Daily Content Archive
(as of Sunday, February 21, 2021)| Word of the Day | |||||||
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one-horse
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| Daily Grammar Lesson | |
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Verbs that Take Bare InfinitivesThe base form of a verb is simply the infinitive without the particle "to." The base form is used after the direct object of certain action verbs, as well as after what other kind of verb? More... | |
| Article of the Day | |
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 FakirAs wandering religious devotees who embrace poverty and asceticism, Muslim fakirs are similar to the mendicant friars of the Christian tradition. They belong to brotherhoods of Sufi mystics. New disciples are typically bound to an individual teacher and follow an extensive initiation regimen that might include seclusion, sleep deprivation, and fasting. Often regarded as holy men with miraculous powers, fakirs subsist on alms. Whom did Winston Churchill once accuse of posing as a fakir? More... | |
| This Day in History | |
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 German Socialist Kurt Eisner Is Assassinated (1919)Eisner was a German journalist and politician. From 1898, he was editor of Vorwärts, the official Social Democratic Party newspaper. He joined the Independent Social Democratic Party in 1917, later becoming its leader. In November 1918, he organized a Socialist revolution that overthrew the monarchy in Bavaria, and he became the first prime minister and minister of foreign affairs of the new Bavarian republic. In February 1919, Eisner was assassinated while on his way to do what? More... | |
| Today's Birthday | |
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 Andrés Segovia (1893)Segovia was a Spanish guitarist whose transcriptions of early contrapuntal music, along with his concerts and recordings, were largely responsible for the 20th-century resurgence of interest in the guitar and its possibilities as a concert instrument. Almost entirely self-taught, he made his debut in Grenada in 1909 and by the 1920s was touring internationally. He continued to perform into his 90s. Which composers wrote works just for Segovia? More... | |
| Quotation of the Day | |
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 Women have served all these centuries as looking-glasses possessing the magic and delicious power of reflecting the figure of man at twice its natural size.Virginia Woolf (1882-1941) | |
| Idiom of the Day | |
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idiot mittens— Mittens or gloves that are attached to one's sleeves by a length of yarn or string so as to prevent their being lost. More... | |
| Today's Holiday | |
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.svg.png) Lemon Festival (La Fête du Citron) (2024)Since the 1930s the town of Menton, France, has celebrated its annual Lemon Festival. Festival organizers expect about 300,000 people to visit the town during the festival in order to enjoy the parades—featuring larger-than-life-sized figurines made entirely of citrus fruit, a specialty of the region—and other activities. Performances of local folk music and dance also take place during the festival. In addition, visitors may stroll by scenes from famous stories reconstructed out of citrus fruits and displayed in one of the city's parks. More... | |
| Word Trivia | |
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Today's topic: trumpetkazoo, bazooka - Dutch bazu, "trumpet," gives us the words kazoo and bazooka, the latter originally being a form of kazoo that was a long sounding-horn. More... jubilee - Comes from Hebrew yobhel, "ram's horn," which was used as a trumpet to proclaim the jubilee, a year of emancipation and restoration (every 50 years). More... taratantara - The sound of a bugle or trumpet can be called taratantara. More... | |