Daily Content Archive
(as of Monday, September 28, 2020)| Word of the Day | |||||||
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presumptuous
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| Daily Grammar Lesson | |
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Placement of Focusing AdverbsFocusing adverbs are used to draw attention to a particular part of a clause. They can take the initial, middle, or final position in a sentence depending on what? More... | |
| Article of the Day | |
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 The FlâneurDerived from the French verb flâner, meaning "to stroll," a flâneur is one who walks without a destination. Refined by French poet Charles Baudelaire, the idea of the flâneur as a person who travels a city on foot in order to experience it has been embraced by thinkers in fields such as photography and urban planning. Disengaged yet aware, the flâneur wanders without any purpose except to observe without interacting. In Canadian French, what negative connotation does flâner carry? More... | |
| This Day in History | |
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 Norman Conquest of England Begins (1066)In 1066, King Edward the Confessor of England died childless. His cousin William of Normandy claimed that he had been promised the throne years earlier, yet Harold, duke of Wessex, was crowned instead. William then assembled a force of 5,000 knights and invaded. He was crowned less than three months later, following a swift and brutal conquest that had a profound and lasting effect on English life. When William landed at Pevensey on September 28, Harold's forces were busy elsewhere—doing what? More... | |
| Today's Birthday | |
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 Max Schmeling (1905)Schmeling was a German boxer who, in his greatest upset, knocked out future world heavyweight champion Joe Louis—then an unbeaten 22-year-old contender—in 1936. When they met again in a hugely hyped 1938 match, Louis knocked out Schmeling in the first round. The rivals later became fast friends. When Louis died in 1981, Schmeling helped pay for the funeral. Though lauded as an Aryan idol in Germany, Schmeling was neither political nor racist. How did he save two Jewish children from the Nazis? More... | |
| Quotation of the Day | |
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 Adopt the pace of nature: her secret is patience.Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) | |
| Idiom of the Day | |
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ice maiden— pejorative A coolly composed, unemotional woman; a woman without affection or warmth of feeling. More... | |
| Today's Holiday | |
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 Yom Kippur (2020)Also known as the Day of Atonement, Yom Kippur is the holiest and most solemn day in the Jewish calendar, and the last of the 10 High Holy Days. On this day, Jews acknowledge transgressions, repent through confession, then make atonement to God to obtain his forgiveness, with the hope of being inscribed in the Book of Life. Yom Kippur is a strict day of fasting; not even water may be taken from sundown to sundown. It is also a day of reconciliation for those who have done each other harm during the past year. It is the only fast day that is not postponed if it falls on the Sabbath. More... | |
| Word Trivia | |
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Today's topic: technicalspod - A studious person who is quite socially inept or dull or a person who pursues an unfashionable, technical, or esoteric interest with obsessive dedication. More... masterpiece - Originally, it was used in a technical or academic sense to apply to a work that was presented to a medieval guild for qualification as a "master." More... technical, technic - Technical is based on technic, an adjective meaning "pertaining to art," from Greek tekhne, "art." More... technicize - To make technical. More... | |