Daily Content Archive
(as of Saturday, June 13, 2020)| Word of the Day | |||||||
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buttery
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| Daily Grammar Lesson | |
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Aspects of the Past TenseWe use different aspects with verbs in the past tense to describe exactly how an event is structured in relation to a point in time in the past. When is the past perfect continuous used? More... | |
| Article of the Day | |
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 The Birdman of Easter IslandTangata Manu, or "Birdman," was the title given to the winner of an annual ritual competition practiced by Easter Island natives up until Christian missionaries suppressed it in the 1860s. The object of the contest was the retrieval of the first sooty tern egg of the season from the cliffs of a rocky islet off the coast of the main island. The winner's clan received the right to collect that season's harvest of wild bird eggs, while the Birdman himself was afforded what privileges? More... | |
| This Day in History | |
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 Pioneer 10: First Craft to Leave Solar System, Perhaps (1983)Launched in 1972, Pioneer 10 was the first spacecraft to travel through the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter and to make up-close observations of Jupiter, capturing images that were later sent back to Earth. It passed the orbit of Neptune in 1983 and became by some definitions the first artificial object to leave our solar system. By February 1998, the probe was over 7.5 billion miles from Earth but lost its title as the most distant man-made object to what craft? More... | |
| Today's Birthday | |
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 William Butler Yeats (1865)Considered Ireland's greatest lyric poet and a major figure of 20th-century literature, Yeats was the acknowledged leader of the Irish literary renaissance. His early work centers on Irish mythology and themes and is mystical, slow-paced, and lyrical. His later verse is stronger, more physical, and realistic. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1923. After proposing to—and being rejected by—his love interest Maud Gonne on numerous occasions, Yeats turned his attentions toward whom? More... | |
| Quotation of the Day | |
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 I desire no future that will break the ties of the past.George Eliot (1819-1880) | |
| Idiom of the Day | |
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the end of (one's) rope— A point of utter exhaustion or exasperation; a point or state at which one has no more patience, endurance, or energy left. More... | |
| Today's Holiday | |
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 Gaspee Days (2022)The British revenue schooner Gaspee was sent to the American colonies to reinforce various British revenue laws, including the Townshend Acts of 1767. The colonists at Rhode Island burned the ship on June 10, 1772, in what many regard as the first act of rebellion leading up to the Revolutionary War. Since 1966 the event has been commemorated in a festival that includes a symbolic reenactment of the burning, a fife and drum muster, a colonial parade, numerous athletic events, and a gala ball, which take place in both Cranston and Warwick, Rhode Island. More... | |
| Word Trivia | |
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Today's topic: leadercoryphaeus - A Greek word meaning "chief," for the leader of a party, sect, school of thought, etc. More... herald - Etymologically, a "leader of an army," from Germanic kharjaz, "army." More... hegemon - A Greek word for "leader." More... nestorian, nestor - Nestorian means wise and aged, and a nestor is a senior figure or leader in one's field. More... | |