Daily Content Archive
(as of Friday, July 7, 2023)| Word of the Day | |||||||
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threnody
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| Daily Grammar Lesson | |
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Defining Adverbial NounsAdverbial nouns are nouns or noun phrases that function grammatically as adverbs to modify verbs and certain adjectives. Why are they sometimes referred to as "adverbial objectives"? More... | |
| Article of the Day | |
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 Witch HazelWitch hazel refers to a family of trees and shrubs found in Japan, China, and North America. They are deciduous shrubs that usually grow 10-26 ft (3-8 m) tall but can reach 40 ft (12 m). The fruit of the witch hazel is a two-parted capsule, 1 cm long, that bursts in Autumn and shoots seeds up to 33 ft (10 m) away. The plant's hard wood is used in cabinet making, and an astringent is extracted from its bark and leaves. The plant's branches have been used in what form of divination? More... | |
| This Day in History | |
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 Construction of Hoover Dam Begins (1930)Standing 726 ft (221 m) high and 1,244 ft (379 m) long, the Hoover Dam on the Colorado River between the US states of Nevada and Arizona is one of the world's largest dams, impounding Lake Mead, the country's largest reservoir. Upon its completion, it was the world's largest electric power producing facility and the world's largest concrete structure. In fact, some of the concrete is still curing today, and there is enough concrete in the dam to pave a two-lane highway from New York to where? More... | |
| Today's Birthday | |
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 Satchel Paige (1906)Reputed to have won 2,000 of the 2,500 games he pitched during his nearly 30-year career, Paige first made a name for himself playing in the Negro baseball leagues. In 1948, shortly after Jackie Robinson broke baseball's race barrier, the 42-year-old Paige entered the major leagues. In his first season, he helped his team earn a World Series victory. In 1971, he became the first Negro leagues star to be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame. Who called Paige the best pitcher he ever faced? More... | |
| Quotation of the Day | |
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 A mother is a mother still,The holiest thing alive. Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834) | |
| Idiom of the Day | |
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guess again— A rhetorical imperative indicating that the person being spoken to is mistaken about, and thus should reconsider, something. More... | |
| Today's Holiday | |
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 Festival of Juno Caprotina (2023)Juno was the ancient Roman goddess of women and marriage, identified with the Greek goddess Hera. As the highest deity in the Roman pantheon next to Jupiter, her brother and husband, she ruled all aspects of women's lives, including sexuality and childbirth, and served as a kind of guardian angel for women. The two most important festivals in honor of Juno were the Juno Caprotina (or Nonae Caprotinae) and the Matronalia. The former was held under a wild fig tree in the Campus Martius, or Field of Mars, a floodplain of the Tiber River. More... | |
| Word Trivia | |
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Today's topic: pondlake - First meant pool or pond. More... nursery - Can be a pond in which fry are reared. More... tank - May have come from Gujarati tanku, or Marathi tanke, "underground cistern," from Sanskrit tadaga, "pond." More... pond - To pond is to accumulate water in a pond, which is really a small lake. More... | |