Welcome to Learning English, a daily 30-minute program from the Voice of America.

I'm Katie Weaver.

And I'm Mario Ritter Jr.

This program is designed for English learners, so we speak a little slower and we use words and

phrases especially written for people learning English.

On this program, Andrew Smith answers a Chinese listener's question about the words expand, extend, stretch,

and enlarge. Then Faith Perlow and Jill Robbins present ideas for talking about a special

day in everyone's lives.

Their birthday, they also talk about asking a person's age

and birthday activities.

Then, here our American Stories program,

Part 1 of Rapuccini's Daughter by Nathaniel Hawthorne. But first, here is Andrew.

This week on Ask a Teacher, we answer a question from Anne in China. Here is part of Anne's question.

Hello, teachers. Could you please help me understand the difference between extend, expand, stretch, and enlarge when I describe an activity that makes something larger than its current state?

Thank you, Anne.

We can use the four verbs Anne asked about to express an increase in physical size or amount. We can also use them to express an increase in physical size or amount.

We can also use them to express increasing the time an activity takes.

Extend.

We often use the verb extend to talk about increasing the amount of time for an activity or program.

For example,

Officials want to extend the school year by six weeks.

We can use the verb extend to express an increase in people, things, or ideas.

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