Daily Content Archive
(as of Sunday, May 18, 2025)| Word of the Day | |||||||
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saunter
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| Daily Grammar Lesson | |
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Defining GerundsA gerund is the "-ing" form of a verb when it functions grammatically as a noun in a sentence. Gerunds can either stand alone, or they can take a noun (the object of the gerund) and/or modifier(s) to form what? More... | |
| Article of the Day | |
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 The Ancient Olympic GamesHeld in Olympia, Greece, from 776 BCE to 393 CE, the Olympic Games were a series of athletic competitions between various city-states. Originally, the games were comprised of just one event: the stadion race, a short sprint of about 624 ft (190 m), or the length of the stadium. Eventually, other events were added, including wrestling, chariot racing, a pentathlon, and the hoplitodromos, a race participants ran wearing heavy armor. What did competitors wear during other events? More... | |
| This Day in History | |
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 Mount Saint Helens Erupts (1980)Beginning in mid-March 1980, a series of earth tremors and steam explosions at Washington's Mount Saint Helens suggested that the volcano—dormant since 1857—was on the verge of erupting. Then, on May 18, the entire north side of the mountain exploded in a cloud of ash, rock, and fiery gases that collapsed a good part of it and carried debris for many miles. About 60 people were killed, and millions of tons of ash blanketed much of the American northwest. How far did the ash eventually spread? More... | |
| Today's Birthday | |
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 Walter Adolph Gropius (1883)Gropius was the immensely influential director of the Bauhaus school of art and architecture in Germany. In 1937, he immigrated to America and became head of Harvard's architecture department. He was an early exponent of the International style and believed that all design—whether of a chair, a building, or a city—should focus on the particular needs and problems involved, without regard to old styles. His 1923 re-design of what everyday object is now considered an icon of 20th-century design? More... | |
| Quotation of the Day | |
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 Taught from infancy that beauty is woman's scepter, the mind shapes itself to the body, and roaming round its gilt cage, only seeks to adorn its prison.Mary Shelley (1797-1851) | |
| Idiom of the Day | |
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on the upswing— Showing or experiencing a noticeable or conspicuous increase, improvement, or expansion. More... | |
| Today's Holiday | |
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 Toshogu Haru-No-Taisai (2025)This festival provides the most spectacular display of ancient samurai costumes and weaponry in Japan. The Toshogu Shrine, in Nikko, Tochigi Prefecture, was built in 1617 to house the mausoleum of Tokugawa Ieyasu (1543-1616), the first of the Tokugawa shoguns. On the first day of the festival, dignitaries and members of the Tokugawa family make offerings to the deities of the shrine, and warriors on horseback shoot at targets with bows and arrows. The next morning, more than 1,000 people take part in the procession from Toshogu to Futarasan Shrine, including hundreds of samurai warriors. More... | |
| Word Trivia | |
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Today's topic: stairwayhalf-pace - A broad step or small landing between two half flights in a staircase. More... companionway - A stairway or ladder from a deck to the cabin below. More... staircase - A stairway does not necessarily have a handrail or balustrade—but a staircase does. More... newel - The main post at the bottom of a banister or stairway. More... | |