Daily Content Archive
(as of Wednesday, May 17, 2017)| Word of the Day | |||||||
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conniption
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| Daily Grammar Lesson | |
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Reported Speech (Indirect Speech)When we tell other people what someone else told us, it is called indirect speech or reported speech. We use reporting verbs to introduce the information that was spoken previously. What are the most common reporting verbs? More... | |
| Article of the Day | |
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 The Ancient Olympic GamesHeld in Olympia, Greece, from 776 BCE to 393 CE, the Olympic Games were a series of athletic competitions between various city-states. Originally, the games were comprised of just one event: the stadion race, a short sprint of about 624 ft (190 m), or the length of the stadium. Eventually, other events were added, including wrestling, chariot racing, a pentathlon, and the hoplitodromos, a race participants ran wearing heavy armor. What did competitors wear during other events? More... | |
| This Day in History | |
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 First Kentucky Derby (1875)The Kentucky Derby is a classic US thoroughbred horse race. Established in 1875, it is run annually on the first Saturday in May at Churchill Downs track in Louisville, Kentucky. The field is limited to three-year-old Thoroughbreds, and the track distance is 1.25 mi (2,000 m). With the Preakness and the Belmont Stakes, it makes up US racing's coveted Triple Crown. In front of an estimated crowd of 10,000 people, the inaugural derby was won by jockey Oliver Lewis riding a colt named what? More... | |
| Today's Birthday | |
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 Bartholomew Roberts (1682)Now infamous as "Black Bart," Roberts was a Welsh pirate who raided ships off the coasts of the Americas and West Africa in the 18th century, during the period known as the "Golden Age of Piracy." Considered the most successful pirate of the era, he is estimated to have captured more than 400 vessels in a matter of a few years—far more than some of the best-known pirates of his day, such as Blackbeard or Captain Kidd. Roberts is one of the pirate captains mentioned in what famous pirate story? More... | |
| Quotation of the Day | |
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 Taught from infancy that beauty is woman's scepter, the mind shapes itself to the body, and roaming round its gilt cage, only seeks to adorn its prison.Mary Shelley (1797-1851) | |
| Idiom of the Day | |
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brain box— Someone who is regarded as highly intelligent. More... | |
| Today's Holiday | |
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 Toshogu Haru-No-Taisai (2017)This festival provides the most spectacular display of ancient samurai costumes and weaponry in Japan. The Toshogu Shrine, in Nikko, Tochigi Prefecture, was built in 1617 to house the mausoleum of Tokugawa Ieyasu (1543-1616), the first of the Tokugawa shoguns. On the first day of the festival, dignitaries and members of the Tokugawa family make offerings to the deities of the shrine, and warriors on horseback shoot at targets with bows and arrows. On the next morning, more than 1,000 people take part in the procession from Toshogu to Futarasan Shrine, including hundreds of samurai warriors. More... | |
| Word Trivia | |
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Today's topic: weavenettles - Got their name because people used to weave them into nets. More... pretext - From Latin praetexere, "to disguise," from prae, "in front," and texere, "weave"—as something serving to conceal plans. More... texture - Once referred to a woven fabric, from Latin texere, "to weave." More... wasp - The insect traces back to an Indo-European root meaning "weave." More... | |