Daily Content Archive
(as of Friday, February 23, 2018)| Word of the Day | |||||||
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| Daily Grammar Lesson | |
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FractionsFractions are a type of pre-determiner that divides the quantity of the noun. What word do we usually use between the fractional expression and the other determiner? More... | |
| Article of the Day | |
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 Mathilde KschessinskaThough she is perhaps best known for her affair with the future tsar Nicholas II, Mathilde Kschessinska was actually the first Russian prima ballerina assoluta. She earned the title—the highest possible rank for a ballerina—in 1896, at the age of 24. She was kind to colleagues but was said to be ruthless with her rivals and was known to use her connections with the tsar to her advantage. What was she rumored to have done during a fellow ballerina's performance that featured live chickens? More... | |
| This Day in History | |
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 International Organization for Standardization (ISO) Is Founded (1947)The ISO is a worldwide federation of national standards bodies from some 100 countries. It was founded in Geneva after World War II to promote the development of standardization and related activities, with a view to facilitating the international exchange of goods and services as well as intellectual, scientific, technological, and economic cooperation. At first glance, ISO appears to be an acronym for the group's full name, but it is not. Rather, it is derived from a Greek word for what? More... | |
| Today's Birthday | |
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 Paul Warfield Tibbets, Jr. (1915)A US Air Force colonel during World War II, Tibbets is best known for piloting the Enola Gay—named for his mother—on August 6, 1945, when it dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima. The bomb, code-named Little Boy, was the first atomic weapon deployed in the history of warfare and killed tens of thousands of people. Initially hailed as a hero in the US, Tibbets became a target of controversy in the debate over the ethics of atomic warfare. What was his stance on the bombing later in life? More... | |
| Quotation of the Day | |
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 He will win who knows when to fight and when not to fight.Sun Tzu (544 BC-496 BC) | |
| Idiom of the Day | |
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be running on fumes— To be continuing to operate with no or very little enthusiasm, energy, or resources left. More... | |
| Today's Holiday | |
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 Terminalia (2022)In ancient Rome, February 23 marked the end of the year and was therefore an appropriate time to honor Terminus, the god of boundaries and landmarks. The terminus, a boundary stone that marked the outer limits of Rome, stood between the fifth and sixth milestones on the road to Laurentum. During the observance of the Terminalia, property owners would gather there—or at the boundary stones that marked their private lands—to place garlands around the stone and offer sacrifices. Afterward, there would be singing and socializing among family members and servants. More... | |
| Word Trivia | |
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Today's topic: plowacre - Old English aecer, now acre, was originally the amount of land a yoke of oxen could plow in a day; the Old English word came from Latin ager, "fertile field," and became acre, which first meant any field. More... plow - Borrowed from Old Norse plogr. More... | |