词汇大师-- He Shoots, He Scores

AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster: we answer a sports question. RS: A listener from Ivory Coast, Marius Meledje, would like to learn more about the language of basketball. This is a good week to answer that questio

词汇大师-- Grasping Roots as a Way

AA:I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster: English teacher Nina Weinstein talks about building vocabulary by understanding root words. NINA WEINSTEIN: Basically half of all the words in the English language come from other

词汇大师-- Think 'Uh Huh' and 'Unh Unh' Sound Alike?

AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster: we talk with English teacher Nina Weinstein about some expressions in spoken American English that you might not find in a dictionary. RS: But if you are a good listener, you'll h

词汇大师(Wordmaster)--Gerunds vs. Infinitives, Part 1

AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster: to be or not to be, or should there be an -ing? That is the question as we look at gerunds and infinitives. RS: To be, to run, to eat: the to indicates the infinitive form of the

词汇大师(Wordmaster)--Meet Two Young English Teachers

AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster: meet two young English teachers. One is from the United States, the other from Uzbekistan. RS: The American is a native English speaker who also speaks Arabic. He teaches a conver

词汇大师(Wordmaster)--Audience Mail

AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster: we answer some of your mail. RS: Listener Benny Kusman is from Indonesia, but tells us he is staying in Malaysia. Here is the first of his two questions: AA: If I have two books,

词汇大师(Wordmaster)--Gerunds vs. Infinitives, Part 2

AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster: more of our discussion of gerunds and infinitives with English teacher Lida Baker. RS: A gerund, remember, is a verb ending in -ing but used as a noun. An infinitive is a verb wit

词汇大师(Wordmaster)--'Heritage Speakers'

AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster, Musa Nushi, a 27-year-old Iranian with a master's degree in English teaching from Tehran University. MUSA NUSHI: English is in high demand in Iran because lots of people are going

词汇大师--No Gunplay, Just Wordplay

AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster: palindromes aplenty! RS: A palindrome is something that reads the same backwards or forwards. Palindromes make us think of Janus, the Roman god with one face looking forward, anot

词汇大师--When There Is Bad News

AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster: giving doctors better skills to communicate bad news. RS: Anthony Back [pronounced like Bach] is a medical oncologist at the University of Washington and the Fred Hutchinson Cance

词汇大师--An English Learner

AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster: we answer some listener mail. RS: Faisal in Dhaka, Bangladesh, is stuck in traffic -- traffic terminology, that is. Faisal is taking an English course. It seems that one day, many

词汇大师-- Tribes in California

More than half of the over one hundred native California tongues have disappeared. Many others have only a few, aging speakers. When this last fluent generation dies, languages spoken by Californians over centuries, will also die. At a recent gatheri

词汇大师-- Using Language Technology

AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster: an electronic tutoring system that helps non-native speakers of American English learn to pronounce words with a native accent. RS: The product is called NativeAccent. It's sold b

词汇大师-- 'For Good' or Offered 'On a Plate'

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

词汇大师-- In Choice of Immigration Terms

AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster: what to call people who are in the United States without following immigration laws. RS: Sometimes they are called undocumented immigrants or undocumented workers or illegal alien

词汇大师-- Economists Pursue Happiness

AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster: happiness as defined by an economist. RS: For almost a year, economists at the University of Michigan have been asking Americans about their happiness for the school's widely quot

词汇大师-- Hey You, in the Next Cube

AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and our guest this week on Wordmaster is writer Paul Dixon, just out with a new version of Slang: The Topical Dictionary of Americanisms. PAUL DIXON: Most slang dictionaries go A-to-Z and they co-mingle the s

词汇大师-- At a Party, If All Else Fails

AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster: If mixing with people at parties leaves you at a loss for words, writer Jeanne Martinet offers some help in an updated edition of her popular book The Art of Mingling. RS: Give us

词汇大师(Wordmaster)--Telephone Etiquette

MUSIC: Hanging on the Telephone/Blondie AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on WORDMASTER -- some tips on telephone etiquette. MUSIC: ...don't leave me hanging on the telephone, don't leave me hanging on the telephone... RS: One p

词汇大师(Wordmaster)--Sentence Structure

Broadcast on Coast to Coast: January 9, 2003 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster, we meet an English teacher who plays our program to his students, much to our delight. RS: What's surprising is that Brian Backman tea