Daily Content Archive
(as of Monday, February 4, 2019)| Word of the Day | |||||||
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inestimable
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| Daily Grammar Lesson | |
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Pre-DeterminersPre-determiners are words that come before another determiner to give us more information about the noun that follows. They usually come before the articles "a," "an," and "the." What are three categories of pre-determiners? More... | |
| Article of the Day | |
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 The Venera ProgramThe Venera Program consisted of a series of unmanned Soviet planetary probes sent to Venus between 1965 and 1983. Venera 2 flew to within 15,000 miles (24,000 km) of Venus in 1966. A few days later, Venera 3 crash-landed on its surface, becoming the first spacecraft to strike another planet. Later missions analyzed Venus's atmosphere, made soft landings, and mapped and sent back the first close-up photographs of some of the planet's surface. What does Venera mean in Russian? More... | |
| This Day in History | |
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 Chávez Leads Coup d'État against Venezuelan President Pérez (1992)In 1989, Venezuelan President Carlos Pérez returned to office amid demonstrations and riots sparked by deteriorating social conditions. Three years later, Lieutenant Colonel Hugo Chávez led an unsuccessful coup against Pérez and was jailed as a result. Pérez escaped another coup attempt later that year, but in 1993 he was removed from office on corruption charges and later imprisoned on charges of embezzlement and misuse of public funds. When did Chávez become president? More... | |
| Today's Birthday | |
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 Charles Lindbergh (1902)In 1927, Lindbergh, an American aviator, made the first nonstop solo flight across the Atlantic in 33.5 hours, landing in Paris to a hero's welcome. He returned to the US a celebrity but moved to England in 1932 to escape the media frenzy surrounding the kidnapping and murder of his son. Returning to the US in 1940, he faced criticism for opposing US entry into WWII. Still, he flew combat missions for the US during the war. He helped invent what device that made open-heart surgery possible? More... | |
| Quotation of the Day | |
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 It is art that makes life, makes interest, makes importance…and I know of no substitute whatever for the force and beauty of its process.Henry James (1843-1916) | |
| Idiom of the Day | |
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lust for power— Intense, insatiable desire to attain power and control. More... | |
| Today's Holiday | |
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 St. Agatha Festival (2025)Sant' Agata (St. Agatha) is especially revered in Catania, Sicily, where her relics are preserved in a silver casket. On February 3, 4, and 5 each year, a silver bust of St. Agatha wearing a jewel-encrusted crown is carried in procession from the cathedral to Catania's various churches. Included in the procession are the ceri, huge wooden replicas of candlesticks that are carved with episodes from the saint's martyrdom. The streets are lined with streamers and flowers, and illuminated by strings of colored lights after dark. The festival ends with a fireworks display in the piazza. More... | |
| Word Trivia | |
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Today's topic: punishexecute - Derives from Latin exsequi, "carry out, follow up; punish." More... gruelling - Comes from the verb gruel, "to exhaust, punish." More... punish - Derives from Latin punire, "punish," which came from poena, "penalty, punishment." More... penal, punitive - Penal means "relating to punishment," while punitive means "serving to punish." More... | |