Daily Content Archive
(as of Saturday, February 10, 2018)| Word of the Day | |||
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| Daily Grammar Lesson | |
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Postpositive AdjectivesWhile attributive adjectives are generally found before the noun they modify, especially in simple sentences, there are also many cases in which they are placed immediately after the noun ("postpositively"). Attributive adjectives almost always appear postpositively when they modify what kind of pronoun? More... | |
| Article of the Day | |
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 WhirlyballA team sport that combines elements of basketball, jai alai, lacrosse, and bumper cars, whirlyball was first developed in Salt Lake City, Utah, in the early 1960s. Whirlyball players ride in small, crank-steered electric vehicles known as "Whirlybugs" and score points for their team by shooting a Wiffle Ball at the opposing team's target. Further complicating matters is the fact that players are not allowed to touch the ball with their hands and must pass, catch, and shoot using what? More... | |
| This Day in History | |
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 Lord Darnley, Second Husband of Mary Queen of Scots, Found Murdered (1567)Though Darnley's murder remains an unsolved mystery, one certainty is that at the time of his death, he was not well-liked. In line for the English throne, he infuriated Queen Elizabeth by marrying Mary Queen of Scots. He then alienated Mary by accusing her of infidelity and stabbing her secretary to death in front of her. Mary distanced herself from him, and shortly thereafter, his house exploded. He was found dead—but not from the blast. How was he killed, and who is suspected of his murder? More... | |
| Today's Birthday | |
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 Boris Pasternak (1890)Pasternak was a Russian author whose novel Doctor Zhivago, an epic of wandering, spiritual isolation and love amid the harshness of the revolution and its aftermath, became a bestseller in the West but was circulated only in secrecy in the Soviet Union until 1987. Pasternak was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1958, but he was forced to decline it because of Soviet opposition to his work. Why was Pasternak's name said to have been crossed off an execution list by Joseph Stalin? More... | |
| Quotation of the Day | |
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 It is not the office of a man to receive gifts ... We wish to be self-sustained. We do not quite forgive a giver. The hand that feeds us is in some danger of being bitten.Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) | |
| Idiom of the Day | |
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make a run for (someone or something)— To run suddenly and at great speed toward someone or something. More... | |
| Today's Holiday | |
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 Feast of St. Paul's Shipwreck (2025)This feast is a commemoration in Malta of the shipwreck of St. Paul on the island in 60 CE, an event told about in the New Testament. When storms drove the ship aground, Paul was welcomed by the "barbarous people" (meaning they were not Greco-Romans). According to legend, he got their attention when a snake bit him on the hand but did him no harm, and he then healed people of diseases. Paul is the patron saint of Malta and snakebite victims. The day is a public holiday, and is observed with family gatherings and religious ceremonies and processions. More... | |
| Word Trivia | |
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Today's topic: secondsblipvert - A TV advertisement of a few seconds' length. More... centiday - A period of 14 minutes 24 seconds, a hundredth of a day, used especially in the study of plant growth. More... fireflies, lightning bug - Fireflies glow for a while but die down; lightning bugs flash their taillights for only a few seconds and never in the same place twice. More... | |