Владимир Аракин - Практический курс английского языка 1 курс

"Peter, may I take your book?"

"By all means."

("Of course you may.")

"John, haven't you finished that

book yet?" "I've only just begun it."

"Darling, will you marry me?" "No, but I will always admire your good

taste."

Peter's got your pen, Daddy." "Put it down. Peter."

'Mike's pulling my hair, Mummy." 'Stop it, Mike."

I've been helping Mummy, Daddy."

That's a good girl."

"John, why were you absent yesterday?"

"I was ill. Here is a note from the doctor."

"Can I have an apple, Mother?"

"You ate the last one th.s morning."

"Ann, it's time to get up." "But it's only half past six."

"Hello, Steve."

"Good afternoon, Mr. Davis."

"Which will you take, Henry?" "This one."

"I pointed it all by myself,

Daddy." "There's a clever boy."

"It Was all your fault, Ann." "But it wasn't."

"Tom's having tea. What for you,

Peter?" "I'd prefer a cup of coffee."

"Can you go to the circus, Daddy?" "I'll see."

"John will be at home at seven,

Mrs. Read." "Thank you." "I'm so sorry, Mummy."

"Are you really sorry? "

"Can I have an ice-cream,

Mum?" "Later on."

"Tell me, doctor. Is he badly

hurt?" "Nothing at all serious."

11. *** This exercise is meant to develop your ability to read a text with

proper intonation, a) Listen to the text "The Big Stores" sentence by

sentence. Mark the stresses and tunes. Practise reading the text, b) Record

your reading. Play the recording back immediately for your teacher and

fellow-students to detect your possible errors, c) Practise the story for test

readings:

The Big Stores

I went into one of the big London stores today and enjoyed myself very

much, just wandering from one department to another, looking at the various

articles on the counters. I thought the assistants were very helpful. There must

have been some hundreds of salesmen and saleswomen and dozens of different

departments, including china, haberdashery, confectionery, hardware and even

provisions. I went from one department to another — from umbrellas to gloves,

from fancy goods to lace — up and down, in lifts and on escalators. As I was

going through the book department, I was surprised to meet an old friend of

mine, whom I hadn't seen for years. We went up to the restaurant and had lunch

together.

We didn't finish lunch until half past two. Then we did some shopping

together. I helped her to buy some presents for her children. I can't tell you how

glad we were to see each other again. We used to be very great friends. I hadn't

seen her for — let me see — ten or twelve years, at least.

12. This exercise is meant to develop your ability to read and narrate a

story with proper intonation, a) Listen to the joke. Write it down. Mark the

stresses and tunes. Practise reading the joke, b) Listen carefully to the

narration of the joke. Observe the peculiarities in intonation-group division,

pitch, stress and tempo. Note the use of temporisers. Retell the joke

according to the model you have listened to.

13. Read the jokes silently to make sure you understand each sentence, find the most

important phrase in the story, underline it, split up every sentence into intonation-groups,

mark the stresses and tunes. Practise reading the jokes several times. Retell the jokes

following the model above (See Ex. 12):

Jack's Mistake

J a c k ' s M o t h e r : There were three pieces of cake in the cupboard, Jack,

and now there are only two.

J a c k : It was so dark there, Mamma, that I didn't see the others.

A Correction

T e a c h e r : Jimmie, why don't you wash your face? I can see what you had

for breakfast this morning. L i t t l e b o y : What was it? T e a c h e r : Eggs!

L i t t l e b o y : You are wrong, teacher, that was yesterday.

Whose Mistakes?

T e a c h e r (looking through Teddy's homework): I wonder how one

person could make so many mistakes.

T e d d у: It wasn't one person, teacher. Father helped me.

Father and Son

F a t h e r : You know, Tom, when Lincoln was your age he was a very good

pupil. In fact, he was the best pupil in his class.

T o m : Yes. Father, 1 know that. But when he was your age he was President

of the United States.

At a Restaurant

"Here, waiter, it seems to me tha't this fish is not so fresh as the fish you

served us last Sunday." "Pardon, sir, it is the same fish."

Section Twelve

I. Intonation of the Author's Words

M o d e l : "I'm not ready," he said."Are you ,sure?" he asked, |.looking

x

a , round him ashe , spoke.He > said: | Look at the^picture."He ,said: |

"The film was^excellent."He said: | "That's all."

v

x

The Author's Words Following Direct Speech

The author's words which follow the direct speech are usually pronounced as

an unstressed or half-stressed tail ofthe preceding intonation-group.

e. g. "I'm -» not vready," he said.

"Is -> this for ,me?" he asked with surprise.

If the tail gets longer, it may form a separate intonation-group. In this case it

is stressed and is pronounced with the same nuclear tone as the preceding

intonation-group but on a lower pitch level.

e. g. "I'm xsorry," | a, gain re, pea ted the ^landlord

If the author's words form two or more intonation-groups, the first of them

doesn't form a separate intonation-group. The second and the third are always

stressed and pronounced each on a lower pitch level. The nuclear tone of the

final intonation-group is usually that of the sentences in the direct speech. The

non-final intonation-groups may be pronounced either with the low-rising tone or

with the low-falling tone according to their semantic importance.

e. g. "What a vpity!" was all I said | when he .broke a x glass."VDo you

'think 'that's ,fair?" she asked, | .looking at me with surprise.

EXERCISES

M o d e l 1: "I'm -> not vready," he said slowly.

"-+ No, I vcan't," she replied, | shaking her head.