(1)      Weighing a mere 30 to 50 pounds, the wolverine is small, dense, and muscular, yet pound for pound it is the strongest predator in the wilderness of Alaska and Canada. The wolverine belies its family identity, more resembling a small black bear than a member of the weasel family. It has thick, dark fur with golden highlights along its sides and across its broad, stout head and cropped ears.

(2)      Traditional legend has typecast the wolverine as a vicious and ravenous carnivore. The Eskimos called this creature {cavik{ or "evil one" because of its habit of raiding caches of food. Even its genus name {Gulo{ means glutton. However, these stereotypes are not altogether accurate. The wolverine does have a voracious appetite, but like most predators, its life is one of feast and famine. It gorges itself when it locates a ready supply of food and fasts for days on end until it makes its next find. Wolverines prefer fresh meat, but they are not efficient predators. Although they are quite capable of killing larger prey, they are rarely fortunate enough to get close enough to do so. The wolverine is too slow to catch fleet-footed big game, and it looks comical as it bounces along on its stubby legs. In fact, wolverines are primarily scavengers, eating the carrion of wolf kills`bones, pieces of frozen meat, and hide from moose and caribou. The teeth of wolverines are much stronger than those of feline or canine predators such as lynx or wolves, enabling wolverines to gnaw on frozen meat and thick hide without breaking their teeth. The wolverine has interlocking molars that look like pinking sheers with which it both sheers and grinds its frozen feast.

(3)      Its reputation for fierceness is also greatly exaggerated. In spite of its notoriety for bravado, the wolverine is incredibly reclusive around man. In fact, one might live a lifetime in wolverine country and never once catch a glimpse of this elusive creature. When confronted by a larger predator such as a bear, the wolverine will square off, raise its hackles, and let out a hissing roar that sounds like a small jet engine. Snarling and baring its teeth, it appears so menacing that even a grizzly bear is loathe to tangle with the much smaller rival, though its posturing is for the most part bluff.

(1)      The era of modern sports began with the first Olympic games in 1896, and since the dawn of this new era, women have made great strides in the arena of running. In the early years, female runners faced numerous restrictions in the world of competitive running. Even though women were banned from competing in the 1896 Olympics, one Greek woman ran unofficially in the men's marathon. She had to stop outside the Olympic stadium, finishing with a time of 4 hours and 30 minutes. Four years later, women were still prohibited from Olympic competition because, according to members of the International Olympic Committee, it was not appropriate for women to compete in any event that caused them to sweat. In the 1928 Olympics, women were finally granted permission to compete in running events. However, because some of the participants collapsed at the finish of the 800-meter race, it was decided to limit women runners to races of 200 meters or less in the Olympics four years later. The women's 800-meter race was not reintroduced to the Olympic games until 1960. Over a decade later, in 1972, the 1500-meter race was added. It was not until 1984 that the women's marathon was made an Olympic event.

(2)      Before 1984, women had been competing in long-distance races outside of the Olympics. In 1963, the first official women's marathon mark of 3 hours and 27 minutes was set by Dale Greig. Times decreased until 1971, when Beth Bonner first broke the three-hour barrier with a time of 2:55. A year later, President Nixon signed the Title IX law, which said that no person could be excluded from participating in sports on the basis of sex. This was a turning point in women's running and resulted in federal funding for schools that supported women athletes. In 1978, Greta Waitz set a new world marathon record of 2:32 at the New York City Marathon. Joan Benoit broke that record by ten minutes in 1983 and went on to win the first-ever women's Olympic marathon in 1984; since then, performances by women in the Olympic marathon have continued to improve with each staging of the Olympics.

(1)      The words to "The Star-Spangled Banner," the national anthem of the United States, were created by Francis Scott Key, lawyer by trade and poet at heart. For these memorable words to have been written in the manner that they were, required both his training as a lawyer and his poetic soul.

(2)      At the time of the War of 1812 against the British, Key had a successful law practice in Washington, D.C. During a series of attacks by the British in 1814, the British occupied Washington, D.C., burned public buildings, including the White House, withdrew from Washington, and sailed up the Chesapeake Bay to attack Baltimore. As the British were withdrawing from Washington, they arrested local physician Dr. William Beanes and forced him to accompany them.

(3)      Some friends of Beanes' visited the lawyer Key and asked him to try to negotiate for Dr. Beanes' release from the British. Key, accompanied by a U.S. government official for prisoners of war, sailed out to the British fleet on Chesapeake Bay. Key was able to negotiate a promise from the British to release the doctor. However, since their attack on Baltimore was imminent, the British decided to detain the Americans on board until after the attack so that they would not have the chance to get word back to the American forces about the British plan to attack.

(4)      All through the night of September 13, the British navy bombarded one of the American forts guarding Baltimore, Fort McHenry. In the first light of dawn, Key, standing on the deck of a British warship, was overcome with emotion at the sight of the U.S. flag with its stars and stripes still flying over the fort. On seeing the flag, he was inspired to write the poem that begins "Oh, say can you see by the dawn's early light...." This quickly written poem was immediately printed on handbills and widely circulated.

(5)      Key only wrote the words to "The Star-Spangled Banner." Key did not write the music, nor did anyone else write music specifically to accompany Key's poem. Ironically, the music to today's "The Star-Spangled Banner" was an old English drinking song that far preceded the words that Key wrote. Later, after Key's poem had achieved prominence, it was set to a well-known song that had actually originated in the country of the enemy, and eventually Key's words, set to the tune of a British drinking song, became the national anthem of the United States.

(1)      Another type of lizard, Jackson's chameleon is a remarkable model of adaptability, one whose ability to adjust to varying environments exceeds that of other members of its species. True to the reputation of the species, Jackson's chameleon is a master of camouflage. Special skin cells called chromatophores enable the chameleon to change the pigment in its skin rapidly and escape detection. While the lizard is stalking its prey, it moves very slowly, in a deliberate rocking gait so as to appear to be a part of a branch moved by a gentle breeze. Jackson's chameleon also has the ability to change the shape of its body. By elongating itself, it can look like a twig; by squeezing its sides laterally, it can appear flattened like a leaf. These camouflaging techniques also help the chameleon to escape detection from predators.

(2)      The color change that is characteristic of all chameleons is not solely for the purpose of camouflage. Jackson's chameleon, like all lizards, is an ectotherm that depends on the sun to maintain its body temperature. By changing to a darker color in the morning hours, it can absorb more heat. Once it has reached its optimal body temperature of 77 degrees Fahrenheit (25 degrees Celsius), it changes to a paler hue. Through color change, the chameleon can also communicate its mood to other members of the species. A color change may signal a warning to stay away or an invitation to draw closer.

(3)      Jackson's chameleon has further exemplified its adaptive nature in a way that surpasses other chameleons in its noteworthy migration to a new home: it has become a well-established resident of the Hawaiian Islands even though it is indigenous to the highland rain forests of Kenya and Tanzania. As the story goes, back in 1972 a pet shop owner on the island of Oahu imported several dozen Jackson's chameleons to be sold as pets. When the shipment arrived, the reptiles were emaciated and dehydrated, so the pet shop owner released the lizards into his lush garden, assuming that he could recapture them after they had revived. The chameleons escaped and spread throughout the island, where they thrived in the moist, well-planted tropical flora. Relishing the habitat of secondary growth forest, agricultural areas, and even residential gardens, the chameleon found a ready-made home in its adopted environment.

(4)      Jackson's chameleons continued their unsolicited migration to other islands in the chain as the popular lizards were captured by hikers and other visitors to the island, who took them home and released them in their gardens. This is now a truly ubiquitous lizard; that is, it is now commonplace on all the major Hawaiian Islands.

(1)      Opal is a noncrystalline mineral that has been used as a gemstone in numerous cultures for thousands of years. Quantities of high-grade opal have been mined in diverse areas worldwide, including eastern Europe, Australia, and Mexico, as well as in the states of California, Nevada, and Idaho in the United States.

(2)      Some varieties of opal contain flashes of a wide spectrum of colors, while others do not. Those types of opal with tiny specks of iridescent color are called precious opal. Varieties without this iridescent coloration throughout are called common opal. It is the precious opal, with its rainbow-like assortment of colors dotting the stone that has been considered gemstone quality over the ages. Precious opal has numerous colors that serve as a background for the iridescent specks, the most valuable of which are black, white, and blue opal, as well as the reddish-brown stone known as fire opal.

(3)      In some cultures, precious opal is recognized not only as a gemstone of great attraction but also as an omen of bad luck. Much of the superstition surrounding opal is now believed to have arisen from the tendency of opal to dry out and crack. Opal is a hydrated mineral with a water content that ranges from 1 percent to 21 percent. The hardness of a particular opal depends upon its water content, which can vary and can be particularly low in dry climates. Throughout its long history, the negative superstition surrounding opal has been related to the tendency of opal to crack seemingly spontaneously, without any noticeable justification. A crack in an opal has been viewed as an indication that bad luck is on its way. In reality, though, a seemingly spontaneous crack in a stone is most likely due to a loss of essential water; it is less likely due to pure back luck.

(1)      Building work on England's much - delayed National Football Center will begin in January. The LE105 million (US$167 million) project, which was first suggested in 2001, has been repeatedly put back because of doubts over funding. The site will be in Burton-upon-Tren, central England. The cente, widely expected to be an English version of France's Clairefontaine academy, is due to be completed in mid 2012 after the FA board agreed to underwrite the project.

(1)      The administation of a college or university provides the governig structure of the institution. Although each institution organizes its administration differently, nearly all colleges and universities have a board of trustees, a president, at least one vice president, deans of various divisions, and a number of academic departments. In addition, state college and university systems are governed by state boards of higher education.