Daily Content Archive
(as of Thursday, April 8, 2021)| Word of the Day | |||||||
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barefaced
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| Daily Grammar Lesson | |
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Interrogative Adjectives in QuestionsWhen interrogative adjectives appear in normal direct questions, they are placed at the beginning of the sentence and are immediately followed by the noun that they modify. What other types of questions can interrogative adjectives appear in? More... | |
| Article of the Day | |
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.jpg) Petrified LightningWhen lightning strikes the ground, the intense heat of the current can melt dry sand and create glass. Sometimes, this happens along the path of the lightning itself, leaving a hollow, branching tube of rough, sand-caked glass where the lightning traveled. The interior of the tube is usually very smooth. Such fragments of petrified lightning are known as fulgurites. They can form deep below the surface that was struck or, more rarely, above it. How long is the longest fulgurite ever found? More... | |
| This Day in History | |
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 Tennis Player Arthur Ashe Announces He Has AIDS (1992)Ashe was the first African-American male to reach prominence in tennis and was thus a very public figure, even after his retirement, which followed a 1979 heart attack and quadruple-bypass surgery. In 1983, he contracted HIV from a blood transfusion during a second heart surgery. He kept it a secret until 1992, when a newspaper threatened to publish a story about his illness. His subsequent openness about AIDS helped combat the disease's stigma. How much longer did Ashe live? More... | |
| Today's Birthday | |
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 Sonja Henie (1912)Henie began ice skating at the age of eight and won the first of six straight Norwegian figure-skating championships within two years. Starting in 1927, she won the world's figure-skating crown 10 straight years, the European title six times, and the Olympic gold medal three times. She introduced music and dance into free skating, greatly broadening its appeal, and turned professional in 1936, earning millions starring in films and ice shows. Why did many Norwegians consider her a quisling? More... | |
| Quotation of the Day | |
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 Nature abhors the old, and old age seems the only disease; all others run into this one.Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) | |
| Idiom of the Day | |
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a game of musical chairs— A situation in which people or things are moved, shuffled, or rearranged from one position to another. More... | |
| Today's Holiday | |
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 Hana Matsuri (2025)Hana Matsuri is a celebration of the Buddha's birthday, observed in Buddhist temples throughout Japan, where it is known as Kambutsue. The highlight of the celebration is a ritual known as kambutsue ("ceremony of 'baptizing' the Buddha"), in which a tiny bronze statue of the Buddha, standing in an open lotus flower, is anointed with sweet tea. People use a small bamboo ladle to pour the tea, made of hydrangea leaves, over the head of the statue. The custom is supposed to date from the seventh century, when perfume was used, as well as tea. More... | |
| Word Trivia | |
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Today's topic: platformlectern, podium, dais, rostrum - A lectern is the stand on which the speaker's notes are placed, the podium is the platform on which the speaker and lectern stand, a dais is a platform for several people, and a rostrum is a platform for one or more. More... pulpit - From classical Latin pulpitum, "platform, stage." More... hustings - Its early meaning of "platform" led to its sense of "any place from which campaign speeches are made" and "political campaigning." More... rostrum - Latin for "beak," it first referred to part of the Rome Forum decorated with bird beaks and used as a platform for speakers. More... | |