英语单词大师：Forget the Gunplay

 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on WORDMASTER: palindromes aplenty.

RS: A palindrome is something that reads the same backwards¹ or forwards. Palindromes make us think of Janus, the Roman god with one face looking forward, another looking backward.

AA: And from Janus we get January, and from that we get the idea to rerun "The Ballad² of Palindrome" each New Year.

RS: It features a skit³ that spoofs⁴ a cowboy show on television in the 1950s called "Paladin." Here now is the group Riders in the Sky joined by singer and songwriter Johnny Western.

SOUND: "The Ballad of Palindrome/Palindrome: The Scene with Johnny Western"RS: That's Riders in the Sky from their 1998 album "A Great Big Western HOWDY!" on the Rounder Records label.

AA: And that's WORDMASTER for this week. Our e-mail address is [email protected], and our segments are all online at voanews.com/wordmaster. Wishing you a happy and healthy New Year, with Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti.

1 backwards   

adv.往回地，向原处，倒，相反，前后倒置地

参考例句：

• He turned on the light and began to pace backwards and forwards.他打开电灯并开始走来走去。
• All the girls fell over backwards to get the party ready.姑娘们迫不及待地为聚会做准备。

2 ballad   

n.歌谣，民谣，流行爱情歌曲

参考例句：

• This poem has the distinctive flavour of a ballad.这首诗有民歌风味。
• This is a romantic ballad that is pure corn.这是一首极为伤感的浪漫小曲。

3 skit   

n.滑稽短剧；一群

参考例句：

• The comic skIt sent up the foolishness of young men in love.那幅画把沉溺于热恋中的青年男子的痴态勾勒得滑稽可笑。
• They performed a skit to amuse the crowd.他们表演了一个幽默小品来娱乐观众。

4 spoofs   

n.（进行）滑稽的模仿( spoof的名词复数 )；哄骗；戏弄；讽刺

参考例句：

• Nobody likes those clumsy spoofs of yours. 谁都不喜欢你那拙笨的玩笑。 来自辞典例句
• The show successfully spoofs the TV programs and commercials. 这场表演通过模仿成功地讽刺了那些电视节目和商业广告。 来自互联网