标准美语发音的13个秘诀 CD 1 Track 23

 

Exercise 1 -15: Application of Stress                                            CD 1 Track 23 

Mark every word or syllable¹ with ' where you thin k that the sound is stressed. Use the first sentence as y our example. Check Answer Ke y , be ginning on pa ge 193. Pause the CD.

Hello, my’ name is______________. I'm taking American Accent Training. There's a lot to learn, but I hope to make it as enjoyable as possible. I should pi ck up on the American intonation² pattern pretty easily, although the only way to get it is to practice all of the time. I use the up and down, or peaks and valleys, intonation more than  I used to. I've been paying attention to pitch, too. It's like walking  down a staircase³. I've been talking to a lot of Americans lately, and they tell me that I'm easier to underst and. Anyway, I could go  on and on, but the important thing is to listen well and sound good. We ll, what do you think? Do I? 

V Listen and re-mark the stressed words with your  marker. After you've pu t in the accent marks where you think they belong, take one of the colored translucent⁴ markers and as I read very slowly, mark the words that I  stress. I am going to exaggerate the words far more than you' d normally hear in a normal  reading of the  paragraph. You can mark either the whole word or just the strong syllable, whiche ver you prefer, so that you have a bright spot of color for where the stress should fall.  

Note If you do the exercise onl y in pencil, your eye and mind will tend to skip over the accent marks.The spots of color, however, will register as "different" and thereby⁵ encourage your pitch change. This may strike you as unusual, but trust me, it works.  

*   Pause the CD and practice reading the paragraph out loud three times on your own. 

1 syllable   

n.音节；vt.分音节

参考例句：

• You put too much emphasis on the last syllable.你把最后一个音节读得太重。
• The stress on the last syllable is light.最后一个音节是轻音节。

2 intonation   

n.语调，声调；发声

参考例句：

• The teacher checks for pronunciation and intonation.老师在检查发音和语调。
• Questions are spoken with a rising intonation.疑问句是以升调说出来的。

3 staircase   

n.楼梯，楼梯间

参考例句：

• Footsteps on the staircase interrupted his train of thought.楼梯上传来脚步声，打断了他的思路。
• I crossed the staircase landing,and entered the room she indicated.我经过一个楼梯平台，走进她说的那个房间。

4 translucent   

adj.半透明的；透明的

参考例句：

• The building is roofed entirely with translucent corrugated plastic.这座建筑完全用半透明瓦楞塑料封顶。
• A small difference between them will render the composite translucent.微小的差别,也会使复合材料变成半透明。

5 thereby   

adv.因此，从而

参考例句：

• I have never been to that city,,ereby I don't know much about it.我从未去过那座城市，因此对它不怎么熟悉。
• He became a British citizen,thereby gaining the right to vote.他成了英国公民，因而得到了投票权。