Daily Content Archive
(as of Sunday, January 14, 2024)| Word of the Day | |||||||
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sophistry
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| Daily Grammar Lesson | |
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Gerunds as Objects of PrepositionsGerunds are used as the objects of prepositions to describe an action that modifies another action, thus creating adverbial prepositional phrases. These can occur at the beginning, middle, or end of the sentence. What is the adverbial prepositional phrase in the following sentence? "After sneezing, I always get the hiccups." More... | |
| Article of the Day | |
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 TopographyIn Ancient Greece, topographers were charged with writing detailed descriptions of places, works that are now called “local histories.” By the 20th c, the practice of topography had evolved into the study and representation of the features and configuration of land surfaces. Topographic maps use symbols and coloring to represent elevations, depressions, and depths of water and depict the contours of both natural and man-made features. In what other scientific fields has topography been applied? More... | |
| This Day in History | |
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 Felice Orsini Attempts to Assassinate French Emperor Napoleon III (1858)Orsini was an Italian revolutionary in the movement for Italian unification. In 1858, he made an attempt on the life of Napoleon III, whom he held responsible for the failure of the Italian revolutions of 1848 to 1849. Although ably defended by French statesman Jules Favre, Orsini was executed. His act, designed to arouse world interest in the Italian cause, paradoxically influenced Napoleon's own decision to intervene in favor of Italian unification. How did Orsini try to kill Napoleon? More... | |
| Today's Birthday | |
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 John Dos Passos (1896)Dos Passos was an American writer whose World War I service as an ambulance driver and later work as a journalist led him to see the US as "two nations"—one for the rich and one for the poor. An artist to boot, he created many of the illustrations and covers for his books. His reputation as a social historian, radical critic of American life, and major novelist of the postwar "Lost Generation" rests primarily on his powerful U.S.A. trilogy, which includes what three novels? More... | |
| Quotation of the Day | |
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 Like all weak men he laid an exaggerated stress on not changing one's mind.W. Somerset Maugham (1874-1965) | |
| Idiom of the Day | |
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lose (one's) faith (in something or someone)— To stop believing (in someone or something); to become disillusioned, embittered, or doubtful (about something or someone). (When said simply as "lose faith," it is often in reference to losing religious faith in God.) More... | |
| Today's Holiday | |
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 Ratification Day (2025)Though most people associate the end of the American Revolution with the surrender of Lord Cornwallis at Yorktown, Virginia, in 1781, the war was not officially ended until the Treaty of Paris was ratified on January 14, 1784. The Old Senate Chamber in the Maryland State House at Annapolis has been preserved exactly as it was when the ratification took place. On Ratification Day, the ceremony that takes place inside varies from year to year, but it often revolves around a particular aspect of the original event. More... | |
| Word Trivia | |
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