Daily Content Archive
(as of Sunday, July 5, 2020)| Word of the Day | |||||||
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high-spirited
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| Daily Grammar Lesson | |
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Attributive AdjectivesAttributive adjectives are adjectives that describe a characteristic (or attribute) of the noun or pronoun that they modify. What is the difference between restrictive and non-restrictive attributive adjectives? More... | |
| Article of the Day | |
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 The Book of ThelThe Book of Thel is an illustrated poem published by English author and illustrator William Blake around 1789. It tells the story of a young woman—Thel—who seeks to understand why all things must die. She poses this question to a lily, a cloud, a worm, and a clod of clay. The clod invites Thel to visit the underworld, where she hears questions even more troubling than her own and flees in terror. The relatively short poem is rife with allegory. What might the character of Thel represent? More... | |
| This Day in History | |
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 Modern, Skimpy Bikini Debuted at Paris Pool Fashion Show (1946)Although women have worn bikini-like two-piece garments for centuries—mosaics from the 4th century depict women in such garb—the modern bikini was only introduced in 1946. Anticipating that his revealing swimwear design would have an explosive effect on fashion, French engineer Louis Réard named his skimpy suit after the Bikini atoll in the central Pacific, where US nuclear testing had just begun. However, he struggled to find a model to debut his G-string bikini. Who finally agreed to wear it? More... | |
| Today's Birthday | |
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 P. T. Barnum (1810)Barnum may be best known for the circus he formed with James Bailey in 1881, but this took place late in his life and was neither his first, nor sole, line of work. The splashy showman was also an author and, oddly enough, a politician. Yes, the man who may have said "There's a sucker born every minute" was elected to office—more than once. Apparently fond of seeing his name in print, Barnum published his autobiography in 1855 and even got a newspaper to oblige him in what way before his death? More... | |
| Quotation of the Day | |
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 Be still my heart; thou hast known worse than this.Homer (900 BC-800 BC) | |
| Idiom of the Day | |
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on the long finger— In a state of postponement or procrastination. (Used especially in the phrase "put something on the long finger.") Primarily heard in Ireland. More... | |
| Today's Holiday | |
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 Tynwald Ceremony (2021)The Isle of Man, located off the coast of England in the Irish Sea, was once the property of the Vikings. It was here that they established their custom of holding an open-air court for the settling of disputes and the passing of laws. Today, the Tynwald Ceremony—whose name comes from the Norse Thing vollr, meaning a fenced open parliament—is held at St. John's on Tynwald Hill on July 5, when the chief justice reads a brief summary of every bill that has been passed during the year—first in English, and then in Manx, the old language of the island. More... | |
| Word Trivia | |
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Today's topic: punchpunch buggy - A game in which the first player to call "punch buggy!" on sighting a Volkswagen Beetle gets to punch the other person. More... doust - A firm blow or punch. More... pack a punch, pack it in - Pack a punch is of U.S. origin from the 1920s, as is pack it in. More... punch - Has an obscure origin, but stories include it being from Sanskrit panca, "five/five kinds of," as the drink had five ingredients. More... | |