RS Mala Matura flashcards

32 cards. Read the term and the definition here. The deck at the top of this page is optional.

Article 5 NATO

The collective-defence clause of the North Atlantic Treaty stating that an armed attack on one member is an attack on all. Invoked once, after the 11 September 2001 attacks on the United States.

Leap year rule

A year is a leap year if divisible by 4, but century years must be divisible by 400. So 2000 was a leap year and 1900 was not, affecting February's 29th day.

Poland EU accession

Poland became a member of the European Union on 1 May 2004, in the largest single enlargement, together with nine other states including the Baltic countries and Czechia.

Security Council veto

The UN Security Council has five permanent members - China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States - each able to block substantive resolutions by a single negative vote.

Inflation versus deflation

Inflation is a sustained rise in the general price level, measured as an annual percentage change in a price index. Deflation is a negative rate, meaning prices fall.

Polish grammatical cases

Polish nouns and adjectives inflect for seven cases: nominative, genitive, dative, accusative, instrumental, locative and vocative. Case is governed by the verb or preposition in the sentence.

Verb aspect in Polish

Slavic verbs come in aspect pairs. Imperfective forms (czytać, pisać) show ongoing or repeated action; perfective forms (przeczytać, napisać) present the action as completed.

Kochanowski's Treny

A cycle of nineteen funeral laments published in 1580 by Jan Kochanowski, written after the death of his young daughter Urszula. A landmark of Polish Renaissance poetry.

Pan Tadeusz

An epic poem in twelve books by Adam Mickiewicz, published in Paris in 1834. It depicts Lithuanian gentry life and is subtitled the last foray in Lithuania.

Polish literary epochs

Standard order: Middle Ages, Renaissance, Baroque, Enlightenment, Romanticism, Positivism, Young Poland, interwar twenty years, then postwar and contemporary literature. Useful for placing authors chronologically.

Pozytywizm slogans

Polish Positivism after 1864 promoted organic work, work at the foundations, assimilation of Jews and women's emancipation. Prus and Orzeszkowa are its leading prose writers.

Rozprawka structure

The Polish argumentative essay needs an introduction with a thesis, body paragraphs each with a claim and textual evidence, and a conclusion restating the thesis without new arguments.

Quadratic formula

For ax²+bx+c=0 with a≠0, the roots are x=(−b±√Δ)/2a where Δ=b²−4ac. Positive Δ gives two real roots, zero gives one, negative gives none.

Arithmetic sequence sums

The nth term is a₁+(n−1)r, where r is the common difference. The sum of the first n terms is n(a₁+aₙ)/2, or n(2a₁+(n−1)r)/2.

Geometric sequence formula

The nth term is a₁qⁿ⁻¹ with common ratio q. The sum of the first n terms is a₁(1−qⁿ)/(1−q) for q≠1, and na₁ when q=1.

Chain rule

The derivative of a composite function f(g(x)) equals f′(g(x))·g′(x). For example, the derivative of sin(3x) is 3cos(3x).

Sine and cosine rules

In any triangle, a/sin A = b/sin B = 2R, where R is the circumradius. The cosine rule states a²=b²+c²−2bc·cos A.

Combinations formula

The number of k-element subsets of an n-element set is C(n,k)=n!/(k!(n−k)!). Order does not matter, unlike permutations, where P(n,k)=n!/(n−k)!.

Probability addition rule

For any two events, P(A∪B)=P(A)+P(B)−P(A∩B). The subtraction corrects for outcomes counted twice, and vanishes when events are mutually exclusive.

Logarithm change of base

logₐb = log꜀b / log꜀a for any valid base c. This lets you compute logarithms with a calculator that only offers base 10 or natural logs.

Second conditional

Used for unreal or unlikely present situations: if + past simple, then would + base verb. Example: If I had more time, I would learn Japanese.

Third conditional

Describes unreal past situations: if + had + past participle, then would have + past participle. Example: If she had studied, she would have passed.

Reported speech tense shift

When reporting, move the tense one step back: present to past, past to past perfect, will to would. Time words shift too, e.g. tomorrow becomes the next day.

Passive voice formation

Formed with be in the appropriate tense plus the past participle. The active object becomes the subject: They built the bridge becomes The bridge was built.

Defining versus non-defining clauses

Defining relative clauses are essential, take no commas and allow that. Non-defining clauses add extra information, take commas and never use that.

Few versus a few

With countable nouns, a few means some, a small number; few means almost none, with a negative tone. Much and little work the same way with uncountable nouns.

Present perfect use

Have or has plus past participle, linking a past action to present relevance. Used with for, since, already, yet, ever and never, but not with finished past time markers.

Mitosis versus meiosis

Mitosis yields two genetically identical diploid cells for growth and repair. Meiosis yields four haploid gametes, with crossing-over and independent assortment creating genetic variation.

DNA base pairing

In DNA, adenine pairs with thymine by two hydrogen bonds, and cytosine pairs with guanine by three. Replication is semi-conservative, each new molecule keeping one original strand.

Mendel's segregation law

Each organism carries two alleles per gene, and these separate during gamete formation so each gamete receives only one. Recombination at fertilisation restores the pair.

Cellular respiration stages

Glycolysis occurs in the cytoplasm, the Krebs cycle in the mitochondrial matrix, and oxidative phosphorylation on the inner mitochondrial membrane, where most ATP is produced.

Photosynthesis sites

Light-dependent reactions take place in thylakoid membranes, producing ATP and NADPH. The Calvin cycle fixes carbon dioxide in the stroma of the chloroplast.