Daily Content Archive
(as of Thursday, December 6, 2018)| Word of the Day | |||||||
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wirework
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| Daily Grammar Lesson | |
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Reflexive PronounsAlthough not technically considered personal pronouns, reflexive pronouns are very similar in form and use. When are reflexive pronouns used? More... | |
| Article of the Day | |
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 A Fish Out of WaterFound in coastal waters of the Indian and Pacific oceans, mudskippers are fish adapted for remaining on dry land when the tide goes out on the mud flats and brackish mangrove swamps where they live. While mudskippers have no special air-breathing organs, they are able to absorb oxygen through the skin and gill chambers as long as these remain moist. When out of water, they use the fleshy bases of their pectoral fins for propulsion on the ground. What other adaptations do mudskippers have? More... | |
| This Day in History | |
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 13th Amendment to US Constitution is Ratified (1865)The 13th Amendment to the US Constitution completed the process of abolishing slavery, which had begun with Abraham Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation of 1863. Between February 1 and December 6 of 1865, the required three-fourths of the existing states—then 27 of 36—ratified the proposed amendment, making it law. Slavery offenses were still being prosecuted as recently as 1947. Which of the states that initially rejected the amendment finally ratified it in 2013, 147 years after it was adopted? More... | |
| Today's Birthday | |
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.jpg) Henry VI of England (1421)Henry VI became king of England when he was not yet nine months old. That same year, the English proclaimed the infant the successor to the French throne, but France did not recognize this. The young monarch grew up to be a mild, honest, and pious man, a patron of literature and the arts. He was, however, also mentally unstable, weak-willed, and politically naive, and this created a power vacuum that his overly powerful ministers vied to fill, eventually resulting in what decades-long conflict? More... | |
| Quotation of the Day | |
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 One man cannot hold another man down in the ditch without remaining down in the ditch with him.Booker T. Washington (1856-1915) | |
| Idiom of the Day | |
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live paycheck to paycheck— To spend all of the money one earns by or before the next time one is paid, thus saving none or very little in the process. Primarily heard in US. More... | |
| Today's Holiday | |
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 Finland Independence Day (2022)The Finnish people lived under Russian control beginning in 1809. The Finnish nationalist movement grew in the 1800s, and when the Bolsheviks took over Russia on November 7, 1917, the Finns saw a time to declare their independence. They did so on December 6 of that same year. This day is a national holiday celebrated with military parades in Helsinki and performances at the National Theater. It is traditionally a solemn occasion that begins with a parade of students carrying torches and one flag for each year of independence. More... | |
| Word Trivia | |
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Today's topic: robbribe - From Old French, it was originally a piece of bread given to beggars; the original sense of bribe is "extort, rob." More... clip joint - Based on clip, meaning "swindle, rob." More... pilfer - Originally, pilfering was a serious matter, synonymous with plundering, but it came to mean "stealing small things"; its source was Anglo-Norman pelfrer, "plunder, rob." More... plunder - Etymologically, it means "rob of household goods," from Dutch plunde/plunne, "household goods." More... | |