Practise the text for test reading

15. Mark stresses and tunes in the following text, listen to the model. Mark the stresses and tunes. Compare your intonation with that of the model. Practise the text according to the model:

Doctor, Dentist and Chemist

If you have toothache, you should go to your dentist. He'll examine your teeth, and if the aching tooth is not too far gone, he'll stop it. If it is too bad, he'll take it out.

If you don't feel well, you should consult a doctor. If you feel too ill to go to the doctor's, you'll have to send for him. He'll ask you to describe to him the symptoms of your illness. Then he'll feel your pulse, look at your tongue and examine you thoroughly. Finally he'll prescribe the treatment and write out a prescription.

Doctors' prescriptions are made up by a chemist. At chemists' shops in the USA you can also get patent medicines of all kinds, lotions, tonics, cough-mixtures, baby-foods, as­pirin, pills, ointment, bandages, adhesive plaster and so on. You can buy razors and razor-blades, vacuum-flasks, hot water bottles, sponges, tooth-brushes and tooth-pastes, powder-puffs, lipsticks, shaving-soap and shaving-brushes and a hun­dred and one other things.

If you are interested in photography, you can also get cameras and films at most chemists'. They'll develop and print your films for you, too. Some chemists are also qualified op­ticians, and if your eyesight's faulty they'll test your eyes and prescribe glasses for you.

This exercise is meant to develop your ability to hear intonation and reproduce it in different speech situations.

a) Listen to the joke "One day Mrs. Jones went shopping...", sentence by sentence. Write it down. Mark the stresses and tunes. Practise the joke for test reading.

b)Listen to the narration of the joke. Observe the peculiarities in intonation-group division, pitch, stress and tempo. Note the use of tempo­rizers. Reproduce the model narration yon have listened to.

This exercise is meant to test your ability to analyse and reproduce material for reading and retelling.

A) Read the jokes silently to make sure you understand each sentence. Find the sentence expressing the essence of the joke. Split up each phrase into intonation-groups if necessary. Locate the communicative centre of each sentence. Mark the stresses and tunes. Practise reading the jokes.

b) Tell the jokes in your own words:

The Doctor's Advice

Once an old gentleman went to see a doctor. The doctor examined him and said: "Medicine won't help you. You must have a complete rest. Go to a quiet country place for a month, go to bed early, drink milk, walk a lot, and smoke just one cigar a day."

"Thank you very much," said the gentleman, "I shall do everything you say."

"Oh, doctor," said the gentleman a month later, "I feel quite well now. I had a good rest. I went to bed early, I drank a lot of milk, I walked a lot. Your advice certainly helped me. But you told me to smoke one cigar a day, and that one cigar a day almost killed me at first. It's no joke to start smoking at my age."

Doctor's Orders

Servant: Sir, wake up, wake up!

Master: What is the matter?

Servant: It's time to take your sleeping tablets.

Mrs. Brown: Don't you think, doctor, you've rather overcharged for attending Jimmy when he had the measles?

Doctor: You must remember, Mrs. Brown, that includes twenty-two visits.

Mrs. Brown: Yes, but you forget he infected the whole school!

SECTION THREE. Intonation Pattern X
(LOW PRE-HEAD+) RISING HEAD + HIGH FALL (+ TAIL)

Model: I wonder when Alice's train is due.
— ä Look it 'up in the `time-,table.

The syllables of the Rising Head preceding the High Fall gradually carry the pitch up.

Stress-and-tone mark in the text:

The first stressed syllable: │ä│

This intonation pattern is used:

1. In statements, conveying personal concern, involvement, disgruntled protest.

е.g. Haven't you brought the carp? — You _ädidn't ask me ,to.

2. In questions:

a) In special questions sounding unpleasantly surprised or displeased, protesting.

е.g. Send them at once. — _äWhere to?

b) In general questions, protesting, sometimes impatient.

е.g. Thursday's a hopeless day for me. — _äCan't we 'make it a `Friday, ,then?

3. In imperatives, lively, with a note of critical surprise.

е.g. What shall I do? — _äTry it a`gain.

4. In exclamations, conveying affronted surprise, protesting.

е.g. John's coming. — What an ex_ätraordinary `thing.