Vocabulary

content – удовлетворять

quarrel – ссориться

resistance – сопротивление

put down – подавлять

force – принудить

defeat – поражение

Presbyterians - пресвитериане

suspicious – подозрительный

sow the seeds – сеять семена

grant – предоставить

riot – бунтовать

hostility – враждебность

suspend – приостанавливать

violence – насилие

search – обыск

turn to – превратиться

bitterness – горечь, огорчение

condemn – осуждать

Mass Media

Ex.1 Read the proper names:

The Times, The Independent [ ], The Guardian [ ], The Financial Times [ ], The Daily Telegraph [ ], The Daily Mail [ ], The Daily Express [ ], the Daily Star [ ], The Sun, The Daily Mirror [ ], The Economist [ ], the New Statesman [ ], Spectator [ ], The Glasgow Herald [ ], The Scotsman [ ], Jewish Chronicle [ ].

Ex.2 Read the words:

the Swedes, the Japanese, event, account, government, rival, character, conservative, item, crime, excitement, pioneer, separate, magazine, feature, variety, advertiser, curiosity, assurance, accuracy, minority, illustrate, supplement, over-simplified.

Ex.3 Read and translate the text:

The British are one of the biggest newspaper-reading nations in the world. They buy more newspapers than any other people except the Swedes and the Japanese.

Probably in no other country there are such great differences between the various national daily newspapers – in the type of news they report and the way they report it. They can be divided into two groups. The first group consists of the “quality” newspapers, which make some attempts to provide their readers with a full account of the important political news, national and international events, with the world of business, with the arts and sport. There are five “quality” daily newspapers in Britain: “The Times”, “The Independent”, “The Guardian”, “The Financial Times” and “The Daily Telegraph”. The most famous of all British newspapers is “The Times”. It is not now, and has never been, an organ of the government, and has no link with any party. Since 1986 “The Times” has had a serious new rival of similar quality and character: “The Independent”. It has achieved a circulation not much smaller than that of “The Times”. “The Daily Telegraph” is solidly conservative, nearly all its readers are conservatives. “The Guardian” has an old liberal tradition, and is in general a paper of the left.

The second group of newspapers in Britain consists of the popular press. The popular newspapers are now commonly called “tabloids”, a word first used for pharmaceutical substances compressed into pills. The tabloid papers compress the news and are printed on small sheets of paper. They use enormous headlines for the leading items of each day, which are one day political, one day to do with crime, one day sport, one day some odd happening. They have their papers of political report and comment, short, often over-simplified but vigorously written and nowadays generally responsible. They thrive on sensational stories and excitement. There are six mass-circulation popular “tabloids”, the most widely read of which are “The Daily Mail”, “The Daily Express”, “The Sun” and “The Daily Mirror”. “The Daily Mirror” was a pioneer with strip cartoons.

In addition to the daily newspapers there are also national papers which are published on Sundays. The “quality” Sunday papers devote large sections to literature and the arts. Most of the “Sundays” contain more reading matter, than daily papers, and several of them also include “colour supplements” – separate colour magazines which contain photographically-illustrated feature articles. Besides, Britain has a substantial number of regional newspapers. Of these the two Scottish papers, “The Scotsman” and “The Glasgow Herald” are the most important.

Britain’s ethnic minority communities also produce their own papers. The oldest of these is the “Jewish Chronicle”, founded in 1841. Among Britain’s best selling periodicals, the favourites are the “Radio Times” and the “TV Times”, which provide detailed information concerning forthcoming programmes on BBC and independent television.

Good English writing is often to be found in the weekly political and literary journals, all based in London, all with nationwide circulations in the tens of thousands.

“The Economist”, founded in 1841, probably has no equal anywhere. It has a coloured cover and a few photographs inside, so that it looks like “Time”, “Der Spiegel”, “Newsweek”, but its reports have more depth and breadth than any of these. It covers world affairs, and even its American section is more informative about America than its American equivalents. Although by no means “popular”, it is vigorous in its comments and deserves the respect in which it is generally held.

“The New Statesman” and “Spectator” are weekly journals of opinion. They regularly contain well-written articles. Both devote nearly half their space to literature and the arts. Glossy weekly or monthly illustrated magazines cater either for women or for any of thousand special interests. Almost all are based in London, with national circulations and the women’s magazines sell millions of copies. In any big news agent’s shop the long rows of brightly covered magazines seem to go on forever, beyond the large variety of appeals to women and teenage girls come those concerned with yachting, tennis, model railways and cars. For every activity there is a magazine, supported mainly by its advertisers. All these magazines are not cheap. They live off an infinite variety of taste, curiosity and interest.

With almost 900 correspondents in over 80 countries, no newspaper anywhere can compete with Britain’s formidable news agency, Reuters. Its reports are filed in French, German, Japanese, Arabic and Spanish, as well as English. Across the world its name has become an assurance of objectivity, accuracy and reliability.