Daily Content Archive
(as of Friday, May 15, 2020)| Word of the Day | |||||||
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glower
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| Daily Grammar Lesson | |
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Emphasizing Duration with the Present Perfect ContinuousThe present perfect continuous is especially useful for putting emphasis on the length of time that has passed while something is happening. What is the present perfect continuous verb in the following sentence? "They have been studying for three weeks for this exam." More... | |
| Article of the Day | |
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 The Public HouseA public house—or pub—is a centuries-old type of drinking establishment, so named because early English common law declared inns and taverns to be public houses obligated to receive travelers willing to pay for food, drink, and lodging. However, pubs did not cater exclusively to travelers. They also served as communal centers where locals could meet and gossip, and so became an enduring part of British culture. How did an 18th-century crackdown on alcohol consumption actually create more pubs? More... | |
| This Day in History | |
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 The Great Gold Robbery (1855)On the night of May 15, 1855, a shipment of gold bars and coins was sent from London to Paris, first via the South Eastern Railway and then on a ship across the English Channel. When the shipment arrived in Boulogne, France, the containers—all of which were locked and sealed—were found to be missing a large amount of the gold, worth about 12,000 British pounds at the time. The missing weight had been replaced with lead shot. A group of men was later arrested for the theft. How had they done it? More... | |
| Today's Birthday | |
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 Williamina Paton Stevens Fleming (1857)Shortly after Fleming emigrated from Scotland to the US with her husband, their marriage failed. Forced to support herself, she worked as a housekeeper for the director of the Harvard College Observatory, who soon hired her to do clerical work at the observatory. She quickly rose through the ranks and went on to make significant contributions to the field of astronomy—classifying thousands of stars and discovering numerous variable stars and novae. At what age did her formal education end? More... | |
| Quotation of the Day | |
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 Our dead are never dead to us, until we have forgotten them.George Eliot (1819-1880) | |
| Idiom of the Day | |
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on in years— Advanced in age; old or becoming old. More... | |
| Today's Holiday | |
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.jpg) Feast of San Isidro the Farmer (Madrid) (2025)The Feast of St. Isidore the Farmer is celebrated in Madrid, Spain, with eight days of bullfighting at the Plaza de Toros, colorful parades, and many artistic, cultural, and sporting events. Street vendors sell pictures of the saint, small glass or pottery bells believed to ward off harm from thunder and lightning, and whistle-stemmed glass roses, which provide a noisy accompaniment to the feasting and dancing that go on. The Festival of San Isidro is celebrated in other Spanish towns as well, particularly León and Alicante. More... | |
| Word Trivia | |
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Today's topic: monkascetic - Pronounced uh-SET-ik, it is derived from Greek asketes, "monk, hermit." More... dean - Comes from Latin decanum, "chief of a group of ten," and Greek dekanos, "a monk or dignitary in charge of ten others." More... nun - Derived from Latin nonna, the feminine of nonnus, "monk," originally a title given to an elderly person. More... monk, friar - A monk stays in a monastery; a friar does not. More... | |