英语单词大师：Really Bad Day

AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster -- it's time for our monthly chat with Slangman David Burke in Los Angeles. RS: We were sad to hear that even Slangman, who's always so happy, occasionally has a really bad day. SL

英语单词大师：Groups in Spoken

AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster -- English teacher Lida Baker in Los Angeles talks about improving English pronunciation by understanding the idea of thought groups. RS: Thought groups are something we don't even

英语单词大师：Gossip

AA: This is Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster -- did you hear? Were going to talk about gossip! RS: Idle talk, chatty talk, rumors or facts of an intimate nature -- these are some dictionary definitions for what Americans

英语单词大师：Got Its Name2

AA: Im Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster -- how a piece of land between Europe and Asia got the name America.RS: The name honors the Italian-born explorer and navigator Amerigo Vespucci. America first appeared on a world m

英语单词大师：Pronouncing

AA: Im Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on WORDMASTER -- help for English learners who have trouble pronouncing words with the letters t-h. RS: Our friend Lida Baker joins us with a pronunciation lesson. She writes textbooks for Englis

英语单词大师：Construction Terms

AA: Im Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster -- with the remodeling of the VOA News Now schedule, our thoughts turn to construction-related slang. Or, more precisely, words related to construction that have other meanings in s

英语单词大师：Making a Request

AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster -- how to make a request, as in, Could you help us out?RS: That's what we asked our friend Lida Baker. She teaches in the American Language Center at the University of California a

英语单词大师：TOEFL

AA: Im Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster -- TOEFL tips! RS: Each year close to one million people around the world take the TOEFL -- the Test of English as a Foreign Language. Since its required to get into many colleges a

英语单词大师：Getting a Job1

AA: Im Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble and this week on Wordmaster, advice on getting a job. RS: Its a question several listeners have asked us, so we turned to a human resources consultant for answers. AA: Sharon Armstrong runs a company that helps

英语单词大师：Creative Writing2

AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster: we continue our conversation about creative writing with a self-described addicted, compulsive reviser.RS: Chitra Divakaruni has written four novels; her newest, Queen of Dreams,

英语单词大师：Internet Terms

Personal computers and the Internet have become vital tools for everything from communications and research to entertainment and office work. Not surprisingly, new words connected with these technologies are becoming part of common speech. VOA's Adam

英语单词大师：Immigration

AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster: age and the economics of learning English. RS: Our guest is Hoyt Bleakley, an economist at the University of Chicago. He and Aimee Chin at the University of Houston have studied t

英语单词大师：Forget Chicken

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

英语单词大师：Jump the Couch

AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster: closing the dictionary on some words of 2005. RS: Grant Barrett is project editor of the Historical Dictionary of American Slang at Oxford University Press. We talked to him last

英语单词大师：T Is for Trouble

AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster: a pronunciation question from Quebec, Canada. RS: Nam-Thien Khuu writes by e-mail, I have heard [that the letter 't' is silent when it comes after a stressed syllable]. Am I right

英语单词大师：Emotion in Words

Today on Wordmaster with Rosanne Skirble, the emotions behind the words we say. RS: Think of how many emotions our voices are able to convey. English teacher and Wordmaster contributor Lida Baker says meaning changes by modifying the tone of voice in

英语单词大师：Alabama, Part 2

AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster: more of our discussion of language in the American South. RS: We're talking with a woman in Alabama named Donna Akins. All she wanted was an answer to a grammar question. But we a

英语单词大师：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

英语单词大师：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

英语单词大师：Compounding

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