Daily Content Archive
(as of Thursday, December 31, 2020)| Word of the Day | |||||||
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lather
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| Daily Grammar Lesson | |
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Using Idioms that End with PrepositionsIdioms that end with prepositions are typically phrasal verbs and consist of a verb followed by either a preposition, a particle, or a particle with a preposition. How is this type of prepositional idiom used in a sentence? More... | |
| Article of the Day | |
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 Sino-Roman RelationsIndirect contact between the Roman and Chinese empires began around the 2nd century BCE, when the Han Dynasty undertook westward expeditions and found other cultures. By 100 CE, Han ambassadors had tried to reach Rome itself. Ptolemy's Geographia, written circa 150 CE, contains references to China. In 166, Roman ambassadors finally made direct contact with China, and Roman soldiers are rumored to have settled there. Why did the Roman Senate try to prohibit the wearing of Chinese silk? More... | |
| This Day in History | |
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 Queen Victoria Chooses to Make Ottawa, Ontario, Canada's Capital (1857)First inhabited by indigenous tribes, the city that became Ottawa was founded as Bytown in 1827 by John By, an engineer in charge of construction of the Rideau Canal linking Lake Ontario and the Ottawa River. In the 1850s, the city was renamed Ottawa—after the Algonquian-speaking Ottawa tribe—when it fell into competition with major cities like Montreal and Toronto to be named capital of the Province of Canada, which comprised modern-day Ontario and Quebec. Why did Queen Victoria choose Ottawa? More... | |
| Today's Birthday | |
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 Jaime Alfonso Escalante Gutierrez (1930)The subject of the acclaimed 1988 film Stand and Deliver, Escalante was a math teacher who, with his unconventional teaching style, dedication, and complete faith in his students' potential, created a successful advanced placement—or college level—calculus program at a high school in a poor East Los Angeles neighborhood. In 1982, when 18 of his students received perfect or near-perfect scores on a national exam, they were accused of cheating. What happened when 12 retook the test? More... | |
| Quotation of the Day | |
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 Discretion of speech is more than eloquence, and to speak agreeably to him with whom we deal is more than to speak in good words, or in good order.Francis Bacon (1561-1626) | |
| Idiom of the Day | |
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not as black as (one) is painted— Not as evil, malicious, or malignant as one is described or believed to be. More... | |
| Today's Holiday | |
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 Ladouvane (2021)Ladouvane, or the Singing to Rings, is a Bulgarian fertility ritual. Traditionally, young girls drop their rings, together with oats and barley (symbols of fertility), into a cauldron of spring water. The rings are tied with a red thread to a bunch of ivy, crane's bill, basil, or some other perennial plant. Ritual dances are performed around the cauldron, and the girls' fortunes are told. In western Bulgaria, the Central Balkan Range, and along the Danube River, Ladouvane is observed on New Year's Eve. In the rest of the country, it is observed on Midsummer Day. More... | |
| Word Trivia | |
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Today's topic: problemslife coach - An advisor who helps people with problems, decisions, and goal attainment in daily life. More... empathy, sympathy - Empathy denotes a deep emotional understanding of another's feelings or problems, while sympathy is more general and can apply to small annoyances or setbacks. More... gravity - Comes from Latin gravitas, from gravis, "heavy, important"—and it can apply to situations and problems as well as to people. More... insoluble - Can be applied to problems that cannot be solved as well as substances that will not dissolve in liquids. More... | |