Daily Content Archive
(as of Thursday, June 7, 2018)| Word of the Day | |||||||
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viviparous
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| Daily Grammar Lesson | |
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Forming Interrogative SentencesWhen we make sentences into questions, we almost always use auxiliary verbs that are inverted with the subject. This is known as subject-verb inversion. We can also use "question words" to ask more nuanced questions, but we still use auxiliary verbs and subject-verb inversion. What are some examples of question words? More... | |
| Article of the Day | |
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 Mirror BoxesBetween 50 and 80 percent of amputees experience phantom limb sensations, feelings that an absent limb is still present. These sensations are often painful. In the early 1990s, neurologist Vilayanur S. Ramachandran hypothesized that the phenomenon might be caused by changes in the brain rather than in peripheral nerves and developed the mirror box to alleviate the discomfort. A simple device, it creates the visual illusion that the phantom limb has reappeared. How is this believed to help? More... | |
| This Day in History | |
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 US Supreme Court Decides Griswold v. Connecticut (1965)In 1961, Estelle Griswold, executive director of the Planned Parenthood League of Connecticut, opened a birth control clinic for women in deliberate defiance of an 1879 law outlawing the use or distribution of contraceptives. She was arrested and fined. Her appeal made it to the US Supreme Court, which stated in a landmark 1965 decision that married couples had a right to "marital privacy," which included the right to use birth control. When was the same right extended to unwed individuals? More... | |
| Today's Birthday | |
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 Paul Gauguin (1848)First a sailor and then a successful stockbroker in Paris, Gauguin took up painting on weekends when he was in his mid-20s. Eventually, with the encouragement of Impressionist painter Camille Pissarro, he devoted himself completely to art, quitting his job and separating from his wife and five children. Today, he is recognized as a highly influential founding father of modern art whose bold experiments with color led directly to the Synthetist style. What did Gauguin and Van Gogh have in common? More... | |
| Quotation of the Day | |
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 It is easy to find fault, if one has that disposition. There was once a man who, not being able to find any other fault with his coal, complained that there were too many prehistoric toads in it.Mark Twain (1835-1910) | |
| Idiom of the Day | |
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drive (someone) potty— To make someone particularly annoyed, vexed, or crazy. Primarily heard in UK. More... | |
| Today's Holiday | |
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 Great American Brass Band Festival (2023)This weekend re-creation of the golden age of brass bands in America is held at Centre College in Danville, Kentucky. About a dozen bands from throughout the U.S. and Canada play Sousa march music, ragtime, and jazz in the New Orleans funeral-march style. A highlight is a band playing over-the-shoulder instruments of the Civil War period; the music blew to the rear of the band so it could be heard by the troops marching behind. The festival begins with a hot-air balloon race, and music then continues through the weekend. More... | |
| Word Trivia | |
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Today's topic: sunsetoccultation - One of its meanings is "the disappearance from view of a star or planet in the sun's rays after sunset or before sunrise, when the star or planet is above the horizon." More... acronical - Means happening at sunset or twilight. More... antitwilight - The sky's pink or purple glow after sunset. More... evening - Its Old English base meant "grow towards night," as evening extends from sunset to dark. More... | |