英语单词大师：Punctuation Day

 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster: the founder¹ of National Punctuation² Day.

RS: Sunday was the day for a "celebration of the lowly comma, correctly used quotes and other proper uses of periods, semicolons and the ever-mysterious ellipsis⁴." So says Jeff Rubin, who is honest about why he created National Punctuation Day: for the publicity⁵.

AA: But the former newspaper journalist, who now publishes newsletters for companies, says he was tired of all the mistakes and bad writing he sees in everyday life. So he did something about it.

JEFF RUBIN: "I picked punctuation because it's the thing about our language that frustrates⁶ me the most. I just don't understand why people can't get it right. It's not that difficult. You could buy a stylebook. 'The Elements of Style,' I think the pocket edition is ninety-four pages and that includes the index. If you read a page a day, in three months you'd be an expert."RS: "Can you give us some hints that will make it easier for speakers and learners of English as a foreign language to better punctuate⁷ their sentences?"JEFF RUBIN: "Well, here's one: In the United States, a comma and a period always go inside a closing quotation⁸ mark. In other parts of the world -- most prominently, in England -- they call the period a full stop. Sometimes the period and the comma are placed outside a quotation mark.

"Here's an easy way to know when to use i-t-apostrophe-s and i-t-s. When you write a sentence, read it back to yourself, and substitute the words 'it is' for its. If it does not make sense, then you're using it the wrong way. So, for example: 'It's a day for librarians, educators and parents.' So substitute 'it is': 'It is a day.' It sounds correct, so you would use it's.

"Here's another one: To make a singular word possessive, you use an apostrophe-s, even if the word already ends in an s."AA: "Right, but some stylebooks would say you can leave off that last s and just put the apostrophe. Isn't that true?"JEFF RUBIN: "Yeah. In fact, there's some controversy⁹ about that. 'The Elements of Style' is ... you add the apostrophe-s. The Associated Press, in its stylebook, has taken off the second s. So, you know, these are two -- I grew up with the AP Stylebook and I use that most times. My advice is to pick a style, since they're both accepted, pick a style and stick with it."RS: "Be consistent here."JEFF RUBIN: "Be consistent."AA: "Let me ask you, so now you just marked the third annual National Punctuation Day. As far as you know, did any other Americans mark the day with you?"JEFF RUBIN: "Just my friends and family. But seriously, I did a lot of media interviews and got letters from -- e-mails from all over the United States. Mostly from teachers, but a lot from older people who remember the way it used to be, when you didn't see mistakes in books, in magazines and newspapers, and when good writing skills and English skills were really taught well in the schools."RS: Jeff Rubin, creator of National Punctuation Day, and who does business as The Newsletter Guy, speaking from California.

AA: Jeff Rubin and his wife have developed a program to teach elementary school children some punctuation rules. It's called "Punctuation Playtime," and includes a song called "Punctuation Rap."(MUSIC)RS: That's Wordmaster for this week. To hear more of "Punctuation Rap," log on to the Wordmaster Web site at voanews.com/wordmaster. With Avi Arditti, I'm Rosanne Skirble.

Excerpt¹⁰ from "Punctuation Rap":

PUNK, PUNK, PUNCTUATIONPUNK, PUNK, PUNCTUATIONI am a QUESTION MARK, what do I do?

I'm at the end of questions, like Where? What? or Who?

PUNK, PUNK, PUNCTUATIONPUNK, PUNK, PUNCTUATIONI am a PERIOD, that means full stop,At the end of a sentence, just make a dot.

PUNK, PUNK, PUNCTUATIONPUNK, PUNK, PUNCTUATIONI am a COMMA, if you see me just pause,So hang back, Jack¹¹, and think of what was.

PUNK, PUNK, PUNCTUATIONPUNK, PUNK, PUNCTUATIONQUOTATION MARKS hold the talking within,So if somebody speaks, just look for the twins.

PUNK, PUNK, PUNCTUATIONPUNK, PUNK, PUNCTUATIONI am a COLON³, I am two dots,I'm the introducer, I express your thoughts.

PUNK, PUNK, PUNCTUATIONPUNK, PUNK, PUNCTUATION

1 Founder   

n.创始者，缔造者

参考例句：

• He was extolled as the founder of their Florentine school.他被称颂为佛罗伦萨画派的鼻祖。
• According to the old tradition,Romulus was the founder of Rome.按照古老的传说，罗穆卢斯是古罗马的建国者。

2 punctuation   

n.标点符号，标点法

参考例句：

• My son's punctuation is terrible.我儿子的标点符号很糟糕。
• A piece of writing without any punctuation is difficult to understand.一篇没有任何标点符号的文章是很难懂的。

3 colon   

n.冒号，结肠，直肠

参考例句：

• Here,too,the colon must be followed by a dash.这里也是一样，应当在冒号后加破折号。
• The colon is the locus of a large concentration of bacteria.结肠是大浓度的细菌所在地。

4 ellipsis   

n.省略符号，省略(语法结构上的)

参考例句：

• In this textbook we will tolerate a certain amount of ellipsis.在这本书中我们允许一些简化。
• There is an ellipsis of "that" in that sentence.那个句子省略了"that"。

5 publicity   

n.众所周知，闻名；宣传，广告

参考例句：

• The singer star's marriage got a lot of publicity.这位歌星的婚事引起了公众的关注。
• He dismissed the event as just a publicity gimmick.他不理会这件事，只当它是一种宣传手法。

6 frustrates   

v.使不成功( frustrate的第三人称单数 )；挫败；使受挫折；令人沮丧

参考例句：

• What frustrates him is that there's too little money to spend on the project. 使他懊恼的是，可用于这个项目的资金太少。
• His trouble is that he frustrates much easily. 他的毛病是很容易泄气。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

7 punctuate   

vt.加标点于；不时打断

参考例句：

• The pupils have not yet learned to punctuate correctly.小学生尚未学会正确使用标点符号。
• Be sure to punctuate your sentences with the correct marks in the right places.一定要在你文章句子中的正确地方标上正确的标点符号。

8 quotation   

n.引文，引语，语录；报价，牌价，行情

参考例句：

• He finished his speech with a quotation from Shakespeare.他讲话结束时引用了莎士比亚的语录。
• The quotation is omitted here.此处引文从略。

9 controversy   

n.争论，辩论，争吵

参考例句：

• That is a fact beyond controversy.那是一个无可争论的事实。
• We ran the risk of becoming the butt of every controversy.我们要冒使自己在所有的纷争中都成为众矢之的的风险。

10 excerpt   

n.摘录，选录，节录

参考例句：

• This is an excerpt from a novel.这是一部小说的摘录。
• Can you excerpt something from the newspaper? 你能从报纸上选录些东西吗？

11 jack   

n.插座，千斤顶，男人；v.抬起，提醒，扛举；n.（Jake）杰克

参考例句：

• I am looking for the headphone jack.我正在找寻头戴式耳机插孔。
• He lifted the car with a jack to change the flat tyre.他用千斤顶把车顶起来换下瘪轮胎。