Alligators

The most common myth about alligators is that they use their tails as weapons. This is not so. Alligators are armed with powerful jaws. As they attack their prey, their long tail simply aids them as they change position. The alligators tail is used not for defense, but for balance. Another popular myth is that alligators bask in the sun. Yet alligators cannot stand very--or very cold--temperatures. In fact, strong sunlight will cause them to burn, blister, and peel. To escape heat or cold, they head for the nearest water. Many myths surround the alligator, but few of them have any basis in fact.

Smokers

Usually you can spot smokers even when they are not smoking. The odor of smoke is on their clothes. Sometimes tiny burn holes from ashes appear on their clothing. Their fingers are usually yellow or brown from holding cigarettes. Teeth also show st ains from nicotine. And some smokers have developed a "smoker's hack" or cough.

Theater Audiences

The theater audiences in a horror movie can be divided into three groups. First of all, there are the gigglers. Members of this group may giggle out of nervousness of they may find the scenes really funny. Then there are the hand grabbers. This gro up seems to thinks it can get through anything as long as there is something to hold. The last group contains the talkers. They always have a comment to make. For example, when the horrible-looking monster comes into view, they turn to a neighbor and s ay something cleaver like "he's certainly attractive , isn't he?"

Peoples of Africa

There are great differences among the peoples of Africa. Their skin color ranges from light to very dark. They also differ greatly in height. The Pygmy is about 4 1/2 feet tall when full grown. The Watusi is about 7 feet tall. The kind of food Afr icans eat and the kind of clothes they wear depends on the country or region they come from. Many languages are spoken in Africa. In fact there are more separate languages and separate countries in Africa than there are in Europe.

Platypus

How to classify the platypus, a native of Australia and Tasmania, is a problem that has puzzled biologist and zoologist since the animal was discovered in the eighteenth century. This strange animal has characteristics of both mammal and birds. For i nstance, the platypus lays eggs, as birds do. Yet platypus mothers nurse their young, typical mammalian characteristic (However, the platypus has no nipples. The mother secretes milk from stomach glands and the baby laps it up.) The platypus has a leat her, duck like bill (from which it gets the name "duckbill platypus"), and its feet are webbed like those of aquatic birds. But at the end of the webs are claws just like a cat's or raccoon's. After much argument scientists finally decided that the platy pus merited classification as a mammal--but only marginally.

Compass

The needle of a compass does not point directly north. It points either a little to the east or a little to the west, not enough to make any difference to the average hiker. The difference is known to navigators as the "variation of the compass," and they take it into consideration when making critical geographical calculations. The phenomenon is due to the fact that the magnetic north and south poles do not coincide with the geographic north and south poles.

Social Security Numbers

If you've ever wondered what the numbers on your Social Security card signify, here is a breakdown of the mysterious code:

1. The first three numbers show what part of the country you applied from.

2. The next two numbers show, in coded form, the year you applied .

3/ The last four numbers indicate your citizen's number kept on file by the government.

Christmas

Christmas was once illegal in England. In 1643 the Puritans outlawed all Christmas celebrations, banned the keeping of Christmas trees, and made the signing of Christmas carols a crime. These laws were maintained until the Restoration. Many Puritans in New England also adhered to these regulations, curtailing Christmas festivities to such a degree that even making of mince pies was forbidden.

Thunderstorms

Here is a method for determining how far away a thunderstorm is located. Wait for a lighting flash. Then count the seconds that pass until the sound of thunder is heard. Sound traveled about 1 mile in five seconds. Thus if there are five seconds b etween the lightning flash and the thunderclap, the storm is approximately a mile away. If ten seconds pass, it is 2 miles away and so forth.

The Pony Express

The Myth: The Pony Express was one of the most important links connecting the gold rush towns of the West and large cities in the East. For years, it was the fastest way to send a letter to California; without it the western states might n ever have developed.

The Truth: In its short lifetime(18 month--1960-61) , the Pony Express was the fastest way to send a letter to California. Riders could deliver a letter in 10 days--half the time to send it by sea. But it had its problems:

Hardly anyone could afford to use it. A single letter initially cost $5.00 to mail, and never dropped below a dollar. The largest customers were newspapers that depended on late-breaking new to keep readers up to date.

The shipping firm of Russell, Majors & Waddell--founders of the Pony Express--knew their enterprise could never make money with normal business; they counted on winning a contract with the federal government to help cover its enormous costs ($7 0,000 up front and $4000 per month) They never got one. The government was more interested in Samuel Morse's telegraph.

By 1861 the nation's first transcontinental telegraph line was completed--making the Pony Express obsolete overnight. It folded less that two years after its introduction over $500,000 in debt.

Other Express Facts: There wasn't a single pony in the Pony Express. Ponies didn't have the stamina to carry loads of mail over long distances.

Few of the riders were adults. Most were teenagers, hired through newspaper advertisements the read "Wanted: Young skinny wiry fellows, not over 18. Must be expert riders will to risk death daily. Orphans preferred.

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How Did Snacks Originate?

Health specialists constantly advise us to eat spinach, broccoli, and carrots. Yet modern life is filled with food that may not be as healthy as spinach but tastes good and is easily available in packaged form. Such snacks are sometimes called " junk food." Despite this negative label, most of us are far more likely to snack on a package of potato chips or nachos than on a raw carrot. The popularity or junk food shows that it is likely to be with us for a long time, so let' s see how some of the names originated. The potato chip was invented in the 1860s. According to one story Chef George Crum once had an annoying customer who kept complaining that the french fries were too thick. Finally, Mr. Crusts cut the potatoes into v ery thin slices, and the potato chip was born. According to another account, the potato chip was invented by settlers of Spanish descent living in large haciendas in California. In any event, the first potato chip factory was founded in 1925.

In 1896, Leo Hirschfield, an Austrian immigrant, invented a chewy candy and gave it the nickname of his childhood sweetheart, Tootsie. This was the Tootsie Roll. In the 1940s, the daughter of Charles Lubin gave her name to Sara Lee cakes and desserts.< /P>

The ice cream cone was invented in 1904 at the St. Louis World's Fair. Ernest A. Hamwi, a Syrian immigrant, was selling zalabias, wafers that could be rolled up. When a person at the ice cream booth next to him ran out of plates, Hamwi substitut ed his rolled-up wafers, and the ice cream cone was created.

In the early 1900s, eleven year old Frank Epperson accidentally invented the popsicle by leaving a sweet drink out overnight in the cold. The liquid froze around the stick that had been used to stir it. Epperson originally called his invention the Epsi cle, but the name was later changed to the more appealing "popsicle."

M & M's got their name from the initial letters of the last names of Forrest Mars and Bruce Murrie. The candies first became popular during World War II among soldiers, who could eat them without making their trigger fingers sticky. Fifty years lat er, M & M's remain a popular snack.

Short Lecture on Test Taking Strategies

There are some basic strategies for taking test that you should be reminded of before you take this test. We will discuss them thoroughly next unit which is test taking strategies. Strategies number 1--just like in reading a textbook, the first thing you should do is to survey what you are going to read, in test taking you should also survey the test before you begin. This allows your subconscious to begin working. Following this survey , you should figure out some sort of time budget by analyzing t he point value of questions and allowing a proportional amount of time for each section. . The second thing to do before you begin is to read the directions carefully. Never assume you know what the directions say. 3rd, When you actually begin your tes t, answer the easy questions first. This will give you confidence and momentum to get through the test. You may find solutions to harder questions in the easier ones and if time runs out , you have credit for those you know. There are many more strategi es we will discuss next unit but let me conclude with this one:

Use the full time allotted for the test. If you have extra time, cover up you answers and actually rework the question. Don't let other people turning in their papers early bother you.--Maybe they don't know as much as you! There are no prizes for t urning in your paper first and by checking over you test carefully you may discover some careless errors or jog something out of long term memory.