three major types of wetlands are the marsh, the swamp and the bog. Other types of wetlands include palustrine, lacustrine, estuarine, riverine and marine.

Marsh
A marsh is usually dominated by soft-stemmed plants such as grasses and sedges. It occurs inland and contains fresh water. 
 

  

Swamps 

A swamp is usually a wetland dominated by woody plants such as shrubs and trees. It is a coastal wetland that is affected by tides and filled with salty ocean water. Mangroves plants could be found in a swamp.

 

Bogs 

A bog is a wetland that grows on thick mats of peat, a substance made of partially decayed plants and animals. Bogs tend to form in wet places where decay is slow and plants pile up. These places include springs, slow moving streams, small lakes or ponds, fog drenches hilltops, etc.   

Information Technology

What is Information Technology?
Information technology is the study of the application of computers to store, retrieve, transmit and manipulate data.

What is Information?
Information can be described as data that has been processed.

What is Data?
Data are raw facts and figures, signs and symbols that are meaningless until they are processed. Data has no meaning.

 

Abbreviations used in Information Technology

1.  CPU- Central Processing Unit

2.  OMR- Optical Mark Recognition

3.  OCR- Optical Character Recognition

4.  MICR- Magnetic Ink Character Recognition

5.  CADD- Computer Assisted Design & Drafting

6.  CAE- Computer Assisted Engineering

7.  CAM- Computer Aided Manufacturing

8.  DVD- Digital Versatile Disk

9.  CD- Compact Disk

10.  CD-R- Compact Disk Recordable

11.  CDRW- Compact Disk Rewritable

12.  IRC- Internet Relay Chat

13.  ISP- Internet Service Provider

14.  www- World Wide Web

15.  RAM- Random Access Memory

16.  DRAM- Dynamic Random Access Memory

17.  SRAM- Static Random Access Memory

18.  MRAM- Magnetic Random Access Memory

19.  ROM- Read Only Memory

20.  PROM- Programmable Read Only Memory

Simple Machines: Levers

First Class Levers
First class levers have the fulcrum placed between the load and the effort, as in the seesaw, crowbar, etc. If the two arms of the levers are of equal length, as with the balance scale, the effort must be equal to the load. If the effort arm is longer than the load arm, as in the crowbar, the effort travels farther than the load and is less than the load.  

 

Second Class Levers

Second class levers have the load between the effort and the fulcrum. The effort always travels a greater distance and is less than the load. Second class levers always multiply the input force, however they do not change its direction. They always have the output force between the fulcrum and the input force ensures that it has mechanical advantage. Wheelbarrows, staplers, pliers, nail clippers are all good examples of second class levers.

 

Third Class Levers

Third class levers have the effort placed between the load and the fulcrum. The effort always travels a shorter distance and must be greater than the load. An example of third class lever is the human forearm; the fulcrum is the elbow, the effort is applied by the biceps muscle, and the load is in the hand. Other examples of third class levers would include a baseball bat, a hammer driving in a nail to a piece of wood, tweezers, etc.  

Substance Abuse / Drug Abuse

What is a drug?
A drug can be described as any substance that enters the human body and can change either the function or structure of the human organism. Drugs are made from plants such as coca bush for cocaine, opium poppies for heroine and cannabis for marijuana.

Purposes of Drugs
For hundreds of years, people have taken psychoactive drugs for:

1. Curative Purposes- Drugs used for curative purposes helps to heal or cure a disease or sickness. Some examples of curative drugs are Advil, Tylenol, etc.

2. Religious Purposes- Drugs used for religious purposes helps with spiritual, pleasure or medicinal purposes. Some examples of religious drugs are mushrooms, caffeine, etc.

3. Recreational Purposes- Drugs used for recreational purposes can be either legal or illegal. It is the use of drugs with the intention of enhancing life or for creating pleasure. People do this in their leisure time. Some examples of recreational drugs are cigarette, cocaine, etc.

Reasons for Substance Abuse/ Drug Abuse
The following are some reasons for drug abuse:

• curiosity and experimentation

• peer pressure

• enhancement of performance in sport e.g. steroids 

• to assist in coping with life's problems

• role modelling effects as alcohol is used to celebrate most social occasion

• persuasive advertisement (especially alcohol and tobacco) 

Substance abuse have negative physical and mental effects on people and alters the normal functioning of the human body. Over a long period of time, people become so dependent on these drugs that they take and overuse and die.