Daily Content Archive
(as of Thursday, July 6, 2017)| Word of the Day | |||||||
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exiguity
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| Daily Grammar Lesson | |
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Past Perfect TenseThe past perfect tense expresses the idea that something occurred before another action in the past. What else can it show? More... | |
| Article of the Day | |
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 Buddhas of BamyanOnce the largest examples of standing Buddha carvings in the world, the Buddhas of Bamyan were two monumental statues carved into the side of a cliff in Afghanistan's Bamyan Valley. Built during the 6th century, the statues were destroyed in 2001 by the Islamist Taliban government, which decreed that the figures were idolatrous and bombarded them with dynamite and tank barrages for nearly a month. The Afghan government has since proposed that the statues be recreated using what technologies? More... | |
| This Day in History | |
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 Explosion and Fire Destroy Piper Alpha Drilling Platform (1988)Piper Alpha was a North Sea oil production platform operated by Occidental Petroleum that sank into the sea after a series of explosions and a massive fire, killing 167 men. Only 59 of the workers survived. The initial blast is believed to have resulted from the activation of a pump that was missing a safety valve. A poorly planned evacuation process exacerbated the disaster. Why did nearby platforms continue to pump gas and oil to Piper Alpha after it was engulfed in flames? More... | |
| Today's Birthday | |
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 Annette Kellerman (1887)Kellerman was an Australian professional swimmer, vaudeville and film star, and writer. Her 1907 performance of "water ballet" is often credited with popularizing the sport of synchronized swimming. Kellerman was also known for advocating the right of women to wear one-piece bathing suits and was once famously arrested for indecency for doing so herself. In 1908, a Harvard University professor named her the "Perfect Woman" because of the similarity of her physical attributes to what figure? More... | |
| Quotation of the Day | |
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 The first duty of a lecturer—to hand you after an hour's discourse a nugget of pure truth to wrap up between the pages of your notebooks, and keep on the mantelpiece forever.Virginia Woolf (1882-1941) | |
| Idiom of the Day | |
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flip (one's) wig— To react to something, good or bad, with strong emotion. More... | |
| Today's Holiday | |
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 Lithuania Statehood Day (2019)Lithuania Statehood Day is a national holiday observed on July 6. On this day, Lithuanians honor the coronation of Mindaugas, who became the first and only king of a unified Lithuania in 1253, bringing the Baltic people together under his leadership. In 2003 Lithuanians celebrated the 750th anniversary of his crowning with a series of cultural activities, including operas, folk music concerts, parades, and festivals. Mindaugas founded the first independent Lithuanian state in 1240, and he is generally credited with bringing Christianity to the country for the first time. More... | |
| Word Trivia | |
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Today's topic: leanextenuate - Comes from the Latin verb extenuare, "make thin or lean," and originally meant "to treat as of small importance, make light of." More... macilent - Means "lean, thin" or "shriveled," i.e. lacking in substance. More... recubation, recumb - Recubation is reclining in a near-horizontal position; to recumb is to "lean, recline, rest." More... streaky - Describes bacon with alternating strips of fat and lean. More... | |