Daily Content Archive
(as of Tuesday, December 11, 2018)| Word of the Day | |||||||
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oscillate
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| Daily Grammar Lesson | |
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Defining the Future TenseGrammatically speaking, there are no future tenses in the English language; verbs do not inflect (conjugate) a certain way to reflect future actions. For that reason, we use different sentence constructions to achieve a future point of view. How is this is most often accomplished? More... | |
| Article of the Day | |
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_divers.jpg) Bomb DisposalBomb disposal is the process by which hazardous explosive devices are rendered safe in both military and civilian scenarios. It became a formalized practice during WWI, when the mass production of munitions led to a large proportion of "duds" being manufactured and fired. These unexploded ordnance were extremely hazardous, so units dedicated to their disposal were created. Today, bomb disposal technicians use remote-controlled robots to neutralize bombs from a distance. What is a "pigstick"? More... | |
| This Day in History | |
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 Last Manned Lunar Landing (1972)With the Apollo program drawing to a close, the astronauts of Apollo 17 knew that it would be some time before anyone returned to the Moon. Hours after the mission's launch, the astronauts snapped the famous "Blue Marble" photograph of a fully illuminated Earth. Days later, they landed on the Moon. On their three moonwalks, they explored miles of the Taurus-Littrow region, collected rock samples, and set up equipment for remote data collection. Who was the last person to walk on the Moon? More... | |
| Today's Birthday | |
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 Kamehameha V (1830)After Kamehameha V succeeded his brother as king of Hawaii in 1863, he tried to restore the old tribal ways. He proclaimed a new constitution that restored power to the monarch, weakened the legislature, and restricted suffrage. He even refused to allow the sale of alcohol. Under his reign, the influence of American missionaries waned rapidly. On his 42nd birthday, he died without an heir, bringing the Kamehameha dynasty to an end. How did Mark Twain describe the king during his stay in Hawaii? More... | |
| Quotation of the Day | |
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 "My country, right or wrong," is a thing that no patriot would think of saying except in a desperate case. It is like saying, "My mother, drunk or sober."Gilbert Chesterton (1874-1936) | |
| Idiom of the Day | |
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at a (single) stroke— All at once, with a single decisive or powerful action. More... | |
| Today's Holiday | |
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 First Night of Hanukkah (2020)Hanukkah commemorates the successful rebellion of the Jews against the Syrians in the Maccabean War of 162 BCE, but the military associations are played down. What is really being celebrated is the survival of Judaism. Jewish families today celebrate this holiday by lighting a special Hanukkah menorah, a candelabrum with holders for eight candles, one for each day of celebration, plus a ninth, the shammash, used to light the others. A special prayer is recited during the lighting, and while the candles burn it is a time for songs and games, including the four-sided toy called the dreidel. More... | |
| Word Trivia | |
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Today's topic: inhabitantinfernal - An inhabitant of the underworld can be called an infernal. More... sherpa - Literally means "inhabitant of an eastern country." More... aborigine - From Classical Latin meaning "ancestors," it was spelled with a capital A as the name of the primeval Romans; the first people called aborigines were the original inhabitants of Italy and Greece and aborigine was specifically applied to the inhabitants of a country ab origine, "from the beginning." More... sylvans - Natives or inhabitants of forests or woods. More... | |