Daily Content Archive
(as of Monday, July 31, 2017)| Word of the Day | |||
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| Daily Grammar Lesson | |
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Defining Attributive AdjectivesAttributive adjectives are adjectives that describe a characteristic (or attribute) of the noun or pronoun that they modify. They form part of a noun phrase, appearing immediately before (or sometimes after) the noun in a sentence. Why are attributive adjectives usually considered in opposition to predicative adjectives? More... | |
| Article of the Day | |
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 PaperweightsAppreciated more for their aesthetic value than their practical aspects, paperweights are collected as examples of fine craftsmanship by approximately 20,000 enthusiasts worldwide. Produced both by sole artisans and in factories where artists and technicians collaborate, paperweights come in many different varieties, and their value is determined based on their design, rarity, and condition. What was the record sum once paid for an antique French paperweight? More... | |
| This Day in History | |
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 Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty Signed by the US and USSR (1991)Signed five months before the collapse of the Soviet Union, the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty was a result of negotiations aimed at reducing the nuclear arsenals of the US and the USSR. In 1991, at the conclusion of two sets of talks, US President George H.W. Bush and Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev agreed to a reduction of the Soviet Union stockpile from 11,000 to 8,000 nuclear weapons and of the US arsenal from 12,000 to 10,000. How many warheads is each country estimated to have today? More... | |
| Today's Birthday | |
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 Primo Levi (1919)Two years after earning a degree in chemistry, Levi, an Italian Jew, was captured by the Nazis and sent to Auschwitz. He later recounted the atrocities he witnessed in autobiographical novels including If This Is a Man, which has been described as one of the most important works of the 20th century. His best known work, The Periodic Table, is a collection of 21 meditations, each named for a chemical element. What entertainer has Levi's concentration camp number tattooed on his arm? More... | |
| Quotation of the Day | |
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 As a man without forethought scarcely deserves the name of a man, so forethought without reflection is but a metaphorical phrase for the instinct of a beast.Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834) | |
| Idiom of the Day | |
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the gray dollar— The economic purchasing power of elderly people as a group. Primarily heard in US. More... | |
| Today's Holiday | |
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 Feast of St. Ignatius Loyola (2023)St. Ignatius Loyola (1491-1556) founded the Society of Jesus, the Roman Catholic religious order whose members are known as Jesuits. The Feast of St. Ignatius is celebrated by Jesuits everywhere, but particularly in the Basque region of Spain where he was born. The largest Basque community in North America, located in Boise, Idaho, holds its annual St. Ignatius Loyola Picnic on the last weekend in July—an event often referred to as the Basque Festival. More... | |
| Word Trivia | |
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Today's topic: huskbeer nut - A peanut served with its husk but not its shell. More... brown sugar, brown rice - Brown sugar is unrefined or partially refined; brown rice is unpolished with only the husk removed. More... husk - A shortening of Dutch huisken, "little house." More... paddy - As in "field," it is from a Malay word meaning "rice in the straw or husk" (making rice paddy redundant). More... | |