Comic strips

A comic strip is a story told in a series if pictures published in a newspaper. The New York Daily Graphic was the first newspaper to feature a comic strip. It started on 11 September 1875 with Professor Tigwissel’s Burglar Alarm. The first regular strip was The Yellow Kid, which began in a supplement of the New York World on 5 May 1895. A syndicated comic strip is one that appears in more than one newspaper. Some appear in hundreds of papers all over the world. In the UK, weekly collections of cartoon strips and jokes began to appear in the 1880s and 1890s. Comics such as Dandy (1937) and Beano (1938) are still published today. From the 1890s in the USA, series of cartoon strips began to appear in newspapers and were syndicated nationwide. Katzehjammer Kids, which was first published in 1897, still appears in many newspapers and magazines.
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Bestsellers

These are some of the best selling books ever. But the Bible has outsold them all. It is believed to have sold more than six billion copies in hundred of versions and translations. One of the best selling books of all time is a collection of quotations by Chinese leader Mao Zedong, known as his Little Red Book. Between 1966 to 1971 every Chinese adult had to own a copy and 900 million were printed. J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings trilogy was first published in 1954 – 55. It has sold well over 100 million and its sales received a further boost when the films based on the books were released between 2001 and 2003. The American Spelling book by Noah Webster (1783) was used in American schools for generations. It has sold nearly 100 million copies. The Common Sense Book of Baby and Child Care by American doctor Benjamin Spock came out in 1946. Since then more than 50 million copies have been sold.
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Largest libraries

A library is a collection of books and other printed material. The word library can also be used to describe the building where a collection of books is kept, as well as manuscripts, maps, periodicals and photographs. Below are the world’s largest libraries, each containing over 10 million books. The Library of Congress, Washington DC, USA was founded in 1800 and holds 32,124,001 books. The British Library, London, UK was founded in 1753 and holds 29,000,000 books. Library of the Russian Academy of Sciences, St Petersburg, Russia was founded in 1714 and holds 20,500,000 books. National Library of Canada, Ottawa, Canada was founded in 1953 and holds 19,500,000 books. Deutsche Bibliothek, Frankfurt, Germany was founded in 1990 and holds 22,200,000 books. The Russian State Library, Moscow, Russia was founded in 1862 and holds 17,000,000 books. Harvard University Library, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA was founded in 1636 and holds 15,826,570 books
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Types of book 1

Glossary – a list of words and phrases used in a particular subject area, for instance A Glossary of Computer Terms.
Language dictionary – a dictionary that gives translations of words and phrases to and from other languages, for example a French – English/English – French Dictionary.
Monograph – a book on a specialized subject, such as the work of a particular artist.
Novel – a work of fiction, usually involving imaginary people. A historical novel may be about real historical characters.
Novella – a short work of fiction
Phrasebook – a book for travelers, with translations of words and phrases into and from a foreign language.
Pop up book – a book, usually for children, made so that pictures stand up or move when the pages are opened.
Thesaurus – a book organized to show words with similar meanings.
Travel guide – a book of information about a particular country or area.
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Types of book

Almanac – this is an annual calendar of dates and events. It originally contained astronomical facts and figures, but now includes useful statistics and other information. Almanac is sometimes spelled almanack.
Autobiography – an account of a person’s life written by himself or herself. Sometimes a “ghost” writer may help someone write an autobiography.
Biography – a book about someone’s life written by another person.
Dictionary – an alphabetical list of words and their meanings. There are also dictionaries on a single subject, for example Dictionary of Art.
Dictionary of quotations – a listing of interesting remarks or extracts from the writings of famous people.
Directory – an alphabetical list of names and addresses of people or organizations.
Chronology – a dictionary of dated events.
Encyclopedia – a book of articles on many subjects, arranged alphabetically. Encyclopedias are often published in many volumes or, today, on CD – ROM or on the internet.
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Chinese and Japanese alphabets

These are logographic writing systems. This means that each symbol represents a word, or part of a word, instead of a sound. The Chinese system has 40 – 50,000 characters and the Japanese system has 18,000, but you need to know only about 2,000 and 1,850 respectively to get by in these languages. In 1966 the Chinese language changed quite dramatically, when books and newspapers were printed with the characters running horizontally from left to right rather than vertically from right to left. There is now a phonetic alphabet known as pin – yin, made up of 25 letters taken from the Roman alphabet. Most Chinese characters are made up of eight basic strokes. These are all in the character for eternity. Words in a Chinese dictionary are in order of the number of strokes they contain. Chinese verbs and adjectives usually contain only one character or syllable, but nouns often consist of two characters or more.
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Alphabets

An alphabet is the basis of a system of writing, using letters or characters to represent sounds or words. These are some of the oldest and most important alphabets. The Greek alphabet is the oldest surviving European alphabet. The early Greek alphabet was written from right to left, but by about 500 BC it was written from left to right. The Greeks introduced an upper case and a lower case. The Cyrillic alphabet was invented in the 9th century by two Greek missionaries, St Cyril and his brother St Methodius. It is used for Slavonic languages such as Russian, Bulgarian and Ukrainian. The Russian Cyrillic alphabet originally had 43 letters, but the number was reduced to 33 after the Russian revolution of 1917. Like the Greek alphabet, Cyrillic also has upper case and lower case versions of the alphabet. Hebrew is written horizontally from right to left. Also, sometimes the letters are used as numerals.
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National parks 2

Lake District (founded 1951; 2,292 sq km / 885 sq miles). This is the largest and most visited of Britain’s national parks. The parks receive a total of 100 million visitors a year. Wood Buffalo (founded 1922; 44,807 sq km/ 17,300 sq miles) this area of Canada contains forests, plains and many lakes. It has the largest herd of wild buffalo anywhere on Earth as well as many rare species such as the whooping crane. Wrangell – St Elias (founded 1980; 33,820 sq km/ 13,057 sq miles) this national park in Alaska is the largest in the USA. It contains the most glaciers and peaks higher than 4,880 m in North America, as well as many wild animals, including bears, wolves and moose. Yellowstone (founded 1872; 8,991 sq km/ 3,471 sq miles) this area of the rocky mountains in the USA is famed for its hot springs and geysers. Most famous is the Old Faithful geyser which sprays steam and water up to 56 m.
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National parks 1

National parks are established by governments to preserve areas of land and the plants and animals they contain. Yellowstone national park in the US, set up in 1872, was the first. There are now more than 1,200 national parks in 100 or more countries. These are a few examples of the different types. Everglades (founded 1934; 5,929 sq km/ 2,289 sq miles) The Everglades, USA is the only subtropical park in North America. Many different types of creatures live in its swamps, including alligators. Great Barrier Reef (founded 1979; 343,800 sq km/ 132,742 sq miles) Australia’s Great Barrier Reef, off the coast of Queensland, is the world’s largest coral reef system, supporting many rare marine animals and plants. Galapagos Islands (founded 1986; 6,937 sq km/ 2,678 sq miles) these volcanic islands off the coast of Ecuador are home to birds, seals and unique creatures including giant turtles and marine iguanas.
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