BRITISH STUDIES

Дополнительные задания к книге “Britain in Brief” В.В. Ощепковой и И.И. Шустиловой

continued from No. 24/2006; 1/2007

GOVERNMENT

Text 8. Newspapers

Fleet Street • “Quality” and “Popular” Newspapers

In Britain there are 12 national daily newspapers and most people read one of them every day. Daily newspapers are published every day of the week except Sunday. Sunday newspapers are larger than daily newspapers. All the Sunday newspapers are national. Most national newspapers in Britain express a political opinion, most of them are right-wing, and people choose the newspaper that they read according to their own political beliefs.

Fleet Street in London used to be the home of most national daily and Sunday newspapers and that is why people often say “Fleet Street” to mean “the press” even now. In the 1980s most of the newspapers moved to new buildings in different parts of London to use new printing technologies.

British newspapers can be divided into two groups: quality and popular (tabloid). Quality newspapers are more serious and cover home and foreign news while popular newspapers like shocking, personal stories. These two groups of papers can be distinguished easily because the quality newspapers are twice the size of the popular newspapers.

The quality daily papers are “The Times”, “The Guardian”, “The Daily Telegraph” and the “Financial Times”. “The Times”, founded in 1785, is considered to be the most authoritative newspaper voice in the country and is said to be the paper of the Establishment. “The Guardian” appeals to well-educated readers interested in intellectual and social affairs. It is on the political left. “The Daily Telegraph” is bought by educated upper-middle and middle-class readers. The “Financial Times”, printed on pink paper, is read by businessmen. The “popular” press consists of “The Daily Mail”, “The Express”, “The Mirror” and “The Sun”. In all newspapers there is a desperate fight to maintain or improve their circulations but it is most intense among the “popular” papers whose main weapons are sex, scandal and sport.

Apart from London-based papers, there are about 1500 local newspapers. Most of these are evening papers and many appear weekly.

Title and foundation date:

National daily “Qualities”:

• The Times (1785)

• The Guardian (1821)

• The Daily Telegraph (1885)

• The Financial Times (1886)

• The Independent (1986)

National daily “Populars”:

• The Daily Mail (1896)

• The Express (1900)

• The Mirror (1903)

• The Sun (1964)

National Sunday “Qualities”:

• The Observer (1791)

• The Sunday Times (1822)

• The Independent on Sunday (1990)

National Sunday “Populars”:

• The News of the World (1843)

• The People (1881)

• The Sunday Express (1918)

• The Sunday Mirror (1963)

• The Mail on Sunday (1982)

• The Sunday Sport (1986)

the Establishment истэблишмент, власть имущие, правящие круги

I. COMPREHENSION

Are the following statements true or false, according to the text? (T/F)

1. Fleet Street is the home of most national daily and Sunday newspapers.

2. Daily newspapers are larger than Sunday newspapers.

3. The popular newspapers are much larger than quality newspapers.

4. “The Times” is the most authoritative newspaper voice in the country.

5. “The Guardian” is said to be the paper of the Establishment.

6. All newspapers fight desperately to maintain and improve their circulations.

II. VOCABULARY

III. GRAMMAR AND TRANSLATION PRACTICE

Modal verbs.
Used to…
Translate these sentences into Russian.

1. I do not play football now but I used to.
2. We used to swim in this river but it has become too shallow.
3. Where did you use to live before you moved here?
4. I used to play tennis a lot but I don’t have time for it now.
5. I did not use to like him but now we are good friends.
6. My father used to like rock’n’roll when he was younger.

IV. Communication Practice

A. Prepare a presentation on the quality papers. You should speak for 1.5 to 2 minutes. Use the information in the text to help you. Order the information following this plan.

B. Discuss popular papers in pairs. Ask each other three questions and answer them.

Key:

I. 1. F; 2. F; 3. F; 4. T; 5. F; 6. T

II. 1. b; 2. e; 3. d; 4. c; 5. a; 6. f

By Viktoria Oschepkova, Irina Shustilova

to be continued