Daily Content Archive
(as of Friday, December 8, 2017)| Word of the Day | |||||||
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careen
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| Daily Grammar Lesson | |
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Nominal AdjectivesNominal adjectives perform the function of a noun in a sentence. They are preceded by the word "the" and can be the subject or object of a sentence or clause. What are some nominal adjectives that are used to refer to groups of people? More... | |
| Article of the Day | |
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 The Inscription of BehistunCarved about 328 ft (100 m) up the face of a cliff in Iran's Kermanshah Province, the Behistun Inscription recounts the reign of Darius I of Persia in 3 cuneiform languages: Old Persian, Susian, and Assyrian. The decipherment of these 6th century BCE inscriptions provided scholars with the key to cuneiform script, becoming to cuneiform what the Rosetta Stone is to Egyptian hieroglyphs. How were 19th-century scholars able to copy the inscription? More... | |
| This Day in History | |
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 Pope Pius IX Defines Immaculate Conception as Dogma (1854)The Immaculate Conception is the Roman Catholic dogma that asserts that Mary, the mother of Jesus, was preserved from the stain of original sin—the condition of sin that marks all humans as a result of Adam's first act of disobedience—at the moment of her conception. In 1709, Pope Clement XI made the feast of the Immaculate Conception a holy day of obligation—145 years before it became official church dogma. The Immaculate Conception is often confused with what other church doctrine? More... | |
| Today's Birthday | |
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 Camille Claudel (1864)A skilled French sculptor in her own right, Claudel is best remembered for being a student, collaborator, model, and mistress of famed sculptor Auguste Rodin. The two had a tumultuous affair that began to crumble in the 1890s, and Claudel, who suffered from mental illness, became increasingly unstable and reclusive. She was committed in 1913 and remained institutionalized until her death 30 years later. Her work is highly valued by collectors, but little of it survives today. Why is this? More... | |
| Quotation of the Day | |
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 To admit authorities, however heavily furred and gowned, into our libraries and let them tell us how to read, what to read, what value to place upon what we read, is to destroy the spirit of freedom which is the breath of those sanctuaries. Everywhere else we may be bound by laws and conventions—there we have none.Virginia Woolf (1882-1941) | |
| Idiom of the Day | |
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highbrowed— Of or pertaining to heightened intellectualism or superior learning or culture; especially erudite or sophisticated; appealing or suited to highbrows. More... | |
| Today's Holiday | |
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 Uzbekistan Constitution Day (2023)On December 8, 1992, the new constitution of Uzbekistan was signed, creating a democratic system of government for the newly-independent country. Uzbekistan was created in 1924 by the communist government of the Soviet Union and became an independent nation in 1991. On Constitution Day, the country's president usually broadcasts a message of greeting to the Uzbekistan people, in which he reiterates the democratic ideals of the constitution and outlines what steps the government has taken to ensure that those ideals are carried out. More... | |
| Word Trivia | |
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Today's topic: seizingacatalepsy - Greek for "not thoroughly seizing" or "incomprehensibility." More... rapine - Means "the act or practice of seizing and taking away by force the property of others." More... ravishing - Can mean "seizing on prey." More... hend, hent - To hend is to seize or take; hent is the act of seizing. More... | |