Daily Content Archive
(as of Tuesday, August 18, 2015)| Word of the Day | |||||||
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aviary
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| Daily Grammar Lesson | |
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Modal Auxiliary VerbsA modal auxiliary verb is used to change the meaning of other verbs by expressing possibility, likelihood, ability, permission, obligation, or future intention. How many "true" modal auxiliary verbs are there? More... | |
| Article of the Day | |
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 Sea UrchinsThe sea urchin, a spiny sea creature related to the starfish, is found in oceans all over the world. Its body wall is a firm, globose shell, made of fused skeletal plates. Five rows of the skeletal plates are pierced by pores for its tube feet, which it uses, along with its spines, for locomotion. Sea urchin "roe," which is actually made from the organs that produce the roe, is considered a delicacy in Mediterranean regions and Japan, where it has been sold for what price? More... | |
| This Day in History | |
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 Priest Urbain Grandier Burned at the Stake for Witchcraft (1634)Grandier was a 17th-century French Catholic priest who was accused of bewitching the nuns of the Ursuline convent. Although he was acquitted by an ecclesiastical council, Grandier had published scathing criticisms of Cardinal Richelieu, the chief minister and virtual ruler of France, who arranged to have him re-tried. Accused of having entered a pact with the devil, Grandier was tortured, found guilty, and burned at the stake. What was presented as evidence of the Grandier's diabolical pact? More... | |
| Today's Birthday | |
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 Liviu Librescu (1930)A Holocaust survivor, Professor Liviu Librescu had seen more than his fair share of death before April 16, 2007—Holocaust Remembrance Day—when a gunman tried to enter his classroom at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, popularly known as Virginia Tech. Librescu jumped into action, blocking the door to give his students time to escape through the windows. His heroic actions cost him his life; he was shot five times by the gunman. How many of his students did he manage to save? More... | |
| Quotation of the Day | |
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 Nothing is so much to be feared as fear.Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862) | |
| Idiom of the Day | |
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(as) mad as a wet hen— Enraged; extremely or inconsolably angry. More... | |
| Today's Holiday | |
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 Gabon Independence Day (2021)Gabon gained official independence from France on August 17, 1960, after more than a century of domination. August 17 is a public holiday, but celebrations often extend to the days before and after Independence Day, with parades and dancing. More... | |
| Word Trivia | |
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Today's topic: narrativenarratage - The technique of having one character in the role of storyteller or the act of inserting bits of explanation into a narrative. More... narrative - First an adjective meaning "telling the facts of a story," from Latin narrare, which is also the base of narrate. More... | |