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This exercise is meant to test your ability to introduce some teaching material in class with correct intonation.
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Read the extract from the lecture silently. Intone it Single out the communicative centres. Make them prominent as in the model above. Read and act the extract according to the model:
A: In our first talk we described what I call 'the glide down', a tune in which the first stressed syllable of the sentence is said on a fairly high note. The following stressed syllables are said gradually lower and lower until you come to the last stressed syllable. This syllable starts on a fairly low note and then falls down to the lowest note possible. The whole sentence glides gradually down.
В.: The whole sentence glides gradually down. The whole sentence glides gradually down.
A.: Yes, just like that. But I want to point out to you that in a sentence like this which has five stressed syllables, it's not very easy to make the voice go gradually lower at each stressed syllable.
В.: No. If you're not careful you find that your voice has fallen much too low in the middle of the sentence, when you want to go still lower.
A.: Exactly. But there's remedy for that. Listen again to the same sentence said in a slightly different way.
В.: The whole sentence glides gradually down. The whole sentence glides gradually down.
A.: Did you notice the difference? After the word 'sentence', the voice goes up a little instead of down, as it normally would in a glide down, so that the word 'glides' is on a slightly higher note. Listen again.
В.: The whole sentence glides — sentence glides gradually down.
A: There. Did you hear that? It's just a little trick we have for modifying the glide down in a longer seven stressed syllables. We start off quite normally on a high note, and the second stressed syllable — 'sentence' is on a lower note, just as it is in the ordinary glide down; then the little rise occurs; and after that the tune continues again exactly as before.
В.: There's one point I think we ought to mention, and that is that when the voice rises in the middle of the sentence, it doesn't go up as high as the first stressed syllable.
A.: Oh no, it's only quite a small rise, and you mustn't make it too big, or it will sound wrong. Listen to it just once more.
В.: The whole sentence glides gradually down.
A.: We'll call that tune 'the interrupted glide down' since it is simply a slight variation on our normal glide down; and, by the way, it is used for exactly the same kinds of sentences.
(From "A Course of English Intonation" by J. D. O'Connor)
Act as a teacher in class, using the material from the lectures above.
SUPPLEMENT
SECTION ONE
Ex. 4. Helen's eyes were not very good. So she usually wore glasses. But when she was seventeen and began to go out with a young man, she never wore her glasses when she was with him. When he came to the door to take her out, she took her glasses off but when she came home again she put them on.
One day her mother said to her: "Helen, why do you never wear your glasses when you're with Jim? He takes you to beautiful places in his car but you don't see anything." "Well, Mother," said Helen, "I look prettier to Jim when I'm not wearing my glasses and he looks better to me, too."
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SECTION TWO
Ex. 16. One day Mrs. Johnes went shopping. When her husband came home in the evening, she began to tell him about a beautiful cotton dress. She saw it in the shop that morning she said and... "And you want to buy it," said her husband. "How much does it cost?" "Fifteen pounds." "Fifteen pounds for a cotton dress? That is too much." But every evening when Mr. Johnes came back from work his wife continued to speak only about the dress and at last after a week he said: "Oh, buy the dress. Here is the money" She was very happy. But the next evening when Mr. Johnes came home and asked: "Have you got this famous dress?" she said: "No." "Why not?" he asked. "Well, it was still in the window of the shop after a week, so I thought nobody else wanted this dress, so I don't want it either."
SECTION/THREE
Ex. 12. See p. 104.
Ex. 14. A pretty well-dressed young lady stopped a taxi in a big square and said to the driver: "Do you see that young man on the other side of the square?" "Yes," said the taxi-driver. The young man was standing outside the restaurant and looking impatiently at his watch every few seconds. "Take me over there," said the young lady. There were a lot of cars and buses and trucks in the square, so the taxi-driver asked: "Are you afraid to cross the street?" "Oh, no," said the young lady, "but I'm three quarters of an hour late. I said that I'd meet that young man for lunch at one o'clock, and it is now a quarter to two, but if I arrive in a taxi, it will at least seem as if I tried not to be late."
SECTION FOUR
Ex. 12. Dinner-table Talk
— Good evening. I'm so glad you were able to come.... Dinner's ready. Let's go into the dining-room. Mrs. Thompson, will you sit here on my left, and you, Mr. Thompson, there.... How long have you been in London?
— Oh, only a few days, since last Monday, to be exact, and I'm sorry to say we have to return tomorrow week.
— Is this your first visit?
— It's my wife's first visit, but I've been here several times before. I have to come over at least once a year on business, and I feel quite at home in London.
— And what do you think of London, Mrs. Thompson?
— Er — I beg your pardon, I didn't quite catch what you said.
— I was asking what you thought of London.
— Oh, I think it's a wonderful place. There always seems to be something interesting to do.
— And how do you like our weather?
— Well, it's rather changeable, isn't it?
— Yes, it is, but on the whole it's not so bad, once you get used to it. Will you have some more chicken?
— No, thank you.
— What about you, Mr. Thompson?
— Yes, please, just a little. It's delicious.
— I'm so glad you like it... and now what sweet will you have, Mrs. Thompson? There's apple tart and cream, or chocolate trifle.
— Er — trifle for me, please.
— And you Mr. Thompson?
— Trifle for me, too, please.
Insufficient Local Knowledge
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Ex. 16.
A Londoner who was going to the West of England for a holiday, arrived by train at a town, and found that it was pouring. He called a porter to carry his bags to a taxi. On the way out of the s ation, partly to make conversation and partly to get a local opinion on prospects of weather for his holiday, he asked the porter:
"How long has it been raining like this?"
"I don't know sir, I've only been here for fifteen years," was the reply.
SECTION FIVE
Ex. 12. About the Job
Harry: Well, Robert, have you made up your mind yet what you want to do when you leave college?
Nora: Oh, Harry, surely he's a bit young to decide on his career? be hasn't even got to college yet.
Harry: Not at all, Nora. It's wisest to decide in good time. Look at me, for example. I really wanted to be a sailor, but now I spend my days sitting at a desk in an office. Yes, it's silly to train for the wrong job. And after all, Robert will be going to college soon.
Nora: (musing) Now if I were a man I'd be a farmer. To see the crops growing — that's my idea of a good life.
Harry: Well, you haven't answered my question у at, Robert. What would you like to do?
Nora: (wistfully) Are you sure you don't want to be a farmer, Robert? Or a market gardener?
Rоbert: No I'm sorry, Mum, but I don't want to at all. I'd rather be a civil engineer. I want to build roads and bridges.
Harry: Not ships? Isn't it better to be a shipbuilding engineer?
Robert: (crossly) Look here, is it my career we're planning or yours?
Harry (huffed) All right, all right, there's no need to lose your temper. But you'd better win that scholarship first.
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