Task 16. Read the following text and write about your favourite newspaper or magazine.

NEWSPAPERS AND MAGAZINES

Newspapers and magazines play a very important part in our life. Practically there is no family that does not read them. We can learn many things from newspapers. Perhaps that is why many years ago an American humorous writer said: “All I know is what I see in the papers”; and another American author more than half a century ago wrote that “the careful reader of a few good newspapers can learn more in a year than most scientists do in their great libraries”.

We can agree or disagree with these statements (better to disagree, because scientific books and magazines have more information than newspapers), but we’ll have to say that newspapers help us in many ways. There are a lot of different kinds of newspapers in our country. One can buy them practically everywhere. It is impossible to read all the newspapers and magazines. Everyone has favourite ones.

My favourite newspaper is “The Moscow News”. It is a national weekly newspaper. The first issue of it came out in October 5, 1930. Its circulation is about 50,000 copies. The newspaper is printed both in Russian and in English. It informs the readers of the life in our country, the most important events in foreign states.

On the first page you will find the major home news and some items of foreign news. The second and the third pages are taken by home affairs. On the fourth and the fifth pages there are reports from various countries on world news. On the last pages you will find the articles which are sometimes called features. The term “features” covers a wide range of subjects: review of books, criticisms on theatre, on music, art. films, television, articles on science, travel, sport events, etc. The newspaper is also full of advertisements.

Today Russia can be proud of the variety of newspapers circulating throughout the country. On the news stalls one can find newspapers of all kinds: national and local, official and private, quality and popular; newspapers issued for children, teenagers, people of different trends, for all kind of fans: sport-fans, car-fans, etc. The freedom of press has become real today.
The Russian government continues to exercise control over the newspaper industry, but at a lower scale.
Most of the newspapers can boast their independence, their individual styles, their peculiarities. Now it is almost impossible to classify all the Russian newspapers into two big groups: quality and popular. It is possible to name the newspapers and the bodies responsible for the issue of this or that newspaper to illustrate the variety of the modern Russian press. "Arguments and Facts" is an independent newspaper; "The Evening Club" is a newspaper of Moscow intellectuals; "Evening Moscow" is an independent people's newspaper; "The Red Star" is the newspaper of the Defence Ministry.
There are a lot of local and professional newspapers. Today people have a chance to have full information - about events in their own country and abroad, they can compare the positions and programmes of different political parties and make their own choice. Various genres and forms are used in the Russian newspapers. The most space is taken by topical information and public pieces.
Usually there are four or eight pages in a newspaper, but some newspapers have twelve or sixteen pages. There is no need to read all the articles. People can look through the newspapers and read the columns they are interested in.
Newspapers come out all the time to provide people with the fresh and objective news. Newspapers have become a daily and essential necessity with all Russian people. Russian press calls the readers' attention to outstanding issues of the day, reports about various aspects of life.

Date: 2016-03-03; view: 1820