Britain, curtain, separate, metal, medal;
Interest, model, parcel, travel;
Medicine, professional, revolutionary.
Ex. 9 Find the words in which unstressed vowels are not reduced:
1.government, assurance, terrible, crock ware
2.translation, improvable, partial, monotonous
3.meaningless, soluble, wisdom, trainer
4.monkey, canvas, carpet, dismount
Ex. 10 Read the limerick and underline the words with [ə], [I]:
There once was a student named Bessor
Whose knowledge grew lesser and lesser
It at last grew so small,
He knew nothing at all,
And today he’s a college professor.
Ex. 11 Read these twisters and underline the words with [ə], [I]:
The hammerman hammers the hammer on the hard highroad.
Little lady Lilly lost her lovely locket. Lucky little Lucy found the lovely locket. Lovely little locket lay in Lucy’s pocket. Lazy little Lucy lost the lovely locket!
Ex. 12 Read the proverbs, explain the reading of the unstressed vowels:
1. Appearances are deceitful.
2. Honesty is the best policy.
3. Better late than never.
4. Love is a malady without cure.
5. Little knowledge is a dangerous thing.
6. Don’t make a mountain out of a molehill.
7. Absence makes the heart grow fonder.
8. Accident will happen.
9. Clearliness is next to godliness.
10. Desperate disease must have desperate remedies.
Ex. 13 Read the following words and pay attention to the reading of unstressed vowels:
Dizzy, remedial, examination, painful, remedy, extract, fever, giddy, recovery, malady, giddiness, harmful, injury, illness, injection, inflammation capable, record, competitor, chessman, curable, handicap, amateur, sensible, garment, recovery, expert, stressful, careless, judgement, remedy, doctor, patient, medical, inflammation, to operate, ambulance, ointment, prescription, painful, treatment, cancer, ailment.
Ex. 14 Write down the unstressed vowels, which the following words have:
clumsy, ointment, stressful, complication, dormitory, treatment, sickness, vitality, surgery, conscious, deficiency, condition, shivery, breathless, ailment, cavity, therapy, bandage, appointment, funny, rocket, nature, dollar, bottom, Poland, costume, samba, attendance, capable, student, message, delicate, freedom, awful, careless.
Ex. 15 hoose the words, in which the unstressed vowel is not reduced and has its primary alphabetical meaning. Explain the rule:
Stamina, contest, participant, costume, sedentary, snooker, polo, badminton, racket, victory, samba, hockey.
Ex. 16 Extract the words with unstressed vowels and group them according to the sound, which they denote:
Stress is a disease of the twentieth century. Life has never been faster and jobs have never been more stressful than they are today. People have to perform more and more work under difficult and more stressful conditions. Many people suffer from stress and the illness it can cause. But as this situation is becoming recognized, people shouldn’t have to fear comments such as, “He’s had a nervous breakdown. Can’t take the pressure, you know.” This is because more people are recognizing that stress is a natural reaction – it is a reaction of a person’s body to pressure, either from the outside world or from the inner world of emotions and physical organs. We can’t avoid stress. And we can’t help ourselves, or others, until we know more about it. Not all stress is bad and perhaps if we understand it better we could make the most of it.
Ex. 17 Find the superfluous word in each group (unstressed vowels):
[o:] – ׀football, ׀terror, ׀record;
[I] – ׀phoneme, ׀profit, ׀fifties;
[æ] – can׀teen, fan׀tastic, sex׀tet;
[e] – sen׀sation, ׀congress, ׀drawback;
[i:] – re׀set, re׀group, e׀lusive.
Ex. 18 Read the proverbs and explain how to pronounce the underlined words:
1. Prevention is better than cure.
2. A merry heart is a good medicine.
3. Caution is the parent of cure.
4. To be a cut throat competition.
Ex. 19 Transcribe the following words and explain why the unstressed vowel is reduced or not:
| ba׀nana ׀profit pre׀vented ׀tribune ma׀chine ׀ticket ׀statue | po׀litical ׀lovely ׀dangerous ׀movement ׀horrible ׀echo ׀giddy |