Think of how stingy you are with your money: if someone on the street asks for $10, you're not giving it to them. There's no way you're giving a 30% tip for a normal dining experience. And so on.

想想你在花錢上是多么的吝嗇，如果有人在街上問你要10美元，你是不會給的。普通的一頓飯要收你30%的小費，那也是沒門。諸如此類的事情還有不少。
And yet so many of us just waste ungodly amounts of our time. We throw it away, every day. I know I do unless I'm careful. What helps me to not waste time is to see it as an investment, and to keep track of the returns I get for my investment.
但是我們大部分人都肆意揮霍著時間，對于時間的浪費，每天如此。除非我們刻意留心，不然我們還是明知故犯。怎樣做才能不浪費時間？不如將它看成一種投資，看看它能帶來多少回報。
This approach has led me to recognize that some things offer incredible immediate return on investment: a night spent learning a new song on my preferred instruments, for example, gives me a lifetime of being able to play that song. That's an incredible return. Other investments are more like low-interest, high security, long-term investments: going to the gym, eating right, etc. Some, like reading good books, are kind of a combination of both.
在某些方面，讓我覺得（投資時間）會有不可思議的即刻回報。比如，花一個晚上的時間，在我喜歡的樂器上學會一首新的曲子，那我今后的一生中就都會彈奏這首曲子。這是多么不可思議的回報。還有一些低利率、高安全率的長期投資，比如：去健身房鍛煉、健康飲食等等。還有一些，包括閱讀有意義的書，算是兩者的結合。
But many activities are worthless from an investment perspective: whatever benefit they seem to give doesn't last any longer than the activity itself."Price is what you pay. Value is what you get." - Warren Buffett. This applies to everything: money, relationships, time. Knowing this changes your life.
但是有很多的活動從投資的角度來說是毫無價值的，除了活動本身的價值，其他的任何利益都不會得到延續(xù)�！澳愀冻龅氖莾r格，買來的是價值。”這是沃倫·巴菲特的名言。這條定律適用于所有事物，金錢、關系、時間。知道這個會改變你的人生。Correct intonation and stress are the key to speaking English fluently with good pronunciation. Intonation and stress refer to the music of the English language. Words that are stressed are key to understanding and using the correct intonation brings out the meaning.
正確的語調(diào)和重音對于掌握流利的發(fā)音來時說至關重要。語調(diào)和重音就像英語這首歌的曲調(diào)。重讀的詞語對于理解至關重要，發(fā)出正確的語調(diào)也能夠將意思清楚地表達出來。
Say this sentence aloud and count how many seconds it takes.
大聲讀出這句話，并計算出共耗費了多少秒。

The beautiful mountain appeared transfixed in the distance.
（遠處美麗的山峰巋然不動。）

Time required?
時間要求
Probably about 5 seconds. Now, try speaking this sentence aloud.
可能你用了5秒。現(xiàn)在，試著大聲讀出這句話。

He can come on Sundays as long as he doesn't have to do any homework in the evening.
只要他晚上沒有家庭作業(yè)要做，就可以周日過來。
Time required? Probably about five seconds.
需要多少時間呢？大概五秒吧。
Wait a minute. The first sentence is much shorter than the second sentence!
等一下。第一句話比第二句話短得多。

The beautiful Mountain appeared transfixed in the distance.(14 syllables)
遠處美麗的山峰巋然不動。（14個音節(jié)）

He can come on Sundays as long as he doesn't have to do any homework in the evening. (22 syllables)
只要他晚上沒有家庭作業(yè)要做，就可以周日過來。（22個音節(jié)）
Even though the second sentence is approximately 30 percent longer than the first, the sentences take the same time to speak. This is because there are five stressed words in each sentence. From this example, you can see that you needn't worry about pronouncing every word clearly to be understood. You should, however, concentrate on pronouncing the stressed words clearly.
即使第二句話比第一句話長大約30%，但說出這兩句話仍可以耗費相同的時間。這是因為，這兩句話中都有5個重讀詞語。例如，你會發(fā)現(xiàn)，你不必為了讓別人理解你的意思而將每個詞語的音都發(fā)出來。但是，你應該將重讀的詞語清晰地發(fā)出來。
This simple exercise makes a very important point about how we speak and use English.
這個簡單的練習，對于我們應該怎樣去說英語和使用英語提出了一個重要的觀點。
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. In other languages, such as French or Italian, each syllable receives equal importance (there is stress, but each syllable has its own length).
也就是說，英語是不像那些音節(jié)式語言，它是一門強調(diào)重讀的語言。這是什么意思呢？也就是說，在英語中，我們會對一些特定的詞語進行重讀，而其他的詞語就輕輕帶過。而其它的語言，例如法語或意大利語則要求將每一個音節(jié)都清晰地讀出來（雖然也有重讀地情況，但每個音節(jié)都有自己的音長）。
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.
許多說音節(jié)語言的人都不明白，為什么我們要說得那么快，或者講一句話中的許多詞一帶而過。在音節(jié)語言中，每一個音節(jié)都要發(fā)出來，所以需要的時間是一樣的。但是，英語則需要我們將更多的時間放在重讀詞語上，并快速帶過其它不重要的詞語。

Simple Exercise to Help with Understanding
幫助理解的簡單練習
The following exercise can be used by students and teachers to further help with pronunciation by focusing on the stressing content words rather than function words in the exercise below.
學生和老師們可以做做下面的練習，通過專注其中地需要重讀地內(nèi)容，而不是功能詞，從而提高自己的發(fā)音。
Let's look at a simple example: the modal verb "can." When we use the positive form of "can" we quickly glide over the can and it is hardly pronounced.
一起看一個簡單的了例子：情態(tài)動詞can。當我們使用can的肯定形式時，會快速地帶過，幾乎不發(fā)出音。
They can come on Friday. (stressed words in italics)
他們周五能來。（斜體字需重讀）
On the other hand, when we use the negative form "can't" we tend to stress the fact that it is the negative form by also stressing "can't".
另一方面，當我們使用否定形式can’t時，通常會對其進行重讀以表示強調(diào)。
They can't come on Friday. (stressed words in italics)
他們周五來不了。（斜體字需重讀）
As you can see from the above example the sentence, "They can't come on Friday" is longer than "They can come on Friday" because both the modal "can't" and the verb "come" are stressed.
如同你在以上例句中看到的，They can't come on Friday這句話比They can come on Friday長，因為前面一句話中有兩個重讀詞語，can’t和come。

Understanding Which Words to Stress
哪些詞語該重讀
First of all, you need to understand which words we generally stress and which we do not stress.
首先，你要明白，一般情況下，哪些詞需要重讀，哪些不需要重讀。

Stress words are considered content words such as:
實詞需要重讀，例如：
Nouns e.g. kitchen, Peter
名詞，例如：kitchen，Peter
Main verbs (most) e.g. visit, construct
主動詞（大多數(shù)），例如：visit，construct
Adjectives e.g. beautiful, interesting
形容詞，例如：beautiful，interesting形容詞，例如：beautiful，interesting
Adverbs e.g. often, carefully
副詞，例如：often，carefully
Negatives including negative helping verbs, and words with 'no' such as 'nothing', 'nowhere', etc.
否定詞，包括助動詞的否定形式，以及帶有no的詞語，例如nothing，nowhere等。
Words expressing quantities e.g. a lot of, a few, many, etc.
表數(shù)量的詞，例如a lot of, a few, many等。

Non-stressed words are considered function words such as:
非重讀詞語，即虛詞，例如：
Determiners e.g. the, a, some, a few
限定詞，例如the, a, some, a few
Auxiliary verbs e.g. don't, am, can, were
助動詞，例如don't, am, can, were
Prepositions e.g. before, next to, opposite
介詞，例如before, next to, opposite
Conjunctions e.g. but, while, as
連詞，例如but, while, as
Pronouns e.g. they, she, us
代詞，例如they, she, us
Verbs 'have' and 'be' even when used as main verbs
have和even甚至會用作主動詞。

Practice Exercise
測試題目
Identify which words are content words and should be stressed in the following sentences:
找出下面句子中的實詞，以及需要重讀的詞語。
1. They've been learning English for two months.
他們已經(jīng)學了兩個月的英語了。
2. My friends have nothing to do this weekend.
我的朋友們周末無事可干。
3. I would have visited in April if I had known Peter was in town.
如果我知道皮特也在鎮(zhèn)上，我會在四月份去拜訪的。
4. Natalie will have been studying for four hours by six o'clock.
娜塔莉會學習四個小時，直到六點鐘。
5. The boys and I will spend the weekend next to the lake fishing for trout.
我和那些男孩周末會去附近的湖泊釣鮭魚。
6. Jennifer and Alice had finished the report before it was due last week.
詹妮弗和愛麗絲在上周之前完成了報告。

答案：
Words initalics are stressed content words while unstressed function words are in lower case.
斜體的詞語為需要重讀的實詞，不需要重讀的功能詞均為小寫。
1. They've beenlearning English for two months.
2. My friends have nothing to do thisweekend.
3. I would havevisited in April if i had known Peter was intown.
4. Natalie will have been studying for fours hours by six o'clock.
5. The boys and i will spend the weekend next to the lake fishing fortrout.
6. Jennifer and Alice had finished the report before it was due last week.

Continue Practicing
繼續(xù)練習
Speak to your native English speaking friends and listen to how we concentrate on the stressed words rather than giving importance to each syllable. As you begin to listen and use stressed words, you will discover words you thought you didn't understand are really not crucial for understanding the sense or making yourself understood. Stressed words are the key to excellent pronunciation and understanding of English.
和你的外國朋友進行對話，注意聽自己是怎樣重讀詞語，而不是將每個音都發(fā)出。在你開始聽并重讀詞語時，你會發(fā)現(xiàn)，自己不認識的詞對于意義的理解或表達自己的意思并不重要。重讀詞語對于好的英語發(fā)音和理解來說至關重要。
After students have learned basic consonant and vowel sounds, they should move on to learning to differentiate between individual sounds by using minimal pairs. Once they are comfortable with individual words, they should move on to intonation and stress exercises such as sentence markup. Finally, students can take the next step by choosing a focus word to help further improve their pronunciation.
學生在學完基本的輔音聲和元音聲后，應該繼續(xù)通過最小對立體來對每一個音進行區(qū)分。在區(qū)分好每一個單獨的音之后，應該注重語調(diào)和重音的練習。在發(fā)好每一個音之后，還可以做一些關于語調(diào)和重讀的練習，例如給句子做標記等。最后，學生們可以選擇一個焦點詞，從而幫助自己進一步改善發(fā)音。

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