TEXT 1
THE BRITISH PRESS
Today, the daily newspapers of Britain can be divided very easily into two groups. The first group consists of the «quality» newspapers, which provide their readers with important political and other news of the day at home and abroad. These papers include The Times and The Daily Telegraph of London, The Guardian of Manchester, and a lot of other newspapers published outside London. Most of these newspapers have a circulation of only between 100,000 and 300,000, and The Daily Telegraph has a circulation of about a million. The great majority of these newspapers are strongly conservative in their politics, but they report fairly fully on political events, so that an intelligent reader can form some idea of what is going on in the world.
The second group of newspapers consists of the popular press. They do not report important world events, if a political story is sensational enough they will report it, but most of their space is devoted to what only can be described as gossip and personalities. Film stars' babies, murder cases, and divorces often take most of place in their columns. These «popular» papers include the Daily Express and the Daily Mirror both with circulation of over four million daily and the Daily Mail, the Daily Sketch with circulation of between one million and two million. For every Englishman who reads one of the «serious» newspapers there are ten others who read the «popular» newspapers.
Big business advertisers have an enormous effect on the major part of the British daily press. It happens because it costs much more to print and distribute each copy of a paper than the reader pays for his copy. Since the publishers of the popular newspapers are capitalists, who are in the business for the profits which they can make, they do not want to work at a loss, so they sell whole pages, half pages, and smaller space in their newspapers to the advertisers for them to make propaganda for their goods. The income from such advertisements is enormous: a full page advertisement in the Daily Express costs the advertiser £ 10,000. The advertiser is only ready to pay this very large sum of money because he knows that his advertisement will be read by at least four million people.
EXERCISES
Ex. 1. Match English and Russian equivalents.
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1. daily newspapers 2. intelligent reader 3. sensational events 4. a copy of a paper 5. make propaganda for the goods 6. income is enormous |
а. рекламировать товары b. ежедневные газеты с. умный читатель d. доход огромен е. сенсационные события f. экземпляр газеты |
Ex. 2. Choose the right word.
1. Today the daily newspapers in England can be ... into two groups.
a) published b) provided c) divided
2. The quality newspapers are strongly ... .
a) conservative b) important c) sensational
3. Film stars' babies, murder cases, divorces often take most of place in their ... .
a) copies b) pages c) columns
4. The income from the ... is enormous.
a) propaganda b) advertisements c) newspapers
Ex. 3. Complete the sentences.
1. Today the daily newspapers in England can be divided into ... . 2. The first group consists of ... . 3. The second group of newspapers consists of ... . 4. Big business advertisers have an enormous effect on ... .
Ex. 4. Insert the right word.
Reviews, magazines, periodicals, weeklies, journals, wide-range Weekly and monthly ... are a very important element in the British press. There are about 8,000 ... in the United Kingdom, which are classified as «general», «specialized», «trade», «technical» and «professional». General and specialized periodicals include ... of general interest, women's magazines, publications for children, etc. There are journals specializing in a ... of subjects. The highest circulation belongs to women's... Woman and Woman's Own. The most important ... are the Economist, the Spectator and the New Statesman.
Ex. 5. Mark the statements that are true.
1. British newspapers can be divided into «quality» and «popular» newspapers. 2. The great majority of «quality» newspapers are strongly conservative in their politics, but they report fairly fully on political events, so that an intelligent reader can form some idea of what is going on in the world. 3. «Popular» press reports important world events. 4. «Popular» papers include The Times and the Daily Telegraph. 5. For every one Englishman who reads one of the «serious» newspapers there are ten others who read the «popular» newspapers. 6. Big business advertisers have little effect on the major part of the British press.
Ex. 6. Answer the questions on the text.
1. What are the two groups of British daily newspapers? 2. Are the «quality» newspapers strongly conservative? 3. What items do the «popular» newspapers report? 4. Can you name any «quality» and «popular» newspapers? 5. Are the Englishmen fond of «popular» newspapers? Why? 6. Why does big business have an enormous effect on the daily press?
Ex. 7. Make a short summary of the text.