1. Peeping Tom Lady Godiva was a noblewoman who lived in England in the eleventh century, who began campaigning for a tax reduction. She made an agreement with her husband that he would reduce taxes when she rode naked through the market square. Legend has it that Godiva sent word to the people [...]
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Sophophobia is not the fear of your 15-year-old daughter’s Halloween costume, although that could be frightening for a lot of reasons. Sophophobia is the fear of learning. Personally, I might have a fear of learning what the ladies in the photo are doing near that large (freshly dug?) pit, and why the [...]
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If you’ve ever been wrong about whether a certain word ends in -ible or -able, here are some rules that will help give you the right answers. Rule for words ending in -ible If the root is not a complete word, add -ible. For example: aud + ible = audible Examples: visible horrible terrible possible edible eligible incredible permissible [...]
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Don’t worry, it’s not really a test. You’d probably get 100 percent on this one, anyway. However, if you’ve heard or read these words over the years, but were never quite sure of the definitions, this is your chance to move up to the advanced class. Anachronism: An error in chronology; a person or [...]
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Sorry, Lorraine, you have to actually READ the dictionary. The Oxford English Dictionary contains full entries for over 250,000 words. Is it any wonder that we get confused by a few of them? Here are twelve tricky word pairs that even a Rhodes Scholar could get wrong. 1. assent vs. ascent Assent means [...]
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