Daily Content Archive
(as of Monday, April 26, 2021)| Word of the Day | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
levelheaded
| |||||||
| Daily Grammar Lesson | |
|---|---|
Subjunctive MoodThe subjunctive mood refers to verbs that are used to describe hypothetical or non-real actions, events, or situations. What is the subjective mood most commonly used to express? More... | |
| Article of the Day | |
|---|---|
 SimoomIn his Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, James Joyce describes the protagonist's heart as having "withered up like a flower of the desert that feels the simoom coming from afar." A simoom is a strong, dry, dust-laden wind that blows in the deserts of Arabia and North Africa. True to Joyce's simile, a simoom is the epitome of hot and dry—its temperature may exceed 130°F (54°C), and its humidity level may fall below 10 percent. "Simoom" comes from an Arabic word meaning what? More... | |
| This Day in History | |
|---|---|
 Nuclear Reactor at Chernobyl Plant Explodes (1986)The accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant is regarded as the worst nuclear accident in history. Radioactive debris from the disaster drifted across parts of the western Soviet Union and Europe. Large areas of Ukraine, Belarus, and Russia were badly contaminated, resulting in the resettlement of hundreds of thousands of people and a disputed number of deaths. The incident set off an international outcry over the dangers posed by radioactive emissions. What caused the accident? More... | |
| Today's Birthday | |
|---|---|
 Charles Richter (1900)Richter was an American seismologist best known for creating the Richter scale, which quantifies the magnitude of earthquakes by assigning each quake a single number based on the measurement of seismic waves. The scale is logarithmic, meaning that each increase of one unit represents a 10-fold increase in the amplitude of the waves. Though the scale has no theoretical upper limit, the most severe quakes have not exceeded a scale value of 9. What earthquake measurement method succeeded Richter's? More... | |
| Quotation of the Day | |
|---|---|
 Time has laid his healing hand upon the wound when we can look back upon the pain we once fainted under and no bitterness or despair rises in our hearts.Jerome K. Jerome (1859-1927) | |
| Idiom of the Day | |
|---|---|
set (someone or something) loose— To make free or give up control of something or someone; to release or discharge something or someone, as from confinement. More... | |
| Today's Holiday | |
|---|---|
 John Audubon Day (2022)John James Audubon (1785-1851) was America's foremost ornithological illustrator. After his death in 1851, Audubon's wife Lucy returned to teaching to support herself. One of her students, George Bird Grinnell, in 1886 organized the Audubon Society for the study and protection of birds. Today there are many branches of this organization, known as the National Audubon Society, and its members honor Audubon on his birthday, April 26. In some states, Audubon Day and Arbor Day are celebrated together by planting trees in bird sanctuaries. More... | |
| Word Trivia | |
|---|---|
Today's topic: variegatedchintz - Comes from the plural of Hindi chint, a printed Indian calico, from earlier Sanskrit chitra, "variegated." More... moire - Having a variegated or clouded appearance, like that of watered silk. More... variegated - Can mean "having variety in character, form, etc." More... vary - From Latin varius, "speckled, variegated; changeable." More... | |