Daily Content Archive
(as of Thursday, August 14, 2025)| Word of the Day | |||||||
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exhalation
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| Daily Grammar Lesson | |
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Defining the Past Perfect Continuous TenseThe past perfect continuous tense (also called the "past perfect progressive tense") is used to describe an action that began and was still in progress in the past before another past action started. What do we usually use the present perfect continuous tense to emphasize? More... | |
| Article of the Day | |
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 Diyu: The Realm of the DeadElements from Taoism, Buddhism, and traditional Chinese folk religion are all incorporated in the Chinese concept of Diyu, a mythological realm of the dead. A purgatory of sorts, Diyu is a maze of underground levels and chambers where souls atone for their earthly sins and prepare for reincarnation. According to some legends, Diyu has 18 levels, each of which is reserved for specific categories of offenders. What are some of the punishments found in each level? More... | |
| This Day in History | |
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 British Troops Are Deployed in Northern Ireland (1969)In August 1969, tensions between Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland came to a head in the predominantly-Catholic Bogside neighborhood of Londonderry. For days, fighting raged with Catholic residents on one side and police and Protestant residents on the other. On August 14, British troops were deployed to restore order. Some consider that day to be the definitive beginning of the decades-long conflict known as The Troubles. How did residents react to the arrival of the army? More... | |
| Today's Birthday | |
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 Hans Christian Ørsted (1777)Ørsted was a Danish physicist and chemist. In 1820, he discovered that electric current passing through a wire can deflect a nearby compass needle, a phenomenon that inspired the development of electromagnetic theory. His 1820 discovery of piperine, one of the pungent components of pepper, was an important contribution to chemistry. In 1824, he founded a society devoted to the spread of scientific knowledge among the general public. What unit of measurement was named after him? More... | |
| Quotation of the Day | |
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 How does one kill fear, I wonder? How do you shoot a specter through the heart, slash off its spectral head, take it by its spectral throat?Joseph Conrad (1857-1924) | |
| Idiom of the Day | |
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say again— Could you please repeat what you just said? More... | |
| Today's Holiday | |
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 Torta dei Fieschi (2025)When Count Fieschi of Lavagna in Genoa, Italy, was married in 1240, he invited his guests—and everyone else in town—to share a cake that was more than 30 feet high. The citizens of Lavagna haven't forgotten his generosity, and each year they celebrate the event on August 14. Dressed in costumes, they parade to the town square, where they pin to their clothes a piece of paper (blue for men, white for women) on which a word is written. When they find someone wearing the same word, the couple is given a piece of "Fieschi's cake." More... | |
| Word Trivia | |
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Today's topic: scentbreath - From an Old English word meaning "scent, smell." More... flair - Comes from Latin fragrare, "smell sweet," and was first the ability to detect the "essence" or "scent" of something and know how to act accordingly. More... red herring - Something intended to be misleading or distracting, so named from the practice of using the scent of red herring in training hounds. More... relish - First meant "odor, scent," then "taste, flavor." More... | |
| Match Up | |
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| Mismatch | |
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