你知道什么是回文palindromes吗？

回文就是正着和反着读都是相同的文字，例如：英文单词madam，反过来还是madam，又如句子Eva, can I stab bats in a cave?其中stab和bats就是回文形式。

同样，中文中也有回文结构，例如：心清可品茶，茶品可清心。

Broadcast: January 8, 2003

AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster — a passel of palindromes in our traditional salute to January!

RS: When you can spell something forward or backward and have it read the same, that's a palindrome. January isn't a palindrome, obviously. But it is named after Janus, the Roman god usually depicted with two faces: one looking forward, the other looking backward.

AA: Either way, we think Janus would have looked highly on this skit you're about to hear. We play it each January to welcome the New Year.

RS: It's about a cowboy with an unusual speaking habit. It spoofs a popular television show from the 1950s called "Paladin." The skit is called "The Ballad of Palindrome." And it's by the cowboy musical group, Riders in the Sky?

AUDIO: "The Ballad of Palindrome/Palindrome: The Scene with Johnny Western"

RS: ... That's Riders in the Sky, with "The Ballad of Palindrome" from their album "A Great Big Western HOWDY!" (Rounder Records, 1998.)

AA: And that's Wordmaster for this week. Our e-mail address is word@voanews.com. And if you've got a palindrome of your own that you'd like us all to hear, send it along!

RS: And we invite you to our Web site. It's voanews.com/wordmaster. Wishing you a happy 2004, with Avi Arditti, I'm Rosanne Skirble.