Daily Content Archive
(as of Friday, May 7, 2021)| Word of the Day | |||||||
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straggly
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| Daily Grammar Lesson | |
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Using Multiple Sets of Quotation MarksIf a sentence already uses quotation marks, then we have to differentiate between the quoted speech and the rest of the sentence. If we are using double quotation marks, then we have to put the quoted speech in single quotation marks; if it is in single quotation marks, then the quoted text is put into double quotation marks. What happens to the rest of the punctuation in the sentence? More... | |
| Article of the Day | |
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 Hadaka MatsuriHadaka Matsuri—literally, "naked festival"—is a Shinto tradition observed all over Japan, usually not long after New Year's Day. Rituals related to its observance vary, but one custom that remains consistent is the dress code. For the most part, participants wear nothing more than a traditional white fundoshi, or loincloth. One particularly unusual ritual involves them chasing a fully naked man who has been specially selected for the event. What is this intended to accomplish? More... | |
| This Day in History | |
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 West German Chancellor Willy Brandt Resigns (1974)Brandt fled his native Germany for Norway after the rise of the Nazis in the 1930s. Returning after the war, he became involved in politics and, in 1969, was elected chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany. As chancellor, he greatly improved relations with East Germany, the Soviet Union, and Poland, and in 1971 he received the Nobel Peace Prize. In 1974, he was forced to resign after an embarrassing scandal in which one of his close aides was exposed as what? More... | |
| Today's Birthday | |
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 Robert Browning (1812)Browning was a leading Victorian poet known for his dramatic monologues. In 1846, he secretly married Elizabeth Barrett, whisking her away from her despotic father to Italy. Barrett was already a famous poet, but Browning's poems—such as "Fra Lippo Lippi" and "The Bishop Orders His Tomb"—gained recognition slowly. Long after his beloved wife's death, his novel in verse about a murder, The Ring and the Book, finally earned him wide acclaim. In 1890, he became the first dead man to do what? More... | |
| Quotation of the Day | |
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 Birth, n.: The first and direst of all disasters.Ambrose Bierce (1842-1914) | |
| Idiom of the Day | |
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not have two nickels to rub together— To be extremely poor; to have very little or no money to spend. Primarily heard in US. More... | |
| Today's Holiday | |
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 Birthday of Tagore (2025)This date commemorates the birth of Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941), the great poet, philosopher, social reformer, dramatist, and musician of Calcutta, India. In 1913, he was the first non-European to win the Nobel Prize for literature. Tagore's birthday is celebrated with a festival of his poetry, plays, music, and dance dramas. There are discussions at schools and universities of his ideas on education and philosophy, and screenings of films based on Tagore's short stories and novels made by filmmaker and Calcutta native, Satyajit Ray. More... | |
| Word Trivia | |
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Today's topic: intoxicatednappy - Describing a beer that has a head and is foaming—or a person who is slightly intoxicated. More... capernoited - Slightly intoxicated. More... groggy - From grog, "spirits mixed with water," it first meant "intoxicated." More... temulent, temulency - Temulent means drunken or intoxicated; temulency is intoxication. More... | |