Language & Literature, Popular

The Great Vowel Shift

If you have learnt a foreign language, or if you are bilingual in another European language, you may have noticed that there are a number of words that are similar to words in English. Perhaps you may even have been told that some of them are derived from Latin or Greek, or that they have Germanic roots. But why is the pronunciation so often so different in English?

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Science, Nature and Tech

Lightning Never Strikes Twice

Continuing our Fact or Fable series, today we take a look at the saying ‘Lightning never strikes twice’, with our Science Editor Samantha Gouldson investigating.

Lightning forms when excess amounts of positive and negative electric charge build up in storm clouds. This causes sparks, kind of like static electricity. Sometimes the sparks jump between the clouds but often they jump between the clouds and the ground.

It’s not just thunderstorms that have lightning either; snow storms, sand storms and even the clouds produced by erupting volcanoes can all cause lightning.

volcano

The idea that lightning doesn’t strike twice is a popular saying but one that it’s easy to disprove.

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Events, Written By You

Homemade Mother Day Gifts – Written by You

Mother’s Day origins can be traced to the UK, when Mothering Sunday was celebrated long before it saw the light of day in the USA. Each year in the run up to Mother’s Day, lots of us are wondering ‘What can I get my mom’.
OK, so a bouquet of flowers is very original, but maybe a bit too obvious? A box of chocolates is a bit too common! But how about something that would last forever! Here are my favourite ideas for homemade Mother Day gifts:

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Home, Health & Style, Sports, Toys and Games

What is Roller Derby?

You might have heard of Roller Derby but still be asking yourself, ‘What is Roller Derby?’.
It is a sport that originated in the USA in the 1930s and has evolved over the last eighty years. The modern version of the sport is fast, fun and mainly by girls and women. Joanne Brady has been finding out a bit about the sport and the women who play it. 

 

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