Daily Content Archive
(as of Saturday, May 12, 2018)| Word of the Day | |||
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| Daily Grammar Lesson | |
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Forming the Future Continuous TenseTo form the future continuous, we use "will be" or "is/are going to be" + the present participle of the main verb. Much of the time, either construction may be used with no appreciable difference in the meaning of the sentence. However, we sometimes use the "will be" construction for actions or events that are more certain to happen, whereas the "going to be" construction can be used to imply what? More... | |
| Article of the Day | |
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 The Giant BeaverCastoroides ohioensis, the giant beaver, was a huge rodent species that lived in N America during the Pleistocene and became extinct at the end of the last Ice Age, roughly 10,000 years ago. Fossils of the creature, first found in 1837, indicate that it could grow as large as 8.2 ft (2.5 m) long and weigh up to 220 lb (100 kg). While the teeth of modern beavers are suited for gnawing on wood, the giant beaver's teeth were bigger and broader. Did it construct lodges like modern beavers do? More... | |
| This Day in History | |
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 Priest Attempts to Assassinate the Pope in Portugal (1982)Almost a year to the day after Pope John Paul II was shot by a Turkish gunman, a priest named Juan María Fernández y Krohn attacked the pontiff with a bayonet. It was long thought that the would-be assassin was restrained before he could wound the pope, but a former aide now claims that the pope was indeed injured. During his trial, Krohn accused the pope of being a secret communist agent in league with the USSR. How long was his prison sentence? More... | |
| Today's Birthday | |
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 Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin (1910)Hodgkin developed a passion for chemistry at an early age and went on to become a leader in the field of X-ray crystallography. In 1948, she and her colleagues made the first X-ray photograph of vitamin B12—one of the most complex nonprotein compounds—and eventually determined its atomic arrangement. Her work in determining its structure, as well as that of other biochemical compounds, won her a 1964 Nobel Prize. In 1969, Hodgkin completed a similar three-dimensional analysis of what hormone? More... | |
| Quotation of the Day | |
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 Cruelty, like every other vice, requires no motive outside of itself,—it only requires opportunity.George Eliot (1819-1880) | |
| Idiom of the Day | |
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oat opera— A film or theatrical production about the American West (i.e., a western), especially one that is clichéd or formulaic. More... | |
| Today's Holiday | |
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 Boston Pops (2025)Henry Lee Higginson, who established the Boston Symphony Orchestra in 1881, believed that in the summer, "concerts of a lighter kind of music" should be presented. People began to refer fondly to these summer concerts as "the Pops," a name which became official in 1900. The Boston Pops tailors its programs around American music and musicians, medleys of popular songs, and familiar movements of classical works. Outside of its official concert season at Symphony Hall, where it performs through May and June, the Pops also tours the United States. More... | |
| Word Trivia | |
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Today's topic: softenemollient, emolliate - Emollient is from Latin emolliere, "to soften"; to emolliate is to soften or make effeminate. More... macerate - Meaning "to soften," it comes from Greek massein, "knead." More... lenify, lenity - To lenify is to alleviate or soothe an emotion or suffering, from Latin lenire, "soften"; lenity means kindness or gentleness. More... amalgamate - Seems to go back to Greek malagma, "softening." More... | |