Daily Content Archive
(as of Tuesday, July 20, 2021)| Word of the Day | |||||||
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extemporaneous
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| Daily Grammar Lesson | |
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Indefinite Pronouns: People vs. ThingsBoth people and things can be identified in a sentence by an indefinite pronoun. Indefinite pronouns like "anyone," "everybody," "no one," and "someone" are only used to refer to people. What are some indefinite pronouns that are only used to refer to things? More... | |
| Article of the Day | |
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 All Roads Lead to RomeThe proverb "All roads lead to Rome" was once a literal statement. During the height of the Roman Empire, a road system of about 50,000 miles (80,000 km) linked Rome with its many provinces. The roads often ran in straight lines despite obstacles and were typically constructed in four layers. The road system improved travel for the Roman army, aided commercial ventures, and allowed a postal service to thrive. Some parts still survive today. What modern highways run along ancient Roman routes? More... | |
| This Day in History | |
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 Colombia Declares Independence from Spain (1810)From the 16th century, present-day Colombia formed the nucleus of the region that Spanish conquistadors called New Granada. In the early 1800s, people like Antonio Nariño began agitating for independence. A prominent early revolutionary leader, Nariño helped foment rebellion by distributing The Declaration of the Rights of Man to his countrymen. Parts of Colombia threw off Spanish jurisdiction in 1810, but full independence was not secured until nine years later, under what famous revolutionary? More... | |
| Today's Birthday | |
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 Sir Edmund Percival Hillary (1919)Hillary was a New Zealand mountaineer who, with Tenzing Norgay of Nepal, became the first to reach the summit of Mount Everest in 1953. Following the expedition, Hillary founded the Himalayan Trust, which built many schools and hospitals for the Sherpa people of Nepal. He continued climbing, later participated in the first crossing of Antarctica by vehicle, and even searched for the legendary abominable snowman in 1960. What unusual profession did Hillary have when not mountaineering? More... | |
| Quotation of the Day | |
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 Now, I hold it is not decent for a scientific gentTo say another is an ass-at least, to all intent; Nor should the individual who happens to be meant Reply by heaving rocks at him to any great extent. Bret Harte (1836-1902) | |
| Idiom of the Day | |
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out of (one's) hair— No longer pestering or annoying to one; not one's responsibility or burden any longer. More... | |
| Today's Holiday | |
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 Dubrovnik Summer Festival (2025)Centuries of artistic legacy come to life each year in Croatia at the Dubrovnik Summer Festival, an international festival of music, dance, and theater. Approximately 80 performances, including opera, ballet, drama, art exhibitions, and poetry readings, are offered during the course of the festival, bringing to life the beautiful Renaissance and Baroque architecture of Dubrovnik. In the early years of the festival, the material was almost exclusively Croatian, but as the years passed, the festival expanded to include classics from the wider European tradition. More... | |
| Word Trivia | |
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Today's topic: sequencearithmetic progression - A sequence in which each term is obtained by the addition of a constant number to the preceding term, as 1, 4, 7, 10, 13. More... initialism, alphabetism, acronym - Initialisms (sometimes called alphabetisms) are formed from the initial letters of a string of words and are pronounced as a sequence of letters, e.g. BYOB, USA, DVD. Acronyms are formed from the initial letters or parts of words in a sequence, but have the distinction of being pronounceable words, e.g. RADAR, SCUBA. More... solfeggio, gamut - Solfeggio and gamut are words formed on the sequence of musical notes. More... | |