听力技巧：注意重音和语调

听力技巧：注意重音和语调

Say this sentence aloud and count how many seconds it takes.

大声的朗读这个句子，看看你花了多长时间：

The beautiful Mountain appeared transfixed in the distance.

Time required? Probably about 5 seconds. Now, try speaking this sentence aloud.

多久?5秒钟?现在试着大声朗读这个句子：

He can come on Sundays as long as he doesn't have to do any homework in the evening.

Time required? Probably about 5 seconds.

多少时间?大约5秒钟.

不过第一个句子比第二个句子短哦。

This simple exercise makes a very important point about how we speak and use English. Namely, English is considered a stressed language while many other languages are considered syllabic. What does that mean? It means that, in English, we give stress to certain words while other words are quickly spoken (some students say eaten!). In other languages, such as French or Italian, each syllable receives equal importance (there is stress, but each syllable has its own length).

这个简单的例子说明了我们是怎样说和使用英语的。在英语中，一些词读的很快，一些词会重读。在法语和意大利语中，每一个音节都同样重要，没有轻重之分，但是每个音节长度不同。

Many speakers of syllabic languages don't understand why we quickly speak, or swallow, a number of words in a sentence. In syllabic languages each syllable has equal importance, and therefore equal time is needed. English however, spends more time on specific stressed words while quickly gliding over

the other, less important, words.

讲这些语言的人就不明白一个句子中的一些词为什么需要快读，

或者慢下来。对这类语言来说，每个音节都同样重要，所以需要同样

的时间。但是，英语在一些特别的需要重读的词上花的时间多些，一

些不重要的词就快速略过。

Let's look at a simple example： the modal verb "can". When we use the positive form of "can" we quickly glide over the can and it is hardly pronounced.

On the other hand, when we use the negative form "can't" we tend to stress the fact that it is the negative form by

also stressing "can't".

As you can see from the above example the sentence, "They can't come on Friday" is longer than "They can come on Friday" because both the modal"can't" and the verb "come" are stressed.

举一个简单的例子。情态动词can。在我们需要强调can的肯定意义的时候就会快速略过，发音不明显。不过，当你要用can的否定形

式的时候，我们就会重点强调"不能"这个事实，也就是"can't"