Daily Content Archive
(as of Friday, February 22, 2019)| Word of the Day | |||||||
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belly-up
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| Daily Grammar Lesson | |
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ObjectsGrammatical objects are nouns or pronouns that complete the meaning of verbs and prepositions. What is an indirect object? More... | |
| Article of the Day | |
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 The ManananggalThe manananggal is a mythical creature of Filipino folklore usually described as an older woman capable of severing her upper body from her lower half and then taking flight with huge bat-like wings. The creature is said to hunt at night, sucking the blood of its unsuspecting victims with its proboscis-like tongue. Like vampires, the manananggal detests garlic, and smearing it on its lower body while the upper part is away will result in the creature's death. How does one become a manananggal? More... | |
| This Day in History | |
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 Adams-Onís Treaty: Spain Sells Florida to the US (1819)In the early 1800s, tensions between the US and Spain were increasing over border disputes in North America. With Spanish power in the New World declining, it was widely believed that Spain would lose land to the US. The Adams-Onís Treaty settled the dispute by attempting to draw clearer borders, roughly granting Florida and Louisiana to the US while giving everything west of Louisiana to Spain. The US did not pay Spain directly for the new land. Instead, it compensated Spain in what way? More... | |
| Today's Birthday | |
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.png) Robert Stephenson Smyth Baden-Powell (1857)Powell was a British army officer and founder of the Boy Scouts and Girl Guides, later the Girl Scouts. He was a hero of the South African War and author of Aids to Scouting, a military textbook. Upon learning that his book was being used to train boys in woodcraft, he wrote Scouting for Boys and established the Boy Scout movement in 1908. In 1910, with his sister and wife, he founded the Girl Guides. What disguise did Powell use while gathering information in war? More... | |
| Quotation of the Day | |
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 It wasn't until late in life that I discovered how easy it is to say "I don't know."W. Somerset Maugham (1874-1965) | |
| Idiom of the Day | |
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hand (something) to (someone) on a plate— To give or relinquish something to someone very easily, without him or her having to work very hard to get or achieve it. More... | |
| Today's Holiday | |
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 Abu Simbel Festival (2020)This festival celebrates the two days of the year on which the light of the rising sun can reach the 180-foot-deep innermost chambers of Abu Simbel, the great temple of Ramesses II, in Egypt. The temple was designed so that only on these two days in February and October does the sun shine on three of the four gods in the sanctuary: Amen-Re, Ramses, and Re-Horakhty. It is thought that there must have been ritual celebrations in ancient times on the days when the sun penetrated the sanctuary. Today, television covers the event, and people gather to see the sunrise and to meditate. More... | |
| Word Trivia | |
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Today's topic: rampartboulevard - From French, literally "rampart" or a "promenade on the site of a rampart." More... bulwark - Comes from German bole, "plank," and werc, "work," and originally meant "rampart made out of planks or tree trunks." More... rampart - From Latin re-, "again," and emparer, "fortify," from the earlier ante-, "before," and parare, "prepare." More... | |