Daily Content Archive
(as of Thursday, December 21, 2023)| Word of the Day | |||||||
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bollard
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| Daily Grammar Lesson | |
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Semi-Modal Auxiliary VerbsSemi-modal auxiliary verbs, often simply called semi-modal verbs, are verbs that sometimes behave like modal auxiliary verbs. What four verbs are widely considered the standard set of semi-modal verbs? More... | |
| Article of the Day | |
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 Sumo WrestlingJapanese sumo wrestling originated as a religious ritual performed at Shinto shrines and evolved into a spectator sport in the 17th and 18th centuries. Matches often last only a few seconds and end when one wrestler forces his opponent to either step outside the fighting ring or touch the ground with any part of his body other than the soles of his feet. Wrestlers generally weigh more than 300 lbs (135 kg) and follow a rigorous training regimen. What is the life expectancy of a sumo wrestler? More... | |
| This Day in History | |
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 Marie and Pierre Curie Discover Radium (1898)Scientists Marie and Pierre Curie were working with pitchblende, a heavy mineral known to contain the radioactive element uranium, when they noticed something unusual. Somehow, the pitchblende was more radioactive than the uranium it contained. The culprit was radium, a previously unknown element present in pitchblende only in trace amounts—yet more than a million times more radioactive than uranium. What common household products contained radium until it was discovered to be dangerous? More... | |
| Today's Birthday | |
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 Cicely Isabel Fairfield, AKA Dame Rebecca West (1892)One of the most highly regarded British prose writers of the 20th century, West began her career as a journalist for feminist and suffragist publications. She then served as a literary critic and political writer for American and British journals. Her admired reports on the Nuremberg Trials were collected in A Train of Powder, and her history of Yugoslavia, Black Lamb and Grey Falcon, is a classic work of travel literature. Why did West have to be evacuated from her home in 1980? More... | |
| Quotation of the Day | |
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 The main object of religion is not to get a man into heaven, but to get heaven into him.Thomas Hardy (1840-1928) | |
| Idiom of the Day | |
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a (real) frog-choker— A particularly heavy or torrential downpour of rain. (Chiefly heard in the southern United States.) More... | |
| Today's Holiday | |
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 National Homeless Persons' Remembrance Day (2025)Since 1990, the National Coalition for the Homeless and the National Health Care for the Homeless Council have sponsored this day to bring attention to the plight of the nation's homeless population and to encourage the public to act on their behalf. Local groups across the country are encouraged to arrange a ceremony to remember the homeless persons in their community who died in the previous year. Candlelight marches, vigils, graveside services, religious services, and public policy advocacy are suggested ways of remembering. More... | |
| Word Trivia | |
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Today's topic: rabbitsbuck teeth - Large front teeth protruding over the others; the phrase may come from buck, the adult male of some animals, such as rabbits—which have this type of front teeth. More... hightail it - Refers to animals, such as mustangs and rabbits, that raise their tails high when fleeing danger. More... trattles - The rounded droppings of animals like rabbits and sheep. More... angora - As in cat, goat, and rabbit, it comes from the Turkish capital Angora (till 1930), now Ankara. More... | |