英语单词大师：Forget Chicken

 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster: English teacher Lida Baker¹ 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 correct? And if it's correct, which action happened first? Are you ready?

RS: Let's go.

LIDA BAKER: OK, sentence number one: 'After I wash the dog, comma, I'll call my grandmother, period.'

RS: That's good.

LIDA BAKER: So you think it's correct. OK, and which thing happened first: washing the dog or calling the grandmother?

RS: Washing the dog.

AA: Washing the dog.

LIDA BAKER: That's correct. Let me give you another sentence: 'I'll wash the dog, period. Afterwards, or after that, comma, I'll call my grandmother, period.

RS: Sounds OK to me.

AA: Yeah.

RS: So you'll wash the dog first.

LIDA BAKER: That's right.

AA: I think there's a trick question number three coming up here.

LIDA BAKER: That's -- you know me so well, Avi [laughter]. Here comes number three: 'I'll wash the dog, period. After, comma, I'll call my grandmother, period.'

RS: Now that's incorrect.

LIDA BAKER: Good! But that is the mistake that a lot of people learning² English make.

AA: Why don't you say that again slowly, just so we catch it here.

LIDA BAKER: I'll wash the dog. After, I'll call my grandmother.'

RS: You have no subject in there. After what?

AA: What if you said 'After that, I'll call my grandmother'?

LIDA BAKER: Exactly!

RS: Or 'afterwards' --LIDA BAKER: That's correct.

RS: Or 'afterwards,' you can say.

LIDA BAKER: That's right. So the confusion³ is that English has two different ways of connecting the actions that we're talking about.

We have the word 'after,' which in technical terms we can call a subordinator. It's used in what are called complex sentences, which consist of two parts and they have a comma in the middle.'

But we also have the word 'afterwards' or 'after that' which function in the say way. And what they do is they come at the beginning of a sentence and they have a comma after them.

RS: And they're transition⁴ words.

LIDA BAKER: They're transition words, right. So English has both of these. But there are some languages that have only one; they only have the word 'after.' So students who are unaware⁵ of the fact that English has two different ways of structuring the meaning here get confused and they put -- they overgeneralize and use the word 'after' and they put it in the wrong place.

Because what they don't understand is that in English -- and this is so counterintuitive, it's exactly the opposite of what you would expect if you were learning this language -- the word 'after' signals the first event.

RS: It signals the end of the first event.

LIDA BAKER: Right. You can put it that way as well. But the point is, doesn't it make more sense that the word 'after' --if you put yourself in the position of an English learner, wouldn't it make more sense if the word 'after' signaled the second event?

Because there's this potential for confusion with the words 'before' and 'after.' And you can alleviate⁶ that confusion by avoiding those words and very simply writing 'and then.'

Now actually we haven't said anything yet about the word 'before.' But it's the same case. If I say, 'Every morning, I take a shower before I eat breakfast,' what happens first?

RS: You take the shower.

AA: Yeah.

LIDA BAKER: You take the shower. And yet the second event starts with the word 'before.' See how confusing that is?

AA: Ohhh.

LIDA BAKER: Here's how I would teach this: I would give students a set of written sentences containing the words 'before' and 'after.' And I would ask students to write the numbers one and two above the verbs, and identify which action happened first and which action happened second. And at the same time notice where we put the words 'before' and 'after,' so that they can begin to associate the words 'after' and 'before' with the appropriate action. In other words, the first action or the second action. So that's how I would start.

AA: English teacher Lida Baker, in Los Angeles. Her newest book is a listening-speaking text called Real Talk, published by Pearson/Longman.

RS: And that's Wordmaster for this week. Our e-mail address is [email protected] and our segments⁷ are all posted, at voanews.com/wordmaster. With Avi Arditti, I'm Rosanne Skirble

1 baker   

n.面包师

参考例句：

• The baker bakes his bread in the bakery.面包师在面包房内烤面包。
• The baker frosted the cake with a mixture of sugar and whites of eggs.面包师在蛋糕上撒了一层白糖和蛋清的混合料。

2 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。

3 confusion   

n.困惑，迷乱，混淆，混乱，骚乱

参考例句：

• His answers to my questions have only added to my confusion.他对我的问题的回答只是使我更加困惑不解。
• His unexpected arrival threw us into total confusion.他的突然来访使我们完全不知所措。

4 transition   

n.转变，变迁，过渡

参考例句：

• Adolescence is the period of transition between childhood and adulthood.青春期是童年与成年之间的过渡时期。
• They all support a peaceful transition.他们全部都支持和平过渡。

5 unaware   

a.不知道的，未意识到的

参考例句：

• They were unaware that war was near. 他们不知道战争即将爆发。
• I was unaware of the man's presence. 我没有察觉到那人在场。

6 alleviate   

v.减轻，缓和，缓解(痛苦等)

参考例句：

• The doctor gave her an injection to alleviate the pain.医生给她注射以减轻疼痛。
• Nothing could alleviate his distress.什么都不能减轻他的痛苦。

7 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。