Daily Content Archive
(as of Monday, July 1, 2019)| Word of the Day | |||||||
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befuddle
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| Daily Grammar Lesson | |
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Conditional VerbsConditional verbs are used in conditional sentences, which express something that might happen, depending on whether or not a particular condition is met. To denote such a condition, what word is commonly used with one of the verbs in a conditional sentence? More... | |
| Article of the Day | |
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 NeurogenesisThe human nervous system is composed of some 200 billion cells called neurons, about half of which are found in the brain. Neurogenesis, the process through which neurons are formed, is most active during prenatal development. Though early neuroanatomists believed that the adult nervous system is fixed and incapable of regeneration, neurogenesis actually continues throughout life. Studies have shown that lack of sleep reduces neurogenesis and exercise increases it. How is it affected by stress? More... | |
| This Day in History | |
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 Russian State Library Founded (1862)The Russian State Library in Moscow is the largest library in Europe and the second largest in the world, behind the Library of Congress. Its collection of more than 43 million items in 248 languages includes more than 17 million books, brochures, and serials; 13 million journals; and 650,000 newspapers. Its specialized collections feature maps, art publications, printed music, and manuscripts. The library was named after what Russian revolutionary before being given its current name in 1992? More... | |
| Today's Birthday | |
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 Ignaz Philipp Semmelweiss (1818)Semmelweiss was a Hungarian physician who pioneered the use of antiseptics in obstetrical clinics. While working at a Vienna hospital, he became convinced that physicians were transmitting puerperal fever, also called childbed fever, to patients and began insisting that doctors thoroughly cleanse their hands. Though this greatly reduced the mortality rate from infection in childbirth, he was widely ridiculed by his colleagues and left Vienna. When was the value of his work finally recognized? More... | |
| Quotation of the Day | |
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 You think that you are Ann's suitor; that you are the pursuer and she the pursued; that it is your part to woo, to persuade, to prevail, to overcome. Fool: it is you who are the pursued, the marked-down quarry, the destined prey.George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950) | |
| Idiom of the Day | |
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fire hose— A strong, heavy stream of something. More... | |
| Today's Holiday | |
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 Zambia Heroes Day (2019)In 1964, Zambia won its freedom from England and became an independent nation. Those who fought in that freedom struggle are honored each year on Heroes Day. The somber day is a public holiday and all Zambians take the day off work. In 1974, then-president Dr. Kenneth Kaunda presented a gift to the nation to honor its heroes: a statue of a man with no shirt or shoes and defiantly raising a chained hand into the air. Erected in the capital city of Lusaka, the one-and-a-half-ton bronze statue has become the rallying point for any holiday, march, or remembrance in which freedom plays a role. More... | |
| Word Trivia | |
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Today's topic: madnessire, rage, fury - Ire suggests greater intensity than anger, rage suggests loss of self-control, and fury is destructive rage verging on madness. More... mania - Based on a Greek word meaning "madness," ultimately from an Indo-European root for "mind." More... rage - Traces back to Latin rabia, an alteration of rabies, meaning "fury, madness." More... woodness - Madness or insanity, from Old English wood, "out of one's mind." More... | |