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Yangquan

(Encyclopedia)Yangquan yängˈchüänˈ [key], city (1994 est. pop. 402,300), E central Shanxi prov., China, on the highway and railroad linking Taiyuan with Hebei prov. The center of an important coal-producing ar...

Stenmark, Ingemar

(Encyclopedia)Stenmark, Ingemar, 1956–, Swedish skier. The “Silent Swede” learned to ski at an early age and in 16 years of competition won a record 86 World Cup races and two gold medals at the 1980 Olympics...

pipe

(Encyclopedia)pipe, hollow structure, usually cylindrical, for conducting materials. It is used primarily to convey liquids, gases, or solids suspended in a liquid, e.g., a slurry. It is also used as a conduit for ...

meat

(Encyclopedia)meat, term for the flesh of animals used for food, especially that of cattle, sheep, lambs, and swine, as distinct from game, poultry, and fish; sometimes it is inclusive of all animal flesh or of all...

wheel

(Encyclopedia)wheel. Through the many millennia of the Paleolithic period and the Neolithic period no use of the wheel was known to humans. Its use was not known to the Native Americans until the Europeans introduc...

Tom Thumb

(Encyclopedia)Tom Thumb, 1838–83, American entertainer, whose original name was Charles Sherwood Stratton, b. Bridgeport, Conn. His career as General Tom Thumb began in 1842, when the showman P. T. Barnum gave hi...

Bar Mitzvah

(Encyclopedia)Bar Mitzvah bärmĭtsˈvə [key] [Aramaic,=son of the Commandment], Jewish ceremony in which the young male is initiated into the religious community, according to tradition at the age of 13 years and...

Representation of the People Acts

(Encyclopedia)Representation of the People Acts, statutes enacted by the British Parliament to continue the extension of the franchise begun by the Reform Bills (see under Reform Acts). As a result of the governmen...

whooping cough

(Encyclopedia)whooping cough or pertussis, highly communicable infectious disease caused by the bacterium Bordetella pertussis. The early or catarrhal stage of whooping cough is manifested by the usual symptoms of ...