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. election¹ news, we've got the answer. We're back with "Slangman" David Burke to finish reading through a letter filled to the breaking point with examples of the many ways Americans use the word "break."
DAVID BURKE: "'I didn't mean to break his heart, but give me a break -- he's so rude! I know I should be breaking out the Champagne³ now, now that I broke it off. But I feel guilty and my voice breaks every time I talk about it. Do you think I did the right thing?'
"OK, 'I didn't mean to break his heart.' Now, again, in a relationship, hopefully you'll never hear this, and you'll never have to do it, to break someone's heart. It means to disappoint somebody so much that they become so, so terribly sad, to break someone's heart.

　　And if someone says to you give me a break, now this is a really common expression. We hear it a lot. Give me a break. If somebody says something to you that's absolutely ridiculous, you say 'Give me a break.' It means stop talking such nonsense⁴. Give me a break. That's impossible, that never happened. Give me a break. That is really common.
"I would say that anybody who comes to America is probably going to hear 'Give me a break' within the first hour. It's pretty popular. And if someone says that to you, that means they don't believe you.
"So then she goes on to say 'He's just so rude. I know I should be breaking out the champagne.' Champagne is such an event. We don't just say to 'take out' the champagne. We say to break out the champagne. That's really a big celebration. So on New Year's Eve everyone breaks out the Champagne.
"So she says 'I know I should be breaking out the Champagne, now that I broke it off.' So when you break it off, 'it' means the relationship. I broke off the relationship, I broke it off. And then she says 'But I'm feeling guilty and my voice breaks every time I talk about it.' So when your voice breaks, it starts to shake and you don't usually get to finish the last syllable⁵ of your word because your voice is breaking.
"And then she says, of course, 'Did I do the right thing?' Well, yes, definitely⁶. As you broke it down, I would say, yes, you did the right thing in breaking it off or breaking up with this person.
"There are many other expressions using break. If you're sick, your fever can break, too, by the way. We hope your fever breaks. If you ever have a fever, you want the fever to break. It just means it comes down.
"To take a break, that's another thing you'll hear probably, certainly in the first hour of working in the United States. 'It's time for a break. It's break time.'"
AA: "Maybe not the first hour. After a few hours of hard work. Then."
DAVID BURKE: "Then you get to take the break. But don't people usually talk about 'Oh, I can't wait for the break. In another hour, break time soon.' [Laughter] See you just made me break into laughter with that comment.
"And breaking into a bank, to break in, breaking and entering -- that's something we hear sometimes on the news. To break in means to enter with force, to break in. So, you know, it's interesting, as I was going through the verb 'to break,' there must be probably thirty different ways that we use break every day. And what's interesting to an American is that we have no idea just how many times we use these expressions. But these phrasal verbs, we use all the time.
"And we use phrasal verbs that also have slang² meanings within the verb itself, like with break, to break down, to be broke. So break is a really, really wonderful verb to attach all sorts of prepositions⁷ to and create our own new meanings, which again are two- and three-part phrasal verbs."
AA: "David, let me break in here for one second and ask you, the temperatures were so hot in L.A. recently, did you break out into a sweat."
DAVID BURKE: "Nice! Yes. I thought I had broken a fever. [Laughter]"
AA: David "Slangman" Burke in Los Angeles is the author of more than 60 language books. You can learn more popular slang and idioms that Americans use every day at Slangman.com.
And you can find the first part of our conversation along with previous Slangman segments⁸ on our website, voanews.com/wordmaster. You can also follow us on Facebook and Twitter at VOA Learning⁹ English. With Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti.

1 election   

n.选举，选择权；当选

参考例句：

• There is no doubt but that he will win the election.毫无疑问，他将在竞选中获胜。
• The government will probably fall at the coming election.在即将到来的大选中，该政府很可能要垮台。

2 slang   

n.俚语，行话；vt.使用俚语，辱骂；vi.辱骂

参考例句：

• The phrase is labelled as slang in the dictionary.这个短语在这本字典里被注为俚语。
• Slang often goes in and out of fashion quickly.俚语往往很快风行起来又很快不再风行了。

3 champagne   

n.香槟酒；微黄色

参考例句：

• There were two glasses of champagne on the tray.托盘里有两杯香槟酒。
• They sat there swilling champagne.他们坐在那里大喝香槟酒。

4 nonsense   

n.胡说，废话

参考例句：

• Go along with you! What you say is all nonsense!去你的！你说的全是废话！
• "Don't talk nonsense",she said sharply.“别胡扯”，她严厉地说。

5 syllable   

n.音节；vt.分音节

参考例句：

• You put too much emphasis on the last syllable.你把最后一个音节读得太重。
• The stress on the last syllable is light.最后一个音节是轻音节。

6 definitely   

adv.一定地，肯定地；明确地，确切地

参考例句：

• The team will definitely lose if he doesn't play.如果他不参加比赛，这个队肯定会输。
• I shall definitely be home before six o'clock.6点以前，我一定回家。

7 prepositions   

n.介词( preposition的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• She lays a lot of emphasis on the usage of prepositions. 她把重点放在介词的使用上。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Prepositions and conjunctions are particles. 介词和连词是小品词。 来自《简明英汉词典》

8 segments   

部分( segment的名词复数 )； 瓣； [计算机]（字符等的）分段； [动物学]节片

参考例句：

• He is eating oranges in segments. 他正在一瓣瓣地吃橘子。
• Gene cloning provides a means of purifying and propagating specific DNA segments. 基因克隆化提供了一种纯化和扩增特定DNA片段的方法。

9 learning   

n.学问，学识，学习；动词learn的现在分词

参考例句：

• When you are learning to ride a bicycle,you often fall off.初学骑自行车时，常会从车上掉下来。
• Learning languages isn't just a matter of remembering words.学习语言不仅仅是记些单词的事。