Daily Content Archive
(as of Tuesday, July 25, 2017)| Word of the Day | |||||||
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| Daily Grammar Lesson | |
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"It" as a Dummy PronounJust like the dummy pronoun "there," "it" is also used as a pronoun without an antecedent in sentences. "It" is commonly used as a dummy pronoun in discussions of what three topics? More... | |
| Article of the Day | |
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 Jogo do PauLiterally translated as "stick game," Jogo do Pau is a Portuguese martial art that is perhaps more accurately described as "stick fencing." First used for self-defense and the settlement of disputes, the art evolved into a sporting competition during the 19th century. Urban migration and greater access to firearms later led to the art's decline, but it was revived in the 1970s. Still, the origins of the art are not known. What are some of the theories about how and why it was developed? More... | |
| This Day in History | |
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 Svetlana Savitskaya Becomes the First Woman to Perform a Spacewalk (1984)Savitskaya is a former Soviet female aviator and cosmonaut who flew aboard Soyuz T-7 in 1982, becoming the second woman in space some 19 years after Valentina Tereshkova. She logged nearly 20 days in space during her career, including three and a half hours spent outside the Salyut 7 space station in 1984, when she became the first woman to perform a spacewalk. Before becoming a cosmonaut, she was a test and sport pilot and a parachutist. What world records did she set? More... | |
| Today's Birthday | |
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 Louise Brown (1978)Brown was the first baby to be conceived by in vitro fertilization (IVF), a procedure used to overcome infertility in which a woman's eggs are removed, fertilized with sperm outside the body, and then inserted into the uterus. Now a commonplace procedure, IVF was developed in the 1970s by British medical researchers Patrick Steptoe and Robert Edwards and was subject to much criticism before Brown's birth. Who was the first woman conceived through IVF to give birth naturally to a baby of her own? More... | |
| Quotation of the Day | |
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 The most useful thing about a principle is that it can always be sacrificed to expediency.W. Somerset Maugham (1874-1965) | |
| Idiom of the Day | |
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inopportune moment— An unfortunate or inconvenient moment in time. More... | |
| Today's Holiday | |
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 Festivities for the Day of National Rebellion (2019)This three-day national holiday in Cuba commemorates an attack that took place on July 26, 1953, when rebel forces led by Fidel Castro struck the Moncada army barracks in Santiago de Cuba. It is remembered as the beginning of the rebellion that ousted the dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista in 1959. The holiday is an occasion for displays of national pride and mass rallies. Crowds of 100,000 are common in Havana, where a carnival, live music, singing, dancing and flag waving mark the occasion. Santiago de Cuba also has a large carnival, and other cities host celebrations as well. More... | |
| Word Trivia | |
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Today's topic: saddleapishamore - A blanket used under a saddle. More... col - A saddle between two mountain peaks, from Latin collum, "neck." More... caparison - A cloth or covering spread over the saddle or harness of a horse, often ornamented; this word can also mean "housings, trappings." More... larigos - The rings on a saddle through which the straps pass. More... | |