Category Archives: WHAT?
274.WHAT IS THE TAJ MAHAL?
The Taj Mahal is a love story, a sad and beautiful one. If it didn’t exist, we could easily imagine that the story of its construction was simply a fairy tale.
Three hundred years ago, there lived in India an emperor called Shah Jahan. His favorite wife was a beautiful and intelligent woman whom he loved greatly and made his counselor and constant companion. Her title was Mumtaz Mahal; its shortened form, Taj Mahal, means “pride of the palace.”
273.WHAT IS THE NOBEL PRIZE?
Every year, when the Nobel Prizes are announced there is a great deal of publicity about the winners. They are interviewed and articles are written about them. This is because winning the Nobel Prize is considered by most people the highest honor that can be achieved in certain particular fields of work such as chemistry, physics, medicine, and literature.
There is also a Nobel Peace Prize, awarded for efforts on behalf of peace. The curious thing about these prizes is that they were started by a man who did a great deal to help the science of destruction! Alfred Nobel was born in Stockholm and lived from 1833 to 1896. Among the things which he invented and patented were dynamite, blasting gelatin (more powerful than dynamite), and a new kind of detonator for explosives.
272.WHAT IS THE BRAILLE SYSTEM?
If you were unfortunate enough to be blind, one of the greatest losses you would feel would be not being able to read. Just think how important the ability to read books is to you. Well, people realized this a long time ago and tried to find methods for enabling blind people to read.
For example, as far back as 1517 there was a system of engraving letters on blocks of wood so blind people could make them out with their fingers. A person’s fingertips are very sensitive and a blind person can “read” with his fingers. A great many other systems were worked out over the years, using raised lines for the letters. But they all presented one big problem: while blind people could learn to read in this way, they couldn’t easily write this way because they couldn’t see how to form the letters.
