Daily Content Archive
(as of Saturday, May 16, 2020)| Word of the Day | |||||||
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lollygag
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| Daily Grammar Lesson | |
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The Modal VerbsA modal auxiliary verb is used to change the meaning of other verbs (commonly known as main verbs) by expressing modality—that is, asserting (or denying) possibility, likelihood, ability, permission, obligation, or future intention. What are the nine "true" modal auxiliary verbs? More... | |
| Article of the Day | |
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 The Necklace of HarmoniaThe fabled Necklace of Harmonia is a cursed object of Greek myth. It was made as a means of revenge by Hephaestus, god of fire and metalwork, after he discovered that his wife, Aphrodite, was having an affair with Ares. He gave the lovely necklace to Harmonia, Aphrodite’s daughter by Ares. The necklace was said to grant eternal beauty and youth, but it also cursed anyone who wore it. Generations later, it kept what widowed queen young and beautiful, allowing her to unwittingly marry her own son? More... | |
| This Day in History | |
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 Junko Tabei Becomes First Woman to Summit Mount Everest (1975)Tabei founded a climbing club for women in Japan in 1969 and, by 1972, was a recognized mountain climber. When Japanese newspaper and television companies sponsored an all-female expedition to climb Mount Everest, Tabei was one of the 15 women selected to go. In 1975, after months of training and preparation, the 35-year-old mother of two became the first woman to reach Everest's 29,035-foot (8,850-m) summit. What disaster partway up the slope nearly ended the climb? More... | |
| Today's Birthday | |
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 Henry Jaynes Fonda (1905)Henry Fonda was an American film actor who started out on Broadway. His role in the 1934 play The Farmer Takes a Wife led to a role in the film version, and more than 100 other films followed. He portrayed honest men in movies such as The Grapes of Wrath (1940) and won an Academy Award in 1982 for his last film, On Golden Pond, made with his daughter, Jane. Married five times, he was also the father of actor Peter Fonda. Whose murder did Fonda witness as a teen? More... | |
| Quotation of the Day | |
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 Disobedience, in the eyes of anyone who has read history, is man's original virtue.Oscar Wilde (1854-1900) | |
| Idiom of the Day | |
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on (one's) tod— Without or not near to anyone else; on one's own; all alone. A shortening of the Cockney rhyming slang "on one's Tod Sloan," referring to a once-famous American horse jockey who fell into disrepute in the early 20th century and died penniless and alone. Primarily heard in UK. More... | |
| Today's Holiday | |
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 St. Brendan's Day (2025)St. Brendan, who lived in the 6th century and is one of the most popular Irish saints, is alleged to be the author of Navigatio Brendani (the story of a journey to a land across the ocean). No one, including St. Brendan, knew where he had been when he returned, but a number of legends developed over the centuries. In 1977, an Irishman named Tim Severin built a boat out of leather as described in Navigatio and set out to follow St. Brendan's instructions. He ended up in Newfoundland, giving credence to the theory that St. Brendan reached America 1,000 years before Columbus. More... | |
| Word Trivia | |
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Today's topic: shopchippy - A shop that sells fish and chips can be called a chippy. More... odditorium - A shop for oddities or oddments (broken parts or parts of once-complete sets). More... shop, store - At first, shop designated a small retail establishment and store was applied only to a large establishment; now the differences are blurred. More... stationer - A bookseller who had a regular "station" or shop at a university, unlike most booksellers, who were itinerant vendors. More... | |