16. American English Rhythm 美國英語的節拍

A: Hello, Harry. Where are you off to?

B: I'm going home to study my English lesson.

A: English lesson?

B: Yes. I'm trying to learn a little more. I don't always understand what people say, and they don't always understand me.

A: What're you learning about?

B: Well. For instance, some words in a sentence. The time between two of these stressed words is always about the same, no matter how many words there are. This is what makes English sound jerky. First you go very fast, and then perhaps you slow up.

A: Hmmmm. I never noticed that. Give me an example.

B: Sure, Here's a sentence we memorized for class. “You told me last night not to let you argue me out of getting you up on time.”It takes just as long to say“not to let you argue me out of getting you up on time”as it does to say“you told me last night”

Notes

Accented-stressed

Jerky 不規則地跳動

A：你好，哈里，你到哪兒去？

B：我回家去溫習英語課。

A：英語課？

B：是的，我想盡量多學一點。我總是聽不懂人家講的話，別人也聽不懂我講的話。

A：我在學習什么呢？

B：嗯，例如，在一句話中的有些詞是加重語氣的，讀音較重。不論一句中有多少加重的詞，其中兩個詞間隔的時間總是幾乎一樣的。這就使英語的音調顯得不平穩。開始你說得很快，后來可能慢下來。

A：哦，我倒從來沒有注意到這點。給我舉個例子。

B：可以。這兒有一句我們在上課時應記住的話：“You told me last night not to let you argue me out of getting you up on time.”在說“not to let you argue me out of getting you up on time”這段話的時間就和說“you told me last night”這句話一樣長。