Daily Content Archive
(as of Wednesday, July 25, 2018)| Word of the Day | |||||||
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peddle
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| Daily Grammar Lesson | |
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"It" as a Dummy PronounJust like the dummy pronoun "there," "it" is also used as a pronoun without an antecedent in sentences. "It" is commonly used as a dummy pronoun in discussions of what three topics? More... | |
| Article of the Day | |
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 Albanian Sworn VirginsIn parts of northern Albania, families follow a code of ethics called Kanun. This code allows women to take a vow to remain virgins for life. In return, they are treated as men in society. Once the vow is taken, Albanian sworn virgins dress like men, do traditional men's work, and are even referred to with masculine pronouns. Women who take the vow are said to do so for various reasons, including to avoid an arranged marriage. Can the decision be revoked? More... | |
| This Day in History | |
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 Svetlana Savitskaya Becomes the First Woman to Perform a Spacewalk (1984)Savitskaya is a former Soviet female aviator and cosmonaut who flew aboard Soyuz T-7 in 1982, becoming the second woman in space some 19 years after Valentina Tereshkova. She logged nearly 20 days in space during her career, including three and a half hours spent outside the Salyut 7 space station in 1984, when she became the first woman to perform a spacewalk. Before becoming a cosmonaut, she was a test and sport pilot and a parachutist. What world records did she set? More... | |
| Today's Birthday | |
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 Louise Brown (1978)Brown was the first baby to be conceived by in vitro fertilization (IVF), a procedure used to overcome infertility in which a woman's eggs are removed, fertilized with sperm outside the body, and then inserted into the uterus. Now a commonplace procedure, IVF was developed in the 1970s by British medical researchers Patrick Steptoe and Robert Edwards and was subject to much criticism before Brown's birth. Who was the first woman conceived through IVF to give birth naturally to a baby of her own? More... | |
| Quotation of the Day | |
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 Most of the luxuries, and many of the so-called comforts of life, are not only not indispensable, but positive hindrances to the elevation of mankind.Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862) | |
| Idiom of the Day | |
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inopportune moment— An unfortunate or inconvenient moment in time. More... | |
| Today's Holiday | |
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 Festivities for the Day of National Rebellion (2019)This three-day national holiday in Cuba commemorates an attack that took place on July 26, 1953, when rebel forces led by Fidel Castro struck the Moncada army barracks in Santiago de Cuba. It is remembered as the beginning of the rebellion that ousted the dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista in 1959. The holiday is an occasion for displays of national pride and mass rallies. Crowds of 100,000 are common in Havana, where a carnival, live music, singing, dancing and flag waving mark the occasion. Santiago de Cuba also has a large carnival, and other cities host celebrations as well. More... | |
| Word Trivia | |
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Today's topic: saddleapishamore - A blanket used under a saddle. More... col - A saddle between two mountain peaks, from Latin collum, "neck." More... caparison - A cloth or covering spread over the saddle or harness of a horse, often ornamented; this word can also mean "housings, trappings." More... larigos - The rings on a saddle through which the straps pass. More... | |