Word Combinations and Phrases. A) Listen to the recording of Text Seven and mark the stresses and tunes, b) Repeat the text in the intervals after the model.


 

EXERCISES

 

A) Listen to the recording of Text Seven and mark the stresses and tunes, b) Repeat the text in the intervals after the model.

Find the following words in a dictionary, translate them and practise the pro nunciation:

 

wriggle, wander, languid, resentful, sullen, vivacious, sword, se-cretive, ambitious, adolescence, coal-scuttle, perplexing, cosmopol-itan, temporarily, stacatto

 

3. Read the following words paying attention to the primary and secondary stresses:

 

,inde'pendent, ,inclination, ,ciga'rette, ,disap'pointment,

.possibility, .oppor'tunities, .gene'ration, ,civili'zation

 

4. Practise the pronunciation of the following word combinations paying at tention to the phonetic phenomena of connected speech:

 

and though it was only cold mutton; don't sit there dreaming; and the mint sauce; I can be there and back; grunted impatiently; thin about the neck and shoulders; sprang into a vivid personal life of her own; Mr. Smeeth slowly knocked out his pipe in the coal-scuttle; grumbling about the children; he had enjoyed them when they were young; he no longer understood them; he simply tried one thing af-ter another; he would have been quick to defend them

 

5. Read the following word combinations; mind the pronunciation of the na sal sonant [13], especially in the intervocalic position:

 

for the time being; letting her do everything; a way of acting, of looking, of talking; to do a bit of washing-up; when she was going out; planning and working; selling wireless sets; getting anywhere;


 

for the time being for that matter

to take offence

to turn a tolerant (angry, loving, etc.) eye on smb a touch of

pride (resentment,

tenderness, humour, etc. Also: a touch of the flu)


 

to work oneself up to a good position

 

to get nowhere (not to get any-where)

 

to be well aware of smth. to apply certain standards

 

to smb.


 

nothing wrong; they were growing up; very perplexing and vaguely saddening; they belonged to a younger generation; knowing eye for a machine; and drooping eyelid; the smallest details of his motor-cycling and dancing

 

6. Read the beginning of the first extract up to "Didn't give me time, that's all", noting the intonation of the author's words and paying attention to the use of ad equate intonation patterns both in the stimuli and responses to convey proper at titudes.


 

196 197


 

Read the following passage from "Left to himself,..." up to "... and vaguely saddening". Observe the intonation group division using proper intonation pat terns and beating the time; note strong and weak forms and the intonation of pa renthesis and parenthetic groups.

Read the text and consider its following aspects.

What can be deduced from the first five paragraphs about the relations be tween the parents and the daughter? Point out the sentences which indirectly re

 

Veal the relations.

 

Exemplify the use of epithets used in the portrait-sketch of Edna. What kind of attitude do they create? Find the stylistic device of contrast in the same descrip tion. Sum up what you have learned about Edna from this paragraph.

Explain and enlarge on: "...her father ... could not imagine how his home, for which he saw himself for ever planning and working, appeared in the eyes of fretful, secretive and ambitious adolescence".

What would be lost if the sentence "Mr. Smeeth... stared into the fire, brood ing" ran: "Mr. Smeeth looked into the fire, thinking"?

Explain the meaning of:

 

George had shown an inclination... to go his own way, which seemed to Mr. Smeeth a very poor way. He had no desire... to work himself steadily up to a good safe position.... to George, there was nothing wrong.... he applied to them stan-dards they did not recognize; his huge indifferences...

 

Select the sentences and phrases.in which George's portrait-sketch is given. Sum up, in your own words, what you have gathered about George from the de scription.

What is the difference in the methods of portrayal applied in the descrip tions of Edna and George?

Explain what is meant by: "Their world was at once larger and shallower than that of their parents".

Comment on the syntax in the extract beginning "They were the product..." and ending "They were less English". What is the effect produced by the change of the rhythm as compared to the syntax of the preceding paragraphs?