Daily Content Archive
(as of Tuesday, February 5, 2019)| Word of the Day | |||||||
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discourtesy
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| Daily Grammar Lesson | |
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The Proper Order for Adverbs of TimeRemember, adverbs of time can be used to describe three different aspects: duration, frequency, and certain points in time (when). If we are using multiple adverbs of time in the same sentence, and if there is no special emphasis given to one aspect over another, in what order do they generally appear? More... | |
| Article of the Day | |
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 EntropyIn popular, nontechnical use, entropy is regarded as a measure of the chaos or randomness of a system. In thermodynamics, it is the measure of a system's energy that is unavailable for work or of the degree of a system's disorder. Entropy increases during irreversible processes, such as the spontaneous mixing of hot and cold gases. The concept, first proposed in 1850 by the German physicist Rudolf Clausius, is sometimes presented as the second law of thermodynamics, which states what? More... | |
| This Day in History | |
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 Roger Williams Immigrates to Colonial America (1631)An English clergyman and early espouser of Puritanism, Williams immigrated to the Massachusetts Bay colony in 1631, but it was not long before his then-unorthodox views on religious toleration, Indian rights, and the separation of church and state brought about his banishment. He headed south and in 1636 founded Providence, the first settlement of the Rhode Island colony. Under his leadership, the colony became a haven for religious dissenters. What other practice was he an early opponent of? More... | |
| Today's Birthday | |
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 Andreas Papandreou (1919)Andreas was the second of three generations of Papandreou men to serve as Greece's head of state. While in exile after a 1967 military coup, he formed what would become the Panhellenic Socialist Movement (Pasok). He returned to Greece after the fall of the junta and in 1981 became the country's first socialist premier. He resigned in 1989 amid financial scandals and mounting budget deficits, but this did not keep him from becoming prime minister again in 1993. When did his son take the reins? More... | |
| Quotation of the Day | |
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 Towns are excrescences, gray fluxions, where men, hurrying to find one another, have lost themselves.E. M. Forster (1879-1970) | |
| Idiom of the Day | |
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peg it— To leave or depart very quickly or suddenly. More... | |
| Today's Holiday | |
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 San Marino Liberation Day (2022)In 1739, Cardinal Giulio Alberoni invaded the Republic of San Marino and occupied the country. The people of San Marino protested the occupation and appealed to the Vatican; the Pope recognized the rights of San Marino and, on February 5, 1740, he restored the country's independence. Today, San Marino celebrates Liberation Day on February 5 to mark the anniversary of their independence. As part of the celebration, there is a public procession from the city of Borgo Maggiore to the capital city of San Marino proper. In addition, various civic celebrations take place throughout the day. More... | |
| Word Trivia | |
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Today's topic: staffbaguette - Means "little rod" and is derived from Latin baculum, "staff, stick." More... dough - As in money, it almost certainly came from bread (another slang term for it), because bread is the staff of life. More... staff - From Germanic stabaz, "stick"; its sense as "employees" is probably an allusion to the carrying of a staff of office by a person in charge. More... miter, mitre, crosier - The tall, pointy hat of a bishop or abbot is the miter/mitre—from Greek mitra, "headdress"; a crosier is a bishop's staff. More... | |