Daily Content Archive
(as of Sunday, August 5, 2018)| Word of the Day | |||||||
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unsnarl
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| Daily Grammar Lesson | |
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Constructing Phrasal VerbsPhrasal verbs are made up of a verb + a preposition or an adverbial particle, and their meaning is uniquely tied to each particular combination. What is a particle? More... | |
| Article of the Day | |
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 PeyoteNative to the southwestern US, peyote is a spineless cactus whose active substance is mescaline, a naturally occurring hallucinogenic drug. Ritually ingested by indigenous people in Mexico and the US to produce visions, the plant is chewed, brewed for drinking, or rolled into pellets to be swallowed. Apart from its use by Native Americans in religious ceremonies, peyote is illegal in all 50 US states. Based on archaeological specimens, how long has peyote been used by Native Americans? More... | |
| This Day in History | |
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 First Electric Traffic Light Is Installed (1914)Prior to 1914, there had been several attempts to create automobile traffic signals similar to those used by railroads, but it was only after a four-way electric signal was installed in Cleveland, Ohio, that the modern traffic light system began to take root. The signal had only two colors, green and red, but the three-color version still in use today was not far off. Besides railroad signals, what earlier application of red and green might have led to the use of these colors in traffic lights? More... | |
| Today's Birthday | |
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 Neil Alden Armstrong (1930)Armstrong became a pilot at 16, studied aeronautical engineering, and won three medals as a US Navy pilot in the Korean War. He became test pilot in 1955 and joined the space program in 1962. He made history in 1969, when he became the first person to walk on the Moon, a feat he famously declared "one giant leap for mankind." Though this brought him worldwide renown, he, for the most part, avoided the limelight. What unusual legal battle did he face with his barber in 2005? More... | |
| Quotation of the Day | |
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 We must have felt what it is to die ... that we may appreciate the enjoyments of living.Alexandre Dumas (1802-1870) | |
| Idiom of the Day | |
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gut-wrenching— Agonizing; extremely distressing, unpleasant, or emotionally disturbing; having a severe effect on one's feelings. More... | |
| Today's Holiday | |
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 Hanagasa Odori Matsuri (2020)One of the largest festivals in the Tohoku region of Japan, Hanagasa Odori Matsuri is held in Yamagata on August 5-7. Thousands of dancers holding hanagasa, which are hats made out of bamboo or rush and decorated with flowers, dance through the city while spectators cheer them on. The rhythmic pulse of the hanagasa songs keeps the dancers moving together as they march down the city streets yelling "Yassho! Makasho!" and twirling their hats to the left, right, up, and down. More... | |
| Word Trivia | |
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Today's topic: recipeGerman chocolate - Refers to Baker's German Sweet Chocolate, German being an employee of Baker who developed the sweet chocolate in the recipe. More... receipt - Its first meaning was "a drug made according to a recipe" or a "recipe" for making food. More... recipe - As a verb, it was once used at the beginning of medical prescriptions and it first (in Latin) meant "take"—we are familiar with its use by physicians in the abbreviation R or Rx. More... tollhouse cookie - Named after the Toll House in Whitman, Massachusetts, the source of the recipe. More... | |