Daily Content Archive
(as of Tuesday, December 18, 2018)| Word of the Day | |||||||
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tuneful
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| Daily Grammar Lesson | |
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Commonly Paired Adjectives and PrepositionsThere are no definite rules when it comes to combining adjectives with prepositions. What is the best way to learn correct adjective and preposition combinations? More... | |
| Article of the Day | |
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 ShamashOne of the great deities in Mesopotamian religion, Shamash was the god of the Sun, who, with his father, the Moon god Sin, and the goddess Ishtar, was part of an astral triad of divinities. As the solar god, Shamash was the heroic conqueror of night and death, and he became known as the god of justice and equity. He was said to have presented the Code of Hammurabi to the Babylonian king, and at night he served as judge of the underworld. In what Babylonian epic is Shamash mentioned? More... | |
| This Day in History | |
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 Discovery of Piltdown Man Announced (1912)In the early 20th-century, amateur archaeologist Charles Dawson announced that a fossilized skull belonging to a previously unknown species of prehistoric man had been found in Piltdown, England. It took 40 years to definitively determine that the skull was not that of a primitive hominid but rather a fake constructed from a human cranium and the jawbone of an ape. The perpetrator of the hoax has never been identified, though many have fallen under suspicion, including what famous author? More... | |
| Today's Birthday | |
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 Sir Joseph John "J. J." Thomson (1856)One of the founders of modern physics, Thomson helped revolutionize the knowledge of atomic structure. He is known primarily for his discovery of the electron and his investigation of its charge and mass, his development of the mathematical theory of electricity and magnetism, and his role in the discovery of isotopes and invention of mass spectrometry. His research into the electrical conductivity of gases earned him a Nobel Prize in 1906. What did Thomson originally call electrons? More... | |
| Quotation of the Day | |
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 Don't tell fish stories where the people know you; but particularly, don't tell them where they know the fish.Mark Twain (1835-1910) | |
| Idiom of the Day | |
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money laundering— The criminal act or practice of processing large amounts of money obtained through illegitimate or illegal means, often in small increments through banks or other legitimate businesses, so as to conceal its source or origins. More... | |
| Today's Holiday | |
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 St. Modesto's Day (2021)St. Modesto is the patron saint of farmers in Greece. His feast day is celebrated with various rituals in honor of farm animals. In Lemnos, kollyva (cooked wheat berries) and holy water are mixed with their fodder, while in Lesbos, the holy water is sprinkled on the fields to ward off locusts and disease. For horses and oxen, December 18 is a day of rest. The Eastern Orthodox Church reserves this day to commemorate St. Modestus, who was patriarch of Jerusalem from 631 to 634. He is known for a sermon he preached on the bodily Assumption of the Virgin Mary into heaven. More... | |
| Word Trivia | |
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Today's topic: housesginnel - A long narrow passage between houses. More... row house - Part of an unbroken line or series of houses. More... domal - Means of or pertaining to a house or houses. More... vicinal, vicinity - Vicinal, from Latin vicus, "group of houses," means "of or pertaining to a neighborhood"—hence, vicinity. More... | |