Daily Content Archive
(as of Tuesday, May 26, 2020)| Word of the Day | |||||||
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drudgery
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| Daily Grammar Lesson | |
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Collective Nouns: Singular vs. Plural UseCollective nouns usually function as singular nouns in a sentence, but they are occasionally used as plurals, too. How do we determine in which manner the collective noun should be used? More... | |
| Article of the Day | |
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 Barbara McClintockMcClintock was an American geneticist. In the 1940s and 50s, her experiments with variations in the coloration of kernels of maize revealed that genes are not stationary, but can "jump" on the chromosome. She isolated two control elements in genetic material and found not only that they moved, but also that their transposition affected the behavior of neighboring genes. In 1983, she was belatedly awarded a Nobel Prize in Physiology. Why did she stop publishing her findings in the 50s? More... | |
| This Day in History | |
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 Vauxhall Bridge Opens in London (1906)Vauxhall Bridge is an arch bridge over the River Thames in central London. Despite its public garden and location, the Vauxhall area was sparsely populated before the 19th century, and a plan for a bridge there was hatched in 1809 to help develop the area. The resulting bridge was in terrible shape by the end of the century, however, and construction on a new, richly decorated, steel-and-granite replacement began in 1898. A major transport artery today, the bridge is adorned with what statues? More... | |
| Today's Birthday | |
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 Al Jolson (1886)Jolson was one of the most popular entertainers in the US in the 1930s. The son of a rabbi, he had planned to be a cantor but instead became a singer and comedian. By the age of 15, he was touring in vaudeville and minstrel shows. His 1909 blackface performance of "Mammy" was a hit, and he performed on Broadway and the radio. In 1927, he starred in the first feature-length "talkie," The Jazz Singer. How do scholars differ in their analysis of Jolson's use of blackface in his performances? More... | |
| Quotation of the Day | |
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 If you desire to drain to the dregs the fullest cup of scorn and hatred that a fellow human being can pour out for you, let a young mother hear you call dear baby "it."Jerome K. Jerome (1859-1927) | |
| Idiom of the Day | |
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have a mind like a sieve— To be exceptionally forgetful or absentminded. More... | |
| Today's Holiday | |
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 Georgia Independence Day (2021)Georgia Independence Day celebrates the republic's brief period of independence from Tsarist Russia from May 26, 1918, until its forced incorporation into the Soviet Union in 1922. Georgia declared its independence from the former Soviet Union on April 9, 1991, but the national holiday commemorates the country's original independence earlier in the century. More... | |
| Word Trivia | |
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Today's topic: strangerextranean - An outsider or stranger, a person not belonging to a household. More... barbarian - Based on Greek barbaros, "stranger" or "enemy." More... stranger - Originally a foreigner, from Old French estrangier, from Latin extraneus, "person outside." More... pilgrim - Its basic meaning was "traveler, homeless wanderer," from Latin peregrinum, "foreigner, stranger." More... | |