Daily Content Archive
(as of Friday, September 28, 2018)| Word of the Day | |||||||
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stupefy
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| Daily Grammar Lesson | |
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WhoseThe interrogative adjectives "what" and "which" can often be used interchangeably, while "whose" is very different. What does "whose" denote? More... | |
| Article of the Day | |
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 The Invisible CollegeThe oldest national scientific society in the world is the Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge—known simply as the Royal Society. First founded in 1660 by a group of natural philosophers who met to promote scientific discussion, the Royal Society now ranks as the foremost organization of its kind. At least 14 years before its founding, the organization existed as an unofficial group whose members referred to it as the "Invisible College." Who were they? More... | |
| This Day in History | |
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 Norman Conquest of England Begins (1066)In 1066, King Edward the Confessor of England died childless. His cousin William of Normandy claimed that he had been promised the throne years earlier, yet Harold, duke of Wessex, was crowned instead. William then assembled a force of 5,000 knights and invaded. He was crowned less than three months later, following a swift and brutal conquest that had a profound and lasting effect on English life. When William landed at Pevensey on September 28, Harold's forces were busy elsewhere—doing what? More... | |
| Today's Birthday | |
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 Max Schmeling (1905)Schmeling was a German boxer who, in his greatest upset, knocked out future world heavyweight champion Joe Louis—then an unbeaten 22-year-old contender—in 1936. When they met again in a hugely hyped 1938 match, Louis knocked out Schmeling in the first round. The rivals later became fast friends. When Louis died in 1981, Schmeling helped pay for the funeral. Though lauded as an Aryan idol in Germany, Schmeling was neither political nor racist. How did he save two Jewish children from the Nazis? More... | |
| Quotation of the Day | |
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 The history of human conduct does not warrant that exalted opinion of human virtue which would make it wise in a nation to commit interests of so delicate and momentous a kind, as those which concern its intercourse with the rest of the world, to the sole disposal of a magistrate.Alexander Hamilton (1755-1804) | |
| Idiom of the Day | |
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ice maiden— pejorative A coolly composed, unemotional woman; a woman without affection or warmth of feeling. More... | |
| Today's Holiday | |
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 Yom Kippur (2020)Also known as the Day of Atonement, Yom Kippur is the holiest and most solemn day in the Jewish calendar, and the last of the 10 High Holy Days. On this day, Jews acknowledge transgressions, repent through confession, then make atonement to God to obtain his forgiveness, with the hope of being inscribed in the Book of Life. Yom Kippur is a strict day of fasting; not even water may be taken from sundown to sundown. It is also a day of reconciliation for those who have done each other harm during the past year. It is the only fast day that is not postponed if it falls on the Sabbath. More... | |
| Word Trivia | |
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Today's topic: technicalspod - A studious person who is quite socially inept or dull or a person who pursues an unfashionable, technical, or esoteric interest with obsessive dedication. More... masterpiece - Originally, it was used in a technical or academic sense to apply to a work that was presented to a medieval guild for qualification as a "master." More... technical, technic - Technical is based on technic, an adjective meaning "pertaining to art," from Greek tekhne, "art." More... technicize - To make technical. More... | |