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

词汇大师(Wordmaster)--Learning English Online

MUSIC: My Internet Girl/Aaron Carter (lyrics) You've got e-mail ... AA: E-mail is just one of the benefits of the Internet. I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on WORDMASTER we look at learning English online. RS: Charles Kelly is an

词汇大师(Wordmaster)--Spider-Related Expressions

Broadcast on Coast to Coast: May 30, 2002 Re-broadcast on VOA News Now: June 2, 2002 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster -- etymology meets entomology! The new movie Spider-Man inspired us to untangle some spider-rel

词汇大师(Wordmaster)--'Predicting New Words'

Broadcast on Coast to Coast: September 19, 2002 Re-broadcast on VOA News Now: September 22, 2002 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble and this week on WORDMASTER -- Predicting New Words: The Secrets of Their Success. RS: That's the title of a new

词汇大师(Wordmaster)--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

词汇大师(Wordmaster)--'Minority' and 'AHANA'

AA: I'm 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

词汇大师(Wordmaster)--Weasel Words

Broadcast on Coast to Coast: May 9, 2002 Rebroadcast on VOA News Now: May 12, 2002 AA: I'm 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 reput