Daily Content Archive
(as of Monday, November 12, 2018)| Word of the Day | |||||||
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clavicle
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| Daily Grammar Lesson | |
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Collective AdjectivesCollective adjectives are nominal adjectives (adjectives that act as nouns) used to refer to a group of people based on a characteristic that they share. What are some common collective adjectives? More... | |
| Article of the Day | |
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 The Midnight SunThe term "midnight sun" refers to the phenomena of 24 consecutive hours of sunlight north of the Arctic Circle or south of the Antarctic Circle. It occurs around the summer solstice—June 21 in the north and December 22 in the south. The odds of encountering night sunshine increase near either pole. Though beautiful, the midnight sun poses special challenges to people living in these areas, as it disrupts sleep schedules and religious rites based around the setting sun. What is "polar night"? More... | |
| This Day in History | |
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 The Exploding Whale Incident (1970)In 1970, a 45-ft (14-m), 8-ton sperm whale died after beaching itself near Florence, Oregon. Charged with disposing of the carcass, the Oregon Highway Division decided that half a ton of dynamite would effectively break the whale into pieces small enough for scavengers to clear. The explosion, which launched large chunks of blubber so far that at least one car was damaged, was filmed by a TV crew and became the stuff of legend. Why did a 50-ton whale spontaneously explode in Taiwan in 2004? More... | |
| Today's Birthday | |
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 Elizabeth Cady Stanton (1815)Stanton was an American reformer and a leader of the women's suffrage movement. In 1840, she married abolitionist Henry Brewster Stanton, and they attended the World's Anti-Slavery Convention in London, where she joined Lucretia Mott in objecting to their exclusion from the assembly. A proponent of legal, political, and industrial equality for women, she later joined forces with Susan B. Anthony in the women's suffrage movement. What one word did Stanton famously omit from her marriage vows? More... | |
| Quotation of the Day | |
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 Revenge triumphs over death; love slights it; honor aspireth to it; grief flieth to it; fear preoccupateth it.Francis Bacon (1561-1626) | |
| Idiom of the Day | |
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gunner's daughter— obsolete A cannon or other such armament used on a naval vessel, to which seamen were bound so as to receive lashings during corporal punishment. (Usually used with the verbs marry, kiss, or hug + the.) More... | |
| Today's Holiday | |
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 Birthday of Sun Yat-sen (2023)Sun Yat-sen (1866-1925) was the leader of the Chinese Nationalist Party (Kuomintang). He served as the first provisional president of the Republic of China (1911-12) and later as its de facto ruler (1923-25). Because he possessed an exceptionally broad knowledge of the West and developed a grand plan for China's industrialization, he is known as "the father of modern China." Sun Yat-sen's birthday is a holiday in Taiwan. The anniversary of his death, March 12, is observed as Arbor Day in Taiwan. More... | |
| Word Trivia | |
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Today's topic: lawsautonomy - From Greek autos, "self," and nomos, "law," i.e. a person or unit that makes its own laws. More... blue sky laws - Laws protecting the public from securities fraud. More... code, codex - Code, from Latin codex, meaning "block of wood split into tablets, document written on wood tablets," was first a set of laws. More... constitute, constitution - Constitute can mean "make laws" and a constitution is a "how-to" document for a government or organization. More... | |