美语口音训练第一册18

Exercise 1-11: Translation CD 1 Track 18

Take the sentence I didn't say he stole the money and translate it into your native language. Write

it down below, using whatever letters or characters you use in your language.

_______________________________

Now that you have written your sentence down, try shifting¹ the stress around in your own

language by going through the stress patterns 1-7 in Exercise 1-9. Don't try to put on a

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particularly American or other accent; just concentrate on stressing a different word in the

sentence each time you say it.

For example, if your language is German, Ich habe nicht gesagt da er das Geld gestohlen hat, you

would change the stress to: Ich habe nicht gesagt da er das Geld gestohlen hat, or Ich habe nicht

gesagt da er das Geld gestohlen hat.

If you translated it into French, you would say, Je n'ai pas dit qu'il a vole l'argent, or Je n' pas dit

qu'il a vole l'argent.

In Japanese, many people think that there are no intonation² changes, but if you hear someone

say, wakkanai, you'll realize that it has similarities to every other language. Watashi wa kare ga

okane o nusunda to wa iimasen deshita. Or perhaps, Watashi wa kare ga okane o nusunda to wa

ümasen deshita.

No matter how strange it may sound to you, stress each different word several times in your

language. You may notice that with some words it sounds perfectly³ normal, but with other words

it sounds very strange. Or you may find that in your language, rather than stressing a word, you

prefer to change the word order or substitute⁴ another word. Whatever you do is fine, as long as

you realize where your language patterns are similar to and different from the American English

intonation patterns. Then, when you do it again, in English, it will be much easier.

Note An excellent exercise is to practice speaking your native language with an American accent. If

you can sound like an American speaking your native language, imagine how easy it would be to

speak English with an American accent.

X Pause the CD and practice shifting the stressed words in your native language.

Intonation Contrast

Below are two sentences—the first is stressed on the most common, everyday word, book. Nine

times out of ten, people will stress the sentence in this way. The second sentence has a less

common, but perfectly acceptable⁵ intonation, since we are making a distinction between two

possible locations.

Normal intonation Where's the book? It's on the table.

Changed intonation Is the book on the table or under it? It's on the table.

X Pause the CD and repeat the sentences.

1 shifting   

n.移位；转移，偏移；狡猾v.改变(shift的现在分词)adj.移动的；多变的；狡诈的

参考例句：

• It's impossible to prove him wrong because he keeps shifting his ground. 要证明他错是不可能的，因为他不断地改变立场。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• These tree belts effectively protect the farmland against shifting sand. 这些防护林带有效地保护了农田，使之免受流沙侵袭。 来自《简明英汉词典》

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 perfectly   

adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地

参考例句：

• The witnesses were each perfectly certain of what they said.证人们个个对自己所说的话十分肯定。
• Everything that we're doing is all perfectly above board.我们做的每件事情都是光明正大的。

4 substitute   

n.代理，代理人，代用品，代替物；vt.代替；vi.替代，取代

参考例句：

• Can you substitute for the singer who is ill?你能替一下那位得了病的歌手吗？
• Yogurt is a perfectly acceptable substitute for cream in cooking.酸奶是烹饪用的特别受欢迎的奶油替代品。

5 acceptable   

adj.可接受的，合意的，受欢迎的

参考例句：

• The terms of the contract are acceptable to us.我们认为这个合同的条件可以接受。
• Air pollution in the city had reached four times the acceptable levels.这座城市的空气污染程度曾高达可接受标准的四倍。