The first zoo was formed in China in the 12th century B.C. But it was not called a zoo. Wen, the ancient Chinese king who started it, wanted to collect different types of animals from all over his empire. He kept them in what he called a ‘garden of intelligence’, near his palace. Some of the largest zoos are in …

Keisuke Honda is an indispensable member of Takeshi Okada’s team. A prolific midfielder who will turn 24 the day before Japan kick-off their South Africa 2010 campaign, he dazzled for CSKA Moscow in the deep waters of the 2009/10 UEFA Champions League, playing a critical role in their unforeseen charge to the quarter-finals. Honda started out at Nagoya Grampus, scoring …

The center of gravity of an object is a point at which all its weight can be considered to be located. This point is usually inside the object. However, your center of gravity may be inside or outside your body, depending on whether you’re standing, sitting, bending or falling over. If your center of gravity is over your feet, then …

We listen to weather forecasts to find out how warm and sunny, wet or windy the weather is likely to be. People in eastern Sahara, in North Africa, don’t have this problem. This is the world’s sunniest place, with an average of over 4,300 hours of sunshine a year-nearly 12 hours a day!

Kazuo Ishiguro — Kazuo Ishiguro is a Japan-born British novelist. Originally from Nagasaki, his family moved to England in 1960. Ishiguro obtained his Bachelor’s degree from University of Kent in 1978 and his Master’s from the University of East Anglia’s creative writing course in 1980. He won the Whitbread Prize in 1986 for his second novel An Artist of the …

Deltas are plains near the mouths of some rivers, made of sediment dumped there by the rivers. The world’s largest delta is the Ganges-Brahmaputra delta, which lies partly in Bangladesh and partly in India. This low-lying fertile plain is one of the world’s most densely populated areas. It has also been the scene of many disasters when storms in the …

Many deserts-places, which have less than 25cm (10in) rainfall a year-are, in fact, dry for years and then a freak storm causes floods. Or heavy rains can transform some deserts, as in Namaqualand, South Africa, into a sea of flowers, bringing new life to seeds, which may have been dormant for years. Elsewhere, drought-resistant plants like cacti soak up rainwater …

Katie Couric — Katherine Anne “Katie” Couric (born January 7, 1957) is an American journalist, currently the anchor and managing editor of the CBS Evening News, a correspondent for 60 Minutes, and host of @katiecouric (her twitter handle), a webshow on CBSNews.com. She is the first solo female anchor of a weekday evening news program on one of the three …

Oases are places in deserts where there is fresh water. The largest oasis is the fertile valley of the River Nile in Egypt, which gets its water from the distant East African highlands.

The name Ark Royal goes back a long way in the annals of the British Navy. Sir Walter Raleigh, that famed Elizabethan seaman, had a great ship built which he called after himself, Ark Raleigh. She was launched in 1587. When the menace of the Spanish Armada loomed, the Crown bought her and she became Ark Royal. Probably the most …