Daily Content Archive
(as of Monday, April 10, 2017)| Word of the Day | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| |||
| Daily Grammar Lesson | |
|---|---|
Defining the Active VoiceThe active voice is a type of grammatical voice in which the subject of a sentence is also the agent of the verb—that is, it performs the action expressed by the verb. Why is the active voice typically preferable to the passive voice? More... | |
| Article of the Day | |
|---|---|
 The Shrine of the BookThe Shrine of the Book is the wing of Jerusalem's Israel Museum that houses the Dead Sea Scrolls, a collection of ancient documents found between 1947 and 1956 in caves on the Dead Sea's northwest shore, at Qumran. Funded by the family of David Samuel Gottesman, a philanthropist who purchased the scrolls as a gift to Israel, the shrine features an unusual white dome that covers an underground structure. How does the museum ensure that the fragile scrolls survive the rigors of being displayed? More... | |
| This Day in History | |
|---|---|
 Rudolf Vrba and Alfréd Wetzler Escape from Auschwitz-Birkenau (1944)By 1944, transports were arriving daily at Auschwitz, carrying thousands of Jews destined for the gas chambers and crematoria. Prisoners Rudolf Vrba and Alfréd Wetzler knew that someone had to warn the Jews about what was happening to their deported brethren and alert the world to the atrocities being committed, so they mounted a daring escape and made their way to Slovakia, where they presented a detailed report on the concentration camp to Jewish officials. How did they break out of the camp? More... | |
| Today's Birthday | |
|---|---|
 Joseph Pulitzer (1847)Born in Hungary, Pulitzer immigrated to the US during the Civil War and served in the Union Army. He later became a reporter and purchased and founded several newspapers, establishing the pattern of the modern newspaper by combining investigative reporting with publicity stunts, self-advertising, and sensationalism. In his will, he established the Pulitzer Prizes, annual awards for achievements in American journalism, letters, and music. What famous saying about journalism is attributed to him? More... | |
| Quotation of the Day | |
|---|---|
 There is no excellent beauty that hath not some strangeness in the proportion.Francis Bacon (1561-1626) | |
| Idiom of the Day | |
|---|---|
in (someone's) view— In someone's opinion. More... | |
| Today's Holiday | |
|---|---|
 Salvation Army Founder's Day (2024)April 10 is the day on which William Booth (1829-1912), founder of the international religious and charitable movement known as The Salvation Army, was born in Nottingham, England. With the help of his wife, Catherine, he established the East London Revival Society, which soon became known as the Christian Mission and later The Salvation Army. Although Booth's birthday is observed to varying degrees at Salvation Army outposts around the world, a major celebration was held on the organization's centennial in 1965. More... | |
| Word Trivia | |
|---|---|
Today's topic: songsepisode - First a Greek dialogue between two songs, it is from eis, "into," and hodos, "way." More... lyric poetry - Characterized by an expression of the poet's personal feelings—and originally descriptive of songs accompanied by the lyre (examples are John Keats and Percy Bysshe Shelley). More... melodrama - Meaning "song play," it has a Greek origin—from melos, "music, song"—and it started out as a sensational play interspersed with songs. More... vaudeville - Comes from a French composer calling his songs "chanson du Vau de vire"—"song of the valley of Vire (in Normandy)"—later shortened to "vau de ville." More... | |