正确发音小技巧
发长音/a:/时，嘴巴放松，自然张开。

发短音/ʌ/时，嘴稍张一点，嘴形比/a:/小得多，从喉咙后部短促地发出这个音。 初学正确发这个音时，肌肉会比较紧张。

如图：

/a:/ heart car large park farm
// husband cut lucky pub funny

唇舌训练：
I love my husband's large car in the park.
/a:/ /a:/ /a:/
She's cutting the picture of heart in the pub.
/a:/
The lucky man who owns a farm wins a funny car.
/a:/ /a:/
The woman and his husband are talking to each other, aren't they?
/a:/ /a:/
Those funny cars are everywhere: in the park, in the farm, even in a pub.
/a:/ /a:/ /a:/ /a:/
单词中字母的发音规律
一般发长音/a:/的字母 al calm, palm
ar start, farm, large, yard
一般发短音//的字母 o come, month
oo blood, flood
ou rough, trouble, country
u luck, husband, hurry, up

请注意：有很多单词中的字母“a”在字典可以看到是发/a:/的音，如：dance, grass, plant, fast等等，但在美音发音中，这些音都会发成/æ/， 所以在以上的单词字母的发音规律表中没有列出来。同时，有些单词如：laugh, aunt中的字母“au”，其英式发音也是/a:/，但美式发音会发/æ/的音。

发音与朗读训练
（在做以下朗读练习时，请注意黑体单词中画线字母的发音）
Confidence 自信
There's nothing wrong with trying to excel.

试图超越他人并没有错。

But if your best isn't as good as someone else's,

但如果你已经尽了最大的努力，仍不如他人，

don't allow yourself to lose confidence,

请不要丢掉你的自信，

either work harder to reach a new best, or accept that that's the way things are,
/a:/ /a:/
要么更努力一些，要么只要你已经尽了全力，

as long as you're giving your all.

就接受现实。

As I said earlier to my students, I'm not that far from complete confidence,
/a:/
正如我曾对我的学生说过的那样，我也是一个充满自信的人，

and that confidence comes from knowing my strengths and weaknesses

那种自信来源于我对自己的优势与弱势的认知

and accepting them.

与接受。

I also know I'm not in anything alone, I have friends and family behind me,

我也知道我并不是孤独一人，我有朋友与家人支持着我。

no matter what I do, and with that kind of support,

无论我做什么，只要有那爱支持伴着我，

why wouldn't I be confident?
我怎能不自信呢？