词汇大师-- How to Use Small Talk

AA: I'm Avi Arditti and this week on WORDMASTER: small talk. It's a topic we've discussed before, and some of you would like us to continue the conversation -- like Said, an English teacher in Egypt, and Thynn, a computer programmer from Burma, now h

词汇大师-- What Aphorists Have to Say

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 ye

词汇大师-- a Black Bird and 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

词汇大师-- A Stand-Up Comic Vying

AA: I'm Avi Arditti and this week on Wordmaster, finding the right words to make people laugh. Meet Shahryar Rizvi. He's a computer specialist, also working part time on a master's of business administration. So what's he doing in a competition organ

词汇大师-- One Way to Try to Silence a Critic

AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on WORDMASTER: What do you call a lawsuit that appears to be intended to suppress public speech? RS: To critics it's a SLAPP -- a strategic lawsuit against public participation. University of De

英语单词大师：Linguistic Diversity

A new map released by the Modern Language Association shows which languages are spoken where in the United States. According to the MLA map, a 33-square-kilometer area south of Los Angeles is one of the most linguistically diverse regions in the coun

英语单词大师：Present Perfect Tense

AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster: practice makes perfect. RS: With us from Los Angeles is English teacher Lida Baker to explain a part of grammar that makes English learners tense. AA: It's the verb tense known as

英语单词大师：Infowalker

AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster: a new way to walk through the Web. RS: Infowalker is a free computer program available on the Internet. It's called a browser companion, and the focus is on foreign-language learn

英语单词大师：Map of the US

AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster: a map of mother tongues in America. RS: Last week, we told you about americanrhetoric.com, a collection of well-known American speeches. Well, there's something brand new on the W

英语单词大师：Americanrhetoric

AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster: a Web site that offers an interesting look at United States life and history, through examples of how Americans use rhetoric, the language of persuasion. RS: Michael Eidenmuller i

英语单词大师：'Murphy's Law'

AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster -- the story of one of life's little truths. RS: It's a law we all live under, and it goes this way: If anything can go wrong, it will. It's known as Murphy's Law. AA: Murphy was E

英语单词大师：Phrasal Verbs

AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster -- English teacher Lida Baker joins us from Los Angeles to talk about phrasal verbs. RS: They're all around us, especially in spoken English. The first word is a verb. The second w

英语单词大师：Word of 2003

AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster -- winning words for 2003 as voted by a small group of linguists and other scholarly observers of the language. RS: More than seventy members of the American Dialect Society voted

英语单词大师：Language of Terror1

AA: Im Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster -- language and the impact of the September eleventh terrorist attacks on the United States. RS: Start with something as simple as the date. September eleventh, or 9-11 as Americans

英语单词大师：Language of Terror2

AA: Im Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster -- more about terrorism and language. TAPE: CUT ONE -- BUSHNow is the time to draw a line in the sand against the evil ones.RS: President Bush, speaking this past week. Geoff Nunber

英语单词大师：Listener Mail

AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on WORDMASTER: some letters from listeners. RS: From Russia, Natasha writes: A friend of mine went to the US for her summer vacation. She's got 4 years of study at Moscow Linguistic University b

英语单词大师：Lida Baker

AA: Im Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on WORDMASTER -- we take some of the stress out of learning which words to stress in American English. RS: We turn to Lida [lee-da] Baker. Shes an instructor at the American Language Center at th

英语单词大师：New Words

INTRO: As long has language has existed, it has been in a constant state of change, and as long there have been dictionaries lexicographers have been trying to keep up with those changes. James Donahower reports on the flood of new words entering the

英语单词大师：Minority; AHANA

AA: Im Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on WORDMASTER: Has the word minority outgrown its usefulness? RS: Minority means less than half. In the United States, members of non-European racial and ethnic groups are generally referred to a

英语单词大师：Weasel Words

AA: Im Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster -- advice for battling weasels of a wordy sort. RS: Weasels are small, nasty animals. Their reputation gives us slang expressions like weasel words -- language thats deceptive or ev