Daily Content Archive
(as of Tuesday, November 1, 2022)| Word of the Day | |||||||
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confluence
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| Daily Grammar Lesson | |
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Converting the Active Voice into the Passive VoiceThe passive voice is a type of grammatical voice in which the subject is acted upon by the verb. What must be present for a sentence to be converted from the active voice into the passive voice? More... | |
| Article of the Day | |
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 Seattle's Space NeedleAt 605 feet (184 m) tall, the Space Needle is the most recognizable landmark in Seattle, Washington. The tower was built for the 1962 World's Fair and now boasts a rotating restaurant, a gift shop, and an observation deck, which afford views of the Cascade Mountains, Mount Rainier, and Elliott Bay. The tower can withstand winds of up to 200 mph (322 km/h) and earthquakes up to 9.1 in magnitude. It also has 25 lightning rods. What two design concepts inspired the structure's unique architecture? More... | |
| This Day in History | |
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 Shakespeare's Othello Performed for the First Time (1604)First performed at London's Whitehall Palace, Shakespeare's Othello—a timeless story of jealousy, betrayal, and racism—is still studied and debated today. The play is likely an adaptation of a short story by Italian writer Cinthio called "Un Capitano Moro" and may have been inspired by certain events of the day—such as the arrival of a Moorish delegation in London in 1600. In Shakespeare's tale, the protagonist strangles his wife, but in Cinthio's story, she is killed in what brutal way? More... | |
| Today's Birthday | |
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 Grantland Rice (1880)Born in Tennessee, Rice began his career as a reporter with the Nashville News in 1901 before moving to New York. There, he became known as the "Dean of American Sportswriters." For decades, he was in charge of selecting the All-American football team for Collier's magazine. In his widely syndicated column, "The Sportlight," Rice coined some of sports' most memorable phrases. What famous quote about winning and losing is derived from one of Rice's poems? More... | |
| Quotation of the Day | |
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 Our happiness depends on wisdom all the way.Sophocles (496 BC-406 BC) | |
| Idiom of the Day | |
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a cat nap— A very brief but restful period of sleep. More... | |
| Today's Holiday | |
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 Samhain (2023)This ancient Celtic harvest festival was celebrated at the beginning of winter. According to Celtic folklore, this was the day when the souls of the dead and other supernatural entities gathered and would have access to the human realm—thus giving rise to the fears about ghosts and goblins that we now associate with Halloween, or Samhain Eve. More... | |
| Word Trivia | |
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Today's topic: inhabitantinfernal - An inhabitant of the underworld can be called an infernal. More... sherpa - Literally means "inhabitant of an eastern country." More... aborigine - From Classical Latin meaning "ancestors," it was spelled with a capital A as the name of the primeval Romans; the first people called aborigines were the original inhabitants of Italy and Greece and aborigine was specifically applied to the inhabitants of a country ab origine, "from the beginning." More... sylvans - Natives or inhabitants of forests or woods. More... | |