Daily Content Archive
(as of Sunday, July 10, 2016)| Word of the Day | |||||||
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unctuous
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| Daily Grammar Lesson | |
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Reflexive VerbsReflexive verbs are verbs whose subjects are also their direct objects—i.e., the action of the verb is both committed and received by the same person or thing. Reflexive verbs are sometimes identified as being in what voice? More... | |
| Article of the Day | |
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 HappinessBuddha believed that those who speak and act with a pure mind are sure to experience happiness. Aristotle reasoned that happiness results from man's unique ability to contemplate reality. But the Chinese philosopher Zhuangzi argued that it is this very ability to reason that prevents us from achieving true happiness. While happiness is a psychological state, there are those who believe that it can be objectively measured and quantified. What neural systems may be directly related to happiness? More... | |
| This Day in History | |
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 Rubens's Massacre of the Innocents Sells for £49.5 million (2002)Misattributed to an assistant of Baroque painter Peter Paul Rubens until 2002, when an expert from Sotheby's auction house identified it as the work of the master himself, Massacre of the Innocents is an early 17th-century painting depicting Herod's slaughter of the infants of Bethlehem. One of two paintings Rubens made of the Biblical scene, it fetched £49.5 million ($76 million) at auction and is one of the priciest paintings ever sold. Its style is reminiscent of which Italian painter? More... | |
| Today's Birthday | |
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 Nikola Tesla (1856)Tesla was an inventor and engineer known for his revolutionary contributions to the fields of electricity and magnetism. His inventions made possible the production of alternating-current electric power, and his Tesla coil is still used in radio technology. In 1912, he refused a Nobel Prize because he felt his co-recipient, Thomas Edison, was undeserving of the honor. He spent his final years caring for pigeons. What strange habits earned him a reputation as the quintessential "mad scientist"? More... | |
| Quotation of the Day | |
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 When a subject is highly controversial...one cannot hope to tell the truth. One can only show how one came to hold whatever opinion one does hold. One can only give one's audience the chance of drawing their own conclusions as they observe the limitations, the prejudices, the idiosyncrasies of the speaker.Virginia Woolf (1882-1941) | |
| Idiom of the Day | |
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home, James (, and don't spare the horses)— A humorous directive for a driver to take one home directly and without delay. More... | |
| Today's Holiday | |
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 Laguna Beach Festival of Arts (2020)This festival features a display of art works in Laguna Beach, California, along with breathtaking tableaux vivants—living pictures that recreate master art works. Since the 1940s, artists have created the tableaux to reproduce paintings by such varied masters as Leonardo da Vinci, Henri Matisse, and Winslow Homer. They also transform pieces of jewelry, sculptures, antique artifacts, and even scenes from postage stamps into life-sized works of art. The tableaux, presented for 90 minutes each evening, are created by some 300 models. More... | |
| Word Trivia | |
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Today's topic: linensash - From Arabic shash, first a roll of silk, linen, or gauze worn about the head, a turban. More... lingerie - Entered English meaning "linen articles collectively," from French linge, "linen." More... linsey-woolsey - First a cloth woven from linen and wool, the phrase was altered for the sake of a jingling sound. More... taffeta - Goes back to Persian taftah, "silken cloth, linen clothing." More... | |