gifted child Child naturally endowed with a high degree of general mental ability or extraordinary ability in a specific domain. Although the designation of giftedness is largely a matter of administrative conve¬ nience, the best indications of giftedness are often those provided by teachers and parents, supplemented by data from IQ tests and cumulative school records. In most countries an IQ level above a certain point (vari¬ ously, 120-135) may qualify the child for advanced educational programs. See also genius.
gigantism Excessive growth, resulting from heredity, diet, or growth regulation disorder. Androgen deficiency causes long bones to continue growing after they would normally stop. Overproduction of growth hormone —usually due to a tumour—causes pituitary gigantism (see pitu¬ itary gland). With gradual but continuous growth, height may reach 8 ft (240 cm), with normal proportions. Greater susceptibility to infection, injury, and metabolic disorders shortens the life span. Surgery or radia¬ tion can be employed to curtail further growth. Gigantism often occurs With ACROMEGALY.
gigue Vzheg\ Dance derived from the English jig that was popular as a lively court dance in 17th-century Europe. Originally a solo dance, in its courtly form it was danced by couples in formal ballet style to music in 6 /s or l2 A time. As a musical form, it became the last movement in the standard suite.
Gijon \ke-‘kon\ Seaport city (pop., 2001: 266,419), on the Bay of Bis¬ cay, Asturias autonomous community, northwestern Spain. Founded before Roman times, it was captured by the Moors early in the 8th cen¬ tury. It was retaken c. 737 and served as the capital of the kingdom of Asturias until 791. It was burned during civil wars in 1395. In the 16th and 17th centuries it suffered many pirate attacks. The remnants of the Spanish Armada took refuge in Gijon in 1588. It is the site of Roman baths and medieval palaces.
Gikuyu See Kikuyu
Gil Robles \kel-'ro-blas\ (y Quinones), Jose Maria (b. Nov. 27, 1898, Salamanca, Spain—d. Sept. 14, 1980, Madrid) Spanish politician. A lawyer, in 1931 he formed the Catholic party Accion Popular, which became the main component of the right-wing coalition CEDA, a pow¬ erful bloc in the Spanish Second Republic after 1933. In 1935 he served as minister of war. In 1936 he led an alliance of CEDA and other con¬ servative parties in the Cortes, but the majority of seats were held by the leftist Popular Front. When the Spanish Civil War broke out, he purchased arms for the rebels, then lived in exile in Portugal (1936-53, 1962-64). He worked to establish a Christian Democratic party in Spain and after Franco’s death (1975) reemerged briefly as a political leader.
Gila Vhe-ta\ Cliff Dwellings National Monument National pre¬ serve, southwestern New Mexico, U.S. Located in the Gila National For¬ est near the headwaters of the Gila River, it contains groups of small but well-preserved Pueblo Indian dwellings in natural cavities of an overhang¬ ing cliff 150 ft (45 m) high. The dwellings were inhabited c. ad 100-1300. Established in 1907, the monument occupies 533 acres (216 hectares).
Gila monster One of the only two species (both in the family Helo- dermatidae) of venomous lizards, named for the Gila River basin and found in the southwestern U.S. and northern Mexico. The Gila monster {Heloderma suspectum ) grows to about 20 in. (50 cm) long, is stout¬ bodied with black and pink blotches or bands, and has beadlike scales. During warm weather, it feeds at night on small mammals, birds, and eggs and stores fat in the tail and abdomen for the winter. It is sluggish but has a strong bite. The venom (a neurotoxin) is conducted along grooves in the teeth from glands in the lower jaw. Bites are rarely fatal to humans. The other venomous species is the Mexican beaded lizard ( H . horridum ).
Gila River River, New Mexico and Arizona, U.S. Rising in southwestern New Mexico in the Elk Mountains, near the Gila Cuff Dwellings National Monument, it flows 630 mi (1,015 km) west over desert land to the Colo¬ rado River at Yuma, Ariz. Coolidge Dam (1928) on the Gila near Globe, Ariz., is used for irrigation; the dam, together with Roosevelt Dam on the Salt River, stores all available surface water, so the Gila riverbed is dry down to the Colorado. Its valley is the chief habitat of the Gila monster.
Gilbert, Cass (b. Nov. 24, 1859, Zanesville, Ohio, U.S.—d. May 17, 1934, Brockenhurst, Hampshire, Eng.) U.S. architect. He briefly attended Massachusetts Institute of Technology, then worked briefly for the firm of McKim, Mead & White. For some years his 60-story Woolworth Build¬ ing (1910-13) in New York City, with its Gothic detail in terra-cotta over a steel frame, was regarded as a model of tall commercial building design (it was for years the tallest building in the world). Other works include the U.S. Supreme Court Building, Washington, D.C. (completed 1935), and the campuses of the universities of Minnesota and Texas. Though not highly original, Gilbert was an acknowledged leader of his profession in the U.S. during a period in which monumental architecture predominated.
Gilbert, Sir Humphrey (b. c. 1539—d. September 1583, at sea near the Azores) English soldier and navigator. The half brother of Sir Walter Raleigh, he proposed in his Discourse (1566) a voyage in search of the Northwest Passage. Queen Elizabeth I rejected the idea and sent him to Ire¬ land (1567-70), where he ruthlessly suppressed an uprising, for which he was knighted. In 1578 he set out with seven ships, intending to colonize North America, but through his poor leadership some ships returned to England and others turned to piracy. He sailed again in 1583, this time arriving in Newfoundland, which he claimed in the name of the queen.
Gilbert, Sir W(illiam) S(chwenck) (b. Nov. 18, 1836, London, Eng.—d. May 29, 1911, Harrow Weald, Middlesex) British librettist. His early ambition was for a legal career, but in 1861 he began to publish comic ballads, illustrated by himself and signed “Bab.” In 1870 he met Arthur Sullivan, and they soon produced the light opera Thespis (1871), which was followed by Trial by Jury (1875) and four productions staged by Richard D’Oyly Carte: The Sorcerer (1877), H.M.S. Pinafore (1878), The Pirates of Penzance (1879), and Patience (1881). Carte built the Savoy Theatre in 1881 for productions of the partners’ work, which became known as the “Savoy Operas”; these later operettas included Iolanthe (1882), Princess Ida (1884), The Mikado (1885), Ruddigore (1887), The Yeomen of the Guard (1888), and The Gondoliers (1889). Mounting tensions between Gilbert and Sullivan led to a break, but they reunited in 1893 to produce Utopia Limited and later The Grand Duke (1896). Gilbert died of a heart attack brought on while rescuing a woman from drowning. His lyrics include some of the finest comic verse ever written in English.
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Gilbert and Ellice Islands ► ginkgo I 763
Gilbert and Ellice Islands Former British colony, western central Pacific Ocean. The colony consisted of the Gilbert Islands, Tuvalu (formerly Ellice islands), the northern Line Islands, and the Phoenix Islands. First vis¬ ited by Europeans by the early 19th century, the group was proclaimed a British protectorate in 1892 and made a crown colony in 1916. In 1979 the colony was divided and formed parts of independent Kiribati and Tuvalu.
Gilbert Islands Group of 16 coral atolls (pop., 1995: 65,939), part of the island nation of Kiribati, western Pacific Ocean. The islands, including Tarawa, the largest, occupy a total land area of 105 sq mi (272 sq km). The British visited them in the 18th and 19th centuries, and in 1892 they became a British protectorate. In 1916 they became part of the Gilbert and Ellice Islands crown colony. They were occupied by Japanese forces from 1941 to 1943 and saw heavy fighting. Made a separate territory in 1976, they became part of Kiribati in 1979.