Unit4 Newspapers

Lesson 13

Betty and Zhou Lan are talking in the students’ dining room.

Betty:     Zhou Lan, can I have a look at your copy of China Daily?

Zhou Lan:       Soure,go ahead.

Betty:     I want to have a look at what’s on this weekend. Let me see now.

Zhou Lan:       Is there anything good on?

Betty:      “The Red Roses” are giving a performance at the People’s Theatre. Do you know what they are?

Zhou Lan:       They’re a pop group. They’re said to be very good. What time does the performance start?

Betty:      7 p.m. Will you be free then?

Zhou Lan: Yes, I’ll be free. I’d like to go.

Betty:      Let’s go together then. I’ll meet you at the theatre at six-thirty.

Zhou Lan:       Good! See you then. Bye.

 Work in groups of four. Ask each other these questions. Then report your answers to the rest of the class.

Which newspapers and magazines do you read?

Which newspapers and magazines do you buy?

Which part of the newspaper do you find most interesting?

Which part of the newspaper do you find least interesting?

Read the passage to find

Read the passage to find answers to these questions:

What does an editor do?

What do journalists do?

Lesson 14

How a newspaper in produced

Every morning, the newspaper chief editor holds a meeting with the journalists. They discuss the main events of the day. Reporters are then sent to cover the events.

       As soon as the reporters know what to write about, they get down to work. They telephoe people and fix a time for a face to face intreview with them. Sometimes they do telephone interviews. Checking information is very important. They go to the newspaper’s own library to look up any information that they need. This is called “doing one’s homework”.

       At the same time, the picture editor decides which photographs are needed for the next day’s paper. Photographers are then sent to take the pictures. Sometimes old ones are used from the newspaper’s own icture librar. Doing this can save a lot of time and money.

       All the people who work on a newspaper must be able to work fast. For example, there might be a big fire, or an important person might die. In this situation, everyone has to move fast. Journalists have to stop working on one story and start working immediately on the important new one. They must find out the new information as quickly as possible. A photographer is sent immediately to take photographs.

Later in the day, everything is put together at the news desk. Reporters return, type their stories into the computer and hand them to the editor. Photographers return and the photos are quickly developed.

       The chief editor decides which will be the most important story on the front page. Sometimes this will have to be changed if something more important happens late in the day. Other editors read the stories which the reporters have written and make any necessary changes. They also write the headlines for each story. Doing this is more difficult in English than in Chinese. In English space for the headlines they have written.

Finally,there is no more time left for adding new stories, and the time for printing the newspaper has come. This is done on fast-moving printing machines. The newspapers are then delivered by lorry, plane or rail. Speed is important. People want to buy the latest newspaper; nobody wants to buy yesterday’s.

Lesson 15

 China Daily

China has its own English language newspaper, China Daily, which is published in Beijing. It appears from Monday to Saturday with a Sunday edition of Business Weekly each week. It has all the usual sections of a newspaper, including Home News - news about China, International News - news from abroad, Business News, Travel News and Sports News

There are plenty of pictures, and a weather report every day. There are reports on new plays, movies,books,new restaurants and so on. There are also longer articles about businesses, or people with interesting jobs, or about the weekend and the TB programmes in the coming week.

China Daily has plenty of advertisements, which help to cut the costs of making the newspaper. There are advertisements for computer companies, businesses, hotels, airlines, travel companies, jobs and so on.

Many foreigners like to read this newspaper. It is also popular with students of English, who read it in order to improve their English. Sun Yao, a student of English, Sun Yao, a student of English in Beijing, said,”I like reading China Daily. Learning new words and useful expressions is very important for me, so I read it every day. I can see how English is used in everyday life as well. Besides, I enjoy learning about news things from politics to sports and music.”

Pairwork. Join the two halves to make sentences.