时间:2019-01-25 作者:英语课 分类:词汇大师(Wordmaster)


英语课

  AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster: we answer some listener questions.

RS: Starting with this one from Rajpal Rawal in India, who sends us two sentences with questions about pronunciation -- more specifically, about the reductions that take place in spoken American English.

AA: Here is the first sentence: "I would not mention it." I would not mention it. The question is: Is it correct to keep the d at the end of "would" silent in rapid speech? Well, maybe the best thing we can do is model it, so you can listen for yourself:

RS: "I wouldn't mention it." "I wouldn't mention it."

AA: "I wouldn't mention it." Well, you can still slightly detect the 'd' once you form the contraction 1. And, by the way, most Americans are likely to use the contraction "wouldn't" rather than say "I would not mention it," unless of course, they were angry and speaking slowly on purpose.

RS: Rajpal also asks about this sentence: "That won't help." The question here is: Is it OK to keep the t at the end of both "that" and "won't" silent while speaking rapidly?

Well, listen again, first slowly and then fast.

AA: "That won't help."

RS: Now fast.

AA: "That won't help."

RS: Slowly.

AA: "That won't help."

RS: Fast.

AA: "That won't help."

RS: The t at the end of "that" is pretty much silent. But in this particular case we do hear the t at the end of won't.

AA: Next question. Iulian Grigoras in Romania asks what the expression "for good" means in the sentence: "He left the country for good."

RS: That's easy. When you do something "for good," that means you do it permanently 2.

Now Jeffrey Liu, an English learner from China, wants to know what it means to be offered something "on a plate." And he's not talking about a dinner plate.

AA: Nevertheless, imagine you are a guest at a dinner. All you have to do is sit there and wait until someone puts a platter of food down in front of you.

RS: Get the idea? Well, for an official explanation, we checked the newest addition to our small collection of slang dictionaries. It's the New Partridge Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English, first published this year simultaneously 3 in Britain and North America. It defines "on a plate" or "on a platter" this way: "easily acquired; with little or no effort required."

AA: Now speaking of slang, a listener named Java writes: "Dear slang casters, I have a suggestion as an English teacher. As you may know the best kind of learning takes place after a brainstorm 4, and what comes after fills the gaps made by the storm."

So Java suggests that one way to get a brainstorm going is to start by discussing the slang used in the top ten U.S. movies. And to fill the gaps in the minds of music lovers, Java writes that you can also brainstorm about the slang used in the top ten U.S. songs.


  RS: So let's give that a try. We asked our buddy 5 Larry London in VOA Music Mix what the top song in the country is this week on the Billboard 6 charts. It's "S.O.S. (Rescue Me)" by Rihanna. See if you can catch some of the slang in the lyrics 7. We'll explain at the end.

(MUSIC)

"This time please someone come and rescue me

"'Cause you on my mind, it's got me losing it

"I'm lost, you got me looking for the rest of me,

"Got the best of me, so now I'm losing it

"Just your presence and I second guess my sanity 8

"Yes it's a lesson, it's unfair, you stole my vanity

"My tummy's up in knots so when I see you I get so hot

"My common sense is out the door, can't seem to find the lock

"Take on me (uh huh) you know inside you feel it right

"Take me on, I could just die up in your arms tonight.

"I'm out with you, you got me head over heels

"Boy you keep me hanging on the way you make me feel

"S.O.S. please someone help me.

"It's not healthy... for me to feel this way"

AA: OK, S.O.S. is the international distress 9 signal, so that's not really slang. But if you were taking notes on the song, there's "losing it" ...

RS: Meaning, losing control.

AA: "Tummy up in knots" ...

RS: Literally 10, a nervous stomach.

AA: Common sense "out the door" ...

RS: Out the door. Gone. Get lost.

AA: Head over heels ...

RS: Really excited.

AA: Which keeps her "hanging on" ...

RS: Keeps her alive. And that's Wordmaster for this week. You can keep us hanging on with your questions. Our e-mail address is word@voanews.com.

AA: And our segments are all on our Web site, voanews.com/wordmaster. With Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti.

MUSIC: "S.O.S. (Rescue Me)"/Rihanna



n.缩略词,缩写式,害病
  • The contraction of this muscle raises the lower arm.肌肉的收缩使前臂抬起。
  • The forces of expansion are balanced by forces of contraction.扩张力和收缩力相互平衡。
adv.永恒地,永久地,固定不变地
  • The accident left him permanently scarred.那次事故给他留下了永久的伤疤。
  • The ship is now permanently moored on the Thames in London.该船现在永久地停泊在伦敦泰晤士河边。
adv.同时发生地,同时进行地
  • The radar beam can track a number of targets almost simultaneously.雷达波几乎可以同时追着多个目标。
  • The Windows allow a computer user to execute multiple programs simultaneously.Windows允许计算机用户同时运行多个程序。
vi.动脑筋,出主意,想办法,献计,献策
  • The women meet twice a month to brainstorm and set business goals for each other.她们每个月聚会两次,在一起出谋献策,为各自制定生意目标。
  • We can brainstorm a list of the most influential individuals in the company.我们可以集体讨论,列出该公司中最有影响的人员的名单。
n.(美口)密友,伙伴
  • Calm down,buddy.What's the trouble?压压气,老兄。有什么麻烦吗?
  • Get out of my way,buddy!别挡道了,你这家伙!
n.布告板,揭示栏,广告牌
  • He ploughed his energies into his father's billboard business.他把精力投入到父亲的广告牌业务中。
  • Billboard spreads will be simpler and more eye-catching.广告牌广告会比较简单且更引人注目。
n.歌词
  • music and lyrics by Rodgers and Hart 由罗杰斯和哈特作词作曲
  • The book contains lyrics and guitar tablatures for over 100 songs. 这本书有100多首歌的歌词和吉他奏法谱。
n.心智健全,神智正常,判断正确
  • I doubt the sanity of such a plan.我怀疑这个计划是否明智。
  • She managed to keep her sanity throughout the ordeal.在那场磨难中她始终保持神志正常。
n.苦恼,痛苦,不舒适;不幸;vt.使悲痛
  • Nothing could alleviate his distress.什么都不能减轻他的痛苦。
  • Please don't distress yourself.请你不要忧愁了。
adv.照字面意义,逐字地;确实
  • He translated the passage literally.他逐字逐句地翻译这段文字。
  • Sometimes she would not sit down till she was literally faint.有时候,她不走到真正要昏厥了,决不肯坐下来。
学英语单词
allocated band
angustum
Ban Si Sa
Ban Tamrong Phatho
Bates, Herbert Ernest
be bent double
biduk
blackadders
box dimension
bozos
breach of law
brentubine
bureit
callots
camber angle adjusment
carbo-benzyloxyl
cash settled equity linked instrument
class i appliance
cloth envelop collector
coarchitect
complete inelastic collision
confessorship
cordyceps nutans pat
critical voltage difference
cupola working bottom
cyclotella meneghiniana
defects in timber
Deutzen
drools
ecostratigraphy
enchromosome
Euglenales
fistula of submaxillary gland
Flavobacteriales
Flexible Stainless Steel Pipe
flow cytophotometry
flowering plants
Fly R.
folghthe
gear changing arrangement
genus Gloriosa
genus Loxia
ghettofabulous
granulated ammonium nitrate
Greenland Sea
halfstaturated
Hardware components
have a kick in it
hepatopancreases
holorhinal
hoochie mamas
image regeneration
infrared link access protocol
Ingstrup
inhauler inhaul
intraurban
Jambangan, Gunung
krups
ladle shank
levshins
light penetration
low pressure test cell
macro skeleton
magnet type
Mennucci
mentally incompetent
mizerion
neutron decoupling experiment
off-the-beaten-tracks
optimal system
otoscleroses
pavement prism
ph-dependence
photoheliographs
pop-eye
pre-pressed cake
preente
Racza Wielka (Vel'ka Rača)
radixesradices
Ramapo Mountains
reallocated
sandwich hybrid composite
Schwarzen
selective jamming
service command
simsim
sleeperettes
SLFIA
synchronized signal generator
tac invariant
technical advisory work
tense
through-type goods yard
to talk over
total operation expense
towing analysis
track population
trustee de son tort
Tsuga tchekiangensis
uranoids
urmias
weather observation ship