Daily Content Archive
(as of Saturday, May 14, 2016)| Word of the Day | |||||||
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cumulonimbus
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| Daily Grammar Lesson | |
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Nominalization (Creating Nouns)Nominalization is the creation of a noun from a verb or adjective. Most of the time, nouns are created from other parts of speech through the use of suffixes. What suffix is added to a verb to make a gerund? More... | |
| Article of the Day | |
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 The Pazzi ConspiracyIn the late 1400s, Pope Sixtus IV, his nephew Gerolamo Riario, Archbishop Salviati, and members of the wealthy Pazzi family hatched a plot to assassinate Lorenzo and Giuliano de' Medici. The Pazzi and Medici families were rivals, but the Pazzis were merely tools in the conspiracy, which aimed to increase Riario's power in Florence. On April 26, 1478, while attending High Mass at the Duomo, Giuliano was stabbed to death. What happened to Lorenzo? More... | |
| This Day in History | |
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 Rockefeller Foundation Established (1913)The Rockefeller Foundation is a private philanthropic organization established by John D. Rockefeller to promote "the well-being of mankind throughout the world." Its first grant was issued to the American Red Cross, and over the years, it has donated more than $14 billion in grants to fund medical research, education, agriculture, and work in a number of other fields. Before and during WWII, it worked to bring scholars and artists persecuted by the Nazis to the US. Who was saved in this way? More... | |
| Today's Birthday | |
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 Charles IV, Holy Roman Emperor (1316)Charles IV was a 14th-century Holy Roman Emperor, German king, and king of Bohemia. He was educated at the French court and fought the English at Crécy, where the heroic death of his father, John of Luxemburg, made him king of Bohemia. Pope Clement VI, to whom he had promised far-reaching concessions, helped secure his election as anti-king to Holy Roman Emperor Louis IV. After the death of Louis in 1347, Charles claimed the crown. He is considered the father of what modern-day nation? More... | |
| Quotation of the Day | |
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 A sudden, bold, and unexpected question, doth many times surprise a man, and lay him open.Francis Bacon (1561-1626) | |
| Idiom of the Day | |
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golf widow— A woman whose husband frequently absents himself from home so as to go and play golf. More... | |
| Today's Holiday | |
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 Jamestown Day (2016)Jamestown, Virginia, is the site of the first permanent English settlement in America, and it is also home to some other firsts‐both good and bad. It established the first representative government on the continent and built America's first Anglican (Episcopal) church, but it also brought the first African slaves to the colonies. On Jamestown Day, a commemorative service is held at the original settlement site, with speeches, choral selections, and a procession to the Memorial Cross, which marks the town's earliest cemetery. More... | |
| Word Trivia | |
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Today's topic: painterpaysagist - A painter of landscapes. More... pointillist - A painter who creates separate dots of pure color instead of mixed pigments; the pronunciation is PWAHN-tuhl-ist. More... pictorial - First meant "pertaining to a painter or painting," as it derives from Latin pictor, "painter." More... picturesque - Based on Italian pittore, "painter," its original meaning was "in the style of a painter." More... | |