Daily Content Archive
(as of Wednesday, November 20, 2019)| Word of the Day | |||||||
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| Daily Grammar Lesson | |
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First ConditionalFirst conditional sentences contain a conditional verb in the simple present tense in the "if clause," and a future tense verb preceded by the auxiliary verb "will" in the main clause. What are first conditional sentences used to explain? More... | |
| Article of the Day | |
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 Jacques Bénigne BossuetBossuet was a French prelate and one of the greatest orators of all time. Ordained a priest in 1652, he gained a reputation as a popular preacher who spoke eloquently and influentially for the rights of the French church against papal authority. He is now chiefly remembered for his Funeral Orations, panegyrics he composed for important figures like Henrietta of England, her daughter, and Condé, which are considered masterpieces. Which member of the French royal family did Bossuet tutor? More... | |
| This Day in History | |
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 Whaling Ship Essex Rammed by Whale (1820)In 1819, the whaling ship Essex left Massachusetts for the South Pacific to hunt sperm whales. On November 20, 1820, in an incident that would inspire Herman Melville's Moby-Dick, the Essex was rammed multiple times by a sperm whale and sank 2,000 miles (3,700 km) off the coast of South America. The crew took three small boats to a nearby island, but many soon set out again. Conditions in the boats worsened, and the sailors had to resort to cannibalism. How many survived? More... | |
| Today's Birthday | |
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 Kenesaw Mountain Landis (1866)Landis was a US federal judge and the first commissioner of professional baseball. Named for a Georgia mountain where his father had been wounded during the Civil War, he practiced law in Illinois before serving as a US district judge. In 1907, he presided over a famous case in which the Standard Oil Company was found guilty of granting unlawful freight rebates and fined $29 million, but his decision was later reversed. He was named baseball commissioner in 1920 in the aftermath of what scandal? More... | |
| Quotation of the Day | |
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 A man dies as often as he loses his friends.Francis Bacon (1561-1626) | |
| Idiom of the Day | |
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lead nowhere— To ultimately yield or achieve no useful, beneficial, or successful result or outcome. More... | |
| Today's Holiday | |
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.jpg) Africa Industrialization Day (2024)In 1989 the United Nations designated November 20 as Africa Industrialization Day. Observances center around mustering international support for the industrialization of Africa. More... | |
| Word Trivia | |
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Today's topic: sickanointing of the sick - The Catholic sacrament in which a priest anoints a dying person with oil and prays for salvation. More... decumbiture - The act of going to bed when sick. More... ill - Originally meant not "sick" but "bad," and was borrowed from Old Norse illr; the sense of "sick" arrived in the 15th century. More... nauseous, nauseated - Nauseous ("sickening") is an adjective describing something that causes nausea; the adjective for the feeling ("made sick") is nauseated. More... | |