Daily Content Archive
(as of Saturday, September 26, 2020)| Word of the Day | |||||||
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asinine
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| Daily Grammar Lesson | |
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Defining the Present Continuous TenseWe create the present continuous tense by using the present participle ("-ing" form) of the verb after the present-tense form of the auxiliary verb "be." We use the present continuous (also called the "present progressive") tense to speak about actions that are currently happening, whether generally or at the exact moment of speech. What else can it be used to describe? More... | |
| Article of the Day | |
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 The Battle of ValmyThe French Revolutionary Wars were a series of military conflicts that took place both during and after the French Revolution. They began as an effort to defend the Revolution from outsiders but became wars of conquest. The first important engagement of these wars was the Battle of Valmy, a Franco-Prussian artillery skirmish fought in 1792. Though inconclusive, it revealed the superiority of French artillery. What battle cry, taken up by the French, may have weakened the Prussian troops' morale? More... | |
| This Day in History | |
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 Steamship RMS Queen Mary Is Launched (1934)Construction on the Queen Mary ocean liner began in Scotland in 1930. In 1934, British King George V's consort, Queen Mary, christened the ship in her own name. Operated by the Cunard Line, the glamorous luxury ship carried passengers between New York and England for decades—except during World War II, when it was painted grey and converted to carry troops. In the 1960s, air travel rendered transatlantic passenger ships obsolete, and the Queen Mary was retired. Where is it now? More... | |
| Today's Birthday | |
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 Thomas Stearns "T. S." Eliot (1888)Eliot was an American-British poet and critic and an immensely distinguished literary figure who, from the 1920s on, was the most influential English-language modernist poet. His early poems, such as "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" and "The Waste Land," express the anguish and barrenness of modern life and the isolation of the individual. In his later poetry, he turned from spiritual desolation to hope for human salvation. What book by Eliot is the basis for the musical Cats? More... | |
| Quotation of the Day | |
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 We are, and must be, one and all, burdened with faults in this world: but the time will soon come when, I trust, we shall put them off in putting off our corruptible bodies; when debasement and sin will fall from us with this cumbrous frame of flesh, and only the spark of the spirit will remain.Charlotte Bronte (1816-1855) | |
| Idiom of the Day | |
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spit (out) the dummy— To have a childish overreaction or angry outburst to a negative situation or outcome; to act in a bad-tempered manner, likened to a temper tantrum of a child. "Dummy" here refers to a plastic teat used to soothe teething infants (also called a "pacifier" in the U.S. or a "soother" elsewhere), which they may spit when in the middle of a tantrum. Primarily heard in Australia. More... | |
| Today's Holiday | |
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 Birthday of Johnny Appleseed (2025)John Chapman—better known as Johnny Appleseed for his lifelong dedication to planting apple seedlings all over the American Midwest—was born on this day in 1774. While some frontier settlers thought he was a saint, or at the very least a religious fanatic, with his tin pot hat and coffee-sack tunic, the Native Americans regarded him as a great medicine man since he planted herbs as well as apples. More... | |
| Word Trivia | |
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Today's topic: slantwine cradle - A basket (etc.) used to hold wine at a slant. More... slant - A variant of slent, an older word. More... slash - The slash is also called a virgule, diagonal, separatrix, slant, and solidus. More... tilt - Originally meant "fall over," from Germanic taltaz, "unsteady," long before it meant "slant." More... | |