IV. Reading of vowel combinations (part 2)

Letter combination	Pronunciation	Examples	Exceptions
oo	[ ʊ ]	book, wood	blood [ blʌd ], flood [ flʌd ]
	[ u : ]	moon, too
oor	[ ʊə ]	poor, moor	door [dɔ: ], floor [ flɔ:]
our	[ ɔ: ]	your, course
	[ aʊə ]	our, flour
ou	[ aʊ ]	ground, count
	[ ʌ ]	double, young
ow	[ aʊ ]	brown, now, how
	[ əʊ]	flow, window

Exercise 36. Write down the phonetic symbols and practice reading the words.

[ ] good, wood, foot, blood, book, took;

o o

[ ] moon, stool, food, flood, soon, hoot, broom;

oor [ ] boor, moor, poor;

[ ] our, flour, sour, sour cream;

o ur

[ ] your, four, source, course, pour, tour;

[ ] out, loud, bout, account, foul, house, blouse, round, around;

o u

[ ] touch, cousin, rough, tough;

[ ] cow, owl, row, fowl, allow, town, gown, frown;

o w

[ ] flow, yellow, blow, grow, row, rainbow, widow, willow, window.

Exercise 37. Read and transcribe the words. Do not forget to put the stress mark if a word has two or more syllables.

Cook, poor, wool, throw, soon, double, spoon, blouse, stood, follow, blood, frown, food, allow, zoo, ground, boot, power, found, hook, fellow, mood, below, wool, swallow, taboo, cousin, floor, meadow.

Exercise 38. Read the text. Find the words with vowel combinations and transcribe them.

The man who fell to Earth

Buzz Aldrin was part of the Apollo 11 mission in1969 when man first walked on the moon. Neil Armstrong went first, followed by Buzz. Nothing in all his training had prepared him for that moment, and he has been traveling the world ever since, reliving the experience.

He was born in New Jersey in 1930, and he graduated from West Point Military Academy. He served as a pilot in Korea and West Germany, and in 1966 he was chosen as an astronaut.

Apollo 11 was launched to the moon on July 16. Four days later they landed near the Sea of Tranquility. The mission ended on July 24, with a splashdown in the Pacific Ocean.

On coming back to Earth, he became very depressed, and suffered from alcoholism. He had married for the first time when he was young, and had three children. His second marriage lasted a very short time.

Fortunately, he seems to have found happiness and stability with his third wife, Lois Driggs Cannon, who saved him from self-destruction. They now live with their three dogs in California, and have six cars “for fun”.

He has written his autobiography and a science fiction book, called Encounter with Tiber, which was published in 1996.

He now travels the world, giving lecture tours and raising funds for space exploration.

Exercise 39. Practice reading the following tongue-twister quickly and distinctly. Explain the reading of the vowels in bold.

A tutor who tutored the flute

Tried to teach two young tooters to too

Said the two to the tutor,

‘Is it harder to toot, or

To tutor two brothers to toot?’

To toot – дудеть, играть на дудочке; tooter – дударь.