9. Read aloud the sentences below. Be careful to pronounce correctly the front vowels:

1. Either read the book or get rid of it.

2. Didn’t you buy it to eat?

3. I didn’t seem to be sick.

4. Each foot itches.

5. List at least the most important ones.

6. She dipped deeply into the sack.

7. Don’t grin at my greenness.

8. They begged a big meal.

9. There was a sharp noise as the ball met his mitt.

10. The living influences us more than dead did.

11. Can you lift what’s left?

12. You’ll get wet if you wait.

13. Tell us a tale, grandma.

14. There’s a gate to get through.

15. Long dresses are a fading fad.

16. Bankers lend money on land.

17. He said he was sad.

18. His bad leg made him lag behind.

19. The hen sat where he set her.

20 You’ve certainly met your match.

10. Read aloud the phrases below. Pay attention to the pronunciation of the back vowels:

[L] [ou] [u]

tall corn both soldiers good book

the horse’s stall the broad hole stood by the brook

small talk his own show she could cook

all fall those loans looking at the woman

autumn ball those roses put in sugar

[H] [ A] [W]

a loose tooth mother tongue the girl birth

a blue moon the ugly duckling a thirsty herd

through the school trouble with bugs early bird

move into the room wonderful company her earning

whose shoe young lover the curves merge

11. Read aloud the sentences below. Be careful to pronounce correctly the back vowels:

1. A black cat blocked my way.

2. His story only adds to the oddness of what happened.

3. You’ll be hot without a hat.

4. The sea is becoming calm.

5. It fell suddenly on the sod.

6. The duck swam under the dock.

7. We heard the shot and shut the door.

8. I think he heard, though he’s hard of hearing.

9. When they woke they took a walk.

10. Every man brought his own bowling ball.

11. I saw her sew it.

12. The tiger’s claws closed.

13. It was a noisy war of words.

14. All was done before dawn.

15. I stole up behind the stool.

16. The results will be known by noon.

17. We made a rush for the bushes.

18. The child had good blood.

19. He just stood and looked at his food.

20. Soon the sun will come out.

12. From each line write out one word in which the stressed vowel is pronounced differently.

a) chalk fork talk work

b) ghost lost most post

c) come crumb home some

d) barn born dawn warn

e) done phone son won

f) drowned owned pound round

g) flower lower power tower

h) brief leave wield eight

i) down own sewn thrown

j) course horse force worse

k) doll goal roll stole

l) sung tongue wrong young

m) fear near pear rear

13. The following poems include the so-called “tricky” words in which one and the same vowel or combination of vowels may be pronounced in different ways. Mind all the cases of peculiar pronunciation of the words in italic:

When the English tongue we speak,

Why is break not rhymed with weak?

Won’t you tell me why it’s true

We say sew, but also few?

And the maker of a verse

Cannot rhyme his horse with worse?

Beard is not the same as heard,

Cord is different from word,

Cow is cow, but low is low,

Shoe is never rhymed with foe.

Think of hose and dose and lose,

And think of goose and yet of choose,

Think of comb and tomb and bomb,

Doll and roll and home and some.

And since pay is rhymed with say,

Why not paid with said I pray?

Think of blood and food and good;

Mould is not pronounced like could.

Why is it done, but gone and lone-

Is there any reason known?

To sum it up, it seems to me

That sounds and letters don’t agree.

***

Blood and flood are not like food,

Nor is mould like should and wood.

Banquet is not nearly parquet

Which is said to rhyme with darky.

Rounded, wounded, grieve and sleeve,

Friend and fiend; alive and live;

Liberty, library, heave and heaven,

Rachel, ache, moustache and shaven.

We say hallowed but allowed;

People, leopard, towed but vowed.

Mark the difference moreover

Between mover, plover, Dover;

Leeches, breeches, wise, precise,

Chalice but police and lice.