Page Type: Middle

What’s the name of the sport where players kick a round ball into a goal? In most countries, it’s called football. But in the U.S., it’s called soccer. Where did the term soccer come from, and why do Americans use it?

The word came not from the U.S. but from England. In the 1880s, students at the University of Oxford in England called this sport association football. They also played another football-type sport called rugby. Sometimes they used nicknames for these sports. Rugby was called rugger and association football was called assoccer. Over time, assoccer was shortened to soccer.

In England, people eventually settled on the names for these two sports. They were rugby and football. But Americans kept using the term soccer. That’s probably because Americans developed another sport that involves kicking a ball, which they call football!

Why are planets round, while asteroids aren’t? A space object’s shape has to do with its mass and the effect of gravity.

Think of the planets, which are all spherical. This is because the gravitational force of a planet’s mass pulls all its material toward the center, resulting in a sphere.

Smaller objects have less mass, so their gravity is not enough to smooth out their shape. Asteroids, for example, may look like potatoes or like pieces of gum that have been chewed. In other words, they take on weird, irregular shapes. Gravity doesn’t affect an asteroid’s shape, but other things can. For example, sometimes two asteroids collide and stick together. If you imagine two lumps of clay being smashed together, you’ll get a sense of why this might result in an odd shape!

Did you know that Hawaii once had kings and queens? Take a journey through the long history of the 50th U.S. state…

The first European to set foot in Hawaii was Captain James Cook of England, in 1778. By the time Cook arrived, people had been living on the islands for about 1,500 years.

People first arrived in Hawaii in about 300 CE. They probably originated in the Marquesas Islands and traveled thousands of miles by canoe until they reached the Hawaiian Islands. For centuries, Hawaiians lived in small communities ruled by chieftains. The Hawaiian people developed a culture rich with oral storytelling, music, and a vast knowledge of local plants and animals. This is what Captain Cook would have observed when he first visited Hawaii in 1778.

By 1810, the islands were ruled by one leader—King Kamehameha I—who had conquered all of Hawaii. Hawaii would be ruled by monarchs for another nearly 85 years.

A man in Kentucky found buried treasure. Does this mean there are more treasures to be found? Possibly! Here are just a few treasures that are rumored to be hidden.

• According to legend, when the U.S. Civil War began, a Kentucky man named William Pettit buried about $80,000 (worth about $1.5 million today) in gold coins on his farm. He died before he could dig up the money, and it has never been found.
  
  
• In 1641, a ship called the Merchant Royal sank near the coast of Britain after a voyage from Mexico, which was then a Spanish colony. The ship was carrying 100,000 pounds (45,000 kilograms) of gold and 400 bars of silver that the Spanish had taken from Mexico. In 2019, authorities found what they believe is the ship’s anchor. The ship—and its treasure—remain hidden.
  
  
• In the early 1800s, Thomas J. Beale found an abandoned mine containing gold, silver, and jewels in what’s now the U.S. state of Colorado. He and a group of other people hid the treasure and wrote three coded messages that revealed its location. He put the messages in an iron box and gave it to an innkeeper in Virginia, telling him to open the box if he did not return in 10 years. After more than two decades, the innkeeper opened the box but was unable to crack the code. To this day, only one of the messages has been deciphered, and the treasure hasn’t been found.

Some bear species are harder to identify than others. Most people know a panda bear’s distinctive look, but it can be more difficult to tell a grizzly bear (otherwise known as a brown bear) from an American black bear. You can’t go by fur color. Confusingly, some black bears are actually brown!

So, how can you tell these two species apart? Here are some key differences.

Grizzly Bear

• It stands 3 to 5 feet (0.9 to 1.5 meters) at the shoulder. 
• It has a hump at the shoulder.
• Its rear end is lower than the shoulder hump.
• Its ears are short and round.
• Its front claws are slightly curved and 2 to 4 inches (5 to 10 centimeters) long.
• Claw marks are often visible in its tracks.

American Black Bear

• It stands 2 to 3.5 feet (0.6 to 1.0 meters) at the shoulder.
• Its shoulders are level or flat with its back.
• Its rear end is higher than its shoulders.
• Its ears are tall and oval shaped.
• Its front claws are curved and less than 2 inches (5 centimeters) long.
• Claw marks are not always visible in its tracks.

There are 56 known species of rat in the world! Here’s a little more you might not know about rats.

1. The Bozavi woolly rat is believed to be the largest species of rat. It’s about 32 inches (81 centimeters) long (including the tail) and weighs more than 3 pounds (1.4 kilograms). The common house rat weighs about 12 ounces (0.34 kilograms).
   
   
2. Rats can start having litters when they are five weeks old!
   
   
3. For a long time, scientists believed that rats were responsible for spreading a disease called the plague through Europe in the 1300s. Today, they believe the rodents that spread the plague were actually gerbils.
   
   
4. Rats’ teeth never stop growing, so they need to gnaw constantly. Rats are famous for being able to chew through soft concrete, wood, plastic, and even cinder blocks.
   
   
5. Rats are intelligent and very social. For this reason, when rats are obtained from a responsible seller, they can make good pets.

Flying taxis may be in our immediate future. But what about flying cars for all? Decades ago, people envisioned a future in which highways stretched across the skies and regular drivers flew their vehicles around town. So why are we still grounded?

It turns out that several flying cars have already been invented. In 2022, for example, the Federal Aviation Administration approved a car called the Samson Sky Switchblade for test flights. The Switchblade looks like a regular car when it’s operated on the ground but can sprout wings and take flight. Two downsides are that it requires a runway for takeoff and will cost more than $100,000. Samson says many people have reserved cars—for whenever they’re available to buy. The video will give you an idea of how the Switchblade would work.

A great white shark had a starring role in one of the biggest movies ever. Released in 1975, Jaws was about a gigantic great white that terrorizes swimmers at a beach in the northeastern U.S. The movie was a huge hit. So was the novel it was based on. But was Jaws fair to sharks?

Steven Spielberg doesn’t think so. Spielberg directed Jaws, but in a 2022 interview, he said he later realized that the movie gave sharks an unfair reputation as horrible monsters. After the Jaws movie came out, sharks were fished at a rate that caused their population to decline.

“I truly…regret the [destruction] of the shark population because of the book and the film,” Spielberg told BBC Radio 4.

Is your home sweltering in the summer? Before you crank up the air-conditioning (if you’re lucky enough to have air-conditioning, that is), check out these tips for beating the heat at home.

• • If you have a ceiling fan, use it! Ceiling fans don’t actually cool the air, but they can make a room feel cooler. Most ceiling fans have a switch at the base that allows you to change the direction they spin. (Turn the fan off before you change its direction.) It’s important to make sure the fan’s blades are moving counterclockwise in the summer, creating a downward breeze.
  • Close blinds and curtains. Sure, afternoon sunlight can make a room feel toasty in the winter. But that heat becomes a lot less welcome in July. In the summer, be sure to close your blinds or curtains before the Sun has a chance to heat things up. It also helps to put plants in front of windows that get a lot of sunlight.
  • If the evenings or early mornings are fairly cool, take advantage! Open the windows, if possible, but be sure to close them before the day heats up. You can also put a box fan in the window to help bring that cool air inside.
  • If it’s super hot, try putting a bowl of ice in front of a fan. This will create the effect of an air conditioner—until the ice melts!
  • Wear light-colored clothing. Like white paint, light-colored clothing will absorb less heat than dark clothing.
  • Turn down the air-conditioning. If you must use the air conditioner, try setting the thermostat (the part that determines the indoor temperature) one degree higher. This will save energy while still cooling you down.

  
  Remember, extreme heat can be dangerous, especially for the very young, older people, and pets. If the temperature is high, take it easy and drink plenty of water. And if you or family members need some relief, see if it’s possible to go to a store, a library, or another public place that’s air-conditioned.