词汇大师--'App' an Apt Word for Tech-Crazy 2010

AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on WORDMASTER: We check in with the American Dialect Society for some notable words from the past year, including the one that the group considers least likely to succeed. RS: But we start with

词汇大师--Finding Comfort in Euphemisms When Words..

AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on WORDMASTER: There's a new book called Euphemania: Our Love Affair With Euphemisms. RS: Author Ralph Keyes defines euphemisms as comfort words that we use in place of words that make us feel u

词汇大师--[2]Break In, Break Out, Break Up

AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on WORDMASTER: If you're looking for a break from all the U.S. election news, we've got the answer. We're back with Slangman David Burke to finish reading through a letter filled to the breaking

词汇大师--[1]Break In, Break Out, Break Up

AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on WORDMASTER: Slangman David Burke explains some of the many uses for the word break. RS: He's brought along a letter filled to the breaking point with examples. DAVID BURKE: 'Dear Slangman, I

词汇大师--If Someone Leaves You at a Loss for Words

AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on WORDMASTER: A conversation with Kathleen Kelley Reardon, a management professor whose newest book is called Comebacks at Work: Using Conversation to Master Confrontation. KATHLEEN REARDON: A

词汇大师--Think Age Makes No Difference for Twins

AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on WORDMASTER: We're back with linguist and author Deborah Tannen, discussing communication between sisters, the topic of her most recent book You Were Always Mom's Favorite! RS: Did you talk to

词汇大师--If 'the' Dictionary Doesn't List a Word

AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on WORDMASTER: We continue our conversation with Rutgers University English professor Jack Lynch. RS: His latest book is The Lexicographer's Dilemma. In it he challenges the idea of treating dic

词汇大师-- Teaching Students the Words to ...

AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on WORDMASTER: Helping young people learn to talk, and think, about science. RS: Catherine Snow is an education professor at Harvard University and also works with a group called the Strategic E

词汇大师-- Health Advice for Couples

AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on WORDMASTER: how the words that couples use when they fight could affect their health. RS: In a new study, forty-two married couples made two overnight visits to a laboratory to discuss their

词汇大师-- To Make a Long Story Short

AA: I'm Avi Arditti and this week on WORDMASTER: our guest is Emily Kissner, a schoolteacher in Pennsylvania and author of a book called Summarizing, Paraphrasing and Retelling. EMILY KISSNER: When you summarize, you need to first choose what's impor

词汇大师-- Remembering William Safire

AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble and this week on WORDMASTER: We remember William Safire, who died Sunday of pancreatic cancer at the age of 79. RS: Readers of the New York Times knew him not only from his years as a conservative political co

词汇大师-- Teacher Sees 'Big Push' to Promote English

AA: I'm Avi Arditti and this week on WORDMASTER: meet an English teacher in the United Arab Emirates. She stopped by the VOA Special English booth at the recent TESOL convention, for Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages. It took place i

词汇大师-- Teaching Students How to Use Dialogue

AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on WORDMASTER: we talk with Kelly Maxwell, co-director of the Program on Intergroup Relations at the University of Michigan. The program began about twenty years ago as a way to promote dialogue

词汇大师-- 'National Day of Listening' Promoted

AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on WORDMASTER: a big week for talkers and listeners. RS: This Thursday, millions of Americans will gather with family and friends to celebrate Thanksgiving -- or Turkey Day, as many call it. Tha

词汇大师-- Learning Business English

AA: I'm Avi Arditti. Rosanne Skirble is away. This week on WORDMASTER, on the phone from Southern California, is English teacher Nina Weinstein. She teaches business English, among other things, and I was curious how she and her students are addressi

词汇大师-- Special Edition

The Bush administration's proposed $700 billion bailout of the financial industry is the talk of Washington right now. But where exactly did the term bailout come from? In this special edition of Wordmaster, Avi Arditti and Rosanne Skirble turn to di

词汇大师-- Where Spoken Languages Divide

AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on WORDMASTER: word order and the mind. A new study suggests that people naturally gesture in the order of subject-object-verb, regardless of the rules of their spoken language. Susan Goldin-Mea

词汇大师-- Program Moves Online to Train Teachers

Welcome to Wordmaster. I'm Adam Phillips sitting in this week for Rosanne Skirble and Avi Arditti. Today, we look at an innovative master's degree program at the New School in New York. It was specifically designed to teach teachers how to teach Engl

词汇大师-- New Books Cast Cinderella

Guest host Mike O'Sullivan talks with an author (familiar to our longtime listeners) whose newest books use fairy tales to teach foreign languages to American children. David Burke is known as Slangman, and in his earlier books, he translated the lan

词汇大师-- Group Led by Seattle Writer

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