Daily Content Archive
(as of Friday, June 17, 2022)| Word of the Day | |||||||
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execrable
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| Daily Grammar Lesson | |
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Using Action VerbsAction verbs are verbs that are used to explain what the subject of a sentence is actively doing. What kind of verb is used to describe a subject's condition or state of being? More... | |
| Article of the Day | |
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 The AbacusAn abacus is a calculation tool, often a frame with beads sliding on wires. Used for centuries before the adoption of the written Arabic numeral system, it is still utilized by merchants in China and elsewhere. Though often attributed to the Chinese, it is thought to have been invented by the ancient Babylonians. The first abacus was probably a flat tablet covered in sand. Lines were drawn in the sand and pebbles were used to make calculations. What is the origin of the instrument's name? More... | |
| This Day in History | |
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 Mumtaz Mahal Dies in Childbirth (1631)Mumtaz was one of the three wives of Mughal emperor Shah Jahan I, his constant companion and trusted confidant—and his favorite. She died during the birth of their fourteenth child, while accompanying him on a military campaign. According to legend, her dying wish was for there to be built a monument to their love. The bereaved emperor soon began to plan a magnificent mausoleum for his late wife, a structure that would take more than 20 years to complete and become what world-famous building? More... | |
| Today's Birthday | |
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 M. C. Escher (1898)Escher was a Dutch graphic artist now famed for prints in which he combined realistic detail with impossible perspectives to achieve bizarre optical illusions, such as staircases that appear to lead both up and down from the same level. He created visual riddles, playing with the pictorially logical and the visually impossible. Though his works have a strong mathematical component, they appeal to mathematicians, scientists, and the public alike. What creature is featured in his final print? More... | |
| Quotation of the Day | |
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 Men marry because they are tired; women because they are curious. Both are disappointed.Oscar Wilde (1854-1900) | |
| Idiom of the Day | |
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a going concern— A business, enterprise, or activity that has done well thus far and is expected to continue making a profit. More... | |
| Today's Holiday | |
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 Broadstairs Dickens Festival (2023)This nine-day festival commemorating the 19th-century novelist Charles Dickens and his association with the English town of Broadstairs features a play adapted from a different Dickens novel each year. The actors are members of the Broadstairs Dickens Players' Society, and they spend about eight months preparing for their June performance. During the festival, the entire town is transformed: people wander through the streets in Dickensian costumes, play croquet and other games popular during the 19th century, and attend bathing parties and social events with a Victorian theme. More... | |
| Word Trivia | |
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Today's topic: small piececollup - A small piece or slice. More... cover slip - The small piece of thin glass that goes over the specimen on a microscope slide. More... brioche - In French, it literally means "split up into small pieces." More... stamp - Originally meant "crush into small pieces; pound"; its sense of "imprint with design by pressure" came into play in the 16th century—and is the semantic basis of postage stamp. More... | |