yingwen

Famous Artists - Part I

Pronunciation of some famous names…

	Monet (莫內) - 1840–1926 French painter. More pictures here.
	Raphael (拉斐尔) - 1483–1520 Italian painter. More pictures here.
	Michelangelo (米開朗基羅) - 1475–1564 Italian sculptor, painter, architect, & poet. More pictures here.
	Picasso (畢卡索) - 1881–1973 Spanish painter & sculptor in France. More pictures here.
	Warhol (華荷) - 1928–1987 American artist & filmmaker. More pictures here.
	Matisse (馬蒂斯) - 1869–1954 French painter. More pictures here.

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Famous Names

Pronunciation of some famous names…

	Beethoven (貝多芬) - 1770–1827 German composer.
	Mozart (莫扎特) - 1756–1791 Austrian composer.
	Aristotle (亚里士多德) - 384–322 b.c. Greek philosopher.
	Plato (柏拉圖) - 428–348 b.c. Greek philosopher.
	Wittgenstein (维特根斯坦) - 1889–1951 British (Austrian-born) philosopher.
	Kant (康德) - 1724–1804 German philosopher.
	Rembrandt (伦勃朗) - 1606–1669 Dutch painter.

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American First Names

Below is a list of the 20 most common first names given to American children in the 1980s (full list here). In other words, these are the most common first names of Americans aged 19 to 29 today. I couldn’t find audio files for all of them, but I listed the ones I could find.

Most Popular Names of the 1980s

	Male			Female
Rank	Name	Number	Percenta	Name	Number	Percentb
1	Michael	662,983	3.4518	Jessica	469,175	2.5450
2	Christopher	555,583	2.8926	Jennifer	440,631	2.3902
3	Matthew	458,527	2.3873	Amanda	369,538	2.0045
4	Joshua	396,233	2.0630	Ashley	351,996	1.9094
5	David	383,119	1.9947	Sarah	272,282	1.4770
6	James	356,075	1.8539	Stephanie	217,999	1.1825
7	Daniel	345,001	1.7962	Melissa	217,808	1.1815
8	Robert	321,353	1.6731	Nicole	210,358	1.1411
9	John	320,665	1.6695	Elizabeth	198,743	1.0781
10	Joseph	299,023	1.5568	Heather	191,770	1.0402
11	Jason	291,769	1.5191	Tiffany	158,535	0.8600
12	Justin	289,602	1.5078	Michelle	153,877	0.8347
13	Andrew	284,738	1.4825	Amber	153,872	0.8347
14	Ryan	278,632	1.4507	Megan	153,434	0.8323
15	William	247,982	1.2911	Amy	150,583	0.8168
16	Brian	233,740	1.2170	Rachel	146,540	0.7949
17	Brandon	232,024	1.2080	Kimberly	146,400	0.7941
18	Jonathan	229,638	1.1956	Christina	145,895	0.7914
19	Nicholas	223,093	1.1615	Lauren	145,047	0.7868
20	Anthony	211,618	1.1018	Crystal	140,953	0.7646

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The R Sound

Practice pronouncing the “r” sound.

Part 2:

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