词汇大师(Wordmaster)--Grammar Lady: Listener Mail

Broadcast on "Coast to Coast": June 6, 2002
Re-broadcast on VOA News Now: June 9, 2002

AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster, we call on our old friend Grammar Lady, Mary Newton Bruder, to help us answer some listener mail.

RS: We start with a question from Kim in Osaka, Japan. She would like to know the meaning of the expression "the devil is in the details."

BRUDER: "It means that it's very easy to make a broad plan and get a big idea about something, but carrying it out is much more difficult, and that's where the devil is -- the hard part is in the details of getting the plan done."

RS: "We have another question also about an idiom from Asako, also from Japan: 'I've wanted to ask someone for a long time. People say something like this: "When she goes on a picnic, she always wants to take everything but the kitchen sink." Why the kitchen sink?'"

BRUDER: "It refers to the excessive luggage that people take when they go traveling, as your example of going on a picnic. If you have to have everything at home when you go someplace, you even have to take the kitchen sink."

AA: "She goes on to say, but why kitchen sink? 'My guess is that there was a joke about an empty kitchen (no food, no furniture) or a joke about a debt collector. Wrong guess?' Says, 'The dictionaries I referred to only say this expression is a "jocular" one but don't explain the origin of it.'"

BRUDER: "My origin books didn't have it either."

RS: Now back to Kim for a grammar-related question for Grammar Lady.

AA: Actually it's from one of Kim's college students, who asked her about the difference between these two sentences: "We look forward to your reply" and "we're (that's w-e-apostrophe-r-e) looking forward to your reply."

RS: "Two ways of saying the same thing?"

BRUDER: "Yes."

RS: " The first -- 'we look forward to your reply' -- might be a little bit more formal."

BRUDER: "Yes, that's the distinction."

AA: "'We look forward to your reply' is what verb tense, that's just simple ... "

BRUDER: "Simple present."

RS: "Simple present."

BRUDER: "And the other one is progressive."

RS: "But it's also using a contraction¹, which is more informal speech, 'we're looking forward to your reply.'"

BRUDER: "Yes, right." AA: Now a question from Brazil about the verb "to regret." Carl Highsetland gave us these two sentences: "I regret lending him money. He never paid me back." Carl's wondering: "Shouldn't it be 'I regret having lent him money'?"

RS: Again, which one is correct: "I regret lending him money" or "I regret having lent him money."

BRUDER: "'They're both correct and they have practically the same meaning."

AA: "So I guess the simple past tense 'he never paid me back' would refer to an instance, a specific instance, rather than 'he never pays me back."

BRUDER: "Right."

AA: " 'I regret lending him money, he never pays me back' would be continually; you lend him money, he never pays you back."

BRUDER: "And then it's silly of you to keep on lending him the money."

RS: In other words, you wouldn't call it very smart. That's the cue for our next question for Grammar Lady. It's from Ivan Dolezal in the Czech Republic:

AA: He writes, "Recently I was trying to find out when to use 'smart' and when to use 'clever.' I wasn't able to distinguish between these words with my dictionary."

BRUDER: "Well, basically, 'smart' is an overall intelligence. He 's smart about everything, he has a lot of knowledge, and he is very good at doing things. 'Clever,' I think, refers to a quick, sharp intelligence. 'She gives clever answers to the questions.' You can be clever at doing crossword² puzzles. You also have to be smart to do crossword puzzles, but I think it refers to a quickness, a sharp intelligence."

AA: "Ivan also says here, 'how would you explain the word "wise"?'"

BRUDER: "I think wise refers to age. Older people tend to have wisdom that has been learned over the years."

RS: "He also says, 'How about "cunning" and "sly"? Are these really used, or do I have a dictionary with words from the nineteenth century?'"

BRUDER: "Someone who does something in a cunning or sly manner is also smart to do it but in a deceiving way."

AA: "Although 'cunning' -- if you say, 'that was a cunning plot,' that does sound a little kind of dated, or 'boy you were really sly about that.'"

RS: "I think sly, we do -- 'sly guy.'"

AA: "Sly? 'Sly guy.' [Laughter] You know, 'on the sly,' meaning kind of secretly."

RS: "Sneaky."

AA: "Sneaky."

BRUDER: "Right, sneaky -- those two definitely have negative connotations."

RS: Linguist³ Mary Newton Bruder, speaking to us on the Grammar Hotline she operates in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. She's also on the Internet, at.................and she's author of the book "The Grammar Lady."

AA: Keep sending those questions about American English! Our address is...........or VOA Wordmaster, Washington DC 20237 USA. And our Web site is voanews.com/wordmaster. With Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti.

MUSIC: "Sly Old Crow/Old Blair Store" [folk song]/John McCutcheon

 

1 contraction   

n.缩略词，缩写式，害病

参考例句：

• The contraction of this muscle raises the lower arm.肌肉的收缩使前臂抬起。
• The forces of expansion are balanced by forces of contraction.扩张力和收缩力相互平衡。

2 crossword   

n.纵横字谜，纵横填字游戏

参考例句：

• He shows a great interest in crossword puzzles.他对填字游戏表现出很大兴趣。
• Don't chuck yesterday's paper out.I still haven't done the crossword.别扔了昨天的报纸，我还没做字谜游戏呢。

3 linguist   

n.语言学家；精通数种外国语言者

参考例句：

• I used to be a linguist till I become a writer.过去我是个语言学家，后来成了作家。
• Professor Cui has a high reputation as a linguist.崔教授作为语言学家名声很高。