Key terms & definitions

Hardware or software that checks incoming and outgoing network traffic against rules and blocks traffic that is not permitted.

Software stored in a device's hardware that provides instructions for controlling the device.

The description of the Prime Minister as the leading Cabinet member who is nevertheless expected to work collectively with other ministers.

An ultimate cause that does not depend on another cause for its existence or activity.

An argument for God’s existence which reasons that the chain of causes explaining the universe must depend on an original, uncaused cause, identified as God.

A lever system with the fulcrum between the effort and the load.

The result of subtracting one term of a sequence from the next term.

The results obtained by subtracting each term of a sequence from the following term.

China’s programme of centrally planned economic development for 1953–57, which prioritised heavy industry using the Soviet model.

An arrangement that diverts the initial runoff from a collection surface, which may carry accumulated dirt and debris, away from stored water.

The collection of Shakespeare's plays published in 1623, arranged into comedies, histories and tragedies.

The first part of a harvest. In 1 Corinthians 15, Paul uses this image for Christ’s resurrection as the beginning and promise of the resurrection of those who belong to him.

Church payments redirected to the Crown: first fruits were the first year’s income from a newly held church position, while tenths were an annual payment of one-tenth of its income.

Roosevelt’s initial programme, beginning in 1933, of federal action to provide emergency help, revive the economy and change how it was regulated.

The Buddha’s teaching that life involves dukkha and that this suffering needs to be fully understood.

Information an organisation collects directly through its relationship with users, which can help it understand and categorise its audience.

An electoral system in which the candidate with the most votes wins the constituency seat.

An electoral system in which each voter chooses one candidate and the candidate receiving the most votes in a constituency wins its seat.

A narrative perspective in which a narrator uses ‘I’ or ‘we’ to describe events they experience or observe.

Storytelling in which a character recounts events using ‘I’. In Jane Eyre, readers encounter Thornfield through Jane’s experiences and judgements.

Narration in which the speaker refers to themselves as ‘I’ or as part of ‘we’.

Storytelling by a narrator who uses ‘I’ and participates in the events. Readers encounter other characters through that narrator’s perspective.

A narrator who participates in the story and tells it using pronouns such as ‘I’ and ‘me’.

A storyteller who describes events using ‘I’ or ‘we’, presenting them through their own perspective.

A perspective in which a narrator speaks as ‘I’ or ‘we’, presenting their own experience.

The Buddhist commitment to refrain from taking life.

The war fought between Rome and Carthage from 264 to 241 BC, mainly in and around Sicily, which ended in Roman victory.

The informal political alliance formed by Caesar, Pompey and Crassus in 60 BC.

The conflict in which Scots resisted English domination, including the campaigns of William Wallace and Robert Bruce. It remained unresolved when Edward I died in 1307.

The effect on government finances of taxes and other revenues contributed, compared with the cost of public services and support provided.