Daily Content Archive
(as of Friday, November 19, 2021)| Word of the Day | |||||||
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lucid
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| Daily Grammar Lesson | |
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Reporting the NegativeWhen we tell other people what someone else told us, it is called "indirect speech" or "reported speech." When we are reporting negative information, how do we know where to put the negating "not" or "never"? More... | |
| Article of the Day | |
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 DiegesisWriting teachers often begin with one simple instruction: "Show, don't tell." Plato and Aristotle explored the same concept, but used the terms "diegesis"—which equates to telling—and "mimesis," a form of showing. In diegetic texts, the narrator explicitly relays action to the reader, while mimetic texts draw the reader into the characters' world. Diegesis functions differently in films. The world that characters explore is considered diegetic. What aspects of films are deemed non-diegetic? More... | |
| This Day in History | |
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 Operation Uranus Begins (1942)In the summer of 1941, a wave of German forces swept into the Soviet Union and proceeded to conquer a vast amount of territory. Stopped at Stalingrad, the Germans became mired in one of the most significant battles of WWII and were ill-prepared for the deteriorating Soviet weather. The enormous Soviet counteroffensive, code-named Operation Uranus, overwhelmed them. Within days, their entire force at Stalingrad was encircled. What nearly delayed the artillery bombardment that began the offensive? More... | |
| Today's Birthday | |
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 Mikhail Vasilyevich Lomonosov (1711)With an extraordinarily broad education, Lomonosov became a prominent figure of 18th-century Russia in many capacities. He was a poet, a language reformer, a chemistry professor, and founder of Moscow State University. He created the first colored-glass mosaics in Russia. He designed a telescope and hypothesized the presence of an atmosphere on Venus. He cataloged more than 3,000 minerals and explained the origin of icebergs. His experiments in physics contradicted what commonly accepted theory? More... | |
| Quotation of the Day | |
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 At the gates of the forest, the surprised man of the world is forced to leave his city estimates of great and small, wise and foolish ... Here is sanctity which shames our religions, and reality which discredits our heroes.Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) | |
| Idiom of the Day | |
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ride the pine— In sports (especially baseball), to remain sitting on the bench, rather than be an active participant in the game. Primarily heard in US. More... | |
| Today's Holiday | |
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 Equal Opportunity Day (2025)At the dedication of the Gettysburg National Cemetery in southern Pennsylvania on November 19, 1863, President Abraham Lincoln delivered the Gettysburg Address. This 270-word speech is considered one of the greatest in American history. Equal Opportunity Day is observed at Gettysburg National Cemetery each year, where ceremonies commemorating Lincoln's address are held under the sponsorship of the Sons of Union Veterans and the Lincoln Fellowship of Pennsylvania. Sometimes, this day is referred to as "Gettysburg Address Day." More... | |
| Word Trivia | |
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Today's topic: mineraldiamond - Developed from adamant—the name of the hardest stone or mineral of ancient times—from Latin adamans, from Greek adamas, "invincible" (a-, "not," and daman, "to tame"). More... Formica - Got its name from being created as a substitute "for mica," a mineral. More... mineral - Etymologically "something obtained by mining," from Latin minera, "ore." More... snow - Technically a mineral, it is Teutonic in origin, from an Indo-European root shared by the Latin words niv-/nix and Greek nipha; the spelling snow first appeared in English around 1200. More... | |