Unit 54. Look Who's Talking!
|Some idiomatic expressions have a fixed melody, or tone, in English. For example, in Look, who's talking, the voice goes down at the end. The syllable talk - is higher than the syllable -ing. In You'll be lucky, the voice goes up at the end. The syllable luck - is lower than the syllable -y. Listen. |
|But normally we can choose to make our voice go up or down at theend. For example, in tne conversation below, Sid says 'bear' with hisvoice going down. Joe repeats the word with his voice going up. Listenand notice the way their voices go up or down at the end.|
Listen again and say Joe's lines.
Note: The choice of tone (voice going up or down) has meaning. We will look at the meaning in Units 55 to 60.
Listen to these short conversations. All of the replies areidiomatic expressions. Listen. Does the voice go up or down on the lastword? Draw a line in the box: ↑ or ↓
|The responses to the pairs of sentences a and b below are the same, but the speaker uses a different tone. For example, in the response to Example a, the voice goes down, but in the response to Example b, the voice goes up. Listen and draw a line in the box to show if the voice goes up or down.|
Key.1. a↓; b ↑
2. a ↓; b ↑
3. a ↑; b ↓
4. a ↓; b ↑
a Let's go away for the weekend. - Where? ↓
b Let's go to Llantisiliogogogoch. - Where? ↑
1 a I know who stole your glasses. - Who?
b It was Mickey Mumpkin. - Who?
2 a I've got some bad news for you. - What?
b I'm afraid your house has burnt down. - What!
3 a Excuse me, can you help us? - Yes?
b Can you take a photo of us with this camera? - Yes.
4 a We're going for a picnic if you want to come. - When?
b At midnight tonight. - When?
|You will hear just the responses from 2. Listen and decide if it is the response to a or b.|
Key.1. a; 2. b; 3. a; 4. b
| ||Unit 53 Unit 54 Unit 55|