Daily Content Archive
(as of Saturday, December 21, 2019)| Word of the Day | |||||||
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execrate
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| Daily Grammar Lesson | |
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Defining Irregular VerbsIrregular verbs, by their very definition, do not have spelling rules that we can follow to create the past simple tense and past participles. This means that the only way of knowing how to spell these forms is to memorize them for each irregular verb individually. What are some examples of irregular verbs? More... | |
| Article of the Day | |
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 The Missorium of Theodosius IThe Missorium of Theodosius I is a silver ceremonial dish that is 29 in (79 cm) across and weighs about 34 lb (15 kg). It was probably made in Constantinople in 388 CE to commemorate the rule of Theodosius I, the last Roman emperor to rule both the Eastern and Western Empires. The ornate dish is one of the best surviving examples of late antique imperial imagery and features Theodosius flanked by his co-emperors, an iconography that was later adopted by Western Christianity and given what name? More... | |
| This Day in History | |
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 Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs Premieres (1937)Snow White was the first full-length animated feature film in history. It was animated entirely by hand and took Walt Disney and his studio three years to complete. It was exponentially more expensive than the animated shorts the studio had produced until that time and met with considerable opposition. Disney eventually had to mortgage his house to help finance the project, which was derisively nicknamed "Disney's Folly" by those in the film industry. How much did the film go on to earn? More... | |
| Today's Birthday | |
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 Samuel Leroy Jackson (1948)Jackson is an American actor who has appeared in more than 100 movies since making his feature film debut in the 1970s, and he claims to have seen every one of his films in theaters alongside paying customers. He is best known for his role as a philosophical hit man in the 1994 film Pulp Fiction. In 2006, he decided to star in the film Snakes on a Plane based solely on its title. What other film did Jackson agree to appear in without reading the script? More... | |
| Quotation of the Day | |
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 Men become old, but they never become good.Oscar Wilde (1854-1900) | |
| Idiom of the Day | |
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go stir-crazy— To become acutely anxious, restless, irritable, irrational, and/or depressed from remaining for too long in an unstimulating, confined, and/or isolated environment. "Stir" in this usage is a slang word for prison. More... | |
| Today's Holiday | |
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 National Homeless Persons' Remembrance Day (2019)Since 1990, the National Coalition for the Homeless and the National Health Care for the Homeless Council have sponsored this day to bring attention to the plight of the nation's homeless population and to encourage the public to act on their behalf. Local groups across the country are encouraged to arrange a ceremony to remember the homeless persons in their community who died in the previous year. Candlelight marches, vigils, graveside services, religious services, and public policy advocacy are suggested ways of remembering. More... | |
| Word Trivia | |
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Today's topic: tableswaitron - A person, male or female, who waits on tables at a restaurant. More... backgammon - Appears to literally mean "back game," and was first called tables; gammon is the ancestor of game. More... busboy - A person who clears the dirty dishes from diners' tables, so called from his "bus" or trolley. More... turn the tables - May come from backgammon, as the game itself was once called tables, and the two halves of the playing board are still called tables. More... | |