Daily Content Archive
(as of Tuesday, February 11, 2020)| Word of the Day | |||||||
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bambino
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| Daily Grammar Lesson | |
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The Present Continuous for Actions Happening at the Moment of SpeechThe most common occurrence of the present continuous is when someone or something is performing an action at the very moment being described. What is the present continuous verb in the following sentence? "I am going home now." More... | |
| Article of the Day | |
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 Unfinished WorksThe Canterbury Tales contains only a fraction of the stories Chaucer had planned, and Bach's The Art of Fugue cuts off so abruptly that it was long thought that he died while composing it. Sometimes, it is not the artist but the subject whose death prevents a work’s completion, as was the case with Franklin D. Roosevelt, who died just hours after a painter began his portrait. What other unfinished works leave us wondering what they would have been like had they been completed? More... | |
| This Day in History | |
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 Lateran Treaty Signed Between Italy and the Vatican (1929)The Lateran Treaty ended the political dispute between the Italian government and the Papacy that began when Italy took Rome as its capital in 1871 and limited papal sovereignty to just a few buildings. The treaty created Vatican City and gave the Holy See sovereignty there. Though Italy was under fascist control when the treaty was signed, successive governments have upheld the agreement. The Lateran Treaty established Roman Catholicism as the state religion of Italy. When did this change? More... | |
| Today's Birthday | |
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 Leo Szilard (1898)Szilard was a Hungarian-American nuclear physicist who, after immigrating to America from Nazi Germany, was instrumental in the development of nuclear weapons. Working with Enrico Fermi, he developed the first self-sustained nuclear reactor based on uranium fission. He was one of the first to realize that nuclear chain reactions could be used in bombs and, in 1939, helped to establish the Manhattan Project. Later he protested nuclear warfare and decided to study what instead? More... | |
| Quotation of the Day | |
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 A prisoner...is unfortunate in two ways—because he has done something wrong and because he is deprived of his liberty. Therefore we should treat him kindly, because of his misfortune, for otherwise he would become hard and bitter and would not be sorry he had done wrong.L. Frank Baum (1856-1919) | |
| Idiom of the Day | |
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grill (someone) (about something)— To question or interrogate someone intensely and relentlessly (about something). More... | |
| Today's Holiday | |
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.svg.png) Cameroon Youth Day (2020)This national holiday in the west-African nation of Cameroon celebrates the country's young people. School children and youth groups participate in parades, often accompanied by university students in marching bands. Businesses sell food and merchandise along the parade routes. Many schools and youth groups also organize art exhibits and sports activities. The theme of Youth Day is to encourage Cameroon's young people to renounce violence and other unsavory behaviors and to embrace education, sports, and artistic activities. More... | |
| Word Trivia | |
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Today's topic: umbrellaumbrella - Etymologically, it is a "little shadow." More... parapluie - A French word for umbrella, derived from Latin pluvia, "rain." More... bumbershoot - Another word for umbrella, formed by combining an alteration of the word umbrella and an alteration of the word parachute. More... nuclear umbrella - A protective status in which a nuclear state promises to use its arsenal to defend an ally without nuclear capabilities. More... | |