Focus on different readers

The successful competitor

Size makes a difference

Weekend reading

A.      As in many other European countries, Britain’s main newspapers are losing their readers. Fewer and fewer people are buying broadsheets and tabloids at the newsagent’s. In the last quarter of the twentieth century people became richer and now they can choose other forms of leisure activity. Also, there is the Internet which is a convenient and inexpensive alternative source of news.

B.       The ‘Sunday papers’ are so called because that is the only day on which they are published. Sunday papers are usually thicker than the dailies and many of them have six or more sections. Some of them are ‘sisters’ of the daily newspapers. It means they are published by the same company but not on week days.

C.       Another proof of the importance of ‘the papers’ is the morning ‘paper round’. Most newsagents organise these. It has become common that more than half of the country’s readers get their morning paper brought to their door by a teenager. The boy or girl usually gets up at around 5: 30 a.m. every day including Sunday to earn a bit of pocket money.

D.      The quality papers or broadsheets are for the better educated readers. They devote much space to politics and other ‘serious’ news. The popular papers, or tabloids, sell to a much larger readership. They contain less text and a lot more pictures. They use bigger headlines and write in a simpler style of English. They concentrate on ‘human interest stories’ which often means scandal.

E.       Not so long ago in Britain if you saw someone reading a newspaper you could tell what kind it was without even checking the name. It was because the quality papers were printed on very large pages called ‘broadsheet’. You had to have expert turning skills to be able to read more than one page. The tabloids were printed on much smaller pages which were much easier to turn.

F.       The desire to attract more readers has meant that in the twentieth century sometimes even the broadsheets in Britain look rather ‘popular’. They give a lot of coverage to scandal and details of people’s private lives. The reason is simple. What matters most for all newspaper publishers is making a profit. They would do anything to sell more copies.

G.      If you go into any newsagent’s shop in Britain you will not find only newspapers. You will also see rows and rows of magazines for almost every imaginable taste. There are specialist magazines for many popular pastimes. There are around 3, 000 of them published in the country and they are widely read, especially by women. Magazines usually list all the TV and radio programmes for the coming week and many British readers prefer them to newspapers.

 

 

 

The symbols of London

Means of travelling

World record holder

A sweet in the street

On the road

A healthy but difficult choice

An unusual hobby

Conflict over roads

A.      The British are enthusiastic about mobility. They think that the ability to travel far and frequently is their right. People can spend up to two or three hours commuting to London or another big city and arrive back at their homes in the countryside only late in the evening. They put up with the long journey because they want their families to avoid the unhealthy lifestyle of big cities.

B.       Most journeys to work are made by private road transport. It leads to the pollution so familiar to many big cities, and to traffic jams. Congestion is especially high in Britain because the British do not welcome the idea of building new roads. They don’t like living close to them. Each proposal to build a new road is criticised, so it’s not easy to improve the road situation.

C.       Perhaps because the trains were the first means of transport in Britain many people still have a romantic outlook on them. Thousands of train-lovers spend a lot of time looking for information about trains, especially old steam engines. Many enthusiasts spend their free time restoring and repairing old trains. They even earn some money by offering rides to tourists.

D.      It is possible to travel between any two towns or cities by either road or rail. In some parts of the country there is a very good rail network but most commercially successful trains run between London and the largest cities in the country. By modern European standards British trains are not fast. Coach services are generally even slower than trains but are much cheaper. It explains why they are still in use.

E.       Britain is one of the few countries in Europe where double-decker buses are a common sight. Although single-deckers have been in use since 1960s, London still has many double-deckers in operation. They are world-famous, an image associated with the city. Another London icon is the black taxi. Normally, these traditional taxis cannot be hired by phone. You simply have to find one on the street.

F.       In 1953, most schoolchildren walked to school. For this reason, school crossing patrols were introduced. This ‘patrol’ consists of an adult wearing a bright waterproof coat and carrying a stick with a circle on top of it, which reads ‘STOP’. Armed with this ‘lollipop’, the adult walks out into the middle of the road, stops the traffic and allows the children to cross.

G.      On 9 January 2013, the London Underground (or the Tube) celebrated 150 years since the first underground journey. It is both the world's oldest underground railway and the oldest rapid transit system. It was also the first underground railway to operate electric trains. The Underground has 268 stations and 400 km of track, making it the longest metro system in the world by route length.

 

 

 1.      A change in people’s attitude

A problem still unsolved

A new state organization

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