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overture

(Encyclopedia)overture, instrumental musical composition written as an introduction to an opera, ballet, oratorio, musical, or play. The earliest Italian opera overtures were simply pieces of orchestral music and w...

Mann, James Robert

(Encyclopedia)Mann, James Robert, 1856–1922, American legislator, b. McLean co., Ill. A Chicago lawyer, he held many local offices before serving (1897–1922) as a Republican member of the U.S. House of Represen...

Anti-Saloon League

(Encyclopedia)Anti-Saloon League, U.S. organization working for prohibition of the sale of alcoholic liquors. Founded in 1893 as the Ohio Anti-Saloon League at Oberlin, Ohio, by representatives of temperance societ...

piecework

(Encyclopedia)piecework, work for which the laborer is paid on the basis of the amount of work done. The system is best adapted to standardized operations in which quantity is preferred to quality. Its advocates ma...

Lewis Hills

(Encyclopedia)Lewis Hills, section of the Long Range, W Newfoundland island, Canada, S of the Bay of Islands. It rises to 2,672 ft (814 m), the highest point on the island. ...

parabola

(Encyclopedia)CE5 Parabola parabola pərăbˈələ [key], plane curve consisting of all points equidistant from a given fixed point (focus) and a given fixed line (directrix) (see illustration). It is the conic...

Hook, Sidney

(Encyclopedia)Hook, Sidney, 1902–89, American philosopher, b. New York City, grad. City College (B.S., 1923), Ph.D. Columbia Univ., 1927. He taught at New York Univ. (1927–72) and was long head of its philosoph...

Belgravia

(Encyclopedia)Belgravia bĕlgrāˈvēə [key], fashionable residential section of Westminster, London, England. Belgravia surrounds stately Belgrave Square and touches Grosvenor Place on the east. ...

Pan-American Highway

(Encyclopedia)Pan-American Highway, system of roads, c.16,000 mi (25,750 km) long, linking the nations of the Western Hemisphere. It was suggested at the Fifth International Conference of American States (1923) and...

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