Daily Content Archive
(as of Friday, February 17, 2017)| Word of the Day | |||
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| Daily Grammar Lesson | |
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Using Suffixes to Create Nouns of RecipienceNominalization refers to the creation of a noun from verbs or adjectives. For verbs that become nouns to represent someone who is the recipient of an action, we often use which suffix? More... | |
| Article of the Day | |
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 South Africa's "Big Hole"In 1866, a small, white pebble, which turned out to be a 21-carat diamond, was found on the banks of the Orange River in South Africa. When a second, larger diamond was found in 1871, a diamond rush brought miners to the area by the thousands. Eventually, five big holes were dug, and the largest, known as the "Big Hole," yielded three tons of diamonds before it was closed in 1914. What company, founded during the rush, is now responsible for about 40 percent of the world's diamond production? More... | |
| This Day in History | |
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 The Armory Show Opens in New York City (1913)The Armory Show was an international exhibition of modern art held in 1913 at the 69th-regiment armory in New York City. Representing a range of avant-garde movements in Europe, the show was one of the most important art exhibitions ever held in the US. The Armory Show aroused the curiosity of the public and helped to change the direction of American painting. What painting at the exhibition was singled out by hostile critics as emblematic of the so-called insanity and degeneracy of modern art? More... | |
| Today's Birthday | |
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 Thomas John Watson, Sr. (1874)After rising from clerk to sales executive in the National Cash Register Co., Watson became president of the Computing-Tabulating-Recording Co., which made scales, time clocks, and tabulators that sorted information using punched cards—all forerunners of mainframe computers. Watson renamed the company International Business Machines Corp. (IBM) in 1924 and became its chairman in 1949, widening IBM's line to include electronic computers. What one-word motto did Watson promote at IBM? More... | |
| Quotation of the Day | |
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 Oh, the nerves, the nerves; the mysteries of this machine called Man! Oh, the little that unhinges it: poor creatures that we are!Charles Dickens (1812-1870) | |
| Idiom of the Day | |
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horse and rabbit stew— A situation comprised of both crude or unpleasant things as well as those which are pleasing or beneficial, usually with the former in greater proportion to the latter. Used especially in reference to economics or business. More... | |
| Today's Holiday | |
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 Fornacalia (2024)The Fornacalia, or Feast of Ovens, was designed to benefit the ovens (fornices) that parched grain and was held to placate the goddess Fornix, who presided over them. It lasted a week, during which each household made an offering of far, flour of the oldest kind of Italian wheat, served in the form of cakes. According to Ovid, those who were uncertain which curia, or tribal divisions of Rome, they belonged to ended up observing this festival on February 17 instead of on the proper day. At this time a general offering of cakes was made by the whole community. More... | |
| Word Trivia | |
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Today's topic: modecomportment, deportment - Deportment adds the sense of action or activity to a mode of conduct or behavior; comportment, "behavior or bearing," does not have this. More... dictionary - Based on Latin dictio(n-), "mode of expression" or "word," then dictionarius, "a repertory of words or phrases." More... diet - Comes from Greek diaita, "a way of life, mode of living." More... mode - Originally a tune or air and later a scheme of sounds. More... | |