Daily Content Archive
(as of Wednesday, April 22, 2020)| Word of the Day | |||||||
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purchasable
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| Daily Grammar Lesson | |
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Stative VerbsStative verbs (also known as state verbs) are verbs that describe a static condition, situation, or state of being. They are contrasted with action verbs. What forms of verb tenses generally are not formed with stative verbs? More... | |
| Article of the Day | |
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 The Zanj RebellionAt the height of the Abbasid Empire, thousands of East Africans, known as Zanj, were transported as slaves to work in the salt marshes near the town of Basra, in what is now southern Iraq. Led by Ali ibn Muhammad, the exploited Zanj—free and enslaved alike—rebelled in 869 CE. They successfully raided towns and villages and even expanded north and established a capital. It took 15 years for the Abbasids to suppress the revolt, in part because they were also struggling with what other group? More... | |
| This Day in History | |
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 SWAT Team Retrieves Elián González from Relatives in Miami (2000)In late 1999, 5-year-old Elián González and his mother left Cuba on a boat with a dozen other people seeking asylum in the US. Elián's mother and several others died during the voyage, and Elián was found on an inner tube by fishermen off the coast of Florida. He was released into the custody of his uncle in Miami, but his father in Cuba pressed for his return. The custody dispute ended in an armed raid on the Miami house, and Elián returned to Cuba with his father. What has he said since? More... | |
| Today's Birthday | |
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 Rita Levi-Montalcini (1909)A dual citizen of Italy and the US, Levi-Montalcini did her most important work with American biochemist Stanley Cohen. Studying mouse tumors implanted in chicken embryos, the pair isolated a nerve-growth factor in 1952, the first of many cell-growth factors found in animals. For this discovery, they were awarded the 1986 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. In 2001, she was made a "senator for life" in the Italian senate. In what unusual place did Levi-Montalcini build her first laboratory? More... | |
| Quotation of the Day | |
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 Girls are so queer you never know what they mean. They say No when they mean Yes, and drive a man out of his wits for the fun of it.Louisa May Alcott (1832-1888) | |
| Idiom of the Day | |
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brain surgery— A task requiring extreme intelligence, skill, or competence, usually used in a negative or rhetorical manner to indicate the opposite. More... | |
| Today's Holiday | |
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 Earth Day (2021)The first Earth Day was observed on April 22, 1970, to draw public attention to the need for cleaning up the Earth's air and water and for conserving our natural resources. Earth Day is now observed regularly throughout the United States and in many other countries. Typical ways of celebrating Earth Day include planting trees, picking up roadside trash, and conducting various programs for recycling and conservation. Schoolchildren may be asked to use only recyclable containers for their snacks and lunches, and families often try to give up wasteful habits. More... | |
| Word Trivia | |
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Today's topic: storehousemagazine - Considered a "storehouse" for articles; the word comes from Arabic makhzan, "storehouse," and was first used in book titles presenting a "store" of information about specific topics. More... ambry - Another word for a treasury, storehouse, place to keep things. More... garner - Originally a storehouse or granary. More... thesaurus - Comes from Greek thesauros, meaning "storehouse, treasury," and its original sense was "dictionary or encyclopedia," but this was narrowed to the current meaning with the appearance of Roget's in 1852. More... | |