英语听力精选进阶版 7967

This week's question comes from Ricky in Xi'an who wants to know more about intonation¹ in English.

As he points out, intonation is different from pronunciation, and is an important part of learning to speak like a native speaker. But it's also quite difficult to learn.

So here are some tips to helps you.

1) Syllable² stress

Every word in English has a natural stress which falls on one of its syllables³. For example, the word 'intonation' has four: in-ton-a-tion.

The stress falls on the third syllable in this word: in-ton-A-tion.

It's a good idea to look up a dictionary to find out where the stress falls whenever you learn a new word.

2) Words of degree

In a sentence, words which indicate degree, like 'extremely', 'absolutely' and 'especially', are often stressed in a sentence, for example:

Intonation is extremely important when communicating in English.

3) Emotion

One other time words are stressed is for emotional effect, for example the word 'tired' would often be stressed in the following sentence, because it is the word which lets us know how the speaker is feeling:

I'm tired of talking English, can we speak Chinese please?

4) Asking questions

When asking questions, we often use a rising or falling intonation at the end of the sentence. Listen to the programme to find out when we use which.

5) Emphasis

Sometimes we want to emphasise⁴ one piece of information in a sentence. For instance compare the following two sentences and work out what is being emphasised:

I want to eat chocolate cake every day.

I want to eat chocolate cake every day.

In the first sentence, what's being emphasised is that the person wants to eat chocolate cake evey day, not another kind of cake.

In the second sentence, the speaker wants to emphasise that they want to eat chocolate cake evey day, not every week or month.

6) Record and listen to yourself

This is a good way to find out how you actually sound when you speak English, and can help you identify areas where you need to improve your pronunciation and intonation.

7) Listen to native speakers as much as possible

Listen and imitate! It's the best way to learn the rhythms of English.

And those are our seven tips for today. Good luck with improving your English intonation!

Glossary 词汇

Intonation 语调

Pronunciation 发音

Native speaker 英文为母语的人

Stress 强调，重音

Syllable 音节

Degree 程度

Rising intonation 升调

Falling intonation 降调

Emphasise 强调

Identify 找出

Imitate 模仿

Rhythm 节奏

1 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。

2 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。

3 syllables   

n.音节( syllable的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• a word with two syllables 双音节单词
• 'No. But I'll swear it was a name of two syllables.' “想不起。不过我可以发誓，它有两个音节。” 来自英汉文学 - 双城记

4 emphasise   

vt.加强...的语气，强调，着重

参考例句：

• What special feature do you think I should emphasise? 你认为我该强调什么呢？
• The exercises heavily emphasise the required readings.练习非常强调必须的阅读。