Daily Content Archive
(as of Thursday, July 20, 2017)| Word of the Day | |||||||
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preponderance
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| Daily Grammar Lesson | |
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Countable NounsCountable nouns (also known as count nouns) are nouns that can be considered as individual, separable items, which means they can be counted with numbers—we can have one, two, five, 15, 100, and so on. Are abstract nouns ever countable? More... | |
| Article of the Day | |
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 The HabiruSumerian, Egyptian, Akkadian, Hittite, Mitanni, and Ugaritic sources recorded roughly 3,200 to 4,000 years ago mention the Habiru, a group of people found throughout the Fertile Crescent, which spanned the Levant, Mesopotamia, and ancient Egypt. Depending on the source and epoch, the Habiru are variously described as nomads, rebels, outlaws, mercenaries, bowmen, slaves, or migrant laborers. Though opinion remains divided on this issue, some scholars associate the Habiru with what ethnic group? More... | |
| This Day in History | |
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 Colombia Declares Independence from Spain (1810)From the 16th century, present-day Colombia formed the nucleus of the region that Spanish conquistadors called New Granada. In the early 1800s, people like Antonio Nariño began agitating for independence. A prominent early revolutionary leader, Nariño helped foment rebellion by distributing The Declaration of the Rights of Man to his countrymen. Parts of Colombia threw off Spanish jurisdiction in 1810, but full independence was not secured until nine years later, under what famous revolutionary? More... | |
| Today's Birthday | |
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 Sir Edmund Percival Hillary (1919)Hillary was a New Zealand mountaineer who, with Tenzing Norgay of Nepal, became the first to reach the summit of Mount Everest in 1953. Following the expedition, Hillary founded the Himalayan Trust, which built many schools and hospitals for the Sherpa people of Nepal. He continued climbing, later participated in the first crossing of Antarctica by vehicle, and even searched for the legendary abominable snowman in 1960. What unusual profession did Hillary have when not mountaineering? More... | |
| Quotation of the Day | |
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 Diplomacy, n.: The patriotic art of lying for one's country.Ambrose Bierce (1842-1914) | |
| Idiom of the Day | |
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be looking for trouble— To be doing something or acting in a manner that will very likely result in trouble, difficulty, or danger. More... | |
| Today's Holiday | |
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 Osorezan Taisai (2021)Mt. Osore, located on the Shimokita Peninsula in the north of Honshu, Japan, is a spiritual center for many Japanese. It is known as a place where departed souls congregate. During the Osorezan Taisai Festival, or Osorezanrei Grand Festival, people flock to the mountain at Mutsu City, Aomori Prefecture, where psychics endeavor to summon the spirits of the dead by chanting. The priests who cross the weathered slopes of the mountain in procession add to the festival's grim and ghostly atmosphere. More... | |
| Word Trivia | |
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Today's topic: sequencearithmetic progression - A sequence in which each term is obtained by the addition of a constant number to the preceding term, as 1, 4, 7, 10, 13. More... initialism, alphabetism, acronym - Initialisms (sometimes called alphabetisms) are formed from the initial letters of a string of words and are pronounced as a sequence of letters, e.g. BYOB, USA, DVD. Acronyms are formed from the initial letters or parts of words in a sequence, but have the distinction of being pronounceable words, e.g. RADAR, SCUBA. More... solfeggio, gamut - Solfeggio and gamut are words formed on the sequence of musical notes. More... | |