Daily Content Archive
(as of Monday, September 19, 2016)| Word of the Day | |||||||
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bedeck
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| Daily Grammar Lesson | |
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Participle PhrasesParticiples are words formed from verbs that can function as adjectives, as gerunds, or to form the continuous and perfect tenses of verbs. What is a dangling modifier? More... | |
| Article of the Day | |
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 The Loudness WarThe music industry's tendency to record, produce, and broadcast music at progressively increasing levels of loudness to create a distinct sound is known as the Loudness War. Because the maximum amplitude of recorded music cannot be increased, overall loudness can only be boosted by reducing the dynamic range of source audio and distorting recordings, leading to complaints from some audiophiles. What 1997 remix of a 1973 album is considered by some to be the loudest rock CD ever recorded? More... | |
| This Day in History | |
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 Mexico City Earthquake (1985)At 7:18 AM, an 8.1-magnitude earthquake struck off the coast of the Mexican state of Michoacán, releasing more than 1,000 times the energy of the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima. Several hundred miles away in Mexico's capital, Mexico City, the devastation was catastrophic. Official estimates place the death toll at 10,000, but several times that number may have actually perished. Tens of thousands of others were hurt and hundreds of thousands were left homeless. Why was Mexico City so hard hit? More... | |
| Today's Birthday | |
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 Emil Zátopek (1922)Zátopek, the "Czech Locomotive," was a long-distance runner who won three gold medals at the 1952 Summer Olympics in Helsinki. He won gold in the 5,000-m and 10,000-m runs, and he amazingly earned gold yet again after deciding at the last minute to compete in the first marathon of his life. His wife, competing in the javelin toss, added a gold medal to the family collection at the same Olympics. Zátopek's success was likely due to his grueling training methods. What did he wear while training? More... | |
| Quotation of the Day | |
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 Humor is the spiciest condiment in the feast of existence. Laugh at your mistakes but learn from them, joke over your troubles but gather strength from them, make a jest of your difficulties but overcome them.Lucy Maud Montgomery (1874-1942) | |
| Idiom of the Day | |
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manoeuvre the apostles— obsolete To borrow or take money from one person or source to repay the debt of another (i.e., rob Peter to pay Paul). More... | |
| Today's Holiday | |
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 Feast of San Gennaro (2021)San Gennaro, or St. Januarius, 4th-century bishop of Benevento, is the patron saint of Naples, Italy. He is said to have survived a fiery furnace and a den of wild beasts before being beheaded during the reign of Diocletian. His body was brought to Naples, along with a vial containing some of his blood. The congealed blood, preserved since that time in the Cathedral of San Gennaro, is claimed to liquefy on the anniversary of his death each year—an event that has drawn crowds to Naples since 1389. More... | |
| Word Trivia | |
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Today's topic: truckroo bar - An Australian term for a metal bar on the front of a car or truck that prevents the vehicle from being damaged in the event of a collision with an animal (such as a kangaroo). More... snow groomer - A truck or other vehicle, either with tracks running along both sides or dragging equipment behind, used to maintain ski hills and groom (pack down) snow. More... truck farm - Refers to the sense of truck as "commodities for sale," and, later, "garden produce for market." More... truck - Formed by combining Latin trochos, "wheel," and Greek trechein, "to run," it originally referred to a wooden wheel. More... | |