Daily Content Archive
(as of Sunday, March 3, 2019)Word of the Day | |||||||
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Daily Grammar Lesson | |
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Using the Present Perfect ContinuousThe present perfect continuous is often used to talk about something that began happening in the past (anytime "before now") and which is still happening (unfinished) in the present. We usually specify the duration of time involved, especially using which two prepositions? More... |
Article of the Day | |
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![]() The Secret SpeechAfter Joseph Stalin's death in 1953, Nikita Krushchev emerged from a bitter power struggle as the Communist party's first secretary. At the party's Twentieth Congress in 1956, he delivered a "secret speech," "On the Personality Cult and its Consequences," harshly denouncing Stalin and his policies. The program of de-Stalinization, which had already begun, was thus supported and continued by Khrushchev. When was the full text of this "secret speech" finally officially released to the public? More... |
This Day in History | |
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![]() George Bizet's Carmen Premieres in Paris (1875)Though it is today one of the most popular operas ever written, Carmen was initially met with such scathing reviews that the opera house had to give away tickets to get people to see it. Shortly after its disastrous premiere, its author, Bizet, died of a heart attack and the director of the struggling opera house resigned. Later that year, however, Carmen opened in Vienna to wide acclaim. Why did critics initially hate Bizet's story of a soldier's doomed love for a wild Gypsy girl? More... |
Today's Birthday | |
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![]() George Mortimer Pullman (1831)Pullman was a successful American industrialist and the inventor of the railroad sleeping car. In 1893, he built a company town for his workers in Illinois, and it was showcased in the World's Fair as a grand social experiment. The next year, the town of Pullman was the scene of a violent workers' strike that nearly halted US rail traffic. When Pullman died in 1897, he had to be buried in a massive steel-and-concrete vault to keep activists from disinterring his body. What happened to his town? More... |
Quotation of the Day | |
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![]() John F. Kennedy (1917-1963) |
Idiom of the Day | |
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make a mark— To do something that makes one famous or successful; to do something that is very important or meaningful. More... |
Today's Holiday | |
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![]() Houston Livestock Show & Rodeo (2025)The nation's largest livestock show, with more than 35,000 entries, is held in the famous Astrodome of Houston, Texas. The show is a reminder of the 19th-century days when Houston's shipping trade was based on timber, cotton, and cattle. Things get under way with a downtown parade, and the agenda then includes celebrity entertainers, pig races, and a chili cookoff. More... |
Word Trivia | |
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