Daily Content Archive
(as of Thursday, May 18, 2017)| Word of the Day | |||||||
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drollery
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| Daily Grammar Lesson | |
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Intensifiers vs. MitigatorsIntensifiers are the opposite of mitigators, which are used to decrease the intensity of the words they modify. What is the mitigator in the following sentence? "After eating dinner, everyone in the room was a little bit full." More... | |
| Article of the Day | |
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 ParasitoidsA parasitoid is an organism that spends a significant part of its life attached to or inside a single host, which it feeds on and ultimately kills. Parasitoid larvae are dependent on a host during development, but adult parasitoids are free-living insects. In a typical parasitic relationship, the parasite and host coexist without lethal damage to the host. However, in a parasitoid relationship, the host is killed, typically before it can produce offspring. What is a hyperparasite? More... | |
| This Day in History | |
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 The Bath School Bombing (1927)Over the course of several months leading up to May 18, 1927, disgruntled school board member Andrew Kehoe hid hundreds of pounds of explosives inside the Bath Consolidated School in Bath Township, Michigan. That day, after destroying his farm—which was slated for foreclosure—he detonated the explosives inside the school and set off a bomb in his vehicle. The massacre is considered the deadliest act of mass murder in a school in US history. How many people were killed? More... | |
| Today's Birthday | |
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 Frank Russell Capra (1897)One of the preeminent Hollywood directors of the 1930s and 40s, Capra produced idealistic populist movies that celebrate the virtues of the common American. At age six, the Sicilian-born future director immigrated with his family to the US. After holding various jobs in the film industry, he emerged as a major director in 1928. Within years, he had won his first Oscar. Which of his films is now considered one of the best American films ever made—despite having initially been a box office flop? More... | |
| Quotation of the Day | |
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 A wonderful fact to reflect upon, that every human creature is constituted to be that profound secret and mystery to every other.Charles Dickens (1812-1870) | |
| Idiom of the Day | |
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(there's) no comparison— This person or thing is clearly and inarguably better than any other. More... | |
| Today's Holiday | |
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 Haiti Flag and University Day (2018)National unity is a primary theme of Flag and University Day in Haiti, an independence celebration and an occasion to recognize the country's educational system. Flag Day became an annual celebration shortly after Catherine Flon sewed the first red and blue flag in 1803, a year before Haiti won its independence from France. The government incorporated University Day as part of the celebration in 1919. Haitians wave flags throughout the day's parades and fairs, which take place throughout Haiti as well as in New York and Miami, two cities with large Haitian communities. More... | |
| Word Trivia | |
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Today's topic: slaughterfatstock - Livestock fattened for slaughter. More... massacre - Comes from Latin mazacrium/masacrium, "slaughter." More... slaughter - From Old Norse, meaning "butcher's meat." More... homicide, murder, manslaughter - The general term for the killing of a person by another is homicide; murder is either the intentional killing or the malicious killing of another, while manslaughter is the unintentional, accidental killing of another through carelessness. More... | |