Daily Content Archive
(as of Friday, July 14, 2023)| Word of the Day | |||||||
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myelinated
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| Daily Grammar Lesson | |
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Attributive vs. Predicative AdjectivesWhile most adjectives can occur either as attributive adjectives or predicative adjectives, there are certain adjectives that can only occur predicatively. What are some examples? More... | |
| Article of the Day | |
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 ConchsConchs are marine gastropod mollusks with heavy, spiral shells with overlapping whorls. Unlike other gastropods, which crawl, conchs move by jumping. Most conchs are carnivorous, feeding on bivalve mollusks. Their shells are used for carving cameos in Europe and are sometimes made into crude instruments by removing the small tip of the shell to form a mouthpiece. In popular folklore, it is believed that the ocean can be heard if one holds an open conch shell to the ear. How does it work? More... | |
| This Day in History | |
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 The Storming of the Bastille (1789)The Bastille was a 14th-century fortress and a notorious state prison in Paris. In 1789, an angry mob stormed the prison, freeing the political prisoners held in the edifice that had come to symbolize the French monarchy's oppression of the people. The assault launched the French Revolution. Although the building itself was razed a year later, the Bastille became a symbol of French independence, and July 14th became a national holiday. How many prisoners were in the Bastille when it was stormed? More... | |
| Today's Birthday | |
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 Owen Wister (1860)Wister was an American author who is best remembered for his contributions to western fiction. A well-to-do Harvard graduate, he suffered from ill health and summered in the American West, where he gained much inspiration for his writings. His popular 1902 novel The Virginian is regarded as the first western. It tells the tale of a cattle rancher who depends on a harsh code of ethics, and it helped establish the cowboy as an American folk hero. To whom is the book dedicated? More... | |
| Quotation of the Day | |
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 She was no longer wrestling with the grief, but could sit down with it as a lasting companion and make it a sharer in her thoughts.George Eliot (1819-1880) | |
| Idiom of the Day | |
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open (one's) big mouth— To say something that is meant to be a secret; to say something in an indiscreet, noisy, or boorish manner. More... | |
| Today's Holiday | |
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 Tekakwitha Feast Day (2025)The first Native American to be beatified, Kateri Tekakwitha (1656-1680) is a venerated figure among both Catholics and Native Americans. Catholic churches hold mass on her feast day, during which congregants may offer prayers to God through her intercession. Among the North American churches and shrines, sites that have noteworthy feast day celebrations are the National Kateri Shrine in Fonda, New York, where she first encountered Christianity, and the Kateri Center at the Saint Francis-Xavier Mission at Kahnawake, Quebec, where she lived following her conversion. More... | |
| Word Trivia | |
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Today's topic: taxexcise - As in tax, it is from Middle Dutch excijs, from Latin accensum, "to tax." More... tax - From Latin taxare, "censure, charge, or compute." More... toll - Traces back to Greek telos, "tax." More... disposable income, surplus income - Disposable income or surplus income is what you have left after taxes and other government obligations—i.e. what you have left to live on. More... | |