Daily Content Archive
(as of Friday, July 10, 2020)| Word of the Day | |||||||
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torturous
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| Daily Grammar Lesson | |
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Appositive PhrasesIt is very common to use noun phrases (which consist of a noun accompanied by any determiners and modifiers) as appositives to provide more descriptive identifying information about a noun; these appositive phrases can modify both common and proper nouns. What part of speech do they usually begin with? More... | |
| Article of the Day | |
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 ManiMani was the Iranian founder of Manichaeism, a once-widespread but now-extinct religion that centered on the struggle between good and evil. Inspired by visions of an angel, Mani saw himself as the last in a line of prophets that included Adam, Buddha, Zoroaster, and Jesus. His preaching was tolerated until Persian king Bahram I’s reign in the late 3rd century, during which time Mani was imprisoned. Though little is reliably known about his life, by many accounts he died in what gruesome way? More... | |
| This Day in History | |
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 Rubens's Massacre of the Innocents Sells for £49.5 million (2002)Misattributed to an assistant of Baroque painter Peter Paul Rubens until 2002, when an expert from Sotheby's auction house identified it as the work of the master himself, Massacre of the Innocents is an early 17th-century painting depicting Herod's slaughter of the infants of Bethlehem. One of two paintings Rubens made of the Biblical scene, it fetched £49.5 million ($76 million) at auction and is one of the priciest paintings ever sold. Its style is reminiscent of which Italian painter? More... | |
| Today's Birthday | |
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 Nikola Tesla (1856)Tesla was an inventor and engineer known for his revolutionary contributions to the fields of electricity and magnetism. His inventions made possible the production of alternating-current electric power, and his Tesla coil is still used in radio technology. In 1912, he refused a Nobel Prize because he felt his co-recipient, Thomas Edison, was undeserving of the honor. He spent his final years caring for pigeons. What strange habits earned him a reputation as the quintessential "mad scientist"? More... | |
| Quotation of the Day | |
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 The gambling known as business looks with austere disfavor upon the business known as gambling.Ambrose Bierce (1842-1914) | |
| Idiom of the Day | |
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home, James (, and don't spare the horses)— A humorous directive for a driver to take one home directly and without delay. More... | |
| Today's Holiday | |
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 Laguna Beach Festival of Arts (2020)This festival features a display of art works in Laguna Beach, California, along with breathtaking tableaux vivants—living pictures that recreate master art works. Since the 1940s, artists have created the tableaux to reproduce paintings by such varied masters as Leonardo da Vinci, Henri Matisse, and Winslow Homer. They also transform pieces of jewelry, sculptures, antique artifacts, and even scenes from postage stamps into life-sized works of art. The tableaux, presented for 90 minutes each evening, are created by some 300 models. More... | |
| Word Trivia | |
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Today's topic: linensash - From Arabic shash, first a roll of silk, linen, or gauze worn about the head, a turban. More... lingerie - Entered English meaning "linen articles collectively," from French linge, "linen." More... linsey-woolsey - First a cloth woven from linen and wool, the phrase was altered for the sake of a jingling sound. More... taffeta - Goes back to Persian taftah, "silken cloth, linen clothing." More... | |