Daily Content Archive
(as of Tuesday, July 24, 2018)| Word of the Day | |||||||
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saltpeter
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| Daily Grammar Lesson | |
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Using Conjunctive Adverbs of PurposeWe often use conjunctive adverbs to indicate a relationship of reason or purpose between two independent clauses. When we join two independent clauses with a conjunctive adverb, they are traditionally separated with what? More... | |
| Article of the Day | |
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 Mummers PlaysMummers plays, developed in England in the 17th century, are a form of traditional dramatic entertainment based on the legend of St. George and the dragon. The central theme of these plays, which are still performed in parts of Britain around Christmastime, is the death of a hero who is restored to life by a doctor. The word "mummer" has been linked to words such as mumble and mute and non-English words meaning what? More... | |
| This Day in History | |
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 Nixon and Khrushchev Engage in "Kitchen Debate" (1959)The Kitchen Debate was an impromptu debate—conducted through interpreters—between US Vice President Richard Nixon and Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev at the opening of the American National Exhibition in Moscow in 1959. Centering on a discussion of the merits of capitalism versus communism, it took place in the kitchen of a model suburban American house designed to showcase American household appliances, which Nixon touted as examples of American innovation. How did the debate end? More... | |
| Today's Birthday | |
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 Calogero Vizzini (1877)Vizzini, don of the village of Villalba, was one of the most influential Mafia bosses of Sicily following WWII. After the war, the staunch anti-communist was made mayor of Villalba by the Allied occupiers, a move that some might say adds credence to claims that Allied Forces enlisted direct Mafia support during their invasion of Sicily in 1943. Between 1949 and 1954, Vizzini reportedly ruled a lucrative black market operation, allegedly using what business as a front for trafficking heroin? More... | |
| Quotation of the Day | |
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 There can be no covenants between men and lions, wolves and lambs can never be of one mind, but hate each other out and out.Homer (900 BC-800 BC) | |
| Idiom of the Day | |
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get with the times— slang To understand or be knowledgeable of modern times, especially as relates to the contemporary trends, ideas, or fashions. (Usually said as a jocular or sarcastic imperative.) More... | |
| Today's Holiday | |
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 World Santa Claus Congress (2023)The World Santa Claus Congress is held every July at the Bakken amusement park in Klampenborg, Denmark. The three-day event typically brings together more than 100 Santa Clauses from more than a dozen countries, including Japan and Venezuela, discussing such subjects as how to walk like, laugh like, and exude the generous spirit of Santa Claus. They dance around a Christmas tree and enjoy a traditional Danish Christmas feast of roast pork, cabbage and rice pudding. By tradition, the Santas also travel by antique fire engines and buses to a nearby beach for an annual dip in the sea. More... | |
| Word Trivia | |
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Today's topic: plasterdrywall, plasterboard - Drywall is a building material made of a sheet of plaster covered with heavy paper on both sides; it is also called plasterboard. More... gypsum - From Semitic, a relative or ancestor of Arabic jibs and Hebrew gephes, "plaster." More... plaster of Paris - So called because it is prepared from the gypsum of Paris, France. More... trullization - Laying on plaster with a trowel. More... | |