It was too long it ws too long

Polly and Paul Polly nd Paul

Listen and repeat the following sentences.

Ws she thinking about South America? Yes, she was.

We her brothers and sisters asleep? Yes, they were.

D they like reading? Yes, they do.

Hve you read about South America? Yes, I have.

Ds your friend like reading? Yes, he does.

m I talking to myself? Yes, I am.

 we working hard? Yes, we are.

Hs your friend been to South America? Yes, he has.

Cn you swim? Yes, I can.

Listen to the following dialogue and try to imitate it.

Li Ping: Well, David, where are you going for your holiday?

David: Well, I’m not really sure. I thought perhaps you could give me some advice?

Li Ping: I’d be glad to.

David: Well, I’d like to see a few different cities, and I’d love to take a boat journey.

Li Ping: Have you ever thought of travelling through the Yangzi Gorges? That’s the most well-known boat trip I think, and it is spectacular.

David: Really? The Yangzi Gorges? Yes, well, I’ve heard of them of course. But how could I get there?

Li Ping: Well, you should go to Chongqing and go downstream by boat to Wuhan. There’s a direct flight to Chongqing from Guangzhou.

David: I’m not so keen on flying, actually. Is there a train?

Li Ping: I’m not sure. I’d have to check. But the distance must be pretty big and the journey will take a long time. I’ve got a good guidebook. I think I’ll see what I can find out in that, first. But I can also check it out with the Travel Service.

David: Good idea. Hope you can get it fixed for me.

Li Ping: Sure, I will. I’ll see you later.

David: Thanks. See you later.

Work in pairs.

Situation: A is a student. B is a teacher from England. The teacher is planning a trip to either Huangshan or the Himalayas all by himself. Try to answer his questions and give him some advice if you have any. Try to speak fluently and naturally.

Unit 15 Linking

Test 1

Listen to the following phrases and sentences. Mark the linking between the final consonant of a word and the initial vowel of the next word.

Example: as bad as that

1. a lot of work

2. as soon as possible

3. the dog outside

4. Both of us went out.

5. The fish is excellent.

6. Come along home if you like.

7. He fetched it for me.

8. Tell us all about it.

9. Is he ill again?

10. Can I offer you an apple?

Test 2

Listen to the following sentences. Mark the linking between the final consonant of a word and the initial vowel of the next word. When you come across a linking-r or intrusive-r, write the // sound at the appropriate position.

//

Example: Look at the one on the corner of the street.

1. She is going to major in English.

2. Is your hometown far away?

3. Say that over and over again.

4. They’re new to the work after all.

5. Peter isn’t here yet.

6. It’s going to clear up soon.

7. Would you like to share it?

8. Both my father and mother are coming tonight.

9. They’ve been there for an hour.

10. The author is going to give a talk.

Test 3

Listen to the following sentences. Mark the linking between the final consonant of a word and the initial consonant of the next word.

Example: How can I start without Tim?

1. The work is half finished.

2. Next, we’ll mix sand and water.

3. Look at those black cards.

4. We saw a big gap.

5. Shall we keep going?

6. Don’t stop them.

7. You look sad.

8. Put the cat down.

9. Stop fighting, boys.

10. He phoned the teacher last night.

Test 4

Listen to the following sentences. Mark the // or // linking between the final vowel of a word and the initial vowel of the next word.

// //

Example: Can you ask him to come back to the office at eight?

1. My ears hurt.

2. Can you say it again?

3. We agreed to take him along.

4. May I ask you a question?

5. It was windy actually.

6. Did you see the two others?

7. He’s not going to do anything.

8. You have another two hours.

9. How old is the boy?

10. Will Joe eat it?

Test 5

Listen to the following sentences. Mark the linking between the final // or // sound of a word and the initial // sound of the next word.

//

Example: I’ll get you something new.

1. Won’t you go tomorrow?

2. Weren’t you at home last night?

3. Don’t you like it?

4. Can’t you see the point?

5. Couldn’t you finish it by eight?

6. But you were late last night.

7. I wanted to connect you, but you were out.

8. I tried to put you through.

9. It doesn’t fit you.

10. Is that what you want?

Listen and repeat the following sentences. Pay attention to the linking of the words within the word group.

1. Take only a little at a time.

2. Come every once in a while.

3. He lives alone.

4. Who brings it up?

5. Who can beat you at tennis?

6. Can I look at it?

7. Would you like to try it out?

8. I’ll go out for a few weeks.

9. You don’t want to end up like this.

10. Come on in.

Listen to the following dialogue and try to imitate it.

Bill: Anne’s just phoned. She and her brother are both on their way. Is dinner nearly ready? Can I help you with anything, Mum?

Mum: Yes. Can you get two eggs from the fridge?

Bill: Which eggs? The larger ones or the smaller ones?

Mum: The large ones, of course.

Bill: So, I’ll get you two large eggs. Anything else?

Mum: Yes. Squeeze another three oranges, and put the fresh orange juice in a jug, please.

Bill: Right. What next?

Mum: Lay the table for me. Each person needs a knife and for, and a cup and saucer.

Bill: OK.

Work in pairs.

Situation: A is the secretary in Prof. Cai’s office. B is a foreign expert working in the department. B calls to ask Prof. Cai to meet his visiting friend. Try to speak fluently and naturally.

Unit 16 Rhythm

Test 1

Listen to the following pairs of sentences. Underline the stressed words. Pay attention to rhythm and length of the vowels.

Example: Get pencils, rulers and notebooks.

Get them some pencils, some rulers and some notebooks.

1. Keep dogs, cats, and snakes.

Keep the dogs, and the cats and the snakes.

2. Keep pigs, cows, and sheep.

Keep the pigs, and the cows, and the sheep.

3. Grow beans, dates, and rice.

Grow some beans, and some dates, and some rice.

4. By maps, pens, and books.

By me some maps, and some pens and some books.

5. Get water, tea, and coffee.

Get me some water, and some tea and some coffee.

6. Sam likes good food.

Mr. Sam likes expensive food.

7. Don’t feed bears.

We’ll never feed the bears.

8. I like Jane too.

I’m going to like Victoria too.

9. Build airport runways.

The workers are repairing the runways.

10. Don’t say that.

What will you say about that?

Listen and repeat the following sentences after marking out the stressed words.

Put it down.

Ask him to put it down.

Could you ask him to put it down?

I wonder if you could ask him to put it down.

Would it be possible for you to ask him to put it down?

Clean it again.

Ask her to clean it again.

Could you ask her to clean it again?

I wonder if you could ask her to clean it again.

Would it be possible for you to ask her to clean it again?

Come on Monday.

Ask them to come on Monday.

Could you ask them to come on Monday?

I wonder if you could ask them to come on Monday.

Would it be possible for you to ask them to come on Monday?

Listen to the following dialogue and try to imitate it.

Gloria: It’s hot and sticky! Is it always as hot as this here in summer?

David: I thought you’d be used to hot weather. Didn’t you use to work in Mexico City? Temperatures get pretty high there, don’t they?

Gloria: But it’s much drier there, so I didn’t mind the heat so much. The nights are cooler too, because the temperature drops quite a lot when the sun sets.

David: I see. What about the winters in Mexico? Are they the same as here in Guangzhou?

Gloria: Oh no, the winters here are much milder. It’s far colder in Mexico. You have to wear a lot of extra clothes.

David: Just like in Beijing.

Gloria: Oh no … not nearly as cold as that! Beijing must be one of the coldest cities in the world in winter.

David: Well, it’s all very different from England, isn’t it?

Gloria: Yes, that’s certainly true. The English climate is much milder. And much more changeable, too.

Work in pairs.

Situation: A is a Chinese student. B is an English visitor. A is showing B around on his campus. He is asking a lot of questions about A’s university and the most well-known university in the locality. Try to speak fluently and naturally.

Unit 17 Types of Intonation

Test 1

Listen to the following sentences. Stressed words are in capital letters. Mark ↘ before the syllable where the voice starts to go down.

Example: I MET him in the ↘LAB.

I’ll FINISH it TO↘DAY.

1. It’s MINE.

2. It was NINE O’CLOCK.

3. I was in LONDON on SUNDAY.

4. He’s STUDYING FRENCH.

5. She was GOING AWAY.

6. We’ll GO for a WALK.

7. He WANTS some BEEF.

8. I’m afraid I CAN’T.

9. START doing it NOW.

10. COME to the BLACKBOARD.

Test 2

Listen to the following questions. Stressed words are in capital letters. Mark ↗ before the syllable where the voice starts to go up.

Example: Did you ↗SEE him?

1. Are you HUNGRY?

2. Are they NEW here?

3. Would you LIKE some?

4. Can I SIT here?

5. Are they COMING?

6. Were they LATE last NIGHT?

7. Do you WORK for the NEWS?

8. Do you WORK in the EVENIGN?

9. Did he TALK to you ABOUT it?

10. Did I HEAR you CORRECTLY?

Test 3

Listen to the following sentences. Stressed words are in capital letters. Mark ↘↗ before the syllable where the voice starts to go down if the falling-rising falls on one stressed syllable. If the falling-rising falls on two or more stressed syllables, mark ↘ before the syllable where the voice starts to go down and ↗ before the syllable where the voice starts to go up.

Example: ↘↗Many of them.

He was ↘very ↗friendly.

1. THAT’S GOOD.

2. It’s BEAUTIFUL

3. TRY it.

4. PLEAS.

5. USUALLY

6. He USED to.

7. We’ll WAIT.

8. We’ll WAIT for TOM.

9. I said NOW.

10. They’d ARRIVED.

Falling tone:

Listen and repeat the following words.

↘YES ↘LOOK ↘PUSH ↘WAIT

↘STOP ↘QUICK ↘SPEAK ↘FINE

↘SURE ↘START ↘NEXT ↘OH

↘DOOD ↘WHEN ↘WHERE ↘WHY

Listen and repeat the following sentences. The parts of words which are in capital are louder, or stressed.

1. He ↘CAN’t.

2. We HAven’t ↘TIME.

3. WHAT’s the ↘TIME?

4. I should LIKE you to COME imMEdiately AFter ↘TEA.

5. They MAnaged to CAtch the LASt BUS into ↘TOWN.

6. She SIGNed the LETter, FOLDed it, and PUT it in an ↘ENvelope.

7. STANd ↘UP!

8. NEVer LEAVe what you can DO toDAY till ↘toMORrow.

9. WHAT a ↘PITy!

10. WHAT a GOOD ↘iDEA!

Rising tone:

Listen and repeat the following words.

↗NO? ↗YES? ↗ME? ↗HIM?

↗MINE? ↗YOURS? ↗ALL? ↗THESE?

↗THOSE? ↗WHOSE? ↗WHO? ↗WHEN?

↗WHERE? ↗WHAT? ↗FOUR? ↗FIVE?

Listen and repeat the following sentences. The parts of words which are in capital are louder, or stressed.

1. ↗MAY we?

2. CAN you ↗HEAR?

3. MAY I ↗TRY?

4. HAVE they ↗SPOKen to you?

5. SHALL we ↗ASK him for it?

6. Did ANYone remember to LOCK the FRONT ↗DOOR?

7. THAT’s ↗RIGHT.

8. WHERE do you ↗LIVE?

9. WHAT TIME shall I ↗COME?

10. He can SPEAK FOUR ↗LANGUAGES --- ↗English, ↗FRENch, ↗SPANish and ↘GERMAN.

Falling-rising tone: The questions have a falling tone at the end.

I can ↘↗READ it.

That would be ↘↗POSSible.

I have dinners with my ↘↗PARents.

Would you like ↗COFFee or ↘TEA?

Would you like ↗VEAL or ↘BEEF?

Would you like ↗COFFee or ↗MILK or ↘TEA?

Listen to the following dialogue and try to imitate it.

A: How did you spend your ↘HOLiday? (‘Wh’ question)

B: I went to A ↘MERica. (Statement)

A: Was it ex↗PENsive? (Yes/No question)

B: ↘YES. ↘VERy. (Statement)

Practise in dialogues by using the place names below.

KENT VENice BELgium DENmark EDinburgh

Work in groups.

Situation: A and B are going to order dishes in a restaurant. A is making suggestions about what to eat. Using the names in the menu. Try to speak fluently and naturally.

Menu

Soup

Leek soup or pea soup

Meal

Veal or beef

Vegetables

Beans or peas

Sweets

Cheesecake or ice-cream or peaches

coffee or tea

Unit 18 Uses of Intonation

Test 1

Listen and mark the punctuation as well as intonation used in the short exchanges in the following conversation. You will notice that the punctuation has been omitted and the grammatical function of each line is conveyed through intonation alone.

Problems

A: Ready

B: No

A: Why

B: Problems

A: Problems

B: Yes

A: What

B: Baby-sitter

A: Who

B: John

A: John A baby-sitter

Test 2

Listen and mark the intonation used in the following conversation. Pay attention to the location of the nucleus in the intonation unit. The most common position for the nucleus is on the last information word of the intonation unit. However, any word may bear the nucleus for emphasis or contrastive purposes.

Which is more important

A: Which is more important --- intelligence or effort?

B: Both --- you need intelligence and effort.

A: Does she work very hard?

B: No, but he does.

A: She can write well, can’t she?

B: I suppose she can. But she usually doesn’t make the effort.

A: So she doesn’t have a chance of winning!

B: It seems difficult to me.

Test 3

Listen and mark the intonation used in the following conversation. Pay attention to the way intonation is used to convey feeling and attitudes.

An awful holiday

A: Did you have good weather on holiday?

B: The weather was OK, but everything else was awful.

A: Is your younger brother all right now?

B: Yes, my brother is all right, but my mother is very tired.

Test 4

Listen and mark the nucleus of each of the intonation units. Pay attention to the way intonation is used to focus the listener’s attention on aspects of the message that are most important.

A traveler

A: Where are you going?

B: Europe.

A: Where in Europe? To the north or to the south?

B: Neither. I’ve seen the north and the south. I’m going east.

Listen and repeat the following conversation.

A: Mr. Short always plays football in the morning.

B: In the ↗MORNing?

C: Mr. ↗SHORT?

D: ↗FOOTball?

E: ↗ALways?

In this conversation, B, C, D and E are all surprised by what A says. B is surprised that he plays in the morning. C is surprised that Mr. Short plays. D is surprised that he plays football. E is surprised that he always plays.

Practise in pairs. B must be sound surprised about the part of the sentence in italics.

Example:

I saw Andrey at the airport.

A: I saw Andrey at the ↘AIRport.

B: At the ↗AIRport?

A: Yes. At the ↘AIRport

1. I’ve put the ball in the drawer.

2. It’s too warm to go walking.

3. Dawn wrote a report in shorthand.

4. George has bought forty-five forks.

5. I’m going to buy a horse.

6. You ought to get up at four in the morning.

7. I saw George when I was in New York.

8. It’s your fault.

Listen to the following dialogue and try to imitate it.

Bill: Have you seen my sports shirts.

Mum: Your sports shirts? They’re being washed.

Bill: Have you moved my maths books?

Mum: Your maths books? They’re on the bookshelves.

Bill: Have you taken my reading lamp?

Mum: Your reading lamp? No, it’s on the desk.

Bill: Can I borrow some postcards?

Mum: Postcards? All right. They’re in the drawer, with the envelope.

Bill: Will you iron my tennis shorts?

Mum: Your tennis shorts? No, you can iron them yourself!

Work in groups.

Situation: A is a young man who likes to be a flight attendant. B is the personnel manager of an airline company. A is applying for the position as a flight attendant. Try to speak fluently and naturally.

48