?

Say this sentence aloud and count how many seconds it takes.
首先請大聲朗讀下面這個句子，算算花了幾秒。

The beautiful Mountain appeared transfixed in the distance.

Time required? Probably about 5 seconds. Now, try speaking this sentence aloud.
需要多長時間？差不多5秒?，F(xiàn)在，大聲朗讀下面這個句子：

He can come on Sundays as long as he doesn't have to do any homework in the evening.

Time required? Probably about 5 seconds.
需要多長時間？也就5秒。

Wait a minute the first sentence is much shorter than the second sentence!
等等等等，第一個句子比第二個短好多??！兩個句子放到一起比比看：

The beautiful Mountain appeared transfixed in the distance.
He can come on Sundays as long as he doesn't have to do any homework in the evening.

You are only partially right!
你說對了一半。

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).
這個簡單的練習體現(xiàn)了我們說英語非常重要的一個問題，就是，和其他音節(jié)語言不同，英語一種重音語言。這是什么意思呢？意思就是說，在英語中，我們會重點強調(diào)特定的詞，而其他的詞就說的很快，有的學生說是吞音了。其他語言中，比如法語或者意大利語，每個音節(jié)都是同等重要的，他們也有重音，但是每個音節(jié)的長度是固定的。

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.
很多說音節(jié)語言的人不明白為什么我們能把英語說的這么快或者吞掉這么多音，因為音節(jié)語言中每個音節(jié)都是同等重要的。英語是突出強調(diào)重要的詞，剩下的不太重要的詞就帶過了。

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