THE EXPRESS TRIBUNE, AUGUST 5, 2012
Did you know?
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ou y g n i h t d o o g a It’s . . . n a t ’ n were Aztec So you may think you have a tough life, what with school, homework and your parents nagging you to eat healthy and sleep on time BUT believe me, it could be a LOT worse! For example: Aztec parents had high expectations for their children. They expected them to be both hard-working and dutiful. Younger children were assigned simple tasks like fetching fire wood or carrying water while the older boys learned to farm and fish from their fathers. Girls learned domestic skills like cooking and weaving from their mothers. Parents would routinely punish children if they didn’t behave or do their chores. Pretty normal, right? Wait till you hear the rest! While some parents merely beat their children, others would stab them with cactus spines or even force them to inhale hot pepper fumes. Then there was also the matter of sacrificing children. While the Aztecs primarily sacrificed war captives from other tribes, a small number of children were also sacrificed.
Word Origins To get off scot free If you get off scot free you avoid punishment for doing something that deserves punishment. For example, “Although the police caught him red-handed, the judge said there wasn’t enough evidence and he got off scot free”. The word scot in this sense has nothing to do with Scotland or Scotsmen, however. Scot is believed to be an old German word that is related to the words shot and shoot. In medieval England the scot was a tax paid by the members of a village or town. All the inhabitants had to pay it. Some people avoided the scot because their houses were built in unfavourable places such as hills with no water or places prone to flooding. Such people were described as scot free and the term has now come to describe anyone who avoids a punishment.
Cool facts The sailfish can swim at the speed of 109 km/h, making it the fastest swimmer. The crocodile’s tongue is unmovable, as it is attached to the roof of its mouth. Goats are quite agile creatures and in some cases they can jump over 5 feet. The colour red doesn’t really make bulls angry; they are colour-blind. A herd of unicorns is called a blessing. The oldest recorded elephant lived for 82 years. According to records there are 50 million monkeys in the world! Dog nose prints are as unique as human finger prints and can be used to identify them.