Publicidade|Remover

The mysterious death of Alexander the Great


When Alexander the Great’s body seemingly remained unchanged for six days after his death in 323 BCE, his contemporaries could offer only one explanation. Alexander must have been a god. So… was he?

Alexander the Great first fell ill during a days-long series of parties, during one of which he collapsed, complaining of a searing pain in his back. After 10 days of intense fever, Alexander’s soldiers were brought in to see him one final time. As reported by the historian Arrian, at that point the king “could no longer speak… but he struggled to raise his head and gave each man a greeting with his eyes.”

When Alexander was declared dead on June 13, theories began forming. Had he been poisoned? Sabotaged? Had he been killed by drinking too much wine? Today we have an explanation for Alexander’s death and his period of bodily freshness that relies less on the supernatural and more on science. In 2018 Dr. Katherine Hall, a lecturer in New Zealand, proposed that Alexander the Great had Guillain-Barré syndrome, an acute autoimmune condition that results in muscle paralysis. In other words, Alexander may have been alive when he was declared dead—a mistake that could have been made when physicians mistook the shallow breathing of a coma patient for no breathing at all. If this was the case, Alexander may have been effectively murdered during embalming—a process that would have seen him disemboweled.

While we can’t travel back in time to confirm Hall’s theory, it is the only one that takes into account all the details of Alexander’s death—and his body’s mysterious life.


Encyclopaedia Britannica. Adaptation

Throughout the text, an apostrophe and “s” are seen. What does that indicate?
Hanji

Hanji is the name of the handmade paper produced in ancient Korea from the 1st century BCE. Made from mulberry trees, its exceptional quality made it a successful export, and it was widely used not only for writing but also for interior walls and everyday objects, such as fans and umbrellas. Hanji, famed throughout Asia for its whiteness, texture, and strength, is still made today in specialized Korean workshops.

Initially Korean paper was made using hemp fiber, but the highest quality hanji was, for many centuries, made only from the pith of mulberry trees (tak in Korean, Latin: Broussonetia papyrifera). The toughness of hanji meant that it was ideally suited for use in printing presses that used blocks made from magnolia wood, which had been soaked and boiled in saltwater and then dried for several years before use. Each block was 24x4x64cm and carried 23 lines of vertical text on each side. These were then covered in ink and paper was pressed against them. The resilience of hanji was especially useful from the 12th century CE when printing was done using heavier moveable metal type made of bronze, a Korean invention.

In the Joseon Period (from the 15th century CE), such was the demand for hanji, that Sejong the Great (r. 1418 - 1450 CE) permitted other plant materials to be used in its manufacture, especially bamboo. The paper was made in specialized workshops in the capital and the five provincial capitals. The hanji which was produced for state use was supervised by a government agency, the Chonjo-chang.


World History Encyclopedia. Adaptation.
Mark “T” (true) for the words that present the same “gh” sound as in “toughness” and “F” (false) for those who don’t. Then, mark the correct sequence.

( ) Ghost.
( ) Enough.
( ) Cough.
( ) Ghetto.
Hypatia (born c. 355 CE—died March 415, Alexandria) was a mathematician, astronomer, and philosopher who lived in a very turbulent era in Alexandria’s history. She is the earliest female mathematician of whose life and work reasonably detailed knowledge exists. Hypatia was the daughter of Theon of Alexandria, himself a mathematician and astronomer and the last attested member of the Alexandrian Museum. Hypatia continued his program, which was essentially a determined effort to preserve the Greek mathematical and astronomical heritage in (1) extremely difficult times. She is credited with commentaries on geometry, number theory, as well as an (2) astronomical table. These works, the only ones she is listed as having written, have been lost, although there have been attempts to (3) reconstruct aspects of them. She was, in her time, the world’s leading mathematician and astronomer, the only woman for (4) whom such claim can be made.
She was also a popular teacher and lecturer on philosophical topics of a less-specialist nature, attracting many loyal students and large audiences. Her philosophy was Neoplatonist and was thus seen as “pagan” at a time of bitter religious conflict between Christians (both orthodox and “heretical”), Jews, and pagans. Her philosophy also led her to embrace a life of dedicated virginity. The climate of tolerance lapsed, and shortly afterward Hypatia became the victim of a particularly brutal murder at the hands of a gang of Christian zealots.
The affair made Hypatia a powerful feminist symbol and a figure of affirmation for intellectual endeavor in the face of ignorant prejudice. Her intellectual accomplishments alone were quite ______ to merit the preservation and respect of her name, but, sadly, the manner of her death added to it an even greater emphasis.

Source: Encyclopedia Britannica. Adapted.
Which one of the items below is solely composed of words that have 5 syllables?

Crazy Horse

Crazy Horse (Tasunke Witko, 1840-1877) was an Oglala Lakota Sioux warrior and warband leader considered among the greatest defenders of Sioux lands against the forces of the US government in the 19th century. He is one of the most famous Native American figures in history and among the Sioux's most honored heroes. Although he is often referred to as a "chief", Crazy Horse was actually a "Shirt Wearer" – a kind of "subchief" – who carried out the decisions of the council and also served as a war chief of a given band of warriors. Even so, Crazy Horse inspired such devotion in his followers that he was regarded as a "chief" and is referenced as such by others.


His name, Tasunke Witko (Crazy Horse), is accurately translated as "His Crazy Horse" or "His Horse is Crazy" and was his father's and grandfather's name, seemingly referencing a horse that behaved erratically. According to Black Elk, however, the name correlated to Crazy Horse's famous vision in which he saw his horse dancing as though "made only of shadow" in a strange or "crazy" way.


Crazy Horse dedicated himself to opposing the US military as early as 1854 following the Grattan Fight (Grattan Massacre) and the subsequent massacre of Little Thunder's camp in 1855 by Colonel William S. Harney. He continued his resistance over the next eleven years and was named a "Shirt Wearer" in 1865. He fought in the Battle of Plate River Bridge (1865), Red Cloud's War (1866-1868), the Battle of the Rosebud (1876), and the Battle of the Little Bighorn (1876). His last full-scale engagement with US forces was the Battle of Wolf Mountain in January 1877.


World History Encyclopedia. Adaptation.

Consider the pronunciation in American English. The “ch” sound in “chief” is the same as the one in:
Publicidade|Remover