Daily Content Archive
(as of Friday, July 3, 2015)| Word of the Day | |||||||
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liegeman
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| Daily Grammar Lesson | |
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Past Simple TenseThe past simple tense (also called the simple past tense, or simply the past simple) is used to express completed actions. The past simple is often used with what other part of speech? More... | |
| Article of the Day | |
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 The Tooth FairyThe tooth fairy is a character in modern Western culture that attends a child's loss of a deciduous tooth. In Spanish and Italian culture, the tooth fairy takes the form of a little mouse. Typically, a child who has just lost a tooth places it under their pillow before going to sleep; in the morning, the child finds that the tooth has been replaced by a coin, a dollar bill, or a present. What is the origin of the tooth fairy character? More... | |
| This Day in History | |
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 Quebec City Founded by Samuel de Champlain (1608)Frenchman Samuel de Champlain founded Quebec City as a trading post at the confluence of the St. Lawrence and St. Charles rivers. From this and subsequent settlements Catholic missionaries, explorers, and fur traders pushed across N America. Begun with just 32 colonists, the city is now home to about 500,000. Most residents are of French descent, despite the fact that the area was ceded to the British in 1763. Because many continental explorations began in the region, Quebec is known as what? More... | |
| Today's Birthday | |
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 Alfred Habdank Skarbek Korzybski (1879)Korzybski was a Polish-American linguist who developed a school of thought known as general semantics. He aimed to distinguish between words and the objects they describe, as well as between individual objects all described by the same word. He stressed the arbitrary nature of language and other symbols and the problems that result from misunderstanding their nature. Why did Korzybski once trick his students into eating dog biscuits during a lecture? More... | |
| Quotation of the Day | |
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 To endure is greater than to dare; to tire out hostile fortune; to be daunted by no difficulty; to keep heart when all have lost it—who can say this is not greatness?William Makepeace Thackeray (1811-1863) | |
| Idiom of the Day | |
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cool customer— Someone who remains even-tempered, especially in stressful situations. More... | |
| Today's Holiday | |
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 Zambia Unity Day (2018)Because Zambia is composed of several different tribal groups, the founders of the country promoted the idea of national unity as a means to keep the young nation from falling apart. Zambia Unity Day was created to help foster solidarity between the diverse groups that make up the country. The slogan "One Zambia, One Nation" is used to signify the goal of the holiday. Remembrance speeches on Unity Day stress that people of varying backgrounds and political beliefs had come together to work for Zambian independence. More... | |
| Word Trivia | |
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Today's topic: sendinggranulated sugar - So called because the last step in processing white table sugar is sending it through a granulator, where it is dried and formed into tiny grains. More... mission - First denoted sending the Holy Spirit into the world, from Latin mittere, "send." More... perennial - First meant "remaining leafy throughout the year"; plants living three or more years—dying aboveground and sending up fresh growth every year—are perennials. More... radio - An abbreviation of radiotelegraphy, the sending of messages by electromagnetic rays. More... | |