Daily Content Archive
(as of Saturday, January 11, 2020)| Word of the Day | |||||||
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opulence
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| Daily Grammar Lesson | |
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Using Parentheses with FragmentsWhen parentheses enclose a word, phrase, or dependent clause, they will generally appear within a sentence, since the information usually can't function as a sentence alone. When this is the case, what must the parentheses appear adjacent to within the sentence? More... | |
| Article of the Day | |
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 ScotomataA scotoma is a blind spot or area of depressed vision in the visual field, surrounded by an area of relatively normal vision. There are many types of scotomata, including central scotoma, an area of depressed vision involving the point of fixation and interfering with central vision; peripheral scotoma, an area of depressed vision toward the periphery of the visual field; and scintillating scotoma, an area of diminished vision edged by colored lights. Scintillating scotomata often precede what? More... | |
| This Day in History | |
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 First US Marshal Killed in the Line of Duty (1794)Born in Scotland, Robert Forsyth moved to America as a teen and distinguished himself in the Continental Army. After the Revolutionary War, he was appointed by US President George Washington to be the first US Marshal in the state of Georgia. Forsyth was serving in this capacity when he knocked at the door of Beverly Allen to serve him some court papers. The reluctant recipient shot Forsyth through the door, making him the first US Marshal killed in the line of duty. What happened to Allen? More... | |
| Today's Birthday | |
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 Alice Stokes Paul (1885)A militant leader of the US suffrage movement, Paul is best remembered as the author of the Equal Rights Amendment. Written in 1923, the proposed constitutional amendment has been the source of nearly a century of legislative wrangling. While fighting for women's rights, Paul—who earned doctorate degrees in both sociology and law—picketed the White House, was imprisoned, and was force-fed after she staged a hunger strike. Paul was recently selected to appear on a US coin—in place of whom? More... | |
| Quotation of the Day | |
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 Pain like mine demands new modes of song.Miguel de Cervantes (1547-1616) | |
| Idiom of the Day | |
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jolly (someone) up— To make (someone) happier or more cheerful; to cheer (someone) up. More... | |
| Today's Holiday | |
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Jan1984.jpg) Burning the Clavie (2021)The Burning of the Clavie takes place in Burghead, a fishing village in the region of Moray, Scotland. Local residents make the clavie by sawing a tar barrel into a larger and smaller half, breaking the larger half into pieces and stuffing it inside the smaller half along with tinder and tar. At dusk, the Clavie King sets the clavie on fire and leads a procession through town to a high headland along the coast, where the flames ignite a huge bonfire. At the end of the festivities, townsfolk gather pieces of the clavie to light a New Year fire believed to keep witches and evil spirits away for a year. 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... | |