Daily Content Archive
(as of Sunday, February 4, 2018)| Word of the Day | |||
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| Daily Grammar Lesson | |
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Pre-DeterminersPre-determiners are words that come before another determiner to give us more information about the noun that follows. They usually come before the articles "a," "an," and "the." What are three categories of pre-determiners? More... | |
| Article of the Day | |
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 The World's Largest FlowerNative to the rain forests of Malaysia, Sumatra, Borneo, and the Philippines, Rafflesia arnoldii is a plant species that produces the largest individual flower on Earth. The rare parasitic plant has no roots, stems, or leaves and consists only of threadlike growths on the vine that hosts it. However, it produces huge, five-petaled flowers that can measure 3 ft (1 m) across and can weigh up to 24 lbs (11 kg). The flowers emit a distinctive scent that is akin to what fetid odor? More... | |
| This Day in History | |
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 Chávez Leads Coup d'État against Venezuelan President Pérez (1992)In 1989, Venezuelan President Carlos Pérez returned to office amid demonstrations and riots sparked by deteriorating social conditions. Three years later, Lieutenant Colonel Hugo Chávez led an unsuccessful coup against Pérez and was jailed as a result. Pérez escaped another coup attempt later that year, but in 1993 he was removed from office on corruption charges and later imprisoned on charges of embezzlement and misuse of public funds. When did Chávez become president? More... | |
| Today's Birthday | |
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 Charles Lindbergh (1902)In 1927, Lindbergh, an American aviator, made the first nonstop solo flight across the Atlantic in 33.5 hours, landing in Paris to a hero's welcome. He returned to the US a celebrity but moved to England in 1932 to escape the media frenzy surrounding the kidnapping and murder of his son. Returning to the US in 1940, he faced criticism for opposing US entry into WWII. Still, he flew combat missions for the US during the war. He helped invent what device that made open-heart surgery possible? More... | |
| Quotation of the Day | |
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 Have you ever had a difference with a dear friend? How his letters, written in the period of love and confidence, sicken and rebuke you! What a dreary mourning it is to dwell upon those vehement protests of dead affection!William Makepeace Thackeray (1811-1863) | |
| Idiom of the Day | |
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lust for power— Intense, insatiable desire to attain power and control. More... | |
| Today's Holiday | |
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 St. Agatha Festival (2025)Sant' Agata (St. Agatha) is especially revered in Catania, Sicily, where her relics are preserved in a silver casket. On February 3, 4, and 5 each year, a silver bust of St. Agatha wearing a jewel-encrusted crown is carried in procession from the cathedral to Catania's various churches. Included in the procession are the ceri, huge wooden replicas of candlesticks that are carved with episodes from the saint's martyrdom. The streets are lined with streamers and flowers, and illuminated by strings of colored lights after dark. The festival ends with a fireworks display in the piazza. More... | |
| Word Trivia | |
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Today's topic: rhetoricrhetor - A teacher of rhetoric or a master of it. More... climax - First described propositions in rhetoric, one rising above the other in effectiveness; it comes from Greek klimax, "ladder." More... demagoguery, demagogy - Demagoguery and demagogy are the practices or rhetoric of a demagogue. More... scheme - From Greek skhema, "figure, form," it first referred to a figure of speech, especially a figure of rhetoric, denoting a way of deviating from the ordinary use and order of words to create special effect. More... | |