Daily Content Archive
(as of Thursday, December 2, 2021)| Word of the Day | |||||||
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raze
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| Daily Grammar Lesson | |
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Subjunctive MoodThe subjunctive mood refers to verbs that are used to describe hypothetical or non-real actions, events, or situations. What is the subjective mood most commonly used to express? More... | |
| Article of the Day | |
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 The Spanish Civil WarFrom 1936 to 1939, the Spanish Civil War raged as General Francisco Franco's Nationalists overthrew the republican government. Franco's forces were aided by Germany and Italy, who used Spain as a test site for blitzkrieg warfare on the eve of World War II. Fierce and bloody skirmishes characterized the war of attrition, which claimed 500,000 lives. The war's end brought a period of dictatorship that lasted until the mid-1970s. Deemed the first "media war," it was covered by which famous authors? More... | |
| This Day in History | |
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 First Self-Sustaining Nuclear Chain Reaction Is Demonstrated (1942)Constructed under an abandoned stand of bleachers at the University of Chicago, the world's first artificial nuclear reactor was little more than a pile of uranium and graphite bricks. It was built as part of the Manhattan Project under the supervision of renowned physicist Enrico Fermi. The first successful demonstration lasted 28 minutes and was a milestone in the history of physics. What code phrase did scientists use to convey the reactor's success to government officials? More... | |
| Today's Birthday | |
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 Maria Callas (1923)An internationally known Greek-American opera star, Callas was celebrated less for her voice than for her electrifying stage presence and mastery of difficult roles. Her career blossomed in the 1940s. Offstage, her fiery temperament, dramatic love life, and demanding personality earned her the reputation of a consummate diva. During her media-fueled rivalry with soprano Renata Tebaldi in the 1950s, Callas was quoted as saying that comparing her to Tebaldi was like comparing what two things? More... | |
| Quotation of the Day | |
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 Throughout life, our worst weaknesses and meannesses are usually committed for the sake of the people whom we most despise.Charles Dickens (1812-1870) | |
| Idiom of the Day | |
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the next best thing— Something that is as good a substitute as possible for that which is really desired or best suited. More... | |
| Today's Holiday | |
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 United Arab Emirates National Day (2025)This national holiday commemorates the December 2, 1971, expiration of a British treaty that inhibited self-rule for the sheikhdoms on the Persian Gulf in the eastern Arabian peninsula, and the union of seven of the sheikhdoms in the former Trucial States to become the United Arab Emirates. The Emirates' major cities celebrate National Day on December 2-3. More... | |
| Word Trivia | |
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Today's topic: wavecomber, breaker, roller - A long curving wave is a comber, a wave that curls over and dissolves into foam is a breaker, and a long wave moving steadily shoreward is a roller. More... scend - As a noun, it is the surge of a wave or the sea; as a verb, it means to pitch or surge up in a heavy sea. More... undulate - From Latin unda, "wave." More... wave - Meaning "movement of the sea," it seems to be an alteration of the earlier wawe, "wave," from Old English woeg, "motion, wave." More... | |