Daily Content Archive
(as of Friday, August 7, 2020)| Word of the Day | |||||||
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embolden
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| Daily Grammar Lesson | |
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CommasCommas are used to connect two or more elements in a sentence, but the way in which they do this varies widely, depending on what these elements are. What is a comma splice? More... | |
| Article of the Day | |
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 The Three Gorges DamThe largest hydroelectric dam in the world, China's Three Gorges Dam stretches 1.4 miles (2.3 km) across the Yangtze River. Begun in 1993 and largely completed by 2006, the controversial project displaced more than a million people and inundated huge tracts of land. However, it increased the river's shipping capacity, reduced the threat of flooding, and will eventually generate nearly 85 billion kilowatts a year. How much electricity will the dam have to generate to recoup building costs? More... | |
| This Day in History | |
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 Thor Heyerdahl Lands in Polynesia (1947)Heyerdahl was a Norwegian adventurer with a passion for cultural anthropology. After a trip to Polynesia convinced him that Polynesian culture bore traces of South American cultures, he built a raft—the Kon-Tiki—and sailed it from South America to Polynesia to demonstrate the possibility of such contact. While his book about the voyage was an international bestseller, anthropologists have largely dismissed his theories. Why did he deliberately burn his ship during a 1978 expedition? More... | |
| Today's Birthday | |
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 John Heathcoat (1783)Heathcoat was not the first person to invent a lacemaking machine, but his apparatus was the first to produce an exact imitation of handmade pillow lace. Patented in 1809, it was the most complex textile machine then in existence. Heathcoat decided to capitalize on his invention by opening a lace mill, but textile workers, angry that they were being replaced by machines, attacked and destroyed it in 1816. Undeterred, he opened a new mill elsewhere. What happened to the steam plough he invented? More... | |
| Quotation of the Day | |
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 Every man is as heaven made him, and sometimes a great deal worse.Miguel de Cervantes (1547-1616) | |
| Idiom of the Day | |
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without letup— Without slowing down or stopping. More... | |
| Today's Holiday | |
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 Colombia Battle of Boyacá Day (2022)Colombia, known as New Granada in the early part of the 19th century, was then ruled by Spain. Simón Bolívar, the leader of the independence movement in South America, began a military campaign to liberate Colombia in 1817. He achieved a major victory at the Battle of Boyacá on August 7, 1819, when he surprised the Spanish forces crossing a bridge and routed them. Colombians celebrate this national holiday with parades and festivals throughout the country. Ceremonies take place at the cemeteries where the fallen soldiers of the battle are buried. More... | |
| Word Trivia | |
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Today's topic: tableswaitron - A person, male or female, who waits on tables at a restaurant. More... backgammon - Appears to literally mean "back game," and was first called tables; gammon is the ancestor of game. More... busboy - A person who clears the dirty dishes from diners' tables, so called from his "bus" or trolley. More... turn the tables - May come from backgammon, as the game itself was once called tables, and the two halves of the playing board are still called tables. More... | |