Daily Content Archive
(as of Thursday, September 10, 2015)| Word of the Day | |||||||
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abstemious
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| Daily Grammar Lesson | |
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Using the Subjunctive MoodWhen we use the subjunctive mood to express actions that we demand, suggest, or request that someone else take, or describe something that must be the case, we use the base form of the verb. What does that mean? More... | |
| Article of the Day | |
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 Scuba DivingDeep sea diving is generally performed with the aid of a breathing apparatus. Scuba (an acronym for Self-Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus) is a system that delivers air to the diver at the same pressure exerted by the surrounding water. Most scuba divers limit their descent to about 130 ft (40 m), though certain record setters have reached depths of 300 ft (91 m) or more. At depths beyond 130 ft, nitrogen narcosis may set in; how does this condition impair a diver's judgment? More... | |
| This Day in History | |
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 Empress Elizabeth of Austria Is Assassinated (1898)Renowned for her beauty, Elizabeth of Bavaria married her cousin, Emperor Francis Joseph of Austria, but disliked the rigid etiquette of the Viennese court. She therefore spent much of her life wandering abroad. In 1898, an Italian anarchist stabbed the 60-year-old empress in the chest with a sharpened file while she was travelling in Geneva, killing her. Her domestic life is said to been an unhappy one, marred by family tragedies like the death of her only son in what sensational incident? More... | |
| Today's Birthday | |
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 Thomas Sydenham (1624)Known as "the English Hippocrates," Sydenham was a physician who advocated direct observation instead of theorizing to determine the nature of disease. His conceptions of the causes and treatments of epidemics and his classic descriptions of gout, smallpox, malaria, and other maladies established him as a founder of modern clinical medicine and epidemiology. He introduced laudanum as a medication, helped popularize the use of quinine in treating malaria, and described what "dancing" disease? More... | |
| Quotation of the Day | |
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 Joy can be real only if people look upon their life as a service, and have a definite object in life outside themselves and their personal happiness.Leo Tolstoy (1828-1910) | |
| Idiom of the Day | |
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bystander effect— A social psychological phenomenon in which the more people there are viewing a crisis or crime, the less likely they are to offer aid to the victim(s). Also known as bystander apathy. More... | |
| Today's Holiday | |
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 Fiesta de la Vendimia (2019)Spain is famous for its sherry, and some of the best sherry comes from the southwestern part of the country, in a district known as Jerez de la Frontera. In mid-September Jerez de la Frontera holds its Grape Harvest Festival, or Fiesta de la Vendimia, which includes flamenco dancing, cante jondo singing (a variety of Spanish gypsy song), and bullfighting. There is also an official "blessing of the grapes" and the season's first wine before the statue of San Ginés de la Jara, the patron saint of the region's winegrowers. More... | |
| Word Trivia | |
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Today's topic: organsconsensus - Came into English in a physiological sense, meaning "a set of organs" or the "involuntary or reflex actions of the nervous system." More... homogenous - Can refer to genetically related tissue or organs. More... lung - Goes back to an Indo-European word for "light," because of the lightness of the organ. More... sensorium - The seat of common sense, the center of the brain to which sense impressions are transmitted by the nerves from the organs. More... | |