Daily Content Archive
(as of Tuesday, June 9, 2020)| Word of the Day | |||||||
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itty-bitty
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| Daily Grammar Lesson | |
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Gerunds as Objects of PrepositionsGerunds are used as the objects of prepositions to describe an action that modifies another action, thus creating adverbial prepositional phrases. These can occur at the beginning, middle, or end of the sentence. What is the adverbial prepositional phrase in the following sentence? "After sneezing, I always get the hiccups." More... | |
| Article of the Day | |
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 Hungry Enough to Eat an Elephant (or Two)Castor and Pollux were two elephants, possibly siblings, who were killed and eaten by the besieged citizens of Paris in 1870. During the course of the Franco-Prussian war, German forces surrounded Paris and cut off its supply lines. Food stores dwindled, and within months, most of city's horses, dog, and cats had been consumed. In desperation, butchers turned to the city’s zoos. The antelopes, camels, yaks, and zebras went first. Finally, it was the elephants’ turn. How did they taste? More... | |
| This Day in History | |
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 Donald Duck Debuts in The Little Wise Hen (1934)Clad in his signature sailor shirt and cap, the perennially pants-less cartoon character Donald Duck made his debut in Disney's The Wise Little Hen. His comically short temper and distinct voice quickly endeared him to audiences, and he became a regular character in Mickey Mouse cartoons. Donald remains quite popular in Scandinavia, as evidenced by the Christmas Eve tradition of watching a TV special featuring him. What Academy Award-winning 1943 cartoon showed Donald saluting Hitler? More... | |
| Today's Birthday | |
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 Cole Porter (1891)Though pushed by his grandfather to pursue law, Porter studied music at Harvard and in Paris. A gifted composer and witty lyricist, he wrote a dazzling series of successful film scores and Broadway musicals from the 1920s to the 1950s, including the musicals Anything Goes and Kiss Me, Kate. His most popular songs include "Night and Day" and "Let's Do It." A 1937 accident required him to undergo more than 30 operations, but he continued composing until 1958. Why did he stop? More... | |
| Quotation of the Day | |
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 Where large sums of money are concerned, it is advisable to trust nobody.Agatha Christie (1890-1976) | |
| Idiom of the Day | |
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hawks and doves— Respectively, those who favor or support aggressive military action, especially regarding foreign policy, versus those who are inclined to more peaceful, diplomatic solutions. More... | |
| Today's Holiday | |
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 Ravinia Festival (2020)Chicago's 12-week festival of classical music, theater, and dance takes place in Highland Park, one of the city's northern suburbs. Although today the festival can boast performances by some of the world's most distinguished conductors, soloists, symphony orchestras, and dance companies, its history since 1904 has been punctuated by periodic financial crises and, in the 1940s, a fire that destroyed the Ravinia Park pavilion. But since that time the festival has rebounded, expanding to include pop, jazz, and folk music as well as several weeks of theater performances. More... | |
| Word Trivia | |
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Today's topic: temper | |