Daily Content Archive
(as of Monday, July 22, 2019)| Word of the Day | |||||||
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verbiage
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| Daily Grammar Lesson | |
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Defining Conjunctive AdverbsConjunctive adverbs are a specific type of conjunction. Conjunctions are used to join together words, phrases, or clauses. Conjunctive adverbs are specifically used to connect two independent clauses. What is an independent clause? More... | |
| Article of the Day | |
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 Constructed WorldsA constructed world is an imaginary world, usually created for a novel, video game, or role-playing game, that possesses a unique geography and climate and is often home to sapient creatures with their own cultures and histories. Detailed maps and languages of their creators’ invention help make these worlds seem more realistic. J.R.R. Tolkien's Middle-earth is one example of a constructed world. There are two major approaches to world-building: top-down and bottom-up. How do they differ? More... | |
| This Day in History | |
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 Battle of Falkirk (1298)The Battle of Falkirk was a major battle in the First War of Scottish Independence. It was fought between the leader of the Scots, William Wallace, and King Edward I of England, also known as the Hammer of the Scots. In 1298, Edward I invaded Scotland and defeated a smaller force led by Wallace at Falkirk. Edward's longbowmen and cavalry decimated Wallace's spearmen, forcing him to retreat. Though victorious, Edward's troops also retreated following the battle, and many deserted thereafter. Why? More... | |
| Today's Birthday | |
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 Emma Lazarus (1849)Lazarus was an American Jewish poet. She became an impassioned spokeswoman for Judaism after the Russian pogroms of the 1880s, writing many essays and a book of poems, Songs of a Semite, which contains her best work. Her writings caught the attention of Ralph Waldo Emerson, with whom she shared a lifetime correspondence. She also worked for the relief of new immigrants to the US, and the famous closing lines of her sonnet "The New Colossus" were engraved on what monument? More... | |
| Quotation of the Day | |
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 Every man is surrounded by a neighborhood of voluntary spies.Jane Austen (1775-1817) | |
| Idiom of the Day | |
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fresh legs— In sports, one or more substitute players who have not yet participated in a given game or match, thus having more energy than the players they are replacing. More... | |
| Today's Holiday | |
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 Galungan (2019)Galungan is a major 10-day religious festival commemorating the Balinese New Year that is celebrated throughout the Indonesian island-province of Bali every 210 days. This is a Bali Hindu festival (Balinese religion is a mix of traditional Balinese and Hindu practices and beliefs), during which the gods are thought to come to earth. Balinese festivals include rituals in the temples, where small thrones are symbolic seats for the gods to occupy; offerings of foods, fruit, and flowers to the temple by the women; and card games, music, and dancing. More... | |
| Word Trivia | |
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Today's topic: hospitalconservatory - Comes from an Italian word for a hospital for foundlings, to whom music was taught. More... ambulance - Once brought the hospital to the patient—and kept the name when it reversed the process and started bringing the patients to the hospital; its original meaning was "mobile hospital following an army." More... nosocomial - "Pertaining to a hospital" or "originating in a hospital." More... bedlam - The word bedlam is a contraction of Bethlehem, a hospital in London that became a lunatic asylum. More... | |