Daily Content Archive
(as of Monday, September 13, 2021)| Word of the Day | |||||||
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truant
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| Daily Grammar Lesson | |
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Function of Reciprocal PronounsReciprocal pronouns are used to refer to two or more people who are or were the subject of the same verb, with both or all parties mutually receiving or benefiting from that action in the same way. How do reciprocal pronouns always function in a sentence? More... | |
| Article of the Day | |
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 The Valley of Ten Thousand SmokesThe Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes is a volcanic region in Alaska's Katmai National Park that was formed when the Novarupta volcano erupted in 1912. All plant and animal life in the remote region was destroyed by the eruption, which was the largest of the 20th century by volume. Ash and rock fragments filled a valley adjacent to the volcano, and hot gases were emitted through countless cracks in the surface, giving the area its nickname. Does smoke still escape from the cracks today? More... | |
| This Day in History | |
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 Oslo Accords Officially Signed (1993)The Oslo Accords, providing for the withdrawal of Israeli troops from the West Bank and Gaza and for limited Palestinian self-government, resulted from the first direct negotiation between Israel and the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO). Though talks were conducted in secret in Oslo, Norway, the agreement was signed publicly in Washington, DC. It was signed in the presence of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and PLO leader Yasser Arafat, yet neither signed it. Who did? More... | |
| Today's Birthday | |
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 Walter Reed (1851)Reed was an American army doctor, pathologist, and bacteriologist. He began studying the transmission of yellow fever in 1897. Three years later, he was sent to Havana, Cuba, as head of an army commission to investigate an outbreak of the disease among American soldiers. He proved that yellow fever was spread by infected mosquitoes, and, in 1901, efforts to combat an outbreak in Havana succeeded within 90 days. Walter Reed Army Hospital is named in his honor. What medical malady killed Reed? More... | |
| Quotation of the Day | |
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 In our nature, however, there is a provision, alike marvelous and merciful, that the sufferer should never know the intensity of what he endures by its present torture, but chiefly by the pang that rankles after it.Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804-1864) | |
| Idiom of the Day | |
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shifty-looking— Having or of an untrustworthy, dubious, or deceptive appearance. More... | |
| Today's Holiday | |
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 Pendleton Round-Up and Happy Canyon Night Show (2025)The Pendleton Round-Up is one of the best-known rodeos in the West, held since 1910 in the small ranch town of Pendleton, Oregon. Happy Canyon was inaugurated four years later and evolved into the present-day Happy Canyon Pageant, a presentation by Northwest Indian tribes that features a teepee encampment and ceremonial dancing. In between, the rodeo features the standard competitions—bronco riding, bull riding, steer wrestling, and calf and steer roping. Additionally, there are wild horse and stagecoach races and wild-cow milking. More... | |
| Word Trivia | |
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Today's topic: tuneaccordion, concertina - Accordion derives from Italian accordare, "to tune," and both it and the concertina operate on the same basic principle; however, the accordion has a pianolike keyboard and is rectangular and bulky, while the concertina has buttons in headboards and is hexagonal and more portable. More... carol - A term which originally referred to a non-religious ring dance accompanied by singing. Eventually it came to mean a merry song with a tune that could be danced to. The Italian friars who lived with St. Francis of Assisi were the first to compose Christmas carols, c. 1410. More... lilt - Comes from a word meaning "pipe," and the noun originally meant "song, tune." More... perseveration - The recurrence of a tune or thought in the mind. More... | |