Daily Content Archive
(as of Saturday, September 23, 2017)| Word of the Day | |||
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| Daily Grammar Lesson | |
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Adverbs of DegreeAdverbs of degree are used to indicate the intensity, degree, or extent of the verb, adjective, or adverb they are modifying. What are grading adverbs? More... | |
| Article of the Day | |
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 NamasteOne of the few Sanskrit words commonly recognized by non-Hindi speakers, namaste is an Indian gesture, greeting, and parting phrase. Derived from a Sanskrit phrase literally meaning "I bow to you," namaste is universally accepted in India and Nepal by Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs, and Christians. When said to another person, it is commonly accompanied by a slight bow made with the hands held together in front of the chest. What is indicated by placing one's hands entirely above the head? More... | |
| This Day in History | |
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 Merchant Royal Sinks, Taking Cargo of Gold and Silver with Her (1641)A holy grail of marine salvage, the wreck of the Merchant Royal, one of the most valuable of all time, has eluded treasure hunters for centuries. When the leaky, 17th-century English merchant ship sank in rough weather in the vicinity of the Isles of Scilly and southwestern England, she took with her a fabled cargo of gold, silver, and precious gems worth over a billion dollars today. Among the riches lost in the wreck was the money to pay whom? More... | |
| Today's Birthday | |
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.jpg) Typhoid Mary (1869)Mary Mallon was the first person in the US to be identified as a healthy carrier of typhoid fever. In 1904, a typhoid epidemic was traced to homes where she had been a cook. She fled but was located by authorities and forcibly quarantined for several years. In 1910, she was released on the condition that she not take another food-handling job. Discovered cooking again in 1914, she was quarantined for life. Though she herself never had the disease, she infected about 50 people. How many died? More... | |
| Quotation of the Day | |
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 Pyrrhus, when his friends congratulated to him his victory over the Romans under Fabricius, but with great slaughter of his own side, said to them again, "Yes; but if we have such another victory, we are undone."Francis Bacon (1561-1626) | |
| Idiom of the Day | |
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have (something) in (one's) hands— To have under one's control, charge, or care; to have responsibility for something. More... | |
| Today's Holiday | |
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 Aizu Byakko Matsuri (2023)Aizu was once the sturdiest castle in northeast Japan, but it was destroyed in a battle between the Emperor's forces and the Shogun's forces in 1868. The Byakkotai, or White Tiger Band, young men who vowed to lay down their lives in defense of the castle, saw what they thought was fire rising from the walls. Thinking it had fallen into enemy hands, they killed themselves. Each September to commemorate their courage, there is a procession of 500 warriors and a lantern procession through Aizu Wakamatsu, where the original members of the White Tiger Band are buried. More... | |
| Word Trivia | |
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Today's topic: staffbaguette - Means "little rod" and is derived from Latin baculum, "staff, stick." More... dough - As in money, it almost certainly came from bread (another slang term for it), because bread is the staff of life. More... staff - From Germanic stabaz, "stick"; its sense as "employees" is probably an allusion to the carrying of a staff of office by a person in charge. More... miter, mitre, crosier - The tall, pointy hat of a bishop or abbot is the miter/mitre—from Greek mitra, "headdress"; a crosier is a bishop's staff. More... | |