Daily Content Archive
(as of Friday, April 28, 2017)| Word of the Day | |||||||
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redolent
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| Daily Grammar Lesson | |
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Linking VerbsLinking verbs (also known as copulas or copular verbs) are used to describe the state of being of the subject of a clause. What is the most common linking verb? More... | |
| Article of the Day | |
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 The Hammond Circus Train WreckOn June 22, 1918, a locomotive pulling 20 empty passenger cars rear-ended the Hagenbeck-Wallace circus train near Hammond, Indiana. The wreck and subsequent fire—likely ignited by the oil lamps in the circus train's wooden sleeping cars—resulted in 86 deaths and 127 injuries. Most of the dead were buried five days later in a nearby cemetery in a section called Showmen's Rest, which had been purchased by the Showmen's League of America just months earlier. What caused the collision? More... | |
| This Day in History | |
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 Dennis Tito Becomes World's First Space Tourist (2001)American multimillionaire Dennis Tito gained celebrity status in 2001, when he became the first person to pay for his own ticket to space. The 60-year-old spent nearly eight days in space, most of them on the International Space Station. A former scientist of the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Tito made his fortune as a founder of Wilshire Associates, an investment management, consulting, and technology services company. How much did his ticket aboard the Russian Soyuz TM-32 allegedly cost? More... | |
| Today's Birthday | |
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 Ferruccio Lamborghini (1916)Lamborghini was a successful Italian tractor manufacturer and sports car enthusiast who founded a luxury car company in 1963, allegedly after a spat with Enzo Ferrari. The story goes that Lamborghini was dissatisfied with the clutch in one of his Ferraris and voiced this to Enzo Ferrari, who dismissed the complaints as those of a mere tractor maker. Infuriated, Lamborghini decided to retaliate by creating his own superior sports car. Why did he choose the image of a bull for his company's logo? More... | |
| Quotation of the Day | |
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 We do not write because we want to; we write because we have to.W. Somerset Maugham (1874-1965) | |
| Idiom of the Day | |
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shank's nag— One's legs and feet, used for walking; travel by foot. Also "shanks' nag." A reference to the shank— the lower leg between the knee and the ankle—and the use of ponies or horses for travel. More... | |
| Today's Holiday | |
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 Freedom of Entry Ceremony (2022)Inaugurated in 2007, this ceremony honors the Royal Malaysian Navy with a series of traditional rituals that date back to medieval times. It takes place in the Malaysian seaport town of Kota Kinabalu on the island of Borneo. Along with the public symbolic gestures that confer the navy's right to protect the city, the ceremony also features several entertaining exhibitions and shows intended to attract tourists, including a boat demonstration, helicopter aerial displays, tours of navy ships, and performances by the navy band and silent drill teams. More... | |
| Word Trivia | |
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Today's topic: socialcommunity - It can refer to group of animals or plants living together and was first used to refer to a "body of commons" or a social or political entity. More... party - Latin partitum, "part, side," became party, with the senses "political group" and, in the 18th century, "social gathering." More... mores, anomie - Mores is the Latin plural of mor/mos and means "acquired customs and manners"; social and moral conventions are mores, and the lack of these is anomie. More... sociable, social, society - Sociable, social, society, etc. originate in Latin socius, "companion, fellow," or "colleague." More... | |