8 Семестр Тема №1

PRESS IN BRITAIN

In Britain there are 12 national daily newspapers and most people read one of them every day. Daily newspapers are published on 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 right wing, and people choose the newspaper that they read according to their own political beliefs.

British newspapers can be divided into two groups: quality and popular. The quality newspapers are «The Times», «The Independent», « The Guardian », «The Financial Times» and «The Daily Telegraph». This press is more serious and covers home and foreign news.

The popular newspapers or «tabloids », so called because of their smaller size are «The Daily Mail», «The Daily Express», «The Daily Mirror», «The Sun» and «The Daily Star». They like shocking, personal stories. They concentrate on more emotive reporting of stories, featuring violence, the life of the Royal Family, film and pop stars, and sport. They aim to entertain readers rather than inform them. The tabloid press is much more popular than the quality press.

In some countries, newspapers are owned by government or by political parties. But in Britain newspapers are mostly owned by individuals or by publishing companies, and the editors of the papers are usually allowed considerable freedom of expression. It does not mean that the newspapers are without political bias. Papers like «The Daily Telegraph», «The Daily Express» and «The Sun», for example, usually reflect conservative opinions in their comment and reporting, while «The Daily Mirror» and «The Guardian» have a more left wing bias.

Apart from London-based papers, there are many local newspapers. Most of these are evening papers. Besides, nearly every area in Britain has one or more local newspapers.

It won't be a mistake to say that the British are one of the biggest newspaper-reading nations in the world.

Give English equivalents:

национальная газета; выражать политические взгляды; исходя из собственных политических убеждений; освещать внутренние и внешние новости; шокирующие и частные истории; показывать насилие; стремиться развлечь читателей; принадлежать правительству или политической партии; значительная свобода слова; газеты Лондона; можно с уверенностью сказать, что.

• Answer the questions.

1. What are the British newspapers?

2. What are the quality papers?

3. What is the popular press?

4. Who owns newspapers in Great Britain?

5. Are the papers given freedom of expression?

6. Are there any other newspapers apart from London-based papers?

7. Why can the British be called one of the biggest newspaper-reading nations in the world?

8. Do you read newspapers? How often? What are they?

9. What kind of newspapers do you like: quality or popular?

10. Do you prefer to read the news or watch it on TV?

Тема №2

TELEVISION IN OUR LIFE

We can hardly imagine our life without television. It offers the viewers several programmes on different channels to satisfy all tastes. It's a convenient source of information as it informs us about current affairs and the latest developments and achievements in science and technology both in our country and abroad. It also broadcasts meetings between famous people in various walks of life. You can also get a lot of useful information from a great number of educational programmes, which are very helpful and interesting for children and grown-ups. By watching the programmes dealing with animals and birds and all kinds of living things in their natural surroundings, about the unusual phenomena on our planet, we widen our knowledge of different subjects and the world around us.

Television today competes with cinemas and theatres. We love seeing dramatic entertainments of all kinds: the plays of many leading dramatists, dramatized versions of the works of famous novelists; lovely one-act plays, comic turns, amusing episodes of all sorts. A good serial (a detective story, for example) can keep the whole family in front of the telly during the day and in the evening. We enjoy all this without leaving home.

TV is a convenient source of entertainment too. You watch your favourite sport games, hear symphony concerts, operas, popular melodies; we have an opportunity to see soap-operas, especially popular among housewives; we hear talks on archeology, history, geography; we hear critics talking about new books, films, plays, works of art; we hear living poets reading their own poems. So, television informs, educates and entertains us.

Advertisements and commercials take a good amount of time on TV now, some people are not happy about it, but we can't do without them.

We may speak about different advantages and drawbacks of television but almost every home has at least one TV set. On average, a TV set is in use for about 7 hours each day. Thus, television is the most effective means of mass communication known to mankind. It has become the people's eyes and ears on the world.

• Give English equivalents:

удовлетворять все вкусы; текущие события; достижения науки; различные сферы жизнедеятельности; образовательные программы; развлекательные программы; естественная среда обитания; расширять кругозор; экранизированная версия; комические этюды; преимущества и недостатки; в среднем.

• Answer the questions.

1. Why is television a convenient source of information?

2. How can you prove that television educates us?

3. Television is a convenient source of entertainment, isn’t it? Why?

4. How can we widen our knowledge of the world around us?

5. In what way does television compete with cinemas and theaters?

6. What are the functions of television?

7. What are possible drawbacks of TV?

8. What is the average period of time people spend watching TV? What about you?

9. Do you have cable or satellite television?

10. What are your favourite programmes?