Lesson 4: The Variable American T

Goals for this Lesson:

  1. Learn all the varieties of the American T.
  2. Recognize how to pronounce the T in various situations.
  3. Notice how Americans use the T in daily life.
  4. Know how to use the -ed at the end of verbs and adjectives.
  5. Pass our short quiz with at least 80% accuracy.

Step 1

The American T

This audio lesson is a little longer.  It shows you all of the ways Americans and Canadians use the T in everyday common speech.  You may be surprised at how variable it is.  Use your workbook to follow along.

The American T

Homework


Step 2

Pronunciation Lesson 4

Video 1

Video 5

Video 2

Video 6

Video 3

Video 7

Video 4

Video 8


Step 3

Practice the T, D, and –ED

Please repeat after me…

T and D Words- Slow Pace

T and D Words- Normal Pace

T and D Sentences- Slow Pace

T and D Sentences- Normal Pace

We attended the taste test ten times.

When Dean was a teen he danced on a desk.

The photographer photographed a terrific photo.

Try the best Italian tomato dishes in Little Italy.

There were two potatoes in Tom’s dim den.

Splitting the atom caused an atomic reaction.

How would you pronounce this?

little

reality

scrutiny

faint

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change had better check its calculations

Taken from http://www.economist.com/node/1579333

(Hints- it you have a T at the end of a word and another T right after it, just hold the T longer. Ex- at times.  If you have a T and then a Y sound, it combines to make a CH. Ex- nature and last year.)

At the beginning of 2001 the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released, as the main result of its massive Third Assessment Review, a set of figures that have become the most-cited numbers in the field of environmental policy, and quite possibly the most-cited numbers in any field of public policy. The panel, whose task was to assess the extent to which emissions of greenhouse gases may warm the planet over the coming century, reported that “globally averaged mean surface temperature is projected to increase by 1.4 to 5.8°C over the period 1990 to 2100.” This alarming conclusion has become the starting-point for popular and official discussion of global warming and the policies that might mitigate it. Bear in mind how expensive some approaches to the problem, such as the Kyoto Protocol, might be if governments actually succeeded in implementing them. Vast sums are at stake.

As a rule, the IPCC is careful to attach warnings to its projections. Journalists are impatient with that: they prefer “predictionto projection” (less vague) and like to talk of temperature rising by “as much as 5.8°” rather than quoting the full range. This is all very misleading—but the panel cannot be blamed for the way its work is reported. What it can be blamed for is the seriously flawed methods it has followed in making its estimates.

In recent months, two distinguished commentators—Ian Castles of the National Centre for Development Studies at Australian National University, formerly the head of Australia's national office of statistics; and David Henderson of the Westminster Business School, formerly the chief economist of the OECD—have put together a critique of the panel's Special Report on Emissions Scenarios (SRES). The report claims to “provide the basis for future assessment of climate change”, but Mr Castles and Mr Henderson point to serious flaws in its analysis and results. Last year they began writing to the chairman of the panel. Following an invitation to a technical meeting convened by the IPCC last month, they have offered further comments. The critique which thus evolved is to be published next month.

 


Step 4

Take the Lesson 4 Quiz

Quiz 4

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