Daily Content Archive
(as of Tuesday, April 21, 2015)| Word of the Day | |||||||
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turgid
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| Daily Grammar Lesson | |
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Present Continuous Tense (Progressive)We create the present continuous tense by using the present participle (-ing form) of the verb after the present-tense form of the auxiliary verb "be." What is the most common occurrence of the present continuous tense? More... | |
| Article of the Day | |
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 DarkroomsA darkroom is a workspace for the processing of light-sensitive materials. Darkrooms have been used for black and white photography since the late 19th century, but their popularity has waned with the introduction of color, Polaroid, and digital photography. The most familiar black and white processes involve developing the image, stopping the development, fixing the image, then washing and drying it. Why is it safe to use red or amber lighting in a darkroom? More... | |
| This Day in History | |
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 Brazilian Patriot Tiradentes Hanged, Drawn, and Quartered (1792)Born José Joaquim da Silva Xavier, Tiradentes gained his nickname, which means "tooth-puller," working as a healer in his youth. In the late 1780s, he joined and soon became the leader of a revolutionary movement against Portuguese rule in Brazil that was inspired by the American Revolution. In 1789, the movement was betrayed and its leaders were imprisoned. They were freed and exiled in 1792 with the exception of Tiradentes, who was executed in Rio de Janeiro. What was done with his remains? More... | |
| Today's Birthday | |
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 Max Weber (1864)Weber was a German sociologist and political economist whose most famous and controversial work, The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, examines the relationship between Calvinist—or Puritan—morality, compulsive labor, bureaucracy, and economic success under capitalism. Weber also wrote about social phenomena such as charisma and mysticism, which he saw as antithetical to the modern world and its underlying process of rationalization. What other important works did he write? More... | |
| Quotation of the Day | |
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 Great vices are the proper objects of our detestation, smaller faults of our pity, but affectation appears to me the only true source of the ridiculous.Henry Fielding (1707-1754) | |
| Idiom of the Day | |
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come out of (one's) shell— To become more outgoing. Usually said of a shy or introverted person. More... | |
| Today's Holiday | |
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 Salzburg Easter Festival (2019)Salzburg's Easter Festival was founded by the famous conductor Herbert von Karajan (1908-1989) in 1967 to honor the works of Richard Wagner (1813-1883), and it remains one of Europe's most elite and elegant music festivals. The Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra is the festival's resident ensemble, and the chorus of the Vienna State Opera performs the choral works. A full-scale opera is performed twice during each nine-day festival in the Großes Festspielhaus (large festival hall), which is known for its unique acoustics and seats more than 2,000. More... | |
| Word Trivia | |
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Today's topic: wakingexpergefacient, expergefaction, expergefactor - A synonym for awakening is expergefacient; expergefaction is waking up and an alarm clock is an expergefactor. More... dysania - The state of having a hard time waking up and getting out of bed in the morning. More... experrection - Waking up or awakening. More... hypnagogic jerks, hypnopompic jerks - Hypnagogic jerks are the spasms that happen right when you fall asleep; hypnopompic jerks happen right when you are waking up. More... | |