This paper investigates the concept of contrast between two kinds of Mandarin tones. The speakers of the two tones have different experiences, and the language tones are also different. Among all the factors affecting intonation, the background of mother tongue is the most important. Mandarin listeners can identify the tone types of Mandarin better than English listeners. Especially for tones with T 1/T4 contrast. On the other hand, even in the case of high prejudice, it is difficult for English listeners to classify the pronunciation of Putonghua by comparison.

Both Mandarin and English listeners think that the contrast between T2 /T3 T3 is not obvious. The reason why people who speak Mandarin can't distinguish the tone of their mother tongue may be because they lack some perceptual clues. According to the research of Shen, Lin (1990) and Blick et al. (1990), the time from the concept of "tone" to the turning point and the specific location of the turning point are very critical clues. However, T2 and T3 synthesized and applied in this study are the most natural F0 information. The key clues mentioned above were not popular at that time.

There are too many terms in the text, and it is inevitable that there will be many inappropriate translations, just a general meaning. I guess T2 refers to tone 2, "the second tone", but I still keep the original because I'm not sure.

I'm not sure about the last sentence "We weren't there". I don't know what this means. Present is an adjective "now and now", so I translated it as "it was not popular then."

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