Vocabulary

Words

broadsheet n.

tabloid n.

edition n.

editor n.

section n.

circulation n.

comment n., v.

cover v.

coverage n.

feature v.

feature n.

Word combinations

quality papers

popular papers

national papers

local papers

daily newspapers

political bias

freedom of expression

publishing companies

colour supplement

television guide

to report news

to cover news

Exercises

1. Choose the correct answers:

1. The quality papers try to entertain rather than inform.

   1. true

   2. false

2. Tabloids are called so:

   1. because they contain a lot of pictures

   2. because of their smaller size

   3. because they are widely-read

3. Quality papers are written using:

   1. casual English

   2. formal English

   3. slang

4. Most colour supplements are published on Sundays and are:

   1. bought with the Sunday papers

   2. bought separately from the Sunday papers

5. The most popular tabloid is:

   1. The Daily Mail

   2. The Sun

6. Newspapers in Britain are owned by:

   1. the Government

   2. individuals and publishing companies

   3. political parties and editors

2. Make a short review of a British newspaper:

   1. What is the name of the newspaper?

   2. What type of papers does it belong to?

   3. Is this a weekday or Sunday edition?

   4. What company is it published by? Where is it published?

   5. What does the newspaper aim at?

      • giving information

      • entertaining

   6. What kind of information can you find in this newspaper?

• factual reports of major national and international news stories

• politics

• business

• arts and sport

• sensational news, scandals, gossip

• stories featuring the private life of famous people

• sex and violence

• advertisements

• local news

7. Is there a television guide in the newspaper?

8. Does the newspaper give much space to pictures?

9. What sections does it contain?

10. What articles attract your attention?

Part II. Hit-and-Run Accidents

Text 1

Read the article through quickly and decide whether it is about:

1. A driver who killed a schoolteacher in a pub.

2. A man who made jokes about teachers while drinking in a pub.

3. A woman who has lost her husband in a road accident.

4. A driver who ran over a schoolteacher and was sentenced to six months in prison.

5. A man who after spending six months in jail killed a schoolteacher.

Now read the story carefully and do the exercises below.

One life, six months

Driver cracked jokes about teacher he ran over and killed after six hours in the pub

By Chris Brooke

A DRIVER with an appalling record of offences behind the wheel has been jailed for less than six months for mowing down and killing a schoolteacher.

Mark Webster even laughed and joked after ploughing into Anthony Wilkinson, who was out celebrating his 35^th birthday.

Webster, who had been on a six-hour drinking session, refused to stop his van as his victim lay dying at the side of the road, despite pleas from his two teenage passengers.

The jobless father of three claimed he thought Mr. Wilkinson was a refugee, telling the two youths: ‘It doesn’t matter. It was only a Kosovan.’

Webster, 36, was arrested 16 hours after the accident when his passengers came forward.

He was not charged with drink-driving because by this time a breath test proved negative.

He did, however, admit careless driving, having no insurance, failing to stop, failing to report the accident and driving whilst disqualified.

Despite a record of 21 convictions for driving whilst banned dating back 20 years, magistrates in Hull were only able to sentence him to five and a half months in prison.

They also disqualified him from driving for ten years.

A spokesman for Humberside Police admitted last night that the sentence bore ‘no relation to the suffering caused’.

‘It’s a very sad story,’ he added. ‘A woman has lost her husband and a family has lost someone they care for very much under very traumatic circumstances.’

Webster will serve an additional six months as he was out of prison on licence at the time of the crash.

He had been jailed for 21 months at York Crown Court in December 2002 for a number of motoring offences including driving whilst disqualified, having no insurance and dangerous driving.

Magistrates heard how Mr. Wilkinson was celebrating in Hull when the tragedy happened on the night of April 4. Webster’s white van hit him in the back as he stepped off the kerb while trying to hail a cab.

Prosecutor Joanna Golding explained how his passengers begged him to stop.

But Webster refused, telling them to shut up.

‘He thought it was comical,’ she went on. ‘He laughed about the accident.’

Miss Golding said the maximum sentence of six months for driving whilst disqualified ‘does not reflect what Mr. Wilkinson’s family have gone through’.

Friends and family gathered for his funeral yesterday.

He was head of chemistry at Longcroft School and Performing Arts College in Beverley, East Yorkshire. Headmistress Lesley Hughes said: ‘Everyone at the school is deeply shocked and saddened by what has happened. He will be sorely missed.’

Mr. Wilkinson’s wife of eight months, Helen, said: ‘I feel lost, devastated.

‘Life is very unfair.’

David Davis, Tory MP for Mr. Wilkinson’s constituency of Haltemprice and Howden, called yesterday for courts to be given increased powers in such cases.

‘I am very strongly in favour of an extension of the law for those cases where there’s a flagrant abuse,’ he said.

Norman Brennan, director of the Victims of Crime Trust, said the punishment was ‘derisory’.

‘This man should have been locked up for years,’ he added.

(from The Daily Mail)

Notes

Magistrate – a person who acts as a judge in law court that deals with crimes that are not serious: He will appear before the magistrates tomorrow.

Constituency – any of the areas of a country that elect a representative to a parliament

MP – Member of Parliament