Daily Content Archive
(as of Wednesday, November 2, 2022)| Word of the Day | |||||||
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lashings
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| Daily Grammar Lesson | |
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Using the Past Perfect Continuous for Past Durations of TimeWe can use the past perfect continuous tense to describe the duration of continuous past action. The meaning is very similar to the present perfect continuous tense in this way. However, whereas the present perfect continuous describes an action that was happening up until the present moment, the past perfect continuous highlights what? More... | |
| Article of the Day | |
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 Sharm el-SheikhSharm el-Sheikh is a resort city overlooking the Strait of Tiran, near the southern tip of Sinai at the mouth of the Gulf of Aqaba. Strategically important, it was captured by Israel during the Sinai conflict of 1956 and restored to Egypt in 1957. During the 1967 Six Day War, Israel recaptured the city, returning it in 1982. Today, Sharm el-Sheikh's major industry is tourism, due to the city's dramatic landscape, pleasant climate, and beautiful beaches. What shocked the town in December 2010? More... | |
| This Day in History | |
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 First Major Internet-Distributed Computer Worm Launched (1988)In 1988, Cornell University student Robert Morris launched a program supposedly aimed at measuring the size of the Internet. He had designed the ostensibly harmless program to count the computers connected to the small but growing Web by copying itself to each unit. Due to a design flaw, however, the program spread wildly, repeatedly copying itself to some computers and rendering them useless. A large part of the Internet was affected by the so-called Morris worm. What was Morris's punishment? More... | |
| Today's Birthday | |
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 James Knox Polk (1795)A native southerner and friend of Andrew Jackson, Polk was elected president of the US in 1845. During his administration, the US made large territorial gains. Polk peacefully negotiated the Oregon border dispute with Britain, while the US victory in the Mexican War secured much of the West. Though an efficient and competent president, Polk was exhausted by the time he left office, and he died three months later. Despite his happy marriage, he had no children. What likely rendered him sterile? More... | |
| Quotation of the Day | |
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 Most mothers are instinctive philosophers.Harriet Beecher Stowe (1811-1896) | |
| Idiom of the Day | |
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take a fit— To become very or unreasonably angry or upset; to have an outburst of rage, frustration, or ill temper. More... | |
| Today's Holiday | |
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 Día de los Muertos (2025)Día de los Muertos, or Day of the Dead, is a national holiday in Mexico and is observed in Hispanic communities throughout the U.S. Long before sunrise, people stream into the cemeteries laden with candles, flowers, and food that is often shaped and decorated to resemble the symbols of death. Children eat tiny chocolate hearses, sugar funeral wreaths, and candy skulls and coffins. But the atmosphere is festive. In many homes, people set up ofrendas, or altars, to the departed. These are decked with candles, special foods, and whatever the dead enjoyed when they were alive. More... | |
| Word Trivia | |
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Today's topic: rowwindbreak - A row of trees acting as a fence. More... acrostic - From Greek akron, "end," and stikhos, "row, line of verse." More... queue - Has the forms queued and queuing or queueing; queueing has five vowels in a row. More... row - The verb comes from Germanic ro-, "steer," and row, "orderly line," which is from Germanic raigwa. More... | |