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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Defining Conjunctive Adverbs of PurposeAdverbs of purpose tell us why something happens or is the case. We often use conjunctive adverbs to indicate a relationship of reason or purpose between two independent clauses. What are some common conjunctive adverbs of purpose? 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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 The Lost Colony: The Colony of Roanoke Is Found Deserted (1590)Located off what is now the North Carolina coast, Roanoke Island was the site of the first English settlement in North America. Its original colonists, sent by Walter Raleigh, arrived in 1585 but stayed only a year. A second group led by John White arrived in 1587. Shortly thereafter, White returned to England for supplies. When he finally returned to the island, he found that all of the colonists had vanished. Their fate is still unknown. What possible clue was found carved into a tree there? More... | |
| Today's Birthday | |
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 Meriwether Lewis (1774)After serving as a captain in the US army, Lewis became secretary to President Thomas Jefferson. When Congress approved a plan to find a land route to the Pacific Ocean, Jefferson selected his trusted associate, along with William Clark, to head the expedition. In 1807, Lewis was made governor of the Louisiana Territory. His sudden death—either by murder or suicide—in 1809, while on his way to Washington, DC, is still the subject of controversy. Why have requests to exhume his body been denied? 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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alarm bell— A sudden warning or intimation of danger, risk, or ill fortune. (Often pluralized.) More... | |
| Today's Holiday | |
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 Mount Hagen Cultural Show (2019)This gathering in Papua New Guinea, known as a sing-sing, provides an opportunity for outsiders to experience the ceremonial drumming, dancing, and other displays of tribal culture of hundreds of Western Highland clans. Performers wear their traditional tribal garb, often with body paint and an elaborate headdress made of feathers. The annual Mount Hagen show, staged more for tourists than for the locals, includes a competition that encourages decorative costumes and wild dancing to the accompaniment of nonstop drumming. More... | |
| Word Trivia | |
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Today's topic: hornbugle - Originally the word for ox, whose horn was used to give signals, it came to mean such a musical instrument. More... tantara - Fanfare on a trumpet or horn. More... rhinoceros, rhinoceroses - Rhinoceros comes from Greek rhin-, "nose," and keras, "horn"; the correct plural is rhinoceroses. More... unicorn - From a Greek wild ox known as monokeros, "one horn," which, in Latin, became unicornis. More... | |