Ten Things I Learned at the Age of Twelve 1. The Black Plague was transmitted by fleas that were carried throughout Europe by rats. 2. If you first paralyze it, you can cut open a frog and watch its lungs continue to inflate and deflate. 3. There are seven forms of the verb to be: am, being, been, is, was, were, and are. 4. In order to divide fractions, you invert the divisor to arrive at the reciprocal, which is then multiplied by the dividend. (Mixed fractions must first be converted to improper fractions.) 5. In Salem, the witches weren't burned at the stake--they were pressed to death under big rocks . . . or hanged. 6. Islam was founded in the year 610. It is the third of three world religions worshiping the same God. 7. Each point on a "coordinate plane" (created by the joining of an x-axis and a y-axis) can be described by an ordered pair of numbers. 8. "Monotheism" is a belief system centered on a single deity, while "polytheism" subscribes to belief in multiple deities. 9. The area of a circle can be determined by using the formula pr2, where r is the radius of the circle. 10. How to please a woman. Excerpted from Boy Toy by Barry Lyga All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.
