Listen to the Verbal Context and reply in the intervals.

In order to fix the intonation of the temporizers in your mind, ear and speech habits repeat the replies yourself until they sound perfectly natural to you.

Listen to a fellow-student reading the replies. Tell him what his errors in intonation are.

Read the drill sentences according to the model. Observe the intonation of the temporizers.

Don't waste potatoes. Just scrape them doing.

Hurry up, or we might be late.

She always wants to be on the safe side.

Shall we put up at this hotel?

I like my native town like nothing else on earth. Don't you find it fascinating?

I heard James got settled at last. Do you know his new address?

Do you feel well enough to do the job?

Are you going to report me?

Don't you think she is charming?

Have you by any chance caught a glimpse of this stranger?

Did he look in good health and spirits?

I — er — well, that's what I'm doing

N-no, we have plenty of time.

Y-yes, but who doesn't.

Er — we may, but we'd better find another one.

Well — er — yes, it's rather nice.

Let me see. Yes, I've got it.

Well, you know, not quite.

Er — to tell you quite frankly, yes, I am.

Oh, er — n-no, I think she is rather intrusive.

Y-yes, I think I have.

Well, rather, but a shade un­easy.

Make up short dialogues using the temporizers to gain the time to think over what to say next.

This exercise is meant to develop your ability to read and narrate a text with proper intonation.

Listen to the following texts. Write them down. Mark the stresses and tunes. Practise reading them.

Listen carefully to the narration of the texts. Observe the peculiarities in intonation-group division, pitch, stress and tempo. Note the use of temporizers. Retell the texts according to the models you have listened to.

Thumbing a Lift

To hitchhike successfully in any country you must be able to do two things: attract attention and at the same time convince the driver at a glance that you do not intend to rob or murder him. To fulfil the first requirement you must have some mark to distinguish you at once from all other hitchhikers. A serviceman, for instance, should wear his uniform, a student his scarf. In a foreign country an unmistakable indication of your own nationality will also arrest the driver's attention.

When I hitchhiked 9,500 miles across the United States and back recently I wore a well-tailored suit, a bowler hat and a trench- coat, and carried a pencil-thin rolled black umbrella. My suitcase was decorated with British flags. Having plenty of luggage, more­over, I was not likely to be suspected of being a dangerous lunatic. I then had to get across to the driver the idea that I was a bona fide traveller, and needed to get somewhere cheaply.

But even with careful preparation, you must not assume that the task will be easy. You should be prepared to wait a little, for there are drivers who confess to a fierce prejudice against, not to say ha­tred, of, hitchhikers, and would no more pick up a hiker than march from Aldermaston to London. In America my average wait was half an hour, but I have heard of people waiting all day, they presumably took less pains to make themselves conspicuous.

Nor must you assume that all the drivers who stop for you are nice, normal people. On one occasion I found myself driving with two boys of about nineteen who turned out to be on the run from the police, and were hoping to use me as an alibi. There are also lesser risks: you may find yourself in a car of a fascist fanatic, a Mormon missionary, or just a bad driver. You cannot tell of course, until you are in the car. But you soon learn the art of the quick ex­cuse that gets you out again.

If the hitchhiker in the United States will remember that he is seeking the indulgence of drivers to give him a free ride, and is prepared to give in exchange entertainment and company, and not go to sleep, he will come across the remarkable, almost legendary, hospitality of the Americans of the West. It will also help if he can drive — I think that I drove myself about 4,500 of those 9,500 miles I hitchhiked in the US.

(From "Mozaika", No. 6, 1969)

Date: 2015-12-17; view: 954