Английский для PR-специалистов. Ксения Симонова

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      VII. Add the necessary prepositions or adverbs:

      … the afternoons it was the custom… Miss Jane Marple to unfold her second newspaper. Two newspapers were delivered… her house every morning. The first one Miss Marple read while drinking her early morning tea, that is, if it was delivered… time.

      Today, Miss Marple had absorbed the front page and a few other items… the daily paper that she had nicknamed «The Daily All-Sorts», this being a slightly satirical allusion… the fact that her paper, the Daily Newsgiver, owing to a change… proprietor… her own and… other..: her friends' great annoyance, now provided articles… men's tailoring, women's dress, competitions… children, and complaining letters… women and had managed to push any real news… any part… it but the front page. Miss Marple, being old-fashioned, preferred her newspapers to be, newspapers and give you news.

      … the afternoon, having finished her luncheon, she had opened The Times. Not that The Times was what it used to be. The maddening thing… The Times was that you couldn't find anything any more. Instead… going… from the front page and knowing where everything else was so that you passed easily… any special articles… subjects… which you were interested, there were now extraordinary interruptions… this routine. Two pages were suddenly devoted… travel… Capri… illustrations. Sport appeared… far more prominence than it had ever had… the old days. The births, marriages and deaths which had… one time occupied Miss Marpie's attention first… all owing to their prominent position had migrated… a different part… The Times, though… late, Miss Marple noted, they had come almost permanently to rest… the back page.

      When a newspaper gets its material from its own reporting staff or from outside contributors the copy, as it is called, is passed to sub-editors. Their duty is to overlook, go through it, check if for mistakes or possible libelous remarks, and shape it for the available space. They have also to provide headlines which will give the reader in the shortest possible way a good idea of what the report or article contains.

      These head lines have to be fitted into very narrow columns; so the sub-editors have a difficult task. Long words are only a nuisance, therefore quite small ones have to be used; and this has caused the creation of a journalistic language of its own, which we call «Headline English».

      How does a sub-editor set about his work of composing short, snappy headlines which are, at the same time, immediately comprehensible to the readers of the newspaper?

      One obvious way is to cut down the names of prominent people; so in Headline English, Sir Alec Douglas-Home may become Alec or Home.

      Another feature of Headline English is the replacement of adjectives by nouns, because the later are shorter.

      One may also meet a headline which contains several nouns jammed together; for example, «Smoking Report Outcry Clash». This would refer to the report made by a medical commission of inquiry into the dangers to health caused by smoking, especially of cigarettes. The verdict of the doctors has caused alarm and protest among smokers; and the tobacco trade is challenging the verdict and disputing with the doctors. The whole thing is thus confined in the four words in the headline.

      Another habit of sub-editors is to use abbreviated names of organizations and institutions, and this is frequently the case in reports or crimes. You have certainly heard of the Criminal Investigation Department which is housed at Scotland Yard. In describing police action the makers of headline drop the world «Scotland» and simply say «Yard»; so you may read: «Blonde dead in luxury flat, Yard moves». That might suggest to you that the corpse of a fair lady has somehow moved over a spare of three feet. But, of course, it really means that the police at Scotland Yard are investigating what may be an accident or crime. Sometimes the initials C.I.D. are used, or sometimes just this mysterious «Yard». I have seen a headline announcing «Yard moves against Weediest». This had nothing to dowith gardening or agriculture. It meant police action against persons illegally procuring and doping themselves with cigarettes made of marijuana. Notice, by the way, that in such a headline the world «moves» can be taken either as a verb, in the sense: «The Yard moves», that is, the Yard takes action; or as a noun, in the sense: «These ere the moves, the actions of the Yard».

      In report of that kind people are not arrested: they are «held», thus saving four letters. Also, quite old-fashioned words may be employed because they are short. «Conference» is rather long; so sub-editors sometimes prefer «parley», which nobody would now use to describe a discussion in their ordinary conversation; but in the Press, Trade Unions are reduced to T.U. and a Trade Union Conference becomes a T.U. Parley.

      The newsvendors' bills announcing the contents of papers use the same headline language, and this can be very baffling to strangers. One who saw the brief statement «England Collapse» might think that the nation was financially ruined. But it would probably mean that the English batsmen had been doing badly in a cricket match!

      Here are some newspaper headlines with explanations: Yard will probe dog bets coup = Scotland Yard will investigate the fact that at a greyhound track a dog not expected to win a race was heavily betted on and won;

      coin-in-slot TV gets go-ahead = a plan under which a television viewer will pay a certain sum of money into a meter attached to his television receiver to enable him to see a film, has been approved by the authorities;

      carpets in state of upheaval = the carpet industry is in a state of disorganization;

      hijack bandits = thieves stole a lorry and its contents; minister quizzed over oil deal = a Government minister was asked questions in Parliament about an agreement concerning petroleum;

      rail wave causes road jam = the driver of a locomotive waved to a signalman. The signalman thought that driver was ill, and altered the signals for the train to stop. The result was that motor-cars were held up a considerable time at a level crossing;

      big power order = a large order has been placed to build plants to generate electricity;

      steamroller bid fails = someone made an unsuccessful offer to buy a firm making steamrollers;

      road toll up on last year = more people were killed or injured on the roads of Britain this year than last year;

      canal boy saved = a boy was rescued from drowning in canal;

      drug tip for Yard = someone has given Scotland Yard some information about illicit traffic in drugs;

      railways bit = something has happened which prevents the normal functioning of railways;

      pledge on poison toys = a promise has been made that paint containing lead will not be used to decorate children's toys (a number of children have died of lead-poisoning through licking such toys);

      PM took the side door = the Prime Minister left a building by the side door instead of by the main door;

      alleged tax plot – 3 more held = three more people have been СКАЧАТЬ