Daily Content Archive
(as of Thursday, January 4, 2018)| Word of the Day | |||
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| Daily Grammar Lesson | |
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Articles and Uncountable NounsThe indefinite articles "a" and "an" cannot be used with uncountable nouns, which are nouns that cannot be divided or counted as individual elements or separate parts. Can uncountable nouns take the definite article "the"? More... | |
| Article of the Day | |
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 The MicroscopeA key tool in laboratories and biology classrooms, the microscope produces enlarged images of small objects. Its inventor is not conclusively known, so it is credited to two people—Zacharias Janssen around 1590 and Galileo around 1610. Probably the best known type is the compound microscope, which consists of an objective lens and an eyepiece and is widely used in the examination of plant and animal cells and bacteria. Who helped popularize the microscope by using it to discover red blood cells? More... | |
| This Day in History | |
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 Topsy the Elephant is Executed by Electrocution (1903)Topsy was a circus elephant at Coney Island's Luna Park. After killing three people—at least one of whom was mistreating her at the time—in as many years, she was deemed a threat and scheduled to be put down. After hanging was ruled out after being deemed too cruel, Thomas Edison suggested electrocution in an attempt to further his campaign to portray alternating current electricity as dangerous. Electrocuted with 6,600 volts, Topsy died in seconds. How many people witnessed the execution? More... | |
| Today's Birthday | |
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 James Bond (1900)An expert in Caribbean birds and a distinguished ornithologist at the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia, Bond wrote the definitive Birds of the West Indies in 1936. The book came to the attention of avid bird-watcher Ian Fleming, who lived in Jamaica. He contacted Bond and asked if he could use the ornithologist's name for the hero of his first novel, Casino Royale. Bond agreed. In what film can the fictional Bond be seen reading the real-life Bond's book? More... | |
| Quotation of the Day | |
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 Experience, n.: The wisdom that enables us to recognize as an undesirable old acquaintance the folly that we have already embraced.Ambrose Bierce (1842-1914) | |
| Idiom of the Day | |
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look (someone) off— In sports, especially American football, to mislead an opponent with one's eyes as to one's intentions in a given play. More... | |
| Today's Holiday | |
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.gif) Feast of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton (2023)The first native-born American to be declared a saint, Elizabeth Ann Seton (1774-1821) was canonized in 1975. She was the founder of the first religious community for women in the US, the American Sisters of Charity, and was responsible for laying the foundations of the American Catholic school system. Special services commemorating Elizabeth Ann Seton's death on January 4, 1821, are held at the Chapel of St. Joseph's Provincial House of the Daughters of Charity in Emmitsburg, Maryland, the headquarters for her order of nuns. More... | |
| Word Trivia | |
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Today's topic: trousersfob - A small pocket close to the waistband of trousers. More... galluses - Another name for suspenders for trousers. More... plus fours - Got their name (c. 1920) from the fact that such trousers were made four inches longer than standard knickerbockers or shorts, which came to just above the knee. More... trousers, trouse - The singular of trousers is trouse. More... | |