What is the central idea?

Though forks were first used in China thousands of years ago, it took a long time for them to make their way to what is now the United States.

Ancient Greeks began using forks after the Chinese. However, they did not use forks for eating. They used them for serving food. From Greece, forks moved to the Roman Empire. Romans first used long forks for cooking and serving. By the 300s, they began using table forks to feed themselves.

The table fork spread from there to what is now the Middle East and Turkey, before arriving in Italy and becoming popular in the 1000s. It stayed popular in southern Europe, but was not used much in northern Europe until it first became popular in France and Spain in the 1700s.

The table fork arrived in England from France before making its way to the North American colonies, where it first became popular shortly before the American Revolution.

What is the central idea?

There are many types of lethal venom in the animal kingdom, but perhaps no stranger carrier than the platypus. The platypus is one of few venomous mammals. Males carry a venom cocktail in their ankle spurs that incapacitates victims with excruciating pain. Stranger still, the platypus is the only mammal that uses electroreception. What this means is that the platypus uses its bill to sense the electricity produced by the muscular movements of its prey. The platypus neither sees, hears, nor smells its prey while hunting but, rather, pursues it through electroreception. Perhaps most odd, the platypus is the only mammal that lays eggs rather than giving birth to live young. The platypus is an odd creature indeed.