Daily Content Archive
(as of Sunday, December 13, 2015)| Word of the Day | |||||||
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welter
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| Daily Grammar Lesson | |
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Short vs. Long AdverbsIf we use more than one adverb to describe a verb, there is a general order in which the different categories of adverbs should appear. However, an adverb's length can also impact where it is placed in a sentence. Do short adverbs or long adverbs tend to be positioned first? More... | |
| Article of the Day | |
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 The DonSir Donald "The Don" George Bradman's 20-year cricket career began in 1928, when he joined the Australian national team. He is widely considered the sport's greatest player and one of the world's most outstanding athletes. Bradman's career batting average was 99.94 runs per inning, a record that still stands at 30 runs higher than his nearest competitor. In 1934, acute appendicitis and peritonitis nearly cost Bradman his life. Who famously asked to be kept apprised of his condition? More... | |
| This Day in History | |
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 Chinese River Dolphin Declared Functionally Extinct (2006)Found only in China's Yangtze River, the baiji was a pale, nearly blind freshwater dolphin species nicknamed the "Goddess of the Yangtze." Though it had lived there for millennia, its population declined precipitously in the late 20th century as an industrialized China made heavy use of the river. Many were injured by fishing gear and boat propellers. The species was finally declared functionally extinct after a six-week search failed to locate any baiji. When was the last baiji caught on film? More... | |
| Today's Birthday | |
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.jpg) Talcott Parsons (1902)From 1927 until his retirement in 1974, Parsons, an American sociologist, trained three generations of students at Harvard University. He was known for his attempt to construct a single theoretical framework within which general and specific characteristics of societies could be systematically classified and was largely responsible for introducing the work of Émile Durkheim and Max Weber to American sociologists. Why was Parsons considered one of the most controversial sociologists in the world? More... | |
| Quotation of the Day | |
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 Conscience is the guardian in the individual of the rules which the community has evolved for its own preservation. It is the policeman in all our hearts, set there to watch that we do not break its laws. It is the spy seated in the central stronghold of the ego.W. Somerset Maugham (1874-1965) | |
| Idiom of the Day | |
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go off in a huff— To leave in an angry, belligerent, or vexed mood. More... | |
| Today's Holiday | |
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 Susuharai (2015)In Japan, many people choose to give their houses a thorough cleaning at year's end. Worn or broken furniture and utensils and items that have been lost are replaced. New tatami mats, the thick straw mats on which people sit and sleep, are brought in, and damage to the paper sliding doors in traditional Japanese houses is repaired. In some areas, it is customary to tie pounded rice cakes (mochi-bana, "rice-cake flowers") to the branches of willow trees as an offering to the gods. Friends and co-workers may also throw "year-end forgetting parties" known as bonen-kai. More... | |
| Word Trivia | |
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Today's topic: hoodapartheid - From Dutch apart, "separate," and -heid, "-hood," it is pronounced uh-PAHR-tayt or uh-PAHR-tight. More... chaperone, chaperon - Chaperone comes from French chaperon, meaning "hood" or "cowl, head covering," which was worn from the 16th century by ladies who served as guides and guardians; chaperon is the standard spelling and chaperone is a variant resulting from pronunciation. More... cobra - From Portuguese cobra de capello, "snake with hood"—based on Latin colubra, "snake." More... hood - Etymologically, hood and hat are the same word, ultimately both meaning "head-covering." More... | |