Daily Content Archive
(as of Wednesday, May 1, 2019)| Word of the Day | |||||||
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dramaturgy
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| Daily Grammar Lesson | |
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Modal Auxiliary VerbsA modal auxiliary verb is used to change the meaning of other verbs by expressing possibility, likelihood, ability, permission, obligation, or future intention. How many "true" modal auxiliary verbs are there? More... | |
| Article of the Day | |
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 Clay AnimationClay animation is a form of stop-motion animation in which each frame of a film is created and photographed independently using clay figures molded into different positions for each frame. Clay animated films were made in the US as early as 1908 and became something of a fad in 1916, but they were soon overtaken by cartoons. Clay animation is a laborious process, requiring about 21,600 stops for a 30-minute film. How many frames per second are needed to create the illusion of continuous motion? More... | |
| This Day in History | |
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 General Mills Introduces Cheerios as CheeriOats (1941)General Mills introduced its oat-based, ready-to-eat cold cereal as CheeriOats but, in 1946, changed its name to Cheerios because of a trademark dispute with Quaker Oats. Today, it comes in nearly a dozen different flavors and is marketed to children as well as adults. It has used several different characters in its advertising over the years, including Charlie Brown from Peanuts. Why did the US Food and Drug Administration call Cheerios an "unapproved new drug" in 2009? More... | |
| Today's Birthday | |
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 Joseph Heller (1923)As a bombardier with the US Air Force during World War II, American writer Joseph Heller flew 60 combat missions. He drew on his wartime experiences when writing his darkly humorous novel Catch-22 (1961), a satiric commentary on the absurdity of war and bureaucracy. One of the most significant works of postwar protest literature, it was a huge critical success. What did Heller famously reply when asked why he had not written anything else as good as Catch-22? More... | |
| Quotation of the Day | |
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 Life wouldn't be worth living if I worried over the future as well as the present.W. Somerset Maugham (1874-1965) | |
| Idiom of the Day | |
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high note— The most successful, impressive, or climactic point (of something). More... | |
| Today's Holiday | |
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 Marshall Islands Constitution Day (2020)In 1943, during World War II, the Allied forces invaded the Marshall Islands; at the end of the war, the United States was given effective power there. On May 1, 1979, the Marshall Islands constitution was signed, establishing it as a self-governing country. Constitution Day is a public holiday in the Marshall Islands. On this day of celebration, people gather together for a parade to commemorate their independence. Field-day contests are held between all private and public schools, entities within the community itself, and more. More... | |
| Word Trivia | |
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Today's topic: mysterybags of mystery - Slang for sausage. More... mystery - Traces back to Greek mustikos, "secret," and musterion, "secret rites"; the lesser-known meaning of mystery as "handicraft; art" is part of the phrase "mystery play." More... mystify - Derived from mystery or mystic. More... rune - An ancient alphabet letter, it is from Old English run, "secret, mystery." More... | |