Audio Track 8.3

III. Fire fighters in London …1-2… in favour of strike action because of a row about proposed changes to their shift patterns. The London Fire Brigades …3… the shift times … 4-5… in place for more than 30 years and …6… to change. The Fire Brigades Union …7-8… strike dates.

Task 5. Analyse grammatical tenses of the briefs above. What tense is prevalent in Brief No 1? And in Brief No 2, Brief No 3? Do you come to any conclusion?

Task 6. Study the word list below, listen to Audio Track 8.4 and say what genre the piece is.

quango to scrap

transparency accountability

to curtail to merge

to operate at arms’ length arms’ length bodies

public purse the Spending Review

obscure bodies / organizations true extent of something

to do something in a drive to improve cull (n)

The Office of Fair Trading The Competition Commission

The Film Council The Audit Commission

The Human Ferlilisation and Embryology Authority

Government Hospitality Advisory Committee on the Purchase of Wine

The Agricultural Dwelling House Advisory Committee

Task 7. Listen to the lead of Audio Track 8.4 to get its overall idea.

What do the three numbers in the lead stand for:

1) ……………

2) ……………

3) ……………

Task 8. Listen to Audio Track 8.4 in full to find answers to the following questions.

1. How many agencies are to go (disappear)? What are they?

2. How many agencies are to be merged?

3. What is the fate of the remaining agencies?

4. What is the government minister’s point of view on the matter?

5. What is the opposing view on the subject?

6. What was the initial idea of abolishing the agencies? What drives the government of today set on scrapping, merging or combining the bodies in question?

Task 9. Study the word list and realia below.

to (re)absorb to cease (to exist) to further the agenda

to come under the umbrella of … to devolve power

Whitehall is a road in Westminster in London. Recognised as the centre of HM (Her Majesty) Government, the road is lined with government departments / ministries; Whitehall is therefore also frequently used as a metonymy for overall UK governmental administration, as well as being a geographic name for the surrounding district.

Task 10. Listen to Audio Track 8.5 lead and say what genre it is.

Find the difference between the following notions:bonfire, conflagration, blaze.

Task 11. Listen to Audio Track 8.5 in full and fill in the gaps in its script below.

While the functions of some quangos will remain …1…, others will …2-3… under the …4… of large Whitehall departments.

Our Deputy Political Editor James Landale assesses to what extent today’s announcement meets David Cameron’s pledge …5… the number, size, scope and influence of quangos. And the government’s longer term aim of …6… power back to the people.

A …7… of quangos we expected, a …8… of waste and bureaucracy – well may be. Yes, 192 quangos will …9-10… as public bodies, and yes, the state will …11.. less as a result. But many of the big spending quangos will …10-11… and many others will …12… in a different form, …13… into Whitehall departments, losing their name plates but not their staff.

The truth is that this government, like so many others, has found the reality of office harder than the …14… of opposition.

The coalition agreement promised …15… in quangos …16… the deficit. But the savings will be small and not for …17-18…. So the arguments changed. Now ministers say the aim is to make these areas of government more …19… and …20… They also argue that by …21… some quangos into charities they are …22… their Big Society1 agenda of …23… power away from Whitehall. Except, of course, that Whitehall today …24… power rather than …25… it. In other words these quangos are complicated things and today’s …26… was perhaps, a modest …27…

Task 13. Make stylistic analysis of Audio Track 8.5. What stylistic devices does the journalist employ?

Task 14. Watch Video 8.1 and determine its genre. Identify the key sentence of each piece and transcribe it.

Task 15. Get ready to make consecutive translation of Video 8.1 in class.

Task 16. Watch Video 8.2 and determine its genre.

Task 17. Watch Video 8.2 again and highlight its content using 5W and 1H pattern. Get ready to translate the clip in class sentence by sentence as it is being played out.

Task 18. Watch Video 8.3,determine its genre. Answer the questions listed below. Use the phrasal verbs and word combinations in the box to do the task.

to give up 94 minutes into his speech

he couldn’t take any more the tent dwelling party

to carry on he won’t be coming back

couldn’t help laughing to giggle along

1. What paper is under review?

2. What is the idea of the article?

3. Why are the news anchors and the journalist laughing?

4. What are the proper names you came across in the clip?

5. What are the speech formulas used by the journalists in the news studio? Write them down.

Unit 9

BROADCAST NEWS MEDIA DISCOURSE: GENERAL NOTION

Broadcast media discourse falls into television and radio discourse. Broadcast discourse can be described as specific functional and stylistic environment embracing literary and colloquial styles of the language.

Broadcast media discourse has evolved from print media discourse, it is universal in nature and preserves its stylistic neutrality, while embracing various functional styles – literary and colloquial.

Television discourse is the discourse of news and analysis television programmes. It can be prepared (or non-spontaneous) and unprepared (spontaneous), and is represented by the interplay of the sound and the image.

Radio discourse is the discourse of radio news and analysis programmes, existing in either prepared or spontaneous format.

British broadcast news media discourse is affected by the following socio-linguistic factors:

- simplification of the literary language norm and its democratisation firstly due to the spread of education within wide layers of the population, and secondly, due to influence of the mass-culture language on the British English literary language;

- expansion of the mass media discourse normative borders resulting in lowering standards of the publicistic style;

- wider use of lexical units typical of American English by British news media that has led to the borrowing and assimilation of a huge layer of Americanisms by British English.

Broadcast news media discourse in general mirrors the current language in use, affecting the society’s linguistic preferences and habits.

In common with print media discourse, broadcast news media discourse lists lexical, grammatical, syntactical and stylistic features. But for several exceptions, lexical features of English broadcast news media are practically the same as of English print media. Grammatical, stylistic and syntactical features are grammatical constructions and grammatical tenses, stylistic devices and syntactical structures typical of English broadcast news media discourse.

Дата добавления: 2015-11-14