2. Translate the following words; make up 15 sentences using them:

boast, to justify, to concern, security, circumstances, to endanger, issued, embarrassing, disgust, to investigate, target, to escape, intrusion, to fascinate, to maintain, to increase, to publicise, relevance, victim, outraged, to convince.

3. Answer the following questions:

1. What did the philosopher David Hume say about press freedom in Britain in 1741?

2. Is such a boast still justified?

3. Do you agree that the publication of certain information might endanger national security?

4. Must people know the truth whatever it is?

5. Why do some newspapers attempt to investigate the private lives of well-known people?

6. How can intrusion in private matters influence people’s life?

7. What was Diana’s attitude to the press?

8. Why was the Press Complaints Commission established?

4. Define the part of speech of the underlined words.

ІІ ВАРІАНТ

1. Read and translate the text: The Press in Great Britain

Britain’s first newspapers appeared over 300 years ago. Now, as then, newspapers receive no government subsidy, unlike in some other European countries today. Advertising has always been a vital source of income. As long ago as 1669, King Charles II advertised in a newspaper for his lost dog. Today, income from advertising is as crucial as income from sales. In 1995, for example, £6 million was spent on press advertising, making the press by far the largest advertising medium in Britain.

There are approximately 130 daily and Sunday papers, 1 400 weekly papers and over 6 500 periodical publications. More newspapers, proportionately, are sold in Britain than in almost any other country. On average, two out of three people over the age of 15 read a national morning newspaper. National newspapers have the circulation of about 13 million on weekdays and 17 million on Sundays, but the readership is twice this figure. At first glance, therefore, the British press seems in good health.

During the 1980s practically every paper was affected by new printing technology. New technology increased the profitability of the press, and this, in turn, allowed the creation of new newspapers. The most important new paper was “The Independent”. Established in 1986, it rapidly seized the centre ground vacated by “The Times”, and “The Guardian”. However the sustained price war by “The Times” from 1993 seriously damaged “The Independent’s” sales and by the mid-1990s its future looked uncertain.

In spite of this fact, we could not but speak about the variety of newspapers

and magazines. There are over 800 free newspapers, popularly known as “freebies”, almost all of them are weekly and financed entirely by advertising. They achieve a weekly circulation of over 40 million. They function as local noticeboards, where local events are advertised, and anyone can advertise in the “for sale” or “wanted” columns.

The best-selling weeklies are those giving detailes of the forthcoming week’s television and radio programmes: “What’s On TV”, “The Radio Times” and “The TV Times”, with circulation in 1996 of 1.6 million, 1.4 million and 1 million, respectively. Second to them in popularity are women’s magazines, of which easily the best-selling is “Take a Break”, with a weekly sale of almost 1.5 million, and “Woman’s Weekly”, “Woman’s Own”, “Woman”, “Woman’s Realm”, which sell between 300 000 and 800 000 copies each week. During the early 1990s some recently established men’s magazines, “Loaded”, “GQ” and “Esquire”, became popular with circulation of 100 000 to 240 000. The leading opinion journals are “The Economist”, a political and economic weekly, the “New Statesman and Society”, a political and social weekly, the “Spectato”, a political weekly, and “Private Eye”, a satirical fortnightly famous for attacks on leading personalities.