Background Information Organization of the Text Introductory Questions Text& New Word Reading Intensive Study Exercise Check-up Assignment

1. Definition of tone Tones are pitch variations, which are caused by the differing rates of vibration of the vocal cords. 声调是由于声带振动的速率的不同而引起的音高变化

Part Two Sounds in Connected Speech 1. Strong and Weak Forms 2. Assimilation and elision 3. Liaison 4. Length of a sound 5. Word stress 6. Sentence stress 7. Rhythm 8. Sense groups and Pause

The importance of phonetic study 1) Phonetics is the science of speech sounds. It deals with the sound system of a language. A language consists of three important elements, namely, speech sounds, vocabulary and grammar. Speech

202.The length of a sound is the length of time during which it is held on continuously in a given word or phrase. The principal facts concerning length in English are given in the following rules: 203. Length of vowels 1.English vowels [i:], are longer than the other English vowels in similar context,i.e when surrounded by the same sounds, and pronounced with the same degree of stress Thus the vowels in bead

When we talk, we don't talk in single words but in groups of words spoken continuously. These groups of words which are closely connected in meaning and in grammar are called sense groups. sense group is tone-group-(语调群) in intonation. long sentence can be cut up into two or more tone-groups We may make a short pause after each group, but not during the group

Rhythm in English speech is based on stress. rhythm unit节奏单位)is formed by stressed syllable, together with unstressed syllables which may come before the stress and after it.The unstressed syllables before the stress are said very quickly, so they are very short, as short as you can make them; but the stressed syllable is as long as before, so there is great difference of length between the unstressed syllables and the stressed one, e.g

We have seen that every word of two or more syllables, when said alone, has a stress on one of its syllables. This is called word-stress. But in connected speech we do not hear a stress on every word. Some words lose their stresses, especially when we talk quickly, other words keep their stresses and these stressed syllables form what is called sentence-stress

It should first be pointed out that there are two kinds of stress: word stress and sentence stress. The former is concerned with the stressing of individual words of two or more syllables when they are pronounced in isolation

The length of a sound is the length of time during which it is held on continuously in a given word or phrase. The principal facts concerning length in English are given in the following rules: 203. Length of vowels 1. English vowels /i:/, /a: / /:/, /u:/, /a: /are longer than the other English vowels in similar context, i.e., when surrounded by the same sounds, and pronounced with the same degree of stress. Thus