Daily Content Archive
(as of Tuesday, January 21, 2020)| Word of the Day | |||||||
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embonpoint
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| Daily Grammar Lesson | |
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Intransitive Verbs in the "Middle" VoiceWhile the majority of reflexive verbs are transitive, with reflexive pronouns as their objects, certain intransitive verbs can be used to modify a subject (usually an inanimate object) that is also the receiver of the action. What happens to intransitive verbs in the middle voice? More... | |
| Article of the Day | |
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 The Domesday BookThe Domesday Book is a written record of a survey of English landowners and their property ordered by William the Conqueror in 1085. The most remarkable administrative feat of the Middle Ages, it now serves as the starting point for the history of most English towns and villages. Originally called "the description of England," the name Domesday Book—a reference to doomsday, when people face a final accounting of their lives—was later popularly attached to it. What was the purpose of the survey? More... | |
| This Day in History | |
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 Louis XVI of France Is Guillotined (1793)Louis XVI was the king of France during the complex sociopolitical conflict that culminated in the French Revolution, but he was shy, dull, and corpulent and lacked the leadership skills necessary for the job. During the revolution, he was caught attempting to flee the Tuileries palace in disguise, and when proof of his counterrevolutionary actions emerged, he was tried for treason and beheaded. It is said that while his blood dripped to the ground, many in the crowd ran forward to do what? More... | |
| Today's Birthday | |
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 John Bodkin Adams (1899)Adams was an Irish-born British physician suspected of having been a serial killer. Between 1946 and 1956, more than 160 of his patients, many of them elderly, died under suspicious circumstances—most leaving him money or items in their wills. He was tried for the murder of one patient but was acquitted. He was later convicted of other crimes, but never murder. A 2000 article in the British Medical Journal suggests that Adams may have been the role model for what other serial-killer doctor? More... | |
| Quotation of the Day | |
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 When I read a book I seem to read it with my eyes only, but now and then I come across a passage, perhaps only a phrase, which has a meaning for me, and it becomes part of me.W. Somerset Maugham (1874-1965) | |
| Idiom of the Day | |
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loss of face— The state or circumstance of having lost the respect of other people, as due to having done something improper or unacceptable. More... | |
| Today's Holiday | |
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 Barrow Day (2023)This national public holiday honors Barbados' first prime minister. Errol Barrow was born in 1920, earned a law degree in England, then returned to Barbados, where he became finance minister in 1959 and prime minister in 1961. He was reelected in 1966 and, soon after, Barbados gained independence from Great Britain. Barrow was voted out in 1976 but regained office in 1986; he died the next year. More... | |
| Word Trivia | |
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Today's topic: productivecost-effective - Anything effective and productive in relation to its cost. More... fecund, fecundation - Fecund is another word for "fertile, fruitful, productive"; fecundation is another word for "fertilization, impregnation." More... originary - An adjective meaning "causing existence; productive," or "primitive; primary; original." More... | |