Daily Content Archive
(as of Sunday, June 11, 2023)| Word of the Day | |||||||
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tyro
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| Daily Grammar Lesson | |
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Relative Pronouns as Objects of PrepositionsIn certain cases, relative pronouns can be used as objects of prepositions, meaning the relative pronoun works in conjunction with a preposition to modify the subject or verb of the relative clause. Only three relative pronouns can function as objects of prepositions. What are they? More... | |
| Article of the Day | |
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 PunjabiPunjabi is an Indo-European language spoken in the Punjab regions of Pakistan and India, where there are 80 and 30 million speakers, respectively. Unlike other Indo-European languages, it is tonal, meaning Punjabi words have high or low tones permanently associated with them. Punjabi is the preferred language of the Sikhs, and it is the usual language of Bhangra music, popular in South Asia and abroad. What are the main dialects of Punjabi? More... | |
| This Day in History | |
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 Thich Quang Duc Commits Self-Immolation (1963)In the early 1960s, the policies of South Vietnamese President Ngo Dinh Diem, a member of the Catholic minority, generated claims of religious bias against the vast Buddhist majority. In 1963, Duc, a Buddhist monk, protested by dousing himself with gasoline and burning himself to death at a Saigon intersection. Photos of his self-immolation quickly spread around the world, and the event is widely seen as the turning point that led to a regime change. Which of Duc's organs has been preserved? More... | |
| Today's Birthday | |
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 John Constable (1776)One of the greatest 19th-century British landscape painters, Constable is known primarily for his renditions of the area surrounding his home, which has come to be known as "Constable country." Constable's free use of broken color and his direct observations of nature were extraordinary in his day. He received only modest recognition at home, being tardily admitted to the Royal Academy in 1829, but was more readily accepted in France. What French school of landscape painting did he influence? More... | |
| Quotation of the Day | |
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 You perceive the force of a word. He who wants to persuade should put his trust not in the right argument, but in the right word. The power of sound has always been greater than the power of sense...Give me the right word and the right accent and I will move the world.Joseph Conrad (1857-1924) | |
| Idiom of the Day | |
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go the way of the dinosaur(s)— To become extinct, obsolete, old-fashioned, or no longer in common use. More... | |
| Today's Holiday | |
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 St. Barnabas's Day (2023)Before England adopted the Gregorian calendar in 1752, June 11 was the day of the Summer Solstice. In addition to being the longest day of the year, it was also St. Barnabas's Day (or Barnaby Day), and this association gave rise to the old English jingle, "Barnaby bright, Barnaby bright, the longest day and the shortest night." It was customary on this day for the priests and clerks in the Church of England to wear garlands of roses and to decorate the church with them. Other names for this day were Long Barnaby and Barnaby Bright. More... | |
| Word Trivia | |
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Today's topic: remoteremote - From Latin remotus, the past participle of removere, "remove." More... remote sensing - The scanning of the earth by satellite or aircraft to obtain information about it. More... devious - Its literal meaning is "out of the way," from Latin de via—applied to a place that was remote because it was off the main road. More... remote control - The term existed by 1904, and the shortened version, remote, was used in print by 1966. More... | |