Practise reading the joke several times

This exercise is meant to test your ability to read and reproduce a story with correct intonation.

This exercise is meant to develop your ability to hear and reproduce intonation in different speech situations.

D) Use the same phrases in a conversation.

a) listen to the story "Helen's eyes were not very good..." [82] carefully, sentence by sentence. Mark the stresses and tunes. (The teacher will help you to correct your variant.) Practise reading your corrected variant

b) Listen carefully to the narration of the story. Observe the peculiari­ties in intonation-group division, pitch, stress and tempo. Note the use of temporizers. Reproduce the model narration of the story.

Read the jokes silently to make sure you understand each sentence. Find the sentence expressing the essence of the joke. Split up each sen­tence into intonation-groups if necessary. Mark the stresses and tunes. Un­derline the communicative centre and the nuclear word of each intonation-group. It is not expected that each student will intone the text in the same way. The teacher will help you to correct your variant

Reproduce the model narration of the joke:

Young Peter came in one day bursting with excitement. Walking down the main street he had suddenly discovered he was side-by-side with movie actor Clark Gable.

— Did you talk to him? we asked.

— Well, it was like this, he said slowly. I knew who he was and he knew who he was — and it just didn't make sense us discussing it.

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Some people were gathered on the verandah after dinner.

A young lady asked: "Can you name five days of the week without mentioning Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday or Sunday?" Nobody could guess. At last the young lady said: "It is very easy. Here are the five days: today, yesterday, the day before yesterday, tomorrow, and the day after tomorrow".

SECTION TWO. Intonation Pattern IX. High fall

(LOW PRE-HEAD +) HIGH FALL (+ TAIL)

Model: Why didn't you buy the picture?

— Much too ex,pensive.

Stress-and-tone marks in the text: High Fall. | ` |

The High Fall in the nucleus starts very high and usually reaches the lowest pitch. The syllables of the tail are pronounced on the low level.

The High Fall provides a greater degree of prominence for the word, making it more emphatic. The degree of prominence depends on the height of the fall.

This intonation pattern is used:

1. In statements, conveying personal concern or involvement, sounding lively, interested, airy; very common in conversation.

е.g. Do you know the man? — `No. (I `don't.) `Yes.| (I `do.) Where's my copy? — `Peter,took it,for you.

2. In questions:

a) In special questions, sounding lively, interested, е.g. I shall be late, I'm afraid. — `How,late?

b) In general questions, conveying mildly surprised acceptance of the listener's premises. е.g. I like it here. Do you? (I thought you'd hate it.)

3. In imperatives, sounding warm.

е.g. What's the matter? — Look. (It's raining.)

4. In exclamations, very emotional. е.g. It's eight o'clock. — Heavens! (I'm late.)

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