News Paper Reading

Newspaper lead and news story

Newspaper lead

What is the newspaper lead?

The first paragraph of a news story is called the lead.

It almost always gives us the story’s main topic and

most important facts. When we read a newspaper

lead sentence, try to find the subject and main verb

and note how the rest of the sentence adds

information to the subject and main verb.

For example,

Anwar Sadat Assassinated at Cairo Millitary Review

CAIRO, October 7—Egyptian President Answer Sadat, a modern-

day pharaoh who attempted to lead the Arab world toward a per

manent Mideast with Isreal, was assassinated yesterday by a ban

d of soldiers who attacked a military parade reviewing stand with

automatic rifles and hand grenades.

Newspaper lead and news story

What is the function of the lead sentence?

a. Answer questions such as “Who?” “What?” “Where?” “When” “Result?”

b. Adds background to help you better understand the story or

c. States where the source of the story comes first

Newspaper lead and news story

News story Formula for a typical news story a. Paragraph One: The story’s subject and most important

facts.b. Paragraph Two: Important facts that the writer was unable to include in the

lead; Information to clarify the facts in the lead; A particularly important quote.c. The rest of the story: Specific details to answer readers’ questions; Statements and opinions by people involved in the story or

by outside observers; Background information; New, but less important facts.

The way to read a news story a. Read the beginning of the story very carefully

because it contains the most important fact. b. Try to look for more facts than those given in the

lead. c. If you don’t understand something at the beginning

of a story, keep reading for a second (and perhaps a third) chance to understand.

News story

Comparison of the features between the News Story and the Feature story

News Story Feature StoryHeadline: simple, direct more specific, more emotionalLead sentence: clear not clearFacts: short and brief more detailed, longerReport style directly less directly; personalities of the people personal information for

understanding character objectively subjectively more interesting, more emotional

Reading Advertisements

Do you often read advertisements? Why?

Why do you read advertisements? What do you think is a good

advertisement? (Discuss language features of Ads .)

Reading AdvertisementsIntroduction to the language features of Ads

The language of advertising must be a language of immediate

impact and rapid persuasion. No one is likely to spend much

time deciding whether to read a printed advertisement or listen

to a spoken one: if their attention is not attracted immediately

and held firmly for the short amount of time necessary to

absorb what is being said, then the advertisement will have

failed miserably. So the advertising language uses a basically

simple grammatical structure and a richly suggestive and

descriptive vocabulary.

The language is vivid. There are many popular expressions.

Reading Advertisements The way to read ads

(1) Look for the hidden message: the way in which an advertiser uses words and pictures to influence readers’ opinions and attitudes.

(2)Read between lines for meanings implied rather than clearly stated.

(3) Find source of its appeal to the senses.

Some types of advertisements

(1) Question-answer

Q: What do you get when you cross an ocean with a caravan?

A: 50% off. ( 英国轮渡公司广告） (2) Request

Don’t get burned before you hit the beach.( 防晒油广告 )

When the pressure’s on, keep calm. Keep Kalms.( （药品广告） )

(3) Misspelling

The Orangemostest Drink in the world. (In this drink advertisement, the word “orangemostest” actually is “orange+most+est”. It uses this word to express the high quality and purity of the drink.)

Reading Advertisements

(4) Contraction

To Let or For Sale furnished Edinburgh Court, 426 Argyly st, 2nd floor, 1,630 sqft, 4 bedrooms with dining and living room, private garage. Sale at 130,000. Rent 1,400. Tel, 38954 office time or 823748. (This is an advertisement to rent or sell a house. There are many contractions, such as: st=street, sq=square, ft=foot, Tel=telephone.)

Reading Advertisements

(5) Pun Ask for More --More cigarette (6)Repetition When you’re sipping Lipton, you’re sipping something

special. --Lipton tea (7)Rhyming Pepsi-Cola hits the spot, Twelve full ounces, that’s a lot, Twice as much for a nickel, too, Pepsi-Cola is the drink for you. (8)Minor clause So come into McDonald’s and enjoy a Big Mac Sandwich.

–McDonald (10) Conditional (11) Marriage

Reading Advertisements

Reading Advertisements

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Reading Advertisements

Words in blue can be omitted in the advertisement. A California bachelor needs a wife. He is nice-looking, 5

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