A POEM Rhyming words

1– Lead-in: vocabulary
The words listed below appear in the poem you will listen to. Write the words next to their definitions.

RATION — ARCH — THWART — DROUGHT — BOUT — SOOT — BOW x 2

A. A long period of time when there is little or no rain and crops die
B. To bend your head or body forward, especially as a way of showing someone respect or
expressing thanks to people who have watched you perform. BOW
C. A curved structure at the top of a door, window, or gate
D. A knot made with a loop; ribbon BOW
E. A dirty black powder that is produced when you burn something such
as coal or wood
F. A limited amount of sth which one person is allowed to have, especially when there is not much of it
available.
G. To stop sth from happening or someone from doing sth.
H. A short period when you are sick or you feel unhappy

2– Listening comprehension

1. Read the first stanza of the poem and predict what words the pictures stand for.
Here´s a clue: all of them are nouns. Then listen to the recording and check your work.

Pronunciation poem
Ration never rhymes with ————————,

Say prefer, but preferable

Comfortable and —————————

B must not be heard in —————————,

Debt and dumb both leave it out.
In the words psychology,
Psychic and psychiatry,
You must never sound the P.
Psychiatrist you call the ———————
Who cures the complex, if he can.
In architect, ch is k,
In ———————— it is the other way.

2. Provide the ordinary spelling for the words transcribed in the stanza that follows.
Then check your work against the tape. The first one has been done for you.

Please remember to say / aɪən/ ___iron_____

So that it´ll rhyme with / laɪən/ 1——————
Advertisers advertise,
Advertisements will put you /waɪz/ 2———————-
/ taɪm/3 ——————-when work is done is /leʒə/ 4——————,
Fill it up with useful /pleʒə/5————————.
Accidental, accident,
Sound the g in /ɪgnərənt/6————————.
Relative but /rɪleɪʃn/ 7—————————,
Then say /kri:ʧə/ 8———————but creation.
Say the a in gas quite short,
/bɔ:t/ 9——————remember rhymes with thwart,
Drought must always rhyme with bout,
In /dɔ:tə/ 10————————leave the gh out.
3. Circle or underline the option in italics you think is the correct one. Then listen and see if you were right!

Wear a boot / / shoe upon your foot,

Rude / root can never rhyme with soot.
In muscle / science, sc is s,
In vascular / muscular, it´s sk, yes!
Choir must always rhyme with China / wire,
That again, will rhyme with liar / lawyer.
Then, remember, it´s address,
With an Accent like possess / success
G in sign must silent be,
In signature, pronounce the g.

4. Join the sentence halves. There is an example done for you.

1. Please remember, h A. make a start

2. just as if it rhymed B. just the same as so,

3. Weight´s like wait, C. by heart.

4. which should always rhyme D. but not like height,

5. Sew is E. with how.

6. tie a ribbon f. with boards.

7. When you meet the queen g. with might.

8. which again must rhyme h. say towards

9. In perfect English i. in a bow.

10. Learn this little rhyme J. you bow,

3. Follow-up: stress patterns

As you must have noticed, there are many polysyllabic words in the poem you´ve listened to. There are two
examples below. Can you provide others which will match the patterns given?

1– O o 5– o O o

2– o O 6– O o o o

3– O o o 7– o o O o accidental

4– o O o o 8– o o o O o pronunciation

Source: Headway Advanced, Oxford University Press

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y-GDoVBlVeA
4. Follow-up tasks - Spelling & Pronunciation: Voice agreement and Silent letters
A) Regular plural nouns, the genitive and the 3rd person singular inflection of the simple present tense
Rules
1– if the word ends in… /s/ /z/ /ʃ/ /ʒ/ /ʧ/ /ʤ/ (sibilant sounds)
...the final –s is pronounced /ɪz/

2– if the word ends in… /p/ /t/ /k/ /f/ /Ɵ/

...the final –s is pronounced /s/

3– if the word ends in… /b/ /d/ /g/ /v/ /δ / /l/ /m/ /n/ /ŋ/ or any vowel sound
...the final –s is pronounced /z/

Write the following words in the corresponding column below:

Nation vegetable possess daughter leave boot start address call rhyme debt pro-
nounce architect work meet arch gas advertise
/ɪz/ /s/ /z/

B) Past endings: Regular verbs in the past tense <-ed> (and most adjectives)
The regular past ending –ed can normally be pronounced in three ways, depending on the final sound of
the root word:
Rules
1- /d/ after vowel sounds & voiced consonants except /d/

2- /t/ after unvoiced / voiceless consonants except /t/

3- /ɪd/ after /d / or /t/

Use the following words to complete the table below:

Prefer work sound wait possess cure pronounce learn start

/d/ /t/ /ɪd/

C) Silent letters (there are a number of silent letters; i.e. those which do not represent any sound at all.)

Find words with the following silent letters / sounds in the POEM and write them in the corresponding
column:

/b/ /p/ /g/ /c/

Now think of other words with the following silent letters / sounds and complete the chart below:

/w/ /h/ /k/ /l/ /n/ /s/ /t/ /d/