Daily Content Archive
(as of Saturday, January 25, 2020)| Word of the Day | |||||||
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| Daily Grammar Lesson | |
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DashesThere are two similar but distinct punctuation marks called dashes: the en dash ( – ) and the em dash ( — ). What are en dashes used to indicate? More... | |
| Article of the Day | |
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 Perpetual MotionThe expression "perpetual motion" arose in connection to the quest for a mechanism that, once set in motion, would continue to do useful work without an external source of energy. A mechanism using this type of motion, now called perpetual motion of the first kind, would clearly violate the now firmly established principle of conservation of energy. Still, this fact has not deterred inventors throughout history from proposing hypothetical perpetual motion machines. What are some of them? More... | |
| This Day in History | |
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 League of Nations Founded (1919)The League of Nations was an organization for international cooperation, peace, and security established by the Allied Powers at the end of WWI. A league covenant providing for an assembly, a council, and a secretariat was formulated at the Paris Peace Conference and contained in the Treaty of Versailles. Headquartered at Geneva, the League was weakened by the failure of the US, which had not ratified the Treaty of Versailles, to join the confederation. What organization replaced it in 1946? More... | |
| Today's Birthday | |
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 William Somerset Maugham (1874)Maugham was an English novelist, playwright, and short-story writer who abandoned a career in medicine when his first novel had some success. He wrote several popular plays and a total of eight novels before writing his breakthrough masterpiece, the partly autobiographical Of Human Bondage (1915). An expert storyteller, Maugham based many of his stories on his own experiences, including what short story collection that influenced Ian Fleming's James Bond series? More... | |
| Quotation of the Day | |
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 We ought to see far enough into a hypocrite to see even his sincerity.Gilbert Chesterton (1874-1936) | |
| Idiom of the Day | |
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gym bunny— Someone who is obsessively preoccupied with maintaining or improving their physique and thus spends a large amount of time at the gym to do so. More... | |
| Today's Holiday | |
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 Burns Night (2024)Burns Night is the anniversary of the birthday of Scottish poet Robert Burns. The day is celebrated not only in Scotland but also in Newfoundland, and wherever there are devotees of this lusty poet. The celebrations generally take the form of recitations of Burns's poetry, the imbibing of quantities of single-malt Scotch whiskey, and the serving of haggis, a Scottish dish made of a sheep's or calf's innards (liver, heart, etc.) boiled in its stomach. At the point of the carving of the haggis, it is traditional to recite "To a Haggis," with its line, "Great chieftain o' the pudding race!" More... | |
| Word Trivia | |
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Today's topic: malesalpha male - A domineering man; the dominant member in a group of males, especially animals. More... kiva - In Native American Pueblo practices, an underground chamber used by the males for religious rites. More... mixed voices - Voices of both males and females united in the same performance. More... | |