Daily Content Archive
(as of Thursday, May 24, 2018)| Word of the Day | |||
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| Daily Grammar Lesson | |
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Pronunciation Changes with NominalizationWhen creating nouns, there are instances in which, instead of changing a word's spelling, we change where we pronounce a stress on the word's syllables to indicate a shift from a verb to a noun. What is this change known as? More... | |
| Article of the Day | |
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 I'll Be Done in a "Jiffy"Dating to at least 1785, the term "jiffy" is used informally to refer to any unspecified short period of time, often the brief moment it will take to finish a task. Certain fields of science use the word technically to denote a specific unit of time—typically a fraction of a second. In electronics, for example, a jiffy is defined as the time between alternating current power cycles. In computing, a jiffy is the duration of one tick of the system timer interrupt. What is a jiffy in astrophysics? More... | |
| This Day in History | |
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 USSR Begins Drilling World's Deepest Hole (1970)The Kola Superdeep Borehole project was an attempt to dig as far as possible into the Earth's crust. It began when, in 1970, following setbacks in the Space Race, Soviet scientists looked downward. Digging on the remote Kola Peninsula for some 20 years, they reached a depth of 40,230 feet (12,262 m)—about a third of the way through the Earth's crust—before being forced to stop due to higher-than-expected temperatures of 350° F (180° C). Surprisingly, water was found at what depth? More... | |
| Today's Birthday | |
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 Joseph Brodsky (1940)Soon after Brodsky began writing poetry in the USSR in the 1950s, he was accused by the government of "social parasitism" and sentenced to hard labor. Exiled in 1972, he settled in New York and began writing in English. He was awarded a Nobel Prize in 1987 and was poet laureate of the US for a time. His poetry, with its themes of loss and exile, is highly regarded for its intensity, depth, and wit. What was his retort when a Soviet judge once asked him, "Who enrolled you in the ranks of poets?" More... | |
| Quotation of the Day | |
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 Being poor is a mere trifle. It is being known to be poor that is the sting.Jerome K. Jerome (1859-1927) | |
| Idiom of the Day | |
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memory lane— A set or series of memories of one's past life, likened to a roadway that one may visit or take a tour of. (Used primarily in the phrase "stroll/take a trip/walk etc. down memory lane.") More... | |
| Today's Holiday | |
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 Ganga Dussehra (2018)According to Hindu mythology, the Ganges River in India originally flowed only in heaven. In the form of a goddess, Ganga, the river was brought down to earth by King Bhagiratha in order to purify the ashes of his ancestors, 60,000 of whom had been burned under a curse from the great sage Kapila. On Ganga Dussehra, the 10th day of the waxing half of the month of Jyestha, Hindus able to reach the Ganges take a dip in the river to purify their sins and remedy their physical ills. Those who live far away from the Ganges immerse themselves in whatever river, pond, or sea they can get to on this day. More... | |
| Word Trivia | |
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Today's topic: tennisdrop shot - In tennis, it is so called because after it is hit, it drops abruptly to the ground. More... cachpule - The ancestral name for tennis or a tennis court. More... service game - In tennis, a game in which a particular player serves. More... tennis - From French tenez, "take, receive," which was originally called out by the server to the opponent. More... | |