Daily Content Archive
(as of Wednesday, March 28, 2018)| Word of the Day | |||||||
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stoicism
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| Daily Grammar Lesson | |
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Indicative MoodThe indicative mood is a type of grammatical mood used to express facts, statements, opinions, or questions. It is the sole realis mood in English. In which tenses can the indicative mood can be used? More... | |
| Article of the Day | |
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 Fatal Familial InsomniaFatal familial insomnia is a rare genetic disease that interferes with sleep and eventually leads to death. The disease is the result of mutations in a certain protein, which cause plaques to build up in the thalamus, the brain region responsible for sleep regulation. Patients initially suffer from insomnia and progressively develop more serious problems—including hallucinations, rapid weight loss, and dementia—before dying. In how many families has the gene that causes the disease been found? More... | |
| This Day in History | |
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 Constantinople Becomes Istanbul (1930)The city now known as Istanbul was founded as the Greek colony of Byzantium in the 8th century BCE. Eventually passing to Alexander the Great, it became a free city under the Romans in the 1st century CE. Emperor Constantine I made the city the seat of the Eastern Roman Empire in 330, later naming it Constantinople. It remained the capital of the subsequent Byzantine Empire after the fall of Rome in the late 5th century and then changed hands several times. Why was it renamed Istanbul in 1930? More... | |
| Today's Birthday | |
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 Aristide Briand (1862)Briand was a French statesman who served as premier of France 11 times and held 26 ministerial posts between 1906 and 1932. After World War I, he emerged as a leading advocate of international peace. As foreign minister from 1925 to 1932, he was the chief architect of the Locarno Pact and the Kellogg-Briand Pact. An impressive orator, Briand was a prominent figure in the League of Nations and advocated for a United States of Europe. With whom did he share the 1926 Nobel Prize for Peace? More... | |
| Quotation of the Day | |
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 Man is a rope stretched between the animal and the Superman—a rope over an abyss ... What is great in man is that he is a bridge and not a goal.Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900) | |
| Idiom of the Day | |
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break into a smile— To start smiling. More... | |
| Today's Holiday | |
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 Mi-Carême (2019)This break from the strictness of Lent has traditionally been observed in France, Belgium, and various islands of the French West Indies. In Paris, it is customarily celebrated with the Fête des Blanchisseuses, or laundresses, who choose a queen from each of the various metropolitan districts. The district queens and the queen of queens chosen by them ride through the streets on a float, followed by their costumed courtiers and ladies-in-waiting. Then there is a colorful ball for the washerwomen that night. More... | |
| Word Trivia | |
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Today's topic: uproardonnybrook - Donnybrook is a suburb of Dublin, Ireland, once famous for its annual fair and now used to describe a scene of uproar or disorder. More... hurly-burly - Turmoil or an uproar. More... rum - Once known as rumbo, rumbowling, rumbustion, or rumbullion—from a Devonshire word meaning "uproar." More... stampede - From Mexican Spanish estampida, "crash, uproar." More... | |