Daily Content Archive
(as of Sunday, April 10, 2016)| Word of the Day | |||||||
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soupcon
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| Daily Grammar Lesson | |
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Transitive and Intransitive VerbsTransitive verbs take one or more objects in a sentence, while intransitive verbs take no objects in a sentence. What is a direct object? More... | |
| Article of the Day | |
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 The FluInfluenza, commonly known as “flu,” is a highly contagious viral disease that is characterized by fever, respiratory symptoms, fatigue, and muscle pain. The word influenza stems from the Latin root influentia, meaning "influence of the stars," because before people knew that organisms cause disease, they thought that the stars influenced the spread of influenza. Between 1918 and 1919, how many people were killed in a worldwide lethal flu pandemic? More... | |
| This Day in History | |
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 F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby Is Published (1925)Considered to be Fitzgerald's masterpiece, The Great Gatsby is a devastating critique of the American Dream and materialism at the height of the Roaring Twenties. It is the story of a bootlegger, Jay Gatsby, whose obsessive dream of wealth and lost love is destroyed by a corrupt reality. Today used as required reading in many high schools, the book has been cited as the paragon of the Great American Novel. Why did Fitzgerald dislike the title, and what did he want to call his novel? More... | |
| Today's Birthday | |
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 Hugo Grotius (1583)Grotius was a Dutch jurist, philosopher, and writer. He enrolled at the University of Leiden at the age of 11 and became a lawyer at 15. Among his key legal treatises is the first definitive text on international law, On the Law of War and Peace, which prescribes rules for the conduct of war and advances the idea that nations are bound by natural law. In 1615, he became involved in a religious controversy that extended to politics and was eventually imprisoned. How did he escape? More... | |
| Quotation of the Day | |
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 When we quarrel, how we wish we had been blameless.Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) | |
| Idiom of the Day | |
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have (one's) druthers— To have one's choice or preference; to have things the way one would like them to be; to have one's way. Usually formulated as "if I had my druthers." Primarily heard in US. More... | |
| Today's Holiday | |
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 Galveston Island FeatherFest (2020)Begun in 2002, the Galveston Island FeatherFest is intended to celebrate the "birds and natural heritage of the Upper Texas Coastal area." Some 300 species of birds are found on Galveston Island in the springtime as they stop off during their migration north. The FeatherFest allows bird enthusiasts the chance to go on field trips to photograph and watch the birds. Prominent environmental writers, naturalists, and artists are the leaders of these field trips. Seminars, workshops, and lectures on the wildlife in the community are also available, and a FeatherFest Photo Contest is held. More... | |
| Word Trivia | |
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Today's topic: lakedemersal - Describing a fish that lives close to the floor of the sea or a lake. More... eyot, ait - A small island in a river or lake is an eyot or ait. More... benthos - The flora and fauna at the bottom of a sea or lake. More... lagoon - Derived from Latin lacuna, "pool, lake" or "hole, gap." More... | |