A. The English immigrants who settled on America’s northern seacoast,
appropriately called New England, came in order to practice their religion freely.
They were either Englishmen who wanted to reform the Church of England or people
who wanted to have an entirely new church. These two groups combined, especially
in what became Massachusetts, came to be known as "Puritans", so named after
those who wished to "purify" the Church of England.
B. John provoked the English barons into revolt, though their economic difficulties
through high inflation were not his fault. Civil war broke out, and John was forced to
sign the document later known as Magna Carta. Magna Carta was the first document
forced onto a King of England by a group of his subjects, the feudal barons, in an
attempt to limit his powers by law and protect their privileges. It provided redress of
grievances, but later ages took it as a statement of civil liberties.
C. More important than packing your bag full of money, pack a bag full of patience
and curiosity. There's no such thing as a bad trip, just good travel stories to tell back
home. Always travel with a smile and remember that you're the one with the strange
customs visiting someone else's country. And, finally, the more time you spend
coming to understand the ways of others, the more you'll understand yourself. The
journey abroad reflects the one within – the most unknown and foreign and
unmapped terra incognita.
D. Architecture is the art and the technique of building, employed to fulfill the practical and expressive requirements of civilized people. Almost every settled
society that possesses the techniques for building produces architecture. It is
necessary in all but the simplest cultures; without it, man is confined to a primitive
struggle with the elements; with it, he has not only a defense against the natural
environment but also the benefits of a human environment, a prerequisite for and a
symbol of the development of civilized institutions.
E. In Europe, May Day started out as a nice pagan holiday to celebrate the spring
planting, then turned into a holiday of love (complete with twirling ribbons around a
Maypole). It began its metamorphosis into a working class holiday at the end of the
19th century – in memory of a workers' demonstration in Chicago (calling, among
other things, for an eight-hour working day), which ended in bloodshed. The idea of
decent working conditions caught on with the Russian comrades. "Here's to the
eight-hour working day!", an early May Day pamphlet read.
F. Dinner finally became en evening meal in the 1850s. As the distance between
breakfast and dinner widened, it became necessary to create a smaller meal around
the middle of the day, for which the world ‘luncheon’ was appropriated. ‘Luncheon’
originally signified a lump or portion. In 1755 Samuel Johnson was still defining it as a
quantity of food – ‘as much food as one’s hand can hold’ – and only slowly over the
next century did it come to signify, in refined circles at least, the middle meal of the
day.
G. The evolution of the Olympic Movement during the 20th and 21st centuries has
resulted in several changes to the Olympic Games. Some of these adjustments
include the creation of the Winter Games for ice and winter sports, the Paralympic
Games for athletes with a physical disability, and the Youth Olympic Games for
teenage athletes. The International Olympic Committee has had to adapt to the
varying economic, political, and technological realities of the 20th century.