Daily Content Archive
(as of Wednesday, December 22, 2021)| Word of the Day | |||||||
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impel
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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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 Pan TwardowskiTwardowski is a character in Polish folklore who sells his soul to the Devil in exchange for special powers, similar to the figure of Faust in German literature. Twardowski, a nobleman in 16th-century Krakow, tries to outwit the Devil by including in his contract with the Prince of Darkness the stipulation that his soul may only be claimed when he is in Rome—a place Twardowski intends never to go. Though Twardowski never does travel to Rome, the Devil collects when the man makes what misstep? More... | |
| 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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 Death ... goes faster than the wind, and he never brings back what he takes.Hans Christian Andersen (1805-1875) | |
| 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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 Zimbabwe National Unity Day (2024)Begun in 1997, National Unity Day celebrates the coming together of Zimbabwe's two political parties, the Zanu-PF and PF Zapu (one representing the Shona-speaking and the other the Ndebele-speaking peoples). Among the celebrations to mark National Unity Day are a number of sporting events, including a soccer championship in which the winning team receives the Unity Cup. In the city of Masvingo, the general public and leading political figures gather at the Great Zimbabwe National Monuments for a concert featuring a number of popular singers and musicians. 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... | |