英语单词大师：a book called "Um"

AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on WORDMASTER: our guest is writer Michael Erard, author of a new book called Um...MICHAEL ERARD: People who have studied speech patterns notice that there are really two groups of people: one g

英语单词大师：Aphorisms

AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on WORDMASTER: our guest is James Geary, author of a new book called Geary's Guide to the World's Great Aphorists.RS: It's his second book on aphorisms. He calls these sayings the shortest liter

英语单词大师：Wise Writing

AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on WORDMASTER, our guest is the author of a new book called On Words: Insight Into How Our Words Work -- and Don't.RS: Paula LaRocque has worked for many years as a writing instructor and newspa

英语单词大师：Forget 'Chicken' and 'Egg,'

AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster: English teacher Lida Baker explains the use of the words after and before.LIDA BAKER: I'm going to say a few sentences and I just want you to tell me two things: Is the sentence c

英语单词大师：Wise Writing Instead of '-Wise'

AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on WORDMASTER, our guest is the author of a new book called On Words: Insight Into How Our Words Work -- and Don't.RS: Paula LaRocque has worked for many years as a writing instructor and newspa

英语单词大师：Why Some Speeches Just Float

AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on WORDMASTER: from an interview on C-SPAN television, political pollster and strategist Frank Luntz talks about his book Words That Work: It's Not What You Say, It's What People Hear.RS: At one

英语单词大师：Two Places, One Pursuit

AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster: communication skills for the elderly. RS: And to teach it to them is George Shames, professor emeritus in psychology and communications disorders at the University of Pittsburgh.

英语单词大师：Concise and Precise

AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster: some advice about writing. RS: For the past 18 years, Jim Allan has run a secretarial center in Los Angeles. He offers typing -- and a lot more. He draws on his background as a co

英语单词大师：Like It or Not

AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble and this week on Wordmaster: a report from NBC News that caught our attention. RS: It's about a word that is spreading like no other. (MUSIC)FEMALE: Like, I saw these guys who, like, were really cute.MALE: And

英语单词大师：How 'The Thing' Has Entered

AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster: the language of Hurricane Katrina. RS: Debra Howell is an artist who has lived in New Orleans on and off since the late 1960s. She says she never evacuated for a hurricane before

英语单词大师：Lost for Words? Here Are Some

AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on WORDMASTER some ways to help you improve your memory. ELDH: We don't forget, we just haven't learned it in the first place.RS: That's Wendi Eldh. She's a communications trainer who teaches me

英语单词大师：What Does It Mean When

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

英语单词大师：'Talk to the Hand: The Utter

I'm Nancy Beardsley, filling in for Avi Arditti and Rosanne Skirble. This week on Wordmaster we'll talk about bad manners-and how they're reflected in what people are saying and not saying to one another these days. Our guest is British writer Lynne

英语单词大师：About Slang

AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on WORDMASTER: our guest is Tom Dalzell, senior editor of the New Partridge Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English -- and, now, the Concise New Partridge Dictionary of Slang and Unconven

英语单词大师：A Blackbird

AA: I'm Avi Arditti. Rosanne Skirble is away, but joining me from Los Angeles is English teacher Lida Baker to explain our topic on Wordmaster this week. It's a feature of the language called compounding. LIDA BAKER: Compounding is when we take two w

英语单词大师：Good Grammar

AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on WORDMASTER: Martha Brockenbrough, a writer in Seattle and founder of SPOGG, the Society for the Promotion of Good Grammar. Five thousand people get her free e-mails about grammar, usage and w

英语单词大师：Cultures

AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on WORDMASTER: we continue our conversation with James Geary about his new book, Geary's Guide to the World's Great Aphorists.An aphorism is a philosophical saying whose author is known. Two yea

英语单词大师：Islamofascism

AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster: extremism by any other name. RS: The term Islamofascism, or Islamic fascists, has prompted some debate. We were curious how the term fascism originated and how political scientist

英语单词大师：Finding the Right Expression of

AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on WORDMASTER: our friend English teacher Lida Baker joins us from Los Angeles to talk about expressions of sympathy. LIDA BAKER: The reason that this came up for me is that a friend of mine los

英语单词大师：Want to Learn Some Slang

AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on WORDMASTER: Slangman revisited. RS: A listener from Libya, Radwan Al-karash, sent us an e-mail earlier this month: I enjoy listening to your interviews with different people from different co