The Newspapers and the Magazines

A. Commercial correspondence

It is a well-known fact that any letter is the equivalent of a visiting card for the person who sends it. This is of capital importance in the case of commercial correspondence, because a firm is appreciated by the people with whom it establishes connections through the quality of the letters sent by the members of the organisation. Thus, writing business letters represents an essential element within a transaction, and the techniques have developed and refined along the ages, commercial correspondence becoming almost a science. For being considered well done from the technical point of view, a business letter should be clear, concise, polite, accomplishing a union of the style with the message.

A1. Read and translate the following business letters. Bear in mind their names.

a. Enquires (solicitare)

Lynch & Co. Ltd.

75 Newell Street

Satex S.A.    Birmingham B3 3EL

4 Via di Pietra   Great Britain

Italy

Ref: Inq. 351

6^th February 1999

Dear Sirs,

We were impressed by the selection of sweaters that were displayed on your stand at the “Menswear Exhibition” that was held in London last month.

We are a large chain of retailers and are looking for a manufacturer which could supply us with a wide range of sweaters for the teenage market.

We would like to know about your usual terms of a contract. As we commonly place large orders, we would expect a quantity of discount in addition to a 20% trade discount off net list prices, and our terms of payment are normally 30-day bill of exchange, documents against acceptance.

If these conditions interest you and if you can meet orders of over 1000 garments, please send us your current catalogue and price-list. We hope to hear from you soon.

Yours faithfully,

Lionel Crane

General Manager

This type of letter contains in the body of the letter data about the source from which a firm has found out about the other firm, a brief presentation of the activities of the requiring company, the description of the terms of a possible contract or understanding and the enquiry for catalogues and price lists. The shortest form of this kind of letter would include a presentation and a polite request of information. Remember the structure, the pattern of this  type of letter and try to conceive an enquiry yourself. Don’t forget to write the addresses and the reference number.

b. Letters of reply and quotations

Satex S.A., Via di Pietra, 00146, Rome

Lynch & Co. Ltd.

75 Newell Street    Your ref.: Inq. C351

Birmingham B3 ELOur ref: D/1439

Great Britain

23 February 1999

Attn: Mr. L. Crane, General Manager

Dear Mr. Crane,

We are pleased to receive your enquiry and to hear that you liked our range of sweaters.There will certainly be no trouble in supplying you from our wide selection of garments which we make for all age groups.

We can offer you the quantity discount you have asked for which would be 5% off net prices for orders over 2000Ł, but the usual allowance for a trade discount in Italy is 15%, and we always deal on payment by sight draft, cash against documents. However, we would be prepared to review this once we have established a firm trading association with you.

Enclosed you will find our summer catalogue and price list.

We are sure you will find a ready sale for our products in England as have other retailers throughout Europe and America, and we do hope we can reach an agreement on the terms quoted.

Thank you for your interest, we look forward to hearing from you soon.

Yours sincerely,

D. Causio 

Notice how, in the reply, Mr. Causio does not turn down the request but suggests a counter-offer. Observe two newly introduced parts of a letter, the letterhead (antet) and the attention note for the addressee (attn.).Write a quotation of your own.

A2. Complete the following sentences which open and close business letters:

a.     Our firm is aware that you are exporters of

b.     Your name was given to us by………

c.      We are informed that your firm produces………and we would be interested in………

d.     If you are interested in buying our merchandise we inform you that………

e.     We are very interested in your offer as so

f.      If you agree with our terms, please

g.     We are looking forward to

h.     We thank you for your confidence in us and

i.       Having favourably solved our first offer, we hope

j.       We would certainly appreciate

k.     You may be sure of

l.       Enclosed to this letter ………

m.   With our best thanks ………

n.     We kindly entrust you that we are able to settle the matter ………

A3. Translate into English the following letters, adding to them the missing parts

a.     Letter of ordering

Stimate domnule Causio,

Veti gasi alaturat comanda noastra, Nr. DR4316, de pulovere pentru tineri, toate culorile si marimile pe care le oferiti în catalog.

Am hotarât sa acceptam reducerea de 15 % si conditiile de plata pe care le doriti, dar insistam sa rediscutam acesti termeni contractuali în viitorul apropiat.

Veti gasi alaturat documentele de transport si ordinul de plata de la Banca Northminster din Birmingham.

Daca nu aveti în stoc obiectele solicitate, va rugam sa nu ne trimiteti altele care sa le înlocuiasca.

V-am fi recunoscatori daca ati face livrarea în termen de 6 saptamâni. Asteptam cu nerabdare raspunsul dumneavoastra.

Cu respect,

Lionel Crane

Director general

b.     Letter of complaint

Stimate domnule Causio,

Va scriu pentru a face o plângere în legatura cu transportul de pulovere pe care l-am primit ieri în urma comenzii noastre din data de 10 martie.

Cutiile în care erau ambalate puloverele erau desfacute si pareau ca s-au rupt în timpul transportului. Din documentele pe care ni le-ati trimis, am constatat ca 30 de obiecte au fost furate, având valoare generala de 1.500 Ł. Din cauza deteriorarii cutiilor, alte câteva obiecte nu mai pot fi vândute ca articole noi.

Pentru ca vânzarea s-a facut în bani ghiata, va rugam sa ne contactati urgent pentru a stabili compensatiile.

Veti gasi alaturat o lista cu bunurile disparute si cele deteriorate, iar noi vom pastra stocul intact pâna când vom primi instructiunile dumneavoastra.

Cu respect,

Lionel Crane

Director general

A4. Choose a topic and write a letter:

a. Request for a catalogue from a firm of tapes and cassettes whose products you have seen at a fair.

b. You are the director of an advertising agency, answer to the proposal of co-operation of a television station.

c. Answer the two letters you have translated before, on behalf of Mr. Causio.

d. Write a letter of complaint for the products you have ordered from a company of cosmetics. The items arrived to you very damaged.

e. You are the manager of a firm which offers shipment for goods. Write a reply to another company, explaining the ways in which you can help them with transport.

f. You are the manager of a small company. Write a letter to a larger company in the same field, proposing to co-operate in certain activities.

B. The Subjunctive

B1. The English Subjunctive differs very much form the Romanian “Conjunctiv”, as the English mood is syntactic, it can be expressed in different ways but it is requested by almost the same expressions all the time; the Romanian “Conjunctiv”Mood is morphological, it represents any verb which has a form beginning with “sa”, no matter in which construction it appears. In English, we should try to remember the phrases requiring Subjunctive, which usually express: order, demand, suggestion, necessity.

There are two types of Subjunctive in English:

a.     Subjunctive 1 (synthetic): identical in form with the short infinitive (I be, He have, She go).

b.     Subjunctive 2 (analytical

Present: identical in form with the Past Tense of the Indicative mood (I were, I had, I went).

Past: identical in form with Past Perfect from the Indicative (I had been, I had had, I had gone).

For the verb “to be”, there is only one form of Subjunctive 2 present, were, while in the Past Tense Indicative there are 2 forms, was and were.

We have seen that Subjunctive 1 has several equivalents, the Imperative Mood, May + Infinitive and should +Infinitive; Subjunctive 2 has only one equivalent for all the cases, should + Infinitive. Sometimes Subjunctive 2 can be used instead of Subjunctive 1 in situations 3 and 4 mentioned in the table above, but anyhow the specific form for these cases remain Subjunctive 1.

Examples: It is better that we went now.

I doubt that he were here on time.

B2. Do the following exercises.

a.     Finish the sentences:

1.     It is important that this paper

2.     My mother took me to the cinema so that I ………

3.     He didn’t dare ski lest he ………

4.     I wish you

5.     I suggest that he ………

b.     Replace the Infinitive in brackets with the appropriate forms of the Subjunctive:

1. You had better (to listen) to me. 2. It is likely that he (to be) awarded a prize. 3. I wish you (to learn) better. 4. I asked her if this (to be) what she meant. 5. You look as if you (to be) tired.6. Whoever they (to be) tell them to wait. 7. Even though she (to ask) she would not have been given an answer. 8. It is high time you (to make up) your mind whether you want to do the job or not. 9. She had rather (to come) with you. 10. I should like to have a rest rather than (to join) you on the trip.

B3. Translate into English:

a. A sugerat sa ne petrecem vacanta la mare. b. Ma îndoiesc ca va fi aici pâna mâine. c. Daca este nevoie putem sa ne oprim acum. d. Ai face mai bine sa mergi cu noi. e. Chiar daca ai fi insistat nu    l-ai fi convins. f. S-a hotarât ca proiectul sa fie gata pâna la sfârsitul lunii. g. Ar fi bine sa notezi aceste lucruri ca sa nu le uiti. h. Mi-e teama sa nu se strice vremea. i. Prefer sa învat totul de la început. j. Mi s-a ordonat sa-mi schimb programul de lucru. k. Oriunde ar lucra, ea întotdeauna va fi laudata de toata lumea. l. Indiferent ce gândesti despre mine nu-ti dau rochia mea s-o porti la bal.

b. Când vom povesti întâmplarea asta, lumea are sa râda si are sa spuna ca nu ne-am lasat de palavre vânatoresti. Tu ce parere ai, Fram, prietene Fram?…

Fram mormai. Daca ar fi stiut sa vorbeasca, ar fi povestit ca mai cunoaste el undeva, într-un trib eschimos, un copil care a patit la fel si, fara îndoiala ca s-a pomenit cu faima de cel mai mare mincinos, înainte înca de a deveni mare vânator. Mormai. Se uita cu înteles spre coliba unde se afla înauntru cutia minunata care cânta – Ne roaga sa dam drumul la radio! Egon. Acesta este ursul cel mai amator de muzica din câti am vazut eu în viata!

Intra în cabana si rasuci resortul. (Cezar Petrescu – Fram, ursul polar)

B4. Conceive a composition on one of the following topics:

a.     Things you would rather do.

b.     If you were the first man on the moon, what would you write back home?

c.      Which are your secret wishes?

C. Newspapers are publications usually issued on a daily or weekly basis, the main function of which is to report the news. Newspapers also provide commentary on the news, advocate various public policies, furnish special information and advice to readers, and sometimes include features such as comic strips, cartoons and serialised books. In nearly all cases and in varying degrees, they depend on the publication of commercial advertising for their income.

Periodicals are publications released at regular intervals, often called journals, or referred to as magazines when designating those for recreational reading. Periodicals differ from the other major form of serial publication, newspapers. Most newspapers are issued daily on pulp paper and have relatively large, unbound pages; periodicals generally appear on finer paper, with smaller bound pages, and at intervals longer than a day (weekly, biweekly, monthly, quarterly, or even annually). As a whole, periodicals feature, often exclusively, material of special interest to particular audiences. The contents of periodicals are often unrelated to current new stories; when dealing with the news, they tend to do so in the form of summaries or commentaries.

C1. Answer the following questions:

a.     Do you regularly read newspapers? Which newspaper do you prefer? Why?

b.     Do you read any magazines? Which one do you like from the Romanian market? Why?

c.      If you were the editor-in-chief of a newspaper, what would you do to improve its circulation? Which target-audience would you choose?

d.     Do you think Romanian newspapers and magazines are comparable to those in the Western countries? Are they better, are they worse? Why?

e.     Which part of a newspaper would you rather write: the political columns, the social, the economic or the cultural ones? Which articles do you consider the most interesting in the Romanian newspapers?

f.      What kind of magazine would you like to work for, one for entertainment, one specialised on politics, one for the teenagers, or one specialised on informatics? Can you give examples of these kinds of magazines on the Romanian market?

g.     Would you like to be a journalist for the printed press? Why?

h.     Do you consider our written press to be a free one? Give reasons for or against it.

C2. Read and translate the following text. Give examples for each type of newspaper or magazine described. Find the Romanian terms for the English words and phrases related to newspaper and magazine industries.

Ralph Waldo Emerson, who had something to tell about virtually everything, once said “the newspaper… does its best to make every square acre of land and sea give an account of itself at your breakfast table”. The newspaper industry is currently examining how well it fits with modern lifestyles and what it must do to keep and attract readers in an age in which competition for their time has become intense. Obviously, there are many ways to categorise an industry as diverse as this one. We group papers by frequency of publication (dailies and weeklies), by market size (national, large, medium and small) and, finally, by their appeal to specialised interest groups (for minority groups, students, professionals and shoppers).

The departmental structure and staffing of a newspaper vary with its size, but all papers have certain common aspects. They have a publisher and are generally divided into three main departments: business (having the responsibility of keeping the paper financially solvent, with subdivisions as advertising, promotion and circulation), production (which prints the newspaper, with subdivisions as the composing room, where computers and phototypesetters are used to lay out the newspaper pages; the platemaking area, where surfaces that will reproduce the printed page are constructed; the press room, where ink actually meets paper), news-editorial, which has the task of conceiving the text (comprising a managing editor who supervises the wire editor, the sports editor, the society editor, the food editor, the entertainment editor as well as the city editor; the department also contains reporters, photographers, copyeditors and a rewrite desk).

Getting out a newspaper is a twenty-four-hour-a-day job. News happens at all hours and many stories happen unexpectedly. Trying to cope with the never-ending flow of news and the constant pressure to keep it fresh, requires organisation and co-ordination among the paper’s staff. There are two basic sources of news copy: local reporting and the wire services. While the wire editor scans the output from the wire machines and the city editor checks his or her daily calendar, the managing editor handles the available space, called the newshole, that can be devoted to news in that day’s issue of the paper. As the day progresses, reporters return from assignments and write their news stories at the keyboard of a video-display terminal (VDT). The finished story is transmitted electronically to a computer, where it is stored. These stories are called up by copy editors, who trim and make changes and code the articles for use in the paper. The managing editor decides that the story is newsworthy and sends it back to the computer for processing. Decisions about page make up, the amount of space to be devoted to a story and the photographs are made as the deadline for publication appears. Meanwhile, in the composing room, high speed computerised photocomposition machines take electronic impulses and translate them into images and words. The stories are printed on strips of photographic paper and go to the make up room where they are pasted up into full newspaper pages. An offset plate is made by placing the negative between glass and a sheet of photosensitive metal and exposing the plate to bright light. Then, huge rolls of newsprint are threaded into the press and the printing process begins. Finished and folded papers are sent by the conveyor belt to the distribution area.

If we try to classify magazines, we can divide them according to two criteria: after the target audience (general consumer magazines, business publications, literary reviews and academic journals, newsletters and public relations magazines) and after the three traditional components of manufacturing (production, distribution and retailing). A consumer magazine is one that can be acquired by anyone, through a subscription or a single-copy purchase or by obtaining a free store. Business magazines or trade publications serve a particular business industry or profession and are published by independent companies that are connected with the field they serve. Literary reviews and academic journals, generally with circulation under 10,000, are published by non-profit organisations and funded by universities, foundations or groups of professionals. Newsletters are publications of typically four to eight pages which try to give their readers inside information about highly specialised topics, establishing a personal tone between writer and reader. Public relations magazines are published by sponsoring companies and are designed to be circulated among the company’s employees, dealers, customers and stockholders.

A second useful way of structuring the magazine industry is to divide it by function. The production function consists of approximately 2,000-3,000 publishers and encompasses all the elements necessary to put out a magazine – copy, art work, photos, titles, layout, printing and binding. The distribution function handles the job of getting the magazine to the reader, through paid or free (controlled) circulation. The retail function deals with the sellers, which may be corner newsstands, drugstores, supermarkets, tobacco shops, bookshops.

A typical magazine is generally headed by a publisher who oversees four main departments: circulation (responsible for getting new readers and keeping current readers satisfied), composed by the subscription manager, who tries to increase the number of people on the magazine’s subscription list, the single-copy sales manager, who works with the national distributors, and the subscription fulfilment director, who makes sure that the magazine gets to subscribers; advertising and sales (putting together new programmes to enhance sales); production (concerned with printing and binding the publication); editorial (handling the non-advertising content of the magazine), directed by a managing editor.

Producing a magazine requires a great deal of lead time. Most issues are planned several months or at least several weeks in advance. The first step in all magazine production is preliminary planning and the generation of ideas for upcoming issues. Once this step is completed, the managing editor starts assigning certain articles to staff writers or freelancers. The next step involves putting together a miniature dummy. A dummy is simply a plan or blueprint of the pages for the upcoming issue that shows the contents in their proper order. The printing of the magazine resembles that of the newspaper in the final stages.

C3. Translate into English:

a. Pentru aniversarea celor zece ani de la caderea Zidului Berlinului, ministrul federal german pentru problemele tineretului, Christine Bergmann, si autoritatile noii capitale a Germaniei reunificate au invitat circa 1000 de tineri din Europa la o sarbatoare ce va dura mai multe zile si care va avea punctul culminant pe 9 noiembrie, seara, de-a lungul urmei fostului Zid si mai ales în fata Portii Brandenburg.

În plan politic, fostii presedinti sovietic si american, Mihail Gorbaciov si George Bush, protagonistii reunificarii germane, fostul si actualul cancelar, Helmut Kohl si respectiv Gerhard Schroeder, vor lua cuvântul pe 9 noiembrie în Bundestag (camera inferioara a parlamentului german).

În perioada 5-10 noiembrie, tineri cu vârste cuprinse între 16 si 25 de ani, veniti din Germania si alte 24 de tari europene, vor avea ocazia sa cunoasca orasul si istoria sa si sa discute mai ales cu martori directi ai caderii Zidului Berlinului. În zilele denumite de guvernul german Festivalul european al tineretului, tinerii vor asista la numeroase conferinte privind rolul Berlinului în Europa si relatiile Est-Vest, având ocazia de a-si face cunoscute opiniile privind edificarea în comun a continentului european, declara doamna Bergmann […]. (România Libera, 4 noiembrie, 1999).

b. Revolutia din decembrie 1989 a adus în spatiul cultural românesc o problema putin dezbatuta: rolul elitelor în societate. Pâna la acel moment teoria sociala si politica avusese drept principale tinte gruparile socio-profesionale, structurile si raporturile dintre clasele sociale. Dinamica socio-politica postdecembrista a scos la iveala insuficienta unui asemenea tip de analiza. Diversitatea actorilor politici, coagularea raporturilor dintre liderii sau promotorii proceselor schimbarii si diversitatea structurii sociale ce se înfiripau în societatea deschisa de implozia totalitarismului, aduceau în prim planul reflectiei sociale nevoia de nuantare a discursului clasial. Si aceasta întrucât, dincolo de clase si categorii sociale, de actiunea colectiva, spontana sau organisata, articularea structurilor politice democrate si a societatii civile a focalizat interesul social asupra aflarii si impunerii de lideri. Sa ne amintim de sloganul începuturilor revolutiei “Avem nevoie de un Havel al nostru”, care, în afara conotatiilor antiiliesciene, a fost expresia ofertei reduse de personalitati apte sa-si asume promovarea transformarii radicale beneficiind, în acelasi timp, de o acceptare sociala convenabila.

Paradoxal, odata clamat, acest imperativ nu a fost prilej de compromis între personalitati sau grupari politice aflate în centrul evolutiilor politice. Dimpotriva, orgoliul unora a prevalat în fata oportunitatilor revolutiei, iar sloganul si-a accentuat repede trasaturile luptei staliniste pentru putere, transformându-se practic în “Jos Iliescu!”. Revolutia nu a fost furata ci a fost ratata, unele dintre “elitele” aflate la startul revolutiei nefiind pregatite pentru a stapâni complexitatea partiturii, au optat pentru aria învrajbirii în speranta de a-si consolida pozitiile. (Alexandru Florian – “Elitele si revolutia”, in “Societate si cultura”, 1/1998).

C4. Read the following text and then answer the questions.

[…] The ongoing political and economic transformations in the Republic of Moldova have induced a process of reorganisation in the sphere of media and in the legal framework of the journalist work.

The lack of proper legal regulation in the totalitarian era has made it practically impossible for the media to publish any critical information concerning the upper ruling circles and a whole range of social phenomena. The legislative vacuum engulfing the sphere of social life was affecting the media as well. In recent years, media situation has changed considerably. In the course of establishing a government of law, society could not disregard the media. There was an urgent need to establish a legal basis for the work of journalists.

The recent political and social changes disclosed many social cankers: drugs, prostitution, organised crime, corruption in the upper levels of government, the existing problems of multiethnic relations, the decreasing social status of the language of the most numerous ethnic group in the country, the need to adopt the Latin alphabet, the suppression of various events and facts concerning the national history. The media were the first to sound the alarm; however, the response consisted in threats and accusations aimed at the most intrepid and honest journalists. The lack of media legislation was more than obvious. The long-awaited day came in 1999 with the adoption of the Press and Media Act (still within the former Soviet Union). On its ratification, the act came into effect in the Republic of Moldavia.

This act eliminated the strict political control over the press and provided acceptable work conditions for the journalists. It established the freedom of media and the inadmissibility of censorship. Now there was more freedom, but the responsibility of the editorial staff and the author for the published information increased as well. Nevertheless, the freedom of press is not absolute. The press is prohibited from disclosure of state secrets, propaganda of war, cruelty, and violence, race, national, and religious discrimination.

Another important point is the legalisation of the right to publishing. The act established that media may be founded by government agencies, lawfully acting parties and organisations, as well as by private persons of legal age. The act also regulated the relations between editors and founders, editors and authors, stipulating also the right of the editors to collect information.

Thus, conditions were set to grant freedom of speech and freedom of press and to give all power structures the opportunity to propagate their views through the mass media. This legislative act was in line with the requirements of the respective historical period, laying the foundations of a further legislative progress in the sphere of mass media […]. (“Freedom of Speech and Freedom of Press in the Republic of Moldova”, by Alla Byelostechnik, Chisinau, in “Balkan Media”, the first media magazine of the Balkans, vol. V, no. 2, summer 1996/1997).

Questions:

a.     What changed in the Moldavian legislation concerning media in the beginning of the 90’s?

b.     Was it easy for the Moldavian journalists to do their job? What difficulties did they encounter?

c.      What were the main provisions of the Press and Media Act of 1990 in Moldova?

d.     Was this law all that the journalists needed to protect their work conditions?

e.     Do you think it is easy to work as a journalist in a small former communist country?

C5. Accomplish a table with the best, the most well known and the most circulated newspapers in Romania. Use as a model the table of the most famous U.S.-British international publications:

The International Herald Tribune, with a worldwide circulation of about 170,000, published by the New York Times and the Washington Post, headquartered in France. The paper has recently celebrated its hundredth anniversary.

U.S.A. Today International, a newcomer to the scene, with a circulation of about 40,000, a Gannett-owned paper, read most of all by U.S. citizens travelling abroad.

WorldPaper, published by the World Times Company in Boston, distributed as a newspaper supplement in Latin America, Asia and the Middle East, with a circulation of 650,000.

The Financial Times of London, specialised in economic news, with a circulation of about 300,000.

The Economist, based in London, carrying financial news and analyses, easily available in the United States, with about 300,000 readers.

The Wall Street Journal, international editions for Europe and Asia, reaching about 75,000 people.

D. Vocabulary practice.

D1. Explain the following words and phrases:

circulation, gossip, domestic, foreign, front page, back page, inside page, top of the page, bottom of the page, cover, supplement, incident, accident, event, editorial, comment, announcement, report, refutation, serial, cross-word puzzle, journalist, correspondent, reporter, editor, compositor, printer, reader, subscriber.

D2. Do the following exercises:

a.     Match the words on the left with the correct definitions.

1.     obituary

2.     leader

3.     horoscope

4.     review

5.     gossip column

6.     headline

7.     deadline

8.     cartoon

A.     critical assessment of a book, film

B.     leading editorial article

C.     regular article about celebrities

D.    announcement of a death, with a short biography

E.     phrase or title at the top of an article

F.     humorous or satirical drawing

G.    time limit for reporting news

H.    prediction of someone’s future according to the sign in the zodiac

b.     Supply the suitable words:

A person           who sends news, articles, reports to a newspaper is called ………..

who looks through the manuscript of an article,

corrects it, suggests changes and prepares it for

printing is called ………..

who sets up type for printing is called ………..

who buys a newspaper, magazine regularly is called ………..

who is engaged in publishing, editing or working

for a newspaper is called ………..

D3. Insert in the blanks the right word:

a. We should consider the major changes in ……….that were prompted by the success of the mass press during the 1833-1860 period. In short, we can identify four such changes. The ……….press, sold for a penny daily, changed the basis of economic support for ………., the pattern of the newspaper ………., the definition of what constituted ……….and the ……….of news collection. Before the penny press, most of a newspaper’s economic support came from ……….revenue. The large circulation of the penny press made ……….realise that they could reach a large segment of potential ……….by purchasing space. Moreover, the ……….of the popular papers cut across political ……….and social ……….lines, thereby assuring a ……….advertiser of a broadly based audience. As a result, advertisers were greatly attracted to this new ……….and the ……….newspapers relied significantly more on advertising revenues than did their predecessors.

The missing words are the following:

distribution, buyers, potential, mass, penny, subscription, class, medium, readership, techniques, advertisers, newspapers, news, party, journalism.

b. Appearing with the consolidation trend and enjoying a short but lively reign was ……….journalism. At the end of World War I, the United States found itself facing a decade of prosperity: the ……….twenties. The radio, Hollywood, the airplane, prohibition and Al Capone were all ……….that captured national attention. It was perhaps inevitable that ……….would reflect the times. The papers that best exemplified jazz journalism all sprang up in New-York between 1919 and 1929; all were characterised by two features: they were ………., printed on a page that was about one half the size of a normal newspaper page; they were all richly illustrated with ……….. The New-York Daily News had a slow start but by 1924 ……….on. Its tabloid size was easier for the people to ……….while reading on buses and ……….; it abounded with photos and ……….; writing style was simple and ……….. The “News” also blended a large portion of ………. with its news. Comic ………., gossip ………., advice to the lovers, ………. and sports were given large chunks of space.

The missing words are the following:

horoscopes, roaring, subways, gossip, jazz, tabloids, caught, handle, topics, photographs, cartoons, newspapers, strips, short, entertainment.

D4. Translate into English, using the verbs to earn, to gain and to win:

a.     Cât câstigi la firma aceea?

b.     Câstiga bine, are o casa mare si o masina frumoasa.

c.      Nu câstigi nimic daca nu spui adevarul.

d.     A câstigat premiul întâi la concursul de informatica.

e.     E un tip interesant, a câstigat faima internationala cu inventia lui.

f.      I-a câstigat încrederea, a angajat-o ca secretara particulara.

g.     Trebuie sa facem ceva sa câstigam timp.

h.     Finala a fost câstigata la puncte.

i.       Câstigatorii vor primi câte un bilet de calatorie gratuit.

j.       Îsi câstiga existenta cum poate, nu se descurca grozav.

Remember the following phrases:

to earn good money/small salary, to earn a living, to gain time/respect/recognition/nothing by doing something, to win a contest/a seat/fame/the wooden spoon.