Daily Content Archive
(as of Friday, March 12, 2021)| Word of the Day | |||||||
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luxuriant
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| Daily Grammar Lesson | |
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Defining Subordinating ConjunctionsSubordinating conjunctions are used to create complex sentences containing one independent clause and one dependent clause. What is the independent clause also known as? More... | |
| Article of the Day | |
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 Aïr MountainsSurrounded by barren plateaus and vast deserts on all sides, the towering Aïr Mountains of northern Niger are an ecological, geographical, and cultural island in the Sahara. The numerous oases in the mountains are home to the traditionally nomadic Tuareg people, while other areas consist entirely of volcanic protrusions. The region is known for the ancient rock art left there by early inhabitants and is rich in uranium deposits. What unusual natural phenomenon struck the Aïr Mountains in 2004? More... | |
| This Day in History | |
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 First American Girl Scouts Meeting (1912)After meeting Boy Scouts founder Robert Baden-Powell, Juliette "Daisy" Gordon Low organized the first meeting of the Girl Scouts in the US in Savannah, Georgia. There were only 18 girls at the first meeting, but within a few decades, the organization boasted hundreds of thousands of participants. More than 50 million American women have participated in the Girl Scouts since then, learning practical skills through character-building activities. What was the original name of the Girl Scouts? More... | |
| Today's Birthday | |
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 Sir William Henry Perkin (1838)At the age of 15, Perkin entered the Royal College of Chemistry in London. It was there, just a few years later, that he discovered the first synthetic dye. Since antiquity, purple garments had been a mark of royalty, as natural purple dyes had to be extracted from mollusks or insects and were thus quite expensive. The lab-created dye made Perkin a wealthy man. In 1906, the chemist was knighted. At the time of his discovery, he had had been trying to create a synthetic version of what? More... | |
| Quotation of the Day | |
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 It is better to lose health like a spendthrift than to waste it like a miser.Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-1894) | |
| Idiom of the Day | |
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be left to (one's) own devices— To be left unsupervised or uncontrolled; to be allowed to do as one pleases. More... | |
| Today's Holiday | |
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 St. Gregory's Day (2021)St. Gregory, a sixth-century monk who became pope, is also the patron saint of schoolchildren and scholars. In Belgium, schoolchildren rise early on March 12 and parade through the streets dressed as "little soldiers of St. Gregory." They carry a big basket for gifts and are accompanied by a noisy drummer. The young girls in the procession wear big shoulder bows that resemble the wings of a butterfly. They march from house to house, pausing at each door to sing a song and to ask for treats, and the procession always includes a group of angels. More... | |
| Word Trivia | |
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Today's topic: remainbide one's time - Based on abide, meaning "remain" or "to wait awhile." More... marcescent - Describes leaves that wither but remain attached to the stem. More... mansion, mansionary - Mansion first meant the action of living or remaining in a place, from French manere, "remain," from Latin mansio, "staying"; mansionary is an adjective meaning "resident." More... stick-in-the-mud - Based on the notion of "to stick in the mud, to be content to remain in an abject condition." More... | |