Sound Practice

A. State the number of -gliding, -gliding and -gliding diphthongs in the text of the fable. Find how diphthong // is represented in spelling.

-gliding diphthongs – 5 // + 4 // = 9

-gliding diphthongs – 1 //

-gliding diphthongs – 0

In the fable the diphthong // is represented in spelling by: a (grapes)

ay (say, away)

ey (they)

B. Look through the text of the fable. Analyse modifications of plosives in different phonetic context. Example: fox /f/ – ks (incomplete or fricative plosion).

Look good, want to, eat them, but they, must try, try, jumped, jumped but, could not, not reach, that they, not sweet, not like, like green, don’t want, want them, that the, not want, just because, cannot have.

C. Look through the text of the fable, find the words containing diphthong //, monophthongs // and /i:/, and write the words into the right columns according to the positional length of vowels in stressed syllables. Use the language material from your textbook.

Long	Half-long	Short
They //	Again /|gn/	Grapes //

Intonation Practice

A. Classify the intonation groups you hear according to the nuclear tones; explain their use. Mark the falling tone with F, the rising tone with R.:

For example: A fox saw some nice grapes. – F (stating the fact)

B. Define the types of scales used in the recorded text of the fable.

C. Listen to the fable. Register compound and complex sentences in it. Concentrate on their division into intonation groups. Give graphical presentation of intonation in the registered sentences; explain the use of tones in them.

D. Retell the fable imitating the speaker’s intonation.

Comprehension Practice

A. Listen to the fable. State whether the sentences you hear after the text are true or false. Correct the false sentences. Do it in writing. Example:

A fox saw some nice bananas. (F). A fox saw some nice grapes.

a) “They don’t look good,” he said. (F)

b) The fox jumped and jumped. (T)

c) He didn’t want to eat the grapes. (F)

d) He jumped but he could not reach the grapes. (T)

e) The grapes were sour, not sweet and green. (F)

f) So he went away without any. (T)

g) He knew that the grapes were really very nice. (T)

h) It is silly to say that you do not want something just because you cannot have it. (T)

B. Listen to the fable again. Write down your answers to the following questions revealing the plot of the fable.

a) What did a fox see one day?

b) Why did he decide to eat them?

c) Why did he jump?

d) What made him think that the grapes were green?

e) What else did he say about the grapes? And why?

f) Why did he go away without any grapes?

g) What did he know?

h) What is the moral of the fable?

C. Listen to the text, divide it into communicative blocks, entitle them.

D. Listen to the fable, find the logical centre of each communicative block and of the whole text. Write them down.

E. Listen to the jumbled sentences and put them in the right order to complete the fable.

a) He just said they were sour because he could not reach them.

b) So he said, “I can see now that they are green.”

c) So he went away without any.

d) It is silly to say that you do not want something just because you cannot have it.

e) They are sour.

f) “I must try jumping for them”.

g) A fox saw some nice grapes.

h) “I do not like green grapes”.

i) Again and again he jumped but he could not reach the grapes.

j) “I don’t want them.”

k) “I want to eat them, but they are too high for me.”

l) “They look good,” he said.

m) “They are not sweet”.

n) He jumped and he jumped.

o) He knew that the grapes were really very nice.

p) “I don’t want them.”