节目资讯
刊物:空中英語教室
日期:2012-03-13
难易度:Low
关键字:vowel, consonant, pronunciation, leather, tongue twister, peck
Friends, get your tongues loosened up because we are, in a moment, going to give
them a real workout.
There are many English tongue twisters and the number just keeps growing.
Yes, people are making up new tongue twisters all the time.
But right now, let's start our workout with what is probably English's most
famous tongue twister - the pepper picker himself, Peter Piper - on line 13.
Tongue Twisters.
Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers.
If Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers,
where's the peck of pickled peppers Peter Piper picked?
Author Alvin Schwartz suggests that one of the most difficult tongue twisters in
English is Peggy Babcock.
Can you say that five times fast?
Here are some other "simple" tongue twisters:
She sells seashells by the seashore.
Unique New York.
Toy boat.
Real rear wheel.
Good blood, bad blood.
Red leather, yellow leather.
OK. So we're starting off with what is the best-known tongue twister, not
actually the first.
OK, now if Kaylah and I mess up, it's OK to laugh at us.
Are you ready?
Oh. Are we reading together?
OK, you start.
I'll start. OK.
So we start off with: Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers.
Now if Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers, where's the peck of pickled
peppers Peter Piper picked?
Ooh! OK, good job.
That was a tongue twister, and you can see why it could be hard to pronounce.
OK. Now let's go back and try and figure out what exactly this phrase means.
OK. Peter Piper - that would be a name - picked a peck of pickled peppers.
Whoa! That's a lot of Ps.
Yes. OK. Well, if you pick something, that means you pull it off of a tree or a
bush.
Now what is a peck?
A "peck" is a unit of measure.
So when we are picking apples maybe, or picking any kind of vegetable, we pick
them in pecks.
OK. And so it's a group of something.
And he's picking pickled peppers. That's just a type of vegetable, don't worry
about that.
But you can see how there are many "Ps" in this phrase.
Are there any other words we need to define here, Kaylah?
No, but I think we should look at the meaning of it.
OK.
Does... do tongue twisters have meaning?
Well, the answer is sometimes they do.
Now what do you think, does this one have meaning?
Well, I think so.
He's picking peppers from a tree and he has a peck of them.
And now he's picking pickled peppers, and where's the peck of the pickled... I
don't know.
OK. So it says if he picked them, where did they go?
So this is a very complicated, very challenging tongue-twister way to say:
Peter picked some peppers.
Where did he put them?
OK. And yes, we just put all these words together to say that easy phrase and
made it a lot harder by adding a lot of the same consonants.
And this is a good way to practice your English because it makes you really get
the sounds out of your mouth to help with your pronunciation.
Exactly.
If you practice this phrase and you get each word correctly without twisting
your tongue, then you can have better pronunciation.
OK, let's move on.
OK. So while Peter Piper picking peckled p... Wow! That's difficult!
So if Peter Piper's peck of pickled peppers is the most famous, it's not the
only English tongue twister we have.
In fact, author Alvin Schwartz suggests that one of the most difficult tongue
twisters in English is Peggy Babcock.
Peggy Babcock.
Peggy Bab... OK.
Now this is not the name of a tongue twister.
This name is a tongue twister.
See if you can say this five times fast.
Peggy Babcock. Peggy Babcock. Peggy Babcock. Peggy Bab...
OK. I'm just going to stop.
That was only three.
You were doing it. That was good!
Oh, thank you.
Well, tongue twisters are very difficult.
And often we say, "Now say that five times fast" because then your brain can't
keep up with your lips and tongue.
And that's what makes tongue twisters so much fun.
Exactly. That's what makes them easy to mess up.
And this one is very difficult to say or easy to mess up.
So here are some other "simple" tongue twisters.
Now we see the word "simple" here is in quotation marks.
It has the "quote" simple and "quote" marks around it.
That means we are saying it's simple because they are short, but it is not
simple, it is not easy.
That's right. None of these are very easy, but they are very short.
And of course, as you saw, "Peggy Babcock" is also very short but not easy to
say.
That's right.
Well, let's get started.
Let's see our first one on our list of "simple" tongue twisters is:
She sells seashells by the seashore.
Now it's not fair that I read this one because I've been saying this since I was
about seven.
OK, I have heard this one before too, and I haven't had the chance to practice
it. So let me try.
She shall... seashell... shall... She sells seashells by the seashore.
Very good.
Now this is a great one to practice your "S" sound, to make sure you're getting
a nice, full sharp sound.
So she sells, seashells.
It's a good one to practice with.
OK. This next one is actually quite difficult.
No matter how much you practice, this one will be a challenge.
And that is Unique New York.
Yeah, Unique New York.
Now this is a great phrase for you to try saying five times fast.
Unique New York. Unique New York. Unique New York. Unique...
That's right.
This one gets to be kind of confusing when you start saying Unique "You Nork,"
"New Nork," which is very incorrect.
So we're trying to say Unique New York.
Now the word "unique" means it is special.
And we all know New York City.
So really, it doesn't have much meaning, except that it's very difficult to say.
OK. Now really fast, Kaylah.
We talked about she's selling seashells by the... the seashore, but we didn't
talk about what seashells are or what a seashore is.
Should we talk about that really fast?
Sure. We can say really quickly so we know at least what we're talking about.
Now seashells are what we pick up on the beach.
Those are the beautiful shells that we get out of the ocean.
And the seashore is just the line of the ocean water that comes to land.
So it would be picking up seashells by the beach.
OK. Let's move on to our next one.
Toy boat.
Try saying this one fast.
Toy boat. Toy boat. Toy boy... Toy boy... Toy boat.
Very hard.
Toy "boyt." Toy "boyt." This one's fun to practice with.
How about "real rear wheel"?
Whoa... that one's hard!
Or good blood, bad blood.
Good blood, bad blood.
Good blood, bad blood. Good... OK.
Next is "red leather, yellow leather." Try saying that quickly.
Now what is "leather"?
"Leather" is the skin of an animal that we take off of them.
And we clean it and dry it out and use it for either material for clothing or
for bags and accessories.
But here we're talking about red leather and yellow leather.
Now say this four times fast and see how you do.
Let us know tomorrow.
But right now we got to go to today's skit.
People of all ages love tongue twisters.
Yeah, even old people.
Daniel, do you know any tongue twisters?
Well, I sure do.
Here's an old one:
Fuzzy Wuzzy was a bear.
Fuzzy Wuzzy had no hair.
Fuzzy Wuzzy wasn't very fuzzy, was he?
Huh? Fuzzy Wuzzy was a-whaty?
Fuzzy Wuzzy was a bear.
Fuzzy Wuzzy is the bear's name.
Oh. Fuzzy is a good name for a hairy bear.
Yes. But Fuzzy Wuzzy had no hair.
Well, why didn't Fuzzy Wuzzy have hair?
I don't know.
But since he had no hair, he wasn't very fuzzy, was he?
No. Poor Fuzzy.
Don't be sad.
Let's try the tongue twister together.
Fuzzy Wuzzy was a bear.
Fuzzy Wuzzy had no hair.
Fuzzy Wuzzy wasn't very fuzzy, was he?
No, he wasn't fuzzy at all.
Hey, let me try.
OK.
Fuzzy Wuzzy was a bear.
Fuzzy Wuzzy had no hair.
Fuzzy Wuzzy wasn't very fuzzy, was he?
Great! And now let's see it faster.
OK.
Fuzzy Wuzzy was a bear.
Fuzzy Wuzzy had no hair.
Fuzzy Wuzzy wasn't very fuzzy, was he?
Hey, let's do it faster!
Fuzzy Wuzzy...
Sorry, Campbell, it's time to say goodbye.
Oh... Hey, look!
It's Fuzzy Wuzzy's mom.
Fuzzy's... his mom?
Ah!
Here.
Hi, everyone. I'm Michelle.
(Chinese).
And time really flies.
Good job today and I'll see you tomorrow.
Bye-bye.
Thank you, Michelle.
Friends, if you're looking for something to help keep all the things you've
learned today in your brain longer than just a day or two,
then visit our website and try this lesson's free Activity Sheet.
While you're there, stop by our English Corner and tell us which of today's
tongue twisters you find the most difficult and why.
OK, more tongue twisting workouts tomorrow.
Until then, I hope all of you have a great day.