Daily Content Archive
(as of Saturday, December 12, 2020)| Word of the Day | |||||||
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frowsty
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| Daily Grammar Lesson | |
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Personal Pronouns and Subjective CaseAlthough the English language has largely discarded its case system, personal pronouns are one part of English in which the case system is still active. When a personal pronoun is in the subjective case, what is it acting as in the sentence? More... | |
| Article of the Day | |
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 ThuggeeThuggee was a historic form of organized crime that existed in India for centuries before its extinction in the mid-1800s. Because early travel was so dangerous, travelers typically undertook long-distance journeys in groups for protection. In India, members of a highly organized professional fraternity of robbers would pose as innocent wayfarers in order to join a group of travelers, only to strangle and rob the entire group at night. Through what means did Thuggee society acquire new members? More... | |
| This Day in History | |
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 Kenya Gains Independence from the United Kingdom (1963)European settlers began establishing themselves as large-scale farmers in the Kenyan highlands in 1903, taking lands from local tribes like the Kikuyu and Masai. In 1920, the British designated the interior of the region Kenya Colony and a coastal strip the Protectorate of Kenya. Africans began protesting their inferior status, and the Kikuyu staged an armed revolt in the 1950s. Britain eventually put down the rebellion, but Kenya gained its independence soon after. Who was its first president? More... | |
| Today's Birthday | |
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 Edvard Munch (1863)Best known as the painter of The Scream, Munch was a Norwegian artist and an important forerunner of expressionistic art. His early life was marked by the deaths of his mother and favorite sister, and he said about his father: "From him I inherited the seeds of madness." Aestheticizing his trauma, Munch visually explored primal themes like death, sex, and fear. Reaction to his stark and sometimes fearsome images caused his first major exhibition to be closed. How did he feel about this? More... | |
| Quotation of the Day | |
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 Why are women...so much more interesting to men than men are to women?Virginia Woolf (1882-1941) | |
| Idiom of the Day | |
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a living soul— A person (who is alive). (Often used in the negative to mean "nobody.") More... | |
| Today's Holiday | |
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 Fiesta of Our Lady of Guadalupe (2021)Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe is the patron saint of Mexico, and on December 12, thousands of pilgrims flock to her shrine at the famous Church of Guadalupe outside Mexico City. On the evening of December 11, crowds gather for singing and special ceremonies at midnight, which are carried on national television. This great religious festival commemorates the appearance of the Virgin Mary on Tepeyac Hill, north of present-day Mexico City. The story is reenacted in a puppet show each year, and relics of Our Lady of Guadalupe are sold in the streets. More... | |
| Word Trivia | |
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Today's topic: rowwindbreak - A row of trees acting as a fence. More... acrostic - From Greek akron, "end," and stikhos, "row, line of verse." More... queue - Has the forms queued and queuing or queueing; queueing has five vowels in a row. More... row - The verb comes from Germanic ro-, "steer," and row, "orderly line," which is from Germanic raigwa. More... | |