Pasternak was a Russian author whose novel Doctor Zhivago, an epic of wandering, spiritual isolation and love amid the harshness of the revolution and its aftermath, became a bestseller in the West but was circulated only in secrecy in the Soviet Union until 1987. Pasternak was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1958, but he was forced to decline it because of Soviet opposition to his work. Why was Pasternak’s name said to have been crossed off an execution list by Joseph Stalin? Discuss
Month: February 2024
hit the big time
To become very famous or successful. Watch the video
The Tree-Kangaroo
These marsupials are generally found in the rainforests and mountainous regions of New Guinea and Queensland. They are related to the kangaroos endemic to Australia, with whom they share many similar features, including their large hind legs and long, narrow feet. In contrast to the kangaroo, however, these macropods live in trees, have the ability to move their hind legs independently of one another, and leap great distances from tree to tree. How far can a tree-kangaroo jump? Discuss
consign
Zeno Crowned Co-Emperor of Byzantine Empire (474 CE)
A military leader, Zeno married the daughter of Byzantine emperor Leo I in about 466 CE. When Leo I died, Zeno’s seven-year-old son Leo II became emperor and Zeno was appointed co-emperor. Leo II died within the year, making Zeno sole emperor. Zeno made peace with the Vandals in Africa, put down a rebellion in Asia Minor, got the Ostrogoths to leave the Eastern Empire, and tried to solve the Monophysite controversy, causing a schism with Rome. Why did Zeno change his name from Tarasicodissa? Discuss
Carmen Miranda (1909)
Miranda was a Brazilian singer and actress who, in the 1930s, was the most popular recording artist in Brazil, where she appeared in five films. Recruited by a Broadway producer, she made her US film debut in Down Argentine Way. Typecast as the “Brazilian Bombshell” and given such caricatural roles as “The Lady in the Tutti-Frutti Hat” in The Gang’s All Here, she became the highest-paid female performer in the US during World War II. What was her final film? Discuss
be hit for six
To be upset or overwhelmed, especially suddenly or unexpectedly. Primarily heard in UK. Watch the video
Body Worlds
Gunther von Hagens’s Body Worlds, a traveling exhibition of preserved human bodies and body parts, has been the subject of controversy since it opened in Tokyo in 1995. Developers claim that the exhibit uses only specimens from willing donors and is intended to educate laymen about the human body, but some see the project as denigrating the deceased, and religious groups have voiced objections to the public exhibition of human corpses. What technique is used to preserve the human tissue? Discuss
lavabo
The Orangeburg Massacre (1968)
In the Orangeburg massacre, local police in Orangeburg, South Carolina, fired into a crowd of about 200 people protesting segregation, killing three students and injuring 27 others. Although the incident predated the Kent State shootings and Jackson State killings and was the first incident of its kind on a US college campus, the Orangeburg Massacre received relatively little media coverage. On that day, the demonstrators were gathered to protest the segregation of what type of facility? Discuss