Daily Content Archive
(as of Saturday, September 11, 2021)| Word of the Day | |||||||
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pedantic
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| Daily Grammar Lesson | |
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Forming the Future Perfect TenseWe use the future perfect tense to say that something will finish or be completed at a specific point in the future. What is the most common way we create the future perfect tense? More... | |
| Article of the Day | |
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 Prince Rupert's DropsPrince Rupert's Drops are formed when molten glass is dripped into cold water. The glass forms a tadpole-shaped droplet with a long, thin tail, and when the inside cools, it contracts, pressing against the already-solid outer part. Due to the residual stress, the extremely hard bulbous part can withstand a blow from a hammer, but if the tail is damaged even slightly, the entire drop shatters explosively into a fine powder. Prince Rupert did not invent the drops, so why are they named for him? More... | |
| This Day in History | |
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 9/11 Terrorist Attacks (2001)On September 11, 2001, 19 Al-Qaeda terrorists hijacked four commercial airplanes. They crashed two planes into the World Trade Center's Twin Towers in New York City and flew a third into the Pentagon building in Virginia. Passengers on the fourth flight attempted to retake control of the aircraft, but it crashed in a Pennsylvania field. The devastating terrorist attacks of 9/11 were responsible for 2,996 deaths and countless more injuries. What were the environmental consequences of 9/11? More... | |
| Today's Birthday | |
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 David Herbert "D.H." Lawrence (1885)Lawrence was an English writer whose works condemned industrial society and explored sexuality, often drawing on his own life for inspiration. Now noted for their intensity and erotic sensuality, several of his works, including Lady Chatterley's Lover, were banned as obscene. Persecuted for being a pacifist and shunned for having a German wife during World War I, he left England forever. He died of tuberculosis in France. Lawrence once acquired a ranch in New Mexico in exchange for what? More... | |
| Quotation of the Day | |
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 Let us endeavor so to live that when we come to die even the undertaker will be sorry.Mark Twain (1835-1910) | |
| Idiom of the Day | |
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send a shiver down (someone's) spine— To cause an intense feeling of excitement, exhilaration, nervousness, or fear in someone. More... | |
| Today's Holiday | |
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 Enkutatash (2025)The Ethiopian New Year falls on the first day of the Ethiopian month of Maskarem, which is September 11 on the Gregorian calendar. It comes at the end of the rainy season, so the wildflowers that the children gather and the tall grass that people use to cover their floors on this day are plentiful. Small groups of children go from house to house, singing songs, leaving bouquets of flowers, and hoping for a handful of dabo, or roasted grain, in return. In some parts of Ethiopia it is customary to slaughter either a white-headed lamb or a red chicken on this day. More... | |
| Word Trivia | |
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Today's topic: metaphortrope - A figurative or metaphorical use of a word or phrase. More... ingrain, ingrained - Ingrain literally means "work into the grain" (originally, of fabric), and ingrained is metaphorically "deep-seated." More... farce - First meant forcemeat stuffing and came to be used metaphorically when a humorous play was "stuffed" in between two more serious acts of the main theatrical presentation—or for interludes of impromptu buffoonery in a dramatic presentation. More... relieve - Metaphorically, to "alleviate, lighten," from Latin relevare, "raise again." More... | |