Учебные тексты по английскому языку для студентов 2 курса заочного факультета журналистики

Text 1 (part 1).

I. Прежде чем прочитать текст, выучите следующие слова и выражения:

to sell - продавать

to be on sale - быть в продаже

to buy - покупать

to deliver - доставлять

to appear - появляться

to vary - разнообразиться

popular - (газета) бульварная, "популярная", т.е. газета, в которой, в основном,

материал для развлечения, как бы для народных масс.

to prefer - предпочитать

entertainment - развлечения

racing - скачки

account - описание

trial - судебный процесс

fashion - мода

throughout - по всей

in addition to - кроме, вдобавок

influential - влиятельный

in competition with - конкурируя с

to give attention to - уделять внимание

reliable - надежный

correspondence column - письма читателей

strip cartoon - комиксы, рассказ в картинках

cheap - дешевый

to solve - решить, разгадать

П. Прочитайте и переведите текст:

Newspapers in Great Britain.

The population of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is now about 57 mm. About 30 mln newspapers are sold every day. The British people, therefore, are great readers of newspapers. There are few homes in which one newspaper is not delivered every morning. Many households have two, or even three newspapers every day. One newspaper may be delivered at the house, a member of the family may buy at the station bookstall to read in the train as he goes to town, and someone also in the family may buy an evening newspaper later in the day.

Daily newspapers are those published daily from Monday to Saturday. There are the morning papers and the evening papers. The morning papers are on sale early in the morning. The evening papers begin to appear during the morning and the new editions appear every two or three hours until the final edition comes out in the evening.

As in other countries newspapers in Great Britain vary greatly in their ways of presenting the news*. There are serious papers for those who want to know about important happenings everywhere, both domestic and foreign news. There are popular newspapers for those who prefer entertainment to information. There are newspapers whose pages are largely filled with news of sport -football, boxing, racing - and the stories of film stars, or accounts of crime and law-court trials. Most newspapers today provide interesting and useful articles for their women readers. They tell them about the latest fashions in clothes, how to furnish their homes, and how to cook new and exciting dishes.

The popular newspapers naturally have a much larger circulation than the serious newspapers. The number of daily papers published in London is only five or six but their total circulation is about 16 mln. Many of these are national papers, selling throughout the country. Some of them have printing offices in large towns in the North.

In addition to the London dailies, there are other papers, published in provinces. Many of these are independent, and the best of them sell throughout the whole country, in competition with the London papers. The quality of their writing and reporting gives them a national influence. For example: the Manchester Guardian's motto, "Facts are sacred, comment is free", is famous. This paper because of its very honest comment on the news, is very influential.

The provincial newspapers give very full attention to local as well as national affairs. In recent years some of them have been bought by national papers. To many people this seems to be unfortunate and even dangerous.**

The London newspaper that is best known outside Great Britain is probably The Times. It began in 1785, and has a high reputation for reliable news and serious comment on the news. It is an independent paper, not giving its support to a particular political party. Its leading articles (or leaders' as they are usually called) give the opinion of the editorial staff, not those of the owners of the paper.

The correspondence column of The Times is always interesting and often amusing. Most of the letters are on serious matters, but from time to time there will be a long correspondence on a subject that is not at all serious, perhaps on a new fashion of dress, or the bad manners of 30 years ago.

The Times, of course, does not publish the strip cartoons that are so common in the cheaper and popular papers. It does, however, publish a crossword puzzle every day, with clues that are both clever and amusing. Many Times readers try to solve the puzzle every morning as they travel to town by rail from their homes in the suburbs.

Пояснения к тексту:

* they vary greatly in their ways of presenting the news - по-разному они подают новости.

** То many people this seems to be unfortunate and even dangerous - многие люди сожалеют об этом и даже считают, что это опасно.