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Say this sentence aloud and count how many seconds it takes.
首先请大声朗读下面这个句子，算算花了几秒。
The beautiful Mountain appeared transfixed in the distance.
Time required? Probably about 5 seconds. Now, try speaking this sentence aloud.
需要多长时间？差不多5秒。现在，大声朗读下面这个句子：
He can come on Sundays as long as he doesn't have to do any homework in the evening.
Time required? Probably about 5 seconds.
需要多长时间？也就5秒。
Wait a minute the first sentence is much shorter than the second sentence!
等等等等，第一个句子比第二个短好多啊！两个句子放到一起比比看：
The beautiful Mountain appeared transfixed in the distance.
He can come on Sundays as long as he doesn't have to do any homework in the evening.
You are only partially right!
你说对了一半。
This simple exercise makes a very important point about how we speak and use English. 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 (some students say eaten!). In other languages, such as French or Italian, each syllable receives equal importance (there is stress, but each syllable has its own length).
这个简单的练习体现了我们说英语非常重要的一个问题，就是，和其他音节语言不同，英语一种重音语言。这是什么意思呢？意思就是说，在英语中，我们会重点强调特定的词，而其他的词就说的很快，有的学生说是吞音了。其他语言中，比如法语或者意大利语，每个音节都是同等重要的，他们也有重音，但是每个音节的长度是固定的。
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.
很多说音节语言的人不明白为什么我们能把英语说的这么快或者吞掉这么多音，因为音节语言中每个音节都是同等重要的。英语是突出强调重要的词，剩下的不太重要的词就带过了。
