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«ПЕТЕРБУРГСКИЙ ГОСУДАРСТВЕННЫЙ УНИВЕРСИТЕТ ПУТЕЙ СООБЩЕНИЯ»

Кафедра «Иностранные языки»

TOPICAL ISSUES

Учебно-методическое пособие на английском языке

Санкт-Петербург ПГУПС

2013

I. MASS MEDIA

Exercise 1. Read the text about newspapers in the UK.

Journalists write stories, but the editor controls the contents of the newspaper. He/she decides which stories should go on the front page. Editors also write the headlines for the main stories. The Sunday papers have more sections than the daily papers, for example they have a sports section with reports of different sporting events, a financial section with articles about money and a review section. This often has interviews with celebrities like film stars and singers. Newspapers are cheap in the UK and they make lots of money by including advertisements. Online news is one of the fastest growing areas of the media.

Discuss:

1)Is the system of newspapers different in your country? How?

2)Do you read a daily newspaper? What is your favourite section?

3)Do you believe everything you read in the news?

4)Are some newspapers more believable than others? Which ones?

5)Would you like to be a journalist or an editor? Why?

Exercise 2. On which newspaper pages can you find the collocations in the

Sports pages, arts section, business section, science section, gossip, general home or international news and current affairs

Write the name of a famous person who:

has had a plastic surgery

won a race

developed an important idea

performs songs on TV

went on strike

committed a crime

came into lots of money

causes trouble regularly

has broken a record

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What sections are they likely to appear in?

Exercise 3. Read or listen to an interview with a journalist. Is the journalist talking about: a) types of journalists? b) types of stories? c) types of newspapers?

Number the topics which the journalist talks about in the order they are mentioned:

Writing about people’s private lives _____

Celebrities who need publicity____

Newspapers which write only about celebrities_____

Famous people who do something wrong____

(the text is on p. 15)

Exercise 4. Read the following statements. Decide if you agree or disagree with them. Why?

1) I think political news is boring. 2) In my opinion, newspapers should be free. 3) I think there’s too much sport on television. 4) I don’t think the Internet has changed the world. 5) Journalists shouldn’t write about people’s private lives.

Exercise 5. Do the quiz in pairs.

1)What is the world’s most popular reality show?

2)Which country makes the most films?

3)Which search engine is the most popular?

4)Which film is often voted the greatest ever?

5)Which quiz show is the most popular?

6)Which country watches most TV?

7)Which newspaper sells the most copies in the world?

Exercise 6. Read the text to check your answers.

ON TOP OF THE MEDIA

You may or may not agree with psychologist David Yandell, but most people agree that the media has one key characteristic: it keeps growing and growing. These days, few people can remember life before television. And most of us have been influenced by the constant flow of words and images from screens or newspapers. Some of it is “complete rubbish” and some of it is wonderful. Here are some “firsts” and “bests” of the media world. Some “bests”…

The № 1 reality TV show: Big Brother. Like it or not, Big Brother is the most popular show of its kind. It was first shown in Holland in 1999 and it has been broadcast in over 20 countries.

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The №1 film industry: the Indian film industry (nicknamed Bollywood). More films are made in India than any other country.

The №1 search engine: Google. Lots of information can be found by searching Google. In fact, it is used for over 250 million searches in 182 languages every day. It was named Googol, which is the number represented by one + one hundred zeros.

The № 1 film: Citizen Kane. In lists of great films it usually comes first. It was made by Orson Welles in 1941 and tells the story of a media tycoon.

The № 1 quiz show of recent years: Who wants to be a millionaire? It started in the UK in 1998 but has now been broadcast all over the world.

The № 1 TV addicts: the US has 805 televisions per 1000 people, the world’s highest number, and in the USA they watch TV the most. By the age of 65 the average US citizen has spent nine years in front of the TV.

The № 1 selling newspaper: Yomiuri Shimbun. It sells ten million copies a day in Japan.

And some “firsts”…

–The TV was invented by John Logie Baird. He gave the first public demonstration in 1926.

–Ten years later there were still only 100 TV sets in the world.

–The first TV “ad” was a clock, in New-York in 1941. They paid nine dollars for the ad.

–The first video recorder (1956) was 11 meters high and weighed 665 kilograms, as much as a small car.

Exercise 7. Which statements are true and false according to the text?

1)Most people think that the media contains a lot of rubbish.

2)People in Holland didn’t like Big Brother.

3)Googol is a number.

4)Orson Welles was a media tycoon.

5)Who wants to be a millionaire? is the most popular quiz show in

history.

6)Americans watch more TV than any other nationality.

7)Yomiuri Shimbun is a daily newspaper.

8)The first ever TV ad was very successful.

Say, which information you already knew, which information surprised you.

Exercise 8. In what order were the things in the list invented?

TV, NEWSPAPERS, THE INTERNET, RADIO, VIDEO, BOOK

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Which of them have been the most important for: – the world?

– your country?

– you personally?

II. THE INTERNET

Exercise 1. Tick the words you know.

Exercise 2. a) Work in pairs. Fill in the gaps with these verbs.

1.You can save, copy, print or delete a file or a document.

2.You can create, open or ________ a folder.

3.You can get, send, forward or _________ an e-mail.

4.You should _________ a back-up copy of your important documents.

5.You can ________ by entering your password.

6.You can _________ an icon, an attachment, a website address or a link on web page.

7.You can _________ online and _________ software, pictures or music from the Internet.

8.If you _________ broadband, you can _________ for something on the Internet very quickly.

b)Work in pairs. Which of the things in 2a) did you do in the last seven

days?

Exercise 3. Do the questionnaire. Then work in pairs and compare your answers.

How many are the same? What can you do that your partner can’t?

HOW COMPUTER LITERATE ARE YOU?

1)How old were you when you first used a computer?

a)over 20

b)between 10 and 19

c)under 10

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