Daily Content Archive
(as of Friday, October 9, 2020)| Word of the Day | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
rankle
| |||||||
| Daily Grammar Lesson | |
|---|---|
Superlative Adverbs from One-Syllable AdverbsSuperlative adverbs are used to describe differences among three or more people or things. In general, when the adverb has only one syllable, what do we do to it to form the superlative? More... | |
| Article of the Day | |
|---|---|
 The Mafeking Cadet CorpsDuring South Africa's Second Boer War, British Colonel Robert Baden-Powell was charged with defending the town of Mafeking in a 217-day siege that began in 1899. Baden-Powell, who would go on to create the Boy Scout movement eight years later, utilized a team of local boys as volunteers to support the troops, assist in hospitals, and act as lookouts. Led by young Warner Goodyear, the uniformed cadets delivered messages on their bicycles amid incoming shells. Were any of them killed? More... | |
| This Day in History | |
|---|---|
 The Phantom of the Opera Premieres in London (1986)Based on the French novel Le Fantôme de l'Opéra, Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical The Phantom of the Opera opened at Her Majesty's Theatre in London in 1986. In 2010, it celebrated its 10,000th performance at the same venue. It opened in New York in 1988, and went on to become the longest-running musical on Broadway. It is also the most financially successful entertainment project of all time, having earned billions of dollars. What is the sequel to The Phantom of the Opera? More... | |
| Today's Birthday | |
|---|---|
 Alfred Dreyfus (1859)In 1894, French Army intelligence discovered that military secrets were being leaked to Germany. Dreyfus, a Jewish captain in the French Army, was blamed and convicted—twice—on insufficient and forged evidence. He was imprisoned on Devil's Island. The affair became a national scandal amid reports that the army, permeated by anti-Semitism, had covered up evidence of his innocence. He was pardoned by the president in 1899 and cleared by a civilian court in 1906. Who was probably the real traitor? More... | |
| Quotation of the Day | |
|---|---|
 This soul, or life within us, by no means agrees with the life outside us. If one has the courage to ask her what she thinks, she is always saying the very opposite to what other people say.Virginia Woolf (1882-1941) | |
| Idiom of the Day | |
|---|---|
inside and out— Thoroughly; down to the last detail. More... | |
| Today's Holiday | |
|---|---|
 Birthday of Guru Ram Das (2020)Ram Das (1534-1581) was the fourth of the ten Sikh gurus and the son-in-law of Amar Das, the third guru. After he was chosen to succeed his father-in-law, his name was changed from Bhai Jetha to Ram Das, which means "God's Servant." His birthday is celebrated during the month of Asun (September-October) in Sikh gurdwaras, or houses of worship, with prayers, the singing of hymns, and with readings from the Guru Granth Sahib, the Sikh holy scriptures. More... | |
| Word Trivia | |
|---|---|
Today's topic: operaopera - Actually the Latin plural of opus, "labor, work." More... prima donna - Meaning "principal female singer in an opera," it is from the same Italian phrase meaning "first lady"; the meaning "temperamental person" was first recorded in 1834. More... primo vomo - The principal male singer in an opera. More... soap opera - Goes back (1939) to the early days of radio suspense serials, which were mainly sponsored by soap-makers; the "opera" part is an echo of the earlier "horse opera"—a Western (1927). More... | |