Correct intonation and stress are the key to speaking English fluently with good pronunciation. Intonation and stress refer to the music of the English language. Words that are stressed are key to understanding and using the correct intonation brings out the meaning.正確的語調和重音是英語流利發音的關鍵。語調和重音是指英語中的語調。強調的詞是理解和使用正確語調的關鍵。
Introduction to Intonation and Stress Exercise語調與壓力訓練概論
Say this sentence aloud and count how many seconds it takes.大聲說出這句話，數數需要多少秒。
The beautiful mountain appeared transfixed in the distance.那座美麗的山在遠處靜靜地躺著。
Time required? Probably about five seconds. Now, try speaking this sentence aloud需要時間嗎？大概五秒鐘吧。現在，試著大聲說出這句話
He can come on Sundays as long as he doesn’t have to do any homework in the evening.只要他晚上不必做任何家庭作業，星期天他就可以來。
Time required? Probably about five seconds.需要時間嗎？大概五秒鐘吧。
Wait a minute—the first sentence is much shorter than the second sentence!等等，第一句比第二句短得多！
The beautiful Mountain appeared transfixed in the distance. (14 syllables)那座美麗的山在遠處靜靜的躺著。（14個音節）
He can come on Sundays as long as he doesn’t have to do any homework in the evening. (22 syllables)只要他晚上不必做任何家庭作業，星期天他就可以來。（22個音節）
Even though the second sentence is approximately 30 percent longer than the first, the sentences take the same time to speak. This is because there are five stressed words in each sentence. From this example, you can see that you needn’t worry about pronouncing every word clearly to be understood (we native speakers certainly don’t). You should, however, concentrate on pronouncing the stressed words clearly.即使第二個句子比第一個句子大約長30%，但句子所用的時間是相同的。這是因為每個句子有五個重讀詞。從這個例子中，你可以看到，你不必擔心每個單詞的發音都清晰易懂（我們以英語為母語的人當然不會）。不過，你應該集中精力把重音讀清楚。
This simple exercise makes a very important point about how we speak and use English. Namely, English is considered a stressed language while many other languages are considered syllabic. What does that mean? It means that, in English, we give stress to certain words while other words are quickly spoken (some students say eaten!). In other languages, such as French or Italian, each syllable receives equal importance (there is stress, but each syllable has its own length).這個簡單的練習對于我們如何說英語和使用英語非常重要。也就是說，英語被認為是一種重音語言，而許多其他語言被認為是音節語言。那是什么意思？這意味著，在英語中，我們強調某些單詞，而其他單詞則很快被說出（有些學生說被吃掉了！）。在其他語言中，如法語或意大利語，每個音節的重要性相等（有重音，但每個音節都有自己的長度）。
Many speakers of syllabic languages don’t understand why we quickly speak, or swallow, a number of words in a sentence. In syllabic languages, each syllable has equal importance, and therefore equal time is needed. English however, spends more time on specific stressed words while quickly gliding over the other, less important, words.許多講音節語言的人不明白為什么我們會在一個句子中快速地說出或吞下一些單詞。在音節語言中，每個音節都有同等的重要性，因此需要同等的時間。然而，英語花更多的時間在特定的重讀詞上，而在其他不太重要的詞上快速過。
Simple Exercise to Help With Understanding幫助理解的簡單練習
The following exercise can be used by students and teachers to further help with pronunciation by focusing on the stressing content words rather than function words in the exercise below.下面的練習可以讓學生和老師進一步幫助發音，在下面的練習中著重強調內容詞而不是功能詞。
Let’s look at a simple example: The modal verb "can." When we use the positive form of "can" we quickly glide over the can and it is hardly pronounced.讓我們來看看一個簡單的例子：情態動詞“can”。當我們使用“can”的正數形式時，我們會很快滑過“can”，而且很難發音。
They can come on Friday. (stressed words in italics)他們星期五可以來。（斜體強調詞）
On the other hand, when we use the negative form "can’t" we tend to stress the fact that it is the negative form by also stressing "can’t".另一方面，當我們使用否定形式“不能”時，我們傾向于通過強調“不能”來強調它是否定形式。
They can’t come on Friday. (stressed words in italics)他們星期五不能來。（斜體強調詞）
As you can see from the above example the sentence, "They can’t come on Friday" is longer than "They can come on Friday" because both the modal "can’t" and the verb "come" are stressed.從上面的例子可以看出，“他們不能在星期五來”比“他們可以在星期五來”要長，因為語氣詞“不能”和動詞“來”都有重音。
Understanding Which Words to Stress理解要強調的詞
To begin, you need to understand which words we generally stress and which we do not stress. Stress words are considered content words such as:首先，你需要了解我們通常強調哪些詞，哪些不強調。重音詞被視為內容詞，例如：
Nouns (e.g., kitchen, Peter)名詞（如廚房、彼得）
(Most) main verbs (e.g., visit, construct)（大多數）主要動詞（例如，訪問、構造）
Adjectives (e.g., beautiful, interesting)形容詞（如美麗、有趣）
Adverbs (e.g., often, carefully)副詞（例如，經常，仔細地）
Negatives including negative helping verbs, and words with "no" such as "nothing," "nowhere," etc.否定詞包括否定助動詞，以及帶有“no”的詞，如“nothing”、“nowhere”等。
Words expressing quantities (e.g., a lot of, a few, many, etc.)表示數量的詞（如很多、一些、許多等）
Non-stressed words are considered function words such as:非重音詞被視為虛詞，例如：
Determiners (e.g., the, a, some, a few)決定因素（例如，a，一些，一些）
Auxiliary verbs (e.g., don’t, am, can, were)助動詞（例如，don’t，am，can，were）
Prepositions (e.g., before, next to, opposite)介詞（例如，前、緊挨著、在對面）
Conjunctions (e.g., but, while, as)連詞（例如，but，while，as）
Pronouns (e.g., they, she, us)代詞（例如，他們，她，我們）
Verbs "have" and "be" even when used as main verbs動詞“have”和“be”，即使用作主要動詞
Practice Quiz練習測試
Test your knowledge by identifying which words are content words and should be stressed in the following sentences:通過確定哪些單詞是內容詞并應在以下句子中強調來測試您的知識：
They’ve been learning English for two months.他們學英語已經兩個月了。
My friends have nothing to do this weekend.我的朋友這個周末沒什么事可做。
I would have visited in April if I had known Peter was in town.如果我知道彼得在城里的話，我會在四月去拜訪的。
Natalie will have been studying for four hours by six o’clock.納塔莉到六點鐘已經學習了四個小時了。
The boys and I will spend the weekend next to the lake fishing for trout.我和孩子們周末將在湖邊釣魚釣鱒魚。
Jennifer and Alice had finished the report before it was due last week.詹妮弗和愛麗絲在上星期交報告之前就寫完了。
Answers:答案：
Words in italics are stressed content words while unstressed function words are in lower case.斜體字是有重音的內容詞，而無重音的虛詞是小寫的。
They’ve been learning English for two months.他們學英語已經兩個月了。
My friends have nothing to do this weekend.我的朋友這個周末沒什么事可做。
I would have visited in April if i had known Peter was in town.如果我知道彼得在城里的話，我會在四月去拜訪的。
Natalie will have been studying for fours hours by six o’clock.納塔莉到六點鐘已經學習了四個小時了。
The boys and i will spend the weekend next to the lake fishing for trout.我和孩子們周末將在湖邊釣魚釣鱒魚。
Jennifer and Alice had finished the report before it was due last week.詹妮弗和愛麗絲在上星期交報告之前就寫完了。
Continue Practicing繼續練習
Speak to your native English speaking friends and listen to how we concentrate on the stressed words rather than giving importance to each syllable. As you begin to listen and use stressed words, you will discover words you thought you didn’t understand are really not crucial for understanding the sense or making yourself understood. Stressed words are the key to excellent pronunciation and understanding of English.和你的母語是英語的朋友交談，聽聽我們是如何專注于重讀單詞而不是重視每個音節的。當你開始聽并使用有壓力的單詞時，你會發現你認為你不理解的單詞對理解意義或讓自己被理解并不重要。重讀詞是英語發音和理解的關鍵。
After students have learned basic consonant and vowel sounds, they should move on to learning to differentiate between individual sounds by using minimal pairs. Once they are comfortable with individual words, they should move on to intonation and stress exercises such as sentence markup. Finally, students can take the next step by choosing a focus word to help further improve their pronunciation.在學生學習了基本的輔音和元音之后，他們應該繼續學習通過使用最小對來區分不同的聲音。一旦他們適應了單個單詞，他們就應該開始語調和強調練習，比如句子標記。最后，學生可以選擇一個焦點詞來幫助他們進一步提高發音。
