本单元是关于烧烤野餐后的对话

Michal: Morning everyone. What a great barbeque yesterday! Coffee and biscuits Alice?
Alice: Oh no, I feel dreadful. I was throwing up all night long!
Tim: One too many cocktails?
Alice: No! I hardly touched a drop. One minute I was having a ball ...
Helen: Getting chatted up more like!
Alice: Yeah, I saw a completely different side to Paul.
Michal: Who?
Alice: Doctor Laver.
All: Oooh!
Alice: Oh don't! Give me a break!
Tim: So, was it the good doctor who made you ill?
Alice: No, it must've been something I ate.
Helen: But we all ate the same things.
Michal: It looked gorgeous, but I didn't have any of the salmon. Did you?
Helen: No.
Tim: No.
Alice: Yes....oh, no!


Vocabulary (词汇):

to throw up （呕吐）:
to be physically sick

to hardly touch a drop （几乎滴酒不沾）:
to not drink much alcohol

to chat up （与某人搭讪）:
to get to know someone and talk to him or her in a romantic way

give me a break （你饶了我吧！ 注：开玩笑的话）:
stop annoying me (in this case, teasing Alice about Dr Laver)

本单元的语言点是英语单词中不发音字母，英语里有很多不发音的字母。这是因为，尽管一些单词的发音在过去两、三百年里发生了变化，但其拼写却是相同的。这些不发音的字母没有很多一成不变的规则可循，但得知道，当某些字母与另一些字母组合的时候，一些字母就不发音。下面列出的是一些最常见的不发音的字母

Silent letters 不发音的字母

There are a lot of silent letters in English. This is because although the pronunciation of some words has changed over the last two or three hundred years the spelling has stayed the same. （英语里有很多不发音的字母。这是因为，尽管一些单词的发音在过去两、三百年里发生了变化，但其拼写却是相同的。）
There aren't many hard and fast rules, it's more a matter of learning which letters are silent in certain combinations of letters. Here are some of the most common silent letters. （这些不发音的字母没有很多一成不变的规则可循，但得知道，当某些字母与另一些字母组合的时候，一些字母就不发音。下面列出的是一些最常见的不发音的字 母。）

In the following examples, all silent letters are given in brackets.

不发音的 'b'
The 'b' is silent in the combination 'mb' at the end of a word. For example:

The 'b' is silent in the combination 'bt'. For example:

but not in some words, e.g. obtain, unobtrusive

不发音的 'd'

The 'd' is silent in the combination 'dg'. For example:

不发音的'k'

The 'k' is silent in the combination 'kn'. For example:

不发音的'n'

The 'n' is silent in the combination 'mn' at the end of a word. For example:

不发音的 'p'

The 'p' is silent in the combination 'ps' at the beginning of a word. For example:

不发音的 'h'

The 'h' is silent at the end of word when it follows a vowel. For example:

The 'h' is silent between two vowels. For example:

The 'h' is silent after the letter 'r'. For example:

The 'h' is silent after the letters 'ex' For example:

but not in some words, e.g. exhale, exhume