Daily Content Archive
(as of Wednesday, December 20, 2017)| Word of the Day | |||
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| Daily Grammar Lesson | |
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Describing a Future Fact with the Future Simple TenseThe future simple tense can be used in a few different ways to describe things that have not happened yet. What is the verb in future simple tense in the following sentence? "I will drive to work tomorrow, if you want a ride." More... | |
| Article of the Day | |
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| This Day in History | |
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 The Louisiana Purchase (1803)Early American settlers in the western territories depended on the Mississippi River's port of New Orleans for commerce. When Spain retroceded New Orleans to France in 1800, Americans feared their access to the river would be blocked, so President Thomas Jefferson sent negotiators to broker a deal for the port city. Why did Napoleon ultimately sell the entire Louisiana territory, including New Orleans, to the US for only about 4 cents per acre, or a sum total of $15 million? More... | |
| Today's Birthday | |
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 Branch Wesley Rickey (1881)Rickey was an American baseball executive. In 1919, he devised baseball's farm system of using minor-league teams to train major-league players. In 1945, after he took over the Brooklyn Dodgers, he defied convention and broke a long-standing race barrier by hiring Jackie Robinson, the first black player in the major leagues. A deeply religious man, the "Mahatma"—as Rickey was popularly known—never played, attended, or managed games on Sundays. What protective gear did he introduce to baseball? More... | |
| Quotation of the Day | |
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| Idiom of the Day | |
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the short and the long of it— The essential or most important point being made; the plain truth of the matter. More... | |
| Today's Holiday | |
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 Newport Harbor Christmas Boat Parade (2017)Newport Harbor Christmas Boat Parade is a nightly parade of boats at Newport Beach, California. More than 150 boats of all kinds, wildly decorated with lights depicting Santa Claus, snowmen, and other symbols of winter, join the parade. Some boats carry huge inflated figures and many play music. The floating parades started in 1908 as a Fourth of July spectacular. In 1946, the city put a tree and carolers on a barge and towed it around the harbor, and that began the current December parades. Today, about a million spectators watch them during the festival. More... | |
| Word Trivia | |
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Today's topic: strawberriesstrawberry friend - A freeloader, one who visits only when the strawberries are ready for picking. More... small fruits - Currants, raspberries, strawberries, etc. More... soft fruit - Fruit that grows on bushes, such as berries, strawberries and currants, as contrasted with top fruit. More... strawberry - Got its name because the plant "strews" its runners along the ground; its seeds are actually individual fruits and it is termed an aggregate fruit. More... | |