BREATH CONTROL AND DICTION
Nothing is to be memorized for this assignment  You will be able to use your paper. You get ONE DO-OVER for the
entire assignment (not for each part of it. )
I.
Select ONE of the LISTED tongue twisters. You will need to be able to say it THREE times as fast as you can
while being completely understood.
a. Ruby red rubber baby buggy bumpers
b. Eight great gray geese grazing gaily into Greece.
c. Tie twine to three tree twigs.
d. The old cold scold sold the school coal scuttle.
e. What noise annoys a noisy oyster most? A noisy noise annoys a noisy oyster most.
f. Did you see Peter Piper’s puppy peeping playfully?
g. She sells seashells at the seashore’s seashell store.
h. Let Letty linger longer at the luncheon.
i. He is a nice man, not an ice man.
j. Sinful Caesar sipped his snifter, seized his knee and sneezed.
k. She says such shabbily sewed seams show seriously.
l. Strange strategic statistics.
m. Round and round the rugged rock the ragged rascal ran.
n. Thissian Thistle, the successful thistle sifter, sifts sieves full of three thousand thistles through the thick of
this thumb.
o. Double bubble gum bubbles double.
p. Six slick slim slippery sleek slender sickly saplings.
q. The sun shines on stop signs.
r. Truly rural rustic trees.
s. Shy Sarah saw Swiss wristwatches.
t. The sixth sheik’s sixth sheep’s sick.
Select one of the four line nursery rhymes. You will say it TWICE in ONE breath. The one breath comes at the
BEGINNING not in the middle. [ -5 for every breath you take after the first one.]
.
1.
Wee Willie Winkie runs through the town,
Upstairs and downstairs in his nightgown,
Rapping at the window, crying through the lock,
Are the children in their beds, for now it’s eight o’clock?
2.
Mistress Mary, quite contrary,
How does your garden grow?
With silver bells and cockle shells,
And pretty maids all in a row.
3
4.
Little Bo-peep has lost her sheep,
And can’t tell where to find them;
Leave them alone, and they’ll come home,
And bring their tails behind them.
Humpty-Dumpty sat on a wall,
Humpty-dumpty had a great fall;
All the king’s horses and all the king’s men
Can’t put Humpty together again.
5.
Three blind mice! See, how they run!
They all ran after the farmer’s wife,
Who cut off their tails with the carving knife!
Did you ever see such a thing in your life?
Three blind mice!
6.
Baa,baa, black sheep, have you any wool?
Yes sir, yes sir, three bags full;
One for my master, one for my dame,
And one for the little boy that lives in our lane.
7.
Old King Cole was a merry old soul,
And a merry old soul was her;
He called for his pipe,
And he called for his bowl,
And he called for his fiddlers three.
8.
Old Mother Hubbard went to the cupboard
To get her poor dog a bone;
But when she came there the cupboard was bare,
And so the poor dog had none.
9.
There was an old woman who lived in a shoe,
She had so many children, she didn’t know what to do;
She gave them some broth without any bread,
She whipped them all soundly, and put them to bed.
10.
Little jack Horner sat in a corner,
Eating his Christmas pie.
He put in his thumb and pulled out a plum,
And said, What a good boy am I!
11.
Jack and Jill went up the hill,
To fetch a pail of water;
Jack fell down, and broke his crown,
And Jill came tumbling after.
12.
Little Boy blue, come blow your horn,
The sheep’s in the meadow, the cow’s in the corn.
Where is the boy that looks after the sheep?
He’s under the haystack, fast asleep.
13.
Rock-a-bye, baby, in the tree top:
When the wind blows, the cradle will rock;
When the bough breaks, the cradle will fall;
Down will come baby, cradle and all.
14.
Hey! Diddle, diddle, the cat and the fiddle.
The cow jumped over the moon;
The little dog laughed to see such sport,
And the dish ran away with the spoon.