Over 40000 years ago, giant creatures like bears roamed all over Europe. Some of them were buried in their caves while hibernating, and after about 100 years, their bodies turned to fossils. When their fossils were discovered in the Middle ages, they were thought to be the remains of the most famous, mythical creature, the fire breathing dragon.
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The leopard seal.
The leopard seal is a killer with a spotted coat. The coat gives it the name. It is slim and graceful. The leopard seal is hostile and aggressive, all-round predator. It hunts other smaller animals, fish, penguins and seals. Leopard seals live together like leopard. They are bigger than the crab eating seals but lesser in number.
Image credit: cetus.ucsd.edu
Questions to Answer
I have a G.K. and trivia enthusiast among my students. Trisha is her name. I am putting down a few questions she has sent. See if you can answer them! 1. Who was the 1st president of USA ? 2. What is the full form of DNA? 3. What is a set of four called? 4. Which famous singer was known as 'queen of ghazals'? 5. Which is the national bird of Nepal? 6. What is the real name of Mark Twain? 7. Which is the longest & narrowest country in the world? 8. Which is the only floating national park in the world/ Answers: 1. George Washington The capital of USA is named after him. 2. deoxyribonucleic acid. 3. A quartret. "A quartret of musicians were playing a beautiful tune." 4. Begum Akhtar (1914-1974) 5. The Himalayan Monal. Also called the Daphne in Uttarakand or just Monal. 6. Samuel Langhorne Clemens. He is the creator of the popular characters of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn. 7. Chile in South America. Look it up in the atlas or on google maps. 8.The Keibul LamjaoNational Park,in the Bishnupur district of the state of Manipur in India. It is 40 kmsq (15.4 sq mi) in area and an integral part of Loktak Lake.
Images curtsey: Google, wikipedia, wikimedia
Mount Rainier.
At 4392 metres, Rainier is the highest, and the most dangerous volcano because of the large population at its base .The huge mass of rock and ice, including other factors pose a lot of dangers. The greatest danger is from lahars or mudflows caused by the melting ice and snow.
Image credit: livingwilderness.com
Why is the hummingbird considered a wonder?
This bird's wings beat at 60 to 80 times a second, creating a humming sound. It can soar up vertically, swoop down in a powerful dive, hover steadily, change direction and fly backwards. Hummingbirds vary in size. The biggest can be as big as a sparrow, the smallest is just two and a half inches long from the tip to the tail. One species that reproduces in Alaska migrates to Mexico in winter, traveling a distance of over 6000 kilometres.
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Ape or angel
There is a strong evidence to suggest that human beings evolved from ape-like creatures. However, many people weren't comfortable with this truth. So a compromise suggested by Alfred Wallace was that man evolved from apes but their spirits came from a supernatural force. image courtesy: www.wallaceatthedell.org.uk
the dark knight
image courtesy: www.amazon.com
Batman-produced by DC Comics-is one of the most popular cartoon character among kids nowadays. Batman is the alter-ego of Bruce Wayne, the multimillionaire industrialist of Gotham City. Also known as the Caped Crusader, Batman was born when Bruce wanted to avenge the death of his parents when he was just a boy. His butler, Alfred stood by him since his early days. Some of his arch-enemies are The Joker, Penguin, Bane, Two-face, Riddler. The Bat is the head of the Batman Family which consists of Robin, Batwoman, Batgirl, Nightwing etc.
image courtsey: www.animal-kid.com
What was the zinat-ul-masjid?
The mosque is named after Zinat-Ul-Nissa Begum, the daughter of Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb. It was she who built the mosque in 1707 AD. The mosque is said to be a replica of the Jama Masjid, but smaller. Some of the main attractions of this mosque are the soaring minarets (the narrow and tall towers), walls and the stripes of black and white on the domes. The mosque was known as "the cloud mosque" because the striped domes resembled the monsoon sky.
Image credit: flickr.com
Dead as a dodo.
Do you know what,'Dead as a dodo' means ? It means to be extinct or out of a sight. The dodo was a large, clumsy bird found on the island of Mauritius. The destruction of forests and its habitat brought its extinction. Lewis Carroll used a dodo in his book, 'Alice in Wonderland', and it was the popularity of this book that led to the widespread use of the phrase.
Image credit: ohnitsch.net
road trains
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A truck with two or more trailers is called a road train because it looks like a train traveling on the road. Road trains have powerful tractor units and big sleeper cab. They may go up to 54 metres. They are usually found in Australia