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.正确的语调和重音是英语流利发音的关键。语调和重音是指英语中的语调。强调的词是理解和使用正确语调的关键。
Introduction to Intonation and Stress Exercise语调与压力训练概论
Say this sentence aloud and count how many seconds it takes.大声说出这句话，数数需要多少秒。
The beautiful mountain appeared transfixed in the distance.那座美丽的山在远处静静地躺着。
Time required? Probably about five seconds. Now, try speaking this sentence aloud需要时间吗？大概五秒钟吧。现在，试着大声说出这句话
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业，星期天他就可以来。
Time required? Probably about five seconds.需要时间吗？大概五秒钟吧。
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)那座美丽的山在远处静静的躺着。（14个音节）
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业，星期天他就可以来。（22个音节）
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.即使第二个句子比第一个句子大约长30%，但句子所用的时间是相同的。这是因为每个句子有五个重读词。从这个例子中，你可以看到，你不必担心每个单词的发音都清晰易懂（我们以英语为母语的人当然不会）。不过，你应该集中精力把重音读清楚。
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).这个简单的练习对于我们如何说英语和使用英语非常重要。也就是说，英语被认为是一种重音语言，而许多其他语言被认为是音节语言。那是什么意思？这意味着，在英语中，我们强调某些单词，而其他单词则很快被说出（有些学生说被吃掉了！）。在其他语言中，如法语或意大利语，每个音节的重要性相等（有重音，但每个音节都有自己的长度）。
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.许多讲音节语言的人不明白为什么我们会在一个句子中快速地说出或吞下一些单词。在音节语言中，每个音节都有同等的重要性，因此需要同等的时间。然而，英语花更多的时间在特定的重读词上，而在其他不太重要的词上快速过。
Simple Exercise to Help With Understanding帮助理解的简单练习
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.下面的练习可以让学生和老师进一步帮助发音，在下面的练习中着重强调内容词而不是功能词。
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.让我们来看看一个简单的例子：情态动词“can”。当我们使用“can”的正数形式时，我们会很快滑过“can”，而且很难发音。
They can come on Friday. (stressed words in italics)他们星期五可以来。（斜体强调词）
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，当我们使用否定形式“不能”时，我们倾向于通过强调“不能”来强调它是否定形式。
They can’t come on Friday. (stressed words in italics)他们星期五不能来。（斜体强调词）
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.从上面的例子可以看出，“他们不能在星期五来”比“他们可以在星期五来”要长，因为语气词“不能”和动词“来”都有重音。
Understanding Which Words to Stress理解要强调的词
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，你需要了解我们通常强调哪些词，哪些不强调。重音词被视为内容词，例如：
Nouns (e.g., kitchen, Peter)名词（如厨房、彼得）
(Most) main verbs (e.g., visit, construct)（大多数）主要动词（例如，访问、构造）
Adjectives (e.g., beautiful, interesting)形容词（如美丽、有趣）
Adverbs (e.g., often, carefully)副词（例如，经常，仔细地）
Negatives including negative helping verbs, and words with "no" such as "nothing," "nowhere," etc.否定词包括否定助动词，以及带有“no”的词，如“nothing”、“nowhere”等。
Words expressing quantities (e.g., a lot of, a few, many, etc.)表示数量的词（如很多、一些、许多等）
Non-stressed words are considered function words such as:非重音词被视为虚词，例如：
Determiners (e.g., the, a, some, a few)决定因素（例如，a，一些，一些）
Auxiliary verbs (e.g., don’t, am, can, were)助动词（例如，don’t，am，can，were）
Prepositions (e.g., before, next to, opposite)介词（例如，前、紧挨着、在对面）
Conjunctions (e.g., but, while, as)连词（例如，but，while，as）
Pronouns (e.g., they, she, us)代词（例如，他们，她，我们）
Verbs "have" and "be" even when used as main verbs动词“have”和“be”，即使用作主要动词
Practice Quiz练习测试
Test your knowledge by identifying which words are content words and should be stressed in the following sentences:通过确定哪些单词是内容词并应在以下句子中强调来测试您的知识：
They’ve been learning English for two months.他们学英语已经两个月了。
My friends have nothing to do this weekend.我的朋友这个周末没什么事可做。
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话，我会在四月去拜访的。
Natalie will have been studying for four hours by six o’clock.纳塔莉到六点钟已经学习了四个小时了。
The boys and I will spend the weekend next to the lake fishing for trout.我和孩子们周末将在湖边钓鱼钓鳟鱼。
Jennifer and Alice had finished the report before it was due last week.詹妮弗和爱丽丝在上星期交报告之前就写完了。
Answers:答案：
Words in italics are stressed content words while unstressed function words are in lower case.斜体字是有重音的内容词，而无重音的虚词是小写的。
They’ve been learning English for two months.他们学英语已经两个月了。
My friends have nothing to do this weekend.我的朋友这个周末没什么事可做。
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话，我会在四月去拜访的。
Natalie will have been studying for fours hours by six o’clock.纳塔莉到六点钟已经学习了四个小时了。
The boys and i will spend the weekend next to the lake fishing for trout.我和孩子们周末将在湖边钓鱼钓鳟鱼。
Jennifer and Alice had finished the report before it was due last week.詹妮弗和爱丽丝在上星期交报告之前就写完了。
Continue Practicing继续练习
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.和你的母语是英语的朋友交谈，听听我们是如何专注于重读单词而不是重视每个音节的。当你开始听并使用有压力的单词时，你会发现你认为你不理解的单词对理解意义或让自己被理解并不重要。重读词是英语发音和理解的关键。
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.在学生学习了基本的辅音和元音之后，他们应该继续学习通过使用最小对来区分不同的声音。一旦他们适应了单个单词，他们就应该开始语调和强调练习，比如句子标记。最后，学生可以选择一个焦点词来帮助他们进一步提高发音。
