手把手教你学口语18

Although written English has spaces between every word, spoken English doesn’t have pauses between each word, rather words are linked together. However, people do not normally¹ speak without pausing at all. We do pause in speech. While in written English, there are periods, commas, semicolons and question marks. But we also pause in long sentences without punctuation² marks. Let’s look at some examples. "My mother listens to the radio in the evening".This sentence can be said without pausing, because it isn’t very long. But if I were to pause, I would say, “My mother/ listens to the radio/ in the evening.” Why? Because pauses come between thought groups----groups of words that express one thought.

For example, “in the evening” is a thought group. Let’s make the sentence longer. My mother listens to the radio in the evening, plays tennis in the afternoon, and cleans the house in the morning. Now it is necessary to pause because the sentence is very long. Pauses come between thought groups, and help the listeners organize the information they hear. Listen to sentence again. My mother listens to the radio in the evening, plays tennis in the afternoon, and cleans the house in the morning. If you pause in the wrong places, listeners will have a harder time organizing the information. Listen to the sentence read again with improper³ pausing. My mother listens to the radio in/ the evening, plays tennis in /the afternoon, and cleans the/ house in the morning. Now the sentence is almost impossible to understand, so remember to pause between thought groups, to help your listeners easily organize what they hear.

This has been today's tip on learning⁴ English. Tune⁵ in tomorrow for another tip on learning English.

1 normally   

adv.正常地，通常地

参考例句：

• I normally do all my shopping on Saturdays.我通常在星期六买东西。
• My pulse beats normally.我脉搏正常。

2 punctuation   

n.标点符号，标点法

参考例句：

• My son's punctuation is terrible.我儿子的标点符号很糟糕。
• A piece of writing without any punctuation is difficult to understand.一篇没有任何标点符号的文章是很难懂的。

3 improper   

adj.不适当的，不合适的，不正确的，不合礼仪的

参考例句：

• Short trousers are improper at a dance.舞会上穿短裤不成体统。
• Laughing and joking are improper at a funeral.葬礼时大笑和开玩笑是不合适的。

4 learning   

n.学问，学识，学习；动词learn的现在分词

参考例句：

• When you are learning to ride a bicycle,you often fall off.初学骑自行车时，常会从车上掉下来。
• Learning languages isn't just a matter of remembering words.学习语言不仅仅是记些单词的事。

5 tune   

n.调子；和谐，协调；v.调音，调节，调整

参考例句：

• He'd written a tune,and played it to us on the piano.他写了一段曲子，并在钢琴上弹给我们听。
• The boy beat out a tune on a tin can.那男孩在易拉罐上敲出一首曲子。