Daily Content Archive
(as of Monday, January 18, 2016)| Word of the Day | |||||||
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salient
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| Daily Grammar Lesson | |
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Degrees of Comparison - AdverbsJust like adjectives, adverbs have comparative and superlative degrees; adverbs in their basic forms are sometimes known as being in the positive degree. What do superlative adverbs identify? More... | |
| Article of the Day | |
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 László Moholy-NagyMoholy-Nagy was a Hungarian painter, photographer, and designer. His experiments with photograms and kinetic “light space modulators” reflect the way in which his art was influenced by constructivism, an abstractionist movement characterized by the use of industrial materials to create nonrepresentational, often geometric objects. One of his greatest contributions to modern art was his teaching, which deeply influenced American commercial and industrial design. Where did he teach in the 1920s? More... | |
| This Day in History | |
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 WWII: First Armed Insurgency in Warsaw Ghetto (1943)The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising was the Jewish armed resistance that took place in the Warsaw Ghetto of Nazi-occupied Poland during WWII. By July 1942, the Nazis had forced 500,000 Jews into the Warsaw Ghetto. Starvation killed thousands each month and thousands more were transferred to "labor" camps every day. When word reached the ghetto that the destination was actually the gas chambers at Treblinka, the newly formed Jewish insurgency attacked the Nazis. How long did the insurgency last? More... | |
| Today's Birthday | |
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 Archibald Alexander Leach, AKA Cary Grant (1904)Grant performed with an acrobatic comedy troupe in England before he found parts in stage musicals. After he made his film debut in 1932, his debonair charm, good looks, and distinctive voice made him a popular star in sophisticated comedies such as Bringing Up Baby, His Girl Friday, and The Philadelphia Story. He also starred in many Alfred Hitchcock thrillers, including North by Northwest. He received an honorary Academy Award in 1970. What was his last film? More... | |
| Quotation of the Day | |
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 Art for art's sake? I should think so, and more so than ever at the present time. It is the one orderly product which our middling race has produced. It is the cry of a thousand sentinels, the echo from a thousand labyrinths, it is the lighthouse which cannot be hidden... it is the best evidence we can have of our dignity.E. M. Forster (1879-1970) | |
| Idiom of the Day | |
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have (hand)writing like chicken scratch— To have very poor, messy, and/or illegible handwriting, likened to the marks made in the dirt by a chicken. More... | |
| Today's Holiday | |
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 Rukmini Ashtami (2020)Vaishnavite Hindus believe that Rukmini, Lord Krishna's primary wife and queen, was born on this day. The fast known as Rukmini Ashtami is observed by women, both married and unmarried. Rukmini, Krishna, and Pradyumna, their son, are worshipped. A Brahman priest is also fed and given dan-dakshina, or charitable gifts, on this day. Many middle-class Hindus believe that observance of this fast ensures conjugal happiness and prosperity, and that it will help them find good husbands for unmarried girls. More... | |
| Word Trivia | |
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Today's topic: unexpectedvisit, visitation - A visit is an instance of visiting; a visitation is an act of visiting, and carries the connotation of an unexpected or undesired occurrence. More... October surprise - An unexpected, but popular, political act made just prior to a November election, in an attempt to win votes. More... off the wall - Alludes to squash or handball, when a shot comes off the wall at an unexpected or erratic angle. More... wrong-foot - To disconcert by doing something unexpected. More... | |