Difficult words to pronounce

　　This programme looks at the results of a recent survey in which 3,000British people were asked to pronounce some of the most difficult words inthe English language. Yvonne and Callum try their luck at pronouncing a fewof those words and achieve some rather funny results!

　　3000英国人被邀请参加了一项调查：用他们的本土语言发一些比较难得音，结果是什么呢？

　　BBC 1 Learning 2 English 6 minute EnglishDifficult words to pronounceYvonne:  Hi, this is '6 minute English' and I'm Yvonne Archer…Callum:  I'm Callum Robertson. Hello!

　　Yvonne:  Hello Callum! In this week's programme, English words that areoften 'mispronounced'. Callum – can you explain 'mispronounced' for us?

　　Callum:  Certainly. If you MIS-PRO-NONCE… if you 'mispronounce' a word, youdon't say it correctly. You get some of the sounds wrong in that word.

　　Yvonne:  Very good. And is there a word that you often mispronounce, Callum?

　　Callum:  Umm – not really.

　　Yvonne:  I didn't think so - so I've got three difficult ones here for you!

　　But, before you read them out, any thoughts?

　　Callum:  Well, looking at these words on paper, I think there's a goodchance that some people would mispronounce them. Yeah.

　　Yvonne:  And that's why you're saying them instead of me! So, off you go…Callum:  Okay, the words are: regularly 3（定期地，有规律地）…ethnicity（种族划分，种族性）…and anaesthetist（言论集，语录，轶事）. Whew!（语气词哎呀！）

　Yvonne:  Yeah, but you said them slowly, Callum. Yeah, that was tough. Butthere are three thousand other Brits who also agree that those words aredifficult to say.

　　They were recently questioned by a company called Spinvox and the researchshowed that 'regularly', 'ethnicity' and 'anaesthetist' – ooh, I said it -are some of the most mispronounced words in the English language. Now beforewe hear more about that research, I've a question for you, Callum: How manysounds do experts say we need to be able to pronounce - so that we can speakEnglish clearly? Is it: a) 44 b) 104 -or 400?

　　Callum:Well, I'm fairly 4（相当的） confident on this as I've just made aseries on pronunciation. In British English, there's generally about forty-four sounds that are needed to pronounce English words. So, about forty-four– there's maybe a few more - but forty-four; that's my answer.

　　Yvonne: Well, I'm not telling you! You'll have to wait until the end of theprogramme.

　　Now as we hear an extract 5 from the BBC's Today programme on the mostmispronounced words in English, try to foind – whew – I can't pronounce'try…‘ -try to find out which word was the most mispronounced…THE TODAY PROGRAMMEIf you find 'statistics 6(统计)' and 'ethnicity' difficult to pronounce, itappears you're not alone. The Daily Mail says they're among the top ten mosttroublesome（令人烦恼的，讨厌的） words in the English language. Researcherswho questioned three thousand people found that the most mispronounced wordwas 'phenomenon 7’（现象） followed by 'anaesthetist' （麻醉师）(anaesthetist)and 'remuneration'. （报酬）Yvonne:     Callum, which word was the most troublesome – the mostdifficult to pronounce?

　　Callum: Well, that was 'phenomenon‘… phenomenon.

　　Yvonne: Phenomenon… phenomenon… Yep, I have to say that I have totake that one really slowly - and just looking at it on paper makes menervous.(紧张的) So why do you think so many of us get it wrong, Callum?

　　Callum: Well of course, when we get nervous, we generally make moremistakes. But here, it's the mixture（混合，混合物） of the particular（特殊的，特别的） sounds that are in words – that's what causes the problems. Sohaving the 'm' and 'n' sounds – the 'mmm' and 'nnnn' in 'phenomenon' –having so many of them so close together – that makes it a difficult wordto pronounce.

　　Yvonne: Hmmm - and what about 'anaesthetist'?

　　Callum: Well 'anaesthetist' - it contains（包含） an odd 8 （奇数，古怪的，剩余的）mixture of 't' and 'th' sounds – there's also an 's' in there as wellbefore that group of consonants(辅音) and that also makes things difficultto pronounce.

　　Yvonne:Oh dear, it certainly is! Now the newspaper that publishedthose research results describes such words as 'tongue twisters（绕口令）'.

　　But I wouldn't call them tongue-twisters really, would you Callum?

　　Callum: Umm -not really, no -because 'tongue twisters' are generally asentence or an expression that is very difficult to say quickly and repeatagain and again and again.

　　Yvonne: Well, I'm feeling really mean today, Callum. Go on - give us anexample - and don't - say – it - slowly!

　　CallumOkay – try this one and a very famous one is: “Peter Piper picked apeck of （许多，大量）pickled pepper（胡椒，辣椒）”.

　　Yvonne:  …Cor – that was pretty good, wasn't it?! Of course, but we don'thave to say tongue twisters in life – but we usually do have to use wordslike umm, what – ummm - 'statistics' or 'February'. I can't even say itmyself – 'February'.

　　Callum:  February.

　　Yvonne:  February.

　　Callum:  Well yes. It is difficult to get through life without saying wordslike 'February'. Yes.

　　Yvonne:  But the research shows that many of us try to do just that. Wedon't want to feel embarrassed（尴尬的） when we mispronounce those words sowe just avoid them. And that's a really bad example for learners, isn't it?

　　Callum:  Well, I don't know about that. It's something natural that nativespeakers do. That…you know, if you're not sure how to pronounce a word,choose another word…or… And I do the same in writing in spelling; ifthere's a word I'm not sure how to spell, my spelling isn't, you know,perfect（完美的） - sometimes I will re-write to avoid using that word. So,as in anything, pronunciation does only get better with practise so don'tworry about it!

　　Yvonne:  Just go for it. Okay, now for the answer to our question: How manysounds do experts say we need to be able to pronounce - so that we can speakEnglish clearly? Is it: a) 44, b) 104 or c) 400?

　　Callum:  Well, as I said, forty-four; I'm fairly confident that it's forty-four or thereabouts.

　　Yvonne:  Ah, you knew it all the time, Callum. Well, that's all we've gottime for today. Join us again for more '6 minute English'.

　　C/Y:  Goodbye!

(本文由在线英语听力室编辑整理)