Daily Content Archive
(as of Wednesday, February 15, 2017)| Word of the Day | |||||||
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jamboree
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| Daily Grammar Lesson | |
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Forming a Compound Sentence with a SemicolonCompound sentences are made up of at least two independent clauses expressing closely related ideas of equal or similar importance. When can we join the clauses using a semicolon without a conjunction? More... | |
| Article of the Day | |
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 The Exorcism of Anneliese MichelMichel was a German woman who died in 1976 while undergoing exorcism treatments for demonic possession. She began suffering from seizures and depression when she was 16, the symptoms of which were not eased by conventional medical treatment. Convinced her condition was the result of demonic possession, Michel began a series of hour-long exorcism sessions that lasted nearly a year and ended with her death. Why were her parents and the priests who performed the exorcisms convicted of manslaughter? More... | |
| This Day in History | |
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 Entire US Figure Skating Team Killed in Plane Crash (1961)February 15, 1961, was a dark day in figure skating history. On that day, 72 people, including all 18 members of the US Figure Skating team and 16 family members, coaches, and skating officials, died when their flight from New York to Brussels went down in a field just miles from its destination. A farm worker on the ground also perished. The skaters had been en route to the 1961 World Championships in Prague, Czechoslovakia. What did the event's organizers do to honor the dead athletes? More... | |
| Today's Birthday | |
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.jpg) Miep Gies (1909)Gies was one of five heroic Dutch citizens who helped hide Otto Frank, his wife and daughters, and four other Jews from the Nazis during the occupation of the Netherlands. After the hidden Jews were betrayed to the Gestapo in 1944, Gies took Otto's daughter Anne's diary, and kept it—unread—in hopes of someday returning it to her. After the war, Gies gave the now-famous diary to the only surviving member of the family, Otto. Why did she later say that had she read it, she would have destroyed it? More... | |
| Quotation of the Day | |
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 In matters of thought and conduct, to be independent is to be abnormal, to be abnormal is to be detested.Ambrose Bierce (1842-1914) | |
| Idiom of the Day | |
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strap on the (old) feed bag— slang To begin eating; to have a meal. More... | |
| Today's Holiday | |
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 Kamakura Matsuri (Snow Hut Festival) (2022)Kamakura Matsuri is held in northern Japan in the Akita Prefecture, at the time of year when there is usually deep snow on the ground. In Yokote and other towns of the region, children build Kamakura, snow houses that resemble igloos. They furnish the huts with tatami mats and a wooden altar dedicated to Suijin-sama and have parties in them, while families gather to drink sweet sake and eat rice cakes and fruits. The rice cakes are made in the shape of cranes and turtles, traditional symbols of longevity, and of dogs called inukko, thought to guard against devils. More... | |
| Word Trivia | |
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Today's topic: slaveamanuensis - Literally "slave at hand"—for a literary assistant, especially one who takes dictation or copies manuscripts. More... ciao - Also ciau; from Italian, it is an alteration of schiavo, "(I am your) slave." More... serve - From Latin servire, "serve," from servus, "slave." More... addict - To addict originally meant "to award as a slave"; an addict now is a slave to his/her habit, from Latin addictus, which, in Roman law, meant "a debtor awarded as a slave to his creditor." More... | |