Daily Content Archive
(as of Sunday, November 12, 2017)| Word of the Day | |||||||
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borderland
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| Daily Grammar Lesson | |
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Sense VerbsCertain verbs are used to indicate perceptions, opinions, or bodily sensations. These are known as verbs of the senses, or "sense verbs" for short. What are the seven sense verbs? More... | |
| Article of the Day | |
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 Running the GauntletThe phrase "running the gauntlet" is used figuratively today to mean enduring a series of punishments or tests. It derives from the Roman form of military execution known as fustuarium, in which a soldier found guilty of laxity was cudgeled to death by his comrades. In some later traditions, the condemned was forced to pass between two rows of armed soldiers and pardoned if he managed to exit the other side. "The gauntlet" is also a type of athletic drill used in training for what sports? More... | |
| This Day in History | |
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 Remains of Explorer Robert Scott and His Men Are Found in Antarctica (1912)The Scott party reached the South Pole in January 1912 after a grueling two-and-a-half month journey across Antarctica, only to find that another group had beaten them to it weeks earlier. On the return trek, Scott and his entire team died. Seven months later, a search party found their final camp, retrieved Scott's records, and buried the bodies under a cairn of snow. It is now believed that Scott was the last to die. In his final diary entry, written on March 29, Scott makes what request? More... | |
| Today's Birthday | |
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 Juana Inés de la Cruz (1651?)Today considered one of the greatest lyric poets of colonial Mexico, Sor Juana abandoned her life as a favorite at the viceroy's court to join a convent at the age of 16. There, she immersed herself in learning. Criticized by her superiors, she penned a passionate defense of women's education that became a classic. Despite having earned wide acclaim as a poet, she ceased writing publicly under pressure from church officials. Devoted to spirituality in her final years, she died doing what? More... | |
| Quotation of the Day | |
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 And what he greatly thought, he nobly dared.Homer (900 BC-800 BC) | |
| Idiom of the Day | |
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be in bad with (someone)— To be disliked or out of favor with someone; to be in trouble with someone. More... | |
| Today's Holiday | |
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 Elizabeth Cady Stanton Day (2017)Elizabeth Cady Stanton (1815-1902) was a pioneer in the struggle for women's rights. She helped organize the first women's rights convention, held at Seneca Falls, New York, in 1848. With Susan B. Anthony, they organized the National Woman Suffrage Association, planned suffrage campaigns, and fought for equality for women. Governor Herbert Lehman of New York declared November 12 Elizabeth Cady Stanton Day in 1941. Her birthday has long been observed by women's rights groups throughout the U.S., particularly the National Organization for Women (NOW). More... | |
| Word Trivia | |
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Today's topic: nakedgymnasium - A school where Greek youths were given athletic training while naked (gymnos). More... hare, rabbit, jackrabbit - Hares live in the open and bear young that have fur at birth, while rabbits live in burrows and bear young that are naked at birth; jackrabbits are hares, not rabbits. More... stark naked - A corruption of start naked, from Anglo-Saxon steort, "tail" —as it described being naked to the tail. More... stag - To go in stag meant to "go naked," which influenced the later "stag party." More... | |
| In the News | |
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Gene-Engineered Skin Grafts Save Boy With Rare DiseaseThe 7-year-old boy was dying. An infection had destroyed most of his skin, he was too weak to eat, and he was in agony. Doctors in Germany were planning to provide palliative care — keeping the child as comfortable as possible while he died. But there ... More... | |