NUDE SCIENTIST IN BATHTUB SENSATION

Date: 2015-10-07; view: 607.

These headlines were written in a pretend tabloid newspaper about Ancient Greece. Match them with the subjects of their stories (a) to (e) below and comment on the features of headline language they contain.

About?

Playing with words

Violent words

Violent and militaristic words are often used in newspaper headlines, especially in tabloid newspapers, in order to make stories seem more dramatic.

EU acts to crush terror of the thugs Palace besieged by journalists

Crackdownon soccer louts Typhoon rips through town

Many newspaper headlines in English attract readers' attention by playing on words in an entertaining way. For example, a story about the theft of traffic signs erected to help tourists coming to see a solar eclipse in the area was headlined Dark deeds.In this collocation dark usually carries the meaning of wicked, but the headline is cleverly playing with the word dark because at the time of an eclipse the sky goes dark.

Another example is the use of the headline Ruffled feathersto describe an incident where a wife was angry with her husband, a wildlife expert, for allowing a Russian steppe eagle to sleep in their bedroom. We use the idiom to smooth someone's ruffled feathers, meaning to pacify someone after an argument. It is apt to use it here as the story is about a bird (although, of course, it was the woman's feathers which were ruffled).

& 2. Read these headlines. What do you think the stories might be

1. KING PHIL'S MACEDONIAN MASH-UP

2. MARATHON MAN IN DROP-DEAD DASH

3. QUADRUPLE ROYAL MURDER SENSATION

4. IT'S CURTAINS FOR CORINTH

a) Mysterious death of four members of the royal family.

b) Philip of Macedonia wins battle against city states of Athens and Thebes.

c) Archimedes' discovery of the laws governing the displacement of water.

d) Burning of city of Corinth to ground by the Romans.

e) Long-distance runner brings news of battle victory to Athens and then dies.