Daily Content Archive
(as of Sunday, October 13, 2024)| Word of the Day | |||||||
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ostensible
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| Daily Grammar Lesson | |
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Distinguishing between Intensive and Reflexive PronounsAlthough intensive and reflexive pronouns are identical in appearance, there is a clear distinction between them. Reflexive pronouns are used when the subject of a sentence also receives the action of the sentence. When are intensive pronouns used? More... | |
| Article of the Day | |
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 CatharismThe Cathars were members of a Christian sect that flourished in France in the 12th and 13th centuries. Because most adherents believed in reincarnation—as opposed to resurrection—as a way of reaching the pure spirit realm, the Roman Catholic Church regarded the sect as heretical and launched the Albigensian Crusade to crush the movement. In one account of a massacre of some 20,000 Cathars, one of the crusade's commanders is asked how to tell Cathars from Catholics. What was his famous reply? More... | |
| This Day in History | |
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 Ankara Replaces Istanbul as Capital of Turkey (1923)Ankara was an important commercial center for millennia, but in the late 19th century it experienced a decline. By the early 20th century, it was just a small town known primarily for its mohair production. After WWI, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk made Ankara the seat of his provisional nationalist government. In 1923, it replaced Istanbul as Turkey's capital, partly to break with tradition and partly because of its central location. Who, according to Phrygian lore, founded the city in about 1000 BCE? More... | |
| Today's Birthday | |
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 Lillie Langtry (1853)Born on the Isle of Jersey, Emilie Charlotte Le Breton married diplomat Edward Langtry in 1874. A famous beauty, she caused a sensation when she became the first society woman to go on the stage, making her debut at the Haymarket theater in 1881 after her husband failed financially. "Jersey Lily," as she became known, played to enthusiastic audiences in England and the US and later remodeled and managed London's Imperial Theatre. With what future monarch was Langtry once romantically involved? More... | |
| Quotation of the Day | |
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 It seems to me a hard case to make slaves of those whom God and nature have made free.Miguel de Cervantes (1547-1616) | |
| Idiom of the Day | |
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glimmer of hope— A minute indication that something may improve, succeed, or turn out for the best in the end. More... | |
| Today's Holiday | |
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 International Cervantes Festival (2024)Spanish novelist, poet, and playwright Miguel de Cervantes (1547-1616), best known for Don Quixote (1605), is honored in a three-week festival held in Guanajuato, Mexico, featuring orchestral music, opera, theater, dance, film and folklore. Although most festival events are held in the Teatro Juarez and the Teatro Principal, amateur Mexican actors often give street performances of Cervantes's famous one-act plays in the Plaza de San Roque. Various musical performances are a popular attraction, as are art exhibits, children's theater, and folkloric dance ensembles. More... | |
| Word Trivia | |
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Today's topic: providedub - Meaning "to provide a film with a soundtrack," it is an abbreviation of "double." More... endow - First meant "provide a dower or dowry." More... refurbish, refurnish, redecorate, renovate - Refurbish means to "clean up again," refurnish means "to provide with new furnishings," redecorate means "to add new decoration(s)," and renovate means "renew or restore to as-new condition." More... improvise - Etymologically, if you improvise something, it is because it has not been "provided" for in advance, from Latin improvisus, "unforeseen." More... | |