标准美语发音的13个秘诀 CD 4 Track 11

Exercise 7-1 : The Throng 1 of Thermometers    CD 4 Track 11

I'm going to read the following paragraph once straight through, so you can hear that no matter how fast I read it, all the THs are still there. It is a distinctive 2 sound, but, when you repeat it, don't put too much effort into it. Listen to my reading.

The throng of thermometers from the Thuringian Thermometer Folks arrived on Thursday. There were a thousand thirty-three thick thermometers, though, instead of a thousand thirty-six thin thermometers, which was three thermometers fewer than the thousand thirty-six we were expecting, not to mention that they were thick ones rather than thin ones. We thoroughly thought that we had ordered a thousand thirty-six, not a thousand thirty-three, thermometers, and asked the Thuringian Thermometer Folks to reship the thermometers; thin, not thick. They apologized for sending only a thousand thirty-three thermometers rather than a thousand thirtysix and promised to replace the thick thermometers withthin thermometers. th= voiced (17) th= unvoiced (44)

Run Them All Together [runnemälld'gether] 

As I was reading, I hope youheard that in a lot of places, the words ran together, such as in rather than. You don't have to go way out of your way to make a huge new sound, but rather create a smooth flowing from oneTH to the next by leaving your tongue in an anticipatory position.

As mentioned before (see Liaisons 3, page 63), whena word ends in TH and the next word starts with a sound from behind the teeth, a combination or composite sound isformed, because you are anticipating the combination. For example: with-lemon; not with lemon.

Anticipating the Next Word 

The anticipation 4 of each following sound brings meto the subject that most students raise at some point—one that explains their resistance to whollyembracingliaisons and general fluency 5. People feel that because English is not their native tongue, they can't anticipate the next sound because they never know what the next word is going to be.

Accurate or not, for the sake of argument, let's say that you do construct sentences entirely 6 word by word. This is where those pauses that we studied come in handy. During your pause, line up in your head all the words you want to use in order to communicate your thought, and then push them out in groups. If you find yourself slowing down and talking...word...by...word, back up and take a running leap at a whole string of words.

Now, take out your little mirror again. You need it for the last exercise in this chapter, which follows.