Wikipedia, In Simple English

by Charles McNamara

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“A website is a set of webpages that are joined together.”
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Wikipedia is an Internet encyclopedia project. There are many editions of Wikipedia other than the big English one. (I like Vicipaedia, which has pages written in Latin.) Another edition of Wikipedia is also written in English. It is called Simple English Wikipedia. This article is written like a Simple English Wikipedia page. It is easy to understand for children and people learning English.

Sometimes I use Simple English Wikipedia in my normal life. It can be very helpful! For example, some people use Google Image Search to learn about new things. But Google Image Search can be a dangerous page. You should not use it to learn about skin problems.

Simple English Wikipedia knows everything and can explain difficult ideas in simple words. It is like a helpful teacher who smiles a lot. Here are some difficult ideas that I am trying to understand by reading Simple English Wikipedia:

• “Quantum mechanics (QM) is the part of physics that tells us how the things that make up atoms work. QM also tells us how electromagnetic waves like light work.”

I never took physics. But QM sounds very Simple in Simple English.

• “The categorical imperative is an idea that the philosopher Immanuel Kant had about ethics. Kant said that an ‘imperative’ is something that a person must do. For example: if a person wants to stop being thirsty, it is imperative that they have a drink. Kant said an imperative is ‘categorical,’ when it is true at all times, and in all situations.”

Sometimes I have a “categorical imperative” for nachos.

• “A credit default swap (or CDS for short) is a kind of investment where you pay someone so they will pay you if a certain company gives up on paying its bonds, or defaults.”

Credit default swaps are middle school dares with money.

• “The word fistula comes from a Latin word that means tube or pipe. In medicine, a fistula is an abnormal connection between two hollow spaces. This can be blood vessels, intestines, or other hollow organs.”

Do not use Google Image Search to learn about this word!!!!!

• “Counterpoint is the art of composing music by combining different parts (voices) in a way that sounds nice. Music composed like this is called contrapuntal.”

It is true! Music sounds nice.

• “Bitcoin is a digital and global money system (currency). It allows for the pseudo-anonymous (not linked to a real name) trading of money across the internet. The mathematical field of cryptography is the basis for its security.”

“Pseudo-anonymous” is not Simple English. I reported this page.

• “Ernest Miller Hemingway (July 21, 1899 — July 2, 1961) was an American writer. Hemingway’s sentences were short, the way he had been taught to write at the Kansas City Star newspaper. He wrote about what he knew and felt. He used few descriptive words. His statements were clear and easily understood.”

RIP Ernest Hemingway, our nation’s greatest Simple English Wikipedian.