Daily Content Archive
(as of Friday, October 23, 2020)| Word of the Day | |||||||
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panjandrum
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| Daily Grammar Lesson | |
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Past Perfect TenseThe past perfect tense expresses the idea that something occurred before another action in the past. What else can it show? More... | |
| Article of the Day | |
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 PanchatantraThe Panchatantra is a collection of fables that are among the most widely-known animal stories in the world. The original Sanskrit work, now lost, may have been written down in India as early as 100 BCE. It then spread throughout the ancient world. A textbook created for instructing the three sons of a king, it contains morals that glorify shrewdness over altruism. One story concerns a war between crows and owls. When a crow defects to join the owls and is accepted by them, what happens? More... | |
| This Day in History | |
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 Creation of the World, According to Archbishop James Ussher (4004 BCE)For centuries, Christian scholars have tried to deduce the precise date of creation, using Biblical sources to help guide them. One such scholar, 17th-century Irish archbishop James Ussher, devised a system of dates that sets the creation of the world at 4004 BCE. Ussher's chronology rests upon the beliefs that creation began in autumn—the season that marks the start of the year according to the Jewish lunisolar calendar—near the autumnal equinox and that creation began on what day of the week? More... | |
| Today's Birthday | |
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 John Heisman (1869)Memorialized after his death by the trophy that bears his name, Heisman was an American collegiate football coach and one of the game's greatest innovators. He was responsible for legalizing the forward pass in 1906, and he originated the center snap and the "hike" count signals of the quarterback in starting play. He coached at several colleges between 1892 and 1927, compiling a record of 185 wins, 68 losses, and 18 ties. What team did he coach to a record 222-0 victory in 1916? More... | |
| Quotation of the Day | |
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 No affectation of peculiarity can conceal a commonplace mind.W. Somerset Maugham (1874-1965) | |
| Idiom of the Day | |
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naff off— A forceful exclamation of dismissal, disdain, or impatience. Primarily heard in UK. More... | |
| Today's Holiday | |
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 Chulalongkorn Day (2021)Chulalongkorn Day is a national holiday in Thailand commemorating King Chulalongkorn (Rama V), the king who abolished slavery and introduced numerous reforms when the country was still called Siam. He succeeded to the throne in 1868 when he was 15 years old, was crowned in 1873, and ruled until his death in 1910. He had been a pupil of Anna Leonowens, who taught the young prince about Abraham Lincoln. The story of her stay in the royal court, and her teaching of the royal children and concubines, was told in Margaret Landon's book, Anna and the King of Siam. More... | |
| Word Trivia | |
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Today's topic: impactfighting fire with fire - Early American settlers had to put out great prairie fires and learned that setting a circle or strip of land on fire could stop the path or lessen the impact of a big fire—giving us the phrase "fighting fire with fire." More... freezing rain - Rain that freezes on impact with the ground or objects. More... draw - The billiard ball's recoil after impact. More... impinge, infringe - To impinge is to come into contact or encroach or have an impact; to infringe is to encroach on a right or privilege or to violate. More... | |