Chapter I
Basic Knowledge on English Newspapers and Newspaper-reading
Discuss
Why should we have this subject What do you expect from this subject How could news-reading help us in English study
Have you ever tried to read any English newspaper or magazine Can you understand it easily What are the difficulties How can we get a better understanding What are the necessary preparations we must make for newspaper reading
Do you know
The most famous newspapers in the United States.
The most famous magazines in the United States.
The most famous newspapers in Britain.
The most famous magazines in Britain.
The most famous news agencies in the world.
Reading materials
Passage I
Common News Stories
The news remains much the same year after year. The people and places in the news may change rapidly, but the events that we consider to be newsworthy do not. Wars, strikes, scientific discoveries, elections, natural disasters, trade agreements, the deaths of world leaders; all these events and many more will find their way onto the pages of newspapers no matter what year it may be, so you can learn to read them relatively quickly.
Each topic has certain consistencies, it is likely to have a set of frequently-used vocabulary, for example. Thus, you could expect to see words like flames, gut, and char in a fire story and candidate, poll, and ballot in a story about an election. Most stories typically follow familiar sequences of events. A crime story might go something like this: crime, arrest, trial, verdict (decision) and sentencing (announcement of punishment). And it will take place in familiar settings (the crime scene, a police station, a courtroom, a prison, etc.) and will involve people playing familiar roles (defendants, defence attorneys, prosecutors, judges, etc.).
Let's take one of the clearest examples of a topic with consistent content: a storm. Tropical storms generally follow a sequence similar to many other types of storms. Below we will follow this sequence and use some of the vocabulary most likely to be found in each stage of the sequence:

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