Текст 16

Introducing the undisputed queen of competitions

Outside Rita Smallburn's home is parked a sparkling blue Renault Clio. Mrs Smallburn won it. It is the fifth car she has won. Inside her sitting room are a

video, television, compact disc system, three-piece suite, canteen of cutlery, decanter and glasses, silverware, scrabble and an enormous bottle of champagne: all prizes.

In her kitchen are a dishwasher, microwave, French saucepan set, toaster, coffee maker, electric carving knife, kettle, can opener and iron: more prizes.

Jin fact there is virtually nothing in Mrs Smallburn's entire house, apart from her dog, which she hasn't won.

'She did not actually win the house she and her family live in, but seven years ago she won another one worth £50,000 which she sold two years later for £100,000. For the last sixteen years she has been the 'Queen of Competitions or 'compers' as they are known in the trade. Locally she is known as Mrs Win-a-lot.

Since she gave up her job as a geography teacher sixteen years ago, Mrs Smallburn believes she has become much more skilled at winning competitions. 1 expect to win between twenty and forty per cent of the competitions I enter,' she says. 'But my winnings could vary enormously year by year. One year I might win £3,000. The next it could be £100,000. All her earnings are tax-free.

She enters only about twelve competitions a month now, down from a peak of about fifty when she was younger. Nowadays she is busy running a consultancy in which she shares her competition winning skills with others who would like to achieve success, but the postman's arrival is still a thrill. If her family wants something, she will try to win it. At the moment she is competing for a fax machine. She wouldn't dream of buying anything.

It is an odd though Mrs Smallburn denies it is an obsession. It's more like an extreme enthusiasm, she says. To work the thrill must be in the winning rather than the prizes. The disadvantage is the lack of freedom to buy what you choose. The dog is not allowed to have his favourite brand of pet food. He has to be content with a year's supply of another brand Mrs Smallburn won.

Choose the correct alternative to answer the following questions.

1. Which of the following is something that Mrs Smallburn did not win in competitions?

A house.

The house where the family live.

Money and goods to the value of £3,000.

Five cars.

2. How does Mrs Smallburn earn а living?

She works as a geography teacher.

She enters and wins competitions.

She runs a service giving advice on how to win competitions.

She has her own business and she makes money from competitions.

3. Mrs Smallburn used to

win more than she does now.

enter more competitions than she does now.

be better at winning competitions than she is now.

be known as the 'Queen of Competitions'.

4. Mrs Smallburn does not

want to buy a fax machine.

want to win a fax machine.

look forward to the postman coming.

try to win things her family want.

5. What is Mrs Smallburn's attitude to entering competitions?

She is obsessed with it.

She is very keen on it.

She is disappointed with the things she wins.

She thinks it is a strange way to earn a living.

6. The writer of the text thinks Mrs Smallburn's 'extreme enthusiasm' is the result-of

the excellent prizes she has won.

the feeling she gets from winning.

Not being free to buy what she wants.

an obsession.

7. The article is intended to

shock the reader.

annoy the reader.

entertain the reader.

make the reader feel sad.

Текст 17

Reporting the News. The Reporter’s Job.

There are dozens, often hundreds of different newspapers in every country. Daily papers - weekly papers - national papers - local papers - evening papers - Sunday papers -free papers. How do they all decide what to print? Or - to put it another way...

What is News?

Several factors make a good newspaper story. First - obviously - it must be NEW. But since TV can react to events so quickly, this is often a problem for newspapers. They usually respond to it in one of three ways.

• By providing extra detail, comment* or background information л

• By finding a new angle" on the day's major stories.

• By printing completely different stories which TV doesn't broadcast. OK - so a story needs to be new. What else? Well - it also has to be DRAMATIC. People don't want to read about ordinary, everyday life. Because of this, many stories involve some kind of CONFLICT or DANGER. This is one reason why so much news seems to be bad news. 'Plane lands safely - no-one hurt' doesn't sell news­ papers. 'Plane crashes - 200 feared dead!' does.

Next, there's HUMAN INTEREST. People are interested in other people -particularly in the rich, famous and power­ful. Stories about the private lives of pop stars, TV personalities, actors, politicians and royalty, for example, all appear regularly in certain newspapers.

Finally, for many editors, FAMILIARITY is an important factor, too. They prefer stories about people, places and events which their readers know. That's why the stories in Tokyo's newspapers are often very different from the stories printed in Paris, Cairo, New York or Buenos Aires.

So…that's a quick introduction to 'news' itself. The next question is... how do papers find it? Well - there are two basic ways. One is from their own reporters. The other is from international news agencies.

The Reporter's Job

There are two kinds of reporter - general and specialist. General reporters cover a wide range of news stories, including... • accidents • conferences • crimes • festivals • local pol­itics • strikes • wedding:

Most journalists are general reporters. Most - but not all. Some prefer to focus on one subject and only write about that. For example... • the arts • the environment • finance • foreign affairs • the law • the media • politics • sport.

But whether a journalist is 'general' or 'spe­cialist', the basic process of reporting is the same.

1 . Researching the story

Who? What? Where? Why? When? How? That's what a reporter has to find out, and that's why research is so important. Journalists spend a lot of time... • reading files" • visiting libraries • checking facts • making telephone calls. Sometimes they do this alone - sometimes as part of a team. It's not very glamorous, but it is necessary.

2 . Building the story

After the research stage it's time to make vis­its (most journalists travel a lot) and interview the people involved in the story. In some cases this only takes a few hours - but it can take weeks or even months. It depends on the size of the story. Interviews are usually recorded either... (a) by making shorthand" notes, or (b) on a pocket cassette recorder.

3 . Writing the story

Journalists always have to complete stories by a specific time or 'deadline'. This means that they need to write (usually on a word proces­sor) very quickly. Each story also has to be a specific length (for example 300/500/750 words) with a first paragraph or 'intro'" which contains the key facts.

The ability to do all these things... • work quickly • write a specific number of words • arrange facts in order of importance ...is what makes journalism a very difficult, skilful job.