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Tech Trek
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Grouped together
A wisdom of wombats, an unkindness of ravens, a stench of skunks…do you know what we are talking about? Yes, collective nouns. But have you ever wondered how they came to be called so?
When several people are gathered together or there is a collection of things set together, we refer to them collectively. A group of people, a herd of animals, a swarm of bees and so on. These are known as collective nouns.
Take a look at these cards and learn the meaning of the word used and also how these groups came to be called so.
Make the right choice
What food and lifestyle choices are good for you? Check here…
Everything we do throughout the day can have a good or bad effect on our health – immediately or in the long term. So pause, think and then decide before you go for the second packet of popcorn or choose to take the elevator instead of the stairs.
Here are a few healthy and unhealthy lifestyle choices. Sort them into the correct boxes.
Caves of Culture
The magnificent Ajanta and Ellora complexes are sites of wonderful art and architecture.
AJANTA CAVES
In 1819, British cavalry officer John Smith was on a tiger hunt near the Waghira river in the Sahyadri ranges when he spotted the mouth of a cave. Climbing up for around 70 metres, he entered a cave filled with ancient religious art. These were the Ajanta Caves, abandoned in the fifth century CE. In 1844, the Royal Asiatic Society commissioned Major Robert Gill to create reproductions of the wall paintings on canvas. Further investigations revealed prayer halls and monasteries hewn from solid rock.
Research showed that, in ancient times, the caves were occupied by Buddhist monks during the monsoon. Not only did they spend time on discussions and meditation but also in painting the walls with frescoes. The majority of the paintings depict stories from the Jatakas, that highlight the life of Buddha in earlier avatars. A striking feature of these paintings is the absence of the colour blue.
There are 29 caves of which 25 were used as viharas or residential caves while four were used as chaityas or prayer halls. After the fifth century, these caves were abandoned. The Chinese travellers Faxian (Fa Hein) and Xuanzang (Hieun Tsang) refer to these caves in their works.
The caves were designated a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1983. In 1999, a team from the Archaeological Survey of India discovered that these ancient artists used intense colours, shading and three-dimensional techniques.
ELLORA CAVES
The Ellora caves are located nearly 100 km away from the Ajanta Caves in the same Sahyadri mountain range. This group of 34 caves were developed between the fifth and 11th centuries CE by guilds from Vidarbha, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. Of the 34, 17 are Hindu, 12 Buddhist and five Jain. They highlight the spirit of tolerance that allowed three religions to establish their communities in a single place. In terms of themes and architecture, these caves reflect a diversity.
The most remarkable of this group is the Kailasa Cave temple, the larges single monolithic rock excavation in the world. The sculptors are believed to have started from the top and excavated downwards. Archaelogists estimate that around 400,000 tonnes of rock were removed from the site during the excavation.
The five Jain caves, excavated between the ninth and early 10th centuries, belonged to the Digambara sect. Though smaller than the Buddhist and Hindu caves, they have highly detailed carvings.
The Ellora complex was designated a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1983.
Back in time
Can you read these back-to-front clocks? Give it a try…
What time does each clock show? Type your answer below each clock in the format 00:00 (Example: 07:25)
On the migrant route
Seals migrate thousands of miles in search of food. Let’s look at some of the classic travels of animals
You would have seen some of the great animal migrations on television. Watch this video and get to know a few more…
Have you witnessed any migrations near your place such as birds flying south for winter? Grab a pair of binoculars or a camera and try to observe the phenomenon!
Hot, hotter, hottest
With four-fifths of its land covered by the desert, Niger is called the ‘frying pan of the world’. Take this quiz and learn about this fascinating country.
Niger is a landlocked country in West Africa. It is surrounded by Algeria, Libya, Chad, Nigeria, Benin, Burkina Faso and Mali. As more than 80% of the land is covered by desert, the country has hot climate with very high temperatures around the year.
Niger has a fast growing population, and nearly half the people are under the age of 15. Did you know that some of the rarest desert species of animals in the world call this region their home? What’s more, this country has some of the world’s largest uranium deposits.
Find out some more interesting facts about this fascinating country by answering the below questions.
Photos: Wikimedia Commons
Quiz Whizz – July 8, 2022
Six questions to give you a mental workout. How many do you know the answer to?
It’s quiz time, folks! Get your grey cells going with this set of questions.
Sweat it out!
For your next workout, try focusing on improving your leg strength with these exercises.
Strength training is an essential part of staying fit. Exercises focusing on the legs are especially important because they help build the leg muscles and improve your performance in your favourite sport. They also reduce the occurrence of muscle-related injuries.
Here are some exercise that you can do at home – with and without props. You can use filled water bottles for weights and your regular football as part of these exercises.
There are 6 exercises in this memory game – given as step 1 and step 2. Match the two-step sequence for each exercise. Example: Leg up and leg down; weights up and down.
Image: Freepik
Swing and Slide
How observant are you? See if you can spot the 10 differences in these two pictures
You are at a park and all you can see are kids having a whale of a time. But these two pictures are not identical. Take a close look and see if you can spot 10 differences between the two.
