Daily Content Archive
(as of Thursday, March 9, 2017)| Word of the Day | |||||||
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| Daily Grammar Lesson | |
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Viewpoint Adverbs and Sentence PlacementViewpoint adverbs are used to indicate whose point of view is being expressed, or to specify what aspect of something one is talking about. Where do viewpoint adverbs usually appear in a sentence? More... | |
| Article of the Day | |
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 Shrunken HeadsThe Shuar people of Ecuador and Peru first came to worldwide attention in the 1800s, after Westerners discovered that the group practiced head shrinking. The custom stems from the belief that severing an enemy's head and shrinking it harnesses the person's spirit and compels it to serve the shrinker. Though cultural restrictions limited the manufacture of shrunken heads, Western demand for the macabre artifacts prompted the Shuar to produce them in greater quantities. How does one shrink a head? More... | |
| This Day in History | |
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 The Barbie Doll Debuts (1959)When Ruth Handler realized that there were no adult-bodied dolls on the toy market, she suggested to her husband—with whom she co-founded the Mattel toy company—that Mattel begin producing one. In 1959, Barbie made her debut. She was based on a German doll called Bild Lilli and was marketed as a "Teen-age Fashion Model." According to estimates, more than a billion Barbie dolls have been sold worldwide, and many have become collector's items. Who is the "Barbie" after whom the doll was named? More... | |
| Today's Birthday | |
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 Yuri Gagarin (1934)Gagarin was a Russian cosmonaut who, in 1961, became the first human being to successfully travel into space. Gagarin circled the Earth once during his 1-hour-and-48-minute flight aboard the Vostok 1. His success is believed to have ushered in the modern era of man in space, and Gagarin toured widely to promote the Soviet achievement. Ironically, he died in a plane crash seven years later. What factors did Soviet officials consider when choosing Gagarin for the historic space flight? More... | |
| Quotation of the Day | |
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 Compromise, n.: Such an adjustment of conflicting interests as gives each adversary the satisfaction of thinking he has got what he ought not to have, and is deprived of nothing except what was justly his due.Ambrose Bierce (1842-1914) | |
| Idiom of the Day | |
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with reckless abandon— With rash, unrestrained impulsiveness, enthusiasm, or zeal. More... | |
| Today's Holiday | |
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 Forty Martyrs' Day (2022)The "Forty Martyrs of Sebaste" were Roman soldiers quartered in Armenia in 320 CE; they are greatly revered in the Eastern Orthodox Church. In Greece, special foods are prepared, such as cake with 40 layers of pastry and stew with 40 herbs. In Romania, little cakes called sfintisori ("little mints") are baked and given to and received from every passerby. Coliva is also traditional. Farm tools are readied for work, and hearth ashes are spread around the cottage to keep the serpent from entering. (Each home is said to have a serpent protecting it). More... | |
| Word Trivia | |
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Today's topic: wickedfacinorous - Extremely wicked. More... flagitious - Criminally wicked. More... scelestious, scelestic - Other terms for wicked are scelestious and scelestic. More... wicked - Probably based on Old English wicca, "witch." More... | |