Python is an interactive, object-oriented scripting language that is highly readable. It uses English keywords instead of punctuation and has less complex syntax than other languages. Pythonpath tells the interpreter where to locate importable module files, including the Python source library and source code directories. The Pythonstartup environment variable specifies the path containing Python source code that runs at interpreter startup. Tuples are immutable sequences surrounded by parentheses, while lists are mutable sequences surrounded by brackets. There are five ways to reverse a string in Python, including using a loop, recursion, stack, extended slice syntax, or the reversed built-in function.