HANOI OPEN UNIVERSITY MID-TERM TEST ON

ENGLISH PRACTICAL PRONUNCIATION

FOR ENGLISH MAJOR
Subject code: EN09 – Test Number: 01

Student’s fullname: Nguyễn Quang Thắng

Date of bith: 23/02/1998
Group/ Class: FHTM 116

I. ANSWER THE FOLLOWING QUESTIONS (40 points)

1. How many sounds are there in the IPA? How are they classified?
- The IPA consists of 44 sounds, in which, there are 24 consonants and 20 vowels.
- Consonants are speech sounds produced by human when the breath that flows out through the mouth
is blocked by the teeth, tongue, or lips.
- Vowels are speech sounds produced by human when the breath that flows out through the mouth
without being blocked by the teeth, tongue, or lips. Vowels can be divided into two categories: 12
monophthongs and 8 diphthongs
+ Monophthongs are single vowel sounds in a syllable. For example, in the word ‘ship’, the vowel I is a
single vowel sound that can be transcribed as /I/.
+ Diphthongs are two vowel sounds in a syllable. For example, in the word ‘here’, the vowel ‘ere’ has
two sounds, which are transcribed as /ɪə

2. What is word stress? Give examples.

- Word stress is the emphasis we place in a specific syllable of a word when pronouncing it. In English
words that have more than one syllable, we usually don't pronounce every syllable with the same
weight, so each syllable in a word can be stressed or unstressed.
- A stressed syllable combines 5 features: it is longer, louder, change in pitch, said more clearly and
uses larger facial movements.

For example, the two-syllable nouns and adjectives like apple, table,.. have stress on the first syllable.

II. EXERCISES (60 points)

1. Give 5 words containing the sound at the beginning of each line. Underline the letter(s)
containing the sound.
a. /i:/ need, beat, team, sheep, see
b. /f/ full, Friday, fish, knife, fly
c. /eɪ/ face, space, rain, case, eight
d. /ʃ/ shirt, rush, shop, cash, shall
2. Which word whose pronunciation of the underlined part differs from that of the others? Write
the answer in the provided space.
a. sometimes visit worship with Sometimes
b. washed looked stopped played Played
c. three through month than Than
d. nation pollution question information Question

3. Which word has the different stress pattern from the rest? Explain your choice.
a. adorable ability impossible Entertainment
Entertainment is stressed on the 3rd syllable
Adorable, ability and impossible are stressed on the 2nd syllable.

b. engineer corporate difficult different

Engineer is stressed on the 3rd syllable
Corporate, difficult and different are stressed on the 1st syllable.
c. popular position horrible positive
Position is stressed on the 2nd syllable
Popular, horrible and positive are stressed on the 1st syllable.

d. selfish correct purpose surface

Correct is stressed on the 2nd syllable
Selfish, purpose and surface are stressed on the 1st syllable.

Một số yêu cầu:

+ Sinh viên nộp file word lên hệ thống
+ Ghi rõ mã đề trong bài làm.
Chú ý:
+ Chế tài xử lý đối với bài phát hiện có sự sao chép ( VD: nếu phát hiện sao chép thì bài làm của sinh viên sẽ
không được công nhận và nhận điểm 0….)
+ Giảng viên có thể trao đổi, nhận xét góp ý cho bài làm của sinh viên trên diễn đàn hoặc buổi Vclass (SV tham
gia lớp Vclass đầy đủ để được giải đáp)