I will not hesitate to answer-intonation, that is, the tone of speech, is the preparation and change of pitch in sentences. No language in the world is monosyllabic. Take English as an example. There are five basic tones in English: rising tone (↗), falling tone (↙), rising tone (∧), falling tone (∨) and flat tone (→). A sentence has not only lexical meaning, but also intonation meaning. Lexical meaning is the meaning of words used in words, while intonation meaning is the attitude or tone expressed by the speaker in intonation. The lexical meaning of a sentence plus the intonation meaning is the complete meaning. The same sentence, with different intonation, will have different meanings, sometimes even thousands of miles apart. Please look at the following example: 1) A: Jane, can you bring me the newspaper? Excuse me? ↗)Jean said "I'm sorry" in a rising tone, which means "I didn't hear". could you say that again , please? Let's look at the next sentence: 2) A: Jane, can you bring me the newspaper? B: Sorry. In dialogue 2, Jean said "I'm sorry" in a falling tone, which obviously means refusing to help or being helpless. Kenneth L.Pike, a famous American linguist, believes that the absolute height of a syllable is not important, but the relative height of one syllable relative to another is very important. English has four levels that can distinguish meanings: 1) extra high, which is two levels higher than the normal tone, and is often used when feelings are particularly exciting or surprising. 2) High tone, that is, one level higher than normal tone, is generally used for stressed words in sentences. 3) mid, the normal height of the speaker's voice. 4) Low, that is, one level lower than the normal tone, is generally the lowest point of falling tone. Intonation patterns should be classified according to the speaker's attitude, not according to the grammatical structure of sentences. There is no such thing as "interrogative intonation" or "declarative intonation". Because interrogative sentences and declarative sentences can be said in various intonation patterns. Therefore, it is very important for English learners in China to understand a certain attitude or tone expressed by a certain model. In fact, whether in real life or in exams, our students are often unable to determine the speaker's attitude, feelings, tone and intention because of their lack of understanding of this knowledge. However, this is a more complicated problem. This paper will illustrate this problem from two aspects through concrete examples: First, as we all know, when people are excited, surprised or emotional, the absolute height and relative height of mood in sentences are higher, and vice versa. Therefore, under the same circumstances, if one person's intonation is obviously higher than that of another person, or obviously lower than that of another person, we can infer the meaning and attitude of the speaker. Here we will focus on the meaning of the relative high and low intonation in a sentence. The peak of intonation in a sentence is generally the stress of the sentence. We can understand the speaker's meaning through the peak of intonation in a sentence. For example, when people read the sentence "I live in a city" ... ",the intonation changes with different emphasis objects. Let's compare: I (↗) live in the city (implying that other people present are not in the city) I (↗) live in the city (indicating that "I" just "live" in the city, implying that "I don't work in the city" or something) I (↗) live in the city .. M: Linda looks very tired these days. W: In me(↗ opinion, she is not bad. Question: What does this lady think of Linda? She saw Linda and me. Linda said she was fine. She looked up the word for me. D. she thinks Linda is very good. The sentence stress of this sentence falls on the last word "me" of the sentence. Because the lady emphasizes "I" in a rising tone, it shows that the lady intends to contrast with the man's view, which means: in your eyes, she looks tired, but in my opinion, she has no problem. This shows her indifferent attitude. Two. The phenomenon that the meaning of some sentence patterns changes due to the change of intonation at the end of the sentence 1. A special interrogative sentence composed of interrogative words who, which, what, how, when, where and why can be used in a falling tone or a rising tone, but their meanings are different. Mr Smith thinks that we should get the money first. B: Who? A: Mr. Smith. B say "who" in a rising tone, which means that you can't hear part of the conversation clearly and ask the other party to repeat that part. 5)A: We hope someone will say a word at the beginning to welcome this group. B: Who? A: We think you or Dr. Zhan Sen can do it. B to say "who" in a falling tone means to ask the other person who he wants to make a welcome speech at the opening. 2. Additional questions can be read in rising tone or falling tone, with different meanings. A falling tone means that the questioner believes the content of the statement and only waits for the other party to confirm it. A rising tone means that the questioner is not sure about the truth of the statement and hopes that the other party will make his own judgment. You will finish the work, won't you? Yes, I will. I know you will finish the work, but I won't let you confirm it. You will finish the work, won't you? (↗) Yes, I will ... (Or no, I won't) A asks a question in a rising tone, indicating that A is uncertain, so the answer may be yes or no. So, when you hear the following conversation and choose the question you ask, it is self-evident which option is correct. W: Mary said she likes playing tennis. M: But she doesn't play tennis very often, does she? (↙)Q:Whatdoesthe man imply about Mary? She also participates in many other sports. She doesn't really like tennis. C.she only likes watching tennis. D. She has a lot of things to do. 3. Intonation can reflect the interactivity of the speaker. Are you Mr. Black? B: Yes. (↙) A: Room 26. In this example, B said "yes" in a falling tone, indicating B's approval. This is a closed answer, which means that if A has no new questions or information to ask, maybe their conversation can end. Are you Mr. Black? B: What is it? (↗) Ah, I want to have a word with you in secret. In this example, B answered "Yes" with a rising tone, indicating that this is an open-ended answer, which is equivalent to: "Yes. But why do you ask? " Or "yes. But who wants to know? " Meaning. That is to say, while answering A's question, B puts forward a new question to A and asks A to answer it. With this in mind, the questions asked in the following conversation are not difficult to answer. M: How long are we going to stay in the Grand Canyon? W: A day? Q: What does this woman mean? We will stay in the Grand Canyon for one day. Are we going to stay in the Grand Canyon for a day? A day in the Grand Canyon is too short. One day in the Grand Canyon is enough. 4. Declarative sentences usually state facts in a falling tone. If you read the rising tone, you will often doubt what you say. She lent him her car. She lent him her car? Surprise and doubt, including "Did she really lend him her car?" Meaning. Please look at the following question again: 12) m: I started driving at 8 o'clock yesterday and arrived here at 5: 30 this morning. Q: What does this woman mean? Driving at night can be dangerous. You shouldn't drive at night. C.why don't you drive all night? Did you really drive all night? The answer is d.5. The sentence patterns of some general interrogative sentences are pronounced as falling tones, which are actually expressions of exclamation. She hasn't grown up yet! What this sentence actually means is: how fast she grows! Please look at the following question:13) M: Is Sam's speech great? W: Are you serious? Question: What did the man say to Sam's speech? Sam's speech was not very good, was it? Sam's speech was great, wasn't it? C. Sam made a serious speech. Sam is not serious. The answer is B. By the way, questions don't mean doubt in another situation: when one party asks questions and the other party answers them with questions, sometimes the questions don't need to be answered, but they are actually equivalent to statements, but they are meaningless. 14) A: Are you going to watch TV again? B: what else can I do? (↗)B asked A a question, "What else can I do?" What else can I do besides watching TV? Therefore, the following questions are not difficult to answer. M: Do you think Patty is qualified for this job? W: If Patty isn't, then who is? Q: What does this woman mean? Patty is not up to the job. No one is qualified for the job. Patty is fully qualified for the job. Except Patty, everyone is qualified to do this job ... Some general interrogative sentences don't need to be answered, and their functions are equivalent to declarative sentences, but the positive structure means negation, and the negative structure means affirmation, which also conveys the speaker's strong emotions. 16) w: Don't you have anything better to do? M: OK, Mom, I'll turn off the TV and start making my home. Obviously, what the mother means is to blame her son for not watching TV, but to do something more beneficial than watching TV-that is, the mother thinks her son has better things to do. During the conversation, the son certainly understood what his mother meant, so he said to turn off the TV and start doing his homework. 17) m: I've been watching you for ten minutes. What have you been doing? Woman: Are you blind? Q: What can you infer a woman's attitude towards a man? Polite. Not friendly. C. indifference. D. kausu The lady said, "Are you blind?" You are not blind, can't you see? Therefore, this lady is not very friendly. In a word, as long as English learners establish the awareness of paying attention to intonation and cultivate their sensitive perception and reaction ability, after years of English learning and accumulation, plus the intonation knowledge we have acquired from our mother tongue, we will be able to successfully deal with intonation problems. In the listening test, in addition to the speaker's phonetic features that we can hear, such as speech speed, absolute rising tone, intonation range, lexical meaning, contextual clues and the range delineated by the four options, it should not be a difficult problem to choose the correct option. Personally, I think this is very important! To learn English well, everyone can't ignore it. Show comment signature