A cicada is an insect with a stout body, a wide, blunt head, protruding eyes, and two pairs of membranous wings. Male cicadas have platelike membranes on the thorax, which they vibrate like drum heads, producing a loud, shrill sound. The Magicicada species have the longest known life cycles of any insect–17 years. They live only one week as winged adults, however, spending the rest of the time in the form of larvae, burrowed underground. To what are their long life cycles an adaptation? Discuss
Source: The Free Dictionary
Antoine Galland was a French scholar famed as the first European translator of The Thousand and One Nights. After translating The Tale of Sindbad the Sailor into French in 1701, he embarked on a translation of a 14th-century Syrian manuscript of the tales, filling 12 volumes. Still, mystery surrounds the origins of some of the most famous tales. No Arabic manuscripts of Aladdin and Ali Baba pre-date Galland’s translations, leading some scholars to conclude what? 
For many years, 
Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, founder of the Pakistan Peoples Party, served as president of Pakistan from 1971 to 1973 and as prime minister from 1973 to 1977. In the 1970 parliamentary elections, Bhutto’s party won a majority of seats in West Pakistan, but East Pakistan’s Mujibur Rahman won an overall majority. The power struggle that followed led to a civil war in which East Pakistan, now Bangladesh, gained its independence and Bhutto rose to become president of Pakistan. Why was he executed in 1979? 
There’s no use in weeping,
The contact lens, a thin plastic lens worn between the eye and eyelid, usually serves the same general corrective purpose as conventional glasses, but may be worn for cosmetic or therapeutic purposes as well. Leonardo da Vinci is frequently credited with having introduced the general principle of contact lenses, but it was A.E. Fick, a Swiss physician, who made the first, albeit uncomfortable, contact lens in 1887. According to estimates, how many people use contact lenses worldwide? 
Regarded as the greatest actor of his generation and one of the most influential actors of all time, Marlon Brando was known for his naturalistic performances. He achieved fame on Broadway in A Streetcar Named Desire, later starring in the film version. Considered the foremost practitioner of the New York Actors Studio style of “method” acting, Brando earned Academy Awards for his roles in On the Waterfront and The Godfather. Why did he refuse the latter award? 
Guinea was ruled by a dictatorship led by 
The largest tornado outbreak on record for a single 24-hour period, the Super Outbreak occurred on April 3 and 4, 1974. During that time, nearly 150 tornadoes swept across 13 central and eastern US states as well as Ontario, Canada, severely damaging approximately 900 square miles (2,330 sq km) along a total combined path length of 2,600 miles (4,180 km). The outbreak brought more violent tornadoes than had ever been observed, including 23 F4 tornadoes and how many F5s?