Give your own replies to the Verbal Context of Ex. 1 and 6.
9. Read the following situations. Convey the attitudes suggested in brackets:
Don't cry. I wish I hadn't been so rude. You have all me sympathy. (regret, sympathy)
Oh, tell me it is not true! Lie to me! Lie to me! Tell me it is not true! (pleading)
Oh, what a dear little puppy! (sincere appreciation)
Thank you so much. (sincere gratitude)
I don't think it will last long. (reassuring)
I think I'll go to bed. I'm so tired. (plaintive)
10. Listen to the dialogue on the tape ("Dinner-table Talk"). Pick out sentences containing the High Fail + the Low Rise. Say what attitude is conveyed in them. Use these sentences in conversational situations of your own.
11. Listen to the Verbal Context and express sympathy in the replies. Use the proper intonation pattern:
| Verbal Context | Drill |
| Oh I'm cold. | Poor thing! I do think, it's a pity. I'm so sorry! Never mind. |
| He says he's ill. | What a disappointment! Can you imagine it! Too bad! Bad luck! Just fancy! Things do happen! |
| I can't come this evening. | Oughtn't you to be ashamed of it! What a disappointment! How extraordinary! |
| I haven't seen Jenny for ages! | Terrible, isn't it! Too bad for words! Good Heavens! How very peculiar! What a pity! |
| Janet seems to be avoiding me. | Isn't she a fool! What a tragedy! I simply can't think! I do think it's a pity! |
| You've made the same mistake again. | Aren't I a fool! Good Heavens! Fancy that! I simply can't think! What a shame! |
| The jacket's worn out already. | What a disappointment! Poor me! What a pity! |
| Michael has just died. | Perfectly horrid! Too bad for words! What a tragedy! Wasn't it absolutely tragic! |
| They won't help us. | Wouldn't it be simply appalling. Oughtn't they to be ashamed of it! Beastly, isn't it! |
12. This exercise is meant to develop your ability to hear and reproduce intonation in conversation.
a) Listen to the dialogue "About the Job" carefully, sentence by sentence. Write it down. Mark the stresses and tunes. The teacher will help you to correct your variant. Practise reading each sentence of your corrected variant after the cassette-recorder.
B) Record your reading. Play the recording back immediately for your teacher and your fellow-students to detect your errors. Practise the dialogue for test reading.
13. Make up conversational situations, using the following phrases:
He hasn't even got to ... yet.
That's my idea of ... .
Are you sure you don't want to be ...?
Is it my ... we're planning, or yours?
No, I'm sorry, ... but I... .
Look here.
All right, all right, there is no need to ... .
I really wanted to be ... .
I haven't made up my mind yet.
Maybe not.
Well, that's not the way I look at it.
You haven't answered my question yet.
I don't want to at all.
Make up a dialogue about your future profession.
This exercise is meant to develop your ability to hear intonation and reproduce it in reading and narration.
a) listen to the joke "Nothing to Complain About", sentence by sentence. Write it down. Mark stresses and tunes. Practise the joke for test reading.
b) Listen to the narration of the joke. Observe the peculiarities in intonation-group division, pitch, stress and tempo. Note the use of temporizers. Reproduce the model narration of the joke.
This exercise is meant to test your ability to analyze and reproduce material for reading and retelling.
A) Read the jokes silently to make sure you understand each sentence. Underline the sentence expressing the essence of the joke. Split up each sentence into intonation groups if necessary. Locate the communicative centre of each sentence. Mark the stresses and tunes, concentrating your attention on the attitude expressed. It is not expected that each student will mark the story in exactly the same way. Discuss your variants in class. The teacher will help you to choose the best variant. Practise your corrected variant for test reading.
b) Retell the jokes in your own words:
No Music Lessons
Once the teacher asked his pupil: "Bobby, how many fingers have you?" The pupil answered at once: "I have ten fingers."
The teacher asked him another question: "Well,if four were missing what would you have then?" "No music lessons," was the answer.
At the Lessen
"Well, Alex, how much is two plus one?" asked the teacher, "I don't know, sir," answered the boy. "Well, Alex! Fancy I give you two dogs and then one dog more. Mow many dogs have you now?" "Four dogs," the boy answered timidly. "Why, Alex?" "Because I have one dog already, sir."
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One morning a boy was going by a London bus to school. He had a cold and was sniffing all the time and so loudly that the people began to look at him and shake their heads. An old gentleman was sitting next to the boy. He suffered the boy's sniffing for some time but at last lost his patience and said: "Haven't you got a handkerchief, my boy?"
"Yes, I've got a clean handkerchief in my pocket," said the boy, "but I can't let you have it. Mother says it is not polite to ask anybody for a handkerchief. You must use your own."
SECTION SIX Compound Tunes
TWO OR MORE FALLS WITHIN ONE SENSE-GROUP
In sense-groups with the High Falling or Falling-Rising nuclear tone there may be one or more other words marked by a relatively high falling tone. The function of such Falls is to provide a greater degree of prominence for the words on which they occur. All other words of the head are not stressed. The attitude expressed by the sentence is not changed but the utterance sounds emphatic. In this case the head is called Sliding.
Compare:
1. Listen carefully to the following conversational situations. Concentrate your attention on the intonation of the replies: