标准美语发音的13个秘诀 CD 2 Track 25（在线收听）

Exercise 1-52; Reducing Articles                                                       CD 2 Track 25 

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When you used the rubber band with [Däg  zeet  bounz] and when you built your own sentence, you saw that intonation reduces the unstressed words. Intonation is the  peak and reduced sounds are the valleys. In the beginning, you should ma ke extra-high peaks and long, deep valleys. When you are not sure, reduce. In the following exercise, work with this  idea. Small words such as articles, prepositions, pr onouns, conjunctions, relative pronou ns, and auxiliary verbs are lightly skimmed over and  almost not pronounced. 

You have seen how intonation changes the meaning in words and sentences. Inside a one-syllable word, it distinguishes betwee n a final voiced or unvoiced consonant  be-ed  and  bet. Inside a longer word,  éunuch vs unί que,  the pronunciation and meani ng change in terms of vocabulary. In a sentence (He seems  nice; He seems nice.), the meaning changes in terms of intent.  

In a sentence, intonation can also make a cl ear vowel sound disappe ar. When a vowel is stressed, it has a certain sound; when it is  not stressed, it usually sounds like  uh,  pronounced [ə]. Small words like to, at,  or as are usually not stressed,  so the vowel disappears.