Daily Content Archive
(as of Friday, September 15, 2017)| Word of the Day | |||||||
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ostensible
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| Daily Grammar Lesson | |
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Ending Exclamatory SentencesExclamation points are most often used in place of periods to end declarative sentences that express a very strong emotion, such as anger, excitement, surprise, or disgust. What are such sentences sometimes called? More... | |
| Article of the Day | |
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 The Lost Land of LemuriaPuzzled by the presence of lemur fossils in Madagascar and India—but not in Africa or the Middle East—19th-century geologist Philip Sclater theorized that the two land masses containing the fossils had once been part of a larger, now mostly submerged continent, which he named "Lemuria." Following the scientific community's acceptance of the theories of plate tectonics and continental drift, however, Sclater's theory was widely dismissed. What is one example of an actual sunken continent? More... | |
| This Day in History | |
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 Steam Locomotive John Bull Operates for the First Time (1831)The John Bull is a steam locomotive that ran on the Camden and Amboy Railroad, the first railroad built in New Jersey. Retired in 1866, the locomotive was acquired by the Smithsonian in 1885 and became the oldest operable steam locomotive in the world in 1981, when it was operated in commemoration of the 150th anniversary of its first use. Though its official name was Stevens, crews began calling it John Bull, and the name eventually stuck. What made them choose that name? More... | |
| Today's Birthday | |
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 Dame Agatha Christie (1890)Christie, a British mystery novelist and playwright known for her detective figures Hercule Poirot and Miss Jane Marple, wrote over 75 novels, including Murder on the Orient Express and And Then There Were None. Her books have been translated into 100 languages and have sold over 100 million copies, and her play The Mousetrap, still running after 23,000 performances, holds the record for longest initial run in theatrical history. What prompted Christie's 1926 disappearance? More... | |
| Quotation of the Day | |
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 Education is an ornament in prosperity and a refuge in adversity.Aristotle (384 BC-322 BC) | |
| Idiom of the Day | |
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code of silence— The practice of not disclosing important or vital information by members of a group, as due to the threat of violence, reprisal, being branded as a traitor, or an inherent sense of honor. More... | |
| Today's Holiday | |
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 Honduras Independence Day (2019)Honduras joined four other Central American countries—Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, and Nicaragua—in declaring independence from Spain on September 15, 1821. Independence Day is a national holiday and festivities are especially colorful in the capital city of Tegucigalpa. More... | |
| Word Trivia | |
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Today's topic: nimbleagile - Means having quick motion and being nimble, from Latin agere, "to do." More... flippant - Once meant "flexible, nimble, pliant." More... chopsticks - In Chinese, the word for chopsticks originally meant "quick sticks" or "nimble ones." More... wieldy - Means "easily controlled or handled," and once meant "agile, nimble." More... | |