Daily Content Archive
(as of Saturday, September 16, 2017)| Word of the Day | |||||||
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cogitation
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| Daily Grammar Lesson | |
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Focusing AdverbsFocusing adverbs are used to draw attention to a particular part of a clause. They frequently point to verb phrases. Where can focusing adverbs be placed in a sentence? More... | |
| Article of the Day | |
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 DomesCommon structural elements in buildings around the globe, domes were first constructed atop primitive huts using sticks and mud. Their full architectural potential was not realized, however, until the 6th-century Byzantine architects of Constantinople's Hagia Sophia perfected the use of pendentives—triangular sections of vaulting that form the transition between circular domes and their polygonal supporting structures. Not all domes are perfectly circular. When was the first oval dome built? More... | |
| This Day in History | |
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 Mayflower Sets Sail for New England (1620)The Mayflower set sail from England to the New World with 102 passengers and about 25 crew members. After a two-month voyage marked by disease, the ship dropped anchor in Cape Cod Bay. After spending the winter selecting a suitable site for their new colony and drawing up an agreement for its temporary government by the will of the majority—the Mayflower Compact—the surviving passengers settled Plymouth. Why did the Speedwell, which set out with the Mayflower, turn back? More... | |
| Today's Birthday | |
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 Louise Arner Boyd (1887)Boyd was an American explorer of Greenland and the Arctic and the first woman to fly over the North Pole. After the deaths of her parents and brothers, she inherited the family fortune and chartered the ship of famed explorer Roald Amundsen for a trip to the Arctic. She gained notoriety for hunting polar bears and was called "The Girl Who Tamed the Arctic." She later canceled another expedition, stating, "How could I go on a pleasure trip when those 22 lives were at stake?" What had happened? More... | |
| Quotation of the Day | |
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 Wives are young men's mistresses, companions for middle age, and old men's nurses.Francis Bacon (1561-1626) | |
| Idiom of the Day | |
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man the fort— To mind or take charge of a location during the time in which it is unattended by another. More... | |
| Today's Holiday | |
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 International Day for the Preservation of the Ozone Layer (2021)In 1994, the United Nations established September 16 as International Day for the Preservation of the Ozone Layer. The date honors the September 16, 1987, signing of the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer. Nations may observe the day with activities that support the aims of the Protocol. More... | |
| Word Trivia | |
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Today's topic: perfectA-OK - Astronauts on the Mercury Project in 1961 popularized A-OK, meaning "excellent, perfect"; it was coined by blending the adjective "A," as in A-one or A1, meaning "first-class," with "OK." More... palinoia - The compulsive repetition of an act until it is perfect. More... parfait - Literally French for "perfect." More... perfect binding - A book bound by gluing instead of sewing. More... | |