PARENTHESES .

Knowledge of English grammar 2 KEY and of the meaning of the passage are necessary to figure out where to pause.

Pauses occur:

before conjunctions (and, or, but, which, that, since...), and

between grammatical units such as phrases, clauses, and sentences.

GRAMMATICAL UNITS:

(ARTICLE+ ADJECTIVE+NOUN) a beautiful woman

(SUBJECT GROUP)

(VERB PHRASES: VERB+ADVERB, VERB+OBJECT, AUX.VERB+MAIN VERB)

(PREPOSITIONAL PHRASES – with my friends);

(CLAUSES -..when I was a boy..)

However, not everyone pauses or groups words in the same place. The most important thing is that the speaker's pausing must be able to guide the listener to follow his meaning or thought. Also, a thought group is a rhythm group. It must contain at least one stressed syllable in English. The teacher can have students put a slash (/) between thought groups before asking them to read a passage aloud, and then have them compare their pause placement with each other and also discuss the reasons why they pause in different places.

PRACTICAL TIPS: HOW TO SOUND WITH CORRECT RHYTHM

1. DON’T BREAK UP SHORT STATEMENTS!

2. PUNCTUATION AND GRAMMAR ARE YOUR GUIDES, BUT IN GENERAL YOU SIMPLY DON’T WANT TO BREAK UP WORDS FROM A SINGLE IDEA!

3. IF YOU NEED TO SPEAK SLOWER FOR YOUR LISTENERS, BREAK SENTENCES INTO SHORTER THOUGHT GROUPS.

Task 8: Read and analyse the thought-groups.

Once upon a starless midnight / there was an owl / who sat on the

branch of an oak tree./ Two ground moles / tried to slip quietly by, /

unnoticed./ “You!” / said the owl. / “Who?” / they quavered, / in fear

and astonishment, / for they could not believe / it was possible / for

anyone to see them / in that thick darkness. /

(from The Owl Who Was God by James Thurber)

Task 9: Identify thought groups in each statement (put down / (double slash) as a “pause”:

1) When I was a mother, I tripped over toys on the floor and rocked my children in my arms.

2) Now that I am a grandmother, I tap my feet as I wait for my grandchildren to visit me.

3) When I became a man, I fell at the feet of a beautiful woman.

Task 10. Test your skills in defining thought groups in the non-adapted extract from TESS OF THE d'URBERVILLES by Thomas Hardy. Use slash “/ “ to mark the short pauses, and double slash “//” for a period.

As soon as she was alone within the walled garden she sat herself down on a coop, and seriously screwed up her mouth for the long-neglected practice. She found her former ability to have degenerated to the production of a hollow sepulchral rush of wind through the lips, and no clear note at all.

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