or problems with speech. Children often
develop a lisp as they are learning to
speak. A lisp is the use of a “th” sound
for “s” and “z” sounds. Some children
develop a stutter. Stuttering includes
repeating sounds, making sounds longer
than normal, or pausing before making
sounds. People who suffer a head injury
or a stroke may develop aphasia. This
disorder makes it difficult for a person
to speak or to understand speech.
Do Animals Speak?
Animals do not use language in the same
way that people do. But many animals
do communicate using sounds. For
example, dogs can whine, bark, growl,
snarl, and howl. These sounds may
express fear, danger, hunger, or other
information. Some birds, such as the
gray parrot, can even copy human
speech. Nevertheless, humans are the
only animals that can use speech to
express complicated ideas.
#More to explore
Communication • Language • Sound
•Writing
Speaking face-to-face is one of the many
ways people communicate with one another.
162 Speech BRITANNICA STUDENT ENCYCLOPEDIA
Sphinx
The sphinx is a creature in mythology. It
has the body of a lion and the head of a
human. Sphinxes appear in the art and
legends of ancient Egypt and ancient
Greece.
Ancient Egyptians made many large
statues of sphinxes. The city of Luxor
has a street lined with sphinxes. The
largest and most famous Egyptian
sphinx was carved near the pyramids of
Giza in about 2500 BC. Called the Great
Sphinx, it has the head of an Egyptian
king.
The ancient Greeks started creating
sphinxes in about 1600 BC. Their
sphinxes had wings. Later Greek
sphinxes were always female. A story of
Greek mythology tells that the Sphinx of
Thebes asked a riddle and ate people
who could not solve it. She asked,
“What animal walks on four legs in the
morning, two legs at noon, and three
legs at night?” Eventually the Greek hero
Oedipus gave the correct answer: a person.
(A person crawls on all fours as an
infant, walks on two legs when grown,
and leans on a cane in old age.) Then
the Sphinx killed herself.
#More to explore
Animals, Legendary • Egypt, Ancient
• Greece, Ancient • Pyramid
Spice
Spices are the dried parts of various
plants that have strong fragrances or
flavors. People use spices to flavor foods.
They also use the oils of spice plants to
make perfumes, cosmetics, toiletries,
and toothpastes. Spices have played an
important role in world history. The
search for spices led many explorers to
discover new lands.
Spices come from the seeds, fruits, or
other parts of certain plants. Cardamom,
black pepper, coriander, poppy,
sesame, and nutmeg are seeds. Cloves
are flower buds, and chilies and allspice
are fruits. Cinnamon is made from the
bark of a tree. Ginger and turmeric are
roots. When leaves of certain plants are
used in a way similar to spices, they are
usually known as herbs.
In ancient times people used spices in
medicines and skin creams. They used
them in religious ceremonies, too.
Sometimes people used spices to keep
foods from spoiling. They also used
spices to hide the bad flavor of meats
that had already spoiled.
The Great Sphinx at Giza, Egypt, is a huge
statue that is roughly 4,500 years old. It has
the body of a lion and the head of an
ancient Egyptian king.
Black pepper
is probably the
most popular
spice. It comes
from a vine
that was originally
found in
India.
BRITANNICA STUDENT ENCYCLOPEDIA Spice 163
Most spice plants grow in warm
regions. Hundreds of years ago, the
people of Europe had to get many of
their spices from India and several
islands that are now part of Indonesia.
Traders used ships and camel caravans
for transportation. The journey
sometimes took as long as two years.
This made spices very expensive. In the
1400s Europeans began searching for
sea routes to East Asia that would make
getting spices easier. These explorations
led to the European discovery of the
Americas.
#More to explore
Americas, Exploration and Settlement of
the • Herb • Plant
Spider
Spiders are eight-legged creatures
known for making silk webs to catch
insects. They live everywhere in the
world except for Antarctica. There are
about 38,000 species, or types, of
spider. They are related to scorpions,
ticks, and mites.
Physical Features
Spiders are about 0.02 to 3.5 inches (0.5
to 90 millimeters) long. The largest spiders
are tarantulas. A spider’s body is
separated into two parts: the cephalothorax
and the abdomen. The cephalothorax
contains the stomach and brain.
The legs are attached to this part of the
body. The abdomen contains the gut,
the heart, the reproductive parts, and
the silk-making parts.
Spiders have four pairs of legs. The legs
may have claws at the tip. A few species
use the first pair of legs as feelers to find
prey.
Spiders have silk-making organs called
spinnerets near the back of their body.
They spin silk from a liquid made by
special glands. It becomes solid thread
after the spider pushes it out of its body.
Many spiders make venom, or poison,
that they shoot into their prey. The
Many kinds of colorful spices are sold in
markets.
A spider waits for insects to fly
into its sticky silk web.
164 Spider BRITANNICA STUDENT ENCYCLOPEDIA
