Daily Content Archive
(as of Friday, May 15, 2015)| Word of the Day | |||||||
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pariah
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| Daily Grammar Lesson | |
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Subordinating ConjunctionsSubordinating conjunctions are used to create complex sentences containing one independent clause, or main clause, and one dependent, or subordinate, clause. What two things does a subordinating conjunction do in a sentence? More... | |
| Article of the Day | |
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 The Scripps National Spelling BeeThe Scripps National Spelling Bee is a highly competitive annual spelling bee run on a non-profit basis by The E. W. Scripps Company, held at a hotel in the Washington, DC, area. The competition came into existence in 1925, and the first winning word was "gladiolus." The bee is open to the winners of sponsored regional spelling bees held mostly throughout the US, and participants must be in eighth grade or below, or 15 years old or younger. Why is it called a spelling "bee"? More... | |
| This Day in History | |
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 US Supreme Court Declares Standard Oil an "Unreasonable" Monopoly (1911)By 1880, through elimination of competitors, mergers, and railroad rebates, John D. Rockefeller's Standard Oil controlled the refining of up to 95 percent of all oil produced in the US. In 1892, the Ohio Supreme Court ordered the trust dissolved, but it continued to operate. Exposed in Ida Tarbell's History of the Standard Oil Company in 1904, it was broken up in 1911 after a lengthy antitrust suit by the US government. What current oil companies have ties to the former Standard Oil? More... | |
| Today's Birthday | |
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 L. Frank Baum (1856)Baum was an American author of more than 70 children's books who is best known for penning The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. He moved from New York to South Dakota in 1888. When his newspaper there failed, he moved to Illinois and found work as a journalist. His first children's book, Mother Goose in Prose (1897), was followed by Father Goose: His Book, an immediate bestseller. In 2006, Baum's descendants apologized for editorials in which he called for the extermination of whom? More... | |
| Quotation of the Day | |
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 The world is all gates, all opportunities, strings of tension waiting to be struck.Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) | |
| Idiom of the Day | |
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a bone to pick— An issue to discuss—typically one that is a source of annoyance for the speaker. More... | |
| Today's Holiday | |
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 Sanja Matsuri (2016)Sanja Matsuri, one of the most spectacular festivals in Tokyo, Japan, honors the three fishermen brothers who founded the Asakusa Kannon Temple in the 14th century. The festival has been held each year since the late 1800s. More than 100 portable shrines called mikoshi are paraded through the streets to the gates of the temple. Carrying them are men in happi coats—the traditional short laborers' jackets—worn to advertise their districts. There are also priests on horseback, musicians playing "sanja-bayashi" festival music, and dancers in traditional costume. More... | |
| Word Trivia | |
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Today's topic: plateassiette - A prepared dish of food, French for "plate, course of a meal." More... dish, plate - Dish is a more general term and plate is more specialized. More... plate - Etymologically, something "flat," from Latin plattus, "flat," and Greek platys, "broad." More... placard - Comes from French plaquier, "to plate; lay flat." More... | |