1
Revision (unit 1-13)
Task 1. Fill in the blanks with suitable words
(a) larynx
(b) lungs
(c) environment
(d) allophones
(e) vocal tract
(f) vowels
(g) first (x2)
(h) shift
(i) smallest
(j) final
(k)Ambisyllabic
(l) meaning
(m) stressed
(n) trachea
A. In producing most speech sounds, including all the sounds used regularly in English, the air we
use comes from the (1………..). This air travels up from the lung, passing through the
(2………..) (windpipe), until it reaches the (3………..) where it might be set into vibration. The
(3………..) is commonly known as the voice box, and its front is the protrusion that can be felt
in the front of the neck, which is called the Adam’s apple in men. The air passes through the
(3………..) into the (4………..).
B. In terms of theory, researchers also sometimes disagree about the syllable distribution of the
intervocalic consonants (consonants in between (5………….)). Some people think that stress
attracts intervocalic consonants, so that the /p/ in ‘happy’ would belong to the (6………….).
syllable, as it is stressed (louder and longer than the second syllable). Some others, however,
think that the /p/ in ‘happy’ belongs to both syllables at the same time (that is, as the coda of the
first syllable and the onset of the second) and say it is (7………….).
C. When we say the words Chinese and Waterloo in isolation, the stress is on the (8………….).
syllable: Chiˈnese and Waterˈloo. However, in phrases like ˈChinese ˈtakeaway and ˈWaterloo
ˈstation, stress likely falls on the (8………….) syllable of each element. This phenomenon is
known as stress (9………….)., because stress shifts from the lexical stress position to somewhere
else. This happens because another (10………….) syllable occurs immediately afterwards – that
is, at the start of ‘takeaway’ and ‘station’. English likes stressed syllables to be separated by some
unstressed syllables, and stress shift is one of the techniques the language employs to do just that.
D. Phonemes are the (11………….) units that can make a meaning difference in a language, but they
occur in slightly different forms depending on their (12………….). (the other sounds around
them, and factors such as stress and their position in the syllable). We can tell if two sounds are
variants of the same phoneme by replacing one for another in a word and seeing if they make a
(13………….). difference. If they do not, then we know they are different versions of the same
phoneme. These different versions are called (14………….).
Task 2. Match the symbols on the left with the places of articulation on the right. There will
only be one match for each one.
/p/
/z/
/f/
/ð/
/tʃ/
[ʔ]
/j/
/ ŋ /
postalveolar
labiodental
palatal
velar
alveolar
dental
bilabial
glottal
Task 3. For each section below, find appropriate words according to the instructions you are
given.
1. Find three words that rhyme with ‘can’, but which start with bilabials.
2. Find six words that are like ‘make’, except that they finish with an alveolar sound in place of /k/.
Remember to keep the vowel the same and not to think about spelling.
3. Find three words where the first two sounds are exactly like those in ‘tut’, but which end with a
velar sound instead of the final /t/.
