Daily Content Archive
(as of Tuesday, May 4, 2021)| Word of the Day | |||||||
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conflate
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| Daily Grammar Lesson | |
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Gender-Neutral PronounsIdentifying a single person with a pronoun if their gender is not known can be done by using the third-person plural forms (they, them, etc.) as gender-neutral alternatives to the third-person feminine/masculine forms. What is this sometimes called? More... | |
| Article of the Day | |
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 NasreddinNasreddin is a semi-historical, legendary wise man and wit who features in the folklore of many peoples of the Middle East and Asia. He is said to have lived in Turkey in the 13th century. As tales about him spread throughout the world, he came to be known by a variety of names and titles. Most of the thousands of Nasreddin stories are humorous anecdotes that can be seen to convey morals or deeper meanings that seemingly transcend cultures and national borders. What are some Nasreddin tales? More... | |
| This Day in History | |
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 The May Fourth Movement (1919)The May Fourth Movement was the first mass movement in modern Chinese history. It began with about 5,000 university students in Beijing protesting the Versailles Conference's decision to transfer former German concessions in China to Japan. Demonstrations and strikes spread, and a nationwide boycott of Japanese goods followed. The movement began a patriotic outburst of new urban intellectuals against foreign imperialists and warlords and is often cited as the seminal event that led to what? More... | |
| Today's Birthday | |
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 Audrey Hepburn (1929)Hepburn was a Belgian-born film actress who combined elegance with a radiant, elfin innocence. After spending World War II in the Nazi-occupied Netherlands, she studied ballet and acting in London and was discovered by French writer Colette, who insisted she play the lead in Gigi on Broadway. She made her US film debut in Roman Holiday, for which she won an Academy Award, and then returned to Broadway and won a Tony Award in Ondine. What was Hepburn's last film? More... | |
| Quotation of the Day | |
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 The world is quickly bored by the recital of misfortune, and willingly avoids the sight of distress.W. Somerset Maugham (1874-1965) | |
| Idiom of the Day | |
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be on track— To progress or develop as planned, scheduled, or expected. More... | |
| Today's Holiday | |
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 Kent State Memorial Day (2024)When students at Kent State University in Ohio decided to hold a rally to protest the incursion of U.S. military forces into Cambodia during the Vietnam War, the Ohio National Guard started firing indiscriminately at the crowd. Four Kent State students were killed and nine were wounded; the eight guardsmen involved in the tragic incident were never tried. A candlelight vigil takes place at the Kent State campus every year on May 4, the anniversary of the 1970 shootings. It begins at midnight on May 3 and lasts for the next 12 hours. More... | |
| Word Trivia | |
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Today's topic: shockingchurch key - Started out as slang for bottle opener in the early 1950s and was considered mildly shocking, even sacrilegious. More... flagrant, blatant - Flagrant implies shocking and reprehensible, while blatant is obvious, contrived, and usually obnoxious; flagrant is a stronger term than blatant. More... forbysen, bysen - Forbysen is an "example or parable"; bysen is a "shocking thing." More... tingle - From Middle English, possibly a variant of tinkle, its original meaning was "response to a loud noise" and "response to hearing something shocking." More... | |