- •Part one newspaper topical vocabulary
- •The Plan of Rendering Newspaper Article
- •Study the expressions which may be useful for rendering newspaper articles:
- •Part two Elections and Government
- •With for against to in between
- •International Relations
- •In for over of on at about by
- •Television and Newspapers
- •Newspaper Headlines
- •Vocabulary
- •Part three the campaign trail
- •The campaign platform
- •Whistlestop tours and spin doctors
- •Seeking nomination
- •Election results
- •Absolute majorities and hung parliaments
- •Rainbow coalitions and political horse-trading
- •Honeymoons, lame ducks and the political wilderness
- •Grassroots support and votes of confidence
- •Undemocratic regimes
- •Toppling governments
- •Part three
Newspaper Headlines
Vocabulary
Certain words are found in newspaper headlines sometimes with a different meaning from that of their normal use. For each of the following “headline words” on the left, find an item on the right with the same meaning (it will help you look at the headlines in exercise 2 below).
AXE fire
BID close down, dismiss (usually for economic reasons)
BLAST conflict, disagree(ment), fight, fighting
BLAZE diplomat
CLASH exciting or dramatic event
CURB attempt
DRAMA explosion
ENVOY affect badly
HIT vote, election, public opinion survey
POLL reduce, reduction, limit
PROBE investigate, investigation
QUIT question, interrogate, interview
QUIZ reduce drastically
RIDDLE leave, depart, resign
SEEK attract, interest, win the support of
SLASH look for, want, ask for
STORM mystery
TOLL marry
WED angry argument
WOO total number of dead
In headlines, as well as special vocabulary being used, some words (a, the, some, be, been etc.) are often omitted, abbreviations are common, and verb tenses are sometimes used differently. Explain the following headlines in simple English.
e.g. UK TO SEND MORE AID TO GHANA
The United Kingdom is going to send more help to Ghana.
ARMY AXES 3 BASES, 3,000 MEN
BID TO REACH NORTH POLE FAILS
HOTEL BLAST KILLS 8
ANIMALS DIE IN ZOO BLAZE
US, RUSSIA CLASH OVER ARMS CURBS
3 SAVED IN FLATS BLAZE DRAMA
ENVOY ACCUSED OF SPYING
TOURISTS HIT BY PILOTS’ STRIKE
PM ANNOUNCES MARCH POLL
POLICE PROBE MISSING WOMAN RIDDLE
TOP SCIENTIST QUITS UK FOR US
3 QUIZZED OVER BOY’S KIDNAP
FILM STAR SEEKS DIVORCE
AIR FARES SLASHED TO WOO HOLIDAY MAKERS
STORM AT UN OVER “SPIES”ACCUSATION
EARTHQUAKE TOLL REACHES 27
ACTOR TO WED FOR FIFTH TIME
Part three the campaign trail
In a democracy, the country’s rulers and law-makers are chosen in elections. In American English, candidates run for election and in British English they stand for election.
The campaign is the series of advertisements, television appearances, meetings and speeches designed to get support for a candidate. The expression campaign trail emphasises the number of places candidates have to go to and things they have to go through while campaigning.
Campaign also refers collectively to all the parties’ campaigns.
The run-up to an election is the period leading up to an election, perhaps a longer time than the campaign itself.
If Mahatma Gandhi came back to life and stood for election in the eastern Indian state of Bihar, he would probably lose.
Mrs. Thatcher hoped most of them were against a federal Europe. ‘Otherwise what’s the point of standing as candidates in the next general election?’
Vargas Llosa, who constantly glances backwards into his own life or into the dark recesses of his continent for his fiction, is preoccupied by ‘something larger than politics’. Coming from a man who, in 1990, ran for president in Peru, and lost, this seems hard to take.
He is hurt by the perception that he is afraid to face his opponent. He is followed on the campaign trail by people dressed in chicken costumes.
There are ten weeks to go to the election, yet we are already mind-numbingly bored with the campaigning.
Shots were fired and explosives thrown into the offices of two political parties in Tiblisi in what the BBC Moscow correspondent describes as the increasingly violent run-up to elections next month.
Task 1. On the campaign trail
Match the two parts of these extracts.
The Colombian election campaign,
Whatever the political and economic situation,
It’s been so long since the last election that we’re forgotten how difficult it is
The tribunals would disqualify those found guilty
Senator Garn told a press conference at the Utah state capital that
Elected for six years, Mexican presidents
When Lincoln ran for his first election,
from standing for election for a period of up to seven years.
are barred from standing for re-election.
due to culminate in a presidential poll on 27 May, has become more a matter of physical survival than political persuasion.
he will not run for re-election next year.
it was not as the Republican candidate.
the party in office has always gained support in the run-up to the election.
to avoid media coverage of the campaign trail.