Daily Content Archive
(as of Tuesday, February 27, 2018)| Word of the Day | |||||||
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accursed
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| Daily Grammar Lesson | |
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Intransitive Verbs in the "Middle" VoiceWhile the majority of reflexive verbs are transitive, with reflexive pronouns as their objects, certain intransitive verbs can be used to modify a subject (usually an inanimate object) that is also the receiver of the action. What happens to intransitive verbs in the middle voice? More... | |
| Article of the Day | |
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 TherizinosaursTherizinosaurs were theropod dinosaurs with a very distinctive set of characteristics. Possessing long necks, wide torsos, and hind feet with four toes, therizinosaurs also had unique hip bones that pointed backwards and were partially fused together. However, the most striking characteristics of these dinosaurs were the enormous claws on their hands, which could reach lengths of three feet. Furthermore, skin impressions from at least one therizinosaur indicate that they were covered in what? More... | |
| This Day in History | |
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 Ireland Legalizes Divorce (1997)The culture of Ireland has long been strongly influenced by the Roman Catholic Church, to which most of the country belongs. Thus, until 1997, the Republic of Ireland had no legal provision for divorce—and though many couples were living apart, they were not free to remarry other people. Once the divorce legislation was passed, the number of separated couples in Ireland did increase but not dramatically. Despite the position of the Church in Ireland, what pagan customs still persist there? More... | |
| Today's Birthday | |
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 Alice Hamilton (1869)A pioneer in industrial toxicology and the first female faculty member at Harvard University, Hamilton became an authority on lead poisoning and a worldwide specialist in occupational diseases. Her services as an authority on industrial conditions, ailments, and poisons were eagerly sought by government agencies, and her reports on substances such as lead and rubber resulted in improved safety standards in industrial workplaces across the US. Her name was once included in what unlikely list? More... | |
| Quotation of the Day | |
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 When one pays a visit it is for the purpose of wasting other people's time, not one's own.Oscar Wilde (1854-1900) | |
| Idiom of the Day | |
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(as) mad as a wet hen— Enraged; extremely or inconsolably angry. More... | |
| Today's Holiday | |
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 Equirria (2018)Tradition holds that Romulus, one of the mythical founders of Rome, began the Equirria. This festival was held on both February 27 and March 14. The Equirria mainly involved racing horses and was dedicated to Mars, the Roman god of war. Scholars don't know why there were two annual Equirrias little more than two weeks apart from each other, but one theory is that these were occasions to publicly begin training horses and men for the military excursions Roman soldiers undertook in the spring. More... | |
| Word Trivia | |
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Today's topic: wristdolman sleeve - One that is much wider at the arm-hole than it is at the wrist, patterned on a Turkish robe. More... rasceta, rascettes - The deep transverse creases across your wrist at the base of the palm are rasceta or rascettes. More... carpus - In humans, it is the group of eight bones that form the wrist and part of the hand. More... wrist - The wrist of the foot is the instep or ankle. More... | |
| In the News | |
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'Loneliest tree' records human epochIt's been dubbed "the loneliest tree on the planet" because of its remote location, but the Sitka spruce might represent something quite profound about the age in which we live. The tree, sited on Campbell Island in the Southern Ocean, records in its ... More... | |