Daily Content Archive
(as of Tuesday, August 15, 2017)| Word of the Day | |||
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| Daily Grammar Lesson | |
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Using the Middle VoiceThe so-called middle voice is an approximate type of grammatical voice in which the subject both performs and receives the action expressed by the verb. Because the agent is also the receiver of the action in the middle voice, what can we do to clarify this connection? More... | |
| Article of the Day | |
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| This Day in History | |
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 Cameroon's Lake Monoun Explodes, Suffocating 37 (1984)The explosion at Cameroon's Lake Monoun, which killed 37 people, at first baffled investigators. It was only after a similar event at nearby Lake Nyos two years later claimed the lives of 1,700 people that experts determined that high concentration of carbon dioxide in the lakes had caused the suffocating limnic eruptions. Venting pipes were inserted into Lake Monoun to remove the gas and prevent future eruptions. How many lakes in the world are susceptible to this sort of deadly gas release? More... | |
| Today's Birthday | |
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 Sir Walter Scott (1771)Scottish writer Sir Walter Scott is widely regarded as both the inventor of the historical novel and one of the genre's greatest writers. His extremely popular "Waverley" series consists of more than two dozen romances of Scottish life. The first, published in 1814, was an immediate success, yet Scott continued to write anonymously until 1827. In 1825, his business nearly failed. By what means did he attempt to stave off bankruptcy, eventually achieving financial solvency after his own death? More... | |
| Quotation of the Day | |
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| Idiom of the Day | |
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be not short of a penny (or two)— To be exceptionally wealthy; to have no concerns regarding money. More... | |
| Today's Holiday | |
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 Dozynki Festival (2025)For many Christians around the world, August 15 is the Feast of the Assumption. But in Poland, it is also a time for celebrating the harvest. During the wheat harvest festival known as Dozynki Pod Debami, or Festival under the Oaks, the reapers make wreaths out of grain, flowers, nuts, and corn. When they present their wreaths to the master and mistress of the estate on which the wheat is grown, they are invited in for a feast, which is followed by dancing. More... | |
| Word Trivia | |
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Today's topic: surroundedinvolve - First meant "enfold, surround, wrap." More... enclave, exclave - An enclave is a group or area different from the surroundings, a secured area within another secured area, from Latin clavis, "key"; an exclave is the same thing, but usually describes a portion of a country separated from the main part and surrounded by politically alien territory. More... woebegone - Begone in woebegone means "beset" or "surrounded," so the word means "beset by woe." More... glade - Originally referred to a part of water not frozen over, but surrounded by ice, drawing an analogy to the same word for an opening in the woods. More... | |