Daily Content Archive
(as of Saturday, December 10, 2016)| Word of the Day | |||||||
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pestilence
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| Daily Grammar Lesson | |
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Singular vs. Plural Use of "There"The dummy pronoun "there" can be used in either a singular or plural context. When it is used in a singular context, the correlating nouns and verbs have singular endings. When it is used in a plural context, what endings do the corresponding nouns and verbs have? More... | |
| Article of the Day | |
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 Nestor MakhnoNestor Makhno was an anarcho-communist Ukrainian revolutionary who refused to align with the Bolsheviks after the October Revolution in 1917. The enormous social experiment in anarchism that he helped create in Ukraine, first by driving out opposing armies and then by organizing the new anarchist system, was cut short by the Bolsheviks in 1921, when he was finally forced into exile. What anarchist work co-written by Makhno remains both influential and controversial today? More... | |
| This Day in History | |
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 UN General Assembly Adopts Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948)Drafted by a committee chaired by Eleanor Roosevelt, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights is the world's most translated document. Among its 30 articles are definitions of civil and political rights, as well as definitions of economic, social, and cultural rights—all of which are owed by UN member states to those under their jurisdiction. Since its adoption, it has acquired more juridical status than originally intended and has been widely used, even by national courts, in what ways? More... | |
| Today's Birthday | |
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 Emily Dickinson (1830)Dickinson is widely considered one of the greatest American poets. After attending Amherst Academy and Mount Holyoke Seminary, she returned to her family home and spent the rest of her life there, writing. By 1860, she was boldly experimenting with language. Few of her poems were published in her lifetime, but after her death, her cache of poems was discovered, and heavily edited collections were published starting in 1890. It was not until what year that an unaltered collection was published? More... | |
| Quotation of the Day | |
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 I do know my own mind…The trouble is, my mind changes and then I have to get acquainted with it all over again.Lucy Maud Montgomery (1874-1942) | |
| Idiom of the Day | |
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amount to nothing— To result in no tangible or appreciable difference. More... | |
| Today's Holiday | |
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 Whirling Dervish Festival (2019)Each year up to a million people flood Konya, Turkey, on the anniversary of the death of the poet and Sufi Islamic mystic Jelaluddin al-Rumi. Rumi's teachings are the basis for the Sufi Muslim order known as Mevlevi, which uses music and dance to experience spiritual ecstasy. Leading up to December 17, thousands of visitors arrive to partake of exhibits and lectures related to Rumi and the Mevlevi order. At the climax of the festival, the Mevlevis perform their whirling dance, wearing costumes that feature white trousers, a full white overskirt, and tall cylindrical hats. More... | |
| Word Trivia | |
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Today's topic: pineJapanese garden - Often uses bamboo, mondo grasses, pine, and small pools of water containing koi. More... pine, pinecone - Pine, the tree, is from Latin pinus, from Indo-European pei-, "resin"; pinecones were originally called pineapples. More... pine, fir, spruce - Pine, fir, and spruce are quite different from each other, though they are all conifers; pine has clusters of long, needle-shaped leaves, spruce is a type of fir, and the only scientific difference between the two is that spruces have rectangular needles while firs have flat, needle-shaped leaves. More... pinot - A variant of French pineau, a diminutive of pine, from the shape of the clusters of grapes. More... | |