Lesson 33 Section 1 News

News Item 1:

Actress Virginia Darlington, who plays Judy in the TV soap opera Texas, got married yesterday surrounded by armed bodyguards at the most luxurious hotel in Texas, the Mansion. The 39-year-old star exchanged vows with plastic surgeon Henry Jones under a bough of ivy and gardenias, wearing a wedding-dress designed by Britain's Saunders. Because this is the second time she has married a flautist marked the celebrations by playing 'Love is Wonderful the Second Time Around.'

News Item 2:

The Football Association Secretary Mr. John Gamer says he's delighted with the decision to lift the worldwide ban on English soccer clubs. As a result of serious incidents of hooliganism in European and international matches, football's international ruling body FIFA decided last June that English teams should not beallowed to play outside Britain. FIFA announced its new decision to lift the worldwide ban this morning, but the ban on European matches still stands. Now, the Football Association Secretary says it's up to the English fans to improve themselves and if they do behave the ban could be lifted in as short atime as twelve months.

News Item 3:

A group of twelve women are working hard to become the first all-female crew to sail around the world. At the moment the crew are busy trying to raise the three hundred and fifty thousand pounds needed to buy andequip a sixty-two foot yacht to make the record attempt. As part of their fund-raising the crew have been repainting the famous boat Gipsy Moth 4, on show at Greenwich, which has raised one thousand two hundred and fifty pounds from the British Yachting Association. The crew are also busy training to getship-shape for their round-the-world sailing race which starts in September. The crew skipper says she doesn't think the fact the crew are all women will lessen their chances of winning.

Section 2 A.Eskimos.

Well, it's got two big wheels one behind the other, and there's a kind of metal framebetween the wheels that holds them together. And there's a little seat above the back wheel that you can sit on, and above the front wheel there's a sort of metal bar that sticks out on both sides. And you sit onthe seat you see, andyou put your hands on this metal bar thing—and the whole thing moves forwards—it'samazing.

What makes it move forward, then?

Ah well, in the middle you see, between the two wheels, there are these other bits of metal and you can put your feet on these and turn them round and that makes the wheels go round.

Hang on—if it's only got two wheels why doesn't the whole thing fall over?

Well, you see, um, well I'm not sure actually ...

B.Shoplifting.

Well, to be honest, I'm not sure what I would have done. I mean, it would have depended on various things.
On what, for instance?

Well, on ... hmm ... on how valuable the things the boys stole were. The text doesn't... it doesn't say whether they had just stolen a tin of peas or something like that. So, I can't really say ... except well, ... I think I would have told the shopkeeper if they had stolen something really valuable. Otherwise, I suppose I would have just ... I don't know ... minded my own business, I suppose.
Well, I think it's quite clear what I should have done. The boys had broken the law. You can't allow that sort of thing to go on, can you? After all, it affects all of us. If you let boys or anybody else get awaywith theft, they'll just go on stealing! So, I think the woman should have told—what's his name? —the shopkeeper.

Mr. Patel.

Patel. She should have told him and if necessary she should have held the boys while he got the police, orshe should have gone for the police herself.

So you're saying that that's what you would have done?

Exactly. If I had been in that situation, that's exactly what I would have done. At least... at least, that's what I ought to have done. That's what I hope I would have done.

C.Frogs.

A funny thing happened to me the other night.

Oh, yes? What happened, Fred?

Well, you know I usually go out for a walk every night just after dark. Well, I was out the other night taking my usual walk and I heard a funny noise coming out of the building site down the road, you know, the one where they dug a big hole lately. Going to make it into an underground garage, I believe.

Yes, I know it, go on.

Well, as I said, I heard this funny noise and I thought perhaps there was a kid down there, you know how kids go playing on building sites. But as I got nearer I could tell it wasn't a kid, it sounded more like an animal. I thought it must be some dog or cat that had got itself trapped or something.

So, what did you do?

Well, I went down there to investigate. I climbed down, ruined my trousers because of all the mud. You seeit had been raining heavily for three or four days.

Yeah.

Well, when I got down there I found the hole was full of water and the water was full of frogs.

Frogs?

Yes. You know, those green things that jump up and down and go croak croak. So I thought 'What are they going to do when the bulldozers come to work tomorrow?' So I climbed back out, went home and got some plastic bags, big ones, like you use for the rubbish.

What for?

I'll tell you. I went back and started collecting the frogs and putting them into the plastic bags. I thought I'd take them to the pond in the park. They'd be happy there.

I suppose they would.

Next thing I know there are sirens screaming and bright lights everywhere.

What was going on then?

It was the police. Two cars full of police with flashlights and dogs. Somebody had reported seeing me going into the building site and thought I was a burglar.

Well, what happened?

They put me in one of the cars and took me down to the Station.

Why didn't you tell them what you were doing?

I tried to in the car, but they just told me I would have to talk to the inspector on duty. Luckily I still had one of the bags on me full of frogs. A couple of them got out while the inspector was questioning meand you can imagine what it was like trying to catch them.

So what happened in the end?

Oh, the inspector turned out to be a bit of an animal lover himself and he sent the two cars back to the building site and told his men to help me collect all the frogs. We did that and then they drove me home and I invited them all in for a cup of tea and we all had a good laugh.

Well, I never. If you wrote that in a book they'd say you made it up.

D.Newspaper Editors.

A newspaper has a complex hierarchy. The easiest way to show this is in the form of achart.

At the top of the chart there are four major positions. These are the Executive Editor, who talks to the unions and deals with legal and financial questions. Then there is the actual Editor of the paper and his deputy. The Editor makes decisions about what goes into the paper. The deputy has close contact with the House of Commons and the political content. Finally there is the Managing Editor, who sees that everything runs smoothly. Below this there are three Assistant Editors and the heads of the five departments. Each of the three Assistant Editors has a different responsibility. For example, one is responsible for design. The five departments are City News, which deals with financial matters, then the Home, Foreign, Sports and Features. Features are the special sections including films, books and the Woman's page. So on the second level there are three Assistant Editors and the five Department Heads. Also on this level is the Night Editor.

He looks after the paper, especially the front page, in the afternoon and evening, preparing material for publication the next morning. Below the second level there are the reporters and specialists, who write the reports and articles, and the sub-editors, who check and prepare the copy for the printer. There is alsofull secretarial back-up.