B: Welcome to American English Mosaic, I"m Mike Bond!
A: And I"m 蔚然。杨琳休假，我带班。
B: Losing a job is a horrible experience. So, how do you make the most out of it?
A: 头胎生的孩子比弟弟妹妹有出息？你同意这种结论吗？
B: And in words and idioms, we will learn what "to death" and "to no avail" mean!
A: All coming up on this edition of American English Mosaic!
B: Now let"s go into our first segment, Learn-a-word!
Learn A Word 1898 giveaway
今天我们要学的词是 giveaway. Giveaway is spelled g-i-v-e-a-w-a-y, giveaway. Giveaway 是名词，意思是免费赠品。Fast food chains always use cheap toys and giveaways to draw in kids. 快餐连锁店往往依靠廉价玩具和免费赠品吸引孩子们前来消费。In order to lure students into coming to its women"s basketball season opener, Kansas State University is offering a giveaway that they cannot refuse--free bacon. 为了吸引学生前来观看女子篮球校队的赛季首场比赛，堪萨斯州立大学让看比赛的学生免费享用培根，使他们无法拒绝诱惑。好的，今天我们学习的词是 giveaway, giveaway, giveaway....
A: 免费白送的赠品，大家都喜欢。
B: Yeah. But remember, there is no such thing as a free lunch. For that little something you get, you usually end up spending a lot more.
A: 是啊，天底下没有免费的午餐，天上也不会掉馅饼。
B: There was this one time that I got a couple of giveaways from a pet store. I gave them to my dog Furball, but they made him sick!
A: You must have been worried to death!
B: Yeah, I love Furball to death, and I WAS worried to death. Let’s check out today’s words and idioms, to death!
Words and Idioms 893 to death
美国习惯用语第 893讲
昨天晚上，我和先生一起去他们公司的Party， 席间遇到一位女士，拉着我们聊个没完。我们跟她并不熟，可是她一直在大谈自己的孩子，向我们炫耀她儿子考上了好大学，又是游泳健将，还受女孩子欢迎，blah blah blah。她倒是说得滔滔不绝，可我差点睡着了。我当时的感觉，有个习惯用语可以形容，那就是：
M: To death. Death is spelled d-e-a-t-h. To-death. To death.
death，大家都知道，是“死亡”，所以，把to death和某个形容词放在一起，就表示“到极点”、“如何如何得要命”。比如，我在party上遇到的这位女士没完没了地炫耀自己的孩子，她自己可能觉得很享受，可我简直bored to death - 快被烦死了! 不过，我宁愿无聊，也不想经历下面这段话描述的心惊胆战：
M: "I remember walking late at night in New York City years ago. A stranger came up behind me and pointed a gun at my back. He told me t