Daily Content Archive
(as of Friday, December 22, 2017)| Word of the Day | |||
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| Daily Grammar Lesson | |
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Personal Pronouns and Grammatical PersonGrammatical person refers to the perspectives of the personal pronouns used to identify a person in speech and text—that is, it distinguishes between a speaker, an addressee, and others beyond that. Which of those examples is the second person? More... | |
| Article of the Day | |
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| This Day in History | |
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 Berlin's Brandenburg Gate Reopens (1989)The only remaining town gate of Berlin, the Brandenburg Gate was modeled after the propylaeum of the Athenian Acropolis. Originally topped with the "Quadriga of Victory," a statue of a chariot drawn by four horses, it was heavily damaged in World War II but was later restored. In 1961, the Berlin Wall blocked access to it for both eastern and western Germans, but it was reopened in 1989 with the reunification of East and West Berlin. The gate was the backdrop for what historic speeches? More... | |
| Today's Birthday | |
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 Srinivasa Ramanujan (1887)Ramanujan was an Indian mathematician. Extremely poor, he was largely self-taught from age 15. In 1913, he began a correspondence with English mathematician Godfrey H. Hardy that took him to England, where he made advances, especially in the theory of numbers, the partition of numbers, and the theory of continued fractions. He died of tuberculosis at age 32, generally unknown but recognized by mathematicians as a phenomenal genius. What anecdote exists about Ramanujan and the number 1,729? More... | |
| Quotation of the Day | |
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| Idiom of the Day | |
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long arm— Broad, far-reaching power or influence. (Usually paired with a noun, as in "the long arm of the law.") More... | |
| Today's Holiday | |
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 Forefathers' Day (2018)Observed in Plymouth, Massachusetts, and by various New England societies throughout the country, Forefathers' Day commemorates the landing of the Pilgrims, who arrived in 1620 on the Mayflower and established the second English colony in North America. The Old Colony Club of Plymouth was the first group to observe the anniversary in 1769, and members still celebrate Forefathers' Day on December 22. Wearing top hats and led by a drummer, they march down the main street of Plymouth. After firing a small cannon, they return to their Club for breakfast and toasts to the Pilgrims. More... | |
| Word Trivia | |
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Today's topic: similarityeye rhyme - A similarity between words in spelling but not pronunciation—like dove and move. More... icon - Originally a "simile" in rhetoric; its etymological idea is of "similarity," from Greek eikon, "likeness, similarity." More... goose pimples - Named for their similarity to the skin of a plucked goose. More... lens - From Latin for "lentil," because of the similarity in shape. More... | |