Daily Content Archive
(as of Monday, July 7, 2025)| Word of the Day | |||||||
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backfire
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| Daily Grammar Lesson | |
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Adverbs of Degree with Gradable vs. Non-Gradable AdjectivesGradable adjectives are those that can have measurable levels of degree or intensity. Non-gradable adjectives, on the other hand, describe an extreme or absolute state. How are they paired with gradable and non-gradable adverbs? More... | |
| Article of the Day | |
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 Buddhas of BamyanOnce the largest examples of standing Buddha carvings in the world, the Buddhas of Bamyan were two monumental statues carved into the side of a cliff in Afghanistan's Bamyan Valley. Built during the 6th century, the statues were destroyed in 2001 by the Islamist Taliban government, which decreed that the figures were idolatrous and bombarded them with dynamite and tank barrages for nearly a month. The Afghan government has since proposed that the statues be recreated using what technologies? More... | |
| This Day in History | |
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 Samantha Smith Visits the Soviet Union (1983)In 1982, Samantha Smith, a 10-year-old American girl, wrote a letter to the newly elected leader of the USSR, Yuri Andropov, asking if he intended to start a war. Andropov replied personally. Expressing a desire for lasting peace with the US, he invited Smith to visit. The following July, she and her parents spent two weeks in the USSR amidst a media frenzy that hailed her as a goodwill ambassador. After her death in a plane crash two years later, she was honored by both nations in what ways? More... | |
| Today's Birthday | |
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 Gustav Mahler (1860)Mahler was an Austrian composer and conductor. After studying in Vienna, he conducted at numerous prominent opera houses where his high standards became legendary, but his refusal to compromise aroused intense personal opposition. He composed in his free time, mostly during the summer, and completed nine symphonies in his lifetime. The biggest success of his career—the 1910 premiere of his eighth symphony—was overshadowed by Mahler's discovery of his wife's affair with what famous architect? More... | |
| Quotation of the Day | |
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 The first duty of a lecturer—to hand you after an hour's discourse a nugget of pure truth to wrap up between the pages of your notebooks, and keep on the mantelpiece forever.Virginia Woolf (1882-1941) | |
| Idiom of the Day | |
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on the gravy train— In a state, position, or job where one makes an excessive amount of money without expending much or any effort. More... | |
| Today's Holiday | |
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 Calgary Stampede (2025)The 10-day Calgary Stampede is Canada's largest rodeo event, offering a world-class rodeo competition in saddle bronc and bareback riding, steer wrestling, calf roping, and bull riding, as well as a chuck wagon race that carries a $175,000 prize. Most of the rodeo events are held in the 130-acre Stampede Park in downtown Calgary, but there's also a Wild West town called Weadickville (named for Guy Weadick, who founded the event in 1912), an Indian Village populated by representatives of five Indian tribes from the nearby Plains, a Frontier Casino, and agricultural and livestock exhibits. More... | |
| Word Trivia | |
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Today's topic: steer | |