A player who wins all four is said to have
won the Grand Slam.
Tenzing Norgay
Tenzing Norgay was an expert mountain
climber. In 1953 he and Edmund Hillary
of New Zealand became the first
people to set foot on top of Mount Everest,
the world’s tallest peak.
Tenzing Norgay was born on May 15,
1914, in Tshechu, Tibet. He was a
Sherpa. Sherpas are people known for
their strength and endurance at high
altitudes. Tenzing worked on many
Everest expeditions. On March 10,
1953, he began climbing with a group
that included Hillary. The two men
reached the top on May 29. Tenzing left
a food offering, a common practice in
Doubles tennis is played with two players
on a side. A doubles court is slightly wider
than a singles court.
46 Tenzing Norgay BRITANNICA STUDENT ENCYCLOPEDIA
his Buddhist religion. He died on May
9, 1986, in Darjeeling, India.
#More to explore
Everest, Mount • Hillary, Edmund
Teresa, Mother
The Roman Catholic nun called Mother
Teresa received the Nobel peace prize in
1979 for helping to relieve the sufferings
of the poor. She was especially active in
the slums of Calcutta (now Kolkata),
India.
She was born on August 27, 1910, in
Skopje, Macedonia. Her birth name was
Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu. In 1928 she
joined a community of nuns in Ireland
called the Sisters of Loretto.Weeks later
she sailed to India. For the next 17 years
she taught at a school in Calcutta run by
the Sisters of Loretto.
In 1946 Mother Teresa decided to
spend her life helping the sick and the
poor. She studied nursing and started
working in the slums. In 1948 she
founded the Missionaries of Charity, a
religious order of women dedicated to
serving the poor. Mother Teresa led the
order for nearly 50 years. It opened
schools for children and centers to treat
the blind, the disabled, the old, and the
dying. She received many awards for
her work.
In 1989 Mother Teresa suffered a heart
attack. Despite her poor health, she continued
to work in Calcutta most of the
time until she retired in March 1997.
She died there on September 5, 1997.
After her death, the Missionaries of
Charity carried on her work in more
than 90 countries.
#More to explore
Roman Catholicism
Termite
Termites are insects that eat wood. They
can damage buildings, furniture, and
other wooden items. There are more
than 1,500 species, or kinds, of termite.
They are most common in tropical rain
forests.
Termites build damp nests in wood or
underground. Some underground nests
rise partly above the ground as mounds
or towers. The nests are made of dirt,
clay, and chewed wood.
Termites live in organized groups called
colonies. Each colony has three kinds of
In 1963 the
Indian government
awarded
Mother Teresa
the title
Padmashri
(“Lord of the
Lotus”) for her
services to the
people of
India.
Mother Teresa
BRITANNICA STUDENT ENCYCLOPEDIA Termite 47
termite: royalty, soldiers, and workers.
Each kind of termite has a certain job
within the colony.
The royalty is made up of a king and
queen. They are responsible for reproduction.
These termites have wings and
eyes. A queen can grow to more than 4
inches (10 centimeters). Kings are
smaller.
Once a year pairs of young kings and
queens leave the nest. Each pair starts a
new colony. Soon the young queens
begin laying 3,000 to 5,000 eggs a day.
The soldiers and the workers are grayish
white, blind, and wingless. They are
usually less than 0.25 inch (1 centimeter)
long. Soldiers guard the nest against
enemies, mainly ants.Workers provide
the colony with food.
Termites eat mostly wood. They attack
and often destroy trees, fence posts,
houses, and furniture. But termites also
help nature by breaking down dead
wood into nutrients. The nutrients can
then be recycled and used by bacteria
and plants.
#More to explore
Insect • Nest
Terrorism
Terrorists are people who use fear to try
to change society. They create fear by
committing violent crimes. In the 21st
century many countries consider terrorists
to be more dangerous than enemy
armies.
Goals
Not all terrorists want the same thing.
Some want to overthrow a government.
They are called revolutionary terrorists.
Examples include the Red Brigades in
Italy in the 1970s and the Shining Path
in Peru in the 1980s and 1990s. Both
groups wanted to establish Communist
governments.
Other terrorists want independence for a
particular group. In Sri Lanka a group
called the Liberation Tigers seeks a
homeland for the Tamil people. Several
Palestinian groups want to start a Palestinian
state in the Middle East and to
weaken or destroy Israel.
Some terrorists oppose minority groups.
The Ku Klux Klan (KKK) was formed
in the United States in the 1860s to
prevent African Americans from voting.
Later the KKK also targeted Catholics,
Jews, and other groups.
Sometimes the rulers of a country practice
another kind of terrorism by killing
Termites eat their way through a piece of
wood.
48 Terrorism BRITANNICA STUDENT ENCYCLOPEDIA
their own citizens. Such rulers want to
make people afraid to go against their
power. Joseph Stalin of the Soviet Union
and Saddam Hussein of Iraq ruled by
terror.
Methods andWeapons
Terrorists often use bombs. They might
