Daily Content Archive
(as of Saturday, May 30, 2020)| Word of the Day | |||||||
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prehension
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| Daily Grammar Lesson | |
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Ending a Sentence with a PrepositionNearly every grammar guide agrees that it is acceptable and often more correct to end a sentence with a dangling preposition than to rewrite the sentence specifically to avoid it. Why? More... | |
| Article of the Day | |
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 Living StatuesLiving statues are mimes who stand perfectly still for hours on end, pretending to be statues. They are sometimes painted with a metallic sheen or another color so that they appear to have been cast from metal or carved from stone. Often, they are so still that bystanders believe they are actual statues and—as has been shown on many a hidden-camera television show—create quite a commotion among startled onlookers if they disrupt the illusion by moving. When did the first living statues perform? More... | |
| This Day in History | |
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 Dominican Republic Dictator Rafael Trujillo Is Assassinated (1961)Trujillo was a military strongman who seized control of the Dominican Republic in 1930 and ruled it as a dictator for the next 30 years. He renamed the capital after himself and forced all citizens to join his political party. He brutally suppressed dissent and ordered the infamous 1937 Parsley Massacre, in which up to 30,000 Haitians living near the Dominican border were murdered. In 1961, Trujillo was ambushed and shot to death by seven men. Why was the CIA said to be involved? More... | |
| Today's Birthday | |
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.jpg) Mel Blanc (1908)One of the most prolific voice actors of all time, Blanc began his career in radio. In 1933, he began to work for a daily radio program, for which he created several voices. In 1937, he joined the cartoon department of Warner Brothers. During his 50-year career, he supplied voices in more than 3,000 animated cartoons for hundreds of characters, including Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Porky Pig, and Woody Woodpecker. What nod to Blanc's career is inscribed on his tombstone? More... | |
| Quotation of the Day | |
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 Next to trying and winning, the best thing is trying and failing.Lucy Maud Montgomery (1874-1942) | |
| Idiom of the Day | |
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Miss Right— The perfect or most suitable woman to be in a relationship with or to marry. More... | |
| Today's Holiday | |
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 Feast Day of St. Joan of Arc (2023)The second patron saint of France and one of the best known of all the saints, Joan of Arc was a young, pious peasant girl from the village of Domrémy. In 1428, she heard voices she identified as St. Michael, St. Catherine, and St. Margaret telling her to help the dauphin, Charles VII, recover his kingdom from the British. Her mission was accomplished within 15 months, but Joan was captured by the king's enemies, tried for witchcraft and heresy, and burned at the stake in Rouen on May 30, 1431. More... | |
| Word Trivia | |
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Today's topic: repeatrecap, recapitulate - Recap is short for recapitulate, literally "repeat the headings." More... trackway - A path formed by the repeated treading of animals or people. More... frequent - From Latin frequens, "crowded" or "regularly repeated." More... spam - As in e-mail, it gets its name from the Monty Python sketch in which the word is repeated many times. More... | |