Daily Content Archive
(as of Sunday, November 11, 2018)| Word of the Day | |||||||
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adduce
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| Daily Grammar Lesson | |
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"It" as a Dummy PronounJust like the dummy pronoun "there," "it" is also used as a pronoun without an antecedent in sentences. "It" is commonly used as a dummy pronoun in discussions of what three topics? More... | |
| Article of the Day | |
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 AerosansUsed by the Soviet Red Army during the Winter War and World War II, the aerosan is a type of propeller-powered snowmobile that runs on skis. First developed early in the 20th century, aerosans were valued for their high mobility in deep snow and on frozen water bodies and came to be used for a number of functions, including communications, mail deliveries, medical aid, and border patrolling in northern Russia. Some of the first aerosans may have been built by what famous aircraft designer? More... | |
| This Day in History | |
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 Kaprun Disaster Leaves 155 Dead (2000)High above the Austrian ski resort of Kaprun, a funicular railway car carrying over 160 people to a glacier caught fire after a defective heater ignited hydraulic brake fluid in the rear of the car. Only partway through a 2-mi (3.2-km) tunnel, the car came to a sudden halt. As the fire grew, the passengers were plunged into darkness and trapped behind inoperable doors. Almost all who managed to escape the burning car suffocated in the tunnel. How did the 12 survivors manage to escape to safety? More... | |
| Today's Birthday | |
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 Daisy Lee Gatson Bates (1914)Bates was a key figure in the integration of public schools in Little Rock, Arkansas. The publisher of a newspaper, Bates began publicizing civil rights issues in the early 1940s. In 1957, when the Little Rock School Board chose nine black students to integrate the local high school, Bates organized the group's activities amid mob violence so intense that the students could only enter the school under military guard. On what national holiday is Daisy Gatson Bates Day observed in Arkansas? More... | |
| Quotation of the Day | |
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 The accumulation of all powers, Legislative, Executive, and Judiciary, in the same hands, whether of one, a few, or many, and whether hereditary, self-appointed, or elective, may justly be pronounced the very definition of tyranny.James Madison (1751-1836) | |
| Idiom of the Day | |
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no pressure— Said ironically to emphasize that what is being discussed carries a large amount of importance or makes one feel that one must try very hard to succeed. More... | |
| Today's Holiday | |
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 Gansabhauet (2021)Gansabhauet is held only in the country town of Sursee, Lucerne Canton, Switzerland, on St. Martin's Day. A dead goose is hung by its neck in front of the town hall, and young men draw lots to take turns trying to knock it down with a blunt saber. (Gansabhauet means "knocking down goose.") The men—blindfolded and wearing red robes and big round masks representing the sun—get only one try at the bird. While the men whack at the goose, children's games take place: they scale a stripped tree, race in sacks, and compete to see who can make the ugliest face. More... | |
| Word Trivia | |
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Today's topic: hungerfamine, famish - Famine and famish come from Latin fames, "hunger." More... dissatisfied, unsatisfied - Only a person can be dissatisfied, while an abstract thing (such as hunger) can be unsatisfied. More... piece de resistance - The original context for piece de resistance is what one is able to resist by eating the big dish—pangs of hunger. More... | |