Daily Content Archive
(as of Saturday, May 23, 2020)| Word of the Day | |||||||
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chipper
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| Daily Grammar Lesson | |
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Prepositions with NounsCertain prepositions can be used in conjunction with nouns to connect, emphasize, or provide clarification for ideas expressed in sentences. In this combination, how is the preposition always positioned? More... | |
| Article of the Day | |
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 FaginFagin is a fictional character in Charles Dickens's Oliver Twist who has sparked much debate over the years. Allegedly based on an actual criminal, the character teaches boys to steal and is described as villainous, selfish, miserly—and Jewish. He is called "the Jew" more often than "Fagin," despite the fact that Dickens removed over 180 instances of it after befriending a Jewish couple. Which of Dickens's later Jewish characters may be an apology for his anti-Semitic portrayal of Fagin? More... | |
| This Day in History | |
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 Bonnie and Clyde Ambushed and Killed (1934)Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow were notorious robbers who went on a 21-month crime spree in the central US from 1932 to 1934. They captivated Americans during the "public enemy era" and continue to do so today through films and songs. Betrayed by a friend, Bonnie and Clyde were tracked, ambushed, and killed on a desolate stretch of Louisiana highway by a posse of officers using armor-piercing rounds. Though remembered primarily as bank robbers, Bonnie and Clyde actually preferred to rob what? More... | |
| Today's Birthday | |
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 Franz Anton Mesmer (1734)Mesmer was a German physician who experimented with an early form of hypnosis, known as "mesmerism." He developed a doctrine of "animal magnetism," believing that harmony could be restored in the human body by inducing "crises"—trance states often ending in delirium or convulsions. He carried out dramatic demonstrations of his ability to "mesmerize" his patients using magnetized objects. Accused by Viennese physicians of fraud, he left Austria for France. What scandal plagued Mesmer's career? More... | |
| Quotation of the Day | |
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 It was the policy of the good old gentleman to make his children feel that home was the happiest place in the world; and I value this delicious home-feeling as one of the choicest gifts a parent can bestow.Washington Irving (1783-1859) | |
| Idiom of the Day | |
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talk a mile a minute— To speak in a very quick or hurried manner; to talk very fast. More... | |
| Today's Holiday | |
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 Declaration of the Bab (2022)Declaration of the Bab is a joyous Baha'i festival to celebrate the Bab's announcement in 1844 in Shiraz, Persia (now Iran), that he was the "gate" (which is the meaning of Bab) to the coming of the promised one of all religions. This proclamation is considered the beginning of the Baha'i faith, although the religion was founded after the Bab's death. This day is holy to Baha'is and a day on which work is suspended. Its observation begins at about two hours after sunset on May 22. More... | |
| Word Trivia | |
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Today's topic: swinegruntle - Can be used for swine, meaning "to make a little grunt." More... pig - Originally meant just "young pig" until the 16th century—the word in Old and Middle English for the animal was swine. More... swine - The collective (and ancestral) term for domesticated pigs and hogs; a hog is 120 pounds and ready for market, while a pig is immature and weighs less. More... | |