History, Literature, and Science Practice Flashcards

This set of vocabulary flashcards covers key historical events, literary movements and figures, scientific concepts, and food preservation techniques based on the lecture notes.

Aesthetic Movement

A literary and artistic movement born in England in the late nineteenth century that believed in “art for art’s sake,” meaning art should exist only for beauty and not teach moral or social lessons.

Dandy

An elegant and sophisticated man who transformed his own life into a work of art; a figure embodied by Oscar Wilde.

The Picture of Dorian Gray

Published in 1891, it is Oscar Wilde's only novel and depicts the story of a man whose portrait ages and shows his soul's corruption while he remains young.

Blade Runner

The nickname given to Oscar Pistorius because he used carbon-fibre prosthetic blades for athletics training and competitions.

Christmas Truce of 1914

An extraordinary event during World War I where soldiers from both sides left their trenches to meet in No Man’s Land to exchange gifts and play football.

No Man’s Land

The dangerous area situated between enemy lines during the trench warfare of World War I.

Treaty of Versailles

The 1919 treaty that officially ended World War I but imposed harsh punishments on Germany, including reparations and loss of territories.

Golden Twenties

A period from 1924 to 1929 in the Weimar Republic characterized by relative prosperity, social progress, and cultural flourishing.

Sylvia von Harden

A journalist portrayed by Otto Dix in a 1920s painting as a symbol of the “new emancipated woman,” characterized by an androgynous look and a monocle.

Jesse Owens

An African American athlete who challenged the Nazi ideology of Aryan superiority by winning four gold medals at the 1936 Berlin Olympics.

Luz Long

A German athlete who showed sportsmanship by helping Jesse Owens qualify for the long jump final during the 1936 Olympics.

Tora tora tora

A Japanese navy code meaning “surprise attack,” used during the military strike on Pearl Harbour on December 7th, 1941.

Manhattan Project

The scientific program directed by Robert Oppenheimer that developed the atomic bombs used at the end of World War II.

Einstein's Mass-Energy Equivalence

$E = m \times c^{2}$: A principle explaining that matter can be transformed into energy, which underlies the phenomenon of radioactivity.

Enola Gay

The name of the airplane, named after Paul Tibbets’s mother, that dropped the first uranium atomic bomb on Hiroshima.

Cuban Missile Crisis

An October 1962 confrontation between the US and the Soviet Union regarding the installation of Soviet nuclear missiles in Cuba.

Warren Commission

The official investigation that concluded Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone in the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.

Great Migration

The movement of African Americans from the rural South to northern industrial cities in the early 20th century to find better jobs and escape racist laws.

Harlem Renaissance

An artistic, political, and social movement in New York City where Black artists and intellectuals created a new identity based on pride and dignity.

Jazz

A musical genre born in New Orleans from a mix of African rhythms and European traditions, characterized by improvisation.

Rosa Parks

Known as “the mother of the Civil Rights Movement,” she was arrested in 1955 for refusing to give up her seat on a segregated bus in Alabama.

Soul music

A genre born from the combination of Gospel and Rhythm & Blues, with Ray Charles considered its father.

Black Lives Matter

A movement created in 2013 that fights against racism and police brutality, becoming internationally famous after the death of George Floyd in 2020.

Nutrigenetics

The study of how an individual's DNA influences their response to food.

Nutrigenomics

The study of how food and nutrients can affect gene expression.

Freeze-Drying (Lyophilisation)

A preservation method involving freezing food and placing it in a vacuum to remove moisture through ice sublimation.

Pasteurisation

A process of heating food to $50$-$70$ degrees for $15$-$30$ seconds to kill certain bacteria and disable enzymes before cooling.

HPP (High Pressure Preservation)

A food preservation method that uses pressure to destroy the DNA structure of bacteria while retaining food properties.

Must

The mixture of grape juice and pulp created by crushing grapes during the winemaking process.

Tannin

Compounds found in grape skins that are present in red wine because it is fermented with the skins.

Agar Art

A modern form of scientific art created by growing colored colonies of microorganisms on agar plates in a laboratory.

Stream of consciousness

A narrative technique representing the free, unfiltered flow of thoughts and associations between past and present.

Interior monologue

A literary technique that presents a character’s flow of thoughts in a grammatically structured and organized way.

Dubliners

A collection of short stories published by James Joyce in 1914, which includes the story of Eveline Hill.