Daily Content Archive
(as of Tuesday, January 31, 2017)| Word of the Day | |||
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| Daily Grammar Lesson | |
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Understanding Non-Restrictive Relative ClausesNon-restrictive relative clauses give us additional information about a noun that has already been identified, but this information is not essential for the sentence to make sense. Only two of the relative adverbs, "where" and "when," can be used to introduce non-restrictive relative clauses; "why" cannot. What is the non-restrictive relative clause in the following sentence? "Paris, where I want to live, is the most beautiful city in the world." More... | |
| Article of the Day | |
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 TessellationsTessellations are patterns of carefully juxtaposed, non-overlapping shapes—like the multicolored tiles of a mosaic—that fill a given surface. They have been used throughout history, from ancient architecture to modern art, and are frequently found in the works of M.C. Escher. Regular tessellations, which are highly symmetrical and made up of congruent, regular polygons, can only be formed using equilateral triangles, squares, or hexagons. Where can tessellations be observed in the natural world? More... | |
| This Day in History | |
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 Ham the Chimp Becomes First Hominid Launched into Outer Space (1961)Ham was chosen from 40 chimpanzee flight candidates at New Mexico's Holloman Air Force Base to be the first hominid launched into outer space. He was named after an acronym for the lab that prepared him for his historic mission—the Holloman Aerospace Medical Center—and was trained to do simple tasks. In 1961, he was launched into space in a Project Mercury capsule from Cape Canaveral, Florida, and splashed down in the Atlantic Ocean a short time later. What became of Ham after his space flight? More... | |
| Today's Birthday | |
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 Franz Schubert (1797)One of the most gifted musicians of the 19th century, Schubert was an Austrian composer who wrote his first of nine symphonies in 1813 at the age of 16. He wrote more than 600 songs, many to the lyrics of German poets, and also composed music for the stage, overtures, choral music, masses, and piano music. He died at 31, having produced more masterpieces by that age than almost any other composer in history. Schubert was buried beside what other famous composer? More... | |
| Quotation of the Day | |
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 They say that none of us exists, except in the imagination of his fellows, other than as an intangible, invisible mentality.Edgar Rice Burroughs (1875-1950) | |
| Idiom of the Day | |
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by hell or high water— By any means necessary; regardless of any difficulty, problem, or obstacle. More... | |
| Today's Holiday | |
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Nauru Independence Day (2024)This island in the Pacific Ocean gained independence from Great Britain on January 31, 1968. It had been governed by Australia. Independence Day is a national holiday in Nauru. More... | |
| Word Trivia | |
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Today's topic: open spacelaund - An open space in the woods, like a glade or pasture. More... step-thru - Refers to having an open space in an otherwise solid object through which a person can step or walk, e.g. a motor-scooter has a step-thru frame. More... agoraphobia - Based on Greek agora, "open space," it was not the first phobia described, which was actually hydrophobia in the mid-16th century. More... concourse - An open space for people to move about in an airport terminal (or a set of gates) or other transport station. More... | |