Daily Content Archive
(as of Saturday, March 14, 2020)| Word of the Day | |||||||
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confound
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| Daily Grammar Lesson | |
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Joining Coordinate AdjectivesWhen we use multiple adjectives to describe the same noun, we may or may not use commas between them, depending on how the adjectives function together. In general, we do use commas between coordinate adjectives. What are coordinate adjectives? More... | |
| Article of the Day | |
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 The Estates-General of 1789The Estates-General was a legislative assembly made up of the three classes of French subjects—clergy, nobility, and commoners. King Louis XVI summoned them in 1789 to solve the financial crisis facing his government. However, rather than pass his proposed fiscal reforms, they began airing their many grievances, chiefly their frustrations with the voting process. In an act that kindled the French Revolution, members of the third estate then formed an assembly of their own and vowed to do what? More... | |
| This Day in History | |
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 Eli Whitney's Cotton Gin Awarded Patent (1794)By the end of the 18th century, the mechanization of fabric production in England had created a huge demand for US cotton, but cotton production was hampered by the large amount of manual labor required to remove the sticky seeds from the raw fiber. Whitney's cotton gin solved this problem, performing the work mechanically and quickly. Cotton production in the US skyrocketed, as did the slave population—which quadrupled by 1850. Why was Whitney unable to profit from his invention? More... | |
| Today's Birthday | |
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.jpg) Johann Strauss I (1804)Tragically orphaned at the age of 12, Strauss was apprenticed to a bookbinder but studied violin on the side. After completing his apprenticeship, he performed in string quartets around Vienna before deciding to start his own band and write his own music. He enjoyed much professional success, but his family life was tempestuous. He forbade his children to study music, but they did anyway, with Johann II eventually overshadowing him. In 1849, he died after contracting scarlet fever from whom? More... | |
| Quotation of the Day | |
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 Why is it that when you awake to the world of realities you nearly always feel, sometimes very vividly, that the vanished dream has carried with it some enigma which you have failed to solve?Fyodor Dostoyevsky (1821-1881) | |
| Idiom of the Day | |
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have a fable for (something)— To have a strong or particular preference, affinity, or weakness for something. More... | |
| Today's Holiday | |
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 Holmenkollen International Ski Meet (2020)The Holmenkollen International Ski Meet is a Norwegian winter festival held at Holmenkollen Hill outside Oslo. It is the main winter sports event of the year and it covers all types of skiing—cross-country racing and jumping as well as downhill and slalom. The world's best skiers meet here to compete for highly coveted prizes. At the high point of the festival, over a hundred thousand spectators, headed by the king and the royal family, gather at the famous Holmenkollen Hill to watch the ski-jumping event, which has been held here since 1892. More... | |
| Word Trivia | |
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Today's topic: small piececollup - A small piece or slice. More... cover slip - The small piece of thin glass that goes over the specimen on a microscope slide. More... brioche - In French, it literally means "split up into small pieces." More... stamp - Originally meant "crush into small pieces; pound"; its sense of "imprint with design by pressure" came into play in the 16th century—and is the semantic basis of postage stamp. More... | |