Daily Content Archive
(as of Sunday, July 26, 2020)| Word of the Day | |||||||
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titter
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| Daily Grammar Lesson | |
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Separating Items in a List with SemicolonsWhen writing lists, we usually use commas to separate the individual elements. However, we use semicolons to make the division between the items clearer when one or more items in a list already includes what? More... | |
| Article of the Day | |
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 Urbex: Urban ExplorationUrbex is the exploration of the normally unseen or off-limits structures of urban environments or industrial facilities, such as abandoned subway tunnels, missile silos, grain elevators, asylums, schools, and amusement parks. Urban explorers often face myriad dangers in such areas, including toxic chemicals, broken glass, and collapsing floors. Arrest for trespassing is also a risk. The unspoken rule of urbex is: Take nothing but photographs; leave nothing but what? More... | |
| This Day in History | |
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 US President Truman Signs Executive Order Desegregating Military (1948)Expanding on 1941's Executive Order 8802, which prohibited discrimination in the defense industry, Order 9981 required that all persons in the armed forces be treated equally without regard to race or other factors. It also called for the establishment of an advisory committee to facilitate the implementation of this policy. The order eliminated segregation in the armed forces within years, though racism was another matter entirely. What historically black boot camp was eliminated by Order 9981? More... | |
| Today's Birthday | |
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 Aldous Huxley (1894)Huxley was a British writer known for his works of witty and pessimistic satire, like Antic Hay (1923), which established his reputation as a novelist. In his acclaimed Brave New World, he envisions a nightmarish, scientifically controlled future society that underscores the dehumanizing aspects of technological progress. His later works reveal an interest in philosophy and mysticism. Though he spent much of his life in the US, he was repeatedly denied citizenship for what reason? More... | |
| Quotation of the Day | |
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 If we cannot end now our differences, at least we can help make the world safe for diversity.John F. Kennedy (1917-1963) | |
| Idiom of the Day | |
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peg it— To leave or depart very quickly or suddenly. More... | |
| Today's Holiday | |
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 Esala Perahera (Arrival of the Tooth Relic) (2020)Esala Perahera is a celebration in Kandy, Sri Lanka, that lasts 10 nights and pays homage to the sacred relic believed to be a tooth of the Buddha. Processions are held each night, and the tooth is paraded in an elaborate howdah (platform) on the back of an ornately decorated elephant. Dozens of richly caparisoned elephants follow, and there are also drummers beating big bass drums and small tom-toms, horn blowers, the famous Kandyan dancers, acrobats, and torch bearers holding aloft baskets of blazing copra (coconut meat). More... | |
| Word Trivia | |
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Today's topic: seizingacatalepsy - Greek for "not thoroughly seizing" or "incomprehensibility." More... rapine - Means "the act or practice of seizing and taking away by force the property of others." More... ravishing - Can mean "seizing on prey." More... hend, hent - To hend is to seize or take; hent is the act of seizing. More... | |