Unit twelve

Task 1. Listen to the recorded words and word combinations. Write them in the alphabetical order. Transcribe them. Practise their pronunciation.

Cartoon

Opera

Reggae

Horror film

Entertaining

Thriller

Scuba diving

Windsurfing

Athlete

Compete

Referee

Umpire

Competitive

Snorkeling

Wrestling

Extreme skiing

Couch potato

Stay-at-home

Fatigue

Listless

Recreational

Leisure

Hustle

Frustrate

Loose

Out-of-doors

Temptation

Ramble

Breathe

Vigour

Spur

Photography

Yoga

Western

Funk

Blues

Bustle

Undemanding

Havoc

Bonfire

Sightseeing

Favour

Travelogue

Superb

Repairs

Irregularly

Arrogant

Diversion

Nightlife

Documentary

Crayons

Task 2. Read the words in Task 1. Group them according to the vowels in stressed syllables. Explain the reading rules. Do it in writing.

Task 3.Read the following short conversations. Lay stress-and-tone marks to express semantic contrasts in the replies. Establish a set of prosodic means conveying semantic contrasts. Do it in writing. Make up your own examples (5 conversations) to illustrate your understanding of the phenomenon. Practise reading the conversations. Record your reading.

a) – I’ve bought you a book by an English writer.

– But I asked you to give me something by a Ukrainian writer.

b) – Jim is on holiday now.

– And I was told he’d already had his holiday.

c) – Let’s call Bill and ask him.

– It’s no use calling Bill. He’s away in London as far as I know.

Task 4. Read the following sentences. Mark the modifications in accentual structure of words with two equally strong stresses under the influence of rhythm. Transcribe the sentences. Give their tonograms. Draw the boundaries between the rhythmic groups. Give written explanations as to the shift of stress in the analysed words. Make up your own examples (5 pairs of sentences) to illustrate your understanding of the phenomenon. Practise reading them. Record your reading.

a) He has five o’clock tea nearly every afternoon.

b) He has afternoon tea. It’s nearly five o’clock.

c) Have a piece of home-made cake.

d) This cake is home-made.

e) The Budapest climate’s of a continental type.

f) He lives in Budapest. The climate’s continental.

Task 5. Listen to the following dialogues and exercises. Write them down. Lay stresses and tone marks. Concentrate on the intonation of utterances expressing hopes and wishes, give its graphical presentation. Formulate the rules of grammatical structure and intonational organisation of utterances expressing hopes and wishes. Practise reading the dialogues imitating the speakers’ intonation.

Thompson P. 71-78.

Task 6. Read the text given below. Make sure you understand what it is about. Divide each sentence into syntagms, lay stresses and tone marks, practise your reading technique. Record your reading.

Many people, when they begin the study of a new language, are discouraged by the number of strange sounds they have to learn. They sometimes ask: Is it really necessary to learn them all perfectly? Surely, they will say, even if my sounds are not accurate, I shall still be understood. The answer is that they may be understood, but not so readily. In the pronunciation of many Africans no distinction is made between leave and live, between bird and bed, and between hat and heart; and surely, when you say He lost his heart you do not want it to sound like He lost his hat. Moreover, if you do manage to make yourself understood, you will not express yourself well; you will not do yourself justice unless your pronunciation is good. The ideal to be aimed at in learning English is such a degree of perfection that an Englishman who does not know you and who is listening behind a curtain while you speak, cannot tell that English is not your mother tongue.

But can one really learn to speak like an Englishman? Can one learn an entirely new set of sounds perfectly? Undoubtedly, the best way to learn the pronunciation of another language is by a systematic study of the sounds of the language and the way in which they are produced. Then you can learn to speak English with a very good accent, and if you concentrate enough, you can make your pronunciation perfect [Christophersen: 3-4].