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Possible definitions for gavel
Cavell
English nurse and heroine of World War I. She began her nursing career in 1895, and in 1907 became first matron of a hospital in Brussels, where she greatly improved the standard of nursing. After the German occupation of Belgium (1914), she became involved in an underground group that helped about 200 Allied soldiers escape to the Netherlands. She was subsequently arrested and executed by the Germans.
favela
In Brazil, a slum or shantytown. A favela gets its start when squatters occupy vacant land at the edge of a city and construct shanties of salvaged or stolen materials. Communities form over time, often developing an array of social and religious organizations and forming associations to obtain such services as running water and electricity. Sometimes the favelados manage to gain title to the land and then are able to improve their homes. Because of crowding, unsanitary conditions, poor nutrition, and pollution, disease is rampant in the poorer favelas and infant mortality rates are high.
Havel
Czech playwright and dissident, first president of the Czech Republic (from 1993). He worked in a Prague theater from 1959 and became resident playwright by 1968. His plays, incl. The Memorandum (1965), are absurdist, satirical examinations of bureaucratic routines that explore the moral compromises made by those living under totalitarianism. They were banned by the communist authorities, and Havel was repeatedly arrested and imprisoned in the 1970s and '80s. During antigovernment demonstrations in 1989, he became the leading figure in the Civic Forum, a coalition of groups pressing for democratic reforms. The Communist Party capitulated (in the bloodless "Velvet Revolution") and formed a coalition government with the Civic Forum, and Havel was elected president in 1989. In 1993 he was elected president of the new Czech Republic.
Ravel
French composer. At 14 he was admitted to the Paris Conservatoire. Completing his piano studies, he returned to study composition with G. Fauré , writing the important piano piece Jeux d'eau and a string quartet. In the next decade he produced some of his best-known music, incl. Gaspard de la nuit for piano (1908) and Rapsodie espagnole (1908). His great ballet Daphnis et Chloé (1912) was commissioned by S. Diaghilev. Other works include the operas L'heure espagnole (1911) and L'enfant et les sortileges (1925), the suites Valses nobles et sentimentales (1911) and Le tombeau de Couperin (1917), the orchestral works La valse (1920) and Bolero (1928), two piano concertos, and many beautiful songs. A careful, precise worker, Ravel possessed great gifts as an orchestrator, and his works are universally admired for their superb craftsmanship; he has remained the most widely popular of all French composers.
Wavell
British army officer. Recognized as an excellent trainer of troops, he became British commander in chief for ...
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