World Cup

World Cup commonly refers to:

World Cup can also refer to:

Athletics

Badminton

Bandy

Baseball and softball

Basketball

Chess

Cricket

Equestrian

Football

American football

Association football

World Cup of Pool

The World Cup of Pool is the international annual single-elimination tournament for doubles teams in nine-ball pool competition. It is held annually, at various locations, and was first held in 2006 in Newport, Wales. The tournament is hosted by Matchroom Sport and used to be sponsored by PartyPoker.com. The 2014 event was sponsored by Betway. The 2015 event is sponsored by Dafabet.

Format

There are usually 32 participating teams, representing 31 nations (the host nation have two teams represented, A and B) composed of two players each. The participating nations do not have to go through a qualifying tournament in order to join, as they are selected by the organizers. Sixteen teams are seeded; they will face the unseeded teams at the first round.

The individual matches are scotch doubles, and races to nine racks, except for the final which is more than nine racks, with alternating break. The rules used are World Pool-Billiard Association World Standardized Rules for nine-ball, modified for scotch doubles play (players on a team alternate shots; no one shoots twice in a row).

Naoki Prize

The Naoki Prize is a Japanese literary award presented semiannually. The official name is Naoki Sanjugo Prize. It was created in 1935 by Kikuchi Kan, then editor of the Bungeishunjū magazine, and named in memory of novelist Naoki Sanjugo. Sponsored by the Society for the Promotion of Japanese Literature, the award recognizes "the best work of popular literature in any format by a new, rising, or (reasonably young) established author." The winner receives a watch and one million yen.

Kikuchi founded the Naoki Prize with the Akutagawa Prize, which targets the newcomer of serious literature. The two prizes are viewed as "two sides of the same coin" and inseparable from one another. Because of the prestige associated with the Naoki Prize and the considerable attention the winner receives from the media, it, along with the Akutagawa Prize, is one of Japan's most sought after literary awards of recognition.

Winners

1st–100th

101st to present

Winners available in English translation

A cappella

A cappella [a kapˈpɛlla] (Italian for "in the manner of the chapel") music is specifically group or solo singing without instrumental accompaniment, or a piece intended to be performed in this way. It contrasts with cantata, which is accompanied singing. The term "a cappella" was originally intended to differentiate between Renaissance polyphony and Baroque concertato style. In the 19th century a renewed interest in Renaissance polyphony coupled with an ignorance of the fact that vocal parts were often doubled by instrumentalists led to the term coming to mean unaccompanied vocal music. The term is also used, albeit rarely, as a synonym for alla breve.

Religious origins

A cappella music was originally used in religious music, especially church music as well as anasheed and zemirot. Gregorian chant is an example of a cappella singing, as is the majority of secular vocal music from the Renaissance. The madrigal, up until its development in the early Baroque into an instrumentally-accompanied form, is also usually in a cappella form. Jewish and Christian music were originally a cappella, and this practice has continued in both of these religions as well as in Islam.