Category Archives: Reference

These are materials for teachers and parents, and you’ll find, in this category, teachers copies and answer keys for worksheets, quotes related to domain-specific knowledge in English Language Arts and social studies, and quotes on issues of professional concern. See the Taxonomies page for more about this category.

She-Ji or She-Chi

Posted on May 27, 2026 | Leave a comment

“She-Ji or She-Chi: Ancient Chinese compound deity of the soil and harvests. China’s earliest emperors worshiped She (earth), for they alone had responsibility for the entire earth and country. Since ordinary people had no part in this courtly worship, the came to focus their worship on the god of grain (Ji). Local shrines held two images, one of She and one of Ji, and eventually the two images were considered man and wife.”

Excerpted from: Stevens, Mark A., Ed. Merriam Webster’s Collegiate Encyclopedia. Springfield, Massachusetts: Merriam-Webster, 2000.

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Red Guards

Posted on May 27, 2026 | Leave a comment

“Red Guards: Radical university and high-school students formed into paramilitary units of the Chinese Cultural Revolution. They responded in 1966 to Mao Zedong’s call to revitalize the revolutionary spirit of the Chinese Communist Party and went so far as to attempt purging the country of its pre-Communist culture. With a membership in the millions, they attacked and persecuted local party leaders, schoolteachers, and other intellectuals. By early 1967 they had overthrown party authorities in many localities. Internal strife ensued as units argued over which best represented Maoist thought. Their disruptions of industrial production and urban life led the government to redirect them to the countryside in 1968, where the movement gradually subsided.”

Excerpted from: Stevens, Mark A., Ed. Merriam Webster’s Collegiate Encyclopedia. Springfield, Massachusetts: Merriam-Webster, 2000.

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Tokyo Trials

Posted on May 27, 2026 | Leave a comment

“Tokyo Trials: The war crimes trials of Japanese leaders after World War II. Between May 1946 and November 1948, 27 Japanese leaders appeared before an international tribunal charged with crimes ranging from murder and atrocities to responsibility for causing the war. Seven, including the former Prime Minister, Tojo Hideki, were sentenced to death and 16 to life imprisonment (two others receiving shorter terms), but General MacArthur refused to allow the Emperor Hirohito to be tried for fear of undermining the postwar Japanese state.”

Excerpted from: Wright, Edmund, Ed. The Oxford Desk Encyclopedia of World History. New York: Oxford University Press, 2006.

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Sukarno

Posted on May 20, 2026 | Leave a comment

“Sukarno: (1901-1970) First president of Indonesia (1949-66). Son of a Javanese schoolteacher, he excelled in languages, mastering Javanese, Sudanese, Balinese, and modern Indonesian, which he did much to create. He emerged as a charismatic leader in the country’s independence movement. When the Japanese invaded in 1942, he served them as a chief adviser, while pressuring them to grant Indonesia independence. Immediately following Japan’s defeat, he declared independence; the Dutch did not transfer sovereignty until 1949. Once he became president, Indonesia made gains in health, education, and cultural self-awareness, but democracy and the economy floundered. His government was corrupt, inflation soared, and the country experienced a continuous state of crisis. An attempted coup by communists in 1965 led to a military takeover by Suharto and a purge of alleged communists left some 300,000 dead.”

Excerpted from: Stevens, Mark A., Ed. Merriam Webster’s Collegiate Encyclopedia. Springfield, Massachusetts: Merriam-Webster, 2000.

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Sumatra

Posted on May 20, 2026 | Leave a comment

“Sumatra: Island, West Indonesia. It is one of the Sunda Islands and the second-largest island of Indonesia. It is 1,060 miles (1,706 kilometers) long and 250 miles (400 kilometers) wide; a chief city is Palembang. Located on the seaborne trade routes, it had early contact with Hindu civilization. The kingdom of Srivijaya arose in the 7th century and came to dominate much of the island. It fell under the Majapahit empire in the 14th-16th centuries. First the Portuguese, then the Dutch and English established forts there beginning in the 16th century. It was occupied by Japan in World War II; in 1950 became part of the Republic of Indonesia. Its exports include rubber, tobacco, coffee, pepper, and timber products; mineral reserves include petroleum and coal.”

Excerpted from: Stevens, Mark A., Ed. Merriam Webster’s Collegiate Encyclopedia. Springfield, Massachusetts: Merriam-Webster, 2000.

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James Wong Howe

Posted on May 20, 2026 | Leave a comment

“James Wong Howe originally Wong Tung Jim: (1899-1976) U.S. cinematographer. At age 5 he emigrated with his family to the U.S. He worked in Hollywood from 1917 and became a cameraman for Cecil B. DeMille. He developed innovations in lighting in the 1920s and pioneered the use of the wide-angle lens, deep focus, and the handheld camera. His low-key cinematography is seen in such films as Kings Row (1942), Body and Soul (1947), Picnic (1956), The Rose Tattoo (1955, Academy Award), and Hud (1963, Academy Award).”

Excerpted from: Stevens, Mark A., Ed. Merriam Webster’s Collegiate Encyclopedia. Springfield, Massachusetts: Merriam-Webster, 2000.

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Bhakti

Posted on May 15, 2026 | Leave a comment

“bhakti: South Asian devotional movement, particularly in Hinduism, emphasizing the love of the devotee for his or her personal god. In contrast to Advaita, bhakti assumes a dualistic relationship between devotee and deity. Though Vishnu, Shiva, and Shakti (see shakti) all have cults, bhakti characteristically developed a around Vishnu’s incarnations as Rama and Krishna. Practices include reciting the god’s name, singing hymns, wearing his emblem, and making pilgrimages. The fervor of South Indian hymnists in the 7th-10 centuries spread bhakti and inspired much poetry and art. Poets such as Mirabai conceived of the relationship between the worshiper and the god in familiar human terms (e.g. the lover the beloved), while more abstract poets such as Kabir and Nanak portrayed the divinity as singular and ineffable.”

Excerpted from: Stevens, Mark A., Ed. Merriam Webster’s Collegiate Encyclopedia. Springfield, Massachusetts: Merriam-Webster, 2000.

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Bhagavata

Posted on May 15, 2026 | Leave a comment

“Bhagavata: Member of the earliest recorded Hindu sect, representing the beginnings of theistic, devotional worship and modern Vaishnavism. The Bhagavata sect originated in the Mathura region c.3rd—2nd century BC and spread through western, northern, and southern India. The faith centers on devotion to a personal god, variously called Vishnu, Krishna, Hari, or Narayana. The Bhagavadgita (1st—2nd century AD) is the earliest exposition of the Bhagavata system, but it central scripture is the Bhagavata Purana. The sect was prominent within Vaishnavism until the 11th century, when bhakti (devotional worship) was revitalized by Ramanuja.”

Excerpted from: Stevens, Mark A., Ed. Merriam Webster’s Collegiate Encyclopedia. Springfield, Massachusetts: Merriam-Webster, 2000.

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Babylon

Posted on May 8, 2026 | Leave a comment

“Babylon An ancient city in Mesopotamia, first prominent under Hammurabi who made it capital of the kingdom of Babylonia. The city (now in ruins) lay on the Euphrates 55 miles south of present-day Baghdad and was noted for its luxury, its fortifications, and particularly for the ‘Hanging Gardens,’ which were one the Seven Wonders of the World.”

Excerpted from: Wright, Edmund, Ed. The Oxford Desk Encyclopedia of World History. New York: Oxford University Press, 2006.

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Adana

Posted on May 8, 2026 | Leave a comment

“Adana: City (population 2019: 1,769,000) south central Turkey, on the Seyhan River. An agricultural and industrial center and one of Turkey’s largest cities, it probably overlies a Hittite settlement that dates from c.1400 BC. Conquered by Alexander the Great in 335-334 BC, it was later a Roman military station. It came under the rule of the Abbasid Arabs at the end of the 7th century AD and changed hands intermittently until the establishment of the Turkmen dynasty in 1378. Adana’s prosperity has long derived from the fertile valleys behind it and its position as a bridgehead on the Anatolian-Arabian trade routes.”

Excerpted from: Stevens, Mark A., Ed. Merriam Webster’s Collegiate Encyclopedia. Springfield, Massachusetts: Merriam-Webster, 2000.

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